Tried and True: Innovating with Silicone Technology in Beauty and Personal Care

Featuring Dow silicone ingredients

For beauty and personal care formulators, addressing how silicones function in formulations to make materials work better and how they perform as essential ingredients is crucial for today's beauty formulation landscape.

For decades, silicones have functioned as a keystone ingredient in beauty and personal care applications and have been an ideal solution for hair care, skincare, color cosmetics, and sun care. Highly valued for their abundance, versatility, and star performance in formulations, silicones have a long list of unique and combined benefits to prove they enhance other ingredients and their end products. Simply put, silicones are the ultimate chemistry multitasker.

Despite many documented advantages in the lab and on the production line, silicones also have a mixed reputation, and misinformation surrounds this product family. Brands formulating new product lines or updating existing ones must navigate how to meet consumer demands for more naturally derived options while also leveraging the safe and proven use of silicones, whose product efficacy is backed by science and data.

As the industry shapes the future of beauty, the innovation race is on. Suppliers are innovating to bring both naturally derived and tried and true synthetic products to consumer shelves. With the circular economy in mind, product makers seek to fulfill the clean beauty trend with safe and creative advances in formulations, processing, and packaging.

Dow and Univar Solutions Beauty and Personal Care ingredient specialists are on the front lines to bring clarity and insight to formulating with silicones sustainably while balancing advances in today's leading beauty component technologies.

Formulating with silicone ingredients presents a unique set of challenges for beauty brands, primarily concerning consumer perceptions and environmental considerations. Despite these hurdles, the benefits of incorporating silicones into beauty formulations include:

• Enhanced texture
• Increased spreadability
• A silky finish (highly valued in skincare and makeup products)

To overcome challenges, brands must focus on educating consumers about the safety and efficacy of silicones for beauty ingredients and investing in research and development for more environmentally friendly silicone options. This approach addresses consumer and environmental concerns while leveraging the unique properties of silicones to improve product performance and sensory appeal.

Our beauty and personal care ingredient team is pivotal in supporting beauty brands in their silicone formulation journeys – at any stage of the product development cycle. With a comprehensive ingredient portfolio and a deep understanding of silicone beauty formulations, Univar Solutions offers tailored and innovative raw material and chemistry solutions that enable brands to harness the full potential of silicone products.

Our team's expertise in navigating the complexities of silicones allows them to provide innovative solutions that meet the evolving needs of the beauty industry. Whether it's formulating for performance, sustainability, or consumer appeal, our Beauty and Personal care application development specialists in our global Solution Centers are committed to helping brands achieve their formulation goals with silicones, helping to ensure they can deliver exceptional products to the market and exceed consumer expectations.