The beauty industry is navigating unprecedented change. Regulation is tightening, climate and nature-related risks are intensifying, and consumer expectations continue to rise.
At the same time, sustainability is becoming a core driver of business performance — shaping governance, investment decisions, product design, and go-to-market strategies.
This second edition of Make up the Future reflects the shift underway, focusing on implementation, integration, and accelerating measurable impact.
Grounded in Quantis’ science-based and metrics-driven approach, the report explores sustainability transformation across three interconnected levels:
Navigating change at industry level
Transformation at scale can only happen across the value chain. More than ever, progress depends on:
- Shared data and harmonized methodologies
- Pre-competitive collaboration
- Common infrastructures enabling transparency and scale
Driving transformation at corporate level
- The financial ROI of sustainability needs to become clearer than ever
- Strengthen business resilience through a holistic approach to sustainability: climate + nature + social
- Embed sustainability into every function and scale up enablers: financial incentives, data access, digitalization and AI, etc.
- Influence beyond company walls, via procurement decisions and downstream partnerships
Advancing innovation at product level
- Work on low impact ingredients and formulas upstream
- Scale up eco-design thinking and data needs to drive portfolio transformation
- Future-proof packaging beyond compliance through circular design
- Innovate for water-smart use
- Rethink the shopper experience in collaboration with retailers
The report concludes with a strategic checklist for beauty leaders, outlining practical priorities to accelerate impact today.
Key insights from the report
- Around 70% of the climate impact of a typical beauty routine occurs during product use
- Well-designed refill and reuse systems can significantly reduce climate and water impacts
- For leave-on products, formulation ingredients represent a major share of total environmental impact
- Consumer expectations for sustainability are high — but vary widely across regions
