The cosmetic industry or ecosystem revolves around the manufacturing and distributing units. The market for cosmetic products is extensive offering a wide range of products and product categories to solve cosmetic conditions for a variety of skin types. The cosmetic needs of consumers are many and the cosmetics companies offer a variety of products to address these needs.
The most basic item they manufacture is the active ingredients in an item that affects the skin or hair of the consumers. A product is often named after the active ingredient, and people buy that product for a particular use.
What Are Active Ingredients?
Active ingredients in cosmetics are ingredients scientifically proven to have a direct impact on your skin. A particular active ingredient is significantly important in treating skin concerns of a specific type. For eg: if you are suffering from blackheads, you will buy a product that contains an active ingredient that will help contain the blackheads and curtail their growth on the skin.
In recent times, there are specific products available for particular types of skin problems. You have to check whether you are buying the right product. Some of the good and non-toxic active ingredients found in cosmetics are niacinamide, peptides, bisabolol, zinc oxide, titanium dioxide among others. The names of active ingredients can be found on the cosmetic tubes or bottles. Look into them before buying an item for your skin concern.
Finding Suppliers For Active Ingredients In Cosmetics
There are several suppliers of active cosmetic product ingredients all over the world. These suppliers specialize in developing active ingredients in their facilities and supply them to cosmetic manufacturing organizations. They have experts on the subject matter on their team, and the ingredients are tested to keep the consumers safe.
Research and Development Companies
Many companies are constantly looking for new ingredients to get better results from cosmetics. The various ingredients undergo many safety and efficacy studies. The research firms usually collaborate with dermatological institutes to test the latest ingredients. The process is documented and approval from regulators is pursued. These organizations are experts in the various fields of science, biology, and biochemistry. From many active ingredient candidates, a few turn out successful. Typically, these companies brand and use a product brand name instead of chemical formulae to create a positive brand for the company and also recover the R&D costs by premium pricing of such branded active ingredients.
Who Is A Cosmetic Formulator? What Do They Do?
This brings us to the next part of a discussion about the cosmetic formulator. Formulators are specialists who possess the skill set to develop cosmetic products by following scientific data and preparing a mixture of ingredients. They have a lot of responsibility both inside and outside the laboratory. They run tests of newly manufactured items and develop formulae for the stability of a product. They maintain technical documents and find out about the performance of the ingredients.
In some cosmetics like lipsticks, and hair color – they can also make new colors or shades. The cosmetic formulator’s role can be as an individual, a team in a company, or a formulation company.
Role of Manufacturers
Various reputed organizations manufacture the active ingredients found in cosmetics. Some of the active ingredients are derived from plants and other natural methods. Many times, the active ingredient is chemically manufactured. Manufacturing happens at two levels, one is the manufacturing of active ingredients and the second is the manufacturing of cosmetic end products.
Customer Acceptance And Purchase In Retail
Finally, retailers across various geographies buy the products from cosmetics manufacturers and their distributors. By creating a proper ambiance in retail stores, they sell cosmetics to consumers to help them benefit from the usage of cosmetics.
An overview of the major parties in the cosmetic ecosystem has been briefly summarized here for a layman. This is a simplified article to provide an overview to those who are unaware of the various parties in the cosmetic ecosystem.
Author: Sarah Weber – Writes on functional and active ingredients for cosmetics personal care, home care, hair dyes, color cosmetics and sun filters products for a cosmetics speciality chemical supplier for MENA region.