IMCD announced its acquisition of majority stake (70%) in Shanghai Sanrise Industries & Development Co Ltd in 2022, with the remaining 30% to be completed in 2025.
According to IMCD Sanrise, 2025 was a pivotal year for the beauty industry to break through with innovation and advance towards high-quality development.
“As the market understanding of ingredient value matures, the evaluation system is gradually shifting from focusing on ingredient addition to delving into the mechanism of action and empirical evidence, driving the industry to transform from marketing concepts to scientific narratives.
“Against this backdrop, ingredient innovation is continuously deepening, and biotechnology is empowering the entire research and development process, reconfiguring the efficiency of innovation,” said Fransisca Josefa, APAC Technical Director, Beauty & Personal Care, Home Care and I&I at IMCD.
She was speaking to CosmeticsDesign-Asia at Personal Care and Homecare Ingredients (PCHi) held in Hangzhou, China from March 18 to 20.
In China particularly, the personal care market is moving from traditional mass consumption towards high-value, functional, and personalised offerings, opening up significant opportunities for brand innovation and channel expansion.
“China has undergone the largest and fastest urbanisation in world history, based on a report from the National Bureau of Statistics. 2025 recorded a degree of urbanisation of 67.89%, outpacing the APAC standard of 64% as per the World Bank.
“This accelerating urbanisation reflects rising incomes, infrastructure expansion, and modernisation, but also brings challenges in shaping consumer and beauty trends in the region, including urban living issues such as air pollution, UV and blue light exposure, temperature fluctuations, stress and lack of sleep, as well as unhealthy lifestyles.”
Josefa reiterated that the rapid urbanisation in Asia has led to major lifestyle shifts, with less “me time” for beauty routines coupled with more exposure to environmental aggressors.
To combat this, consumers are increasingly seeking protective yet convenient solutions tailored to their lifestyles.
At the same time, the longevity trend in beauty emphasises products and routines that support long-term skin health, vitality, and graceful ageing rather than quick fixes. This calls for innovative science-backed solutions that address stress and ageing at the cellular level.
“Biotech ingredients are transforming skin care through bioengineering to create high-performance actives perfectly suited for dermocosmetic applications. This approach not only ensures sustainable ingredient sourcing, but also delivers clinically backed efficacy for sensitive and dermatologically focused products.”
Speeding up route to market
With over 30 years of experience in the Chinese market and a formulation laboratory in Shanghai, IMCD provides full local technical support from concept to product launch.
This includes formulation optimisation, application testing, stability assessment, and efficacy validation, which expedites the R&D process, improves the reliability of formulas, and helps customers differentiate in a highly competitive market.
Leveraging APAC market insights, the company anticipates consumer needs and localises raw material and formulation technologies to deliver market-ready solutions.
“We are committed to accelerating innovation in ingredients and formulation design to help cosmetic brands create competitive advantage through sustainable, future-facing products with enhanced performances that provide consumers with meaningful and delightful beauty experiences.”
Under the theme of “Beauty by choice”, IMCD Sanrise showcased three core concepts at PCHi 2026 — Biotech & Dermocosmetics, Longevity & Wellness, and Urban Beauty.
Specifically, Biotech & Dermocosmetics comprises science-driven, green-derived innovations for safe, effective and fast-acting results; Longevity & Wellness refers to solutions that address stress and ageing at the cellular-level; and Urban Beauty is about products that bring convenience and multifunctionality.
For instance, IMCD Sanrise’s technology targeting eye wrinkles is claimed to have “clear differentiating advantages” compared to existing solutions.
“Conventional products typically rely on exogenous fillers or require long-term use to show effects. Our technological approach is inspired by medical aesthetic principles, with core ingredients being small-molecule hyaluronic acid and high-molecular konjac polysaccharides.
“They come in the form of microspheres that rapidly penetrate the epidermis. Through intra-epidermal water absorption and expansion, it results in immediate, endogenous filling of fine lines and restoring of skin radiance,” Josefa explained.
