40 HAIR CARE
A novel hair conditioner that speaks to the consumer
n Lucie Maisonneuve - Stepan Company, France Sarah Kovach, Terri Germain, Renata Butikas - Stepan Company, US
Hair conditioners are used around the world to improve the feel, appearance and manageability of hair. While the performance of these products is a must for demanding consumers, in the last few years, consumers have clamoured for more sustainable products. Indeed, according to Euromonitor International,1
the ‘Clean
Beauty’ buyers are not an isolated fraction of consumers, as more than half of them seek “natural”, “environmentally friendly”, “locally sourced” claims. Daily actions that have a positive impact on the environment is also a goal for nearly half of consumers. For more than a third, the belief that “natural” is healthier than “non natural” (which from a scientific perspective is highly debatable) is still strong, while GMOs are negatively perceived. Lastly, for more than 25% of consumers, the choice of buying “eco-conscious” products makes them feel good about themselves. Stepan Company recognised this need
and the opportunity to develop a modern hair conditioning agent that would offer both high performance and meet sustainability expectations. According to Euromonitor International,1
the global hair conditioner market sold 1,358 kMT and generated $16.7 billion at a 2.7% compound annual growth rate (CAGR). Of the 1,358 kMT of hair conditioning products sold globally, about 20 kMT are cationic conditioning agents. According to Mintel data,2
almost 10,000
new or reformulated hair conditioners were introduced globally from 2016 - 2018. Figure 1 shows the evolution of sustainability claims in hair care products launched in Europe between 2015 and 2019. The y-axis indicates the percentage of products that had a specific claim. These “eco and natural” claims have all shown increases in the past five years.
An eco-designed alternative to most common cationic conditioning agents The most common cationic hair conditioning agents currently used are
PERSONAL CARE GLOBAL 10%
n Vegan n No additives/ preservatives
5%
n Eco package n Recycling n Eco product n Ethical-animal nOrganic
0% May ‘15-Apr’16 May ‘16-Apr’17 May ‘17-Apr’18 May ‘18-Apr’19 Figure 1: Europe: haircare New Product Development by select eco and natural claims (%), years 2015-19.
Behentrimonium Chloride (BTAC) and Cetrimonium Chloride (CETAC). As the industry standard for conditioning performance, BTAC is considered the better quaternary for combing and achieving a soft feel. However, both BTAC and CETAC have use-level restrictions in Europe due to their irritation potentials. In addition, these products are very toxic to aquatic life with chronic effects. CETAC is offered on the market as a 30% active solution, meaning a significant amount of transportation energy use and costs are involved in shipping this low-active product. BTAC is offered as a high-active product in the presence of a flammable alcohol, such as isopropanol, which increases transportation costs as a hazardous compound. BTAC is also offered in the presence of long chain fatty alcohols as a high melt-point flake or pellet, which requires energy consuming, high temperature processes. Esterquats, on the other hand, are
known to be readily biodegradable, mild
and less toxic to aquatic life. For decades, this chemical class of cationic agents have been used as fabric softening ingredients. However, many of the offerings for fabric softeners are animal-derived, which is not attractive for the personal care market, especially nowadays with the surge of vegan claims (refer to Fig 1). Although vegetable-derived esterquats are also available in the market, these products do not provide the same premium conditioning performance on hair as BTAC. As a consequence, the acceptance of this chemistry was somewhat limited in this performance-driven market and BTAC is still widely used. Stepan, still believing in the value of esterquats for the hair conditioning market for the reasons noted above, started the development of a ‘next generation’ esterquat that could provide the positive environmental and safety profiles of this chemistry, along with the combing and conditioning performance of BTAC. Esterquats are generally manufactured
August 2020 20%
17% 18% 19% 20%
15% 15%
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