Breakthrough Ingredients

The Breakthrough Ingredients Prize, a prestigious category of the European Cosmetic Prize, recognizes exceptional innovations in cosmetic ingredient development and application. Each year’s winners showcase groundbreaking advances in ingredient science, from novel extraction methods of botanical compounds to sophisticated biotech innovations and sustainable synthetic alternatives. The prize celebrates ingredients that demonstrate outstanding efficacy, safety, and potential for widespread application in cosmetic formulations. Winners are selected based on their scientific innovation, clinical validation, sustainability profile, and potential impact on the cosmetics industry. Through the years, winning ingredients have included revolutionary peptide complexes, marine-derived actives, plant stem cell technologies, and advanced polymer systems, each bringing new possibilities to cosmetic formulation. These breakthrough ingredients have not only expanded the formulators’ palette but have also introduced new mechanisms of action, enhanced delivery systems, and improved stability profiles, ultimately advancing the science of cosmetic development while maintaining commitment to safety and environmental responsibility.