Color Palette Series
It’s Spring — which makes it the perfect time to introduce our new Cosmeceutical make-up, highlighted in our Color-Palette series! If you did not receive our RSS last week, please take a moment to look at the Color-Palette blog. We have introduced these Vault products at a special introductory price and quantity, for you to test with your clients. The Color-Pallete series, formulated with our Chiral-Color complex, has become one of our favorite product groupings. It will probably be one of your favorites as well!
March 2010 Ingredient Perspective
Not only have there been vast changes in the raw ingredient industry since we published our 2009 Corporate Report — it has accelerated!
There are more mergers and acquisitions going on between ingredient manufacturers than last year. What happens when there is a new owner? They make changes. For a raw ingredient producer, that means dropping older ingredients where there is NO demand. Just as in the fashion industry – vendors drop old styles to bring in new.
Example: CoValence has used an Apple MMPI ingredient for nearly four years, yet the ingredient producers just told us last week they will no longer make this ingredient. What’s the reason for the discontinuation? Everyone wants Apple Stem Cells. End of story. We do not get a warning phase. We are simply told it is no longer available when we place an order.
I will not go on and on as to every last ingredient horror story we have had to deal with as a manufacturer. I will say that from the early 1990’s to 2003 I can only recall one ingredient that we were not able to get, all of a sudden, and we could not find a replacement. From 2004 up until present day I would say there have been around 30 or more ingredients that were suddenly discontinued. The reasons for the discontinuation are outlined in the earlier report.
We, as the manufacturer, do our best to match or find a like ingredient to one that has been discontinued. Sometimes we are able to find a match, however many times we search without any success. Unfortunately, the unsuccessful matches could be for an ingredient, exclusive to one raw manufacturer that gives a particular base feel or texture. Which means the product will not feel exactly how it did in its original state. Additionally, two raw ingredients can have the same INCI but feel very different. Raw suppliers have their own formulas for producing the raw ingredient just as we do on finished formulas. Scent is a particularly difficult issue for the same reason.
I want to add a second part involving use of natural preservatives. For years we have used Benzyl Alcohol instead of Parabens. Benzyl Alcohol works for many products as it slips in elegantly and does not disturb scent or texture. Similar to Parabens! However, Benzyl Alcohol does not provide a long shelf life which made sense with our earlier formulas considering they were not designed for a shelf-life over 12 months. Times and demands have changed, therefore we now formulate our products for a longer shelf-life (when the actives allow it).
During our formulation transition for a longer shelf life, global dominant EU regulations only allow for a low level of Benzyl Alcohol which means that other natural preservatives must be added to extend a shelf life. Since the perfect natural option does not exist yet, the process of extending a shelf life while accepting client and global demands has been very difficult, especially since almost every natural option changes the scent, texture or color of a product. Even though there is still no natural “Paraben” preservative option that will extend a shelf life while also creating an elegant texture, we continue to work towards perfecting the combination of natural preservatives that are available. (See ‘Preservatives: Let’s Make A Deal’ below)
TO OUR CLIENTS:
I am asking you to understand that the skin care business has changed. It is not what it was 10 years ago, let alone 15-20 years ago! Sophisticated skin care, which was the domain of professional skin care, is now the domain of L’Oreal, Proctor & Gamble and other mass market brands. The raw ingredient manufacturers are in the driver’s seat! What was once a small industry of high performance, professional skin care, focused in the U.S. and filling the professional skin care shows, is now ruled by mass market. Look at the Olay®, Pro-X® ads on TV. The voiceover says “We have a ‘protocol’ with these products to give you results you don’t need to see a dermatologist for.” In addition, their magazine ads have about 10 doctors signing off to that fact that a dermatologist is not needed. Neutrogena is now going in the same marketing direction.
The raw ingredient suppliers are rapidly changing, merging, and dropping ingredients to keep up with supplying larger quantities to the increasingly larger clientele that now want growth factors, brightening, peptides, everything that used to be the domain of licensed professionals. They want to make larger batches of fewer products.
WHAT NOW:
COVALENCE: We will notify you as soon as we know of a change and discuss alternatives. Believe me when I say we always try first to find an exact or close replacement. But, we also have to be careful that the replacement choice is sustainable, to the best of our knowledge. It is not pleasant for either of us to be faced with change when we all have enough to deal with as business owners and managers! But, these changes will continue to happen; therefore, wasting time and energy fighting it just detracts from everyone’s energy in getting on with the plan to deal with it.
YOU: It will be a mistake for you to think it is possible to go back to the “old days” of a product being able to stay the same for years. It will be imperative for you to develop a “Change Plan” going forward.
This Change Plan should include:
(1). Educate your clients about the nature of these industry changes and the role of raw ingredient manufacturers. Develop your own method of notifying clients on a change and refer them back to this information as to why if needed.
(2). Larger batches of each SKU makes change costs easier to manage. You can continue to use up any product that is already packaged. You can add on a corrective hang-tag even, until the current packaging is used. Larger batches can help both sides absorb costs of a change.
(3). When a change needs to happen, CoValence will provide marketing information as to why the change had to happen and why the new option is better.
This is the nature of skin care now and into the future. Like it or not, the speed of new ingredient roll-outs, the discontinuance of ingredients and competition from pro-mimic large players are all part of the landscape. The great news for you is that CoValence clients can still successfully compete because they can introduce new concepts faster than the large brands. Plus, we are continuing to work on our own ingredient Intellectual Property, which WE control, not ingredient vendors. Eventhough you must incorporate into your business plans the potential for rapid change, rest assured that we, your manufacturing partner, are doing everything in our power to make the inevitable change bearable.
All my best,
Linda
Preservatives: Let’s Make a Deal
People want to think that they could pick the preservative behind Door #1, Door #2 or Door #3 and it would easily replace Parabens. That is completely NOT the case. Parabens were used for years as they slipped in un-noticed to ANY formula – they do not alter the smell, texture and they perfectly preserved. Plus, let’s face it… they are cheap which is why the mass market still uses them.
Unfortunately, there is nothing like Parabens whatsoever in the all-natural world yet. Nothing. The closest to it is Phenoxyethanol, which is considered safe by the CIR reports – the source that governs our industry. However, it does have limited use restrictions in the EU and the comments on Skin Deep apply to very, very strong doses – not to finished products. As most everyone should know, strong doses of almost anything can irritate or burn the eyes (the Glycolic Acid MSDS states this), cause cancer (eating too much grilled meat or too much sun exposure), irritate the lungs if breathed in (any powder), cause allergies (so does DL-Alpha Tocopherol which many companies use because it’s cheap), endocrine disruption, neurotoxicity (but no one wants to examine putting unnatural hormone replacement on the skin and what that does to disrupt the body)! If only there was a group that dared to attack the real enemies to health that individuals are faced with on a daily basis.
There is no natural preservative out there can cover all bases like Parabens did. They either are not strong enough for the shelf-life needed for global distribution, make a product smell, or change the texture, on and on. The perfect preservative that works just like Parabens—does not exist –yet.
Certain websites will continue to disapprove of everything out there as that is their business. However, savvy skin care professionals are right to keep tabs on these things and the development of new options as the raw ingredient industry keeps developing them. But, they also need to keep perspective on the balance between the value of results-driven products like CoValence offers and the time needed for the evolvement of new and better preservative options. It has been the mandate of CoValence from the beginning, to not be stagnant or resist change, as better options become available. As surprising as it may seem, there is not a perfect natural preservative hiding behind any door. However, CoValence is proficient at formulating with natural preservatives to achieve the longest shelf-life along with the most elegant texture possible. Times have changed and CoValence is embracing it!
Chirally Correct: Mother Nature’s Handy-Work
Most people are either right-handed, or left-handed. Right-handed people work better with their right hand. Left-handed people work better with their left hand. Very few people are ambidextrous, who can work equally well with their right or left hand.
Mother Nature is the same way…
Mother Nature produces most natural ingredients in their left-handed or right-handed form. Left-handed ingredients have their key elements arranged in a left-handed pattern (Levo, L; or Sinister, S), while right-handed ingredients are arranged in a right-handed geometry (Dextro, D; or Rectus, R). Technically, it is called chirality or asymmetry, and such ingredients are called chiral or asymmetric. Chiral or asymmetric ingredients rotate polarized natural light in either a clockwise or counterclockwise direction. Mother Nature prefers to produce left-handed ingredients. Natural amino acids, and human DNA itself, are all left-handed, for example. In general, such ingredients when produced by typical chemical synthesis tend to be a 50:50 mixture of both (D) and (L) molecules. Such mixtures are called racemic, or DL (50% of D-form + 50% of L-form = DL, or racemic); these do not rotate polarized natural light.
Just like people, these right-sided or left-sided natural ingredients perform uniquely in many cases. A left-handed ingredient can have greater skin wrinkles reduction benefit than a right-handed ingredient – Ascorbic Acid being a prime example. An (L) ingredient can be skin soothing, while the same ingredient in its D-form may cause skin irritation. If skin irritation property of D-form is greater than skin soothing property of L-form, then the DL-form may cause skin irritation overall. The use of pure 100% L-form in such cases is essential.
Natural ingredients included in a cosmetic product, that are either (L) or (D), may not absorb into skin at the same rate. If an (L) ingredient is absorbed more rapidly, then a 50:50 mixture of both (L) and (D) ingredient may have lesser skin beneficial affects compared to the use of 100% pure (L) ingredient in that product. If the ingredient has been made via synthesis in a pure (L) or (D) form, then both the natural and the synthetic would provide the same and equal biological properties. Synthetic ingredients are not bad, as long as they are nature-equivalent and have no undesirable chemical impurities.
CoValence utilizes the ingredients in their correct left (L) or right (D) handed biospatial form in all cosmetic formulations to provide optimal benefits.
CoValence has also developed a proprietary methodology to enhance the skin absorption of natural ingredients that have an undesirable handedness (chirally incorrect) form. You can only imagine what this technology can do when used for desirably handed (chirally correct) ingredients!
