As the cosmetics industry enters the era of efficacy evaluation, the efficacy of products is becoming more and more important. The R&D and innovation of ingredients, which are the basis of cosmetic efficacy, presents a variety of trends.
In recent years, "sensitive skin" and "skin barrier repair" have become hot words in the field of cosmetics, and the market demand for repair products is increasing. The ingredients with repairing effect include ceramide, tetrahydropyrimidine, beta-glucan, bifidobacterial yeast fermentation product lysate, hyaluronic acid, collagen and so on. Among them, ceramide is the main component of many repair products.
Ceramide is a lipid composed of fatty acids and sphingosine, which naturally exists in the skin and is a very important component of the skin barrier, with a content of up to 40% to 50%. In the course of cosmetic research and development, many ceramide derivatives have been developed. For example, through fermentation technology and chemical structure modification of ceramide, phytosphingosine can be obtained (this component has the effect of improving acne); salicylic acid groups can be introduced into phytosphingosine to obtain salicyl phytosphingosine Alcohol (this ingredient has better anti-photoaging effect). In addition, it can also be compounded with ceramide to greatly enhance the repair effect. At present, the above ingredients are used in the skin barrier repair products of many well-known skin care brands.
Under the "morning C night A" craze, vitamin A alcohol continues to improve
"Anti-aging" is another welcome benefit of skincare. According to Euromonitor data, the market size of anti-aging products will reach 104.6 billion yuan in 2020, accounting for 28.8% of the market share of skin care products.
In the anti-aging product market, the "morning C night A" skincare concept is becoming more and more popular. According to the statistics of the Micro Hotspot Research Institute, vitamin C and vitamin A alcohol have become the two anti-aging ingredients that consumers are most concerned about. In addition, ingredients such as vitamin E, hyaluronic acid, polyphenols, and peptides have also received more attention.
The research and innovation of anti-aging ingredients is mainly to improve their efficacy, stability and irritation. Taking retinol as an example, a third-generation retinoid derivative, hydroxypinacol retinoate (HPR), has been developed. The component can directly bind to the retinoic acid receptor and play a role, and its stability is about 10 times that of retinoic acid, which effectively overcomes the application difficulties of retinoic acid components. However, there are few application cases of HPR on the product side.
Development of cosmetic raw materials with the help of biotechnology
According to industry insiders, relying on the development of modern biotechnology such as bioengineering and genetic engineering, the scientific and technological content of cosmetics has been continuously improved.
Biopeptides are one of the most popular anti-wrinkle ingredients. Polypeptides naturally exist in human skin, with high safety and strong activity. In fact, the benefits of peptides go far beyond anti-wrinkle. Insiders said that by changing the amino acid sequence of the polypeptide, introducing other groups (such as palmitoyl, acetyl, etc.) or modifying certain groups, polypeptide derivatives with different structures can be formed, which may play different roles.
According to the free radical theory, biological aging is the result of the accumulation of free radicals in human tissue cells. Mitochondria are the main places that provide ATP energy for cells, and more than 90% of reactive oxygen species and free radicals in cells are produced by them. Mitochondrial targeting studies aim to endogenously inhibit the production of reactive oxygen species and free radicals. Studies have shown that active substances such as nicotinamide and coenzyme Q10 can effectively maintain cell health by reducing the production of reactive oxygen species or preventing mitophagy. In addition, neutralizing free radicals by adding antioxidant ingredients such as vitamin C and vitamin E to the formula is also the mainstream idea of current product development.
In addition, with the in-depth implementation of the strategic deployment of "carbon peaking and carbon neutrality" and the promotion of relevant policies such as "plastic ban and plastic reduction", the concept of sustainable development has been deeply rooted in the hearts of the people.