Lucas Meyer Cosmetics by Clariant won the Kenvue Trusted Science Award at In-Cosmetics Global in Paris, beating 70 submissions with Melicica (Honey), an active derived from Australian Jelly Bush honey that targets the skin's natural repair process. Judges from L'Oreal, Medik8 and Beiersdorf scored the field, and organizers handed out crystal trophies in eight categories at the close of Day 1 in the Marketing Trends Theater.

The award confirms a judging panel drawn from major beauty brands sees credible science in honey-based repair actives — a signal formulators can read when shortlisting ingredients for barrier-repair and skin-recovery claims.

Who won in the Innovation Zone?

Best Ingredient Award — Actives:

• Gold: Rahn AG — Calneurin-Sense
• Silver: Neamos — Shisome
• Bronze (tie): Chemyunion — Peptid4 Light MB and dsm-firmenich — Exovive Lift

Best Ingredient Award — Functional Ingredients:

• Gold: PolymerExpert (part of Solabia Group) — ViscoPure
• Silver: Seppic — Solagum X+
• Bronze: Evonik — Rheance Soft GO

The tie at bronze in actives is notable: two different mechanisms — Chemyunion's peptide play and dsm-firmenich's Exovive Lift — earned equal recognition. On the functional side, the podium is entirely rheology and texture chemistry, underscoring that sensory and delivery performance remains a procurement battleground between PolymerExpert, Seppic and Evonik.

Which green ingredients took honors?

The Green Ingredient Award, judged with Ecovia Intelligence, went to:

• Gold: dsm-firmenich — Alpaflor Neurosooth
• Silver: Givaudan Active Beauty — PrimalHyal NeuroYouth
• Bronze: Ashland — eternight biofunctional

dsm-firmenich doubled its medal count across the actives and green categories, while Givaudan's silver for a hyaluronic-based active and Ashland's bronze for eternight biofunctional point to sustained investment in neurocosmetics and biotech-derived naturals.

What about the Rising Star and sensory categories?

Additional winners included:

• Rising Star: Antarka
• Scent Bar: Parfex (a Croda company) for Matcha Delight
• Taste Bar (with The Good Pill): Symrise (best tasting beverage) and Lubrizol (best tasting food)
• Sensory Bar: ALPOL Cosmetique (Gold), H&A Pharmachem Co., Ltd. (Silver), Alchemy Ingredients (Bronze)
• Makeup Bar: Solabia Group (Gold), Lubrizol (Silver), J. Rettenmaier & Söhne (Bronze)

Lubrizol appears twice on the secondary podiums, in both taste and makeup, while Solabia Group closed the show with a Makeup Bar gold — meaning the Solabia organization collected two trophies across the evening, counting PolymerExpert's functional-ingredient win.

"This year's entries showcase remarkable innovation and a clear vision of where our industry is heading. We're proud to celebrate our winners and acknowledge their achievements across every category," said Andy Mather, event director of In-Cosmetics Global.

For buyers and formulators, the shortlists function as a pre-vetted scouting list: ingredients recognized here typically move quickly into supplier sampling programs and brand development pipelines. In-Cosmetics Global runs April 14–16, 2026 in Paris, and the industry's next benchmark arrives when these winners return with full dossiers and formulation data — watch for first commercial launches built on Calneurin-Sense, ViscoPure and Melicica over the coming months, ahead of the show's Barcelona edition in 2027.