Yohan Rolland is Global Category Manager – Personal Care for Naturex. Founded 25 years ago and based in Avignon, southern France, Naturex produces natural ingredients mainly for personal care applications, food and health. It claims to have the world’s largest portfolio of natural ingredients
Where do you source your materials from?
We have a network across the world, sourcing all kinds of materials – seeds, flowers, roots, wood – without any limits. We work with local populations to build partnerships from the field to the customer. The nature of that population can vary considerably: it could be indigenous tribes in the heart of the Amazon or local farmers with agricultural fields, so each time we adapt to the situation.
Are you launching any new products here?
Yes, we have launched two new actives based on the Eutectys™ technology that Naturex patented and launched last year. This is a green chemistry technology that can bring actives to the market in skin care and hair care. Eutectys™ is based on the discovery of how some plants can survive in extreme conditions by creating a new kind of solvent that provides a very high biological performance. It can be applied to almost any kind of plant. For the first active, we decided to apply it to fresh cherry blossom from near our facility in the South of France in a product called Eliorelys, for anti-photoaging effects in skin care products.
And the second?
The second is called Tillandsia Eutectys™, an active for hair care based on Tillandsia, or Angel’s Hair. This is a spectacular plant which is extremely fine and creates huge structures, without roots by growing on other plants and clinging to itself. Angel’s Hair is able to store a very large quantity of water, far beyond what it needs immediately and use it afterwards in case of drought. We have done a study of this active used at 1% against a placebo on human tresses, and these gave a statistically significant result, showing that it improves the manageability of the hair fibre. We also have Hibiscus Acids which is an anti-pollution active for skin care. We have an interesting strategy here – the product does not form a film on the skin but instead it can chelate pollutants very early on before they impact the skin
I understand honey is a key ingredient for you too?
Chakah honey is a super-active honey from the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico. Every honey in the world is different, this one is interesting because of its origin and the history linked with it: it is linked to the Maya civilisation and was used by their priests in incantations. We have some test results to show that it can stimulate mitochondrial biogenesis and ATP production oxidatively in stressed primary keratinocytes, energising the cells. It has also been shown to inhibit the ATPIF1 gene, the gene responsible mitochondrial respiratory chain dysfunction. All this makes it very interesting for skin care products.
Please explain the Beauty Food concept you are showing here.
The concept is that if what we eat is good for us, it is good for our skin too. There are ones specific to each season and we are launching one set each year – Indulgence for winter, Detox for spring, Energy Boost for summer and Fortify for autumn – each with two main ingredients. For Detox, which we are launching here, there are green tea – for which we can perform 95% titration of the active – and kale, which is very trendy right now.
