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Chemyunion launches ProShine hair care ingredient
Brazil-based ingredients provider Chemyunion has announced a new haircare ingredient that targets hair shine while also having an enhanced sustainability profile.
ProShine is an active ingredient designed around the principles of green chemistry, resulting in enhanced shine and colour highlights to dyed, discoloured or natural hair, while also offering a heightened sustainability profile thanks to a100% plant-based formulation that is also fully biodegradable.
The development team at Chemyunion said they wanted to create an ingredient that targeted hair shine because this is one of the most popular claims for hair care products. It is also a claim that is currently gaining momentum because consumers link it to the health and beauty of their hair. In addition to this, statistics cited by Chemyunion show that shampoo and hair treatments with shine claims make up more than 60% of all product claims, underlining the particular importance for these two particular product areas.
Currently, the most popular ingredients used to give shine in hair care products are oils, various vegetable extracts and silicones, but the Chemyunion development team says that these types of ingredients can cause unwanted short-term side effects to the hair that impact the efficacy, while also negatively impacting the environment.
The company says that while oils and vegetable extracts are renewable and biodegradable, they do not interact in a meaningful way with the hair fibre, are easily removed during hair washing and can contribute to oily or greasy hair.
Meanwhile, silicones can have a negative impact on the environment. They are not very biodegradable because they come from chemical reactions involving chloride composites from petrochemicals, while also having bioaccumulative properties. To avoid these issues, the Chemyunion team decided to explore more sustainable, eco-friendly and effective solutions to achieve hair shine, which is why they created ProShine from 100% plant-based renewable sources.
The development team says the enhanced efficacy of the ingredient has been achieved by focusing on why hair actually appears to have shine, which is all to do with light reflection. This is accomplished by ensuring the surface of the hair is flat, and therefore, undamaged. Once a smooth surface is achieved, a highly reflective active ingredient is added to coat, protect and add shine to the hair strand.
Following this principle, the Chemyunion team developed ProShine to interact with the main keratin structures in the capillary fibre, forming what is described as a uniform molecular film with a high reflective index. This means that the intermolecular interaction between the Hydroxyl group of the esters in the ingredient’s molecules and the amino acids in the strand has been proven by the company’s clinical trials, using silico modelling.
Cornelius Group launches Cor-Sil Avance
UK-based Cornelius Group has launched a new silicone solution that reinvents the way water-in-silicone emulsification technology works. Silicone can be difficult to emulsify, which is why the Cornelius team has developed Cor-Sil Avance to incorporate a rapid emulsification action.
Adding to the ease of formulation, the ingredient can also be emulsified at room temperature, with the rapid speed and ease of the process contributing to a reduction in factory production time and process heating by up to 50%.
Scaling up from laboratory to factory is also significantly easier, with the Cornelius team estimating that it could be up to five times quicker than the traditional process, while the ease of formulation also contributes to as much as a 40% saving in formulation costs, as well as reducing the need for other raw materials by up to 50%.
However, the formulation efficiencies do not mean any compromise in efficacy, the company says. This is because the ingredient is developed from a patented molecule designed to make processing much easier. The team says its trialling of the new ingredient has shown that it results in ultra-light, quick-breaking emulsions with a non-pilling after-feel on the skin.
These properties all contribute to a premium silicone feel without the use of elastomers, additional film formers and other additives, making it ideal for a wide range of skin and sun care formulations with a broad choice of ingredients, including humectants, sunscreens and thickeners.
Ultimately, the Cornelius team believes its Cor-Sil Avance solution disrupts traditional silicone-based solution by making a simple switch in formulation behaviour to make the process both significantly more efficient without compromising on efficacy.
Mibelle launches moss extract anti-ageing ingredient
Mibelle Biochemistry has revealed its latest ingredient launch, MossCellTec Aloe, which is based on a moss created using biotechnology.
The company says it improves cell-to-cell communication via connexin channels, while evening out the moisture distribution in the skin to ultimately reduce the volume and depth of wrinkles.
The ingredient is a further development of the company’s MossCellTec No. 1, which is claimed to be the first-ever ingredient to be biotechnologically produced from moss.
The new ingredient uses the same technology used to produce MossCellTec No. 1, allowing for the sustainable large-scale production of Aloina aloides moss extract, a rare species that has a high water retention capacity, and is also known as aloe-moss.
This moss is a tiny dark green to reddish moss that measures just 2 – 5 mm in height and the ridged leaves from the plant form a distinctive rosette that is similar to the appearance of the Aloe vera plant, which is how it gets its name.
Mibelle’s clinical trials of the new ingredient point to a range of other benefits that include improved hydration evenness, a fading action on signs of ageing, as well as having a comforting effect on dry skin.
MossCellTec Aloe has been specially developed for topical applications such as emulsions and gels and has a recommended dosing level of 2%, while also being water-soluble.
The first dedicated upcycled food certification is here
As beauty brands look to food by-products and food waste as a means of making formulations more sustainable, a new US certification program has arrived to ensure standards and put a certification seal on them.
The Upcycled Food Association has begun open enrolment for its Upcycled Certification Program, which is the culmination of more than a year’s work to recognize and validate ingredients made from food by-products and waste.
An increasing variety of food by-products have been used in beauty and personal care products in recent years, including coffee grounds, nutshells, fruit husks and pulp, seeds, stems and leaves, which can be easily sourced from food manufacturers and the foodservice industry and used to create scrubs and a wide variety active ingredients.
Another important area is the significant proportion of food that simply goes straight to waste, particularly in developed countries. This area includes imperfect goods, particularly fruits and vegetables, which consumers tend to overlook. Although products featuring food by-products and upcycled waste food have proved to be highly popular with the growing band of conscious consumers, until now, there has been no way for consumers to determine if the process is vetted.
“The third-party certified program lays out a rigorous set of rules establishing definitions for upcycled ingredients and products, providing a framework for companies to create, and communicate the impact of, upcycled foods,” The Upcycled Food Association stated in a press release to announce that enrolment in the program is now open.
“Approved products and ingredients will be allowed to use the powerful new consumer-facing Upcycled Certified mark that was unveiled in April,” the statement added.
The certification program has been undergoing pre-launch testing with several participating companies since February this year. The testing period produced some useful insights, the association says, and led to the successful rollout of the full program.
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