The agenda will spotlight biotech formulation challenges and consumer trends

in-cosmetics Asia, the leading event in Asia Pacific for personal care ingredients, is poised to deliver its biggest and most dynamic show to date as it returns to BITEC, Bangkok from 4-6 November 2025.

This year’s event will play host to 80% of the world’s top 10 ingredient suppliers, including industry giants like BASF, Croda, Clariant, and Evonik. It is also expected to welcome 90% of the world’s top 10 cosmetic manufacturers, from L’Oréal and P&G to Kenvue and Unilever.

Now in its 16th year, in-cosmetics Asia has tripled in size since its launch, reflecting the growing demand among R&D professionals and formulators for ingredient solutions in the region.

The 2025 edition will feature over 700 exhibitors and welcome thousands of cosmetic scientists, manufacturers, brand owners, and product developers from across Asia Pacific and further afield. Based on the registration alert requests, overall demand for the show is already tracking 273% higher than at this stage in 2024.

Amid market volatility and regulatory shifts in the US, EU and China, global cosmetic brands are increasingly turning to Asia Pacific, with in-cosmetics Asia website traffic from the US, Russia and China up by 105%, 69% and 22%, respectively.

Up to 100 new exhibitors will be joining the event, with traffic to the website’s Exhibitor Directory up by 151% compared to last year; a clear sign of how eager personal care experts are to research and source the latest personal care ingredients.

in-cosmetics Asia 2025 continues to evolve alongside industry trends, with this year’s show placing a strong spotlight on:
• Personalisation and AI-powered beauty
• Shifting consumer behaviours across China, India and Southeast Asia
• Ethical cosmetics and sustainability: with marine-derived ingredients emerging as one of the most searched-for categories on the website.
• Product stability and efficacy: a core focus of this year’s Technical Seminar and Formulation Lab programmes.
• SPF and UV protection: with the latest advances in UV filters, formulation strategies and regional compliance challenges.

Sarah Gibson, Event Director at in-cosmetics Asia, said:

“This year marks an exciting turning point. As beauty brands navigate macroeconomic pressures and shifting consumer priorities, we have seen growing interest in APAC based on its agility, speed to market and endless demographic opportunities. in-cosmetics Asia 2025 will echo that momentum, not just in scale, but in how deeply we engage with the industry’s most pressing needs.

“From the rise of biotech beauty to the growing demand for well-ageing solutions, we’re aligning our programme with the real challenges facing formulators today: matching consumer trends with R&D capabilities, efficacy, ingredient compatibility, UV protection and more. This year’s show will provide attendees a platform to innovate and advance with confidence. There’s much more to come, and we look forward to revealing what’s in store!”

in-cosmetics Asia will take place from 4-6 November 2025 at BITEC, Bangkok. It will be co-located with COSMEX, ASEAN’s leading manufacturing, packaging and OEM/ODM exhibition for personal care and dietary supplement products.

Visitor registration will open in early August. For more information, visit here.

ENDS
Notes to editors: For further information please contact Olivia Evans or Kat Long at the in-cosmetics press office on 020 7240 2444 or in-cosmetics@stormcom.co.uk

About RX
RX is a global leader in events and exhibitions, leveraging industry expertise, data, and technology to build businesses for individuals, communities, and organisations. With a presence in 25 countries across 42 industry sectors, RX hosts approximately 350 events annually. RX is committed to creating an inclusive work environment for all our people. RX empowers businesses to thrive by leveraging data-driven insights and digital solutions. RX is part of RELX, a global provider of information-based analytics and decision tools for professional and business customers. For more information, visit www.rxglobal.com.

About RELX
RELX is a global provider of information-based analytics and decision tools for professional and business customers. RELX serves customers in more than 180 countries and has offices in about 40 countries. It employs more than 36,000 people over 40% of whom are in North America. The shares of RELX PLC, the parent company, are traded on the London, Amsterdam and New York stock exchanges using the following ticker symbols: London: REL; Amsterdam: REN; New York: RELX. *Note: Current market capitalisation can be found at http://www.relx.com/investors

The Research & Development (R&D) and Marketing departments of a cosmetic brand are both groups of highly professional and skilled individuals essential to success… yet their approach is from such different perspectives, issues are bound to arise over time and discussions can sometimes get heated.

How can you get the best performance out of each of your teams particularly when a challenge hits your multi-faceted project? Read on to find out…

The way marketing sees it…

Your marketing team is essential to:

• identify cosmetic product opportunities within the competitive marketplace;
• conduct market research to drive product creation and strategy from the concept stage;
• create effective marketing campaigns to be seen and heard by your target market;
• determine the right price and place for products to be available;
• monitor and grow product sales.

Your marketing department want a great product with outstanding ingredients and performance they can truly boast about so they can get consumers to love your brand as much as they do.

Surely a team of R&D specialists can mix some ingredients to give them what they’ve asked for?

The way R&D sees it…

Your R&D team is essential to:

• create safe, stable and efficacious cosmetic formulations that meet the needs of a brief;
• run regulatory checks and provide compliance information;
• conduct safety, stability and performance tesity and performance testing to prove all theoretical work;
• create an amazing product formula that can be scaled up easily.

Your R&D department have created a fantastic product that has a great shelf life and complies with the rules. Surely a team of marketing specialists can create advertising copy and make it leap off the shelves?

R&D and Marketing red flags

Exactly why do these two groups within the same company conflict? It could be:

• issues with the product development brief: marketing would have researched their target consumers well before finalising the brief, so its little wonder they aren’t keen on making changes to this very important document just because a Chemist says something is not possible, or Regulatory says a rule can’t be broken. However, those are the exact types of situations that commonly arise.

• clarify responsibilities: cosmetic product development is a multi-stage project where crossovers can (and often do) occur between various departments. For example, a formula could be totally inappropriate for certain types of packaging or dispensers – so this needs to be finalised early. Which department is in charge of finding the right packaging? An ingredient list can’t be finalised until a cosmetic formula is signed off, and even then, it’s not a certainty until minimum accepted stability tests have been completed. Who is wearing the risk if changes need to be made for quality reasons that impact printing, just to meet a tight schedule?

• micro-managing or over control: R&D need to respect the consumer knowledge the marketing department has, while marketing needs to respect the ingredient and formulation knowledge the R&D team brings to the table. Issues can occur when R&D tries to tell marketing how to write product copy or what consumers want. They can also occur when marketing tries to tell R&D how to adjust their formulas. Let each department know their strengths and weaknesses, don’t try to tell them how to do their job.

• workflow: certain stages of cosmetic product development can rely heavily on a department or even an individual. If too much pressure is applied, steps can be missed and human error can occur. It may be necessary, especially when multiple projects are under way, to check if there is sufficient experience and team members to prevent this from happening.

• understanding time and the process: conflicts will often arise where someone doesn’t understand the other person’s role well enough, or the required time to complete certain stages of a cosmetic development project. Does the R&D team understand the commercial reasons why a certain performance, claim or even feel is essential? Does the marketing team understand what stability testing is, and why it can’t be rushed? People can’t know what they don’t know; and if these two teams don’t know enough about the challenges that each faces when trying to create and sell a successful cosmetic product, there are sure to be issues down the line.

Ways to help R&D and marketing work better… together!

Try these approaches to smooth things over and get the best possible outcomes for your brand and cosmetic developments:

• consider the product development brief as a tool for communication. Yes, a fair bit of work has gone into its creation, however changes are often necessary. Work together to achieve the desired outcomes knowing these are bound by scientific principles and regulatory restrictions. At the same time, if the brief changes too much, it may no longer have its competitive edge. What ideas can everyone discuss to jump the hurdles rather than let them be roadblocks?

• explain issues using the right language. Explaining the issues with the current brief, or dilemmas with altering the brief, can help people from both sides of the company understand how to find a suitable solution. While scientific or regulatory discussions enable one to speak very specifically, they can make it sound like you’re trying to talk above another person’s intellect. On the other hand, creative explanations can sound like waffle to a pragmatic person. Both R&D and marketing personnel will need to find ways to highlight the issues they face with any changes needed using language the other team will properly understand.

• be open to brainstorming. Marketing are typically creative types; R&D are typically more rational. Brainstorming needs creativity before it can walk a rational path, so brainstorming can often be best started by the marketing team alone. With a few options on the board, the R&D team can then explore which idea has the best scientific (or regulatory) potential, and the teams can meet again.

• be flexible without breaking. You’ve discovered some changes need to be made to the product, the formula or the brief. Which changes can be made without losing sight of the original objective? Are there different ways of approaching a formula, outside of the box your are normally formulating within? Both teams may need to ask themselves: what is the closest acceptable alternative? Discussions could be fruitful once each department has used this approach.

• walk the walk a little. Invite the other department to spend time in yours. This can be tricky – let’s face it, everyone is so busy these days – but even just a small amount of time spent walking in each other’s ‘shoes’ could lead to massive gains in existing and future projects. I’m not suggesting a marketing person should suddenly start creating a cosmetic formula, but if they could watch a complex regulatory search get conducted, or see a failed stability test, they may suddenly have a greater appreciation for what is involved. Similarly, a chemist who gets to see market survey results and competitor analysis will better understand exactly why the brief has certain requests. When there is better understanding, teams are more congruent and resolutions more forthcoming.

You’re all on the one team

A market leading cosmetic product needs both a fantastic formula and effective marketing campaign. Achieving both is impossible when your R&D and marketing departments are more like opponents than teammates. Use the tips in this article to identify where issues have occurred in the past and implement strategies for solutions to overcome them in the future.

The results will be amazing products that truly get noticed, with the sales results and happy consumers you’ve been hoping for.

Happy formulating!

Feeling inspired?

Then why not visit one of the in-cosmetics events around the world?

BROWSE SHOWS

Research and development  can be a costly investment for companies – so you may as well make it work for you… So how can your organisation not only save on their R&D expenses but actually make money from each development? Belinda Carli, the in-cosmetics Group technical advisor shares some secrets…

The answer is three-fold:

• Avoiding costly mistakes,
• Hastening development time and
• Maximising innovation;

All of the above can be accomplished by enhancing the skills of your R&D team through quality distance education.

Avoid costly mistakes

Not all ingredients are compatible with other ingredients; for example, did you know:

• Certain active ingredients are only compatible within very specific pH limits, and this varies depending on the type of preparation it is?
• Various gums and thickeners are not compatible with certain pH levels, in the presence of charged compounds and have very specific processing requirements to be effective?
• The pH required by your preservative can inactivate the performance of other ingredients, and vice versa?
• Some emulsifiers have charge, form and ingredient incompatibilities depending on how they are used and what they are used in conjunction with?
• The polarity of lipids can affect product stability, particularly when certain combinations of lipid soluble actives, performance enhancers or aesthetic agents are used?

Do you or your R&D team know how to check for ingredient incompatibilities and formulate around these issues?

Hasten development time

Quality education has multiple benefits to organisations; good ingredient selection means:

• Time savings during raw material procurement – saving time means saving money, no matter how you look at it
• Better quality samples both aesthetically and stability – again saving on multiple rounds of sample development to achieve the needs of a brief and ensure a good shelf life

Good education is essential to achieve effective ingredient selection – the savings on one project alone could be equal to or greater than the cost of enhancing staff education. However, learning effective ingredient selection will work across multiple developments – resulting in multiple cost savings for an organisation.

Maximise innovation

Finally, and most importantly, good education can mean making more money off each development. Having highly skilled staff that have been specifically trained in investigating and incorporating innovations into formulations means revolutionary, high performing products can be created to excite your target market. Having great performance with a strong point of difference are 2 important factors in any brand leading product to maximise the return on your development investments.

Obtaining quality education via distance/online has further benefits to organisations:

• Staff will see it as a benefit of employment to have their education paid for
• Staff wanting to advance in their career can enhance their education and resume by attaining specialised formulation training
• Study can be done at a time and place that suits the learner at work or home around their work or life commitments
• Learners can start at any time and revisit lectures or learning throughout their study with support from highly qualified and experienced trainers

The Institute of Personal Care Science are the global leaders in online and distance education for the personal care industry. Various programs exist from beginners through to Diploma training including specialty training in cosmeceuticals, sunscreens, colour and organic formulations. Visit  the Institute of Personal Care Science for more information or email them