In the last few months there has been a strong desire for cosmetic products that should not only care for the skin, but also increase well-being. Anne Charpentier explains how the demands have changed in 2020 and how their effects on well-being can be measured.
For some time now, it seems that in beauty, ageing no longer appears to be directly associated with age itself but more with the “feeling of age.” Consumers and personal care brands agree that there will be improvements in the perceived benefits on well-being than on proper rejuvenation. To achieve such “sensory” efficacy, more and more cosmetics brands use the invaluable analysis of the feeling, the sensation perceived using sometimes complex protocols including the study of:
For the past year, cosmetic treatment has increased its influence due to the increased use of video tools, especially in the United States where it is a question of reducing the negative effects of screens and cameras on the perception of the complexion, wrinkles, dark circles, or the oval of the face.
Antioxidant or anti-radical effects are associated with most cosmetic treatments because they meet the protective needs of the mechanisms of the different skin layers.
With true sesame, they maintain the skin’s barrier function, its regeneration, and its ability to fight aggression. CBD fashion, a major trend at the moment – despite Chinese regulations that may need to be taken into account – continues its ascent for the time being. The expected effects of cannabidiol in cosmetics are more specifically soothing, anti-pruritus, calms the inflammation of sensitive, reactive, or fragile skin. Wearing the mask, which sometimes counts in hours, becomes a new parameter to be considered in assessing the blemish free claim. The change in the skin ecosystem under the mask is significant and can be akin to pollution due to bacteria development, tissue friction, temperature increase, humidity, and sebaceous secretion. This is the new famous phenomena of “maskne”, often described.
In 2020, there was a real craze for overall well-being both physical and psychological. Connected devices occupy the daily lives of consumers and tend to become true beauty coaches who bring promises of diagnosed results. Beauty rituals that are more and more inclusive give the opportunity of a pause, counterbalancing stressful, tiring, and anxious lifestyles and reducing the deleterious effects of a life that attacks the skin through internal mechanisms or a harmful environment. More natural and responsible products, less waste, less make-up, and a routine now focused on basic care – in one year, the Covid-19 pandemic significantly accelerated a transition that was already well underway before the virus appeared. Wearing masks and barrier gestures are no strangers to these upheavals. After one year of an unprecedented lifestyle for all consumers around the planet, the lines are moving. Containment but also the home office, changes in social interactions and the relationship to well-being have impacted the beauty routines of consumers regardless of their initial profile.
The singularity of the concept and the volume of data processed, relative to the queries that are carried out on these platforms, legitimises Skinobs to extract the main tests’ market trends. The most researched topics into the clinical testing platform are:
For the products types: face and hair are in the first row. Among the types of products sought, facial care comes first by a little over a third, followed closely by hair care (a little less than a third), then, in appreciably similar proportions: sun care, body care and make-up.
The interest of microbiota in skin care remains an important trend. The bacteria ecosystem (microorganisms, bacteria, viruses, fungi, yeasts) synthetises a myriad of elements which have an important metabolic activity for skin health. It could be necessary to protect, to rebalance and activate it on the cosmetics side.
Simply said, the aim for personal care could be to reduce the “bad” bacteria and protect the “good” ones. But the notion of “bad” or “good” is relative depending on the physiological state of the skin. Now things are not so simple.
The balance of cutaneous microflora (500 bacteria species) is dependent on the several conditions of its ecosystem: temperature, pH, hormones, light, UV, lipids, proteins, water… It is mainly influenced by the genetic, the lifestyle, the age, the hygiene, and the diet. Each person has their own skin flora composition, distributed from the epidermis until the dermis, which is lifelong qualitatively stable, like a personal microbial footprint.
This skin microflora is fundamental for the skin homeostasis and participates in the immune and barrier functions. Situations where pathogenic bacteria overwhelm commensal bacteria are often associated with drier and sensitive skin conditions. And various bacteria disorders might be considered as a source of cutaneous dysfunctions like acne, eczema or atopic dermatitis modifying this precious balance. Currently, the approach of supporting the microbiota activity of cosmetics is still in its early stages. Many testing laboratories are studying these new claims looking in the direction of the metagenomic field. The study of the cutaneous flora is complex, and it is not always easy to understand its functionalities and interactions with the skin metabolism.
The first way is to analyse the genome of the bacteria of the skin flora. It is a living layer of the skin to be discovered like a new continent of the body.
Personal care and toiletries must be designed to make the skin healthy. Healthy skin is frequently described as beautiful, flawless, glowing, and young. Healthy skin care maintains the skin in good state, protects it from the external aggression and helps to regulate the bad influences of the internal stresses. This is a question of aspect and perceived comfort; it generates a globally positive impression of good health. Skin treatments must correct any abnormality in skin health that deviates from the definition so that it attains the desirable attributes. Globally, these personal care products could help to decrease the imperfections of the skin (acne), the redness, the hyperpigmentation, optimise the skin structure and relieve, improve the complexion radiance and the oxygenation, increase the tonicity and the elasticity, maintain a good level of hydration and the skin barrier, respect the pH, the epidermis renewal, and the microbiota, normalise the sebum, improve the skin softnessvand comfort.
It is recommended for investigators to take time with the CROs to design each protocol and define precisely, the inclusion criteria, the time measurements, treatment conditions and the optimal device.
The era of connected devices for skin diagnosis or DNA analysis combined with the personalisation treatment sounds great for healthy skin care. These digital tools enable the development of new products to answer the new request of the consumers. Is it the selfie generation, theatre of the daily life of the millennial’s who need to have instagramable images of themselves? Moreover, the healthy skin could be mentally associated to clean and natural beauty. It seems evident that “healthy skin care” will be formulated with specific attention to the texture and the actives and ingredients sourcing. Now, the imaging of the skin from the centimetre to the nanoscale is more and more crucial. When measuring the various elements and structures of the skin, water, lipids, the skin-epidermal junction, extracellular matrix, and fibres, among other things, are analysed. The various hightech bio metrological measurements give the opportunity to connect the technology with the new digital use of personalisation from the shop to the bathroom.
This connection between objectivation and the digital way of choosing and buying may bring the cosmeticians closer to the reality of marketing. Whether for ageing, radiance, biomechanical properties, or moisturising, the several techniques look for higher resolution, larger measurement area, non-invasive, no contact, and direct methods. The algorithms and the statistics are the principal future contribution of the success of these new technologies. The combinations of classical biometric measurements with more high-tech devices and specific biomarkers can provide a better understanding of the organisation of the skin structure and its functions at this specific period of the women and men life.
Published by Anne Charpentier, Skinobs Founder, on June 06, 2021
The human vaginal mucosa is comprised of a protective multilayered epithelium with a squamous, stratified…
Veganism is no longer just a dietary choice; it’s a full lifestyle movement that influences…
The European Commission (EC) is hosting a free, one-hour webinar, “When Beauty Meets Green: The…