(Sponsored content)

Rich in flavour and full of nutritional benefits, it’s no secret that Peruvian “superfoods” are good for your body, but can they also be good for your skin? We caught up with Melissa Vallebuona from Promperú to discuss why these ingredients can be so transformative when used in cosmetics.

From the Amazon forest to the Andes and coastal regions, Peru is renowned for its biodiversity – how does this manifest itself in the local personal care ingredient industry?

Peru’s unique crops, its fruits and vegetables born from biodiversity and ancestral wisdom, have become the ‘superfoods’ of the modern world, ensuring natural and healthy nutrition. These outstanding foods are celebrated worldwide for their flavours and properties and are part of the lifestyle of many consumers. Knowing the power of superfoods to take care of the body, the next step was to harness that power for the natural personal care industry; that is when we started promoting our “super ingredients” for cosmetics.

Can you give us an overview of Peruvian cosmetic ingredients that formulators should look out for and why?

From the deepest Amazonian forests and the Peruvian Andes, fruits, grains, plants and trees are being rediscovered by cosmetic science. The Peruvian Megadiverse Collection includes vegetable oils, sources of omega fatty acids and vitamins that combine to hydrate the skin and elevate the regenerative power of skin cells to their fullest. This combination results in:

• • • the most moisturizing creams; essential oils with exotic, woody, herbal and uplifting aromas that improve health and wellness
    • natural colourants that provide a beautiful colour palette for make-up
    • many other extracts and resins with other properties such as thickeners, antioxidants, emollients and cell regeneration that improve the performance of natural formulations.

This is Peru, a country with such timeless experience in caring for nature and its crops and the ancestral knowledge of their health & beauty properties. We believe that people deserve to know this and that companies have the opportunity to innovate with their formulations.

Peru is also strong in the field of essential oils, natural gums, extracts – can you explain to us what makes them special?

Peru offers a wide range of natural ingredients. Its geography makes it a global supplier of highly nutritious and healthy ingredients:

• • • vegetable oils such as sacha inchi, passion fruit and aguaje that nourish the skin
    • essential oils like pink pepper and holywood with their mystical essences that relieve pain and dissipate negative energy
    • attractive natural colourants like carmine and annatto that highlight the beauty
    • resins like dragons blood and thickeners like tara that also protect, heal and rejuvenate the skin.

This vast natural offering is obtained using agricultural production practices that conform to international standards and are sustainable, responsible, and respectful of the environment.

Promperú has produced a catalogue of functional ingredients from Peru, what new ingredient launches can we look forward to in 2021?

Peru Export and Tourism Promotion Board (PROMPERU) has developed the first catalogue of natural ingredients for cosmetics, native to Peru. We are very pleased to present it at in-cosmetics and we invite you to discover our ingredients, experience them and to know their properties and applications in the natural cosmetics industry.

In 2021, we will be launching new ingredients such as Plukenetia huayllabambana oil, a recently discovered seed from the Amazon that is considered to be the first vegetable source of Omega 3. We are very excited about this new ingredient and all our natural ingredients on offer at in-cosmetics Global 2021.

You can take a look at their catalogue of native Peruvian ingredients here.

Want to read more about the latest plant-based ingredients? Try this Q&A with Roquette Beauté.