Personal care wet wipes: a rapidly evolving market segment, by Dr. Pascal Yvon, Sharon Personal Care

Wipes continue to be one of the most dynamic segments of the nonwoven industries, offering a simple, convenient, and efficient way to deliver on-the-go solutions. One of the major applications is for personal care.

Wet wipes consist of two main parts: a nonwoven fabric carrier and a lotion impregnating the wipes (the formula). Traditionally, the main purpose of a personal care wet wipe is to cleanse, e.g. to collect and hold dirt and other matter. The liquid is mostly water, but also includes surfactants, a buffer system, and preservatives.

However, this is a segment of the wipes market that is rapidly evolving to address growing consumer expectations, and it is projected to be the fastest growing consumer segment through 2029 ¹

Key market drivers include:

• Naturality
• Sustainability, Eco-consciousness
• Transparency about components
• Multifunctionality with a clean and minimalistic ingredient list
• Advanced formulations delivering skincare benefits beyond cleansing addressing specific skin conditions and catering to various skin types and sensitive skin
• Customization with targeted customer segmentation
• A skincare ingredient approach with skinification.

Skinification is defined as the use of hero skincare ingredients across beauty products. This growing driver lies in a well-informed customer base and the understanding of the benefits. Added to the above, there is also an increasing focus on sensoriality. Many consumer brands are incorporating more and more unique textures to personal care products to enhance the consumer experience and product differentiation.

Formulation for a skincare approach

Here, we will focus on the formula.

Three elements must work in harmony to obtain a quality product:

• Safety of use – preservation
• Comfort of use – sensoriality
• Effectiveness – cleanse, skin health performance.

Wet wipes preservation is extremely challenging, and several recent papers have reviewed this issue ^2,3,4.

The challenges are due to the vast surface area of the nonwoven fabric and its nature, the high-water content, and the formation of biofilms. Thus, it is critical to protect the formula with the right preservation system.

Wet wipes can deliver skin benefits and new opportunities for the emerging category.

Here, we will present a multifunctional platform delivering skin health benefits, offering a ready-to-use, smart solution to create a portfolio of wipes addressing a variety of specific consumer needs.

Multifunctional Platform

The multifunctional platform is a unique combination of two key technologies: Oleosome and Hyperfluid. This combination represents the multifunctional platform base. Whilst delivering skin health benefits on a general basis, it also offers the unique capability of incorporating specific ingredients to deliver customizable capability.

Following is more information about each technology.

Oleosome technology

Oleosomes are natural oil droplets found in plant seeds, such as from Safflower. They have a unique structure: a sophisticated monolayer of phospholipid membrane embedded with proteins (primarily oleosins) that encapsulates and protects the triacylglycerol core. The oil constitutes up to 99% of the oleosome. This structure grants the TAG core physical and chemical stability (Figure 1).

Oleosomes present unique properties for personal care and cosmetic applications, delivering multiple benefits for skin health. After an appropriate extraction process to preserve oleosomes’ natural structure and properties, in 1ml of lotion, there are tens of billions of oleosomes.

When applied on the skin, oleosomes collapse, delivering their desirable components on and in the skin (Figure 2).

Figure 1: Oleosomes sourcing and structure

Figure 2: Oleosome delivery on and in the skin

Hyperfluid technology

Is concentrated moisturising fluid emulsions with hyper-fluid structure. These emulsions can offer a choice of rich skin-feel, or a lighter texture with a velvety after-feel, as well as a choice of different nourishing ingredients for the skin.

These unique emulsions are created based on Phase inversion temperature (PIT), and Phase inversion concentration (PIC), or PIC-PIT technology. The emulsions created by this technology are extremely stable and easy to process for the production of wipes.

Importantly, the emulsions are protected by a specifically designed patented wipes preservation system with a unique antibiofilm mechanism. It is suitable for all fabric types.

The combination of these two technologies provides a wide range of benefits such as cleansing, hydration, and sensoriality to the platform base.

Active ingredients with specific activities can be incorporated to offer the capability to deliver additional targeted claims (Figure 3).

Figure 3: Smart Multifunctional platform

Case study: Platform base boosted with Hyaluronic Acid for hydration and skin elasticity

A study was conducted to show the benefits of the smart platform in comparison to regular wipes emulsions.

The study compared two wipe lotions where the only variable was the multifunctional base (INCI details in Figure 4).

• Lotion A: formula with 5% of the Multifunctional base and 1% hyaluronic acid, low molecular weight.
• Lotion B: formula with 1% Hyaluronic acid, low molecular weight.

The study was conducted on a panel of 10 volunteers, by applying a wipe with the lotion to facial area for 14 days. Skin elasticity was evaluated at D0 and D14 by cutometer probe, and a self-assessment at D14.

Figure 4: Case study between 2 lotions

The results clearly demonstrate the advantages of the multifunctional base in comparison to a standard one.

Skin elasticity:

• Lotion A +7.6% elasticity improvement after 14 days
• Lotion B no significant improvement

Sensoriality:

• 100% of the panelist feel their skin was softer with lotion A
• 100% of the panelist feel the skin was more moisturized with lotion A

From the consumer benefits to the wipe manufacturer

Formulating the new world of specialty wipes can be challenging and critical considerations need to be taken into account:

• Cleansing performance
• Skin feel
• Microbial threats
• Skincare expertise
• Claim substantiation

Convenient manufacturing capabilities is also a significant consideration. The multifunctional platform is key in achieving successful formulations and allows organizations to succeed in taking wipes into the future.

Conclusion – Skincare on the go!

The new multifunctional platform created by the fusion of technologies enables the innovative development to expand the use of wipes beyond cleansing, into true skin benefits.

In addition to optimal skin feel and sensoriality, it allows manufacturers to effectively address consumer expectations for skinification and customization in this presentation format.

By combining powerful technologies into a single concept that is easy to use in production, it provides consumers cleansing and skincare on the go.

Pascal Yvon, PharmD, MBA, is General Manager – Americas for Sharon Personal Care. He has over 25 years of global experience in the life sciences industries, including the cosmetic & personal care, biotech, and pharmaceutical sectors. He has worked for global corporations as well as start-ups in sales, marketing, business development and general management positions.

 Having spent the first half of his career based in France and the second half in the USA, Dr. Yvon developed his expertise with a multi-cultural sensitivity and international approach. He has authored a number of trade journal articles and regularly speaks at leading industry events and conferences. Dr. Yvon holds a doctorate in pharmacy from the Pharmacy University, Paris, and an executive MBA from Rutgers University, NJ. He is a member of the Society of Cosmetic Chemists, New York Chapter. 

References

[1] Smithers report - The Future of Global Wipes to 2029. May 2024. The Future of Global Wipes to 2029 - Smithers

[2] Salama, P.; Gliksberg, A.; Cohen, M.; Tzafrir, I.; Ziklo, N. Why Are Wet Wipes so Difficult to Preserve? Understanding the Intrinsic Causes. Cosmetics 2021, 8, 73. Cosmetics | Free Full-Text | Why Are Wet Wipes So Difficult to Preserve? Understanding the Intrinsic Causes (mdpi.com)

[3] Ziklo, Noa, Idit Yuli, Maayan Bibi, and Paul Salama. 2024. The Influence of Physical Characteristics of Wet Wipe Fabrics on the Microbial Biomass Accumulation Cosmetics 11, no. 4: 106. Cosmetics | Free Full-Text | The Influence of Physical Characteristics of Wet Wipe Fabrics on the Microbial Biomass Accumulation (mdpi.com)

[4] Siragusa P., Ziklo N., Eylon N. Beyond Fabric and Water: Wet Wipes Formulation and Preservation. NonWovens Industry March 30, 2023. Beyond Fabric And Water: Wet Wipes Formulation And Preservation | Nonwovens Industry (nonwovens-industry.com)