Although consumers are positively influenced by a growing environmentally friendly lifestyle, they will not accept substandard performances from new products compared to those with which they are familiar. Therefore, formulators are challenged to improve the technologies and strategies of their formulations using only what nature has to offer. In the search for ingredients such as vegetable oils, waxes, actives, functional ingredients and conditioning agents that can be marketed as environmentally friendly, some categories such as emulsifiers, surfactants and fragrances are forgotten due to the intrinsic difficulty of combining the required high-tech efficacy/functionality with advanced environmental protection. These are, however, essential in the formulation process in order to guarantee shelf life and to give, preserve and emphasize the sensorial experiences that a cosmetic product must perform. Frequently, the replacement of these ingredients is not easy and the number of emulsifiers that are Ecocert-certified or suitable for an eco-label certification is limited. Thus, the formulator is forced to overcome many difficulties in order to achieve a compromise in terms of stability; in many cases, however, the desired sensorial performance is not reached.
Excerpt from Vegetal-derived Emulsifiers for Improved Stability and Formula Efficiency by Luigi Rigano, PhD, Cosmetics & Toiletries magazine, August 2011.
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