Since July 2017, Korea has banned the use of microplastics for cleaning cosmetics such as toothpaste, scrubs, and body wash, but microplastics are still used for cosmetics such as color cosmetics. It is pointed out that the glitter material used in lip and eye makeup products is a microplastic component and is one of the causes of environmental pollution. Accordingly, the cosmetics industry is speeding up the development of alternative ingredients for microplastics as part of ESG management.
(Picture from Unsplash)
Microplastics such as lipstick and eye shadow are included because of their economic feasibility and applicability. In particular, powder formulations containing microplastics are widely used in color cosmetics for smooth application. However, considering the environmental impact of microplastics, there are growing calls for extensive efforts to replace microplastics in cosmetics.
As market needs for microplastics replacements grow, the cosmetics industry is also diversifying research and development on microplastics replacement ingredients as part of ESG management.
Typically, Kolmar Korea is stepping up efforts to develop eco-friendly products that replace microplastics. Kolmar Korea announced on June 29 that it has developed a technology to replace microplastics used in color cosmetics with natural materials. The material that Kolmar Korea paid attention to is silica.
Silica is a material commonly used in cosmetics and is a mineral-derived ingredient with excellent sebum secretion control and pore management effects. It also controls the viscosity of the product by preventing the lump of cosmetics ingredients.
However, in terms of shape and function, many studies have been conducted as microplastic substitute materials, but commercialization of products has been limited due to the nature of silica that absorbs a lot of oil.
Kolmar Korea minimized the size of silica components to reduce the oil absorption property of silica. The principle is to minimize the space to absorb oil by reducing the size of the pores on the silica surface. Through this, the oil absorbing property was reduced by more than 50%, and the applicability was increased. With the aim of launching the product early next year, it plans to expand the introduction of silica in basic cosmetics that include powder formulations.
An official from Kolmar Korea said, "As interest in clean beauty continues, domestic and foreign customers are increasingly requesting to develop products that exclude microplastics. We will take the lead in developing eco-friendly materials and localizing them to build a sustainable industrial ecosystem."
Among the ingredients that Kolmar Korea paid attention to is the "fruit pear stone cell," which is classified as a natural resource. Kolmar Korea signed a business agreement with Lutslab in August last year to develop cosmetics, toothpaste and health functional foods using stone cells from fruit pears.
Abdominal cells are plant raw materials extracted from the skin and core of the stomach, and are substances that feel rough in the mouth when eating pears. It is evaluated to be superior in terms of efficacy compared to other microplastic alternatives because it has the effect of removing foreign substances from the surface, exfoliating and reducing pores. Another advantage is that it can be easily extracted from leftover waste by squeezing pear juice, so it is easy to minimize waste and secure materials through upcycling of by-products.
According to Kolmar Korea, commercialization through mass production of asbestos cells was difficult in the past, but it succeeded in establishing a system by increasing the purity of asbestos cells collected and processed in large quantities by Lutslab and pulverizing fine particles into the required particle sizes for each product. Currently, Kolmar Korea has completed all the tests necessary for commercialization, including the design of sample formulations applied with raw materials and the completion of skin cleaning power tests.
Biodegradable microbeads for cleansing, which eliminates concerns about water pollution caused by microplastics, have also been developed by domestic researchers.
The Korea Chemical Research Institute jointly developed chitosan natural substances extracted from crab shells as biodegradable materials to replace microplastics used in facial cleansers with Pohang University of Technology in October last year. By utilizing chitosan polymer, a natural marine material, chitin microbeads were manufactured that are hard and have excellent cleaning power. Chitin is an ingredient that makes up the hard epidermis of insects or crustaceans.
According to the research team, as a result of evaluating the biodegradability of the component through biochemical oxygen demand experiments, it was confirmed that it was naturally decomposed by microbial metabolism. In seawater, more than 90 percent of the water decomposed in about a month.
The development of eco-friendly materials with biodegradability as the keyword is actively underway overseas.
Researchers at Cambridge University in the UK found a way to mass-produce vegetable and biodegradable glitters in November last year. The main ingredient is cellulose, which makes up the cell walls of plants or fruits. It is known that the biodegradable glitter can be produced without a separate dye and with a pulp production machine that is used before.
According to the researchers' explanation, cellulose is extracted from wood pulp and made into a film form, and the coloration is induced by repeating the purification and drying process and pulverized into a small size to produce biodegradable glitter. It is also much more efficient in terms of energy than conventional glitters.
On the other hand, the plastic problem of cosmetics lies not only in the contents of the product but also in the external container. The next episode will cover the issue of plastic cosmetic containers.
Writer: Yeyoung Jeon