Key Takeaways:
Formulators and manufacturers are leaning hard into artificial intelligence (AI), next-gen analytics, and alternative delivery systems to advance research and development efforts in beauty. The goal? To shift brands and consumers towards a hyperpersonalized, data-led, super sustainable, and ultraconvenient future.
Tech start-ups, consulting firms, major beauty brands, minor beauty brands, contract manufacturers, and suppliers gathered at Cosmetic 360 in Paris, France, last month to showcase the next wave of beauty innovations set to define the industry in the coming years.
L'Oréal spotlighted how longevity will need solid skin science investment, Estée Lauder highlighted the critical value of start-ups, Chanel showcased the importance of ecodesign for beauty innovation, and a plethora of European start-ups pushed tech-forward innovation for the category. Under the 2025 theme "predictions," where beauty is said to be shifting into its predictive era, a host of smart product concepts, R&D tools, and scientific findings were spotlighted.
BeautyMatter hit the show floor to uncover the biggest trends and advances defining beauty innovation today.
AI Beauty: Formula Predictions, Carbon Accounting & Hyperpersonalization
AI was a key theme throughout the tradeshow, particularly in the Startup Zone, where a number of small tech firms presented new software and tools for beauty.
“With AI, the possibilities are endless in skincare,” said Cristina Oprean, co-founder and Direct-General at French AI startup Bleu AI. For brands and formulators, AI can significantly speed up the ingredient selection process during formulation, reduce testing time, and predict blends for skin health, Oprean told BeautyMatter. “A task that could have taken days, hours, months, is now possible within a few hours or a few days,” she said.
And the democratization of AI means use is evolving and expanding fast. For beauty, this means there is now a very real promise in achieving hyperpersonalization and carving out a future where consumers may eventually hold all their own personal AI data on one device and use this to define beauty routines, well-being choices, and purchase with precision, she said.
Karen Ho, co-founder and CEO of UK AI-powered formulation platform Gravel AI, agreed that the power AI can bring to beauty is phenomenal, particularly on the formulator side.
“The iterative process in formulation takes too long,” Ho said. “And then it is almost impossible to understand all the chemical properties, all the permutations of formulas, in the market. But with AI, you can shorten that a lot.” Gravel AI's platform, for example, lets formulators analyze thousands of existing formulas—comparing chemical properties, functions, and effects—to identify ideal blends and predict outcomes, ahead of in-lab development. It works as a “starting point” for cosmetic chemists and formulators who then bring in human expertise to final product development, she said. “The possibility of creating so many new products, so quickly, compared to the pre-AI era, is exciting.”
Cecile Guyot, Communications Manager at French cosmetics software specialist Coptis, agreed that the speed at which new innovation pathways can be found is significant but AI also cuts down lead times by saving significant time on the documentation side of new product development—scribing data from briefings or scanning vast pages of documents at any one stage of the process, for example.
AI can also lead to “customizable guidance” from in-house or in-lab data, Guyot said, though this requires structured and filtered data that also integrates human expertise—“smart data.” And obtaining this smart data remains a huge challenge in a world where many beauty companies still don't know what type of data and insights they are sitting on or even where to begin, so it remains key, she said, to get data “well organized” first.
Quentin Carayon, CEO of French AI-powered environmental analysis start-up Fairglow, agreed, adding that data quality is especially important when using AI for Lifecycle Analysis (LCA), carbon mapping, or ascertaining water and land use for final products or ingredients.
Today, Carayon said 98% of the 30,000+ INCI cosmetic ingredients have no data on environmental emissions or impact. “There's not an average, not a median, not even a proxy—you don't have anything,” he said. What Fairglow is doing, therefore, is using AI to create a database on emission factors for all available cosmetic ingredients to provide visibility for formulators, manufacturers, brands, and even suppliers on ingredients, blends, and final products. And while this tool now enables industry to measure and communicate environmental impact, as well as iterate to improve outcomes, Carayon said AI accuracy relies on starting with “the best possible data.”
“There is zero inaccuracy based on our use of AI,” he explained, but inaccuracies can come from the lack of traceability and general state of the world. “It's not financial accounting; this is carbon accounting, and you can't know for sure.”
Precision Diagnostics: Epigenetics, Molecular Signatures & Force Mapping
One aspect of beauty innovation gaining important ground is diagnostics, as industry players push to integrate high-tech analytics to better understand consumer skin types, hair types, body odor, and active ingredient impact.
French R&D and biomechanics firm BioMeca is using atomic force microscopy (AFM), for example, to study the mechanical properties of skin cells and tissues on a nanoscale. The company's device maps and analyzes various fibroblast cells to understand collagen fiber networks and how they respond to ingredients and formulas, enabling the measurement of “new parameters,” said Julien Chlasta, founder and CEO of BioMeca.
And quantifying parameters at such nanoscale, Chlasta said, is increasingly important in beauty, as movements like longevity build and require more precise science to back claims. “Obtaining proof is definitely the biggest challenge in skin analysis today.”
Miruna Vasile, Scientific Operations Manager at UK biotech start-up Mitra Bio, said the fact that advanced skin analysis remains “so new” brings advantages and disadvantages. But as devices, tools, and software evolve further, beauty brands should increasingly be able to develop targeted formulas for specific skin needs or trends, like longevity, Vasile said.
Mitra Bio's noninvasive strip technology for epigenetic skin analysis, for example, can replace biopsies in clinical trials, enabling far quicker assessments during the product testing and claims phase. “We provide the biological age as well as a report of the genes that show any changes, in terms of the DNA methylation pathways,” she explained. “... I think it's very exciting to be able to use a product and actually have the evidence to back up how the product works, particularly on an epigenetic level, because at the end of the day, the DNA won't lie.”
French medical biotech start-up SenseBioTek is also deepening skin analysis by detecting and analyzing volatile organic compounds on the skin's surface using electronic nose technology. The goal is to understand how changes to body odor relate to mood, metabolism, and health or disease, as well as how skin and bodycare products impact these, ultimately developing a “molecular signature” for each consumer, explained Nabil Moumane, founder and CEO of SenseBioTek.
“Today, we are able to collect the molecules from the surface of the skin, safely and with reproducibility," Moumane said. And with this technology already being successfully applied in the medical field, for early detection of diseases like cancer, he said application in skincare opens up significant opportunities. Understanding and quantifying the molecular impact of a topical product, for example, can empower developers to iterate and innovate more precisely and create highly personalized formulas.
In the future, the founder said it's even possible to imagine this electronic nose technology being used directly in stores by shoppers themselves, to identify suitable products according to the molecular needs of their skin.
Smart Delivery: Nomad Beauty, Blends 4.0 & Sensory Sustainability
Consumers are clearly looking for increased involvement in beauty—selecting specific ingredients and blending final formulas based on personal needs and preferences—particularly in skincare.
According to custom cosmetic manufacturers, beauty is entering a “nomad beauty” era in which formats are largely waterless, compact, and mixed just before use by consumers, offering convenience and the ability to personalize even the most active of formulas.
French independent cosmetics laboratory Effervescence Lab, for example, has developed cosmetic “pearls” from different active ingredients that simply need to be mixed with hot water to create a cream. The solid pearls carry different actions, functions, and fragrances, enabling consumers to pick and choose blends according to daily needs, said Louis Hibon, Admin and Finance Lead at Effervescence Lab.
“What's really interesting is that it's a bespoke experience,” Hibon said, and that these pearls can be used “in a very nomadic way.” This is increasingly important for beauty consumers who are busy and on-the-go but not willing to compromise on customized products designed for them, he said.
Similarly, French custom cosmetics manufacturer Lessonia showcased powdered vitamin C pastilles and sachets that need to be mixed with water to create a highly potent serum, offering a convenient and stable alternative to premixed blends. Léa Duteil, Cosmetics Sales Manager at Lessonia, said these concepts are also aligned with industry's push towards lowering environmental footprint and impact while maintaining efficacy. “We have a lot of customers—across mass and premium—who want to innovate and create better.”
Caroline Dechatre, Commercial Manager at Alvend Laboratoire—another French custom cosmetics manufacturer that is part of the Nature et Stratégie Groupe—said expectations around eco-beauty products are certainly higher than ever.
“A lot of people think organic formulas are not very fun, are white or beige, and don't really smell good—like lavender or basic plants,” Dechatre said. But Alvend Laboratoire has developed a bright red, strawberry-scented shower jelly containing pearls, for example, made using only COSMOS-certified ingredients, proving the possibilities in organic.
French plant fiber specialist JRS Rettenmaier also showcased a dissolvable shaving foam tablet made using natural ingredients that dissolves directly onto the skin when water is added. The tablet turns into a cream, providing instant individual doses that can be doubled or tripled according to consumer needs.
“It fits into this trend of solids; solids for the future,” said Yasmine Zouaoui, Sales and Regulatory Manager at JRS Rettenmaier. And this, Zouaoui said, is being driven by consumer interest in and desire for more environmentally friendly products, as well as by European and global regulations pushing for greener change.
French deep-tech start-up Frozmetics is looking to drive an even wider beauty change—beyond greener, cleaner, and customized—taking final products off bathroom shelves and into another part of the home. The cryocosmetics specialist has developed natural, active formulas designed for freezer storage.
“The idea was to solve some of the challenges that are faced by the cosmetic industry, in terms of performance. And performance has three aspects: efficacy, safety, and sensoriality,” said Philippe Andres, dermatologist, co-founder, and Medical Director of Frozmetics.
The company has proven that even the most sensitive actives, like vitamin C, maintain stability and efficacy longer—for up to six months—when designed for the freezer. Each formula is manufactured shelf-stable until opening, Andres explained, but designed so that consumers can mix personalized blends just ahead of freezing, meaning even traditionally incompatible ingredients like vitamin C and retinol can be combined because freezing temperatures stabilize everything.
Looking ahead, the company wants to partner with a large-scale beauty brand to upscale and normalize its patent-protected frozen cosmetics concept—a concept that consumers seem open to, based on focus group results, said Andres. It is also looking to bring the concept into dermocosmetics and medical skincare, areas in which it is already engaged, working to develop topicals for oncology supportive care. “What is unifying us as researchers is really the goal to bring something to market that would really have a benefit,” the co-founder said.
