Givaudan and Arxada on why plant-based solutions will continue to dominate beauty industry

28 May 2024 --- The beauty industry continues to answer the call for more plant-based, sustainable beauty solutions. Whether it’s a company directive or responding to heightened consumer demand to turn more toward plants, the market is flush with options that aim to satisfy skin care needs while being mindful of health and the planet.

Data from global marketing research firm Innova Market Insights indicates that from October 2018 to September 2023, product launches with plant-based claims had an average annual growth of 44%, with more than half of the launches in Europe (54%). While Hand, Bath & Shower was the leading category for new product development, there was also a steep +102% average annual growth in oral care launches with plant-based claims. 

Personal Care Insights explores plant-based sustainability with Giada Maramaldi, global category manager for Botanical Actives at Givaudan Active Beauty and Prema Khanka-Bohra, head of marketing for Home and Personal Care with specialty chemicals company, Arxada.

Consumer demand
Maramaldi says consumer demand is paramount as this category continues to expand:

“Consumers are increasingly keen on naturals and increasingly educated and exigent regarding natural products. The paradigm ‘natural is good’ is no longer a trigger — consumers prefer natural over synthetic and mineral with the new awareness of doing good to the environment with their purchasing choices. They pay more and more attention to sustainability and the quality of the botanical derivatives, which is an increasing consumer demand.”

Khanka-Bohra agrees and believes there is still much work to do:

“We are big on sustainability, and the consumer pressure is huge. As a person who helps bring ingredients into this world, there is so much potential to bring new ingredients that are good for the skin and the environment. The proposition and the opportunity to bring those ingredients and replace some of our traditional workhorses that may not be as good for the environment is exciting.”

Giada Maramaldi of Givaudan Active Beauty says consumers are paying more attention to sustainability and the quality of the botanical derivatives.As Givaudan Active Beauty continues to move full-speed ahead with plant-based innovations, Maramaldi says it is a crucial pillar for the flavors, fragrances and active cosmetic ingredients manufacturer: 

“The Excellence Research Center in Avignon (France), with the presence of agronomy, botanical expertise as well as phytochemistry, extraction capabilities and analytical capabilities, is at the forefront of our innovation. We value upcycling by valorizing secondary supply chains as well as waste valorization, exploring innovative ways to repurpose and transform these byproducts into valuable materials, minimizing waste and contributing to a circular economy. As a matter of fact, we highly favor ‘internal circularity.’ In that, we capitalize on the number of supply chains established by the Fragrance and Taste & Wellbeing teams by screening side streams and waste products. This cross-divisional allyship opens the door to an incredible number of opportunities.”

New products
Givaudan recently launched Neuroglow, an active botanical ingredient that it says can boost natural melanin production, mimicking the protection and look benefits of being tanned. 

Maramaldi says, “Melanin is our first mechanism of protection from UV, and Neuroglow has also been observed to be able to boost well-being markers like beta-endorphins that are also boosted by sunlight and for which we do have receptors in skin cells, as well as boost the production of Vitamin D, which is closely linked to sunlight and energy. In assays mimicking sun excessive exposure (triggering inflammation by heat and UV challenge), Neuroglow has shown the capacity to induce internal anti-inflammatory defenses and lower the release of pro-inflammatory markers.”

Arxada also launched a natural line of Polyglyceryl Esters that can help bring “emolliency, different textures and formulations, and also be a carrier in different formulations,” as the demand expands for natural, sustainable ingredients.

Khanka-Bohra highlights that Arxada has been making esters for over decades and sees sustainability as a top priority:

“Arxada is a spin-off from Lonza. We call ourselves a one-hundred-year-old company but with the heart of a start-up because the company was spun off three years ago, and we’ve been around for a long time. We invent a lot of preservation chemistry. As the world evolves and sustainability goals become robust and strong, especially from the consumer’s perspective, we are working on bringing new sustainable preservation chemistries. Our goal is to transition our portfolio into very sustainable chemistries, whether it’s preservation, our emulsifiers or our non-ionic surfactant-based chemistries. We launched the Polyglyceryl Esters this year and the Polyglyceryl Caprylate, a natural preservation booster, last year. Speaking to sustainability since we’re Arxada, our core is preservation. We have the Prema Khanka-Bohra says the goal is to transition Arxada's portfolio into very sustainable chemistries, whether it’s preservation,  emulsifiers or non-ionic surfactant-based chemistries.Geogard line, an all-natural line of preservation solutions for the beauty and home care industry, including our Geomulse emulsifier and our Geogard PGC booster.”

Multifunctionality focus
While sustainability dominates the beauty landscape, Khanka-Bohra maintains multifunctionality is also critical:

‘The big trend we’ve been delivering on, for the last few years, has been around softer preservation, and ‘natural’ is a big piece of it. These preservatives are also multifunctional, so they do more than just preservations. For example, the Geogard PGC is a big moisturizer that helps balance the skin microbiome. So we’ve done a lot of work in our labs comparing it to other moisturizing chemistries like glycerine, and it performs better than many of those competitive chemistries. As we develop these formulations and bring them to our customers, we see that recognition in the industry.” 

Maramaldi remains bullish about innovations involving plants:

“Plants are amazing chemical laboratories dwelling on our planet for 400 million years, starting from the first primordial blue algae. They have had an enormous amount of time to evolve and build amazing strategies to thrive. To give you a scale, mankind, from its primordial definition, has been here for 250 thousand years — 1600 folds shorter time. Hence, in plants, we can find molecules that are difficult or even impossible for us to synthesize.”

“Differently from animals and humans built according to a centralized model, plants represent a diffused model: there are no decision-making organs that would represent a liability, and plants can sense and respond in a very efficient way. The phytochemistry expertise of Givaudan Active Beauty, our capacity for green fractionation, extracting and purifying different fractions, and the capacity to screen them all put our capabilities at the forefront of plant-based ingredients, leveraging the incredible wisdom of plants. Versatility and polyvalence in our expertise make us unique: in fact, we not only leverage standard extraction and purification processes but also innovative methods (like Subcritical water, for instance) that are greener and extremely efficient, adapting the process to the plant and the active compounds. No process is equivalent, and each is optimized to the phytocomplex.”

By Anita Sharma