RECENT NEWS

Together with StitchCrew, an organisation for early-stage entrepreneurs, BASF’s US subsidiary has launched the Inclusive Beauty Accelerator. This is aimed at “early-stage companies in the personal care and beauty space committed to creating innovative and inclusive products”.

Solvay has announced the expansion of guar production capacity at its plant in Melle, France, in response to growing demand from the beauty care market. This will be completed in Q2. Precise details of the expansion were not disclosed.

Consumer products giant Unilever has announced the second challenge in its Positive Beauty Growth Platform

Symrise has revealed that in November 2021, it began a three-year R&D collaboration with Antofénol of Plestan in Brittany, France.

Spanish biotech Vytrus Biotech, has received a favourable report on its compliance with the requirements for incorporation from the Market & Incorporations Coordination Committee.

Action for Sustainable Derivatives (ASD), a collaborative initiative between users of palm oil derivatives users to transform their supply chains, has announced plans to pool funding to support to “an on-the-ground project in a priority region that has strong supply chain links and systemic environmental and human rights challenges”. The ASD Impact Fund was developed in partnership with Tides Foundation.

Vantage Specialty Chemicals, an Illinois-based supplier of naturally derived ingredients and formulations for the personal care market and others, has acquired Jeen International, including its BotanicalsPlus subsidiary. Terms were not disclosed. Jeen founders Adam and Jeanne Perle, will join Vantage and retain a stake in the business.

Microbiome company Sequential Skin, has launched Sequential Bio, which it describes as “a novel in vivo microbiome testing solution uniquely tailored for companies across skincare, haircare and personal care product industries”. This is now on sale via the company website.

​Waste2Func, a European BBI-JU funded project has been granted €6.7 million to build a platform to collect food waste from agriculture, food manufacturing, supermarkets, auctions and restaurants and convert it via fermentation and purification into lactic acid and biosurfactants with applications in cosmetics, personal care and household care products.

XCellR8, a UK-based laboratory exclusively devoted to animal-free safety and efficacy tests for the cosmetics, personal care and chemical industries, has received £51,000 in funding from national campaign group Animal Aid. This represents half of the total matched funding required to supplement a research grant already received from Innovate UK.

The European Commission has notified the World Trade Organisation of a draft amendment adding 12 nanomaterials to the list of substances banned under the Cosmetic Products Regulation.

Univar Solutions has opened its latest ‘solution centre’ at Essen in Germany. This will offer product formulation, benchmark prototyping, product performance testing and efficacy, product analysis, shelf-life testing and other services for multiple industries including personal care.

XCellR8, a UK-based laboratory exclusively devoted to animal-free safety and efficacy tests for the cosmetics, personal care and chemical industries, has received £51,000 in funding from national campaign group Animal Aid. This represents half of the total matched funding required to supplement a research grant already received from Innovate UK.

CLR has decided to cancel its distribution contract in Scandinavia due to “some organizational changes on the former distribution set-up”. It has now set up a new partnership with company AJDK, a young Danish firm with a strong focus on personal care.

BASF’s Care Creations business has announced that a plant within the verbund site at Ludwigshafen, Germany, and the White Stone site in South Carolina have been awarded GMP status by the European Federation for Cosmetic Ingredients (EFfCI).

Friendly Chemical, a producer of eco-friendly personal care and other products, has moved to a new 930 m2 production facility in Skipton, UK. This, the company said, is the result of rapidly rising demand from major retailers.

“Personal care ingredients will play a vital role in the economic recovery of countries post COVID-19,” says Kunal Mahajan, project manager in Kline’s Chemicals & Energy practice in a blog entitled ‘Personal Care Ingredients: Where the Opportunities Lie Post COVID-19’.

Reed Exhibitions has revealed more details of the contents of the Fragrance Zone and the Sensory Bar at the forthcoming In-Cosmetics Global show in Paris on 5-7 April. These areas are sponsored by MG and IMCD respectively.

The EcoBeautyScore Consortium has been officially launched, with the aim of developing “an industry-wide environmental impact assessment and scoring system for cosmetics products” on a global basis.

Three ingredients in IFF’s Health & Biosciences’s Genencare OSMS range of personal care bioactives have achieved certification through the Upcycled Food Association’s (UFA) Upcycled Certified Programme