The natural ingredient supplier sources kaolin clay from south Brazil and typically sells it as a mineral rich performance ingredient. Senior Director of Beraca International North America Dawn Thiel said with their Beraclays line, they micronized the clay to a silky powder and created five blends from ivory to ebony.
Each blend provides different benefits, but generally Beraca found formulations with the blends provided hydration and firmness benefits in clinical trials, Thiel said. The blends can be used as colorant for a variety of products, like foundation, root color and tinted moisturizer.
The blends are paired with an app on the Beraca website in which chemists and formulators can create up to 3,000 different shades by HEX code.
“You really can decide which tone you want, and at the same time this will calculate the benefits, the performance,” Thiel said. “Each of these clays we’ve tested has slightly different benefits for firming, for hydration, so when we’re blending them together this will calculate what your blend is giving you.”
Beraca showcased the clay blends in immolation, foundation or tinted moisturizer style, samples and as an SPF formula stick to demonstrate its use cases in water, oil and solid formulas.
While larger companies are interested in the ingredients, Thiel said she expects some indies to start using Beraclays immediately.
Easy to use in the lab
For chemists and formulators, Thiel said this line is easy to work with, as the blends have been micronized and homogenized and can be added into formulas at the oil or water stage without extra treatment.
Thiel also said, while it’s generally assumed clay is drying in personal care formulations, Beraca found in clinical testing the Beraclay blends were hydrating and firming, at different level depending on the specific blend.
The ingredients are also stable colorants, so color wont fade over time, nor be affected by sun or oxygen expose.
“Everybody is trying to get away from synthetic colors, dies and iron oxides, so being able to color products with just kaolin clay that comes out of the Earth is amazing,” Thiel said. “The fact that it has these extra benefits on skin just seals the deal.”
Sustainable practices in abstraction
Beraca’s kaolin clay is sources from the south of Brazil in an area of the Amazon less rich in nutrients, but rich in minerals from volcanic activity. Thiel said the company meets Brazilian guidelines for extraction, but also goes a step further by planting trees in extraction sites and creating fishing ponds in certain locations.
She said the company likes to leave its extraction sites greener than they found them.
While clay can not be certified as organic, their ingredients are fair trade certified.
