Mastering plant chemistry to unlock powerful claims
Cosmetic actives are more than "just ingredients." Instead, they are key contributors to cosmetic claims, helping brands support their marketing concepts with efficacious and inspiring ingredients.
While requirements for sustainably-driven product development have never been so real, the importance of natural actives as a key components of cosmetic formulations increases greatly. And this is said without compromising on efficacy! An equation that plant chemistry can certainly solve successfully.
The plant kingdom is brimming with potential for those who know how to harness it. Traditional medicine, or phytotherapy, recognized this long ago. These ancient practices rely on phytochemicals to heal and protect the body. They continue to be a significant source of inspiration for modern cosmetics, striving to achieve the ideal balance between sustainability and effectiveness.
This is where plant chemistry comes into play. In cosmetics, this science focuses on mastering botanicals and extraction technologies to selectively extract metabolites, with the ultimate goal of developing effective active ingredients.
Gattefossé harnesses the power of plants
Extracting the best of nature to deliver scientifically proven skincare benefits is our primary missions.
Our research team has long excelled at plant chemistry. It all dates to the turn of the last century, with the distillation of essential oils in Provence, France. The company gradually expanded this core expertise to include selective extraction of phytochemicals and provide the cosmetics industry with ever more innovative claims.
Various fields such as ecology, ethnobotany, agriculture, phytochemistry, and plant physiology inspire our scientists to select the best raw materials for first-class market products.
New horizons for natural cosmetics with the NaDES technology
Gattefossé’s scientists team has been working on the design of a new generation of 100% natural solvents to create highly functional active ingredients: they are called Natural Deep Eutectic solvents or NaDES.
This category of green solvents is directly inspired by botanicals and the way in which metabolites are solubilized inside the plant – through eutectic combinations of simple chemicals such as sugars, nitrogen compounds, and organic acids.
Completely natural, NaDES benefit from a perfect affinity with plants enabling to reach high extraction potential. The botanical extracts obtained unveil unique phytochemical signature, and performance that would be impossible to reach using conventional solvents.
Gattefossé makes the most of this technology to rediscover plants in cosmetics. For example, researchers worked on Horse Chesnut flowers rich in flavonoids or Indian ginseng, an iconic plant in Ayurvedic medicine, containing rare phytochemicals like withanolids.
Selective extraction of lipophilic metabolites: triterpenoid acids to improve microcirculation
Triterpene compounds can be found in many plants and are the subject of numerous scientific studies that demonstrate their role as health-supporting molecules.
More particularly, triterpenoid acids (mainly ursolic, maslinic, and oleanolic acids) have direct effects on skin microcirculation by reducing inflammation-induced vascular permeability. Interestingly, they also present potential in the degradation of the red pigment of dark circles.
Gattefossé took an interest in the upcycled leaves of sea buckthorn, reputed for their remarkable phytochemical richness, especially in triterpene compounds. An eco-designed process using supercritical CO2 was developed to maximize and standardize the triterpenoid acids content while ensuring quality, security, and energy sobriety, aligned with Gattefossé’s CSR commitments.
This gave birth to Eyeglorius™, a new oil-soluble bioactive rich in triterpenoid acids that corrects two under-eye concerns at once, dark circles and eye bags, through an action on microcirculation and vascular permeability.
The Ultimate Lipophilic Wonder for Skincare & Makeup
23 Apr 2024 Reading : 2mn
Signs of fatigue have become widespread cosmetic concerns, leading brands to…
- Actives
- Make-up
- Plant sourcing
