Introduction: The cosmetics market is constantly changing every day. "Future Daily" will use a global perspective to look at the Chinese phenomenon, focusing on the new trends and new operations of the "digitalization", "industry, education and research" and "investment and financing" of China's cosmetics industry, as well as new interpretations of them. Our mission is to question the value behind the new things and make it useful for you.
Author "Future Trails" Editorial Department
Reader Hello, this is "Future Daily". Today we focus on two news. is that the new beauty brand "Chapter 14" was officially launched recently; the second is that the palm oil substitute Palmless, made of yeast , was born in the United States and will be used in cosmetics next year.
First look at the first item. Recently, the domestic brand "Chapter 14" with 's "precision skin care" as the guidance system was officially launched, and the first series of products of the prophecy include cream, water, and essence. Mei Hexiang, founder of the brand
, has more than 20 years of experience in specializing in ingredient and biological mechanisms, and has been in charge of the China Business Department of Dezhixin Group, a giant in beauty raw materials, for 15 years. The R&D team is composed of 9 doctoral experts in the fields of molecular biology , liposome targeting, and dermatological immunology, and cooperates with 5 top research offices; product development and efficacy verification are jointly guided by Wang Jiucun , Liu Wei , Lai Wei, Li Li and other life science and dermatologists.
"Chapter 14", a brand name that looks both rational and poetic, comes from the book "Precise Skin Care - Scientific Principles and Practice" planned and written by the founder Mei Hexiang in 2017 with experts. Chapter 14 of this book is "Practical Dermatology and Skin Care Practical Design Examples", which contains the brand's core skin care philosophy: Evolution-based comprehensive thinking/precise sequencing and delivery/self-consistent formula system with skin.
In Mei Hexiang's words, Chapter 14 "It is both a marching scale, but it will not be continued." The
brand is committed to creating a precise skin care system and providing solutions suitable for contemporary Chinese women's skin. According to Mei Hexiang, the so-called precise skin care means no longer focusing on the efficacy, ingredients, and concentration, but rather comprehensively thinking from three aspects: target part, ingredients, and transportation system .
Prophecy Cream is the first product to practice precise skin care theory in "Chapter 14". Among them, the skin target site is the result of a large number of previous research screening, accurately anchoring the skin pathway; the active ingredients are accurately screened, all of which are the top in the industry. The conveying system is the top priority - "Chapter 14" The specially developed conveying system pCB12 can increase the bioavailability of active ingredients by 180%, achieving accurate delivery of high bioavailability.
News is like this, let’s see what it is worth.
In the past two years, effective skin care has become the hottest track on the market. With the arrival of entrants, the competition on this track is becoming increasingly fierce. is inverted and is serious, and the upgraded version of effective skin care - "precision skin care", may become the key to breaking the deadlock.
At present, the beauty industry does not have a unified concept of precise skin care. According to Mei Hexiang, precision skin care is a research method of many grammar 5, such as genomics, microbiomics, proteomics, , etc., combined with skin parameter detection and individual habit research methods, to understand the impact of skin status and genetic information on the skin phenotype, and to customize skin care products that meet the individual skin needs based on the obtained individual genetic information, thereby achieving the purpose of personalized and precise skin care.
On January 20, 2015, former US President Obama proposed the "precision medicine" plan in a speech. The concept of precision medicine pursues the correct choice and precise application of appropriate diagnosis and treatment methods for each patient, so as to minimize iatrogenic damage, minimize medical expenses and maximize patient benefits. This statement inspired Mei Hexiang deeply.
In 2022, Mei Hexiang and 25 domestic and foreign experts and scholars jointly wrote "Precision Skin Care - Scientific Principles and Practice" and finally released, and the field of precise skin care is no longer a blank.
is different from precision medicine. Precision skin care focuses more on the paradigm of the product development process. In summary, it mainly includes seven aspects: accurate insight into the accurate needs of consumers, accurate identification of target pathways, accurate screening of synergistic effects of active ingredients, accurate delivery of dosage form delivery methods, objective verification of large samples and multi-center, adverse reaction detection, and accurate delivery of population mode. Among them, anchoring skin pathways and targets, screening active ingredients, and precise delivery to improve bioavailability are three particularly critical aspects.
In the discussion of precise skin care, Mei Hexiang emphasized that precise skin care focuses on the effects of skin care products on the health, beauty and sustainability of skin, and is a more targeted skin care solution for consumers.
The current cosmetics market is moving towards precise skin care, which is actually the general trend. Some medical experts believe that the market is to solve the needs of consumers. In the rapid modern life and technological iteration, people's lifestyles and natural environment have undergone great changes, and the skin needs to cope with various changing environmental impacts, which has led to great changes in the concepts and demands of beauty lovers for skin care products, and this change is the market space for precise skin care.
But at the same time, it should also be seen that from the perspective of national supervision, beauty products with the concept of "private customization" that faces thousands of people cannot be put on the market, and how to achieve commercialization is still a problem that needs to be solved.
As industry expert Wang Yaqin said, precision skin care is a business with a "threshold". There are no leading brands in the industry yet, and there is still a way to go to truly achieve precision. "This is a challenge but also an opportunity for Chapter 14. I hope it can bring the entire story and technology of precision skin care to consumers."
Next, look at the second one. According to CNBC, on November 3, Eastern Time, biotechnology company C16 Biosciences announced the launch of Palmless, a palm oil replacement made from yeast, named it after 16 carbon fatty acid, the main ingredient of palm oil and its microbial alternative. Currently, the company has produced 50,000 liters of commercial grade products and stated that this palm oil substitute will be used in beauty products in 2023.
, in June this year, Unilever and industrial biotechnology company Genomatica announced the launch of a joint venture for palm oil alternative , focusing on developing home and personal care ingredients, and focusing on surfactants.
As a tropical woody vegetable oil , palm oil is the most basic and widely used matrix raw material in the field of daily cosmetics. It consumes the largest amount, but is relatively cheap, and has the functions of moisturizing, foaming, softening and adjusting texture. Palm oil derivatives include alcohols, fatty acids or fatty alcohols and , etc., and are used in different cosmetic daily chemical products according to their efficacy.
However, due to the over-concentration of origin, this bulk raw material faces deforestation, climate change and various unknown risks. This has also become the driving force for some biotechnology companies and international companies to explore palm oil alternatives in recent years.
According to the "2022 Palm Oil Supply and Demand Outlook Report" released by the Council of Palm Oil Producing Countries (CPOPC), due to the impact of the new crown epidemic, Malaysia For most of 2020 and throughout 2021, border closures and employment were affected, coupled with factors such as changes in rainfall, floods, and rising fertilizer costs, the growth rate of palm oil production has slowed down. In four years this year, Indonesia announced that it would stop exporting "all edible oil and palm oil raw materials", resulting in a sharp rise in international oil and fat varieties, with international prices rising by nearly 50%, and palm oil prices rising by nearly 40%.
The changes in the price of natural oils and fats at the source of cosmetic chemical raw materials directly led to the rise in the prices of cosmetic raw materials such as glycerol , propane , ethylene glycol , and ethylene glycol . Previously, international chemical companies such as BASF and Dow have successively sent letters to raise the prices of raw materials, and the fragrance giant Chivaudan announced three price increases this year. The cosmetics industry has also been directly affected. Since the beginning of this year, international giants such as L'Oreal , Procter & Gamble , and Unilever have successively announced that they have raised prices for their products due to rising costs and other reasons.
So, what changes will the palm oil substitute created using synthetic biotechnology bring to the entire cosmetics industry?
On the one hand, it enhances the stability of the raw material supply chain.
"Made from synthetic biology, it will eliminate many risk factors." Zhang Taijun, R&D director of Quanzhi Meifu Biotechnology Research Institute, said, "If this technology is improved in the future, stable production can be carried out in the factory. The impact of unstable factors such as picking workers and climate influence will almost disappear."
In today's global economy, , and many uncertain factors, this "stability" is obviously very rare.
On the other hand, it has sustainable significance.
Qu Xin, R&D director of the Global Personal Care Innovation (Shanghai) R&D Center of Yashland Company, said in an interview with Future Beauty that using biotechnology to ferment some enzymes or bacteria to synthesize polymer is of sustainable significance.
It is understood that since 2001, Indonesia, the main producer of palm oil, has lost about 30 million hectares of tree cover, causing many animals to lose their habitat. In 2004, multiple stakeholders including multinational palm oil value chain enterprises such as Unilever, the World Wide Nature Foundation (WWF) and the Malaysian Palm Oil Association (MPOA) jointly launched the "Sustainable Palm Oil Roundtable Initiative" (RSPO), advocating full respect for wildlife and the environment in cultivation and finding a way for rainforests to coexist with palm oil - to produce, purchase and trade palm oil in a sustainable way. In addition, in recent years, international companies such as L'Oreal, Estee Lauder , and BASF have promised to use sustainable palm oil.
"Sustainability is being valued by more and more companies." Qu Xin said that the new products released by Ashland in recent years have two characteristics: the raw materials are degradable and they are all natural derivatives.
However, at this stage, this palm oil substitute has not been actually used in beauty products. With the general rise in costs, it is still unknown how many cosmetic companies will choose to use them in the future.
"For Chinese companies, it is equivalent to an extra choice." Zhang Taijun believes that when a technology is just born, it may not necessarily have strong application value, but through continuous iteration, it will provide a new direction or possibility for our future.
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