Green cosmetics, but make them fun

For a while now, green cosmetics and sustainability have been trending among BPC consumers. However, this trend is now evolving and blending with other emerging movements and preferences, such as the “back to fun” trend. We analyze how these two trends coalesce and provide an example of how BPC brands can respond.

Sustainability can be fun: new trends in the BPD market

When looking for beauty products, choosing the right green cosmetics has been a priority for consumers for a long time now.

In such a context, younger consumers have taken the lead (with 58% of Gen Z consumers saying they always look for products that are environmentally friendly, according to figures by Mintel in 2019). However, the desire for green cosmetics has now reached a wide part of the population. 

Sustainability is now a wide concept that includes not only ethically-sourced ingredients but also all kinds of supply chain ethical practices.

Consumers have also famously been pushing brands to innovate in packaging solutions, so that less and more sustainable packaging materials are used.

At the same time, this demand for green cosmetics has been coliving with other more recent trends, such as the “back to fun” trend. This movement, particularly important after the pandemic, sees consumers seeking playful, fun beauty products that bring them joy and fun.

In order to meet this mingling of both trends, beauty and personal care brands have been experimenting with diverse formats:

• Using plant-based ingredients for sustitutive packaging, ike coconut and sugarcane, which present associations with playful and high-spirited environments.

• New product formats that are both surprising and sustainable, such as solid shampoos and skincare products, which, at the same time, can take innovative shapes. 

• When products must be liquid, the pouch format has grown in popularity as a more original, fun (they can be squeezed) and sustainable packaging solution for BPC products. 

Waterless formulas are also a key product development trend today.

• Look for nostalgic designs (including colors and textures), associated with positive childhood memories.

• Tactile and odour sensations are also being part of new brand experiments in the context of the “back to fun” trend.

• As 30% of women aged 18-24 say their typical makeup routine expresses their personality (as published by Mintel), BPC brands are also embracing narratives that focus on self-expression and self-care. 

Responding to this coalition of both sustainability and fun is a must for brands, which must see these market transformations and demands as an opportunity to innovate and attract new potential consumers to their products.

The Clean Face, Fun Necklace: a ready-made formula that works as an example

Inspired by these key tendencies in beauty and personal care, Provital has created a series of ready-made formulas in order to inspire beauty brands to try new formats that respond both to sustainability and originality demands from consumers.

The Clean Face, Fun Necklace brings back fun childhood memories of what is now considered classic sweets: the edible necklaces made of candy. This fun format allows consumers to try a new perspective for their skin care: they will break off one candy at a time to make their daily cleansing routine a sweet treat.

At the same time, the necklace includes four formulations that open up a hyper-personalized possibility: depending on the person’s skin condition on a given day, different candy can be used in order to enhance their skin health.

The product is not only a fun format, but also part of the science-based green cosmetics, so that it can also be paired with a series of active complexes in order to generate a series of effects on skin health:

• Anti-age: it increases skin microcirculation, thickness, firmness and luminosity. 

• A balance for oily skin that provides an immediate effect.
• Exfoliation and impurity elimination, preparing skin for cosmetic treatments. 

This variety of benefits also responds to the increased demand for personalized solutions: instead of needing multiple products to target their diverse skin concerns, consumers now value products that cover their multiple skin needs, which might change from day to day (for instance, a hydrating formula that can also work as a makeup remover), or change with the season. Flexibility is now also incorporated to personalization demands, in a step that takes product convenience further.

At the same time, innovation can also be applied to this product in packaging, including both fun and sustainable options such as packaging materials made from ethically-sourced sugar cane fibers.