This is an opinion episode by Lu Lorraine Dallmeyer (CEO of Formula Botanica) discussing the potential for algae—especially seaweeds—to drive sustainable beauty. Lu outlines four reasons: rapid growth/scalable aquaculture, harvesting nuisance algal blooms, low fresh-water requirements, and carbon sequestration potential; she notes caveats including overharvesting, pollution/microplastics, and synthetic blue biotechnology, and issues a listener challenge to try or formulate with algae-based ingredients.
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Normally I don't pay much attention to the latest trends in cosmetic ingredients because, as you heard on the podcast last week, my team at Formula Botanica has that fully under control for our students. And also, to be honest, I'm not hugely interested in an ingredient that's here today but will be gone tomorrow. But then occasionally a specific ingredient or group of ingredients will just pique my interest and I'll see enormous potential for the way that that ingredient could revolutionize the entire cosmetics industry. So last week I interviewed Beatrice Amaral, Formula Botanica's cosmetic scientist, and Anna Green, Formula Botanica's education manager, to talk about the trends they spotted at in Cosmetics Global, the world's largest cosmetic ingredient trade exhibition, which they recently attended in Barcelona in Spain. And they came back with many fascinating ingredients to research and to test. But one category that stood out to me was that of marine ingredients, or more specifically, algae. Last year we already provided a dedicated mini course on formulating with marine ingredients in our accredited continuing professional development membership site, the Lab at Formula Botanica because we can see the huge potential for so called blue beauty. But what potential does algae have for helping the beauty industry become sustainable? Well settle in and join me for my opinion piece today where I will be looking at the four reasons why I think algae could drive sustainable beauty. Hi, it's Lu Lorraine Dallmeyer, chartered environmentalist, biologist and CEO of award winning online organic cosmetic formulation school Formula Botanica. I host the Green Beauty Conversations podcast and these are my green beauty opinions in which I share my takeaways from the podcast interview we released last week and also set you a challenge to make the green beauty sector a better place. If you want to be the first to hear all of my latest episodes, make sure you subscribe to this podcast now. First of all, before I start, let's do a quick recap on what algae actually is. The word algae is a collective term for mostly aquatic organisms that have photosynthesizing properties. They're typically plants, but generally they lack the cell and tissue types that you'll find in land plants. There doesn't, however, seem to be a firmly accepted definition of what algae really is because the group is so diverse. However, the biggest group of plants within this very large category, and I know you'll know this group, is that of seaweeds. And the three most common types of seaweeds or algae used in cosmetics are Laminaria fucus, which is brown algae, and chondrus, which is red algae. As I'm sure you know, many cosmetic brands already use Algae in their formulation, so it's a very popular ingredient, has the potential to significantly grow further in popularity. Seaweeds are often associated with their bioactive potentials, such as their antioxidant, their anti inflammatory capabilities, as well as cosmetic characteristics such as moisturizing and stabilizing agents, and also their composition of bioactive chemical compounds. So you can see why they're used by the cosmetics industry now. The first reason why algae has the potential to contribute to sustainable beauty is the fact that it is one of the fastest growing organisms on earth. The cosmetics industry is vast. It uses vast amounts of resources. We don't even know the exact numbers of the number of products created each year by the cosmetics industry. But even if we conservatively estimate it's in the hundreds of millions, and that's probably low, then it's easy to see that those formulations will still all require significant amounts of ingredients. Those ingredients are either grown somewhere or they're synthesized in a Lab. Back in 2021, I interviewed Dr. Sally Goldstone here on the Green Beauty Conversations podcast and we discussed how much land is required to grow essential oil crops, for instance. And we also know that some aromatic plants grow very, very slowly. So even if their land take is minimal, then regrowth may be slow. Now compare that to some seaweeds that grow several centimeters per day. And in one extreme example, giant kelp has been known to grow up to 60 cm or 2ft in a single day under perfect conditions. The issue, of course, is that we mustn't over harvest this incredible crop. But seaweed aquaculture, when done sustainably, typically does leave areas for regrowth. So there is great potential here as long as seaweed stocks are farmed sustainably and not wild harvested. The second reason why algae can contribute to sustainable beauty is that some areas have too much of it. We've all heard of algal blooms taking over bodies of water caused by the excessive runoff of phosphorus or nitrogen based fertilizers. And the main culprits of such algal blooms are cyanobacteria, which also, yes, have major potential for cosmetics. There have been studies on this. Now imagine that we can harvest some of these algal blooms and use them for their antioxidant properties in our cosmetics. It may well be a win win situation for everyone. The third reason I want to talk about algae is that it typically doesn't require fresh water to grow. At least the three seaweeds I talked about at the beginning of this episode don't. And we've previously talked about the water footprint of cosmetics here on the podcast episode 83 if you want to catch up with it. And it's really important to note that 70% of the world's fresh water is used for agriculture. That agriculture includes the crops used for your cosmetics. Now imagine a crop that grows in abundance, which grows quickly and which doesn't need constant watering. Sounds pretty amazing, right? And that alone should make algae a no brainer in cosmetics. However, I have left the best for last. So the fourth and final reason I'll share today is the rather exciting fact that algae sequesters carbon. Scientists previously believed that much of the carbon stored in seaweed would eventually be released again when the algae decomposed in the ocean. But the discovery of large quantities of dead seaweed deep in ocean floor sediments has shown that when seaweed dies, much of it is swept out to the ocean, eventually sinking to the seafloor where that carbon is locked up in sediments. And as a result, seaweed cultivation has been identified as a carbon sink that could help mitigate climate change, according to research at Aarhus University in Denmark. And apart from storing carbon, seaweed forms one base of the marine food web as well, along with phytoplankton, and it provides food and a habitat for a number of different marine animals. Seaweed aquaculture can also help reduce the emissions from agriculture by improving soil quality by substituting synthetic fertilizer. And when seaweed is included in cattle feed, it can lower methane emissions from cattle. So the climate crisis is real and its impacts are going to be profound. So any opportunities to sequester and reduce carbon, particularly in deposits that benefit the soils, the oceans and its inhabitants, can surely only be a good thing. Now of course there are many other elements to consider, such as the fact that our oceans and our waterways are heavily polluted from the runoff of agriculture and other intensive industries. Plastic pollution is also a major issue and none of us want to use seaweed that's been contaminated with microplastics. These are all elements that we as an industry need to examine closely. I can also see there is already a rise in so called blue biotechnology where labs are creating synthetic versions of algae to use in cosmetics. I think we just have to ask ourselves, is this going to be for the benefit of our environment or does algae give us the potential to further push forward sustainability in the beauty industry? So my challenge to you for this week is to go and try an algae based cosmetic product to see what you think of it. Head on over to Google Search for algae, skincare, Algae hair care see what crops up. Researchers in Spain and Portugal recently published a paper which concluded that seaweed has a lower environmental impact compared to green tea or ascorbic acid, ensuring that its effectiveness as an antioxidant is comparable to other well known antioxidants already used in cosmetics. So you know you're onto something good here. And if you're a formulator and you're listening to this episode, get some algae derived ingredients and go and make something. Go and formulate. I can't wait to see what you create. Thank you for listening to my Green Beauty opinions. Remember to visit the Formula botanica website@formulabotanica.com to try our free online formulation course. And if you haven't subscribed yet to the Green Beauty Conversations podcast, please make sure you do so now in your favorite podcast app. Leave me a five star review if you enjoy the conversations I host and I'll be back soon with my next episode.
