56 WAXES & BUTTERS
Food trend butters delivering premium feel
Dora Bert – Kerfoot, UK
For product formulators, creating a personal care product that delights the consumer is becoming somewhat of a balancing act. It is no secret that the personal care sector,
along with many others across the FMCG category, has seen its share of challenges. Of course, under turbulent market conditions, bottom line profit becomes king. Often to achieve this, concessions are made
in product formulation and sourcing. Under normal market conditions, brands would typically choose higher-value premium ingredients to command a higher price point and capture an engaged audience seeking escapism and a touch of luxury in the everyday. As it becomes a question of shifting products in high numbers, cheaper ingredients tend to flourish as premium quality makes way for volume. Return per product is lower, but sales volumes are of course intended to be much higher in a bid to protect the bottom line. However, as we know, the personal care
sector does not thrive on cost alone and what we expected from the consumer, a reduction in ‘luxury’ purchasing, is turning out to be wrong. In fact, shoppers appear to be switching back on to higher-order goods, particularly across personal care, cosmetics and therapeutics.
Sensory engagement for premiumisation With personal care products, touch and skin feel take on a highly important role in delivering value. As shoppers and end users, we tend to associate thicker, more viscous products with premium quality. For brands, this means that in altering the rheological qualities of a personal care formulation, we can imbue it with a more luxurious edge. For many, this means that butters and waxes can be an effective way to catch the attention of today’s consumer. Butters are richer and thicker than many other
contemporary applications because of their chemical composition. With higher viscosity and the ability to adhere to the skin for longer, butters tend to be used in more premium products by virtue of being inherently associated with rest and relaxation. When consumers assign a higher perceived value to them, butter-based products can often command a higher retail price as a result.
Defining and distinguishing butters and waxes Defining the two categories gives indication of their uses. Where vegetable oils are defined as a mixture of mainly triglycerides that are of liquid consistency
PERSONAL CARE May 2021
at room temperature, a butter is considered to be the same, but solid at room temperature. A wax is defined as esters of fatty acids that are obtained from vegetable oils during winterisation that are also solid at room temperature but have a higher melting point than butters. Within the two categories of butters and waxes,
there are also distinctions to be made between ‘true’ and ‘manufactured’. A ‘true’ butter is considered to be 100% pure
and native, consisting of 1 INCI or one singularly defined material. True butters are named for their texture and are technically a solid oil. Examples of true butters include cocoa butter and shea nut butter. ‘Manufactured’ butters are hydrogenated
oils, or a blend of hydrogenated neutral oil with another oil, usually consisting of 2 INCIs or more. Coffee butter and cranberry butter are examples of manufactured butters. In terms of functionality, there is little to choose between true and manufactured butters since both will perform similarly. Dependent on the brand, some formulators may prefer the cache or label simplicity of a true butter, others may value the diversity of manufactured butters. The distinction between true and
manufacturers waxes follows a similar convention. ‘True’ waxes are 100% pure and native, consisting of 1 INCI and esters of fatty acid from vegetable oil winterisation. True waxes include carnauba wax and true sunflower oil wax. ‘Manufactured’ waxes are again either
hydrogenated oil, or a blend of hydrogenated neutral oil with another oil. Manufactured waxes usually contain 1-2 INCIs or more and the INCI does not state wax. Examples include soybean hydrogenated wax and sunflower hydrogenated wax. It is considered to be misleading to name a vegetable oil (either hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated) as a wax without specifying.
From farm to fork… to formulations Looking across the full spectrum of butters, we see a rapid growth in one specific area: food ingredient-based formulations. Ingredients that are typically the reserve of food products are finding a new lease of life in personal care applications. Of course, formulators are constantly looking
for the next innovation that will push their product to the forefront of the competition. For many brands, the answer lies in the diverse array of ingredients and flavours that have made the leap from solely food applications to personal care.
www.personalcaremagazine.com
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