Skin food for the soul: Cargill’s emulsifier invites consumers to ‘reconnect’ with themselves

The emulsifier was launched at this year’s in-cosmetics Asia as a high-performing, nature-derived biodegradable solution for oil-rich formulations.

Cargill Beauty global marketing director Stéphane Lacoutière, pointed out that formulators today faced the challenge of creating natural products that are high-performing with great sensory.

“With StarDesign Power, you meet all these three and on top of it all, it’s also cost-competitive,”​ said Lacoutière.

StarDesign Powder was created to meet the demand for products that offer a more holistic approach to beauty.

“Today, younger consumers, like your Gen Zs, want to reduce the stress in their daily life. We are observing a trend of health and well-being movements expanding across the globe; products that are answering this consumer quest for a harmonised mind and body,”​ said Lacoutière.

He added that the firm has conducted consumer studies that showed beauty rituals are a way to reduce the stress in daily life.

The emulsifier answers this need by enabling the creation of products with high natural oil content.

“You can have formulas with up to 60% oil. Really rich textures with a unique touch at the same time to take care of your skin for true well-being. It is an invitation to massage and enjoy the pleasure of natural oils. With StarDesign Power, you have the benefits of oil as a cream, removing the inconvenience of oils, which is usually tacky, greasy and not easy to use,” ​said Lacoutière.

Tale of two starches

Cargill achieved this with the combination of two starches. Camille Koch, global marketing innovation manager, Cargill explained that StarDesign Power was composed of corn-based hydrophilic and lipophilic starches.

“One starch plays the role of emulsifier goes around the oil droplets. Another starch goes inside the water phase and brings you this special sensory which is really non-tacky and non-greasy. This is what gives it special emulsification properties.​

“Starches are oil-loving. It helps the oil penetrate the skin and gives that soft non-tacky feeling at the end,” ​she said.

The emulsifier also gives formulators the flexibility to create a wide range of products.

“You can have fluid formulas, like milk, and you also can create thick butters. That’s something we really like about the product, it’s able to create a range of formations, opening up the possibility for our customers to create something adapted to their consumer,”​ said Koch

Lacoutière added that StarDesign Power could potentially be a great ingredient for dermacosmetic products.

“It opens new doors for high oil products that add a lot of moisture to your skin but at the same time, it’s a new sensory than what consumers are used to. It would be great for dermacosmetics, a big trend in Asia.​

“Dermacosmetic products are about high-quality and about nourishing, taking care of the skin. Usually for this, you need a high level of oils but of course, consumers don’t want that greasy feeling of oils.”​

Winner’s circle

This year, Cargill took home the award for in-cosmetics Asia’s Spotlight On award in Clean Beauty for its zero-waste ingredient, FibreDesign Sensation.

The ingredient is derived from food waste, an area the company is very interested to continue its research and development, said Koch.

The firm utilised lemon peel waste to create an unique product, which cools the skin temperature by three degrees without the use of alcohol or ingredients like menthol.

“When we compared it with other products that claim to be icy on the market, we achieved longer and better results. This is appreciated by the customer, we’re sure it will be appreciated in Asia as well,” ​said Koch.

“The technology was about combining the best of two worlds into one novel technology. It has a beautiful story. It talks about using products that are usually not used and how to bring value to it and that’s very important,”​ said Dr Emmanuel Everaert, global innovation senior manager of Cargill beauty said:

Lacoutière concluded: “Clean beauty is about bringing trust to consumers through transparency and FibreDesign Sensation is a great example of the use of side stream materials and bringing innovation to the market.”​