From Novelty to Necessity: Navigating the Valley of Death in Colour Cosmetics

Rodrigo Scopel

This talk looks at why so many interesting new materials in colour cosmetics never make it beyond the lab. Even when something performs beautifully on paper, it often struggles once regulation, scale, and real consumer use come into play.

Using the development of a product collection built around a new black colourant derived from algae as a real example, the talk explores what it actually takes to move an unconventional material through regulatory approval and into products people can trust and use. It focuses on regulation as a central part of the innovation process, rather than an afterthought, and on how materials must be designed for real-world constraints as well as performance.

At its core, the talk is about how innovation in beauty moves from novelty to necessity, and why that translation is where most materials succeed or fail.