How can synthetic ingredients transform the beauty industry?
Imagine if you could recreate almost any substance using fermented yeast and sugar cane. Sounds impossible, right? According to Francisco Costa, the former creative director of womenswear at Calvin Klein and now founder of the beauty brand Costa Brazil, not only is it possible, he’s already doing it.
When Costa tells me this over tea in London, I’m inclined to think I must be misunderstanding. After all, Costa Brazil’s unique selling point is its use of natural Amazonian ingredients such as kaya, a skin-moisturising superfood extracted from the pods of the sapucaia tree; cacay, a vitamin-E
