In balance with sustainability: COSSMA

Consumers ask more and more for sustainable products. But that does not only mean using recycled packaging. The production process also plays an important role. A new active ingredient shows how this need can be met in hair care.

Hair care is a dynamic market with a global forecasted value growth of 5,5% by 2023¹. The market is trending toward more naturality and eco-consciousness while keeping the key performance on hair. As consumers are paying more and more attention to their environmental impact, the hair care market is experiencing a paradox between product multiplication and sustainability. Part of the increase in the number of new products in hair comes from skin care, which seems to be taking over all beauty markets. Skin care has especially inspired an entire new product space including sleeping masks, scalp scrubs and lots of different leave-on textures (sprays, balms, cream-gel, jelly, …) to obtain the healthy hair look. Reminiscent of skincare, claims like “anti-pollution” and even blockbuster ingredients like hyaluronic acid can now be found in shampoos and conditioners.

More sustainability

This product offer multiplication, however, is increasing the environmental impact of the hair care industry and brands are starting to take action on packaging with concentrated formats or recycled plastic bottles. The next step is to lower the impact from formulation process. Brands are looking for greener performance alternatives for hair care applications to reduce their global impact on the environment. Replacing performant non-environmentally friendly conditioning agents with more natural and sustainable alternatives is not an easy task as conditioners currently available are very appreciated around the globe for their efficacy.

Cold processes

But there is a first step towards more planet-friendly alternative to classic hot process conditioners, which are showing the same conditioning performance on hair tresses². Geltrap, a new gel-in-oil texture, allows to save energy thanks to its cold process. In fact, 98% less energy compared to hot process O/W³ emulsion and 74% less compared to a cold process O/W emulsion. This energy saving also helps to decrease CO2 emission from the manufacturing process (-4,6 kg of CO2 for a 5 kg batch³), the greenhouse gas responsible for ozone degradation, which makes the new formulation a real resource saver as it also to reduce manufacturing time by 78% versus hot process O/W³.

This trendy hair conditioner is created by the combination of Easynov and Simulquat HC 305. The skincare inspired texture is easy-to-spread on hair. The patented conditioner has a silicone-like feel that provides great glide and cushioning all along the strand of hair. Not using silicones greatly reduces the product’s carbon footprint. The sand extraction and the process for obtaining silicones have a very negative impact on the environment, in terms of energy use, pollution created, and destruction of ecosystems.

Saving resources

The patented technology also gives the possibility of reducing the amount of oily phase as only 10% is necessary to obtain the same results as hot process O/W formulas containing up to 15% of oil phase. Because the liquid cationic texturiser is already pre-neutralised, it makes product development easier from brief to shelves. It allows to create diverse textures with different cold process shear and also avoids the denaturation of heat sensitive ingredient. It helps to stabilize and gives a glossy appearance to any hair conditioning formula and boosts manufacture performance by saving energy and time.Geltrap has shown the same conditioning results as Polyquaternium-10 in an aqueous gel application with a lower active content (0,5% a.m. for Polyquaternium-10 versus 0,41% a.m. for Simulquat HC 3052).

The patented hair conditioning formula, which contains less than 15 INCI names, offers great stabilising properties, the possibility of creating a variety of glossy textures, good conditioning performance, and a simple approach. At the same time, it saves energy, time and ressources. It is ticking all the boxes for next generation sustainability.