Daniel Saclier, MY ID CONSULT: “The packaging of the future will be simpler, more technical, and smarter!”

For Daniel Saclier *, innovation in beauty is changing in nature. “For years,” he explains, “the sector has mainly innovated in storytelling, textures, or packaging designs. Now, innovation is becoming systemic: it affects the product, usage, technology, data, and environmental impact all at once. That’s where the real change lies: beauty is entering the realm of ‘beauty tech’ and ‘beauty circularity.’” For him, Artificial Intelligence, data, and biotechnology are beginning to transform how products are designed, manufactured, and consumed. “In the future, a brand will no longer sell just a cream or a perfume; it will sell a personalized, evolving, and potentially lifelong experience.” Packaging is also becoming smart. We are gradually moving from static packaging to connected packaging, from disposable packaging to circular packaging, and from decorative packaging to service-oriented packaging. The luxury beauty sector is likely at a turning point comparable to the one the automotive industry experienced with the advent of electric vehicles: everyone knows that the traditional model is reaching its limits, but no one has yet fully mastered the new paradigm. Explanations….

What are the main challenges you face when developing an innovation?

Daniel Saclier: The challenge today is no longer coming up with ideas.
The real challenge is successfully scaling up an innovation without compromising its profitability, desirability, or regulatory compliance. Beauty innovation has become a constant balancing act. Every project must now simultaneously meet five requirements: it must be sustainable, premium, industrially viable, compliant with regulations, and remain economically viable. It’s an extremely complex equation. Paradoxically, many innovations today fail not due to a lack of creativity, but due to a lack of industrial feasibility or economic viability. The market demands rapid innovation, but technical and regulatory constraints impose increasingly lengthy validation cycles. We are also entering a period where innovation can no longer be purely cosmetic.
Consumers are becoming more informed, more demanding, and more wary of greenwashing, marketing rhetoric, and the harmful claims made about cosmetic formulations. Brands will have to prove the real utility of their innovations.

Are environmental pressures, challenges regarding the use of certain plastics, and regulatory constraints hindering development?

Daniel Saclier: Environmental and regulatory constraints are no longer just occasional obstacles; they are completely redefining the rules of the game.
The beauty sector is likely one of the sectors most impacted by this shift. For decades, the perceived value of luxury was built on the complexity of materials, the weight of packaging, the sophistication of designs, and the proliferation of components. Yet today, everything that historically made a product desirable is becoming potentially problematic from an environmental standpoint. That is the real issue: luxury must learn to create value with fewer materials. This is as much a cultural revolution as it is an industrial one. European regulations are drastically accelerating this transformation. Certain technologies or materials that were historically standard are becoming almost obsolete. This is forcing the entire value chain to reinvent itself (design, sourcing, assembly, decoration, logistics, and recyclability). But this pressure also acts as an extremely powerful catalyst.
Periods of constraint are often the ones that generate the most significant breakthroughs. The sector is being pushed to innovate faster than it would have naturally.

How would you describe the year 2025 that has just passed in terms of the innovations that emerged, and what is your outlook for the current year?

Daniel Saclier: 2025 will likely be remembered as a pivotal year. Not necessarily the year of major revolutions visible to the consumer, but the year when the industry realized that the coming transformations would be structural rather than temporary.
We’ve seen three very strong trends emerge:
• the massive rise of refillable products,
• the accelerated integration of AI into product development,
• and, above all, a profound reevaluation of the traditional packaging model.
The sector is beginning to accept an idea that was still taboo just a few years ago: “the packaging of the future will likely be simpler, more technical, and smarter.”
2026 could be a year of acceleration. Projects are becoming more selective, but also more technologically ambitious. Investments are increasingly focused on innovations capable of creating a sustainable and measurable competitive advantage. We’re also seeing a psychological shift in the market: brands are no longer just looking to “do something new”; they’re looking to “do it right.”

Given the economic uncertainties, what is your forecast for the beauty industry?

Daniel Saclier: Despite these uncertainties, I believe the beauty industry will remain one of the most resilient and innovative sectors.
But it will undergo a profound transformation. The market is entering a phase of polarization:
on one hand, ultra-premium products that are highly experiential and technologically advanced, on the other, more rational, refillable, and sustainable consumption. The mid-range segment is likely to be the most vulnerable.
We will likely see a consolidation of players, an acceleration of technology partnerships, a rise in investment in alternative materials, and increasing automation of development processes thanks to AI. The real challenge in the coming years will be less about launching “more” innovations than about launching innovations capable of surviving in a world under pressure (economic pressure, regulatory pressure, environmental pressure, and societal pressure). The beauty industry is entering a new era where innovation must be at once emotional, responsible, and profitable. The companies that will succeed are those capable of transforming constraints into desirability. Beyond economic uncertainties, a complex landscape looms on the horizon for the beauty industry by 2030.

Your vision is clear. By 2030, several areas of tension could therefore have a significant impact on the beauty market. Indeed, it is often these vulnerabilities that will shape future innovations in the sector. What are they?

Daniel Saclier: I’ll start with “the end of invisible plastic”! The market has not yet fully grasped the scale of the regulatory changes to come. By 2030, certain formats or material combinations will become economically or regulatory unsustainable. The risk is significant for multi-material packaging, complex non-recyclable designs, small premium runs that consume a lot of components, and systems that are difficult to disassemble. The luxury sector could lose some of its traditional codes of desirability.
Next, we will see an explosion in industrial costs. The environmental transition will be costly. Investments related to new materials, recyclability, adapted production lines, certifications, life-cycle analyses, and digital traceability will significantly increase development costs. The danger is a sharp squeeze on margins, particularly for subcontractors and mid-sized industrial companies.

Beyond the economic uncertainties—to say the least—a complex landscape is thus looming for the beauty industry by 2030.

Daniel Saclier: Consumers are beginning to show signs of fatigue in the face of constant new product launches. We could call this “marketing innovation saturation.” For years, the market has operated on the basis of hyper-novelty, limited editions, storytelling, and accelerated collection cycles.
But by 2030, the risk is a loss of credibility; consumers will demand: fewer promises, more proof, less volume, more consistency. Greenwashing could become one of the sector’s biggest reputational risks.
On the other hand, the beauty market remains extremely dependent on polymers, aluminum, glass, pigments, electronic components, and certain climate-sensitive natural materials. We can speak of a critical dependence on raw materials. Geopolitical and climate volatility could create major supply chain tensions. In the future, true value may no longer lie solely in design... but in secure access to materials.
We are also witnessing a rise in standardization. Under regulatory and environmental pressure, the sector could move toward a form of industrial standardization. The danger is real (same materials, same pumps, same refillable solutions, same recyclability requirements).
The risk for premium brands is a loss of differentiation.
The real challenge will therefore be to continue creating dreams amid increasingly standardized technical constraints.
AI could undermine creativity because it will greatly accelerate developments (design, formulation, trends, marketing content, personalization). It could also lead to creative homogenization. If all brands use the same predictive tools, the risk is ending up with a standardized global aesthetic. The paradox is striking: the more technology advances, the more precious true human creativity will become.

This is likely one of the biggest conflicts in the market by 2030. There will be growing tension between desirability and restraint!

Daniel Saclier: That’s right! The beauty industry has historically been built on dreams, emotion, luxury, the object, the gesture, and ownership. Yet new societal expectations are pushing toward: reduction, simplicity, reuse, and mindful consumption.
The market will have to undergo a profound cultural transformation: “continue to inspire dreams… with less.”
Furthermore, the market could become more cutthroat, and we may see a weakening of mid-tier players. Large conglomerates will have the means to invest, absorb regulatory constraints, secure their raw materials, and fund innovation. Highly specialized small players may survive thanks to their agility, but intermediaries are likely to be the most vulnerable (price pressure, heavy investments, and difficulty keeping pace with technology).

Could the consumer become paradoxical?

Daniel Saclier: The consumer of 2030 will likely be highly contradictory: they will want sustainable yet premium products, refillable yet ultra-convenient, responsible yet emotionally appealing, local yet technologically advanced. This complexity will make brand strategies much harder to develop.

This brings us back to your core topic. And what about innovation in all of this?

Daniel Saclier: The real risk is innovation becoming defensive. The biggest “low point” might be that innovation is no longer guided by desire or vision... but solely by constraint.
The danger for the sector would be innovation that is too regulatory, too technical, too rational, and less emotional. Yet beauty remains, above all, an industry of dreams. The challenge in the coming years will therefore be to successfully transform constraints into new forms of desirability.

* Daniel Saclier began his career in packaging design (Yves Saint Laurent, L’Oréal) with a strong foundation in fine perfumery and the codes of luxury.
In the mid-1990s, he expanded his expertise to the pharmaceutical and dermatological sectors (Expanscience), moving into strategic and decision-making roles in procurement (raw materials, packaging, promotions, B2B).
In the 2000s, he joined LVMH – Guerlain, where he played an active role in the revival of an iconic house of French perfumery. In charge of product development and procurement strategies, he guided the brand back to profitability, exceeding market standards.
In 2016, he chose to move into the industrial sector by joining a packaging supplier to gain hands-on experience in the field. Two years later, he founded his own independent consulting firm, MY ID CONSULT, serving brands, manufacturers, and project leaders to support them in their challenges related to creation, industrialization, and strategic acceleration.