Nathalie Chevrot is Market Manager of the Beauty Care business unit at Seppic. A subsidiary of the Air Liquide group in the healthcare business. Seppic designs and markets speciality ingredients for health and beauty applications.
What is Seppic showing at In-Cosmetics this year?
The key concept for us this year is ‘Mood Paint’. When you see a painting, you can have a lot of emotions which you can share with other people and emotion is important with cosmetic products. We have a palette of complementary ingredients, including actives and excipients, which is like an artist’s palette. Paintings come in many forms, with many different messages and active ingredients can be used the same way. So, the booth shows all the formulae we develop and their composition, which apply to all kinds of categories: face care, body care, sun care, make-up and hair care. We work with our labs all over the world to create the new formulations
Please give some examples.
The first takes its inspiration from street art, with inspiration from painters like Banksy or Dalí. The idea is that we use a spray technique or create an optical illusion. Perfect Body Illusion EU07425 is a foundation which creates the illusion of looking slimmer when your legs are darker. The product also contains Seppic ingredients called Adipolese and Adiposlim that are used in slimming; Sepimax Zen, a polymer that can stabilise 2% pigment in a sprayable formulation and which already has had a lot of market success; and, Emogreen L 15 and L 19, two green alkane emollients which we launched last year.
Another is inspired by Pop Art.
Does that come with a ‘60s image?
Chevrot: Exactly – it goes with mass production, consumer society, very bright colours and repeated motifs like in an Andy Warhol artwork. We have five multi-masking formulations, each slightly different and stressing something different, like moisturisation or anti-ageing. Multi-masking is an important trend in the US, it means using different masks at the same time for different parts of the face depending on your skin needs. You can also combine two colours in one and do a skin diagnostic by scanning your own face with a Smartphone camera to highlight problems like wrinkling or lack of elasticity, then mix two or more formulations together. This is quite common in Asia already. Sepinov and Sepimax Zen are the thickeners for most of the masks. They both have good resistance to electrolytes. Sepimax Zen brings quick creaming, while Sepinov brings a smooth texture. In another mask, we have a charcoal active powder – for colour and detoxification – and kaolin to purify the skin, with a liquid polymer for good homogenisation. Another contains salicylic acid and some lightening active ingredients, with Sepinov, for the same consistency and lighter texture, plus Emolgreen L19 to address Asian consumers.
You are launching a new product here?
Yes – Subligana is derived from the leaves of the harongana tree in Madagascar. Serdex, a firm Seppic acquired three months ago, has been sourcing natural botanical ingredients from there for many years. The tree is known for its antioxidant and purifying properties. Botanists call it ‘the forest guard’ because it is found on the edge of the forest and forms a barrier. Acne affects 80% of us at some point in our life. Subligana acts against many signs of acne, reducing inflammation and having a dermo-purifying effect. In tests, it reduced the number of whiteheads on teenagers with acne-prone skin by 34% over 28 days when compared to a control. The tree was known in ancient medicine, we have been the first company to prove its properties and develop an active ingredient from it.
