Upcycled ingredients may become “industry standard” for cosmetic and fragrance space, experts say

08 Feb 2022 --- As more personal care brands seek environmentally friendlier methods for NPD, upcycled ingredient use has increased. PersonalCareInsights speaks to key experts who reveal the potential of upcycled ingredients in cosmetics and fragrances and how these may become commonplace in industry.

Showcasing the importance of upcycled ingredients as well as their potential, Bianca McCarthy, global marketing manager of lipotec active ingredients at Lubrizol Life Science, says: “Upcycled ingredients could play a big role in product development and become an industry standard.”

“Higher adoption of upcycled ingredients can support circular beauty and less impactful formulations and it can even create new jobs.”

Upcycled ingredients evolve
When consumers thought about environmentally friendly products for most of the past decade, they probably looked for an organic certification label.

“Over recent years, we’ve seen a shift in consumer interest from organic and all-natural claims to more sustainability-related claims, like upcycling,” continues McCarthy.

“These days, consumers are more conscious of the impact of natural ingredients on Earth’s resources in a movement we refer to as Pro-Zero Waste. Here, we are seeing a shift toward an interest in the global circular economy, led by the use of upcycled ingredients, where natural resources are better used and waste is eliminated.”

Biodegradability and renewability gain importance
At Symrise, upcycling is the transformation of side-streams into higher-value raw materials.

“In this sense, upcycling forms an integral part of sustainability and through a circular economy approach, it supports the preservation of finite resources and fosters creativity to maximize the use of materials that would otherwise be discarded,” says Philippa Smith, sustainability director at Symrise.Consumer attention has shifted in recent years from organic and all-natural claims to more sustainability-related claims, such as upcycling.

While sustainability has been a strong topic in fragrance manufacturing for years, upcycling has entered personal care relatively recently. Consumers and customers showed more interest in natural fragrances, for example, COSMOS certified.

“In the past few years, we’ve seen biodegradability and renewability become more important. With awareness increasing among consumers of the environmental impact of consumer products, upcycling is a growing topic, with brands now starting to ask for upcycled fragrances,” Smith continues.

Reducing environmental impact through upcycling
Lubrizol has a long-term strategic goal to reduce its environmental impact, both internally and externally, to help customers reach their own environmental key performance indicators.

Lubrizol uses upcycled feedstocks for the design of ingredients whenever possible. For example, it offers a range of botanical extracts called Actismart SW created by transforming by-products from the food, spice and paper industries through Phenobio subcritical water technology.

“We also offer several advanced botanical ingredients that use the by-products of internal manufacturing processes to generate highly efficacious active ingredients. Additionally, many natural exfoliants are derived from the F&B industries.” 

At Symrise’s Jacksonville facility, the company uses the side stream CST from the paper industry and upcycles it into fragrance ingredients.

“At this facility, we have used natural and renewable by-products as primary inputs since the foundation of our company. These side-streams form important sources of starting material for our fragrances,” adds Debby Chan, global marketing communications manager at Symrise.

“They come from existing processes such as pulp and paper, orange juice, or sugar cane production. Symrise has obtained the Forest Stewardship Council Certification that ensures we create products from responsibly managed forests.”

The challenges of using upcycled ingredients
A potential challenge when using upcycled ingredients in personal care products is demonstrating added value to the consumer, beyond sustainability claims, adds McCarthy.

“To make a lasting impact, upcycled ingredients have to demonstrate the performance and quality that consumers expect from a highly functional active ingredient. Another challenge is quantifying the positive environmental impact of upcycled ingredients.”

The main challenge of upcycled ingredients lies in that upcycling represents a relatively new topic and only part of the current raw materials come from upcycling, adds Smith.

“Consequently, this affects the perfumer’s palette. We still need to develop some olfactive families from upcycled ingredients that we can already explore with the usual palette of raw materials,” explains Smith. “This, for now, puts a limit on the number of upcycled ingredients that we can include in fragrance development.”

Zero waste movement and mandarin peels
“Upcycled ingredients have become more and more popular over the last years, as the concept of upcycling is part of the ‘zero waste’ movement,” says Christine Meier, digital marketing manager at Mibelle Biochemistry.

Regarding cosmetics, ingredients have evolved during the last years in terms of transparency: the souring, the background of a product, where it comes from and who is producing it have become more important.Mibelle’s upcycled mandarins are used to extract organic perfume essence.

“We previously launched a product called MelanoGray, which is sustainably obtained by upcycling the peel paste from mandarins which exclusively grow on the Greek island of Chios,” adds Meier.

“The mandarins are used to extract organic perfume essence and after the distillation process, a rich and thick peel paste remains as waste. By using Chios mandarins for MelanoGray, we therefore not only refine a high-quality waste product with an upcycling process but also help to preserve the historic orchards and original production methods in Chios.”

A shifting space in 2022
The Pro Zero Waste trend will only get stronger in 2022, McCarthy predicts.

“Customers will demand more upcycled ingredients and, as a result, we would expect an increase in transparency of the positive environmental impact that these ingredients bring. Perhaps one solution will be certification.”

“As customers become more aware of how ingredients are made, we could also expect that they will demand cleaner, greener and more sustainable manufacturing methods, too, like the use of new technologies and Green Chemistry.”

Adding to this demand, Meier states: “The demand and therefore the supply for upcycled ingredients will further grow in the coming years. There will be more choice of upcycled ingredients and probably also more interesting sources of waste material can be explored.”

Meanwhile, Symrise’s R&D teams “explore an increasing number of by-products to find new ingredients and to produce existing ingredients using side-streams.”Philippa Smith, sustainability director at Symrise.

“We have developed our innovative Garden Lab range in conjunction with our Nutrition division. They capture the aromatic ingredients with our patented Symtrap technology from the washing water of our vegetable production,” says Smith.

More beneficial for personal care formulations?
Upcycled ingredients create a lower environmental footprint – especially when they come with a low footprint process using, for example, green chemistry and renewable energy, explains Smith.

Meier adds that it is uncertain whether or not upcycled ingredients are more or less beneficial for personal care formulations.

“The source of a product should not directly impact the benefits of a cosmetic ingredient. What matters is the proven effects an ingredient has. If this can be combined with responsible, sustainable sourcing like upcycling, then this adds to the attractivity of the product.”

Upcycled ingredient use in action
Industry players have been tapping into upcycled ingredients for NPD. Previously, skincare brand Loli Beauty released a multi-purpose Plum Elixir that promotes healthy skin and hair through moisturization.

Also, the skincare brand Honestly it’s uses upcycled coffee grinds for its biodegradable all-in-one body wash, exfoliator and moisturizing scrub powder. To increase its renewable ingredient production, Firmenich unveiled a multipurpose production site in Castets, France.

By Nicole Kerr