Safe & functional cosmetic polymer Research and Development Department of Company R, a cosmetics manufacturer
Balance safety and efficacy in lotion
Multifunctional polymer ideal for cosmetics
Company R aims to increase market share in the highly competitive skincare industry with products that offer higher added value. They began developing a skincare lotion to meet customer demands for "beautiful skin without makeup" and "beautiful skin even with sensitive skin." However, while they wanted to incorporate ingredients with antibacterial properties to keep skin clean, they struggled to select the right ingredients.
Challenges
Selecting the key ingredient for skin care lotion development, achieving both antibacterial and hypoallergenic properties is difficult...
To understand customer needs when developing a new product, the development team at Company R conducted a questionnaire survey on skincare products. They focused on comments such as "I want to be beautiful without makeup" and "I want to have beautiful skin even if I have sensitive skin." Because cleansing the skin promotes smoother skin turnover and helps maintain healthy, beautiful skin, they designed a skincare lotion that is "gentle on the skin and keeps it clean."
In developing the skin care lotion, the Research and Development Department began to gather information extensively on materials with antibacterial properties, which would serve as key ingredients. They ordered various promising materials, added them to the skin care lotion under development, and repeatedly conducted evaluation tests of their properties. As they did so, they began to see a number of issues.
Mr. S from the Research and Development Department looks back on the project as follows:
"Generally, the stronger the antibacterial effect of a material, the stronger the irritation it can cause, so achieving both antibacterial effects and hypoallergenicity was more difficult than we had imagined. Adding an antibacterial agent often impairs the moisturizing properties that are the primary function of skin care lotions, so we went through a process of trial and error."
Three months had passed since the start of development, but a satisfactory material had still not been found, and the members of the R&D department were at a loss as to what to do.
Key Challenges
The stronger the antibacterial effect, the stronger the irritation, making it difficult to achieve both antibacterial effect and hypoallergenicity.
Adding this ingredient has impaired the moisturizing properties that are the original function of skin care lotion.