Innovation: Procter & Gamble Waterless Beauty Systems

This initiative represents a comprehensive re-imagining of traditional beauty products to significantly reduce or eliminate water content while maintaining or enhancing performance. The innovation spans multiple brands and categories including hair care, skincare, and body care products.

Product innovation

The systems incorporate several technological innovations:

• Proprietary solid-state emulsion technology that creates stable, water-activated products.

• Encapsulation systems that protect active ingredients in water-less environments until activation.

• Novel surfactant systems that generate cleansing foam with minimal water.

• Bio-based solvent alternatives that replace water as a carrier while providing additional skin benefits.

• Polymer film technology that creates dissoluble product formats for single-use applications.

The waterless innovation addresses environmental concerns and consumer convenience needs. With water scarcity affecting over 40% of the global population and the beauty industry traditionally using water as the primary ingredient in most products (often 70-90%), waterless systems represent a significant sustainability advancement. For consumers, the competitive advantage includes convenient, travel-friendly products, extended shelf life without preservatives, and more concentrated active ingredients.

P&G research indicates that 64% of consumers are concerned about water usage in personal care products, but 82% are unwilling to accept reduced performance in exchange for sustainability.

Development

P&G's Sustainability Innovation Lab started with a fundamental question: "Can we create effective beauty products without water?" Teams approached the challenge by completely rethinking product architecture rather than simply removing water from existing formulations. This required cross-disciplinary collaboration between material scientists, chemical engineers, consumer psychologists, and sustainability experts.

The development process prioritised establishing new performance benchmarks specific to waterless formats rather than attempting to precisely replicate traditional product experiences. P&G established dedicated supply chains and manufacturing capacity for these new formats, representing significant capital investment beyond formula development.

Trend

This innovation aligns with the "Water-Smart Beauty" trend identified in Mintel's 2023 Sustainability in Beauty report, which projected that waterless beauty would grow to represent 13% of global beauty launches by 2025.

According to Euromonitor International data, products with "waterless" or "water-free" claims grew by 42% in 2022-2023, while conventional water-based formats grew by just 3.8%.

A McKinsey sustainability survey found that 73% of beauty consumers expressed concern about water usage in beauty products, with this concern particularly pronounced among Gen Z consumers (83%)..

Launch Details

Place of launch: Initial launch in water-stressed markets including western United States, Australia, and the Middle East, followed by global expansion

Date of launch: April 2023

Price: Variable by product