Several key changes have occurred in the personal care industry over the last twenty years. Firstly, there are fewer chemists working on the development of new formulations, due in part to consolidation and downsizing of the industry. Secondly, the lead time for new products has contracted. Thirdly, the regulatory requirements have expanded considerably. These changes have forced the formulator to work in a more efficient way, minimising the steps needed to commercialise a product.
The formulator has in many cases adopted formulation platforms that contain most of the ingredients needed for functionality, but can be varied for different consumer expectations. The salient property of formulations that signals a new product experience to customers is aesthetics. Fortunately, most of the formulation aesthetics come from additives that are present in low concentrations and are surface active. Most formulators are aware that water soluble surfactants can be added to aqueous formulations to change surface tension, spreading and feel. Many formulators are not aware that there is a plethora of oil soluble silicone polymers that perform the exact same function in oils. The ability to alter the feel of an oil phase adding less that 5% of the properly chosen silicone surfactant offers the ability to keep the platform and offer outstanding aesthetics of different types that the consumer will regard as unique and desirable. Since the platform ingredients are the same, the need to qualify new raw materials is low. We call this approach ‘minimally disruptive formulation’. Silicone polymers are especially conducive to this type of development approach since they provide a perceivable consumer aesthetic advantage at low use levels.
We have begun using a concept we refer to as minimally disruptive formulation (MDF) as an effective approach to product development.1-3 This approach depends upon the ability of personal care formulators to provide products that have consumer perceptible differences that meet a market need. Since product aesthetics are a key attribute of personal care products, the ability to alter product aesthetics to provide a different consumer perception with minimal change to the formulation is a very cost effective way to develop new products.
The fact is a silicone polymer, properly chosen at a concentration of 5% or less, will provide to the formulation (1) a lowering of surface tension, (2) an alteration of feel, (3) an altering of cushion and playtime, (4) a change in gloss and (5) a perception to a customer the product is different from the formulation to which the additive has not been made. This makes silicone polymers quite valuable at low concentrations on formulation to make “new products”.
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