Elevance announces first renewable personal care product lines

Elevance Renewable Sciences, Inc., a high-growth specialty chemicals company, announced today the commercial availability of its first personal care product lines, Elevance Smooth, a line of plant-based, multi-functional polymers, and Elevance Soft, a line of plant-based emollients, for use in a wide range of personal care applications, including skin, hair and cosmetic products.

Elevance Smooth CS-110 and Elevance Soft CG-100 are the first ingredients to be introduced in those lines, and are 100 percent renewable, plant-based materials. The compatibility and performance of the Elevance personal care ingredients allow formulations to be free from PEG, paraben, petrolatum and silicone.

“Elevance innovations are expanding sustainable and renewable product offerings, enabling personal care customers to provide unique products and performance in skin, hair and cosmetic applications to meet changing market trends and needs and improve business results,” said Andy Corr, Senior Vice President, Consumer & Industrial Ingredients.

Elevance Smooth ingredients are polymers that can provide structurant, thickener and film-former functionality while enabling formulators to use a single ingredient in chassis across their personal care product portfolio — simplifying formulation, product lines and business/supply chain complexity. Further, Elevance Smooth ingredients are compatible with a broad number of other ingredients used in personal care applications, including both silicone and silicone-free systems.

Elevance Smooth CS-110 is a low-melt-point, non-crystalline polymer that functions as a semi-occlusive film former, structurant in aqueous and non-aqueous formulations, and can modify texture in a wide range of personal care products. It provides a smooth, dry feel with no greasy residue.

Elevance Soft ingredients include a range of liquid and semi-solid emollients and provide an elegant sensory feel from a plant-based alternative to silicone-based and petrochemical-based emollients. These ingredients enable customers to achieve the same sensory feel provided by silicone or petrochemical emollients but from naturally based ingredients.

The Elevance Soft CG-100 ingredient is a soft, low-melting gel and has the richness of petroleum-based emollients without the heaviness or stickiness. It is semi-occlusive, and provides increased gloss in skin care applications and increased shine and frizz control for hair products.

“Among the ingredients’ many attributes, one of the most important is ease of use in a wide range of formulations,” Corr said. “We’re looking forward to introducing additions to the Smooth and Soft product lines as well as additional product families of bio-based commercial solutions that provide personal care customers with high-performance products for their skin, hair and cosmetic applications.”

Elevance’s Nobel Prize-winning technology offers major advantages to the market today and the capability to develop additional product lines. For example, the technology offers ingredients and di-functional building blocks that provide unique physical and performance characteristics, enabling drop-in renewable alternatives to existing petroleum-based materials in the market today (e.g., Alkanes and PAO) and unique performance from new, novel products.

In the personal care space, Elevance’s technology produces ingredients that are consistent with industry trends toward natural, renewable or more sustainable formulations. The technology can use a diversity of renewable oil feedstocks, including palm, mustard, soybean, canola and, when they become commercially available, jatropha or algal oils, to create unique products. Each of these feedstocks can be sourced locally, enabling Elevance and its customers to reduce their carbon footprint across the entire supply chain.

Interested customers should contact Elevance to locate a distributor in their area.

“Our global distribution and technical support network provides excellent customer and applications support for our partners,” Corr added. “We continue to build upon our global network of distributors to enable ready access to technical support for Elevance Smooth and Elevance Soft ingredients.”

Elevance Smooth CS-110 and Elevance Soft CG-100 have approved regulatory status in the United States, European Union, Canada and other countries that use INCI registration for personal care products. Additional products in the Elevance Soft line will be introduced with sample quantities available in late 2013, and commercial quantities available in 2014.

About Elevance Renewable Sciences, Inc.
Headquartered in Woodridge, Ill., Elevance Renewable Sciences, Inc. creates novel specialty chemicals from natural oils. Using a proprietary technology called olefin metathesis, the company creates high-performance products for use in personal care products, detergents and cleaners, lubricants and additives, engineered polymers, and other specialty chemicals markets.