Looking forward to the frontier of life sciences, can we rewrite the tide of the beauty industry?
Source | Poly beauty
Author | With the continuous growth of the cosmetics market, the cosmetics industry is no longer limited to its original appearance, and is increasingly crossing the border upstream and downstream, becoming a veritable "big value industry".
Especially in recent years, with the popularity of efficacy and ingredient concepts, it has also driven the track of medical beauty and oral beauty to become a blue ocean, further pushing the basic research of life sciences such as skin science and regenerative medicine to the front of cosmetics R&D and promotion.
Is it possible to build a bridge between life science research and the cosmetics industry in the future? What are the current frontier breakthroughs in life sciences that can be expected to empower the cosmetics industry?
On September 20, Professor Xia Qingyou, Distinguished Professor of the National Important Talent Program and Director of the Biological Research Center of Southwest University, delivered a keynote speech on "Prospects for Breakthroughs in the Frontier of Life Sciences" at the 2024 China Big Beauty Industry Annual Conference and the 12th Jumei Conference, hosted by Jumei and sponsored by Bloomage Biotech. From the perspective of an expert who has been rooted in cutting-edge technology for decades, Professor Xia explained the relationship between life science and the beauty industry to the industry, looked forward to the future technological trend of the beauty industry, and restored the mystery and wonder of the beauty of life.
In his speech, he mentioned:
Hello everyone! Today's presentation is very challenging, and all the reports I have given in the past have been based on data and results to illustrate scientific issues. Today, standing on the podium of the cosmetics industry event, I will discuss the combination of life science and beauty industry with all the elites, which is the first time for me. As a scientific researcher, I do perceive that new concepts and technologies in cosmetics are being updated and iterated so quickly. A few years ago, we noticed that a cutting-edge technology might make a difference, so we began to expand research in this field, but the first batch of graduate students has not yet graduated, and cosmetics-related products have already been launched. My graduate students are very miserable when choosing a topic, but today I came to your forum and found it really interesting, so I will simply let my students choose a research topic in the beauty industry in the future (laughs).
From the underlying logic
Talk about the core pursuit of the beauty industry
What is Life Sciences? Life Sciences is a field of study in which organisms and their life phenomena are studied. The structure, function, behavior, origin, evolution, and interrelationships of life. No matter how rapidly the technological iterations of life sciences and the changes in frontier fields may be, these are goals that have not changed in this discipline for hundreds of years. Therefore, Xia (Founding Partner and Editor-in-Chief of Jumei) gave me a lot of challenging topics, such as which technologies may lead the future of the beauty industry, to answer this question, we have to return to another question: what is the core pursuit of the beauty industry? I often tell my students that technology is like a means of transportation, and to make a choice, you must first ask where you are going and understand where you are going. So, "what is the core pursuit of the beauty industry?" "Life sciences and technologies are constantly changing, such as synthetic chemistry in the early days, multi-omics, regenerative medicine, peptides, glycoscience, etc., but the underlying logic is basically the same. I believe that the logic at the bottom of the beauty industry should not be easily changed.
Life sciences are people-centered and technology-oriented. In the same way, the beauty industry is also people-centered, and the goal in the field of skin care is how to make human beings more beautiful and improve health and quality of life.
Life scientist
How do you look at the beauty industry?
Skin problems have been the subject of long-term concern of researchers. From the perspective of life scientists, the skin is the largest organ in the human body (the largest in weight and surface area), and its functions mainly include barrier protection, prevention of water loss, temperature regulation, sensation, immune defense, endocrine, etc. It is not difficult to see that these are the fundamental questions of life science research. I also focus on the skin, but the focus is more on the perspective of a basic researcher, such as the mechanistic aspect. Most of the focus of cosmetics companies is what kind of technology can be implemented and what kind of products can be made. Looking at the mechanism and making the product, the two are actually at two very far ends.
1. The intersection with the beauty industry: beauty biology makes us think from the beginning, why should biology be beautiful? In the animal and plant kingdom, it is for propagation, that is, the so-called reproduction, by attracting the opposite sex, brushing the sense of existence, in animal mating or plant seed dispersal to gain an advantage. Including the mane of a male lion, the beautiful feathers of birds, bees attracted by bright flowers, and small birds attracted by beautiful fruits. This is the most basic question that is often discussed in CNS articles, and these are the biological properties of beauty. In fact, most animals are the first to look for objects, not by appearance, but by smell, so there is a saying called smelly similarity. Just as cats and dogs rely on smell to attract the opposite sex, humans were the first to do the same. Of course, for human society, we are not only animals, but also the heritage of human civilization, which is a kind of cultural gene, which is also the difference between humans and animals. Therefore, the development of beauty problems to this day goes far beyond the problem of mate selection or the sense of existence, and the reasons also include social and cultural factors, health and hygiene needs, natural instincts, biological motivations, psychological and self-expression needs, aesthetic pursuits, social interactions, religious beliefs, etc. These factors cover the question of why beauty is the way it is in contemporary society, and what are its underlying needs. Therefore, the biological motivation of contemporary beauty far exceeds physiological needs, which is also the particularity of the beauty industry and the importance of people-oriented product design ideas.
Today's beauty industry is saying that it is necessary to move closer to medicine. However, medicine is to cure diseases and save people, and in essence, it does not have many cultural, artistic and social "components". However, the beauty industry is just the opposite, and its biggest feature is that it can combine the underlying logic of science and technology and cultural issues. 2. The direction of the exploration of the beauty industry: although the cosmetics industry has made great contributions to meeting the self-confidence of users, other aspects still need to be optimized. Cosmetology is not like a medical diagnosis that can give an effective treatment plan. For example, the average life expectancy of human beings is gradually increasing, thanks to advances in medical care and the achievements of the medical community. However, the benefits and effects that cosmetics can bring through daily use still need to be explored and expanded. Including the emotional function in biology that I just talked about, I personally think it is still in its infancy. The beauty industry contains complex needs, culture, and psychology, which also need to be supported by science and technology. From the perspective of demand, when a product is used, it has a real effect, which produces a sense of gain, and this sense of gain is the direction that I think the future beauty industry needs to strive for. In terms of culture, it is highly correlated with the environmental, social, national culture and beauty needs of Asia in which we live, which can be exemplified from the following perspectives. (1) Why we are so interested in fighting wrinkles, first of all, because Chinese and Asians live a long life, and the skin's repair ability is weakened after the age of forty or fifty. (2) Why do we need to control oil, sunscreen, and new concepts such as vitreous skin, which are also related to the big living environment and pursuit. (3) Why don't you like black, because rich Asians don't bask in the sun. It can be seen that the beauty needs are particularly complex, and the new needs are worthy of more scientific researchers and industry elites to study and solve them together. 3. Why does the beauty industry need to find answers from life sciences? And why should these specific needs of anti-aging, health, and whitening be answered according to the principles of life science? This is based on the underlying logic of physiology and pathology, and it can also empower the diversified needs of the beauty industry. Cosmetics companies will make a difference in the future, and the beauty industry will change, and it is necessary to grasp the underlying logic of life sciences and find a basis and starting point.
Can life sciences
Rewrite the tide of the beauty industry?
At present, the product and technology pursuit of the beauty industry has been extremely advanced. So, what are the most cutting-edge technologies in life sciences? What can empower the beauty industry? 1. The concept of cosmetics development is consistent with that of medicineFrom the current situation of big data search, genome, proteomics, peptides, epigenetics, regenerative medicine, exosomes and other life science-related disciplines are directly related to the beauty industry. From the perspective of scientific researchers, these fields are at the forefront of the development of life sciences today, and the opportunity for the combination of the two is very large.
It is worth affirming that I searched for the elements of cosmetics development from big data, and found that they include safety, effectiveness, adaptability, formulation science, user experience, regulations and standards, sustainability, innovation and cost-effectiveness, which are actually exactly the same as the current medical and medical product development in terms of concept and logic.
So, what makes a good skincare product? The key is effectiveness, safety, and a sense of gain. This criterion is also very similar to that of medicine. For example, hypertension, a common disease, can be divided into more than 20 subtypes, 7 categories of drugs, and hundreds of different treatment options from the cause and pathology of hypertension. This is the height that the current appearance products cannot reach. If we move closer to medicine, anti-aging, repair sensitive skin and other needs, the beauty industry should also provide many solutions in the future. At present, the concept of the beauty industry is the same as that of medicine, which is already worthy of affirmation, so the standards implemented in the future should be gradually the same. In my opinion, the boundary between the beauty industry, skin care and medicine will become weaker and weaker, and there will be more and more overlapping parts.