Winners Announced for Cosmetics & Toiletries R&D Awards and Innovation Zone Awards

At the In-Cosmetics Awards Ceremony on April 17, 2012, Cosmetics & Toiletries announced the winners for the 2012 Cosmetics & Toiletries R&D Awards. In addition, In-Cosmetics named the winners for its Innovation Zone Awards.

R&D Award Winners

For Best New Ingredient, Interpolymer Corp. won for its Syntran PC 5620 water-based, film-forming polymer based on a novel acylate cross-linking technology. The material imparts superior gloss, adhesion, water-resistance and hardness. In addition, it provides quick dry time and easy removability with alcohol, and enables the formulation of nail polish that is hydrating, to promote the healthy growth of nails. Compatible with water-based actives, the ingredient eliminates concern for safety hazards, toxicity and VOC issues currently facing solvent-based nail enamels containing nitrocellulose without loss in performance.

For Most Creative Application, Kao Brands Co. won for its John Frieda Frizz Ease 3-Day Straight Semi-Permanent Styling Spray. This product is a premium, mass-marketed styling spray that allows consumers to straighten curly/wavy hair for up to three days or until shampooed. The product envelops each hair strand and when it is exposed to heat from a flat iron, the product changes from a solid to more liquid state; upon cooling, the product changes back to a solid state, which provides salon-quality straightened hair that lasts.

"This year's entries were all very innovative in different ways," said Rachel Grabenhofer, editor of Cosmetics & Toiletries. "In fact, the judges' ratings were all over the board." She explained the judging panel ranks each entry on a scale from 1-5 for both significance to the industry and long-term impact.

"We tally up the totals to determine the winners. This year was interesting in that, in many cases, when one judge rated something, say, a two, another would rate it a four. So it wasn't clear, until all the numbers were in, who the winners were." However, considering there were around 30 entries to contend with, even making it to the final round is an achievement.

Finalists for Best New Ingredient included: Lonza (Arch), for its ReGeniStem Red Rice, an extract from a Himalayan red rice meristem culture that has been elicited to promote the expression of secondary metabolites; Sederma, for its Resistem anti-aging ingredient combining eco-friendly production with a novel mechanism—hormesis; and Ashland, for its FlexiThix (INCI: Polyvinylpyrrolidone) rheology modifier, a polymer-based thickener demonstrated to work in difficult-to-thicken systems such as those having high salt content. 

Finalists for Most Creative Application included: Kimberly-Clark Corp., for its Kleenex brand Cool Touch Facial Tissue; PZ Cussons, for its Charles Worthington Salon at Home Straight & Smooth hair treatment; and Procter & Gamble, for its SK-II Cellumination Mask In-Lotion.

"All the finalists are to be commended for their remarkable work, and we at Cosmetics & Toiletries strive to recognize their science behind the end product applications." Nominations for the 2013 R&D Awards will be available shortly at www.CosmeticsandToiletries.com/awards.

Innovation Zone Award Winners

In-Cosmetics presented its gold, silver and bronze Innovation Zone Awards. There was a tie for gold, which Lucas Meyer Cosmetics, a subsidiary of the Unipex Group, for Progeline and Adipofill. Progeline is an amino acid anti-aging trio and Adipofill is anti-aging ingredient derived from biotechnology.

Silver was awarded to Mibelle Biochemistry for DermCom to renew skin firmness. Bronze went to Lipotec for Hyanify, an exopolysaccharide obtained through biotech processes from a marine bacterial strain.

 

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