Replacing a decades long staple ingredient of personal care formulations, such as cyclomethicone, is understandably daunting. Today’s reality is that cyclomethicones either need to be formulated out of most product types for regulatory reasons, such as in the European Union, or replacing them is heavily encouraged due to retailer requirements, consumer demands, or sustainability initiatives.

Cyclomethicones are used in many personal care formulas in skincare, hair care, sun care, antiperspirant, and color cosmetics for their technical functionality and overall sensory. An effective cyclomethicone replacement on the market must be as versatile and aesthetically pleasing as its out-of-fashion counterpart.

Cyclopentasiloxane is the most widely used cyclomethicone. It is used as the market standard to compare alternatives against. To identify a suitable replacement for cyclopentasiloxane, thorough assessments of functional attributes and sensory profiles must be conducted.

Inolex has developed an effective method for comparing replacement or alternative emollients to a market standard. The analysis completed for LexFeel® WOW Series products compared these emollients to cyclopentasiloxane.

Complete details of this assessment can be found in our whitepaper.

Both LexFeel® WOW and LexFeel® WOW DT are effective alternatives for broadly replacing cyclopentasiloxane in different functional areas while maintaining overall sensory. This was concluded because the majority of parameters resulted in equivalency to cyclopentasiloxane, limited parameters resulted in similarity or comparability to cyclopentaxiloxane, and no parameters resulted in a significant difference from cyclopentasiloxane.

With EU regulations in effect, and silicone shortages worldwide, now more than ever it is imperative to start making the switch to non-silicone technologies. Inolex embarked on a thorough performance evaluation in the areas of sensory and functional benefits in hair care, skincare, antiperspirant, color cosmetics, and sun care in order to assess the LexFeel® WOW products' suitability to replace cyclomethicones.

In addition to performing equivalently to cyclomethicone in many functional and sensorial areas, LexFeel® WOW and LexFeel® WOW DT are entirely plant-based, biodegradable, non-palm derived, NSF/ANSI 305 approved, listed on China’s IECIC, REACH registered, vegan-friendly, and contain 100% certified biobased content.

Whether a switch from cyclomethicone is required for regulation reasons, sustainability reasons or to comply with a clean beauty retailer, the LexFeel® WOW products are effective and sustainable solutions.