Until recently the beauty industry could be split into two camps. In one corner, there’s high-tech, lab-made contenders – like Estee Lauder Advanced Night Repair Serum. In the other corner, Mother Nature and plant oils. Both sides have their converts but now it seems, we have a different option.
That’s thanks to a new raft of biotech skincare, which recreates endangered or over-consumed natural ingredients in a petri dish. These lab-grown actives (also known as ‘biosynthetic’) are 100% naturally derived. The key difference is their almost zero environmental impact, and the fact that some are scientifically edited to make them more high performing in skincare (for example, the size of the molecules may be modified so they penetrate the skin better).
“Consumers don’t want a trade-off between efficacy and sustainability, they want both science-driven and consciously-created formulas,” says Catherine Gore, president of skincare brand Biossance. “Biotechnology achieves that by reinventing ingredients in a lab that are proven to be more effective for the skin and may otherwise be environmentally harmful to source.”
Biotechnology could be the game-changer for natural beauty lovers – and, more crucially, Planet Earth.
