Let’s begin with what’s changing in the beauty sector. Why is science suddenly coming to the fore?
We are emerging from a period when innovation was solely focused on branding and market positioning. We should be very grateful for this dramatic proliferation of brand stories because we were able to access consumers that were previously not being spoken to. But while that phase was incredibly important, it lowered the entry barriers so that anyone could launch a brand.
There were tremendous positives to this, but the downside was that it created a lot of noise and confusion for consumers. Consequently, we’re starting to enter a period of discernment. Consumers are asking: ‘What is different about this product?’, ‘What is different about this ingredient?’, ‘Why should I spend my money on this versus something else?’ This discernment is opening the door to science-driven innovation, and Arcaea is playing a huge role in that.
Can you name a couple of problems that biotechnology and science could help solve in the beauty industry?
I will talk through some of the issues on the horizon, but I also want to acknowledge the packaging challenge. I think there's a lot of content and research there, and I believe it’s a real issue, but at this moment, Arcaea is not addressing the packaging problem. The issue that we are addressing is around ingredients and ingredient-sourcing.
Since the origins of this industry, we have made our ingredients by taking something out of something else. We squeeze it out of a plant, we take it out of an animal, we convert it from petrochemicals. This extractive relationship is what the industry was built on. It created the ingredients, the ingredients created the formulations, the formulations created the brands, and the brands created the stories that we know.
When we look at where the industry is going, there is a desire to move away from petrochemicals. The shift away from animals is already happening and so is the shift towards plant-based sourcing. But we cannot sustain an industry built on plant-based sourcing alone. If one multinational were to shift their entire supply chain over to plant-based sourcing, the earth could not grow enough plants just for that multinational. We need to change how we make our ingredients, and this is where biotechnology can really make a difference.
