The concept of waterless cosmetics, is gaining in popularity as demonstrated by increased sales of traditional bars of soap. Creating concentrated products with more active ingredients not only reduces water usage during manufacturing but also lowers carbon footprint due to lower product weight and the associated decrease in excess packaging waste. Whilst this Welsh SME already markets ethical cosmetic bars plus liquid formulations in reusable glass bottles, they have developed a range of cosmetic powder concentrates that require encapsulation before rehydration by the end-user. Traditional petroleum based polymers such as PVP (polyvinylpyrrolidone), deliver the required encapsulation and re-solubility characteristics in warm water but are not compatible with the company’s ethical and eco-conscious strategy. Company requests a technical partnership with an EU company to identify, evaluate and eventually supply vegan-based polymer films for powder encapsulation. The aim is to launch a range of ethical, dehydrated cosmetics across the EU in 2025/26.

Technical and manufacturing expertise in vegan-based polymer films. Colourless or as close to colourless as possible polymer films that could be utilised to encapsulate powders, plus dissolve completely in warm water to form a clear colourless solution, without leaving any film residue.

Seeking company partner that has in-house or subcontracted production capabilities and is able to collaborate on identifying and testing vegan-based alternatives to traditional polymer encapsulation films.

Specific Area of Activity of the Partner

- Design of sustainable, vegan-based polymer film that exhibits encapsulation properties.

- Production of vegan-based encapsulation alternatives to PVP.

- Ideally suppliers specialising in ecological and socially responsible polymer film production.

Tasks to be performed by the partner sought:

- Design, optimisation and production of vegan-based polymer film which will be assessed for cosmetic powder encapsulation and rehydration performance.