It’s no longer enough for personal care products to look good and feel good; they need to do good, too. Environmental sustainability has swiftly become a non-negotiable for consumers buying their favourite hair and skincare products, with many reaching for brands that echo their own values. So, what’s driving this new purchasing behaviour and how can beauty and personal care manufacturers meet shoppers’ increasingly sustainable preferences, while still retaining all-important performance and efficacy? Formulating with upcycled ingredients, such as natural betaine, could be the recipe for success, offering a natural, sustainable and effective way to tick every consumer box.
Upcycling on the up
Today’s eco-conscious consumers are aware of the problems of waste across all industries, including personal care, and are taking steps to reduce their individual environmental impact. According to figures, 35% of UK consumers choose brands that prioritize waste reduction when shopping sustainably for beauty and personal care products.1 For many beauty and personal care brands however, achieving zero waste and meeting circular economy goals can prove challenging, requiring a layered approach. Upcycled ingredients – by-products, unwanted or waste materials that are transformed into new products of a higher quality or value than the original – could offer a solution. They can help reduce the environmental impact of products while telling an important sustainability story.
It appears that consumers are ready to embrace this upcycling narrative; one report found that a whopping 65% of German women are interested in using beauty and personal care products made from plant waste.2 Yet product development data indicates that only 1% of new skincare launches featured an upcycled ingredient in 2023.3 So, what’s causing this disconnect? When it comes to personal care, consumers often have concerns around the perceived quality and price of upcycled ingredients, stopping them from making their final decision at a store or online.
Dispelling the myths
Despite consumers’ fast-growing eco-consciousness, performance remains their number one priority. It’s crucial that the hair and skincare products they use work effectively and deliver the desired results. According to research, over half (54%) of US consumers actively research product ingredients to check a product’s efficacy before buying,4 so it’s clear that upcycled ingredients must meet – or exceed – these high standards, too.
At the same time, the term ‘upcycled’ is not as familiar with today’s shoppers as ‘natural’. There’s no single, globally recognised standard for upcycling, although the landscape is changing, which will help consumers verify the quality and sustainability of products made with upcycled ingredients. For example, the Upcycled Certified™ Program, launched in 2021, is the first global third-party certification for upcycled foods and ingredients. This detailed framework is a significant step towards reducing uncertainty and building trust among people. With these common misconceptions in mind, careful selection of upcycled ingredients is therefore key, helping to differentiate a brand’s formulation while reducing waste for increased consumer appeal.
Betaine benefits
One upcycled active ingredient showing promise is natural betaine, which is extracted from the by-product of sugar beets processing. Traditional sugar production from sugar beets yields a by-product known as sugar beet molasses, and for every 1,000 kg of sugar produced, about 285kg of sugar beet molasses is generated as a side product. IFF’s proprietary desugarization technology allows to extract more sugar from sugar beet molasses than traditional methods, increasing the total yield for sugar mills by 12%. At the same time, this process also yields a side stream called betaine molasses, which is separated and purified into natural betaine (see Fig. 1).
Betaine is a natural organic osmolyte, helping keratinocytes to survive hyperosmotic stress, as well as strengthening the skin barrier. It helps make the tight junctions stronger, increasing skin barrier integrity and cohesion to limit water loss. Tight junctions play a crucial role in epidermis cohesion and barrier function – controlling the inter-cellular pathway of molecules, preventing the penetration of harmful substances and supporting naturally regulate water vaporisation called Transepidermal Water Loss (TEWL). In clinical studies, IFF’s GENENCARE® OSMS BA ingredient – pure betaine in a crystalline powder form – was found to significantly improve the skin’s long-term moisturization by reducing skin TEWL over four weeks (see Fig. 2).5 Similarly in scalp care, GENENCARE® OSMS BA has been found to reinforce the scalp-skin barrier. Clinical studies found that GENENCARE® OSMS BA significantly decreases the TEWL of dry and sensitive scalps in participants, helping improve scalp barrier integrity.6 Furthermore, due to betaine’s high affinity with keratin, it can help strengthen and condition hair, while controlling unwanted frizz.
A more sustainable path
The use of upcycled ingredients in beauty and personal care products presents a promising avenue for brands to align with growing demand for more sustainable practices. Despite common misconceptions, upcycled ingredients like GENENCARE® OSMS BA, a natural betaine derived from sugar beets, could be a viable way to meet eco-conscious consumers’ expectations on efficacy in the next generation of hair and skincare products. Meanwhile, the emergence of more official standards shows that upcycling is here to stay: a reflection of brands’ commitment to waste reduction and a sign of the positive change to come.
-Tom Swallow, Deloitte research consumer sustainability behavior, Sustainability magazine, January 17, 2022. Accessed online: https://sustainabilitymag.com/diversity-and-inclusion-dandi/deloitte-researches-consumer-sustainability-behaviour
-Mintel – Boost sustainability in BPC with recycled ingredients, August 2021.
-Mintel – Meet efficacy needs with sustainable hair ingredients, 2023.
-Mintel – Meet efficacy needs with sustainable hair ingredients, 2023.
-Clinical evaluation by a certified third party laboratory
-Clinical evaluation by a certified third party laboratory
