Multifunctional ingredients named ones to watch in beauty

Speciality personal care ingredients took a 45% share of the global personal care ingredients market in 2015, up from 40%, said analyst Kline's report Personal Care Ingredients: Global Market Analysis.

Speciality ingredients are defined as “performance-oriented multifunctional ingredients” that do more than one job in a product’s formulation. Examples include preservative boosters such as caprylyl glycol, glyceryl caprylate and ethylhexylglycerin, which also add emollient properties to a product.

Another group of ingredients that lend a formulation emulsifying properties are PEG derivatives, which act as rheology modifiers (controlling the structure and texture of a liquid). According to the report, these have also increased in popularity over the past few years and are expected to grow in usage.

Emollients are the leading ingredient group in the personal care ingredients market, of which skincare is one of the leading applications, along with hair care.

Despite the perceived surge in uptake of natural ingredients by beauty product manufacturers, synthetics still dominate the personal care ingredient industry. One problem with natural ingredients is that they can be more susceptible to microbial attacks and therefore have the potential to contaminate formulas, affecting the category’s growth.

Kline predicts that sales of speciality ingredients will increase at a CAGR (compound annual growth rate) of 2.8% from 2015-2020, surpassing USD $10 billion (£7bn) in worth by 2020.

UV absorbers are the ingredient group expected to post the biggest growth. The market may see increasing demand for alternatives to traditional preservatives over the forecast period due to regulations in developed markets – things like organic acids and boosters could be used more frequently in product formulations.

The report’s project manager Kunal Mahajan commented that consumption of different ingredient groups is expected to vary by region, saying: “For example, parabens are expected to decline in the United States, but not in other regions. Ingredients like BNPD or triclosan are expected to decline, but will show some growth in a few developing countries as the awareness about harmful effects of these ingredients is low there, which explains why the usage of these ingredients continues to grow in countries like India.”