16 PANEL DISCUSSION
GLOBAL INGREDIENT INNOVATION TRENDS
Tim Probert (TP): The first question is a simple one. What do you see as the top key theme in global cosmetics at the moment, from the ingredient side? Stefan Liebig (SL): Biotechnology. Lucie Couturier (LC): We are crossing more and more into the frontiers of medicine. We talk about regenerative skin care. Longevity. A deep dive into biology. Medicine. To me, this is a very clear trend coming ever more into cosmetics. Joan Attia (JA): Longevity. But added to that is wellbeing – how to age well - not just look well - with a healthy life. Dominik Stuhlmann (DS): Sustainability. I also agree with the perspective that we are becoming more like pharma and medicine, in the impact of the compounds we use. Marc Bañolas (MS): Longevity, sustainability, biotechnology, yes. And putting them all together to increasing our understanding about the ecosystem of the skin, and its behaviour, to find new pathways.
TP: People often say there is a convergence between cosmetics, medicine, pharma, and that skin care is becoming more like dermatology. From a cosmetic ingredients point of view, what does this look like? DS: It’s a difficult thing because the molecules may become too expensive for the cosmetic industry. I’m not sure we will want to do really complex things with six
Tim Probert – Editor, Personal Care Magazine
At PCHi 2026 in Hangzhou, China, editor Tim Probert moderated a panel discussion on ingredient innovation. Participants were Evonik hair care & cleansing technical manager Stefan Liebig; Gattefossé actives R&D leader Lucie Couturier; Lucas Meyer Cosmetics head of global R&D Joan Attia; Symrise skin & hair efficacy global innovation director Dominik Stuhlmann & Provital global marketing & sales director Marc Bañolas
sulphur molecules and five nitrogen molecules. Of course, we will still need to
find compounds that have high impact. Nature has a lot of them already there. We can look there, and we might need to optimize them. So it might start from a molecule from nature, it might be a derivative. LC: This trend towards dermatology is driving us to understand the skin more deeply for cosmetic purposes. It’s about the omics, like proteomics. Thanks to omics data, we can access new technologies as well as analyses.
TP: What is driving this convergence with dermatology? Is it from the consumer, or is it in the lab, or is it both? JA: It’s not totally linked to ingredient molecules, it’s also our approach to research. We have better understanding about the skin, and different types of skin, such as
PERSONAL CARE MAGAZINE May 2026
Asian skin and other ethnicities, and how it is different from Caucasian skin. That is why skin care has been moving closer to a more dermatological approach.
TP: Stefan, in terms of hair care, is there a similar path? Is it becoming more dermatological? SL: Yes, definitely, and of course skinification of scalp care and hair care is nothing new. I think we are testing substances
better. Earlier and more broadly, not only active substances but also functional. We test their impact on skin, on hair. It’s impressive to see how detailed we are able do these things compared to five or ten years ago.
TP: And this is being driven by your customers and personal care consumers? SL: The exciting part about personal care is that everybody is using it.
Everybody uses these ingredients, and so everybody wants to see effective studies. People want to have the
combination of deep scientific evidence and a good feeling about using products. It’s a very exciting time right now, when you can really connect with more data.
TP: How are you using AI for product development? LC: From a formulation point of view, we can use AI for stability testing and accelerating the results for which, in the past, we could wait for three months. Using a combination of data and
scientific articles, we can also use AI to predict possible interesting pathways for some types of ingredient. JA: At Clariant, we are developing our own AI tools for our R&D. For me, it’s about productivity. Sharing knowledge, and challenging our
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