As the personal care industry evolves, formulators are seeking innovative solutions for their formulations’ needs. There is increased interest in ingredients that can offer multiple functions within a formulation.
Many multifunctional ingredients offered include benefits such as emolliency, film forming, fragrance, antimicrobial or antimicrobial booster, viscosity builder, among the most popular. The concept of delivering two highly desired benefits for personal care all from one product is one of great appeal to formulators globally.
Globally, cosmetic preservatives are subject to a higher level of regulation than most cosmetic ingredients, with defined maximum use levels and application restrictions. While detailed use conditions vary from country to country, a primary global standard for acceptable preservative use is the EU Cosmetic Regulation, Annex V. Importantly, this is a positive list, that is, only actives included in this list can be used as, or considered to be, a cosmetic preservative. There are currently 55 accepted preservatives on this list, but not all are used in practice, the actual palette of preservatives is much smaller.
Ingredients that have some antimicrobial activity but are not listed on Annex V to Regulation EC/1223/2009 – formerly Annex VI to Council Directive 76/768/EEC. (i.e. the approved preservative list) cannot be marketed as a preservative in a personal care product. These types of ingredients can only be promoted and used if preservation is a secondary function, where there is also a primary marketed function such as a fragrance (e.g. vanilla), or as an effect (e.g. moisturising).
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