Silicones' unique properties play an important role in Personal Care today, offering superior aesthetic and technical characteristics to formulations, delivering high-performance sensory benefits like softness, luxurious texture and longer-lasting, protecting effects. Silicone-based personal care products make excellent moisturisers, keeping actives present for longer and returning softness and vitality to the surface of skin.
Silicones' decades-long use in hair care is responsible for the widespread availability of products which improve conditioning, heat protection and hairstrengthening. Silicones are especially effective in shampoos, notably 2-in-1 shampoo and conditioning products, in hair serums for repairing split ends and in colorants applied to give colour protection.
Silicone-based hair care products yield rich volume, offer frizz control and deliver lasting shape and softness. We have silicones to thank for that natural sheen we have come to expect from shampoo and conditioning products today. Improved wet and dry combing, longer-lasting soft feel and increased shine, as well as heat and colour protection for treated or damaged hair, have made silicones the industry standard in haircare formulations.
Silicones are also relied on in ethnic haircare products for their calming smoothness.
The spreadability and smoothness of make-up and other skincare products provide an important support to revitalise skin following exposure to the elements and environmental toxins. Whether the skin is too dry and flaky or too greasy, silicones improve moisturisation and radiance, leaving the skin feeling soft and refreshed.Providing innovative textures for every occasion, from anti-ageing face creams to sun creams, silicones in skincare lay down a breathable protective film on the skin which optimises moisture retention and enhances the delivery of actives.
These combined functional and sensory beneﬁts are supported by improved spreadability in silicone-based shower and bath formulations.
The tender care and protection provided by aftershaves, cold creams and cleansing lotions buffered with silicones regenerate the skin and leave a smooth, soft enduring feeling.
Silicones have opened up exciting new vistas for make-up applications, particularly in foundations where elastomers are used to give products a dry powdery feel and in long-lasting make-up where water resistance keeps the formula in place for longer.
The smooth glossy finishes silicones bring to lipsticks and mascaras let colour spread evenly as silicones are excellent carriers and binders of pigments and fillers.
Even just minimal usage of silicone-based make-up can produce excellent results without appearing to be the result of excessive application.
The many versatile properties of silicones-based cosmetics range from even, easy spreading, a smooth, silky, powdery feel, a natural glow, wrinkle-masking, reduced skin shine or enhanced gloss on lips, long-lasting effects, improved sebum absorption and greater colour radiance.
The use of silicones in antiperspirants and deodorants deliver comfort and affordability to meet the expectations of our active lifestyles.
Volatile silicones are used as carriers in antiperspirants due to their volatility and non-cooling properties, which lend a lasting dry feel to the body.
Silicones in antiperspirants and deodorants ensure a cost-effective platform for exciting new formulations of body odour products which are notable for their fast-drying action, reduced white residue and tackiness, softer and drier feel which minimises irritation of the skin, a moisturising effect, rapid absorption and improved salt suspension to reduce shine.
Men's facial skin, besides undergoing the same environmental stresses as women and children's, is additionally stressed by regular shaving and therefore needs the tender care and protection silicones bring to smooth and soft-feeling aftershaves and cleansing lotions.
Personal care products with that silky powdery feel, revitalising freshness and wrinkle-masking properties are equally sought after in male personal care, the largest-growing market in skincare today.
Silicones in male grooming products can provide effective, convenient non-irritating and anti-aging solutions tailored to men's specific skincare needs, offering a clear, natural, healthy look and leaving the skin feeling refreshed.
Consumers today are acutely aware of the need to protect their skin from the sun, not just at the beach but also in daily urban life.
With levels of UV radiation at all-time highs, sun creams are an important skin companion for everyone under the sun. Water-resistant silicones are used in sun creams and protective sprays, lip balms, cooling after-sun body lotions and after-sun hair spray, as well as in self-tanning applications.
Two key benefits silicones bring to suncare products are SPF enhancement and water resistance. They also reduce greasiness and improve sweat resistance, minimise sand pick-up and enhance spreadability, ensuring the skin is evenly protected.