Personal care trends
Formulating for clean beauty – your water and microplastic-free solutions
Water scarcity and water pollution continues to be a concern for the environment. Every year, about 130 tons of microplastic particles from personal care products enter the wastewater treatment systems. This intensifies the problem of clean water supply, adding more pressure to the ecosystem. According to WWF, 1.8 billion people will experience absolute water scarcity and 2/3 of the world will be living under water-stressed conditions by 2025.
What is microplastic?
Microplastics, as defined by ECHA, are solid particles with external dimensions of >1 nm and <5 mm. Functional ingredients acting as rheology modifiers or film formers, however, are mostly used in their liquid form and are thus colloquially referred to as liquid microplastic. Even though they do not actually fit under the definition ‘microplastic’, they enter wastewater streams and potentially the food chain. Such synthetic polymers feature a poor biodegradability and will persist in the environment over a very long period.
Keeping sustainability at the heart of what we do, we offer a range of water and microplastic-free ingredients to cater to the needs of the consumers, while minimising the impact on our planet.
INGREDIENTS:
A 100% natural, COSMOS approved oil thickener based on hydrogenated caster oil. It creates a range of interesting textures from lightly gelled oils to sorbets and sticks. It can be used for cold process or at high temperatures in different oils and emulsions.
A series of naturally derived (ISO 16128), easy-to-use oil phrase rheology modifiers based on different solvents which provide excellent thermostability, amazing suspension of actives, powders and pigments, and increasing viscosity and stability to the formulations.
A range of naturally derived (ISO 16128), innovative emulsifying gels with exceptional rheology control for W/O system. Our cold processable BENTONE® LUXE series provides unique textures with elegant sensory perception, excellent suspension of actives, powders and pigments, and the ease of application due to shear thinning effect. The BENTONE® LUXE products can be used alone without additional emulsifiers or rheology modifiers.
COSMOS approved range of clay* which enhances emulsion stability and provides exceptional suspension of actives, powders, sun filters and exfoliators. It is rich in minerals and the negative charged clay particles effectively cleanse the skin. The shear thinning quality provides excellent application on the skin.
*Thixcin® R PC, BENTONE HYDROCLAY™ 550, 1100, 2000, 2100 are raw materials approved by Ecocert Greenlife in accordance with the COSMOS Standard