Suppliers' Day Asks: What Does ‘Green’ Really Mean?

By: Katie Schaefer, Cosmetics & Toiletries

Posted: May 19, 2009

Personal care chemists, formulators, suppliers, and marketing and sales reps all gathered under one “green umbrella” for the New York Chapter of the Society of Cosmetic Chemists’ (SCC) Suppliers’ Day 2009. The theme for 2009 was “Innovate for a Greener World,” and many of the raw material suppliers present at the exhibition delivered products on this theme. And sailing out into unchartered waters of innovation were companies debuting advanced products such as a symbiotic pre/probiotic complex, a UV-boosting sunscreen stabilizer, encapsulation for natural formulations, and an ethylene oxide-free emulsifying system for cosmetic wipes.

Before attendees crowded the show floor at the New Jersey Convention and Exposition Center, members of the press gathered down the street at Croda Inc.’s headquarters for its annual press breakfast. At the breakfast, the company demonstrated the color deposition ability of its Crodofos HCE (INCI: Oleth-5 Phosphate (and) Dioleyl Phosphate) in a 10-minute hair color. Jena Kinney, marketing manager for Croda Inc., informed attendees that due to the economic recession, women are using at-home hair color more often and expecting long-lasting, vibrant hair color. According to the company, its ingredient enhances dye deposition by helping the tint and developer to react more slowly, enabling more of the dye to penetrate the hair. For the first time, the company conducted a live demonstration of the ingredient in a red hair dye on one of its employees during the presentation. Ten minutes after the vibrant red hair dye was applied, the employee walked away with a shiny, rich head of red hair.

Hoards of suppliers and manufacturers then gathered at the Raritan Center for the exposition. The event was so popular that the line for registration extended down the block, and suppliers surely brought their A game, delivering the best of what ‘green’ formulating had to offer.

On the processing side of ‘green’ formulating, Eastman Chemical Company showcased its biocatalytic process, a formulation strategy that allows chemists to work solvent-free and avoid even trace levels of undesirable solvents in cosmetic products. According to the company, the process eliminates the environmental impact of disposing of process solvents as waste. The single-step, solvent-free biocatalytic esterification reaction yields product that is 90% pure without further downstream processing, saving time and energy and reducing material use.

Continuing the sustainable talk was West Africa Trade Hub with its demonstration on West African Shea Butter. The extraction of this shea butter in West Africa benefits the communities where it is harvested, since some of the proceeds go to the African women who harvest and hand process the shea nuts and butter.