Personal Care

Inquiry

Introduction

There is no denying that cosmetics and personal care products represent a very large market for products that offer consumers a wide range of properties. And they have already become an essential part of people's daily lives. Usually, personal care and cosmetics require the addition of multiple ingredients to achieve a certain function and effect and impart unique benefits to their formulations. Silicone compounds can act as film-formers, emulsifiers, thickeners, modifiers, protective barriers, and aesthetic enhancers which are used in a wide range of cosmetic and personal care products. As a component of personal care products, they have many unique properties such as good compatibility with skin and other components, air permeability, moistening but not greasy.

Applications

Silicone first entered the cosmetic market in the 1950s as a skin protectant. Since then, silicone has enjoyed a tremendous growth in popularity in personal care products and is widely used in skin care, hair care, shampoo, cosmetics, hand sanitizer and other products. For examples, aminofunctional silicones are used in hair conditioners to increase substantivity to hair and increase and prolong ease of combing. Silicone surfactants can be used in skin care to stabilize both oil-in-water and water-in-oil emulsions. Fluorosilicones with oil repellant property are useful for sweat-proof and sebum control products such as sunscreens. Silicone resins can be used in color cosmetics to provide longer-lasting wear and non-transfer performance for lipsticks and foundations. Silicone elastomer microspheres can be used in skin-care products confer a unique "dry, silky, powdery" feel ^[2]. Examples of silicone compounds used in personal care products are too numerous to mention here. The main types of silicone compounds used in personal care products are silicone oil, silicone emulsion, silicone elastomer, silicone oil and silicone rubber mixture, amino silicone oil, alkyl modified silicone wax, silicone polyether, silicone emulsifier, special polyether silicone oil and others.

Why silicone compounds?

Silicone compounds can be widely employed in personal care products for several different reasons and the most predominate reasons are their surface activity and tension^[1].

Flexible Si-O bond and low bending force constant make silicone compounds with good surface activity.
The flexibility of silicone chains not only allows the rearrangement of the silicone backbone such that the methyl groups may orient themselves at an interface, but also allows the silicone to occupy a large amount of free volume at the interface, thus allowing them to wet out the surface and having low surface tension of around 20 dynes/cm (one of the lowest surface energy compounds on earth). Furthermore, silicone has a unique ability to lower the surface tension of water and oil at relatively low concentrations.

Thanks to good surface properties and low surface tension, silicone compounds have the ability to spread upon human skin, hair and other tissues, thus making personal care products play their effects.

What can we do?

Alfa Chemistry has many years of research strength in the field of silicone applications and is committed to promoting the further application of silicone in the field of personal care. We can provide customers with a variety of silicone products and related technical support and services for personal care. Today, we have served many personal care companies, and our high-quality products and technical services bring great benefits to them. If you require any assistance, please contact us and our team will provide you with fullest support at the most abundant experience and the most affordable price.

References

O'Lenick T and O'Lenick T. Organo functional silicones in personal care[M]. Polymers for Personal Care and Cosmetics. American Chemical Society, 2013: 39-62.
Ferritto M. S. and Owen M. J. Silicone wettability and its significance in beauty products[M]. Polymers for Personal Care and Cosmetics. American Chemical Society, 2013: 219-232.