Sustainable, natural, made from renewable raw materials, vegan, free of – these are properties for cosmetic products that are increasingly demanded by consumers and fits perfect to Polyglycerol Cosmetics.
Naturally, emulsifiers, stabilisers and texturisers should also meet these expectations, because even natural cosmetic products cannot do without them.
PEG/PPG emulsifiers
PEG and PPG are used in cosmetics as well as in the pharmaceutical and food industries as humectants, texturisers and emulsifiers. As emulsifiers, they ensure that substances that are actually immiscible, such as water and oil, can be mixed together. They enable the production of a wide variety of textures with the desired sensory characteristics.
The widely used PEG/PPG emulsifiers cover practically all existing HLB ranges.
Since they are produced synthetically, they are always available, inexpensive and have a long shelf life.
Questionable PEG / PPG products?
Even though they are well tolerated by the skin and pose no risk in the intended concentrations, PEG/PPG have come under criticism in cosmetics and have been classified as “questionable” in some cases. PEG-free is now an argument that lifts a product’s image.
The accusations:
PEG/PPG are suspected of making the skin more permeable to harmful, allergenic and carcinogenic substances.
Emulsifiers containing PEG/PPG, especially in leave-on products, can damage the skin barrier, causing the skin to dry out and be more likely to absorb pollutants and environmental toxins. PEG permeation through intact skin is low, but possible if the barrier is weakened. Synthetic emulsifiers in particular may wash out the skin’s own lipids during cleansing.
There are indications that various synthetic PEGs increase the skin’s sensitivity to light.
PEG/PPGs are not biodegradable and are therefore harmful to the environment.
Facts about individual PEG/PPGs cannot be generalised, but nevertheless
PEG/PPG are not desirable in formulations made from renewable raw materials.
Polyglycerol cosmetics have an ideal substitute for PEG/ PPG products
The PEG/PPG-free alternative of polyglycerol cosmetics is of plant origin.
Emulsifiers made from renewable raw materials offer comparable advantages to PEG/PPG products without their disadvantages, and many are suitable for reformulation into PEG-free products.
Conventional emulsifiers usually contain PEG/PPG groups as the hydrophilic part.
Polyglycerol cosmetics use a vegetable fatty acid as the lipophilic part and a polyglycerol as the hydrophilic part.
The esters of polyglycerol, made from glycerol and fatty acids of vegetable origin, such as rapeseed or soybean oil, are used as emulsifiers in the food industry.
Polyglycerol cosmetics use renewable raw materials, such as rapeseed oil and RSPO-certified palm kernel oil.
The emulsifiers of polyglycerol cosmetics have several plus points for the environment, skin compatibility, safety, and production:
Biodegradable
Renewable raw materials
Skin-friendly, irritation-free, do not make the skin sensitive
Moisturising, improve the skin’s moisture balance and smooth the skin.
Cover a wide range of HLB values
Allow to reformulate PEG/PPG formulations in a natural way.
Similar behaviour in spreadability, absorption, partly less white shimmer and no oily skin feeling.
Compared to ethoxylates (PEG, PPG), polyglycerol esters have the following advantages:
Polyglycerol esters can be optimised to form self-organising lamellar structures, resulting in improved emulsion stability.
Polyglycerol esters are less temperature-sensitive in their phase behaviour (e.g. phase inversion is not as rapid at higher temperatures).
Polyglycerol esters are more tolerant to electrolytes compared to ethoxylates.
Polyglycerol esters have a higher compatibility with oil phases of different polarity.
Conclusion:
The vegetable polyglycerol esters enable stable emulsions with good skin feel and moisturising properties, adapted viscosity, microbiological stability and are suitable for reformulating PEG/PPG products with similar skin feel and sensory properties as PEG/PPG containing O/W emulsifiers.
They are suitable for the production of O/W emulsions (sprays, lotions, creams, butters) with good shelf life, in many product and application forms. Polyglycerol cosmetics emulsifiers stabilise emulsions even against challenging ingredients, such as UV filters, critical active ingredients, electrolyte-containing formulations.
Polyglycerol cosmetics often achieve the desired viscosity and stability with the polyglycerol emulsifier alone. The reduced production time, as no additional polyacrylate-containing thickeners, consistency improvers are used, as well as possible hot/cold processes provide significant energy savings.
Natural emulsifiers of polyglycerol cosmetics – Some examples
Very high stabilising capacity: Stabilises low viscosity and difficult to stabilise emulsions such as sprays or lotions.
Enables the production of O/W emulsions based on energy-saving hot-cold processes.
Moisturising properties
Excellent formulation flexibility with respect to high levels of water-soluble UV filters or difficult to incorporate ingredients (e.g., insect repellents, natural preservatives, urea, electrolytes)
Wide pH flexibility from 4.0 to 8.5
Light skin feel, flexible sensory profile
*np = renewable fraction of total active ingredients by molecular weight distribution,
Ino = natural origin index ISO 16128
**as defined by the European Vegetarian Union
Cosmacon develops your polyglycerol cosmetics
Polyglycerol cosmetics meet the consumer demand for natural, sustainably sourced raw materials in cosmetics and can offer an ideal substitute for PEG/PPG products with polyglycerol derivatives. The PEG/PPG-free emulsifiers of polyglycerol cosmetics cover a wide HLB range. They offer the advantages of synthetic emulsifiers without their disadvantages and allow the integration of difficult-to-integrate ingredients. In addition to reformulation, polyglycerol cosmetics enable the reformulation of products containing PEG/PPG. Above all, it scores with the use of renewable raw materials.
