Are lab-grown ingredients the next big thing in skincare or just another ‘clean beauty’ ruse?

Delicately plucked petals, thermal spring waters, marine-charged minerals—once upon a time, the promise of radiant skin was whispered through nature’s most elusive offerings. Almost like indigenous cultural secrets bottled in glass for the world to experience. The new face of beauty, however, isn’t foraged, it’s formulated. Enter the era of biotechnology, where sustainability and luxury sit cohesively in the laps of the future and lab-grown ingredients rival the rarest botanicals.

“In beauty, there’s this strange irony; the rarer the ingredient, the more we celebrate it and the faster we wipe it out,” says Prachi Bhandari, Co-founder and Head of Research and Development at AMINU. “I have seen this up close in formulation labs—we chase the rare, the exotic, the ‘found deep in a remote rainforest’, and in doing so, we may end up taking more than nature can afford to give. Biotech flips that story.”

LAB-GROWN LOVE

According to Jasmina Aganovic, Founder of Arcaea, a biology-first beauty company, biotechnology offers an alternative method for producing raw materials. “Rather than extracting from plants or synthesising from petrochemicals, it uses microbes and fermentation,” she says.

Simply put, it’s high-tech fermentation—think petri dishes and kimchi-kombucha, but skincare-coded. “A host organism, often yeast, is genetically programmed to produce the desired compound,” explains Aganovic. “It is then cultivated via fermentation, fed optimised nutrients, and the ingredient, like collagen or hyaluronic acid, is extracted and purified from the culture.”

Biotechnology in skincare is not new. Shiseido’s patent from 1985 is proof. Formulated using a fermentation-based method of producing hyaluronic acid, the Japanese brand was one of the pioneers to shift from traditional animal-derived sources to a more sustainable lab-grown alternative.“Hyaluronic acid is the most well-known example,” she adds. “It was once sourced from rooster combs, but is now widely produced using yeast fermentation, pioneered by companies like Shiseido. This shift made the ingredient more ethical, scalable, and ultimately more popular.”

BUT, IS IT BETTER?

Ethical, sustainable, and environmental-friendly, biotechnology perfectly fits into the umbrella of clean beauty—but how effective are its results as opposed to natural sources? According to Dr Madhuri Agarwal, medical director and founder, YAVANA Aesthetics, Mumbai, lab-grown ingredients are often more standardised, resulting in better consistency, purity, and safety.

“Biotechnology ingredients may usually have fewer heavy metals, allergens, microbial contamination, and pesticide residue, as compared to naturally sourced ones,” claims Dr Agarwal. Natural ingredients mostly contain multiple complexes that have the potential to interact, causing the entourage effect. “The purity levels in lab-grown ingredients can range from 95 to 99 per cent, but naturally sourced ones may be between 20 and 60 per cent on purity scale.”

According to Bhandari, lab-grown ingredients are how we outsmart one of skincare’s oldest frustrations— instability. “I’ve tested wild-harvested actives whose potency changes every harvest,” she says. “With biotech, you can lock in precision, batch after batch and create nature-inspired molecules that the natural world never gave us in usable amounts.”

Dr Agarwal believes that biotechnology is showing promising results in treating acne, hyperpigmentation, and signs of ageing. Bioengineered peptides and bacteriophage therapy, for example, can target Cutibacterium acnes precisely without disturbing beneficial skin bacteria.

In hyperpigmentation, lab-engineered ingredients like kojic acid and synthetic arbutin offer more stable, effective alternatives to traditional tyrosinase inhibitors. Biotech is also enabling the use of targeted growth factors to address ageing pathways more accurately. In conditions like eczema, lab-grown ceramides and barrier-supporting compounds can mimic healthy skin lipids more effectively than natural extracts.

“Lab-grown collagen can actually offer several advantages over animal-derived sources,” asserts Dr Agarwal. “Skin-specific collagen types such as I, III, VII, can be produced and this can help to treat the targeted skin function, along with control over the molecular weight for the proper absorption when taken orally. It can also be useful in eliminating concerns regarding contaminants, allergens from animal sources, and other ethical issues.”

While lab-developed compounds are mostly safe, they can present some risks or sensitivities. That said, it is important to consult a board-certified dermatologist for a customised solution and always do a patch test before use.

Additionally, lab grown ingredients reduce the impact on the environment. “Biotech production typically requires less land, water, and energy than traditional agriculture or petrochemical synthesis, offering a lower overall environmental footprint,” says Aganovic. “Lab-grown ingredients can also reduce pressure on ecosystems by minimising the need for harvesting, helping to protect biodiversity and reduce environmental degradation.”

LOOKING AHEAD

Bhandari says biotech is more than just sustainable.“It’s regenerative and a way to make high-performance skincare while giving the planet breathing room,” she adds. The battle is no longer between natural versus synthetic. There’s a third way where performance meets ethics, giving your skin the best of both worlds.

Aganovic says the future lies not just in replacements but in creating new ingredients. Biotechnology opens doors to materials that can’t currently be extracted, or even imagined.“This unlocks new performance and storytelling in beauty,” she says. As biotechnology continues to evolve, it’ll only redefine the possibilities within skincare, truly pushing the bar towards a more sustainable future. 

Lead image: Getty Images

This article first appeared in the October 2025 print issue of Harper's Bazaar India
 

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