Move into The Sun: Replace Petrochemical Ingredients with Sunflower Wax

The Many Uses of Sunflower Wax

When you formulate cosmetic products in stick form, you are putting together a system that is portable, stable, and has ease of use written all over it. Plus, the market for stick products is especially hot right now.

With that in mind, looking for the right structuring ingredients could give you pause—until you get familiar with the versatility inherent in sunflower wax. As petrochemicals come increasingly under scrutiny in cosmetics, the time is right to examine the broad compatibility of sunflower wax in a wide array of applications.

Sunflower wax provides structure to many anhydrous systems, regardless of oil medium or presence of pigments or powders. Even at low percentages, sunflower wax can improve high temperature stability, preserve stick integrity, and offset a tacky feel. For these reasons, it’s the wax of choice to create hard sticks, including lip balms, lipsticks, and deodorants. It can also be used as a replacement for typical “no list” ingredients, such as polyethylene, paraffin and other petrochemical waxes.

In study after study, Koster Keunen found that sunflower wax performed consistently in gel formation—a necessity when forming cosmetic stick products. The results were not limited by oil origin, either. Sunflower wax performed equally well across a broad spectrum of popular oil mediums.

The versatility of natural waxes becomes increasingly important as consumers continue to become more label conscious. More and more, the market is trending toward natural and clean beauty products.

Beyond the attractiveness of the positive label image, sunflower wax meets the demanding specifications of the deodorant market. Natural stick deodorants continue to grow in popularity, and the requirements for the medium are high. The structure must remain consistent over the use of the whole stick; the formula must carry a high volume of powder; and glide and payout must be perfectly balanced for the product to perform up to expectations.

Sunflower wax at a one-to-one ratio, replaced commonly used petrochemicals and outperform the Ozokerite formulas.

These all-natural deodorants proved their potency in multiple categories including the structure and application criteria.

We put our research into practice in these two formulas to show how versatile and effective sunflower wax can be as a structurant. With our Put Your Hands Up! Deodorant we present a vegan and natural formula that supports high powder loading and excellent slip.

Formula#: 7/20-258/286/484-5

In our Take My Hand Balm, sunflower wax provides enough structure for easy spreading, while allowing the consumer to experience an instantly moisturized feeling from the oils in the formula.

Formula #: 6/20-258/286/364-7

Koster Keunen’s commitment to sustainability drives our research and development, and our formulations reflect this. Whatever structure and texture questions and goals you have, Koster Keunen can provide the formulation guidance, protype formulas, and waxes to get your formula started, and the additional system ingredients, like plasticizers or cruelty-free beeswax, to make your formula uniquely effective. Please contact us to discuss your formulation needs today.