Cargill Beauty markets plant-based BotaniButter emollient as natural alternative to petrochemicals
16 Oct 2023 --- Cargill Beauty is offering a natural alternative solution to silicone or petrochemical-based skin care ingredients. Personal Care Insights speaks to Maureen Iannucci, global marketing innovation manager at Cargill Beauty, who identifies the challenges and opportunities of developing BotaniButter, a creamy wax emollient from a trio of plant sources.
What inspired you to create BotaniButter as a natural alternative to silicone waxes or petrochemical-based ingredients?
Iannucci: We are inspired by our customers, who are creating new products to meet consumer demand for nature-derived, high-performance solutions. This can often be challenging, especially when creating alternatives to well-known and highly used synthetic ingredients.
When choosing skin care products, sensory elements are the number one attribute that drives consumers’ purchase decisions. As a formulator, it’s critical to carefully select the emollients that will form the basis of the sensory profile of your product. Derived from botanical sources of palm, mustard and rapeseed, BotaniButter provides a rich texture in formulations from creams to light lotions, with a smooth application. 
Eighteen female subjects showed that BotaniButter increased skin hydration significantly better (Image credit: Cargill Beauty).
The unique melting point of BotaniButter, just above skin temperature, allows it to melt immediately after application, resulting in a soft skin with a pleasant film without leaving a waxy, dry feel on the skin.
What are the challenges and opportunities of developing 100% derived natural ingredients in the cosmetic industry?
Iannucci: While consumers want more natural ingredients in their beauty products, they aren’t willing to compromise on performance. That being said, natural ingredients can present compatibility, stability, color and odor challenges. All these functions depend on the type of ingredient, source, level and product application and are, therefore, the key deliverables we focus on in development.
As the market demand continues to grow and consumers become more discerning, there will be many opportunities to expand these solutions under the Cargill Beauty Promise.
How do you achieve a similar or better sensory profile with BotaniButter than with silicone wax petrochemical-based ingredients?
Iannucci: Silicone waxes have long been used for the silky softness and smooth skin they provide to skin care, body and color cosmetic formulations. However, consumers increasingly demand natural and organic ingredients in their skin care products.
Sustainability claims are crucial in facial skin care as younger consumers increasingly make purchase choices based on brands’ sustainability credentials.
Our BotaniButter has been shown to improve the hydration of the skin all day long, with the transepidermal water loss significantly reduced after one application. We can outperform petro/synthetic alternatives using our patented biocatalytic process, engineered to generate a unique and diverse composition of botanically derived wax-esters.
What might be some disadvantages and advantages of using natural alternatives to its counterpart?
Iannucci: Formula modifications may be needed depending on the ingredient and the finished product when using derived natural ingredients instead of synthetic counterparts. The advantage, however, is launching new products closer to meeting the consumer desire for more natural-based products.
By harnessing the power of plants, Cargill is helping customers deliver best-in-class performance and be more scalable and sustainable. We believe that nature-derived chemistries can offer performance characteristics as good as or better than synthetic options and present a significant opportunity to decarbonize a wide range of sectors.
Seventeen study participants showed that a lotion containing 2% BotaniButter improved transepidermal water loss (Image credit: Cargill Beauty).
How does BotaniButter support skin barrier health and reduce the appearance of redness associated with skin irritation?
Iannucci: BotaniButter enhances skin hydration and helps to support skin barrier health, reducing the appearance of redness associated with skin irritation. Consumers are becoming more educated on modern skin care problems due to external aggressors and overuse of active ingredients. These skin care benefits and a sensory profile like silicone wax make BotaniButter an excellent choice for various applications.
BotaniButter is a natural alternative to some silicone waxes that provide comparable sensory and textural attributes, with the additional benefits of increased skin hydration and improved stability profile compared to the silicone wax benchmark. Being 100% Derived Natural (according to ISO 160128), vegan suitable, inherently biodegradable and RSPO (Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil) certified, it meets consumer demand for plant-based cosmetic ingredients.
What are some of the applications and formulations that can benefit from using BotaniButter?
Iannucci: BotaniButter can be used in various beauty applications to bring multiple benefits to skin care creams, lotions, cleansers, milky-type toners, body lotions and butter and lip balm products. Prototype formulations allow our customers to experience BotaniButter benefits in these product applications.
Earlier this year, we sat down with María Begoña Parás Hernáiz, marketing manager EMEA at Cargill Beauty, who talked about BotaniButter while Tiffany Quinn, applications development and clinical services manager, explained the benefits of the CocoaDesign range.
By Venya Patel
