We know that the beauty industry has a plastic problem, but did you know that it is also guzzling huge amounts of water? Moisturiser and serum is typically made of 70-90% distilled water – which is a pretty scary thought when you consider that only 3% per cent of the earth’s water supply is now accessible freshwater (the rest is trapped in glaciers and snowfields). In fact, the global water crisis is getting so critical that two-thirds of the world’s population may face water shortages by 2025, according to a warning issued by the World Wildlife Fund.
On a more positive note, innovation in skincare never sleeps and scientists within the industry are often primed to unearth a solution to a problem. Researchers at the University of East Anglia have done just that by developing new technology that turns water- and oil-based beauty products, such as moisturiser, into small dry pieces of confetti-like paper.
“We take the water out by jetting the liquid out in a very thin liquid jet, which dries really quickly,” Professor Sheng Qi, a Professor of Pharmaceutical Material Science and Technology at the university who headed up the project, explains. “The solid residues form very thin fibres which land on each other and form this material, which feels like a piece of paper.”
All you then need to do is add a drop of water to the paper-like disc to instantly hydrate it. Et voila, you have a creamy moisturiser.
The waterless beauty space is growing in popularity so you may have encountered other innovative just-add-water formulas. But, crucially, they work on a slightly different premise. Take PLUS, for example. As the first-of-its-kind dissolvable body wash, it means you simply add water to lather up and wash the sachet down the plug.
Likewise, you drop Mono Skincare's tablet into the reusable bottle, fill it with water at home, and your new skincare serum magically appears before your eyes.
Like the powdered beauty products that came before it, a ‘paper’ moisturiser or shampoo would dramatically reduce both its carbon footprint. Unlike liquids, it doesn’t require as much fuel to transport it as it's not as heavy. “98 per cent of the water in products like moisturiser, sun-cream, shampoo and conditioner can be removed,” Professor Qi adds.
Paper moisturisers also don’t need to be housed in plastic packaging to prevent leakages – an added bonus, given 120 billion units of packaging are produced every year by the global cosmetics industry. There's also no need for preservatives – in fact, this technology improves a product's shelf life.
But crucially where paper beauty products differ from their powdered predecessors is that they don't use heat for drying. “Most of the industrial processes for creating a dry powdered product, like powdered soap, dry through processes like spray-drying, which uses quite a lot of energy and heat,” says Professor Qi. “And if you have expensive and delicate ingredients, like peptides and proteins, they are very sensitive to heat. So if you dry them at a high temperature, you will lose quite a significant percentage of their activity, which could be quite costly for producers.”
In other words, paper beauty products are taking the waterless conversation up a notch. While the first paper moisturiser, sun cream or shampoo is yet to launch, these game-changers may soon be just a click of the mouse away.
For more from Fiona Embleton, GLAMOUR's Acting Associate Beauty Director, follow her on @fiembleton.
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