10 May 2005
Four New Products from GE Advanced Materials Enhance Performance, Versatility of Personal Care Formulations
BERGEN OP ZOOM, THE NETHERLANDS — May 10, 2005 — Tropical extracts, aromatic essences, and organic nutrients often get top billing on the labels of personal care products. However, manufacturers competing for shelf space in this sector recognize that superior formulations also require the use of high-performance – though less glamorous – materials. With this demand for greater performance in mind, GE Advanced Materials has launched four new silicone-based products that help offer enhanced performance and greater versatility to personal care formulations:
• Silsoft* Tone (AB)n terpolymer is a multifunctional hair conditioning agent that can be added to shampoos and leave-on hair conditioners. It helps deliver excellent color retention, plus an added degree of protection to hair treated with high-temperature styling devices.
• GE’s Silsoft A-553 material is a 100-percent active (AB)n terpolymer designed to deliver premium conditioning benefits to hair. In addition to providing outstanding wet- and dry-combing performance, this proprietary material minimizes fly-away, and gives hair a unique soft, silky after-feel.
• SilShine* 151 silicone resin is an excellent multi-functional, film-forming material that helps deliver visually perceptible high gloss to lips and hair, boosts SPF performance and may increase the compatibility of organic sunscreens (particularly oxybenzone and avobenzone) in a formulation.
• GE’s SF 1540 emulsifier is a water-in-oil product with high actives content, which helps to provide formulators with more room in the oil phase for pigments, sunscreens, actives, emollients, and other ingredients critical for cosmetics and ultra-high SPF lotions.
“This range of new and innovative materials further establishes GE Advanced Materials as a differentiated specialty supplier of versatile technology for the competitive personal care sector,” said Beatriz Blanco, global marketing manager, Personal & Home Care, GE Advanced Materials.
The Silsoft Tone material specifically promotes alignment of hair fibers to deliver a beautiful shine. More significantly, it protects hair from high-temperature styling devices such as flat ceramic irons that can make strands more brittle and prone to breakage. In-house testing has demonstrated that the tensile properties of hair treated with a shampoo or conditioner containing Silsoft Tone are comparable to that of hair that has not been exposed to heat.
GE’s Silsoft A-553 terpolymer provides outstanding wet and dry-combing performance, minimizes fly-away, and helps leave hair feeling soft and silky. Soluble in surfactant matrices commonly used in shampoos, Silsoft A-553 can be used for both clear and opaque products.
SilShine 151 film-forming silicone resin offers performance benefits for an even broader range of applications. “There are few products in the personal care market that offer the versatility of SilShine 151 resin,” said Dr. John R. Nicholson, skin care program leader, GE Advanced Materials. “This product can add value to sun care, color cosmetics, and hair care products. It can enhance SPF protection, solubilize organic sunscreens in a skin care product, and it can deliver high gloss to lips and hair. Plus, in all instances, it will provide emolliency and an exceptional feel.”
In addition to SilShine 151 silicone resin’s non-volatility and non-migration attributes, the material provides more durable high gloss to hair and lips compared to ingredients such as phenyltrimethicone. Indeed, the combination of high gloss, non-migration, SPF enhancement, and excellent feel and emolliency may make this product an excellent candidate for use in lip balm products. This innovative material also offers anti-whitening performance for antiperspirant formulations. Plus, its phenyl functionality helps deliver excellent compatibility with both organic emollients and silicone materials.
Completing GE’s line-up of new products is its SF 1540 water-in-oil emulsifier, which may be used in a range of personal care applications, such as skin and sun care products,
Reader enquiries
GE Bayer Silicones
Building V7
51368 Leverkusen
Germany
Notes for editors
About GE Advanced Materials
GE Advanced Materials (www.geadvancedmaterials.com) is a world leader in providing high-technology material solutions. Headquartered in Pittsfield, Mass., its businesses include Plastics, Silicones, Quartz, Automotive, Specialty Film & Sheet, Polymershapes, and Sealants and Adhesives.
GE (NYSE: GE) is Imagination at Work – a diversified technology, media and financial services company focused on solving some of the world's toughest problems. With products and services ranging from aircraft engines, power generation, water processing and security technology to medical imaging, business and consumer financing, media content and advanced materials, GE serves customers in more than 100 countries and employs more than 300,000 people worldwide. For more information, visit the company's Web site at www.ge.com.
* Silsoft and SilShine are trademarks of General Electric Company.
Related images
New GE Silicone-Based Products for Personal Care Formulations
Tropical extracts, aromatic essences, and organic nutrients often get top billing on the labels of personal care products. However, manufacturers competing for shelf space in this sector recognize that superior formulations also require the use of high-performance – though less glamorous – materials. With this demand for greater performance in mind, GE Advanced Materials has launched four new silicone-based products that help offer enhanced performance and greater versatility to personal care formulations. These include: Silsoft* Tone (AB)n terpolymer, a multifunctional hair conditioning agent that can be added to shampoos and leave-on hair conditioners; Silsoft A-553, a 100-percent active (AB)n terpolymer designed to deliver premium conditioning benefits to hair; SilShine* 151 silicone resin, an excellent multi-functional, film-forming material that helps deliver visually perceptible high gloss to lips and hair; and SF 1540 emulsifier, a water-in-oil product with high actives content, which helps to provide formulators with more room in the oil phase for pigments, sunscreens, actives, emollients, and other ingredients critical for cosmetics and ultra-high SPF lotions.
Editorial enquiries
Robert Scheib
GE Bayer Silicones
Folke Markestein
Marketing Solutions NV
fmarkestein@marketingsolutions.be
Jim Allison
AH&M Marketing Communications