Green formulations are a focal theme of the upcoming Asia-Pacific edition of the Sustainable Cosmetics Summit. It will take place in Hong Kong on 11-13 November.
The summit will have dedicated sessions and workshops on green materials and formulations. Although the palette of green materials has widened in recent years, Organic Monitor finds cosmetic formulators still face many technical and sustainability issues when using natural ingredients. Preservation remains the number one technical hurdle for formulators of natural and organic personal care products. Although many green materials have become available for preservation, no single material is popular because of variations in product composition. Stability is a major issue, with some green preservative systems leading to discolouration and/or odour changes. Green surfactants are another problematic area, partly because certification agencies cannot agree on permissible green chemistry processes. Most progress has been made in the area of green emulsifiers and rheology modifiers. Organic Monitor finds that many ingredients are now available to produce elegant skin care emulsions. A major development is the move from producing green materials to the use of sustainable processes and extraction techniques. A number of ingredient companies are investing in new processing techniques and sustainable technologies. For instance, the Zeta Fraction technology of AkzoNobel enables natural actives to be harvested from plant materials with a lower environment impact than traditional methods. Mibelle Biochemistry is using plant stem cell technology to extract actives from plants. Its PhytoCellTec technique allows active ingredients to be extracted from rare and exotic plant species.
