A higher concentration of active ingredients, a longer shelf-life, a renewed desire to go back to basics and an appetite for the purity of earthy ingredients has put powders back at the heart of beauty and skincare
THINGS ARE LOOKING GOOD FOR THE BEAUTY INDUSTRY THANKS PARTLY TO THE RE-EMERGENCE OF POWDERS. Once derided as dated in terms of both their formulations and textures, they gave way on skincare counters to a range of liquid products. But the past few years have seen powdered beauty products making a spectacular return in all sections of the beauty aisle. And it
is easy to see why. For one thing, powdered
products are considered eco-friendly alternatives to their liquid-based counterparts. The water-activated formulas are considered lightweight; free of additions such as emulsifiers and chemical preservatives and can easily be customised to suit different skin types. They also produce less waste. For one thing, water-
free manufacturing processes require less energy and the ingredients in powdered products tend to be highly concentrated, giving maximum benefits. The cosmetics industry has reported considerable success
with powdered products across many categories, such as masks, shampoos and conditioners, setting powders, vitamin C, toothpaste and soap. Free of water, thickeners, emulsifiers, aerosols, PEGs, SLS, essential oils, and artificial fragrances, they can represent credible environmentally conscious alternatives that suggest they may well define the future of the beauty industry. Waterless products are formulated with water-soluble ingredients that activate as they are used, which enables
POWDER PERFEC TION
them to exclude the added preservatives and other filler ingredients such as emulsifiers and stabilisers. There’s even an additional commercial advantage. Products in powder form, preservatives or not, tend to generally have a longer shelf life, particularly if they are stored somewhere cool and dry, away from direct sunlight. It’s partly driven by the industry’s switch to cleaner,
more sustainable products. While many of the leading players are taking steps such as using ethically sourced ingredients, others are finding ways to develop waterless formulas that cut down on waste and energy consumption.
THE MAGIC OF MINIPOO As stated already, this is very much back to the future. As long ago as the 1940s, women in particular, were using dry shampoo products such as the oddly-named Minipoo, a powder product featuring fuller’s earth, a clay material, typically consisting of palygorskite or bentonite and able to decolourise oil or other liquids At the time it was marketed as a shampoo ideal for use by women who were perhaps ill and bedbound. Or equally convenient as a ten-minute dry shampoo, convenient for “surprise dates” or ideal for children because no soap would get in their eyes. Popular until the sixties, it even had a memorable advertising slogan: “When you can’t shampoo, Minipoo.” These days, they are championed by brands such as the
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