During the NYSCC Suppliers' Day show, we caught up with Chelsea Grimm and Joel Kennard, who are both Chemists at Wacker Chemical. Grimm and Kennard shared insights into some of the company's innovations being showcased at the show, and took us through their Perfect Match quiz experience.
About the Perfect Match quiz, Kennard shared that for the show, Wacker Chemical chose to focus on an interactive concept which "fused the company's ingredient solutions with a digitization effort...to allow our customers to experience solutions relative to skin care and hair care." Once participations were guided through the simple quiz questions, "they end up with a tailored prototype featuring our innovations."
Prototypes featured in the Perfect Match quiz included a Gentle Oatmilk Facial Cleanser, Perfecting Serum, Moisturizing Eco Primer, and a Nourishing Facial Oil. Each formulation showcased a different Wacker Chemical ingredient option: for example, the Moisturizing Eco Primer contains the company's BELSIL eco EG 3001 elastomer gel, which is "a silicone copolymer network blended with a mixture of Undecane and Tridecane" that "appears as a colorless, translucent gel," as detailed on the Wacker Chemical website. Additionally, in this formulation, "the combination of Undecane and Tridecane is known as a fast spreading, volatile emollient which is 100 percent renewable-based and readily biodegradable."
One important facet of Wacker Chemical's prototype formulations is their sustainability - a core tenant of Wacker Chemical's company mission. As detailed on the company's website, according to Dr. Christian Hartel, President & CEO of Wacker Chemie AG, "by 2045, we will achieve net-zero thanks to our expanding portfolio of particularly sustainable products and decarbonized production.” Further, according to Dr. Erk Thorsten Heyen, Wacker Chemical Senior Vice President of Procurement and Logistics, the company has initiatives to ensure that "by 2030, we will cut our absolute upstream greenhouse gas emissions by 25%," the company's website detailed.
Wacker Chemical's commitment to sustainability also fits well into the evolving landscape of cosmetic and personal care product formulation trends. As Kennard explained, "I've been at the show a couple of years now and definitely see the trend increasing on sustainability." He further added that "I think what's really interesting with respect to sustainability is looking at how we all are collectively developing the language to describe what is important, and what is uniquely important to each customer is unique and varies."
For a deeper dive into our interview with Grimm and Kennard, and to see the Perfect Match quiz in action, be sure to watch the full video above.
