The 2012 edition of In-Cosmetics, which was held from 17 to 19 April at Barcelona’s Gran Via Exhibition Centre, recorded a total of 7,152 unique visitors in attendance, a 5% rise compared to the previous year. “As ever, the international contingent was strong, with 70% visitors hailing from outside of Spain,” the organizers announced. With 590 exhibitors, this edition was also the biggest ever, 10% larger than last year’s record-breaking Milan show.
Once again, In-Cosmetics proved to be the industry’s annual launch pad for new personal care ingredients. This commitment to creativity was echoed at the Innovation Zone Best Ingredient Award, which saw Lucas Meyer Cosmetics scoop Gold for its new ingredients Progeline and Adipofill.
Naturalness is here to stay
This year again, green products were highlighted, with a host of new botanical alternatives to traditional synthetic substances, or through the use of green chemistry methods or supercritical carbon dioxide extractions.
At Akzo-Nobel, for instance, the emphasis was put on the patented Zeta Fraction technology, a unique process developed by IBT, and recently acquired by the chemicals giant, that makes it possible to harvest and separate constituent parts of a living cell from any plant or marine source without requiring any solvents. “The technology allows for the isolation of intracellular components in a manner that is reproducible, sustainable,” said the company.
Symrise in turn chose to highlight the efforts to offer the purest active ingredients possible. "When there is no technical problem, we eliminate solvents and avoid diluting our products, it is a move towards more sustainability, allowing to decrease the transportation footprint by lowering the effective dose of the active,” said Marielle Le Maire, Global Product Director, Life Essentials.
However, the more common and mainstream naturalness and eco-friendly become the less differentiating they are. "Green remains an underlying trend, but what we are increasingly asked is a more holistic offer, in particular with commitments for traceability or ethics. We guarantee that our products are from European and not from Asian origin," we were said at Quimica Masso, a leading Spanish distributor of specialty chemicals.
There are plentiful and sometimes unexpected consequences. For instance, alternatives to palm oil become increasingly popular. Furthermore, techniques to obtain botanical actives without massively cropping plants, are growing rapidly, especially via the stem cell cultures.
Multifunctionality on the rise
In the wake of the green trend, but also as an effort to reduce costs, formulators strive to simplify their products and reduce the number of ingredients. The supply-side response apparently consists in offering a growing number of multifunctional ingredients.
For example, Alban Muller International, has launched a natural salicylic acid, extracted from wintergreen through distillation followed by hydrolysis in order to obtain a pure molecule. The particularity of this innovation: it comes out in two ingredients. On the one hand, Amipreserve, a completely natural, ecofriendly cosmetic preservative, “the only on the market to be fully regulatory compliant”. On the other hand, Amiperfect, a cosmetic active dedicated to achieving a perfect, radiant complexion, thanks to its keratolytic, anti-microbial and anti-inflammatory action.
Cosmetogenomics
In-Cosmeticsdedicated an entire education session to cosmetogenomics, thus echoing numerous launches by exhibitors, such as Evonik with Tego Arjuna and Laboratoires Expanscience with Effipulp, among many others.
The next In-Cosmetics event takes place in Paris, Hall 1, Paris Porte de Versailles, on 16-18 April 2013.
