For chemicals manufacturers in the modern day, the cosmetics
industry represents an extremely lucrative target market. Globally, cosmetics
account for billions of dollars in revenue, and with new products constantly
being developed and hitting the market, the scope for development and
innovation is high.
From Natural to Petrol… and back to Bio
Of course, where cosmetics are concerned, the story of their
ingredients has a certain circular nature. Cosmetic ingredients have always
traditionally been natural – indeed the word alkali comes from the Arabic for
wood ash, which was used as soap – historically this was by necessity, but with
the advent of petrochemicals, more options opened up. Petroleum-derived
chemicals offered cosmetic manufacturers an array of readily available
hydrocarbons, which could more easily be processed into chemicals with specific
properties, rather than searching for the same properties in natural sources.
Crude oil’s relative abundance and low price also makes petroleum-based ingredients
cheaper to produce.
However, as products made from crude oil come under
increasing scrutiny, companies are starting to go “back to nature”, by
substituting petroleum-based ingredients for biobased equivalents. For oily
ingredients this has always been easy, thanks to vegetable oils, and now with
modern capacity for biorefining, a great variety of chemicals can be produced
from biomass to subsequently be used as ingredients. These chemicals can also
have additional benefits and functionality that would be harder to induce from
petrochemicals, thanks to biomass’ more complex chemistry. The processes for
producing these biobased chemicals can also be safer than their petroleum-based
equivalents, as fermentation reduces the risk of exposure to potentially
hazardous intermediates. One such example is Genomatica’s Brontide – a butylene
glycol produced via fermentation, rather than relying on carcinogenic
acetaldehyde – which provides a more sustainable alternative ingredient with a
variety of uses in cosmetics. It is not just safer, however: biobased
processes such as fermentation are much less energy-intensive than petroleum
chemical processing, which provides an indirect environmental benefit through
emissions reduction.
As always with biobased products, the devil is in the
detail. A company is able to call an ingredient or product “biobased” provided
it is at least partially biobased. The more likely reality is that biobased
products are a percentage biobased. This may be as high as 90%+, or as low as
10%, but due to a lack of regulations around naming, two such products with
these percentages of biobased content can both be called “biobased”, making
them appear equivalent to the layperson. Certification schemes exist that
confirm how biobased a product actually is, but these are rarely known or
recognised outside the industry, or the most discerning of consumers.
This is, of course, not a negative in of itself: sometimes
products need to maintain low levels of biobased content in order to keep
production costs manageable. The bioeconomy has very strong R&D
foundations, which mean companies are continually looking to raise the viable
levels of biobased content in biobased products. This does however highlight
the importance of “smart shopping”, and for consumers to maintain an awareness
of just how biobased their products are, to keep pressure on those producing
them to continually improve their efforts.
Biobased cosmetic ingredients are certainly spreading, and
starting to be recognised. The US’ BioPreferred scheme – which mandates
certified biobased products be used in the public sector, and is one of the
most respected certifications for biobased products – currently lists 227
biobased cosmetic ingredients. Many more will exist outside the scope of this
particular scheme.
Ingredients
Of course, the specific makeup of each cosmetic product is
different, but the ingredients themselves tend to be similar in terms of their
properties. All liquid cosmetics will have flow modifiers to allow them to be
easily dispensed and applied, these usually take the form of soluble polymers. Examples
include Nouryon’s newly released Amaze SP for hair products, and Clariant’s
Aristoflex.
Another important property that is essential for a great
deal of cosmetic products is effective control of moisture – whether applied to
skin or hair, consumers expect cosmetics to provide moisturisation. This is
achieved through two different classes of ingredient: emollients, such as
Elevance’s Soft CG-200, provide an effective barrier on the surface of the skin
or hair, preventing moisture loss, while humectants, such as propanediol – of
which DuPont Tate & Lyle’s Zemea is a 100% biobased – actively attract
water either from the surrounding environment, or the surface of the skin, thus
directly increasing the moisture content of skin or hair. Good moisturising
products will utilise a mixture of both, and biobased versions of both kinds of
ingredient are available.
Many personal care products are also focused around cleaning,
which will always require surfactants in order to break down grease and dirt
(not dissimilarly to other biobased cleaning products). We’ve already written
about Croda’s contributions to the UK’s speciality chemicals market, and duly
they have a great range of surfactants in their portfolio.
Beyond these common ingredients, it entirely depends on the
desired function of the cosmetic product as to what gets included. Examples of
more specialist ingredients include fragrances – which are notoriously easier
to derive chemically than to extract from natural sources en masse – sun
protection factors, and exfoliants (but more on these latter two later).
A natural angle
For companies who manufacture and market cosmetics, biobased
ingredients offer a good marketing approach right off the bat: consumers like
for their cosmetics to be “natural” rather than synthetic, despite the
differences in their actual effects being minimal. Market research repeatedly
shows that consumers are more than willing to support sustainable products, and
this is reflected in increasing efforts from companies to raise the
sustainability profile of their cosmetics. Younger generations are particularly
in favour, which indicates that this market is only set to grow. Even though
biobased ingredients (in the form of vegetable oils) have been around for some
time, being able to transition from petroleum-based to biobased where the more
specialised chemicals are concerned plays into this consumer demand nicely.
Switching to biobased is easily marketable as sustainable – producing
ingredients from plants represents increased renewability compared to petroleum
(provided the biomass is sustainably sourced and managed) – but can there also
be an environmental benefit to switching to biobased ingredients?
Outside of their production, cosmetics aren’t responsible
for carbon emissions, but it has already been highlighted that biobased
production methods are often less energy-intense, causing an indirect emissions
reduction for the products’ life cycle. But where cosmetics are concerned,
there is a far bigger environmental issue than emissions: since many of them
end up being washed away, they can end up in water courses, causing pollution
therein. This has led many cosmetics producers to produce ingredients that are
biodegradable in aquatic conditions, a property that biobased chemicals can
certainly offer. The chief culprits that this new approach aims to tackle are
microbeads, and as far as pollution problems go, there are few with a higher
profile at present.
Microbeads – a not-so-micro problem
There has been a great deal of controversy in the media in
recent months surrounding microbeads – microscopic plastic particles that are
often included in cosmetic products to provide texture. Recent research has
shown that these find their way into the environment, causing a harmful build-up
of plastic in aquatic environments, where due to their small size they are
easily consumed by wildlife. Countering this problem has been a priority for
the cosmetics industry, particularly in the wake of bans being brought into
force. Chief among those countering this issue have been Italian company
Bio-On, who have developed biobased and biodegradable “micropowders” that cause
no such harm, and have even been developed to have additional properties:
notably sun protection. Bio-On claims that traditional UV filter chemicals used
in sun protection can cause skin irritation when exposed to sunlight – not
ideal for suncream – and thus have developed the micropowders to allow for a reduction
in the concentration of UV filter chemicals needed in sunscreen.
As far as target markets for biobased chemicals, the
cosmetics sector couldn’t be more ideal, and so it’s no surprise that the
bioeconomy continues to permeate the cosmetics industry. Looking ahead, with
increasing capacity for biorefining, and newer speciality biobased chemicals
being developed all the time, it would be no surprise to find more biobased
ingredients coming onto the market for cosmetic manufacturers to make use of.
The history of cosmetics may have been natural, but the future is biobased, and
we eagerly await it.