Natural evolution: Why the hair care category is ripe for nature and science formulation innovation

It comes as no surprise that beauty consumers have an insatiable appetite for all things natural.

At the same time, they are becoming more demanding of products to show results. This is why today, it is no longer enough just to be natural, said Belinda Carli, director of the Institute of Personal Care Science.

Speaking exclusively on Beauty Broadcast​, she told CosmeticsDesign-Asia​ about the increasing need to combine science and nature, bringing the best of both worlds to the beauty consumer.

“Consumers love the idea of using natural ingredients. But if they go for an all-natural product, they are sometimes disappointed by the performance. So, their constant want for natural products and natural ingredients, keeps driving this trend towards natural products. But at the end of the day, they want their products to work. So, they will look for science behind their product selections.”​

In particular, she believes there are still untapped opportunities within the fast-growing hair care sector.

“In general, because it is definitely a growing sector of the market, and because the science and nature trend is also in its growth phase, it will pair really nicely with the extra growth phase in hair products. There's already a lot of skin care products that have some science and nature behind them. So, I think the big opportunities are going to be in hair.”​

In terms of ingredients, she sees a lot of demand for fermented ingredients and herbal extracts.

“From a consumer perspective, you'll see the trend really driven by a lot of extracts or fermented natural ingredients and herbal extracts are always popular. There's so much out there with some great performance results. So, both of those areas will trend quite strongly.”​

To tap into these opportunities, Carli’s advice is to back up claims with strong scientific evidence.

“When you're looking at developing your formulas, look for the science behind your natural ingredients selection, and then you're going to have a very strong marketing campaign and also a very happy customer, because they'll get the results they're looking for when you're picking the ingredients with the fantastic performance results.”​

To find out more about the nature + science trend, check out our video above.