CARE ALCHEMISTS

Why the future of beauty is tailor-made

This article contains elements of our Beauty & Personal Care Industry Update, detailing what CARE ALCHEMISTS encompasses, why the trend is relevant now, which brands are driving the movement and — of course — your key takeaways.

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The growing demand for products that truly deliver

People around the world are reassessing their priorities and adopting cost-saving behaviors. In the face of a declining standard of living, many are buying fewer cosmetics but spending more on high-quality skincare and beauty products.

Personal care brands that create science-backed products tailored to individuals will appeal to this cohort, particularly when customization is combined with real results.

Why now?

The internet and social media have transformed the experience of researching and shopping for new products, and today’s ‘skintellectuals’ are equipped with in-depth knowledge about their skin. They seek ingredients that work – searches for hyaluronic acid, retinol, vitamin C, collagen, glycerin and niacinamide increased by 700% over the past few years. As wellness culture continues to flourish, the use of ingestible beauty-related supplements — used by approximately 40% of people — is also growing.

Meanwhile, beauty brands continue to experiment with customized products, with Amorepacific and L’Oréal Group betting on tech innovations to claw back market share from smaller startups like Prose and Hims & Hers. While these tech solutions aren’t always affordable, they’re recalibrating ideas around hyper-personalization, away from being offered solely through high-end stores or dermatologists’ offices to products that can be accessed from home. As consumers seek out personalization in wellness products, are you prepared to cater to an informed group of CARE ALCHEMISTS eager to optimize their beauty and personal care routines?

Neutrogena

Partnership with Nourished on 3D-printed skin supplements

In January 2023, Neutrogena and Nourished launched personalized, 3D-printed skin supplements. The skincare brand is leveraging its existing Skin360 mobile app along with AI and 3D-printing technology to create on-demand dietary supplements crafted with 'skin-loving' ingredients designed to help consumers meet their personal skincare goals. These Skinstacks are formulated in partnership with personalized supplement company Nourished, combining its proprietary 3D printing with Neutrogena’s digital skin assessment, which uses over 100,000 skin pixels to analyze over 2,000 facial attributes and consumers’ skin needs and goals.

Grupo Boticário

In-salon machine mixes highly personalized hair treatments

Brazil-based cosmetics brand Grupo Boticário wants to revolutionize the field of in-salon hair treatments with its Match Science Experiment. After inspecting a client’s hair under a magnifying glass, stylists input their diagnosis and the machine instantly blends different chemicals and active ingredients to create bespoke treatments. Boticário developed the machine in partnership with Germany-based chemicals manufacturer BASF and French company B2B Cosmetics.

Skin Dossier

Personalization platform leverages AI to provide precise product suggestions

Skin Dossier, an AI-powered skin health startup, launched in the US in March 2023. The service combines facial imaging with data from a range of sources like DNA and blood tests to provide more accurate skincare product recommendations. It also leverages geolocation to track weather-related and external metrics (pollution, humidity, UV, pollen, weather) and health app data (activity information, menstrual and fertility cycles, sleep), along with medical information. Co-founder Raj Chhibber has been granted 15 patents for Skin Dossier’s technology.

Your key takeaways

According to Neutrogena, Skinstacks represent ‘a new dimension of comprehensive inside-out skincare’. As the definition of beauty becomes more holistic to encompass other lifestyle factors like sleep and air pollution, demand for these products will grow. Which wellness sub-categories could your brand play in? And how will you ensure that these products meet demands for efficacy and personalization?
When shopping in-store, younger consumers know what they want: 85% of Gen Z cite high levels of service — such as customized skincare and hair diagnostics — as very important when shopping for beauty products at retail stores. How can you bring hyper-personalization into the retail or salon experience? For more inspiration, see Holland & Barrett's partnership with DnaNudge.
Skin Dossier wants to help people understand what’s causing skincare concerns like rosacea or acne (which is on the rise in many regions) without spending time or money on a clinical dermatology consultation. Could you develop a CARE ALCHEMISTS service that eliminates guesswork and democratizes access to treatment?

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