TAGS: Skin Care Hair Care Sustainability/Natural Cosmetics
An Interview with Hiroko Kimura, Senior Manager, Beauty & Personal Care Department at Sanyo Chemical Industries
Sanyo Chemical offers a wide range of performance chemicals addressing the cosmetics market with applications in hair care, skin care and make-up. These products include:
- Surfactants,
- Foaming agents,
- Conditioning agents,
- Thickeners,
- Moisturizing agents, and
- Preservatives.
Sanyo’s surface control technology has solved issues for customers regardless of what field they engage in. On the hand, efforts to create a low-carbon and recycling-based society are being enhanced at an accelerating pace on a global scale.
We recently interviewed Hiroko Kimura, Senior manager, Beauty & Personal Care Department at Sanyo Chemical Industries on the company’s approach to providing sustainable solutions and benefits for the Asian beauty market to meet customer demands.
#1 – Can you tell us about the history of Sanyo Chemical and how it has been fulfilling the mission "Establish a better society through our corporate activities"?
Sanyo Chemical has been more than 110 years since the Company’s predecessor, Tada Soap-Oleo Works, was established in, Kyoto, Japan in 1907.
In our company’s motto, we are fulfilling the social wishes to improve the quality of life through our “performance chemicals”.
The word “performance chemicals” can be defined as “chemicals” evaluated by their functional characteristics, and not by their composition. In other words, we produce our products from the viewpoint of their characteristics such as water absorption or cleansing ability.
Refining their characteristics according to customer needs, by combination with chemical functions derived from other industrial fields, we released 3000 kinds of performance chemicals to the world.
#2 – What is Sanyo’s approach in formulation when it comes to sustainability or clean beauty? What are some of your efforts to support UN SDGs?
We especially contribute to the reduction of rinsing water while maintaining the health of the user's skin (suppression of bacteria and low irritancy) with excellent foam formulation. Moreover, we also have many biodegradable products.
In recent years, we are working on sustainable raw material procurement, including the acquisition of RSPO certification.
Items that contribute to the SDGs are as follows:
#3 – What is Sanyo’s offering for the Japanese beauty market to meet with the current demands of the consumers?
As I mentioned, we feature performance chemicals, that is, high functionality.
Sanyo Chemicals have been solving various problems using surface control technology, which is Sanyo's specialty.
Low-irritation products which have been in demand for many years are one of our strengths. While exhibiting this feature, we provide a wide variety of products such as:
- BEAULIGHT SHAA which realizes the excellent foam and long-lasting foam that Japanese people prefer.
- PIUSERIA AMC which can be also our main product contributing to existing shampoo bases prevents itchy scalp and dandruff.
- SALANJUL Series which impart a smooth texture suitable for Japan's humid environment.
#4 – Could you explain what your "surface control technology" is about?
There are various interfaces in every scene from manufacturing to the use of cosmetics, such as an emulsion that is an interface between water and oil, or foam that can be described as an interface between liquid and air. An interface between skin and cosmetic products is also an essential target of the technological approaches.
Our "surface control technology" covers all of the interfaces and we have been developing truly effective ingredients for cosmetics.
#5 – What are some features of PIUSERIA AMC making it unique as compared to its counterparts?
Sulfate surfactants such as sodium laureth sulfate have been commonly used. This kind of surfactants has the advantages of high cleansing and good foaming ability. However, there is a concern about high irritation to the skin.
So, recently amino acid-based surfactants are featured because of low irritation to the skin. However, they have skin problems such as dandruff, itching, and the lower viscosity, which requires ingenuity in the formulation.
About this issue, PIUSEIA AMC has following three benefits:
- The benefit to the consumers is the prevention of itching and dandruff. We reached suppression of itching with the approach to reduce the amount of surfactant residue on the skin and lower the surfactant’s irritation to the skin. And, we approached suppression of dandruff by reducing the amount of sebum residue on the scalp and the bacteriostatic effect of the surfactant itself.
- The other benefit for formulators is the reduction of the dosage of thickener by the contribution of the thickening effect of PIUSERIA.
- The molecular design promotes the formation of highly ordered structures.
Existing approaches to prevent itching in shampoos are generally based on the method of compounding actives and extracts. However, this approach has some disadvantages, such as the fact that it also inhibits other indigenous bacteria. Also, it does not remove the cause of the itching and is limited to a temporary effect.
Our approach avoids these disadvantages of the existing approach because it is without actives and extracts. Our approaches focus on the amount of surfactant or sebum residue is the world’s first approach.
#6 – How does Sanyo anticipate the growth of the Japanese beauty industry and some of its innovations to look out for?
Japan will also move toward an environment-oriented society like the rest of the world.
In order to respond to this change, it is necessary to provide products that contribute to the SDGs, such as essentially sustainable cosmetic raw materials that use naturally derived raw materials or upcycled raw materials. And they must also be truly effective.
We will contribute to the improvement of QOL by creating trends in the field of cosmetics with “truly effective, sustainable, and unique materials”.
About Hiroko Kimura
Hiroko Kimura graduated from graduate school in 1995 (major is inorganic powder). Initially, she worked at an industrial and cosmetic raw material manufacturer for 8 years. She also worked at an original equipment manufacturer for 13 years.
Later, she joined Sanyo Chemical Industries, Ltd. as a cosmetic project leader called “Sanyo Skin Coffret.”
In 2019, she worked as a Manager of the Beauty & Personal Care Department. In 2020, she engaged as a senior manager of the Beauty & Personal Care Department after an organizational restructuring.
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