Press Room
October 14, 2005
German Version
Cognis at the SEPAWA congress 2005: new ideas for home and personal care products
At the 52nd SEPAWA congress, held in Würzburg, Germany, Cognis Care Chemicals presented new ideas for home and personal care products, with a focus on solutions serving the wellness trend. These included a new model to facilitate the development of skin care products with customized textures, a fruit acid care surfactant which is particularly kind to the skin, an innovative color care additive for detergents and a new way of assessing the performance of rinse aids.
For today’s consumers, the sensorial characteristics of personal care products exert a considerable influence on their purchasing decision. Manufacturers who claim that their products are "pampering" or “caring” need to ensure that this is reflected in the consumer’s experience during use. Texture plays an important role in determining the sensorial experience and this must therefore be taken into account in product development. Cognis’ new two-dimensional model allows manufacturers to select the right texture for each desired performance characteristic. Key to this are:
- sensorial parameters, e.g. enriching/caring or fresh/light feeling on the skin and
- physical parameters, e.g. low, medium or high viscosity.
Customized textures developed using this model enable manufacturers to better differentiate their personal care products and achieve better-defined positionings in the marketplace. The model also facilitates the creation of novel textures for products developed in response to emerging market trends.
Consumers today expect personal care products to deliver benefits over and above their core functions. An example of this is Cognis’ Plantapon® LC 7, a moisturizing fruit acid care surfactant that is especially gentle on the skin, exhibiting a degree of mildness that far surpasses that of traditional surfactants. These qualities make it especially suitable for use in gentle personal care formulations such as caring shower gels, baby cleansing products and facial washes. When added to shampoos, this citric acid derivative contributes to the hair conditioning effect and improves hair's combability. Its 100% active state also makes it suitable for use in non-aqueous formulations such as shower and bath oils.
Keeping colors brilliant
Color care products – those that offer long-term protection against unwanted color loss or dye transfer – represent one of the most promising categories in the detergent market. The growing demand for this type of product shows that detergents nowadays are expected not only to clean, but also to care for fabrics. Cognis’ new Polyquart® FDI color care additive makes it possible to develop high-performance color detergents that also protect colors and prevent from undesired dye transfer. Even in low concentrations, the product is more effective than many existing color care additives, thereby enabling manufacturers to cut their costs.
Another important aspect of the wellness trend is convenience, the desire for products that are easy to use and save time. For example, many people nowadays use electric dishwashers instead of washing up by hand. But as well as cleaning the dishes, these machines are also required to give crockery and glassware the desired sparkle and shine, and this is the function of the rinse surfactant. Standard rinse aids are not always up to the challenge of machine washing and until now, the only reliable way for manufacturers to evaluate their performance was with the human eye, a process which is both time-consuming and costly. To remedy this, Cognis has now developed a new evaluation method which employs digital image analysis to quantify the rinse aid performance. As well as saving time, this new system represents the first way of achieving objective and reproducible test results which are as reliable as a visual assessment, making possible easily accessible comparisons between different formulations.
New ideas for success in the marketplace
Says Richard Ridinger, Vice President Cognis Care Chemicals: “We are constantly seeking to present new ideas to our customers in the home and personal care markets. In line with our clear focus on the global wellness trend, we will continue to develop new formulations and market ready concepts, including marketing claims, which are directly tailored to consumer needs. In addition, we will continue to employ our technological expertise to enable our customers to improve their production processes, thereby giving them a competitive advantage.”
About Cognis
Cognis is a worldwide supplier of innovative specialty chemicals and nutritional ingredients. The company employs about 8,100 people, and it operates production sites and service centers in 30 countries. Cognis has dedicated its activities to a high level of sustainability and delivers natural source raw materials and ingredients for food, nutrition and healthcare markets, and the cosmetics, detergents and cleaners industries. Additionally, Cognis provides solutions for a number of other industries, such as coatings and inks, lubricants, textiles and plastics, as well as agriculture and mining.
Cognis is owned by private equity funds advised by Permira, GS Capital Partners, and SV Life Sciences. In 2004, Cognis recorded sales of 3.07 billion euros and an Adjusted EBITDA (earnings before interest, income taxes, depreciation, amortization and exceptional items) of 362 million euros.
Contact
Wulf Klüppelholz, Corporate Communications Manager
Cognis Deutschland GmbH & Co. KG
Phone: +49-2173-4995-221
E-mail: wulf.klueppelholz@cognis.com
Internet: www.cognis.com