Contribution from: Fabio Caravieri – Head of Marketing Personal Care, Clariant
Consumers are paying a lot more attention to their impact on the planet and Personal Care brands will have to follow this movement to survive. How is Clariant addressing this shift at in-cosmetics Global?
Consumer trends are demanding from beauty manufacturers, formulators and brands to step up their sustainability commitments. It’s forcing a positive rethink about aspects such as packaging reduction, resource-saving, ethical sourcing, natural ingredients, and I’m really pleased to say that Clariant is with them every step of the way. But a shift in consumption habits doesn’t have to be at the expense of neglecting other consumer preferences or our customers’ needs when it comes to product innovation. Success for all sides comes by combining them.
Can you elaborate?
Effective performance and proof of claims also matter, as does our customers’ need to take efficiency and cost performance into consideration. This is where ingredients like our six GlucoTain sugar-based multifunctional surfactants really stand out for formulators. Their mild cleansing and conditioning effect allows regular surfactants and synthetic conditioner ingredients like silicones or polyquats to be reduced or replaced, while maintaining performance and increasing the natural content of the final formulation. For a shampoo or liquid soap formulation such reduction achieves highly efficient and lower cost formulations.
Are sensory effects still a consumer priority?
Consumers are keen to always have something new in their cosmetics and it is not different with sensorial – they are looking for a significant usage experience, an experience that surprises them and goes beyond the regular “touch & feel”. We certainly receive a lot of positive feedback from the market regarding GlucoTain’s unbeatable sensory for rinse-off products. The range helps formulators to create wonderful sensory experiences, through luxuriously creamy or fresh light foams according to the kind of pampering you want to deliver. And they can more than achieve the foam volume usually associated with less sustainable end-products.
In your opinion, does sustainable always mean more environmentally-friendly?
It’s complex. One way to approach it is to look on an ingredient level and not just at a product formulation or format to assess impact on the environment. Much concern has been given to the impact of surfactants. And we’ve focused a lot of our attention on this. GlucoTain surfactants tick a lot of boxes in terms of their biodegradability and high content of non-tropical biomass, responsible sourcing, and ecolabel compatibility. But they also stand out in enabling aqua saving skin cleansing and hair care. Compared to other nature-derived surfactants, GlucoTain is 500 times safer for aquatic environment according to the CDV criterion for rinse-off products.
Aside from sustainability, what other trends are in your in-cosmetics Global spotlight?
Developing solutions to support trends and specific needs, such as anti-aging or aluminum-free, is what we are all about. It’s where we can make a difference to the industry and to the future of our planet. But new innovation can also make it more complex when it comes to product development. To that end, all our ingredients are now clustered within the market needs we have identified through our customers as being most important. These are: Naturals, Active Ingredients, Functional Claims, Sensorial Effects and Preservation. So whether you’re an indie brand, established brand or contract formulator it will be easy to know where to look to find what you need.
