In Asia, renewable cosmetics ingredients are sweeping in-cosmetics innovation awards. France’s Silab won Best Active Ingredient gold for Ecobiotys, a yeast-derived ingredient that improves immune and mechanical barrier properties of mature skin.
“For Silab it [the award] is recognition for our work basing naturals on bio-inspiration and particularly for our innovation with the microbiota,” Fatima-Zhara Rzin, Regional Sales Manager, APAC at Silab, tells Cosmetics Business. “For Ecobiotys we have both bio-inspiration and the concept around the ‘nectarobiota’. It’s a very unique concept, made by Silab, about the nectar of certain flowers—the bio-inspiration is that we choose a specific yeast that protects these flowers and then we use it to protect and regulate our microbiota.”
Evonik’s Rheance Glycolipids—sugar-based ingredients that enable high-performance cleansing—took the top prize for Best Functional Ingredient. Alex Jiang, Technical Manager, China, at Evonik said the ingredient took almost a decade to develop. “With this product we are catching the market trend so closely—nowadays natural and sustainable is becoming more and more popular all over the world and fortunately we have this new technology platform which meets the customer needs as well as the marketer needs. So this is coming at the right time, I think,” he adds.
Seppic’s natural emulsifier Fluidifeel Easy took silver in the functional ingredient category, while Dub Estoline took bronze for a polymeric ester innovation.