BASF at In-Cosmetics 2012:
Innovations inspired by life

At this year’s In-Cosmetics trade show, BASF showcased its latest innovations for the personal- and beauty-care market, including synthetic mica-based pigments, high-performance hair care ingredients and cosmetic actives.

The BASF Personal Care business also presented its new brand, Care Creations™ and communication concept, “Inspired by Life”, while inviting customers to experience how the personal care market can be shaped by innovations inspired by life.

The BASF Personal Care business is ideally positioned to serve the personal care market demands, both today and in the future. Based on strong technological and research capabilities, the world’s leading supplier of high-quality ingredients and actives for the personal care industry will continue to follow consumer trends and market demands closely.

This enables BASF to develop innovative and valuable solutions for its customers. “We are drawing our inspiration from real life and real people while striving to understand what is relevant to them, their needs and habits,” says Simon Medley, Senior Vice President of BASF Personal Care Europe. “Our new brand, Care Creations™, gives voice to this commitment and our business approach, while expressing clearly our strengths of science excellence and market empathy.”

Solutions for advanced sun protection
“Solar Beauty” was the featured in-focus theme at this year’s In-Cosmetics and was reflected throughout the entire event and its program. Experts from BASF joined the solar beauty trail and also participated in scientific seminars on sun protection.

BASF presented its latest sun care formulations and UV filters matching the challenging market demands for sunscreens that provide protection along with ease-of-use and skin-caring properties. The “Clear Spray SPF 30” and “BB Desert Dune Foundation, SPF 20” formulations combine optimum UV protection with an appealing texture, good absorption and a superior sensory profile.

Individual lifestyle cosmetics
Consumers can be divided into different groups according to their personalities and their consumer behaviour. Their desire to fit in with society while retaining their individuality has an impact on their lifestyle, priorities and interests. The new “ My Lifestyle” concept focuses on different lifestyles of consumers. Using the solutions introduced in this concept, BASF helps customers to meet the specific demands of each consumer group.

“High-flyer” consumers, for instance, are looking for products with high-performance properties, the “eco-ethical” consumer group values products that are sustainable, while “urban youth” consumers seek out contemporary, stylish products.

Innovative ingredients for hair care products
At the show, BASF also launched Plantasil Relaxcare^®, an innovative product for the ethnic hair care market. Consumers with curly hair, typically for African, Latin and African-American consumers, are increasingly looking for new products to straighten their hair while conditioning, protecting and strengthening it at the same time. Plantasil Relaxcare can be easily incorporated into lye relaxer formulations and improves both the mechanical stability and tactile properties of the relaxed hair.

In addition, BASF unveiled another innovative ingredient for hair-styling products: Luvigel^® FIT, a liquid thickener that is tailor-made for clear and smooth hair-styling gels. The new thickener makes it much easier for formulators to achieve high setting performance due to its synergy effects with anionic and cationic polymers. This makes it the ideal solution to the challenge posed by traditional thickeners that can only be combined with a limited choice of styling polymers.

New pigments for various applications
BASF has recently added new shades to its Timica^® Pigments portfolio. These are composed of natural mineral mica and titanium dioxide, and enable BASF’s customers to give their cosmetics, beauty care and personal care products a lustrous shine and a swirling, shimmery look, in addition to having high chromacity and purity. The new shades of Timica^® Pigments are ideal for use in radiance lotions, shampoos, body washes, liquid soaps and nail polishes, and offer a perfect combination of attractive colors and appealing effects. They are suitable for a wide range of formulations – in men’s, women’s and children’s products.

Also launched are new Chione™ HD synthetic mica pigments for “high definition” which infuse formulations with bright clean colors and brilliant pearlescent effects. They provide excellent coverage, good skin adhesion, and a soft silky feel while helping to create a flawless even-tone appearance in lipsticks, glosses, foundations, BB creams, eye shadows, daily skincare and nail polishes.

Beauty Creations
The cosmetic active ingredient business of BASF, resulting from the merger of Beauty Care Solutions and Laboratoires Sérobiologiques, presented its latest solutions to inspire beauty under its new banner "Beauty Creations". Focusing on the skin and hair care market, the BASF cosmetic active ingredients business develops and manufactures cosmetic active ingredients as well as smart delivery system technologies especially designed to address key corrective actions in skin and hair care categories.

In-depth research in skin pigmentation, skin aging, protection against environmental stress, modulation of hair growth, skin architecture as well as unique R&D capabilities makes them the partner of choice for actively inspiring beauty.

Actiwhite™: new clinical study on reduction of age-spots
Lightening the skin complexion and giving skin back its original glow are major challenges for the cosmetic world, as they target all generations. Reduction of the age spots consists of decreasing the melanin present in the skin, preventing its formation and diminishing its transport.

Actiwhite™ is a synergistic complex of sucrose dilaurate and pea extract which offers the decisive advantage to combine rapidly visible in vivo effectiveness on both skin lightening and reduction of age spots, also in compliance with Asian regulatory requirements and high-cutaneous tolerance.

In addition to its previously demonstrated efficacy on skin lightening, the new carried out clinical tests have highlighted its capability to visibly reduce the contrast between the skin tone and the hyperpigmented age spot area in just 14 days. After two months of treatment, an evaluation by a dermatologist showed noticeable decrease in age spots amount and remaining age spots were faded out and smaller. Actiwhite™ is a preservative-free ingredient which conforms to Ecocert standard of Natural and Organic Cosmetics.