Evonik's Acquisition Expands into New Industry

To benefit Evonik’s product and technology portfolio in the cosmetics industry, the company acquired Air Products Schlüchtern GmbH, a specialty additives business.

“We are adding interesting products to our actives and polymer portfolio for the cosmetics industry along with a highly attractive formulation technology,” said Tammo Boinowitz, Ph.D., head of the Personal Care Business Line at Evonik.

Air Products has various encapsulation technologies for active cosmetic ingredients and multifun­ctional polymers. With the use of different membrane-forming lipids, the active ingredients can be packaged into vesicles, to transport safely.

“They enable us to deliver active ingredients specifically to the desired action site in the skin to improve the bioavail­ability of active ingredients and modulate their release,” explained Michael Sacher, head of Personal Care Delivery Systems. “That also has additional positive effects, such as the stabilization of sensitive cosmetic ingredients.”

Furthermore, Evonik will have an open door to new product development opportunities with these technologies.

“It is conceivable, for example, to deliver innovative actives from the Evonik portfolio to deeper skin layers to enhance their efficacy,” says Sacher.

With the newly added polymers, Evonik will now also be able to offer products in the hair care industry.

“The acquisition is another step toward the goal of becoming the leading specialty provider for cosmetic ingredients,” said Boinowitz.

Evonik will have two stands at in-cosmetics Global in April 2017. One will present the company’s actives portfolio, while the other will hold information about the specialties portfolio.