At a time when environmental issues are impacting all aspects of cosmetic product development and marketing, the search for more responsible solutions is dominating the sector. Concentrated cosmetics seems to be a rather easy option to implement… During the “Consumer Safety & Cosmetics” conference day, organised by Cosmetic Valley on June 10, 2021, Sébastien Saclier, Research & Development Director of Johnson & Johnson, came to share his experience and present the challenges that had to be met to create a concentrated shower gel, both in terms of formulation and production… or the new routine to be taught to consumers!
Just under two years ago, Le Petit Marseillais launched “Mon Gel Douche Concentré - My Concentrated Shower Gel”. Its particularity: it was designed to be used as is, without having to be diluted. Its ecological advantages are obvious, but its development was much less so, as Sébastien Saclier testified, evoking “all the ups and downs we had during this development…”
What is a concentrate?
There are already many definitions, and as many variations, of concentrated products. For example, we can mention:
• Detergents, which were the pioneering products of concentration, whether in powder or liquid form
• Food products, whether tomato concentrate, double tomato concentrate or sweetened condensed milk
• Oroducts to be diluted, such as syrups, pastis or concentrates for the industrial manufacture of Coca-Cola
• The “Ultimate” of concentration, which are solid forms (soaps, syndets, tablets, etc.)
In recent years, the trend towards concentration has spread to cosmetic care, starting with serums, more concentrated in active ingredients. Then came the products to be diluted and finally the concentrates to be used as they are.
Products to be diluted
We still know very few of them in cosmetics, with the exception of some shower gels.
The vast majority of …
