Innovation powers healthy hair, skin and smiles.

May 14, 2013

4 Min Read
Ashland ramps up nutricosmetics offerings

At the New York Society of Cosmetic Chemists Suppliers’ Day 2013, Ashland Care Specialties, a business unit of Ashland Specialty Ingredients, invited the personal care industry to consider an inclusive approach to fulfilling consumers’ desires for beauty around the world. Under the theme “Imagine. Collaborate. Succeed.”, Ashland showed how it serves manufacturers of personal care products with new ingredient technologies, novel formulation approaches, claims substantiation and consumer science.

“Expanding our consumer science capability within our Care laboratories around the globe allows us to understand the consumer perception of our technologies in formulated products and to correlate our in vitro measurements to consumer experience and product claims,” said Linda C. Foltis, vice president, Care Specialties R&D, Ashland Care Specialties. “Taking into account geography, skin and hair type, local trends and product regimens, we are positioned to align our R&D teams to collaborate with our customers in meeting the needs of this dynamic industry. All of this is achieved through scientific excellence in molecular science together with our expertise in formulation, materials and now consumer science.”

In the past two years, Ashland realigned its resources to better support solutions that help manufacturers of personal care products fulfill the imagination of consumers. “Adding consumer science capabilities to Ashland Care Specialties provides another dimension to developing innovative ingredients” Foltis said.

Accelerating development
Ashland expanded its global resources with the acquisition of International Specialty Products Inc. (ISP) in 2011 and built one of the largest portfolios of natural, synthetic and semi-synthetic polymers and small molecules derived from plant and seed extracts, cellulose ethers and vinyl pyrrolidones to enable product makers to create novel products more quickly and efficiently. Working with a diversified polymer technology portfolio, the synthesis experts at Ashland Care Specialties have additional resources to develop novel molecules specifically for personal care applications.

When formulation solutions alone cannot meet consumer expectations, Ashland puts its molecular science and synthesis experts to work in search of new technologies. New molecules enable product formulators to bring novel consumer benefits to the marketplace.

New ingredient launches
Ashland announced a number of new ingredient offerings this spring, including Actopontine™ biofunctional, a bio-engineered peptide designed to support skin’s own production of dermatopontin, a protein essential to rebuilding and remodeling the extracellular matrix of skin. Actopontine biofunctional has been shown in vitro and ex vivo to increase dermatopontin and other proteins such as collagen critical to skin’s foundation.

Collagen may decline by as much as 68 percent from the age of 30 to 80. Actopontine has been demonstrated to significantly increase the presence of collagen I and III in ex vivo studies. Further testing shows that an area of skin biopsy treated with the biofunctional exhibited significantly thicker and longer fibers than in an area without treatment, suggesting an increased quantity of dermatopontin located on a thicker network of collagen fibers.

Normalizing skin ecology
Ashland is also advancing skin care by innovating products intended to support the skin’s natural defenses against external threats. The skin is an ecosystem with distinct microbial communities in a range of physiologically and topographically niches. Approximately 1 billion bacteria per square centimeter of skin live in cooperation with the host. Under normal conditions, resident microbes remain harmless. Enhancing this ecosystem may result in an improvement in moisturization, radiance and appearance.

In light of this knowledge, Ashland has launched the Skin’s Ecology initiative, which shows how formulators may use the Lipigenine™ biofunctional to help normalize the bacterial community living on skin and achieve a beneficial probiotic effect. By incorporating the Lipigenine biofunctional in a topical cream, formulators may help support the skin’s production of antimicrobial peptides on the stratum corneum and boost its natural defenses.

Formulating for efficiency and efficacy
As evidence of Ashland’s commitment to helping formulators innovate consumer-desirable products, the company has introduced APShield™ 100 polymer, the first commercially available technology demonstrated to advance the performance attributes of antiperspirant products. By enabling formulators to reduce the amount of aluminum salts found in typical, high-functioning antiperspirants, this technology delivers a host of consumer benefits including less whitening on skin and staining on fabric. APShield™ 100 polymer boosts the efficacy of aluminum salts so its use can be reduced by as much as 80 percent in some formulations.

Supporting trends toward beautiful hair
Last month, Ashland introduced Conditioneze™ 22 and Conditioneze™ 37 cationic solutions, two offerings designed to impart deep conditioning, luster and soft, silky feel properties to hair. The new offerings allow formulators to produce with relative ease a range of higher-value products aimed at today’s trend toward well-conditioned, beautiful-looking hair. The expansion to Ashland’s leading line of conditioning and deposition polymers affords hair care product makers the option to utilize Ashland for a larger spectrum of conditioning solutions.

 

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