BELINDA CARLI
Institute of Personal Care Science (IPCS)

Abstract

Consumers are increasingly developing an ‘environmental conscience’ and looking for more sustainable options. This extends to their personal care product choices, and industry is responding with more sustainable material options. One of the product categories that has been challenged in the personal care industry is commercially acceptable foaming products with high sustainability profiles. In the last few years, however, we’ve seen increasing material launches addressing issues of sustainability whilst ensuring consumer expectations for performance are maintained or even bettered.

WHAT’S IMPORTANT IN WASH OFF (ALSO KNOWN AS ‘RINSE OFF’) PRODUCTS?

Leaving sustainability out of the discussion, there are 3 key things every consumer looks for as a mark of quality in their foaming product:

• high foam – while excess foam is not required to ensure a surfactant product provides good cleaning, the simple fact remains that consumers simply aren’t convinced a product can provide an effective clean if they don’t see a lot of foam. It is also an important surfactant selection criterion for the chemist: products for the face should provide denser, creamier foams while products for the hair and body should provide larger foam profiles. Salon or premium products should also provide denser foam profiles than their more budget equivalents. Essentially, foam is created when air is trapped by a stretchy and flexible surface – this surface is made stretchy and flexible by the reduced surface tension that foaming agents impart; but the ability to trap air also relies on a suitably high proportion of surfactant being used in excess of what is required to clean. Or put another ...
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