Surprising skin feel trends from next-generation emulsifiers

By Julia Wray | Published: 6-Jan-2025

Cosmetics Business meets the companies behind a spate of new emulsifiers promising unusual textures, cold process and more

Emulsifiers are the bread-and-butter of many cosmetic and personal care formulations.

But although they are simple in their most basic function, a vast array of emulsifiers now exist to meet desired texture, ingredient, manufacturing and sourcing requirements.

And recent launches are living up to the mantra of ‘any way you want it, you’ve got it’.

“Very simply, [emulsifiers] enable you to put oil and water together and they won’t separate out into the two phases again,” explains Daniel Whitby, Chief Scientist at Smink Laboratories.

“Which enables you to make more sophisticated products, because you can have goodies in it. So, in the oil phase you can have your sun filters – most of those would go in the oil phase – and you can have goodies in the water phase as well.

“A lot of actives – not exclusively, but a lot – are water based. So it gives you more flexibility in terms of the formulation.

“There’s more to it than this,” Whitby adds. “But we generally use either oil-in-water (o/w) emulsions, or we use water-in-oil (w/o) emulsions.

“Roughly, if it is o/w it is mainly water with oil in it, and if it is w/o, it is mainly oil with water in it. Although that is not a hard-and-fast rule. And w/o tends to be heavier. Again, it’s not a hard-and-fast rule. But, classically, they were always quite oily and greasy.”

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