WATCH – Beyond the soap bar: Forestwise, NueBar and Coconut Matter on what it will take for solid beauty to flourish

Personal care has come a long way since the humble soap bar. Today, a number of solid products are emerging in categories from shampoos to serums as consumers rediscover the solid format in the name of minimalism and sustainability.

“The opportunities for growth are actually really huge. I think there's increasing awareness about the problem of plastic and the fact that recycling really isn't a solution. I think that as awareness builds and builds, I think people are looking for ways to do something about it, I'd really like to see this become like the new normal,”​ said Katie Hennah, the founder of Aussie solid beauty brand NueBar.

Solid beauty products are touted for their ability to reduce water consumption, transportation costs, and packaging altogether.

Despite these advantages, there are undoubtedly hurdles to mainstream adoption. Chiefly, companies face issues getting consumers on board.

“It’s new and people have to get used to it. It’s not something people have seen before in supermarkets or shops… There’s a lot of educating to do and hopefully, more brands will adapt to this so that it will become more known,”​ said Dirk-Jan Oudshoorn, the founder and CEO of Forestwise, a Dutch supplier of wild-harvested ingredients such as illipe butter.

To do its part in spreading the awareness of solid products, the company founded the consumer brand Fat Forest, which introduced the concept of a stick format skin moisturiser made from illipe butter.

Furthermore, more needs to be done within the industry to accommodate the growth of the solid beauty category in terms of ingredient choices down to the manufacturing process.

“Because this is quite a new category, you have the challenge of ingredient choices because of the ingredients are very much focused on liquids or semi-liquids… That’s quite a challenge down to the manufacturing process… In the past, when we're working with heat-sensitive ingredients, we can add the ingredients at a later stage in the process, but with solid, there's no such option. So that kind of restricts the kind of ingredients that we can work with,” ​said Diane van Zwanenberg, founder of Hong Kong-based zero-waste brand Coconut Matter.

To hear more insights into the trends and opportunities within the growing solid beauty segment check out our video above.