1) In every industry or endeavor one of the key dimensions of success involves accurately forecasting future trends and initiatives. As we look into the crystal ball of the future for botanicals in the cosmetic industry, I predict that a key dimension of innovation will come through a more integrated approach to plants and the people and places from which they derive. This is the combination of superior botanical sourcing and the development of sustainable chains of trade with ingredients that deliver both efficacy and substantive stories backed by beneficial activities that inspire and inform consumers and the industry at large.

Botanicals are not only the most widely utilized ingredients in cosmetic products, but they also always represent an inviolable triune of plants, people and places. Many savvy, forward-thinking cosmetic companies are already leaning on this triune, with botanicals in products and stories and projects that bring people and places to the fore to an eager market that wants more than products on a shelf. People respond enthusiastically to products that not only serve their personal needs but also deliver benefits to people and the environment. Inspire and inform people in addition to providing products that work, and you create a deeper appreciation for what you are delivering in the marketplace. That elevates the entire chain of trade, and adds a dimension of beauty that is indeed more than skin deep.

Companies with vision and the means to fully advance this integrated way of operating can expect richer rewards and a deeper bond with customers. This requires deploying key personnel on an ongoing basis who are experienced in the field with botanicals and the people who work with them in their respective communities. Stewarding green environmental cultivation and collecting practices including green extraction technologies, promoting livable wages and working for the greater betterment of communities is all part of a truly integrated and more inspired sustainable chain of trade. It is also essential for developing impactful and legitimate stories that reach people’s hearts.

Benefit-sharing projects that may enhance community education, medicine, infrastructure and opportunity for people who work with botanicals make beauty products even more beautiful in the eyes of the beholder. Cosmetic products that enrich skin, hair, nails and overall healthy appearance while enhancing well-being of people and communities and communicating that dynamically can create strong customer loyalty for all the right reasons while helping to make the world a little bit better. As we go along, leading companies will do more of this, bridging worlds and helping to foster greater understanding of what goes into products. This integration is a winning formula. Inspiring stories uplift people’s spirits.

3) Fragmented and reductionist ways of thinking about health and beauty are fading into the mists of time, replaced by a greater understanding of how everything works together. A holistic approach to beauty, and the fulfillment of the ever-elusive beauty from within concept, can be actualized through behaviors and products.

Behaviors that enhance beauty from within include but are not limited to a clean diet with few or none ultra-processed foods, abstinence from tobacco products, conservative drinking of alcohol, excellent hygiene, drinking pure water and engaging in regular exercise to maintain overall fitness and weight control.

Botanicals that can help to further real beauty from within are many, and there is great opportunity for cosmetic companies to offer some of these in supplement form. Coffee extracts rich in chlorogenic acids and green tea extracts rich in polyphenol catechins prevent cellular aging. Supplementary high SPM (specialized pro-resolving mediators) herring roe oil can significantly reduce overall systemic inflammation. OPC’s (oligomeric proanthocyanidins) from pine bark and grape seed skin deliver well documented benefits to skin tissue and are also upcycled from pine lumber waste and wine grape waste respectively. Horsetail (Equisetum arvense) improves the strength and appearance of skin, hair and nails. Milk Thistle extract demonstrates potent detoxifying benefits, reducing toxins in the liver, thereby helping to promote healthier appearance overall. Perhaps most significantly, the adaptogen class of botanicals, which include ginseng, eleuthero, rhodiola, schisandra, maca, ashwagandha and some types of medicinal mushrooms, can significantly reduce cortisol, thereby reducing hundreds of stress-related aging factors in the body. Recent advances in our understanding of peptides show that plant-based peptides from pulses or legumes, which include lentils, chickpeas, dried peas and beans, can improve the elasticity, strength and firmness of skin. These agents, and many more, make excellent companion product concepts to accompany topical cosmetics. Thus beauty from within is a concept that can be fulfilled.

9) Sustainability in sourcing botanicals is not an optional idea. It is the absolute bedrock of the future, much of which is upon us now. It surely is the essence of “clean beauty.” Global climate change is radically altering the growth and health of many crops. As many as 35,000 to 50,000 plants globally are endangered, and many of these are cosmetic ingredients. Pollution of soil, water and air in many parts of the world puts pressure on finding clean supply. Companies who wish to enjoy a future need to be proactive in ensuring access to ingredients, rather than waiting for suppliers and extraction companies to show up with solutions. Or not. Cosmetic companies will still need to rely on suppliers to deliver botanicals, but working actively with these entities on solutions to the crop problems of today and tomorrow will help savvy companies to hedge against the devastating losses that non-participant companies will incur. If you want to stick around in the future this way of operating is inevitable. Will your company actively engage in sustaining your critically-needed supply?

No matter how much cosmetic companies can learn from top-tier suppliers, there is no substitute for active participation in supply. Do pitiable poverty wags endanger the supply of agricultural workers? This is often the case. Does a beautiful plantation of schisandra berries operate near a large land plot of injection wells for paint waste? Find out. Does an ashwagandha supplier grow next to cotton fields whose agritoxins drift into the ashwagandha? Do poor, unclean or insufficient warehouse and trucking hygiene impart hazardous microbes into desirable crops during handling? You cannot know if you do not go. Cosmetic companies may not have thought that they would need to engage in this manner when they started out, but the smart ones understand that now they must. A thousand factors can either enhance or compromise botanical safety and purity. Adulteration of botanicals is significantly on the rise and deliberate or inadvertent substitution and addition of incorrect plant parts is common. You cannot know if you do not go. Eco-conscious customers will want to drill deeper into ingredient information than ever before. Are you ready to meet that demand?

Overall the future of the cosmetic industry as it relates to botanical ingredients can be a very bright, whole, and truly beautiful thing. But changing times require changing understanding and changing efforts. In a sustainable system, all parts thrive. The cosmetic success companies of the future will embrace and respond to these changes with significant programs and practices that protect their interests and sources.