Swedish ingredients company Karlshamns has increased its ressources dedicated to the cosmetic industry with its investment in a new cosmetic laboratory for its Lipids for Care business. The company said access to laboratory-scale production of customers' end products was vital for the its continued product development as well as for its 'close dialogue with key customers'.
The new laboratory facilities were inaugurated in connection with distributors from England, the US, Germany, Korea, Italy, Belgium, Russia and Brazil visiting Karlshamns within the framework of the company's Oils & Fats Academy.
Lipids for Care, part of Karlshamns' Oils & Fats division, was formed in the autumn of 2000 to strengthen the company's focus on cosmetics and nutrition, both of which it counts as important future growth areas for the company. According to Karlshamns, the new business sector has developed well, helped by the growing interest for cosmetic and skin care products based on natural raw materials.
Following two years of strategic focus on speciality products, Karlshamns has recently signed three new distribution agreements in China, Russia and Korea. It has also developed the product group Lipex Shea Family, which are used in a number of well-known, global brands and launched the product Lipex L'sens as a vegetable alternative to lanolin (fat from sheep's wool).
Karlshamns vegetable products are designed to add unique functionality to products for skin care, hair care and make-up as well as to personal care products, by not only soften the skin but also helping restore its natural moisture balance. Karlshamns says its fat systems for cosmetic products have a direct effect on skin structure as well as a regulating effect on skin cells and that it has developed certain fat systems with more biologically active properties, to help maintain skin freshness.
The company noted in a statement last month that consumers are increasingly moving towards cosmetic products based on vegetable raw materials to synthetic, animal and petroleum-based alternatives. Vegetable oils and fats have been used in cosmetic products for a long time now, and knowledge of health and safety aspects is comprehensive and extensively documented. In addition some studies indicate that vegetable oils are less susceptible to induce allergies than their synthetic alternatives.
For further information, contact Jan Gunnerdal, president Lipids for Care on +46 (0)454 - 821 22.