TAGS: Sustainability / Natural Cosmetics Hair Care Skin Care
An Interview with Caroline Mabille, Global Marketing Manager, Beauty Cleansing at Solvay Novecare
The beauty care industry is evolving through sustainability concerns. Consumers demand easy-to-use and multifunctional beauty solutions that are:
- performant,
- tailor-made,
- sustainable, and
- beneficial to their health and the planet.
As consumers pay more attention to their skin health, they are increasingly turning to sulfate-free products for hair and skin cleansing. However, products without sulfate-based cleansers such as sodium lauryl sulfate (SLS), sodium laureth sulfate (SLES), and ammonium lauryl sulfate (ALS) which have the potential to cause discomfort to eyes, mouth, skin, and scalp, can often run into formulation problems. This is due to a high level of salt that is either added to the formula to increase viscosity or contained in alternative, sulfate-free surfactants.
Too much salt can cause formulation issues, as well as make the product unsuitable for specific applications and important beauty care targets. Solvay offers sulfate-free ingredients to help control total salt levels, optimize foam properties, and maintain formulation clarity and stability.
We interviewed Caroline Mabille, Global Marketing Manager, Beauty Cleansing at Solvay Novecare to better understand how their diverse portfolio of surfactants is at par with the consumers’ demand for sulfate-free formulations and the steps taken to meet the industry shift towards carbon neutrality.
#1. What is Solvay's positioning in the world of sulfate-free solutions?
Solvay offers a very broad and diverse portfolio of
foaming and cleansing surfactants, globally. Starting from sulfates, sulfonates, and
amphoteric surfactants 40 years ago, we have constantly enriched our portfolio to meet the evolving market demand. Solvay is very well connected to regulatory bodies and industry associations, as well as to consumer trends to anticipate such shifts in technologies in order to innovate solutions and enable our customers to develop sustainable products.
Our current portfolio ranges from alpha olefin sulfonate, sulfosuccinate, amino acid surfactants (taurates, glycinates, and others), sultaines, amphoacetates, to
betaines. We operate and supply these chemistries and products in all regions of the world.
#2. How is Solvay unique and why is this relevant?
Solvay’s uniqueness in the market lies in our ability to best identify the solutions to these new formulation challenges. Thanks to the depth of our
sulfate-free portfolio, we are “solutions-oriented” and not solely “technology-oriented” and consequently genuinely focused on the satisfaction of our customers through new surfactant developments and full formulation support.
Our application labs around the world have the capability to evaluate the
hair care and
skin care benefits with trained panelists and professional experts, following ‘in-vivo” assessment methodologies that are aligned with the practices of our customers. Furthermore,
other technologies and ingredients in our portfolio act synergistically with the cleansing chassis, especially for hair conditioning and detangling benefits. Consequently, Solvay is able to deliver full sulfate-free solutions that match the consumer product brief of our customers.
Anionic selection - Each characteristic & performance attribute is evaluated on a scale going from 1 to 5
#3. What are the most critical challenges customers are facing now-a-days and how are your innovative solutions are helping them?
Formulating sulfate-free is among the most complicated challenges today’s formulators are facing. Because sulfated surfactants represent about 50% of the total solids of a shampoo or body wash, removing them means fully rethinking the design of the formula. The foaming properties are going to be different,
building viscosity will be an art in itself, clarity will be impacted, and cost will be another struggle for the formulators.
To add to the technical challenge, some new product development briefs call for the removal of non-biodegradable and synthetic polymers such as:
- silicones,
- polyquaterniums, and
- carbomers.
From all the above, we understand that sulfate-free formulations will be about diversity, and not anymore about standard chassis. Our latest innovations and solutions are around how to maintain a high foaming performance with the right combination of “sulfonate” and “carboxylate” surfactants thanks to our sultaine (
Mirataine® CBS MB,
Mirataine® LHS) and taurate (
Geropon®) surfactants.
Solvay also demonstrated that in sulfate-free chassis, residual salt such as sodium chloride is detrimental to the formulation stability and clarity, so we developed new surfactants to reduce residual salt levels to the minimum possible thanks to our ULS products (
Mirataine® DAB ULS MB and
Mirataine® CB 35 ULS HP MB).
Some salt is good to help build the viscosity, but too much salt can be detrimental to formula clarity and stability. For greater freedom in the design of sulfate-free chassis, the use of ultra low salt surfactants is recommended
Finally, we developed
Miracare® Soft S 525 MB to enhance the foam creaminess and texture in sulfate-free shampoos, delivering an experience conveying the signal of premium care to the consumer.
#4. What are the current and future market trends/shifts and how Solvay is leading them?
The sulfate-free trend really picked up with the acquisition of the Pureology brand by L’Oréal and the higher consumer awareness about the potential impact of beauty ingredients on their skin & hair health. Further to that, regulatory pressures have become more and more important on persistent, mobile, and toxic impurities such as 1,4 dioxane. Proposition 65 in California regulated 1,4 dioxane many years ago. And there is now an acceleration and globalization of the matter with the latest law passed in the State of New York on 1,4 dioxane residuals in rinse-off products.
Discussions have now started in Germany and in the EU on 1,4 dioxane residuals in surfactants. As mentioned earlier, there are also ongoing discussions around the biodegradability of synthetic polymers. Solvay is addressing these issues through innovation, delivering new products and solutions that help formulators avoid the use of such materials (no compromize on sustainability), while ensuring the consumer benefits are maintained or improved (no compromize on performance). Further anticipated market shifts are around the 2040 goal towards “carbon neutrality” which many companies have set.
Regions of Availability of the Different Products Offered by Solvay Novecare
#5. Can you further detail the “carbon neutrality” trend across industries and your contribution?
On this matter as well, Solvay is very actively engaged in various external partnerships and customer collaborations. Solvay announced the creation and funding of a strategic growth platform (Biomattech) focused on the development of next generations’ biotechnologies and bio-based materials. This effort is being supported by the recent acquisition of biotech capabilities in Cambridge, MA near Boston, along with other investments in various start-ups. In 2022, Solvay launched its first glycolipid biosurfactants, manufactured through fermentation presenting a significant reduction in carbon footprint compared to other “fossil-based” surfactants utilized in the industry today.
VIEW ALL SURFACTANTS BY SOLVAY
About Caroline Mabille
Caroline Mabille has a Ph.D. in physico-chemistry and more than 15 years of experience in the personal care industry. She is currently Global Marketing Manager for Beauty Cleansing at Solvay Novecare. Prior to this role, she held a Global Business Development position for Beauty Care and led from a business perspective, Solvay’s platform of projects dealing with non-microplastic & biodegradable polymers. She also worked for more than 18 years in R&D including in management roles.