Evonik acquired Air Products with a view to expand its ingredients offering for the beauty and personal care market, the company suggested in a statement.
“We are adding interesting products to our actives and polymer portfolio for the cosmetics industry along with a highly attractive formulation technology,” says Dr. Tammo Boinowitz, head of the Personal Care Business Line at Evonik.
Innovative technologies for cosmetics
According to Evonik, due to the proprietary know-how of the former Air Products company, the acquisition has bolstered its offering of ‘innovative encapsulation technologies for active cosmetics ingredients and multifunctional polymers’.
Using a variety of membrane-forming lipids, the company says, the active ingredients can be packaged into tiny vesicles, which serve as protective transport aids.
“They enable us to deliver active ingredients specifically to the desired action site in the skin to improve the bioavailability of active ingredients and modulate their release. That also has additional positive effects, such as the stabilization of sensitive cosmetic ingredients,” Michael Sacher, head of Personal Care Delivery Systems, explains.
New opportunities ahead
According to Evonik, the technologies it has acquired could open up the way for further innovation in terms of product development.
“It is conceivable, for example, to deliver innovative actives from the Evonik portfolio to deerper skin layers to enhance their efficacy,” says Sacher.
In terms of moving forward, the company notes it is also making efforts to expand into the hairstyling segment.
The acquisition follows last year’s move by Evonik to modernise its facility in Krefeld, Germany in order to boost innovation in the area of superabsorbent products.