Building on the success achieved at the latest edition of Cosmopack Bologna, which saw the unveiling of the Alma Lux collection: a voyage into the heart of southern Italy, celebrating authentic traditions, shared moments and memories that are passed down from generation to generation.
Founded in 2002 from David Chant’s intuition as Mascara Plus, it became a leading player in global beauty by combining creativity, high quality and swift time-to-market. Behind its ability to create products that set – rather than simply follow – trends, lies a strong commitment to innovation, performance and sensoriality, as well as a forward-looking vision of make up, which today represents one of the most dynamic segments in the cosmetic industry, driven by a high level of formulation complexity – a field of advanced experimentation – in which research and development play a crucial role in creating products that successfully combine aesthetics, sustainability, functionality and technological innovation.
How important is innovation for MPlus Cosmetics?
Over the last 20 years, MPlus Cosmetics has converted expertize into innovation, placing research and development at the core of each and every project. Thanks to its distinctive know-how and extensive product portfolio, the company combines performance, sensoriality and versatility to offer a vast array of customization options – from textures to ingredients to actives and shades – so as to deliver high-performing, custom-made solutions. A driver of the evolution of make up, innovation is now largely focused on optimizing sensorial and functional performance while keeping up high standards of safety, stability and sustainability. Technology plays a central role, both when developing high-performance formulations using biotech, and in the integration of functional actives that are created to enhance skill well-being, moving towards an increasingly “skin first” approach.
MPlus Cosmetics – always the trendsetter, never the follower. As a trendsetting company, what are the most relevant trends at the moment?
Among the most significant trends is the skinification of make up. This is where ingredients typically associated with skincare are integrated into make-up formulations. In the case of eye products, this approach translates into the use of strengthening actives, peptides, and vitamin derivatives, which require careful evaluation of formulation compatibility and thorough safety testing. Another important trend is the streamlining of INCI lists, with a reduction in the number of ingredients and greater formulation transparency, in response to evolving market expectations.
The choice of ingredients is a vital element in the formulation process. Innovaction makes it possible, here too, to strike the right balance among sensoriality, performance, and sustainability…
Absolutely! Technological innovation in R&D takes place when raw materials that are high-performing and functional are brought into play. Plant-based structuring waxes, lightweight oils that are easily spread, alternative silicone elastomers, biopolymers and advanced acrylic polymers are now all among the key ingredients available to formulators. The selection of raw materials is increasingly based on measurable performance parameters, such as adhesion, pay-off, feel and long-lasting wear.
In mascara, for instance, the purest carbon black, coated pigments and waxes with a high melting-point can offer color intensity, film structure and long-term stability. Encapsulation and coating technologies also mean sensitive ingredients – strengthening actives or lash-conditioning agents – can be added without compromising its stability.
From a product category perspective, foundations, concealers and primers all require increasingly sophisticated formulations. These guarantee film uniformity, skin adhesion, and long-lasting performance without any sort of occlusive effect. Fluid and cushion textures rely on advanced emulsion systems – often characterized by a high percentage of volatile phases – and balanced by structuring agents and rheology modifiers for the purpose of stability and ease of application. In anhydrous products such as lipsticks ,the R&D challenge lies in wax crystallization control and optimization of the pigment dispersion.
MPlus Cosmetics will be at MakeUp in Paris (17-18th of June) at the Carrousel du Louvre (Booth K5), with a new collection.