“Skinimalism” and clean beauty fuel multifunctional formulation

The market for beauty products that serve multiple purposes without compromising efficacy continues to grow as budgets tighten and consumers’ ingredient list demands become more specified. The personal care industry’s technical abilities are becoming more sophisticated to meet the call. 

Technological sophistication is creating enhanced abilities for the industry to advance multifunctional formulations, supporting minimalism and clean beauty alongside product performance. 

Personal Care Insights sits down with Melt&Marble, Algiecel, and Untapped Innovation to discuss the emergence of multifunctionality as a requirement to stay competitive in personal care, the factors driving the emergence, and what ingredients and technologies are best equipped to meet current trends.

The industry experts tell us that while consumers may not always call multifunctionality by its name, the core demands associated with cosmetic minimalism — or “skinimalism” — intersect with a formulation’s ability to multitask.

Thomas Cresswell, chief business officer at Melt&Marble, says consumers are asking for “products with fewer compromises: effective but pleasant to use, nourishing but not greasy, and convenient without feeling basic.”

Manufacturing naturally multifunctional 

Natural complexes can combine hydration, barrier support, and antioxidant benefits.

Multifunctional technologies and ingredients are standing out in a crowded beauty market. 

Ricardo Daura Garcia, chief commercial officer at Algiecel, tells us that natural complexes that are inherently multifunctional, not single actives with secondary benefits, are getting attention. 

He highlights ingredients derived via marine biotechnology, postbiotics, and biotechnology-derived lipids as standouts in the multifunctional category. Daura Garcia explains that a single microalgal biomass, for example, can allow a formulator to combine hydration, barrier support, and antioxidant protection without stacking three separate ingredients. 

“Consumers are asking for exactly this — efficacy and simplicity together — they just do not use the word ‘multifunctional.’”

Similarly, Cresswell tells us biotechnology is interesting for multifunctionality, as it gives formulators greater control over how an ingredient is designed. 

“In the case of lipids, we can influence factors such as fatty acid composition, saturation, and melting behavior, and therefore how the lipid performs in a formulation and feels on the skin,” he says.

Meanwhile, hero ingredients continue to hold their place in consumers’ favor as trusted actives from skin care are permeating other personal care segments in the growing “skinification” trend.

Sally Kemkers, R&D innovation specialist and co-founder of Untapped Innovation, tells us that the skinified multifunctionality space is seeing growing interest in actives such as peptides, niacinamide, hyaluronic acid, and ceramides, moving from facial skin care into makeup, body, hair, and scalp care.

“This broader ‘skinification’ trend reflects how the ingredients, technologies, and performance expectations consumers have learned from skin care are starting to influence what they expect across beauty,” she says.

Kemkers adds that from an innovation perspective, the important question is which consumer needs are starting to converge. 

“We increasingly see previously separate ‘Jobs To Be Done’ coming together: complexion coverage with hydration and longer-term skin benefits; body moisturization with smoothing, firming, or barrier support; or hair cleansing and conditioning alongside greater focus on scalp health.”

Compounding trends

Consumers increasingly expect streamlined routines without compromising product efficacy. 

Multifunctionality inherently sits at the crossroads of other beauty industry trends driven by demands for efficacy, sensoriality, wellness, and sustainability. Additionally, the skinimalism trend sits adjacent to multifunctionality as it targets the demand to combine several benefits in fewer products.

Daura Garcia says these three trends converge on the same formulation brief: “Do more, with less, and be able to explain every ingredient you use.”

“Clean beauty pushed brands toward shorter INCI (International Nomenclature of Cosmetic Ingredients) lists. Minimalism pushed them toward fewer steps and tighter routines. Multifunctionality is the formulation answer to both, allowing a much shorter ingredient list without cutting performance.” 

From Daura Garcia’s perspective, this push is directing formulators toward natural complexes and biotech actives that carry several intrinsic functions.

Untapped Innovation’s Kemkers echoes Daura Garcia that beauty trends are coming from similar consumer needs, and agrees that multifunctionality offers a solution for clean beauty’s scrutiny of what goes into a product.

“What connects [the trends] is a growing sense of intentionality. Consumers are questioning what they really need in their routines, while still expecting products to deliver. Effectiveness remains one of the strongest drivers of beauty choice, so simplification can’t come at the expense of performance,” she says.

According to Kemkers, the convergence of these demands creates a challenge for R&D teams. 

“A simpler routine doesn’t necessarily mean a simpler formulation, particularly when one product is expected to deliver several benefits. Equally, a shorter ingredient list only adds value if the ingredients that remain can deliver the experience and performance consumers are looking for.”

Melt&Marble’s Cresswell offers the solution in biotechnology, stating that it can take multifunctionality’s benefits further by allowing ingredients to be designed around a target product profile, rather than asking formulators to work entirely within the properties that nature happens to provide.

“It can also offer a more controlled and traceable production route, although sustainability claims still need to be supported by evidence,” he adds.

“The best formulations will not necessarily have the fewest ingredients. They will be the ones in which every ingredient has a clear role, and the complete product delivers the intended performance,” says Cresswell. 

Multifunctionality motivation

Multifunctionality allows fewer ingredients to deliver a broader range of benefits.

Daura Garcia tells us that consumers’ routine fatigue is a motivator driving multifunctionality demands. He says that the many-step routine era created backlash. 

“It is less about wanting more from a product and more about wanting fewer decisions to make,” he says.

Both Daura Garcia and Kemkers point to the cost of living and tightening budgets as impacting consumers’ purchasing priorities.

“If one product does three jobs, it is easier to justify than three separate purchases. Efficacy expectations have not dropped either,” says Daura Garcia. “Consumers still want clinical-grade results, just without the clutter. That combination — value, simplicity, and efficacy — is the real driver, not any one of those alone.”

Kemkers adds that consumers’ expectations are also changing as efficacy, multifunctionality, and clean beauty coexist. “As consumers become used to skin care actives in makeup, or sophisticated skin care benefits in body and hair care, their reference points change, products that previously only needed to perform well in their traditional category may increasingly be expected to do more.” 

She explains that segmentation of categories helps to differentiate these increasingly specified consumer needs and address them accordingly. “For one consumer, multifunctionality might mean fewer products and a faster morning routine; for another, it could mean getting greater value from each purchase.”

“Understanding the underlying ‘Jobs To Be Done,’ and where these are starting to converge, helps brands develop multifunctional products that solve real consumer needs rather than simply offering a longer list of benefits.”

For manufacturers, growing consumer demands mean growing formulator expectations. Melt&Marble’s Cresswell tells us that the company is seeing increased interest in multifunctional emollients, emulsifier-texturizers, active delivery systems, and biotechnology-derived ingredients. 

“The common theme is that formulators want each ingredient to work harder. It is no longer enough for an emollient simply to provide emolliency. Ideally, it should also improve structure, stability, sensory performance, or skin benefit,” he adds.

Cresswell tells us that consumers are generally looking for the same benefits, but they describe them differently. 

Where a formulator may use the language of rheology, oil binding, or emulsion support, consumers describe a product that spreads well, feels less greasy, leaves the skin smoother, and delivers credible moisturization or barrier support, he explains.

“The opportunity is therefore not simply to combine as many claims as possible. It is to combine technical functions in a way that produces a better and more noticeable consumer experience,” concludes Cresswell.