The beauty and personal care category must start upgrading and innovating formulas and products to empower consumers to take shorter, colder showers – drawing inspiration from hospitals, beer brands and more, says a senior futurologist.
Earlier this month, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) released its annual Adaptation Gap Report and Emissions Gap Report ahead of its ongoing climate change conference COP27 in Egypt. Both reports highlighted the need for a radical shift to tackle the climate crisis, noting today’s global actions were not keeping pace with real-work risks on impacts on planet and people and that there was a concerning lack of funding behind real change.
For beauty and personal care, as with every consumer goods industry worldwide, this held very real implications. And Helga Hertsig-Lavocah, senior futurologist and founder of Hint Futurology, said today’s climate crisis had to be addressed with very real responses from formulators, manufacturers and brands.
Speaking to attendees at this year’s SCS Formulate in Coventry, UK, Hertsig-Lavocah said: “I decided to do a very practical forecast this time; I really wanted to get down to the nitty gritty nuts and bolts. I think cold showers is something formulators really have to think about, and I think there are three reasons for this.”
Cold showers – cost-of-living crisis, eco concerns and anxiety
The cost-of-living crisis had recently gained prominence in most people’s lives, she said, as had eco concerns and anxiety – all strong drivers behind a future of cold showering.
Many consumers were being forced into taking shorter and colder showers to keep costs down and many were also doing so to limit water use and reduce overall environmental impact, she said. The challenge for beauty formulators was creating products that worked in-use, with colder water temperatures and for shorter durations, she said.
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