Aude de Livonnière, Livcer

Following the increase of “paraaben free” claims, recent news about methylisothiasolinone (MIT) has shown that no easy answer exists. Regulatory constraints, combined with the marketing restrictions that some brands impose, tend to reduce the number of available options.

At the same time, the market trend is clearly oriented towards less use of preservatives and even towards launching preservative-free products.

The boom of airless packaging

The most widely used protective packaging solution used today is airless. Airless dosers are inviolable, non-pressurized distributor systems combining mechanical pump action and a container that delivers the product without taking in more air. Thanks to that feature, they can provide, as such, a relatively good protection.

Airless systems can be just as easily adapted to a bottle as a jar, pen or syringe. Promens even recently introduced Slidissime, an airless model of identical size to classic jars, which does not work with pressure but makes it possible to get the dose of cream needed for the application by lightly touching a membrane (tactile pump). Almost simultaneously, Aptar beauty + home launched Serumony, an airless stylus pen intended mostly for delicate, precious skincare formulas.

However, even if it considerably reduces the risks, a simple airless doser is not enough to totally guard against the risks of retro-contamination. Every major specialist in the sector thus developed its own complementary or alternative solutions: Aptar offers the Irresistible pump, with sterilizing filters of 0.2 micrometre and a hermetic valve, Promens the D.e.f.i.. system, a capsule with a patented closing system that makes it possible to keep a sterile formula absolutely intact, and that can be adapted to a simple tube, and Megaplast a pushbutton valve system.

Active materials

Another type of packaging solution consists in modifying the chemical nature of the material to give it a bacteriostatic character. The company Pylote is thus working directly on plastic materials. “We are modifying the composition of plastic pellets while adding mineral particles in keeping with our patented Pylengo® process. These pellets are then used for producing every type of plastic bottle and make it possible to avoid bacterial contamination inside the packaging,” explains Loïc Marchin. The action mechanism is linked to the direct contact between the packaging and the formula and not to a diffusion of particles in the product.

As for Strand Cosmetics Europe, it has developed a solution for treating the textile fibres of mascara brushes with a finisher made of a preservative, according to a patented Purcilon® process. “Since 2007, we’ve offered the first antiseptic mascara brush”, boasts Dominique Bouvier, head of the Lyon-headquartered company.

Beyond packaging

But whatever its effectiveness, packaging will never be enough in itself. Not using a preservative also implies knowing how to produce clean formulas, non-colonized by microorganisms, and to be able to keep them in this state throughout the packaging process.

As many raw materials, notably of natural origin, transport microorganisms, a decontamination phase is required. Among the available methods are: UHT sterilization (“ultra high temperature”), irradiation (the sending of ionizing rays onto the product placed on palettes), and sterilization through high-pressure technologies. But these methods are still marginal, notably on cost reasons.

As concerns filling, several solutions exist. Filling under laminar flow makes it possible, for example, to obtain an environment whose particle rate is very low. In practice, the air passes through an absolute filter and is vertically pulsated, expulsing the non filtered air outside of the protected zone, so products can be filled in a practically sterile environment. Inerting with nitrogen means you can stabilize and control oxidation to protect and increase the preservation time of actives contain in the formulas.

However, be careful. Though laminar flow system has been used for a long time, inerting is rather new technique and requires a bit of distance, but it seems interesting for future where preservatives are less and less accepted by consumers,” says Aude de Livonnière, head of Livcer, a French company specialised in the creation and filling of thermoformed samples and single doses.

In a stringent regulatory context, with self-restricting marketing practices to boot, a strong trend toward innovation has this begun and another vision of the profession and the product is underway.