Stevia manufacturer HOWTIAN announced the extension of its SoPure ingredient platform into lip care applications, signaling a new role for stevia in personal care. The new solutions introduced plant-based sensory ingredients designed to improve taste transfer, mask bitterness, and support clean-label positioning.
“In lip care, even subtle bitterness or irritation can shape how consumers perceive a product,” said Summer Song, senior research scientist at HOWTIAN. “Our goal with SoPure is to help formulators improve taste, comfort and ingredient transparency all at the same time.”
HOWTIAN previously introduced stevia for personal care with SoPure DENTIVIA, which demonstrated how stevia can improve freshness, mouthfeel and off-note masking in oral care applications. The company hopes that these launches show stevia’s emerging role as a functional sensory ingredient in the personal care market.
According to the company’s press release, SoPure stevia extracts offer a multi-functional approach for lip care formulations:
- Natural Sweetness: Pleasant taste transfer for lip balms, glosses and lipsticks upon contact.
- Effective Masking: Neutralizes bitter or unpleasant off-notes from waxes, vitamins, pigments and botanical extracts.
- Skin-Soothing Properties: Offers antioxidant and anti-inflammatory benefits to reduce irritation and support sensitive lips.
- Clean-Label Appeal: 100% plant-based, vegan-friendly ingredient.
- Gentle Profile: Generally safe for topical use and is non-comedogenic.
- Superior Oil Dispersion: Disperses uniformly in oil systems without crystallization.
HOWTIAN conducted comparative panel testing on lipstick formulations to further evaluate SoPure’s sensory performance. According to the results, inclusion of 0.2% SoPure Reb A 97 improved several sensory attributes, including moisturizing reception, fragrance balance and overall sensory harmony.
“The results illustrate how stevia extracts can influence multiple sensory dimensions in lip formulations, helping formulators improve taste balance and overall user experience while maintaining desirable texture and spreadability,” the company’s press release states.
