Demonstrates how the company is “always solving” in skin- and hair- care applications
Ashland will showcase the company’s new brand strategy and identity to the personal care industry at the in-cos Asia show. Through several new initiatives the company demonstrates how they have solved customers’ most complex problems by enabling them to amplify the efficacy, refine the usability, add to the allure, ensure the integrity, and improve the profitability of their products and applications.
“As we go to market we are essentially making a promise about what it will be like to work with us and what we can accomplish for the personal care industry,” said Vito Consiglio, vice president, Personal and Home Care, Ashland. “We are passionate, tenacious solvers who thrive on developing practical, innovative and elegant solutions to complex problems in applied chemistry, always pushing the boundaries of what’s possible, and advancing the competitiveness of our customers across diverse industries.”
In Asia, protecting skin and hair from the deleterious effects of pollution is one of the most important drivers of the personal care market throughout the continent. Pollution may adhere to the skin and the particulate matter may penetrate to induce skin sensitivity and accelerate skin aging with collagen breakdown, skin discoloration, and compromising the skin barrier. Results from a recent double-blind clinical study, conducted by Ashland’s Consumer Science team in Shanghai indicates Elixiance™ biofunctional, rich in polyphenols quercitrin and miquelianin, provide skin protection benefits following 70 days exposure to an urban environment with high air pollution.
Additionally, new studies by Ashland show that hair, following exposure to pollution such as cigarette smoke, tends to exhibit dryness, rough surface texture, and loss of luster. Most recently, the company’s hair care research and development team found that its Aquaflex™ XL-30 polymer, a hair styling polymer, also helps maintain hairs’ allure, protecting it from pollution by reducing the degradation of proteins, such as tryptophan.
Advancing further in pollution protection with a focus on digital blue light, Ashland’s new launch Blumilight™ biofunctional, a sustainable cocoa peptide fraction was designed to address the light-activated receptors expressed in epidermal skin (in vitro) to help prevent ‘digital aging’.
Hair is often subject to damage from a number sources, including color-treatment processes. Oxidative dyeing tends to remove the hydrophobic protective layer from the hair surface. As more consumers in Asia elect to dye their hair, a greater need exists to offset hair damage, and at the same time, maintain efficacy of color, its’ vibrancy and shine. A new patent-pending polymer by Ashland solves more than one consumer challenge. ChromoHance™ 113 polymer with multi-functional usability in shampoo and conditioner products maintains color vibrancy and shine of color-treated hair by forming a protective hydrophobic surface on hair.
Solving a multitude of problems with one ingredient
Ashland today employs core competencies in polymers and biofunctionals to enable its customers within the personal care industry to bring more than one function to a formulation, often with a single ingredient. “Multifunctional” ingredients can allow formulators to improve the usability, profitability and sustainability of finished products.
“In an era of sustainability, new personal care product forms, and personal care regimens, a premium is placed on formulations that deliver, in one application, primary and secondary performance characteristics,” said Linda Foltis, vice president of care specialties research and development. “This requires a backward integration to ingredient design and forward integration to long-term market needs. Ashland’s R&D program is substantially organized to develop and validate ingredients with multifunctional benefits in skin, hair, and oral care.”
The personal care business of Ashland today holds core scientific competencies in three areas, including the design and efficient delivery of ingredients to hair, skin, and oral surfaces; development and application of multi-functional ingredient solutions; and the architecture of rheology modifiers use of rheological techniques to characterize and fingerprint texture for cream, serum, and lotions.
Sustainability in skin care
In Asia, more companies than ever before plan to design and commercialize sustainable skin care products in the years ahead. That means companies will need raw materials to fit the criteria of sustainability, from the field to processing, and actual use in finished products.
“Sustainable skin care requires the use of plant-based ingredients that provide the assurance of ecological balance, a continuation of biodiversity, and a low carbon footprint,” said Nelson Corda, general manager, Asia Pacific. “Our Zeta Fraction TM technology delivers all of these value propositions to Asia’s skin care formulators and marketers.”
An invention of Ashland’s Dr. Michael Koganov and his colleagues, Zeta Fraction technology employs the theories of three Nobel Prize-winning scientists and involves recent advances in physical chemistry and life sciences. It is likely the only technology in the world with the capability to harness the full potential of living plants.
Unlike traditional extraction processes, Zeta Fraction technology allows for isolation of biologically active complexes and compounds by a reproducible and sustainable process. Separation of constituent parts of living cells is achieved without any external solvents or even water and with minimum energy expenditure.
A new commercial offering from Ashland utilizes Zeta Fraction technology to amplify the efficacy of Sacred Lotus, a plant cultivated in Asia for more than 4,000 years. Harmoniance™ biofunctional, a natural and multifunctional offering, provides numerous anti-aging benefits for face and body care applications. Benefits validated by in vitro and in vivo testing include skin hydration and barrier function, skin laxity and appearance of wrinkles, slimming and body contour, and skin pigmentation and tone.
“Through many new innovations highlighted at the show, we’re demonstrating how Ashland is always solving and how our research and development (R&D) is the engine driving new solutions in hair, oral and skin care applications. Working as an extension to the R&D teams of our customers around the world, we’re helping them solve market-specific challenges,” Consiglio said.
For more information about Ashland’s ingredients that support market-specific solutions in Asia, and for details about the company’s new brand identity, visit Ashland at the in-cosmetics Asia exhibition, Bangkok International Trade and Exhibition Center, Stand J20, November 8-10, or on the web at Ashland.com/personalcare.