Simp, ever more efficient brushes
Simp continues to play on the design of plastic mascara brushes. Its Jalouse blends petal-shaped spikes with spiral spikes, the former loading the formula onto the lashes, and the second lengthening and curling. But it is with its Diva model that the company aims to create a breakthrough: traditional conical spikes are combined with fine small closed loops, ensuring high lash definition and greater comfort of use. This innovation is reflected in the Caresse model, which has open curls whose appearance is similar to that of conventional fibers. Simp is also testing mascara’s compatibility with EcoWood, the biomaterial developed by parent company, HCP Packaging.
Cosmogen, recycled solutions
Cosmogen now offers PCR plastic in its range of tubes with applicator tips. Better still, these applicators can now separate from their tubes for recycling purposes. At its subsidiary Pyc-Europe, airless bottles are also recycled: a polypropylene mixture containing 35% or 50% PCR can be used to produce bottles and their bases, collars and caps, but not the pump mechanisms. This turnkey airless solution is Ecocert certified. The company will soon be opening a logistics platform with storage to be able to supply their clients more quickly. Finally, Cosmogen has a collection of applicators made entirely from FSC wood, including a brush without a metal ferrule.
PRP Création, alternatives to plastic
PRP Creation is focusing on alternatives to plastic. Currently, its bottles can be composed of up to 100% recycled PET. The material can then be lightly colored to conceal its naturally greenish hue, an option chosen for a range of makeup removers for Sephora. Another possibility for bottles is ethylene, derived from sugar cane that can account for 35% in PET, and 96% in polypropylene. Various bio-sourced materials can also be used in the composition of stoppers: wood chips (with the biodegradable material Supalac), cellulose (combined with recycled plastic with Treva by Eastman), and 30% algae in virgin polypropylene. The company is testing a material consisting of 50% oyster shell and 50% vegetable oil.
Hertus, the growth of green solutions
Specialist in injection and finishing, Hertus is developing a wider range of sustainable materials, including RPET (recycled PET). The material is recovered in partnership with recycling structures. Although the RPET results in a smoked glass effect, it is easily colored. Hertus also offers a combination of 100% biosourced and compostable materials including natural PLA that can be loaded with naturel fibers, vine stalks and cork (to name a few) as well as cellulose acetate sourced from sawdust and PHA of bacterial origin. Partially bio-sourced materials are another option: polypropylene, of which 40% comes from frying fat, a 30% bio-sourced PET and a PP loaded with up to 30% natural fibers.
Texen, greener mascara
Leveraging its innovation unit and the industrial expertise of Texen’s Mayet site in France, the supplier has developed We’R Mascara, an eco-designed standard mascara. Its bottle and cap are made of recycled PCR plastic, while tests are underway to make the stem and the wiper from a bio-based material. The brush is an eco-friendly model supplied by Italian company Ponzini, whose fibers are designed in a castor oil-based biomaterial. The product is expected to be available for initial sampling as of the first quarter of 2020.
Albéa, the circular economy age
A signatory to the Ellen McArthur Foundation charter for the circular plastic economy, Albéa is multiplying its eco-designed initiatives. Among its new products is a flexible paper-based cosmetics tube, launched in partnership with L’Oréal (see Paper/Cardboard innovations). Albéa also announced that Greenleaf, its all-plastic (aluminum-free) laminated tube, has been approved by the Association of Plastics Recyclers in the US for its compatibility with the recycling of HDPE bottles. Finally, in the makeup segment, a range of four mascara brushes were made via laser sintering 3D printing. Their sandy feel, which grips the lashes, earned the mascaras the name Desert Family. They feature an innovative design, with one of the models even including moving parts so as to better release the formula onto the lashes. The range is the fruit of a collaboration with additive manufacturing specialist Erpro 3D Factory.
Eastman, recycling at the forefront
Eastman is working to develop plastic materials that can regenerate themselves via complementary recycling methods. To take advantage of traditional mechanical recycling, the supplier has launched Cristal Revel, a co-polyester composed of 40% PCR that can be molded in thicknesses of up to 15mm without crystallizing, thus retaining the transparency of a conventional PETG. At the end of life phase, it can integrate into PET recycling streams. The group also presented a second version of Treva, its bio-plastic launched last year as an alternative to ABS. It retains its content of 48% cellulose, but the remaining share is now 23.5% recycled, and only 28.5% is virgin material of fossil origin. The recycled material used here comes from Eastman’s chemical recycling process. Compared to mechanical recycling, its advantage is that it is possible to process and decontaminate impurities from the most diverse plastics to reform monomers. The group is developing the process to orient it towards polyester recycling. This recycled polyester will be able to account for a significant proportion of the transparent co-polyesters for its Glass Polymer range, aimed at cosmetics, without compromising on quality. Eastman plans to open a unit dedicated to this technology within the next two years.
