DevEX Product Lifecycle Management and Personal Care
The Cosmetics industry currently faces several challenges—a request for greater legislation from the US FDA, lawsuits to ensure claims, and a recovering economy. Meanwhile, customers are demanding higher quality lower-priced products that deliver near-pharmaceutical grade results.
The Safe Cosmetics Act has just been introduced to the US House of Representatives. If made law, this act will require cosmetic companies to provide significantly more information to the FDA for each cosmetic. In addition, the FDA would set up a database to track restricted, prohibited, and safe without limits ingredients. Some insist that this would be too much of a burden for the FDA, but others insist that cosmetic corporations must be ready for it.
From a proposed legislation to a lawsuit- marketing claims have now become precarious as companies now face litigation to ensure what they claim on the package is delivered in the product. Consumers Stockholm (the largest consumer association in Sweden) has demanded double-blind testing, relevant test subjects, and better resources from its government agency for testing.
But it is definitely not all bad news. The Cosmetic industry has also seen several big wins as consumers look to cosmetics and as Mintel reports, “consumer confidence returns.”
A repeating trend across all formula-based manufacturing, consumers returning to the market are seeking out sustainable packaging with organic ingredients, but in their cosmetics, consumers want a little more.
According to Mintel, these consumers want powerful shields and turbo-charged beauty. Although this may sound more related to the auto industry, it is trending more towards the high-quality levels of a dermatology visit with d-i-y kits to make at home that will deliver the same results (or nearly the same) that they would see from a pharmaceutical grade procedure.
As consumers demand more across nearly every front- the cosmetic industry must find ways to deliver the higher quality, ensuring compliance, and providing the traceability, while still finding the profitability for their own longevity.