By Caroleen Gomez
New Delhi, Jun 8 (IANSlife): Have you ever bought a beauty product that has changed its smell and texture over time and wondered why does this happen? It happens because many active ingredients used in your product may lose their properties as time passes.
Truth be told, a significant number of cosmetics and personal care products often contain natural-origin active substances that are unstable and highly sensitive to light, temperature, pH and oxidation. Hence, these materials may undergo unwanted reactions that lead to the reduction of a product's effectiveness or even lead to degradation of certain cosmetic products. Furthermore, whenever an active ingredient degrades, there is a high possibility that these shall create an unwanted bio-chemical activity which can render toxic or irritating for the user's skin or body parts.
When it comes to countering these challenges, encapsulation technology has been scientifically proven to increase stability, protect against degradation and also in terms of directing and controlling the release of active ingredients used in beauty and cosmetic products.
Encapsulation is the physical-chemical technique or process of encapsulating an active ingredient (core material) within the shell of a second material. Without a doubt, one of the greatest innovations in the beauty products' industry is the ability to regulate the stability, delivery, bio-active stability and effectiveness of the formulations, and to meeting these ends, encapsulation technology plays a major (and nearly indispensable) role.
Many skincare actives would only lay on the skin surface performs -- hence doing nothing beyond improving feel; whereas the topical application of any cosmetic product requires successful delivery of active ingredients to reach the targeted skin layer through the skin's barrier.
On the other hand, encapsulated bio-actives are usually much more efficient, because they offer a more stable and sustainable approach in the cosmetics industry, where it even has the potential to replace the use of harmful synthetic ingredients. Besides, proper application of encapsulation also enables superior performance, makes products eco-friendly and possesses versatile activities vis-a-vis cosmetic formulations. Also, it helps to quantify environmental and sustainable performance in the cosmetic industry.
Today, among the top-notch concerns of modern cosmetic brands (both national and international ones) are: the stability, efficacy and safety of their products' formulations. This is exactly where encapsulation technology comes in, and over the years this technology has emerged as a breakthrough in the beauty and cosmetics Industry.
Nowadays, encapsulated ingredients are being increasingly used in various cosmetic applications such as shower and bath gels, lotions, creams, hair products, sunscreens, perfumes, exfoliants and many more. In the future, encapsulation technology will continue to be a major facilitator in the improvement of the cosmetic and personal care industries, since it brings innovation and allows the production of enhanced and/or high-added-value products, in response to the varied needs and desires of consumers or end-users.