The ongoing search for increasingly mild surfactants and formulations has highlighted the need for up-to-date technology to demonstrate and support “mildness” claims.
Our recent discussions with leading formulators in the UK made it clear that standard methods, including HET-CAM and RBC, are largely viewed as “inadequate and out of date”. The quality of the data is often not sufficiently robust to provide a convincing justification for the premium price charged for these “speciality surfactants”.
A new technology to provide strong evidence is urgently required, and we have been working to address this need. Reconstructed human skin models such as EpiDermTM (shown in the picture) and eye models such as EpiOcularTM, enable ingredients and formulations to be tested in conditions that provide the closest possible simulation of “real life”. The skin models possess the same structural and functional layers as the human epidermis, including a barrier function, and have full regulatory acceptance for human skin irritation testing (OECD TG 439).
At XCellR8, we use an adaptation of the original regulatory method to demonstrate mildness of ingredients or formulations, using both skin models and eye models. A series of items can be assessed in a single experiment and placed into a rank order of mildness, relative to industry benchmark surfactants such as CAPB. Over time, reconstructed human skin and eye models are likely to become the new “gold standard” method for mildness claim support.
Early adoption of the technique by ingredient suppliers provides both a scientific and commercial edge, providing robust evidence for mildness claims using scientifically advanced techniques.
To learn more about the mildness claim support test, please contact info@x-cellr8.com / +44 (0)1925 607 134
