CBD is not compatible with silicone substrates. And that’s the challenge Gelest set out to address. The ingredient maker specializes in silanes, silicones, and metal-organics for the medical, pharmaceutical, and personal care industries (as well as others).
The availability and popularity of CBD as a personal care and cosmetic ingredient inspired the team at Gelest solve for this compatibility challenge. Tanya Roberman, a technical services and cosmetics formulations expert for the company, explained her team’s work to Cosmetics Design at the 2019 SCC Annual Meeting and Technology Showcase, saying, “the addition of a trisiloxane group to the CBD molecule at a hydroxyl site changes the solubility parameters and allows the incorporation of trisiloxane-functionalized cannabidiol isolate…into silicone gel matrices or other silicone-based formulations.”
Gelest launches Vertasil TM-CBD1 making the popular cannabinoid soluble in silicone
The skin care and hair care ingredient that resulted from that research launched just this week and is soluble in not only silicones but also in silicone derivatives, natural oils, hydrocarbons, esters, and glycols.
In a media release announcing Vertasil TM-CBD1 to the market, Daria Long, Vice President and General Manager of Personal Care at Gelest, explains, “We specifically designed this patented molecule to extend solubility parameters and improve the compatibility of CBD with a wider range of materials without compromising CBD activity or benefits.”
“The emollience of this modified CBD combined with the ability to form thin films,” she says, “enables distribution over skin and hair, providing effective treatments at extremely low concentrations.”
CBD ingredient innovation makes new personal care product formats and functions possible
The new Gelest trisiloxane-functionalized cannabidiol isolate enables a controlled release of CBD from personal care product formulations and “can be easily incorporated into silicone gel matrices such as polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) and other primarily silicone-based formulations,” Long tells the press.
“In fact,” she says, “Vertasil TM-CBD1 is the only ingredient that enables the delivery of Cannabidiol from PDMS gels.”
Gelest is positioning the new CBD-hybrid fluid ingredient for use in skin care and eye treatment mask formulas, in silicone patches, and in silicone serums and oils. Additionally, “the ability of this hybrid fluid to generate effect at low concentrations offers economic advantages compared to pure CBD,” according to this week’s media release.
