According to market research firm Statista, the global beauty and personal care market is projected to reach $758.8 billion by the end of 2025, so industry stakeholders are pressured to accelerate innovation, ensure regulatory compliance and deliver personalized products at scale.
According to Ray Wodar, global director of consumer-filled product and retail business consulting at Dassault Systèmes, Virtual Twin Technology is taking part in a relatively new innovation that has moved from theoretical concepts to practical implementations of the beauty and personal care sector.
In this CosmeticsDesign Q&A, we spoke with WoDAR to learn more about how virtual twin technology can help manufacturers and suppliers test formulations faster, validate product claims, manage risks, increase operational efficiency, and ultimately better navigate the complexity of a competitive landscape.
CDU: Can you provide an overview of virtual twin technology and how it applies to the cosmetics and personal care industry?
Raywodal (RW): Virtual twin technology has shifted from theoretical concepts to practical implementation in the cosmetics and personal care sectors, revolutionizing product development, customer engagement and supply chain management. By creating dynamic virtual replicas of physical assets, from individual skincare profiles to the entire production ecosystem, brands offer unprecedented personalization, product innovation and sustainable transparency.
For example, cosmetic companies employ virtual skin twins to replace animal testing. These models replicate stratum corneum thickness, sebum production rate, and melanin distribution to predict responses to formulations applied to the body.
On the production and supply chain side, virtual twins can map cosmetic supply chains to simulate scenarios such as palm oil shortages and factory disruptions. For example, after using twins to reroute shipments on geopolitical conflicts, the luxury perfume brand reduced its carbon emissions by 18%.
Virtual twins allow predictive outcomes for various business scenarios, allowing business leaders to plan these events and implement them into their decision-making process.
CDU: Can personal care manufacturers and suppliers use virtual twins to streamline formulation development while ensuring regulatory compliance?
RW: Virtual twin technology emerges as a transformative solution, allowing manufacturers to simulate formulations, predict regulatory outcomes, optimize production workflows, and reduce development costs. Virtual twins streamline the formulation process and in parallel create dynamic digital replicas of the formulation and ensure compliance by modeling how the components interact under various conditions such as pH, temperature, and humidity.
Shampoo Twin, for example, can simulate surfactant behavior with coconut-derived cleansers to predict foam quality and scalp irritability. Including this process, automated ingredient screening: cross-reference formulations for twin global regulatory databases (EU, FDA Grase, CSAR in China), and instantly flag banned substances such as PFA or preservatives (over concentration limits).
CDU: How can virtual twin technology help promote innovation in a competitive product environment, especially for brands focusing on sustainability and clean aesthetics?
RW: Virtual twins can allow brands to test more than 10,000 ingredient combinations in days rather than months. For example, the client reduced the repetition of the surfactant formulation by 45% by modeling the foam performance against scalp pH variability.
In another example, clean beauty brands utilise similar techniques to replace 78 animal-derived squalene prototypes with plant-based alternatives within 11 weeks.
CDU: How does virtual twin technology support risk assessment and troubleshooting in the formulation process, especially when dealing with claims for new ingredients and products?
RW: Virtual twin technology significantly enhances risk assessment and troubleshooting in the formulation process, especially when manipulating new ingredients and supporting product claims. Virtual twins allow manufacturers to simulate and stress-test formulations in digital environments before physical production.
When using new ingredients, virtual twins can help predict potential allergic reactions or sensitivity across different skin types. It can also simulate how new activity interacts with existing formulated components, and assess the environmental impact of new components throughout the product lifecycle.
Virtual twins help validate and support product claims by providing data-driven evidence of efficacy through simulated testing. They allow real-time performance monitoring of products under a variety of conditions and facilitate documentation for compliance testing and regulatory approval.
CDU: How can cosmetic and personal care companies overcome challenges and hurdles when adopting virtual twin technology?
RW: Cosmetics and personal care companies face several challenges when adopting virtual twin technology, including data privacy concerns, technical complexity, and the lack of standardized digital protocols. The complexity of virtual twin development and integration is prohibitive, especially for small brands, as sophisticated infrastructures such as AI, IoT, and cloud systems are required.
Data privacy is another important issue as virtual twins require ongoing collection of sensitive consumer information and raise concerns about cybersecurity and regulatory compliance. Furthermore, the complexity of integrating virtual twins into existing workflows and determining the right tools for both current and future needs can create a steep learning curve.
To overcome these hurdles, companies can employ several strategies. First, pilot programs can be used to demonstrate tangible benefits such as reducing costs and improving product personalization.
Collaboration between manufacturers, technology developers, and regulatory agencies is essential to establish clear guidelines for implementation and compliance. Offering a comprehensive training programme on AI and virtual twin principles can also help bridge knowledge gaps and facilitate integration into existing processes.
Finally, adopting scalable solutions tailored to long-term goals while prioritizing data security through robust encryption methods can alleviate privacy concerns and ensure sustainable growth in this competitive environment.
CDU: Looking ahead, how do you see virtual twin technology evolve to further enhance product development and supply chain optimization for the beauty and personal care industry?
RW: Virtual Twin Technology is poised to evolve further, driving innovation in product development and supply chain optimization in the beauty and personal care industry. Going forward, the advancements will focus on strengthening personalization, sustainability and operational efficiency.
Virtual twins integrate more sophisticated AI and machine learning algorithms to simulate complex interactions between skin type, environmental factors, and product formulations. This allows brands to reduce time to market for new formulations while creating hyper-customized products tailored to their individual needs.
Virtual twins move beyond predictive modeling, enabling normative self-healing supply chains in the future. By dynamically adjusting inventory, production schedules and logistics based on real-time data, businesses can reduce costs, minimize waste, and improve delivery timelines.
For example, dynamic SKU-level safety stock targets optimize inventory management based on localized demand patterns. By leveraging these advancements, virtual twin technologies will be able to prioritize personalization, sustainability and efficiency while still remaining competitive in rapidly evolving markets.
