"Natural" on the Label Is About to Need Paperwork
Plant-based skin care has stopped being a niche. According to Innova Market Insights, 60% of global consumers are actively looking for natural ingredients in their skin care, and personal care launches featuring plant-based ingredients grew at about 9% a year between July 2021 and June 2026. For years, brands answered that demand with botanicals on the label and a story about nature on the box.
Now the questions are changing. Regulators are no longer asking only what is in the formula. They are asking where each ingredient came from, and whether anyone can prove it.
The driver is deforestation. The EU Deforestation Regulation, delayed but still coming, and a proposed UK rule both aim to make sure that certain imported materials are not linked to forest loss. For a brand, that moves the conversation from a good story to traceability: land-use data, supply chain records and documents that follow the ingredient from the source to your formula.
The pressure is not spread evenly. It lands hardest on ingredients that quietly depend on palm. Many cleansing and foaming ingredients are made from palm-derived feedstocks, which means even a shampoo marketed as plant-based can have a forest question hiding behind its surfactants. As Viridi's Stewart told Personal Care Insights, this is especially relevant to formulations that depend on palm-derived surfactant feedstocks, and the company is seeing growing interest in alternatives that reduce that dependency without sacrificing cleansing, foaming or skin mildness. In his words, regulation is doing more than encouraging better documentation; it is prompting companies to reconsider the carbon sources behind some of their most important functional ingredients.
Alternatives are already appearing. Researchers in Frankfurt, Germany, have engineered yeast enzymes to produce fatty acids that mimic those found in palm and coconut oil. Savor, a sustainable fat company, has entered personal care with palm-free and animal-free fats made from captured carbon. Plant-derived options such as squalane are part of the same shift away from heritage forest ingredients.
For anyone who formulates, the important detail is speed. Swapping an ingredient is not a procurement decision, it is a project. Stewart points out that replacing even one surfactant or functional ingredient requires formulation testing, safety assessment, performance validation and regulatory work. The immediate response from the industry will probably be incremental. Over time, he expects ingredient developers to weigh carbon footprint, land use, traceability and supply resilience from the very start of development, right next to cleansing performance, foaming and mildness.
There is one more shift worth watching. Consumers are beginning to separate "natural sourcing" from "ethical sourcing." Replacing a synthetic or animal-derived input with a plant-based one is only the first step. Shoppers, and increasingly regulators, want to know how that plant was grown and harvested.
What this means for brand founders
At Vaulabs we formulate and manufacture clean beauty products, so ingredient sourcing is part of our daily work, and our advice is simple: do not wait for the rules to arrive. Start the conversation with your raw material suppliers now. For every plant-derived ingredient in your formula, find out where it comes from and what documentation the supplier can provide. Pay particular attention to anything built on palm, including surfactants and emulsifiers that are easy to overlook on an ingredient list. If an answer is missing today, you have time to find a better-documented source or to plan a reformulation with proper testing. If you find out after the rules apply, you will not.
The brands that have these answers ready will have an easier time when the rules arrive, and a stronger story for customers who care where their products begin.
Do you know where the plant ingredients in your formula come from? If you are planning a product line and want a second pair of eyes on your ingredient sourcing, send us your idea and we will tell you what it takes to make it right.
Source: Personal Care Insights, "Plant-based beauty grows as regulators scrutinize natural sourcing," Mieke Meintjes, 6 Oct 2026. https://www.personalcareinsights.com/news/plant-beauty-traceability.html