Covestro showcases new ways to formulate hair care, skin care, sun care, and color cosmetics with its Baycusan polymer collection

14-May-2017 - Last updated on 15-May-2017 at 16:19 GMT

At the NYSCC Suppliers Day event earlier this month in New York City, the raw materials supplier was showing chemists and R&D pros what’s newly possible with its ethanol-based polymers and polyurethane dispersions. The Covestro team also sat down with Cosmetics Design at the event to talk through these formulation advancements.

The company, now a stand-alone supplier of raw materials, spun off from Bayer in late 2015. And the Baycusan portfolio of polymers on display still sounds like a product line with ties to that company.

Covestro operates independently but remains a subsidiary of Bayer. It’s a connection to a larger chemical company that purchasing pros and their teams in the lab could see as beneficial. “Customers look to other industries for innovation,” Jennifer Pasinski, Covestro’s distribution manager in North America, tells Cosmetics Design.

Covestro itself serves industries as diverse as automotive, construction, and electronics industries, and the company readily transfers tech when possible from those businesses into beauty. “We bring innovation and expertise [from those industries] and translate it for the customer,” affirms Pasinski.

Multifunction

The company’s C 1004 polymer was originally introduced to the cosmetics and personal care industry as a color cosmetics ingredient, especially useful in water-resistant mascara formulations.

At Suppliers Day this year, Covestro was showing the advantages of using the raw material in sun care applications. “The film-former material can be used in sun protection formulations for extra protection against sand and water,” says Sarah Schade, marketing and communications manager for the company.

The ingredient makes sense for sun care developed for use at the beach as well as for daily-wear sun care, Jane Sum, head of cosmetics at Covestro, tells Cosmetics Design. Sum also notes that Baycusan C 1004’s “film forming property reduces the migration of UV [filtering ingredients].”

C 1004 polymer is globally compliant for several categories of cosmetics and personal care products, according to the Covestro team; and it’s a good fit for “active beauty formulations too,” says Sum who shared an anecdote about testing the ingredient in the sauna.

Touchable hair

For hair care formulations, Covestro was recommending C 1008 and, the perhaps less well-known, C 1010 polymer. These lend “top-notch hair protection, repair and styling properties” to product formulations, says Schade.

At Suppliers Day, the company debuted a new prototype formulation for a product that can be used to help maintain semi-permanent hair coloring. The formula, made with C 1008, promises “flexible hold and natural gloss,” according to Schade.

C 1010 was featured for “long-lasting hold with a natural feel” in water-based hair styling products like waxes, lotions, and creams.

The full portfolio of Baycusan polymers numbers to five and also includes the ingredients Baycusan C 1000 and Baycusan C 2000. Both of which were featured at Suppliers Day for the benefits they can lend to sun care products.