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| Issue 34 |  |
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| Show Case | Fitoderm — An emollient for personal care products derived from olive oil |
On the personal care market, the trend towards botanically derived products and renewable raw material bases is widely spread. As one of the very traditional renewable raw materials, olive oil has been widely used as a cosmetic ingredient since ancient times. It is an ideal alternative to products of animal origin. Fitoderm is a clear, colorless and odorless oil and has a high stability against oxidation (1). It is a very suitable emollient for cosmetic formulations, has an excellent compatibility with human skin and imparts an elegant non-greasy skin feel.
Olive oil is the raw material basis for Fitoderm. Fitoderm has the identical chemical structure as squalane sourced from the shark liver with the benefit of being vegetal in origin. It has a defined molecular structure and is an ideal emollient for skin care products, because it is present in nature and in human skin at a level of up to 2.6 per cent. Please refer to Tables 1 and 2 for the product profile and properties of Fitoderm.
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Squalene is an unsaturated hydrocarbon (C30H50) which is present in vegetable oils, and especially in fish oil. It was traditionally extracted from shark liver oil which, in dependence of the shark species, contains up to 60 per cent squalene. It is of large interest for cosmetics as it is found in human sebum at a level of 12 per cent. It is even used as a measure of the sebum production rate. Although the exact function of the sebaceous glands is still being discussed, sebum is said to help keep the skin supple and moisturized and to form a protective coat against fungi and bacteria on the skin.
Squalene, however, is not suitable for cosmetic formulations because it is highly unsaturated and therefore oxidizes easily. Therefore, it was converted into squalane by hydrogenation and purification. Squalane (C30H62) is the saturated form of squalene. It does not contain any double bonds in its chemical structure and therefore is very stable against heat and oxidation. Alternatively, squalene may be obtained from olive oil which has a significant squalane amount from 0.1-0.7 per cent.
Fitoderm has an excellent compatibility with cosmetic ingredients and is therefore suitable for a wide range of applications (see Table 3). Formulations for massage oils with Fitoderm are in line with the current wellness trend. In Table 4, a proposal for the formulation of a firming body milk is given.
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Table
4: Formulation proposal for a body milk |
Fitoderm is easier to emulsify than comparable hydrocarbons such as mineral oil or hydrogenated polyisobutene. This has been demonstrated by formulations incorporating various emulsifiers. An example of this is demonstrated in Table 5: Different particle sizes may be observed in formulations with Emulgade SE-PF as surfactant (2) and Figure 1: Fitoderm emulsion (Droplet size).
For emulsion no. PV-000.318 Fitoderm was used and the best result was achieved. Here the droplet size was the smallest, i.e. Fitoderm had the finest distribution in the emulsion, thus implying a better emulsion stability.
From the two further formulations, PV-000.311 (Hydrogenated Polyisobutene) and PV-000.319 (Mineral Oil, thin) it may be deduced from the droplet sizes that these hydrocarbons are not as easy to be emulsified when compared with Fitoderm.
| Figure
1: Different particles sizes in formulations with Emulgade SE-PF  Enlarged version |
(1) Fitoderm is a registered trademark of Cognis Iberia S.L.. INCI name: Squalane.
(2) Emulgade is a registered trademark of Cognis Deutschland GmbH & Co. KG. INCI name Emulgade SE-PF: Glyceryl Stearate (and) Ceteareth-20 (and) Ceteareth-12 (and) Cetearyl Alcohol (and) Cetyl Palmitate.
Contact address:
Cognis Iberia S.L.
P.g. Industrial San Vicente s/n
08755 Castellbisbal (Barcelona)
Spain
Phone: : ++ 34 93 7730061
FAX: ++ 34 93 7730180
E-Mail: esther.prat@cognis.es
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