Digitalisation in cosmetics – what drives it

The driving forces behind advancing digitalisation can be summarised in key words across all sectors:

• Acceleration
• Accuracy
• Control
• Information processing
• Personalisation
• Relief

These factors contribute significantly to economic growth, to an increase in living standards, but also to the growing use of global resources. What impact do these factors have on cosmetics?

Acceleration

Typical acceleration is provided by merchandise management systems that work with barcodes for sales items, or QR codes that link to Internet pages in adverts. These aids are in retail and increasingly by cosmetics institutes.
Since the Covid-19 pandemic, manufacturers have increasingly been offering cosmetic products digitally and in parallel to end customers online – to the detriment of beauty salons and their expert advice. The trend has accelerated further since the pandemic.
Advertising via the Internet and social media is easy to establish, up-to-date, cost-effective and reaches more than just the readers of cosmetics trade journals – with the result that some trade journals in Germany have recently had to give up.

Accuracy

Direct data transmission for advertising, sales and payment also reduces errors. This also applies to measurements in skin analysis, which are now processed wirelessly on the PC. Probes for skin moisture, transepidermal water loss, skin surface fat (sebum) and skin elasticity are standard equipment in the institutes.
Today, the experienced view of the skin condition is increasingly giving way to the precise numerical values of the devices. The accuracy is increasing and the measured values can be combined with a suitable camera that compares the skin condition before and after one or more treatments.
Before and after images are often part of product advertising – including manipulation through digital image processing. Sometimes there is no difference at all, speculating that the mere existence of a comparison will generate the desired attention and prevent a liability case from occurring.
The measurement data from the skin analysis can be linked to products, recommendations and prices using stored software. Automation makes it easier for institutes to acquire new customers, who sometimes trust a device more than the experience of the sales staff.

Control

Real-time control of business operations is a side effect of merchandise management systems and allows extrapolations and target planning into the future. Control is also an important component of sustainable cosmetic treatment with devices and preparations.
Particularly in the case of modular preparations, in which various biochemical mechanisms can be stimulated by adding active ingredients (serums) to a cream base, the skin analysis comparison is crucial in order to determine the optimum skin care for problem skin in individual cases. The relevant measurement parameters are tracked digitally over time. Acne and rosacea customers and patients, for example, benefit from this approach. Finished products, which almost inevitably contain unsuitable substances, are omitted.
In many cases it is possible to phase out pharmaceuticals, including their side effects. One example is the response to γ-linolenic acid supplements in atopic skin, which indicates a frequently occurring enzyme defect in the metabolism of essential fatty acids.

Information processing

Good treatment results require the practitioners and counsellors to have solid training, the ability to understand complex physiological relationships and to obtain and categorise the necessary information and data from the internet. Reliable sources help with this.
Even the INCI coding (International Nomenclature of Cosmetic Ingredients) is often puzzling. Even experienced physicians and chemists are overwhelmed by it and end consumers, for whom the system was designed, understand it the least.
To find out which substances are really involved, you can consult the EU's Cosmetic Ingredient Database, or Cosing for short. However, anyone who thinks they will find comprehensive information on cosmetic ingredients there will be disappointed. The substance properties listed are spartan, imprecise and, apart from a German (machine-translated) overview page¹, the Guide to Consulting CosIng² and the actual database³ are only available in English – a hurdle for many researchers.
Accordingly, the Cosing database only appears as a "distant memory" in Internet searches. Instead, there are many private platforms financed by advertising or manufacturers, where you should first look at the imprint. The descriptions and the associated assessments of the ingredients vary accordingly.
Wikipedia is a reasonably reliable source to get an initial overview. For detailed questions, however, you should then switch to relevant topic databases that focus on the material, health and toxicological aspects of cosmetic ingredients:

• BfR-Bundesinstitut für Risikobewertung: Health assessment of cosmetic products⁴
• Cosmetic Ingredient Review: Safety of cosmetic ingredients⁵
• Cosmetics Info – information about cosmetics and personal care products⁶
• ECHA-European Chemicals Agency: Information on chemicals⁷
• EU Public Health – Health: Scientific Committees for Risk Assessment⁸
• National Library of Medicine: Comprehensive Toxicology Information⁹
• EFSA: European Food Safety Authority¹⁰
• EWG's Skin Deep: Guide to safer personal care products¹¹
• FNR Topic Portal Plants: Active plant substances¹²

Scientific literature and studies can be researched on the Google Scholar platform¹³ without advertising. If questions about problem skin and medical indications arise during cosmetic data collection (parallel to medical anamnesis), consultation and treatment, for example regarding medication and side effects, the medical guidelines of the German Association of Scientific Medical Societies provide valuable assistance.¹⁴
In this context, formulations for dermatological-pharmaceutical treatment may be of interest if adjuvant skin care is planned to accompany the indication. Pharmacies have the additional option of combining individual dermatological formulations^{15 16} and skin care in one base. In this case, bases whose ingredients are listed in the pharmacopoeia and the European Pharmacopoeia¹⁷ are helpful. Advantage: They can be used seamlessly for pure skin care after the therapy.
Scientific publications on chemistry and proof of efficacy can be found at PubChem¹⁸ and PubMed¹⁹. As with the German Patent and Trade Mark Office²⁰ and the European Patent Office²¹, key words can be used to search for substances and their use. The following databases are also worth mentioning for harmful substances or harmful side effects:

• Red List: Drug information incl. side effects²² – important to know for some "unexplained" skin reactions
• EU rapid alert system Rapex (Rapid Exchange of Information System) on dangerous consumer goods (including cosmetics)²³
• Federal Institute for Occupational Safety and Health: "Hazardous products in Germany" – Cosmetics²⁴

Anyone who believes that they can easily rely on awards, certifications and seals for ingredients and preparations is mistaken, as these are usually commercial advertising.²⁵

Personalisation

Digital prescription finders for holistic personalisation, especially including adjuvant modular skin care for indications, are of great interest. However, the digital data for many active ingredients is still missing. In addition, it is difficult to collate the data due to the diverse interactions of the substances used. It is therefore necessary to rely on estimates, but these are being refined step by step like learning software
With regard to the ingredients used, compliance with the Cosmetics Regulation²⁶ with its annexes on regulated substances, including the ultimately required safety report with safety assessment for formulations for public sale, is of particular importance. Registration of these formulations in the European Cosmetic Products Notification Portal (CPNP)²⁷ is mandatory.

In addition to modular, personalised systems, genetic analyses have also been under discussion for some time alongside probe-based skin analysis. However, their digital correlation with treatment concepts has not yet yielded any substantially usable results

Relief

The above-mentioned applications of digitalisation do not all show a reduction in the daily workload, but sometimes the opposite, also in terms of the financial resources used. In fact, however, the relief then takes place elsewhere, namely in the future planning of institutes and in collaborations with dermatological practices.

Footnotes

1. https://ec.europa.eu/growth/sectors/cosmetics/cosing_de
2. https://ec.europa.eu/growth/tools-databases/cosing/assets/images/CosIng_FO.pdf
3. https://ec.europa.eu/growth/tools-databases/cosing
4. https://www.bfr.bund.de/de/gesundheitliche_bewertung_von_kosmetischen_mitteln-242.html
5. https://www.cir-safety.org/ingredients
6. https://www.cosmeticsinfo.org
7. https://echa.europa.eu/de/information-on-chemicals
8. https://ec.europa.eu/health/scientific_committees/consumer_safety/opinions_en
9. https://www.nlm.nih.gov/toxnet/index.html
10. https://www.efsa.europa.eu/de
11. https://www.ewg.org/skindeep
12. https://pflanzen.fnr.de/industriepflanzen/arzneipflanzen
13. https://scholar.google.de
14. https://www.awmf.org/leitlinien
15. https://dacnrf.pharmazeutische-zeitung.de
16. https://www.deutscher-apotheker-verlag.de/ZRB-Modul-Ziegler-Rezepturbibliothek/171013300.1NLA
17. https://www.bfarm.de/DE/Arzneimittel/Zulassung/Zulassungsrelevante-Themen/Arzneibuch/_node.html
18. https://pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
19. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
20. https://www.dpma.de/dpma/index.html
21. https://www.epo.org/de/searching-for-patents/technical/espacenet
22. https://www.rote-liste.de
23. https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rapid_Exchange_of_Information_System
24. https://www.baua.de/DE/Themen/Monitoring-Evaluation/Marktueberwachung-Produktsicherheit/Datenbank/Produktsicherheit_form.html?prodkat=Kosmetik
25. https://www.bundesregierung.de/breg-de/schwerpunkte-der-bundesregierung/nachhaltigkeitspolitik/guetesiegel-greenwashing-2269992
26. https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/DE/TXT/PDF/?uri=CELEX:02009R1223-20240424
27. https://www.bvl.bund.de/DE/Arbeitsbereiche/03_Verbraucherprodukte/03_AntragstellerUnternehmen/02_Kosmetik/01_Notifizierung/bgs_fuerAntragsteller_kosmetik_Notifizierung_node.html

Dr Hans Lautenschläger

published in
Beauty Forum
2025 (2), 74-77