Abstract

Sun care products have evolved considerably in the past years. Also called intelligent protections, they offer many other advantages than just UV protection and are adapted to the consumers’ urban, leisure and extreme lifestyle conditions. At the same time, the high SPF formulations bring new challenges in terms of product protection because of the high oil content of the formulations. Indeed, conventional preservatives are under constant scrutiny and formulators need to be increasingly creative by incorporating innovative product protection molecules in their formulations to limit the proliferation of microbial contaminants. Phenoxyethanol, benzyl alcohol, hydroxacetophenone, pentylene glycol and caprylyl glycol are some of the important ingredients in the toolbox for the formulators to support them for this purpose. Phenoxyethanol and benzyl alcohol are two commonly used preservatives in cosmetics. In sun care products, hydroxyacetophenone contributes to the antioxidant properties of the formulations and 1,2-alkanediols such as pentylene glycol and caprylyl glycol act as moisturizers while improving the aesthetics of the formulations. At the correct dosage, these versatile ingredients play a key role in modern product protection.