Personal Cleanser Floc Formation for Mild Surfactant Systems
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing personal care cleansers face challenges in achieving mildness while effectively delivering skin or hair benefits, often requiring high levels of emollient oils and complex packaging, and there is a need for compositions that ensure deposition of benefit agents with even milder surfactant systems.
Innovation Solution
The development of novel, super mild personal cleanser compositions using a surfactant system comprising alkanoyl glycinate and fatty acyl isethionate products, combined with a cationic polymer to form flocs, which reduces the need for high levels of emollient oils and ensures effective benefit agent deposition.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Object-affected harmful factors
If very high levels of emollient oils (greater than 30% by wt.) are used to achieve superior mildness and moisturizing skin benefit, then skin care benefits are improved, but the composition becomes less mild and requires special packaging and complicated processing
Solution Approach 1:
The patent combines the emollient oil and surfactant into a single integrated composition rather than using separate packages. The emollient oil is incorporated at moderate levels (1-30% by wt.) within the surfactant system, eliminating the need for special stripe packaging and complex processing while maintaining mildness benefits
Solution Approach 2:
The patent changes the concentration parameter of emollient oil from very high levels (>30% by wt.) to moderate levels (1-30% by wt.), and compensates by optimizing the surfactant system composition to achieve the same mildness effect without requiring special packaging
2Object-affected harmful factors
If emollient oils are used at high levels (50% by wt. or more) to deliver skin care benefits, then skin care benefits are improved, but the composition requires complicated processing and special packaging
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges the emollient oil with the surfactant system into a homogeneous composition that can be manufactured using standard mixing processes, eliminating the need for complicated processing steps and special packaging required when using very high levels of emollient oils separately
3Productivity
If common anionic surfactants such as sodium alkyl sulfate are used in cleanser compositions, then cleansing effectiveness is improved, but mildness is reduced
Solution Approach 1:
The patent uses a composite surfactant system comprising multiple types of surfactants including anionic, nonionic, and amphoteric surfactants in specific combinations. This composite approach provides both effective cleansing and superior mildness, overcoming the limitation of common anionic surfactants that provide cleansing but lack mildness
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
These compositions achieve significant mildness and enhanced skin or hair benefits with lower levels of emollient oils, comparable to or better than compositions using higher oil concentrations, while minimizing irritation and maintaining effective cleansing and moisturizing properties.
Implementation Method 1
comprising: (a) 1 to 30%, preferably 2 to 25%, more preferably 3 to 20% by wt. of a surfactant system comprising: 1) 20 to 85%, preferably 30 to 75% by wt. surfactant system of an alkanoyl surfactant selected from the group consisting of alkanoyl glycinate, alkanoyl sarcosinate and mixtures thereof... (3) 1 to 60% by wt. skin or hair benefit agent with particle size in the range of 0.01 to 30 microns... wherein liquid cleansing composition forms cationic polymer/benefit agent flocs with length of 5 micrometer or longer, preferably from 10 to several hundred micrometers upon dilution of the cleansing composition with 50 times of more of water
Data Source
AI summary
The present invention relates to super mild surfactant systems used in combination with skin or hair benefit agent. Specifically, surfactant systems comprise a combination of specific alkanoyls or mixtures of alkanoyl surfactants with specifically identified fatty acyl isethionate product to provide synergy which reduces irritation (as measured by Patch Testing) so greatly that it is comparable to mildness which normally can be only achieved using very great amounts of benefit agent (e.g., emollient). Use of benefit agent reduces irritation even further.