The Cosmoprof Awards 2025 offered one of the clearer windows we've had this year into where product development, formulation, and packaging are actually heading. Not where brands say they want to go, but where the technical work is being done. The winners and shortlisted entries covered everything from sun care delivery systems to longevity-focused skincare, and a few of them are genuinely worth a closer look. (Note: we're drawing on the official award listings at cosmoprofawards.com, but recommend verifying specific category wins directly before citing them in any formal context.)
Sun Care Gets a Hardware Upgrade
Two separate entries tackled the mechanics of how products are dispensed, and both are worth noting.
The Cooling Sun Mist by Monoglot Holdings / ELROEL took home the Sun Care Products win. It's a non-aerosol SPF 40 mist that works on face, body, scalp, and hair, with a cooling ingredient built into the formula. The multi-zone positioning is smart: scalp and hair SPF is a genuinely underserved area, and consumers are increasingly aware of it. For brands developing suncare or sun-adjacent personal care lines, the non-aerosol, multi-surface angle is worth exploring.
The Air Mist Gas-Free Spray System by Shinkwang M&P is a propellant-free 360° atomizer in recyclable PET. It doesn't use compressed gas, which addresses both the formulation chemistry side (no propellant compatibility headaches) and the packaging sustainability angle. Recyclable PET with full 360° spray capability is a meaningful combination, and one that will appeal to brands working through refillable beauty packaging decisions.
Also, on the refillable front: QPearl – CycleOne by CAHM Europe is a refillable cleansing pearl format aimed primarily at the hospitality sector. The hotel context may feel niche, but the refill mechanism itself is genuinely clever. Refillable beauty packaging has been moving steadily from novelty to expectation, and what tends to separate the formats that work from the ones that don't is physical ease. Refilling has to be genuinely simple, not just theoretically possible. A format that solves that problem in a hospitality context is worth watching as it migrates into retail.
Foundation Formulation Takes a Left Turn
The Air Infused Bubble Foundation by Regi Group won the Make-Up Formula category, and the technical approach is unusual enough to warrant attention. It's a whipped, surfactant-free formula that applies as a bubble and settles to a satin veil. Surfactant-free in a foundation is a real formulation challenge, and the texture transition from bubble to finish is the kind of sensory differentiation that's hard to achieve and harder to copy. For brands in the color cosmetics space looking for a genuine point of difference, this is the kind of innovation that moves beyond shade range and packaging aesthetics.
Skincare Formulation: Oil Without the Weight
Nano-Emulsion Moisturizer by Cosmax, Inc. took the Skin Care Formula award. The headline figure is 30% oil content delivered via high-pressure homogenization, resulting in a lightweight feel despite a rich oil load. High-pressure homogenization is a well-established technique in cosmetic manufacturing, but it's less commonly highlighted as a consumer-facing differentiator. Achieving the sensory profile of a light moisturizer with that level of oil content is a meaningful formulation achievement, and it speaks to where consumer expectations are heading: real efficacy without heaviness.
Actives in Unexpected Places
The Active-Infused Powder by Fontana Contarini Cosmetics (Make-Up Products winner) uses water-infused technology to deliver hyaluronic acid and biotech actives in a finishing powder format. Finishing powder has historically been a fairly passive category, a setting step rather than a treatment step. Building genuine skin actives into the format, in a way that survives the manufacturing process and actually reaches the skin, is technically interesting. It also positions the product squarely at the skincare-makeup crossover that continues to attract serious consumer attention.
Device-Meets-Product Convergence
Longevity Day Cream by Vagheggi went somewhere few brands have gone: a red-light and microcurrent device built directly into the product's cap. The consumer uses the device alongside the cream as part of a single ritual. Device-meets-product convergence has been building in premium skincare for some time, but this level of integration, where the device is literally part of the packaging, is a different kind of commitment to the format.
Men's Grooming: A Category Maturing Quietly
The Hangover Power by Beardburys / Carobels Cosmetics won the Men's Grooming Products and Accessories category. It's an under-eye serum with a cooling metal applicator designed for tightening and depuffing. The inclusion of a functional applicator as part of the product experience is a good example of how men's grooming is developing: less novelty, more considered product design that borrows from skincare's more established toolkit.
Ingredients Worth Bookmarking
OCEANBOOST LF by Origin By Ocean is an upcycled fucoidan ingredient derived from bloom-forming Sargassum algae. Sargassum has become a significant ecological concern in parts of the Atlantic and Caribbean, and sourcing ingredients from it connects sustainability claims to a tangible environmental benefit rather than general marketing language. Fucoidan has a growing body of research in nutraceutical and marine bioactivity contexts, and its application in topical cosmetics is an area of active development. For brands focused on sustainable ingredient sourcing, it's a supplier worth knowing.
And then there's Baby Cleansing Formula (Babyology) by Ficosota, which positions its baby wash around a "100% edible ingredients" claim. That framing reflects something real in the category: parental concern about ingredient safety is high, and in products designed for infants, maximum transparency has become a baseline expectation rather than a differentiator. Brands that establish strong safety and transparency credentials early tend to hold them as the category matures.
Product innovation moves fast, and tracking what's winning at events like Cosmoprof is one of the better ways to spot where formulation, materials, and packaging are heading before those directions become standard practice. Several of the entries above overlap directly with the categories we work in, from suncare and skincare formulation to color cosmetics and sustainable packaging. If any of them sparked an idea worth exploring, we're happy to talk through what development might look like.
← Back to Blog