Skinnovations: Innovacos Excels in Leading Cosmetic Product Trends

Consumers are very selective about using products for their skin. Some prefer higher viscosity, others like thinner serums. Some are seeking antioxidants, others want collagen.

There are numerous genres of skincare solutions to satisfy evolving customers that also now include more men than ever. Today’s skincare consumer is atypical from only 10 years ago and is demanding not only that the product works but that it (and the company that makes it) also does no harm to the planet and its residents.

A technologically sophisticated supplier is a requisite to enable your brand to deliver its promise to its intended audience. Innovacos is that supplier.

Innovacos’ core business is built upon four pillars:  ingredients, chemical development, marketing and technical support, and formulation and cosmetic application. The company assists cosmetic brands to gain market penetration through three strengths: use of innovative and unique technologies, global networking and partnerships, and development of distinctive cosmetics ingredients.

Anthony Ansaldi, Director of US Operations for Innovacos Corp., explains, “What is specific and unique to Innovacos is the multilevel service it provides to individual companies wishing to put cosmetic or dermatological finished products on the market. Innovacos’ expertise applies to the development of new and novel ingredients and patented technologies, plus it encompasses services for clinical substantiation, marketing claims, technical support and formulation development.”

Wide Laboratory Capabilities​

Innovacos has a specially dedicated, technologically sophisticated multi-level research center that provides a unique service for customer projects that meets all different requirements, from the systematic study for characterization of new ingredients to formulation development and marketing positioning for customized cosmetic lines.

The function of the Innovacos Multi-level Lab Center is to investigate the needs of today’s global cosmetic business and create solutions that fulfill those needs on a timely basis. The highly integrated laboratory system provides Innovacos’ customers with the benefits of its different lab expertise -- chemical, biological, and cosmetic -- working together. The Innovacos Multi-Level Lab Center facility includes a chemical lab, applied research lab, quality control lab and formulation lab.

The chemical lab manages the design and synthesis of new ingredients. The applied research lab performs systematic studies and characterization of new ingredients, evaluating their cosmetic positioning and applications in addition to compatibility studies. The quality control lab leads the analysis of the chemical and physical parameters of the ingredients and cosmetic formulations. And the formulation Lab is focused on the development of novel and customized formulations and performing both sensorial evaluation, clinical studies and accelerated and long-term stability tests.

All these labs work together in coordination, trying to test and evaluate not only any newly developed products under all different possible conditions, but also to answer any customer request in the most expedient manner.

For example, when a new ingredient is released by Innovacos’ chemical synthesis group or biological process, it is immediately tested in the applied research lab to detect and investigate the benefit of its application.

If the product is approved, it goes to the next step and it will be evaluated from both the formulation and QC labs, otherwise it goes back for synthesis modification, just like a ping pong, until full satisfaction of all the new product characteristics is achieved. A similar strategy is employed to identify the best solution to satisfy any specific customer request.

Unique Ingredient Portfolio​

Innovacos designs and manufactures innovative cosmetic ingredients to fulfill the needs of formulators in their quest to develop sophisticated high-performance new and novel products. Its highly trained group of chemists and cell biologists continually investigate the benefits of various biomasses collected from around the globe. After a thorough evaluation, selected materials are designed and engineered into novel and functional cosmeceutical ingredients.

Innovacos selects ingredients from specific habitats and different parts of the world (e.g., Arctic Ocean/ Canadian coast, Jeju Island/South Korea) to ensure excellent properties for unique cosmetic application. The plants sourced live in specific climatic conditions that force them to produce specific compounds that have been found to function well in cosmetic and dermatologic products.

The range of ingredients developed by Innovacos covers all cosmetic applications and targets numerous diverse biological mechanisms supporting skin health and appearance as well as formulation texture and functionality. This allows formulators and cosmetic professionals to meet the constantly changing needs and desires of consumers.  Innovacos’ portfolio consists of two ingredient lines: Actives and Formulience™.

The Actives collection includes three lines: anti-aging, (Bioptimized Guava, ReGENESEA™ LS) skin lightening (Activoil™ Spotliess ZRO, GinsenoLite™-G) and environmental protection (Plant C-Stem™, Activoil™ Echnidium RO, Activoil™ Kerox-Pro™).

An example of a growing use of one of its environmental protection actives is in alcohol-based sanitizer gels, global demand of which has skyrocketed due to the pandemic. “It is well known that ethanol causes damage to the skin barrier function, and it disturbs its homeostasis determining irritations and sensitivity,” Ansaldi explains. “The addition of Activoil™ Echnidium ZRO to a formulation containing high levels of alcohol, not only succeeds in preventing the dry skin caused by alcohol, but also protects the skin barrier function and improves skin moisturization.”

The Formulience™ line is composed of functional ingredients, such as emulsifiers, emollient and solubilizers, all which in addition to their basic function, provide clinical benefits for the skin.

The Formulience™ PolyAquol™ platform is a new generation of polyglycerol-based emulsifiers, all naturally derived, and Cosmos approved, developed to be ideal candidates for green formulations.  The Formulience™ Innollient™ platform includes emollients with estolides structures that can provide high spreadability index (innollient™ LO) to the formulations or a pleasant film-former effect (innollient™ SL). They are also excellent pigment-dispersing agent for mineral UV filters and make-up pigments.

Ansaldi relates that one customer required a high nourishing formulation with a lipophilic external phase while having a pleasant and light texture.  “Thanks to PolyAquol™ VO4, Innovacos was able to meet this request, developing a W/O emulsion, containing a high level of water internal phase (85% of water phase, typical amount of O/W emulsions). In this way, the benefits of both W/O and O/W emulsions are kept in a single formulation.”

In ingredient technology, the most important trend concerns sustainability and environmental protection. Innovacos focuses its attention on naturally derived ingredients, that are also readily biodegradable -- all Innovacos ingredients come from vegetable and sustainable sources. Most have Ecocert/Cosmos approval or meet the requirements to be approved, and can be categorized as vegan, thus they are ideal in clean beauty finished cosmetic products. “Our corporate social responsibility also encompasses human rights protection, as well as providing readily biodegradable products,” Ansaldi comments.

Leading the Future​

“Our company philosophy is illustrated figuratively by our logo in the three powerful hues -- blue, green and red – which also evoke fundamental elements of water, plants and energy, respectively,” Ansaldi describes. “When optically combined in equal intensities, those colors form a bright white light. This phenomenon is meant to be symbolized by our logo as a skillful combination between fundamental elements or primary biomasses creating innovative functional cosmetics ingredients, or Synergizing ideas™.

Ansaldi summarizes, “Innovacos’ is the fusion of ‘innovation’ and ‘cosmetics.’ Ultimately, the ingredients we innovate must serve to develop highly functional and positively perceived cosmetic formulations.”