Key Themes From NYSCC Suppliers’ Day 2025

by | Jun 10, 2025 | Conference Series, NYSCC Suppliers' Day 2025 | 0 comments

Listen to the Suppliers’ Day 2025 Recap Here:

Performance is taking center stage in the beauty and personal care ingredients sector, as revealed on the floor of NYSCC Suppliers Day 2025. Host Victoria Meyer explores the notable shift away from buzzwords like “sustainability” and “natural,” uncovering how companies are reframing their focus towards innovation, plant-based solutions, and advanced product performance. 

Victoria is joined by John Harrold of Zinco Verde, who discusses novel, energy-efficient zinc oxide for sunscreens, and Christoph Krumm of Sironix Renewables, highlighting breakthroughs in bio-based surfactants derived from agricultural waste. The conversation unpacks how trends like neurocosmetics, microbiomes, and a pragmatic approach to environmental benefits are shaping the industry’s direction. Get a first-hand perspective on what’s driving R&D, purchasing, and consumer choices in today’s dynamic beauty ingredient market. 

Gain insights on the following topics: 

  • Innovation Takes Center Stage: Companies are pivoting away from buzzwords like “sustainability” and “natural,” putting real innovation and performance at the heart of product development. 
  • Neurocosmetics and Microbiome Science and how new ingredients target mood and neurological benefits alongside appearance, while microbiome-friendly formulations gain traction. 
  • Sustainability Reconsidered: Companies shift from “sustainability” rhetoric to pragmatic solutions and value-driven innovation. 
  • Plant-Based Performance: Industry messaging replaces “natural” with “plant-based” and “performance”. 
  • Start-up leaders discuss bringing advanced technologies to market  

 

Killer Quote: “If you had asked me this when we spun out as a company, I would have told you bio based is the innovation, right? That is the reason for existing. That’s really not the case. As we found. Bio based ingredients matter. People still want them. The reason for existing for us is performance.” — Christoph Krumm, CEO of Sironix 

 

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Watch Victoria Recap Suppliers’ Day 2025 on Youtube Here:

Key Themes From NYSCC Suppliers’ Day 2025

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Welcome back to The Chemical Show, where leaders talk business. I’m recording this at NYSCC Suppliers’ Day 2025 at the Javits Center in New York City, a place that is full of booths and people and innovations, and everybody is talking about beauty and science and the intersection of the two. So this is a great event, I had the opportunity to talk with a wide variety of participants, people at booths, people walking the floor, innovators, buyers, sellers and more. And what I want to talk about today are some of the key trends and topics at Suppliers’ Day 2025.

So a couple of weeks ago I had the chance to talk with Sunnie Desai of Kline and she brought us a precursor to Suppliers’ Day. If you haven’t listened to that yet, go listen it. I will say I saw some of the same things and more and maybe a few different things. I also have a couple of recordings for you with innovators in the chemical space and in the beauty and personal care ingredients space. So you’re going to hear some of that. But what stood out for me and people across the conference asked this question and you guys asked this question, you know, what’s the sense? What’s the sentiment? What are the key trends? So what I’m going to tell you is it is just as important what’s missing as what was said. So first of all, it was a big show, a full show, lots of people here. So everybody from formulators and brands and personal care ingredients companies, chemical companies, a whole group of media and innovators and other people buzzing.

So lots of great indie brands and a lot of great innovations show up here. In fact, I had the chance to talk with Christoph Krum from Saronics. You’re going to get a chance to hear from him as well. Well, we talked about the biosurfactants that they’re introducing today. So what’s interesting though is what’s missing. And there’s a number of things that I think we’re missing this year at Suppliers’ Day that perhaps have been part of the conversation for the past several years. So let’s just kick off with sustainability. The word ‘sustainability’ and ‘sustainable’ was largely absent from conversations, absent from the imaging and imagery that companies are using on their booths and their big displays, absent from the conversations other than when people specifically brought it up.

Why is that? As one person I spoke with today said well, at their company, a major specialty chemicals company, we are shifting from sustainability to an innovation focus. That is one of the key trends I’ve heard. Of course, this is a place where there’s a lot of innovation and that’s no surprise. We’re seeing innovations on the uprise. I’ve been hearing this from leaders across the industry and certainly saw this today. But what’s missing is a conversation on sustainability. And I think that resonates with what we’re seeing across the industry, generally across consumer sentiment and just the changing dynamics of the world we’re in. Why?

Part of it is it’s just really stinking hard to get truly sustainable metrics and to make a difference. As you know, companies have moved away from some of those big sweeping sustainability goals and are getting more pragmatic about delivering value, pragmatic about bringing innovation to companies, still sustainable. We talked about that recently. But doing it in a more innovative, approachable manner. Frankly, what’s missing and what I’ve seen missing across this conference today is sustainability.

The second trend and what’s important to talk about, what’s missing is natural. A year ago, two years ago, the word natural was used widely. Everybody was talking about natural products, natural ingredients probably went hand in hand with sustainability. But natural is not something that I’ve seen talked about. It’s been replaced with plant-based. Again, it’s been replaced with performance. So big emphasis on performance and that’s one of the big things that has been here. So this shift from natural to performance. And Sunny teed this up, a lot of conversation about neurocosmetics. And so neurocosmetics is this idea that a topical treatment will create not just performance enhancements. We’re always looking for that. More mood and neurological benefits. Not 100% certain where we’re going with this. Certainly it’s a trend that’s talking about what else is missing.

Just from a pure display perspective, there has been almost no displays of lab equipment and formulations and stuff. A year ago a bunch of these things. This year, just one or two. So again, maybe moving a little bit away from the technical, the chemistry of it and more into the performance of it, which I think is also where this whole neurocosmetics aspect comes in.

The other piece we’re talking about is microbiomes and biomes. For me personally, when I’ve been listening to and reading social media, watching social media, all this stuff I keep hearing all about gut biomes seems to be the thing that people are talking about. But a lot of this is about microbiomes on the surface of the skin and the effect that has. So I think this ties in. In fact, I think this is a whole trajectory of what we’re seeing between this shift away from using the words sustainability and natural, moving towards more innovation. Neurocosmetic plant based microbiomes still with a whole focus on performance and that opportunity to do so.

As I’m recording this we just wrapped up day one of the conference. In fact, I’m only doing day one of the show this year. So these are the key trends and topics that I’m noticing. I’m also integrating a couple of interviews that I did on the site, talking about some of these performance improvements and some innovations that companies are bringing to market. Again, it’s all about innovation for performance which we’re going to hear about when I talk to my guests that are on here and elsewhere. So thanks for joining me. Thanks for listening, thanks for letting me take you on the journey. I’f you’re watching this on YouTube, I’ve got a lot of different video clips and some images that I brought in.

And keep listening, keep following, keep sharing and we will talk with you again soon.

John Harold Interview

I am here with John Harold, who is the CEO of Cinco Verde. Hey John, how you doing today?

John Harrold:
Hi, how are you doing?

Great. So tell us about who you are. Just briefly give us an introduction to you.

John Harrold:
I am a biophysical chemist and material scientist who works in developing advanced materials in green chemistry.

Awesome. So tell me about Zinco Verde.

John Harrold:
Zinko Verde is a company that makes metal oxides using a novel process that uses 99% less energy. Since we’re using less energy, we’re doing it in a process that we can actually enhance those metal oxides that we make.

Why are you here at Suppliers’ Day this year?

John Harrold:
So metal oxides are in everything. They quietly make modern life possible. One of the things that they’re in is sunscreen, which is our beachhead market, pun intended. Mineral based sunscreens are the ones you’re really supposed to be using, but people don’t use them because they kind of suck. But our material solves that problem. We’re able to make a sunscreen that feels good going on and goes on clear. And generally people will use it more.

Because nobody wants the zinc oxide like the old surfers used to wear, right?

John Harrold:
Oh yeah. That stuff goes on feel cakey and you look pasty. That’s not going to happen. So because of our process, we’re able to make something that’s very consistent in shape and size. These are non-nano, they’re quite small particles and so they spread out really well, and are very evenly spread out. It’s kind of like if you see a screen, like your window screen, you don’t notice that you’re blocking half the light coming through because everything’s very evenly displaced out. That’s the same thing that’s going on with the materials when it’s spread out on your skin.

Awesome. What trends does this tap into? When I think about personal care, what’s going on across this business and industry, what trends do you see?

John Harrold:
I’d say there’s a couple questions. Number one is in this sin care industry, there’s clean beauty, which is really important. There’s people who are really questioning what the ingredients are inside of what they want. And they want to have something that’s better for you. So they use mineral based sunscreens, but they really want them. There’s such a wealth of information available for people. So they are seeking something better, they’re seeking a better material and then we can provide that for them. We make our material here in America, in Philadelphia. So people also really like a domestic supply chain for a number of reasons.

One, if there’s any interruptions, our material can still get made. So people are not worried about not being able to find it if there’s trouble getting the materials. So this is something we’re really excited about. But moreover, I think people want something that’s better for the environment. That’s not really enough to be able to move people. They want something that’s gonna be an environmentally friendly, but also needs to be significantly better than what’s out there.

So they need to be sustainable. They also need to change. Move the needle a little bit. And those things together.

Yeah.

John Harrold:
Are going to get people to change their behavior? And that’s kind of what we’re in.

Love it, thank you all

Christoph Krumm

I am with Christoph Krumm, who is the CEO of Sironix. They’re here launching a new product. So Kristoff, tell us a little bit about Sironix.

Christoph Krumm:
So Sironix is a startup company developing a new surfactants platform technology. We are a spin out from a university, so we developed this at the University of Minnesota, and spun that out as Sironix Renewables. We’ve been developing this platform ingredient technology that’s based on bio-waste agricultural residues. So we use otherwise waste materials, turn them into valuable ingredients and in this case surfactants. Those surfactants have really interesting applications, especially in personal care.

I think one of the things that’s interesting, Christoph, that we talked about is that unlike other biosurfactants, you’re actually using traditional chemical processing technology, right?

Christoph Krumm:
Yeah. We don’t use fermentation, we don’t use enzymes to make this. We use what we call simple pots and pans. So simple reactors and pressure systems. We use a solid catalyst, simple distillation process and out comes a surfactant that has really unique properties, but it’s based on plant-based ingredients. So we have 100% active and 100% plant based input. We can drive really interesting innovation with that chemistry approach as an output.

Awesome. So when you think about this, I know you guys are here really promoting your product and it’s ready for formulations, it’s ready for prime time. What products do you see this going into?

Christoph Krumm:
So our ingredients are in the rinse-off category. So we make anionic surfactants that have incredible foam, they’re incredibly mild on skin. And foam-feel that you get when you rinse that leaves your hands feeling really nice or your skin in general. It’s really mild on skin. That’s something that a lot of folks are looking to achieve with their personal care products. They want something that’s going to give you that really nice foam, going to give you something that cleans well, but it still feels good after. It doesn’t feel like it takes all the oil off your skin. It doesn’t feel like it strips your hair. It still feels safe and natural.

Yeah, when people are thinking about bio-based products, they often think that it does feel better, etc.

Christoph Krumm:
Although that’s not always the case.

That is not always the case. I often like to say, lye, which was around and used in soap for years, is very natural and very harsh. And it was used in soap for years. So it’s not always the case. When we just think about the trends that we’ve been talking about here at the show today, that you guys think about and you look at as you’re taking your product to market, what trends really hit? Why? Why are people buying from Sironix?

Christoph Krumm:
It’s an interesting question. If you had asked me this when we spun out as a company, I would have told you bio-based is the innovation, right? That is the reason for existing. That’s really not the case. As we found, bio-based ingredients matter. People still want them. The reason for existing for us is performance. People want to come to us for something that gives exceptional foam and they want something where they’re going to have that performance, they’re going to have that mildness, and they increasingly are coming to us for sulfate and dioxane-free products.

So they’re looking to solve some regulatory or consumer-driven innovation challenges and they’re looking to do that while maintaining the performance. They don’t want to lose that brand equity of the products they have now. They want to reformulate into something that’s going to look, feel, smell and work in the way that they want those consumer products to do.

Love it. Christoph, thank you.

Christoph Krumm:
Thank you so much.