Evonik’s acquisition of the Air Products specialty additives business also benefits the cosmetics business of the German specialty chemicals company.

“We are adding interesting products to our actives and polymer portfolio for the cosmetics industry along with a highly attractive formulation technology,” says Dr. Tammo Boinowitz, head of the Personal Care Business Line at Evonik.

The proprietary know-how of the former Air Products Schlüchtern GmbH includes a number of innovative encapsulation technologies for active cosmetic ingredients and multifunctional polymers.

Using a variety of membrane-forming lipids, the active ingredients can be packaged into tiny vesicles, which serve as protective transport aids.

“They enable us to deliver active ingredients specifically to the desired action site in the skin to improve the bioavailability of active ingredients and modulate their release. That also has additional positive effects, such as the stabilization of sensitive cosmetic ingredients” explains Michael Sacher, head of Personal Care Delivery Systems.

These technologies open up many new opportunities for innovative product development at Evonik. “It is conceivable, for example, to deliver innovative actives from the Evonik portfolio to deeper skin layers to enhance their efficacy,” says Sacher.

Thanks to the newly added polymers, Evonik is also moving into the field of hairstyling. “The acquisition is another step toward the goal of becoming the leading specialty provider for cosmetic ingredients,” notes Boinowitz.

Evonik will for the first time be represented at in-cosmetics 2017 with two stands. Stand N70 will exclusively present the company’s actives portfolio, while the other stand, NN30, will share customer information about the Evonik specialties portfolio