Preservatives increase the shelf life of cosmetics formulations along with providing protection against microbial contamination. In fact, the global personal care and cosmetics preservatives market was estimated to be valued at approximately $408.6 million in 2023 owing to increased demand for beauty and hygiene products, according to market research firm FactMR. 

Happi gathered several preservative market experts (presented in alphabetical order by last name) to weigh in on new developments within the growing sector. 

Nicholas A. Arellano has held multiple technical sales and sales management positions at Coast Southwest, Inc. for more than 10 years. He brings extensive experience with working with customers in the personal care industry and has deep expertise in preservatives.  Before joining Coast Southwest, Arellano worked as a chemist and laboratory technician. 

Sabrina Behnke, PhD holds a BSc in water sciences from the University of Duisburg-Essen in Germany and a PhD in microbiology from Montana State University. During her graduate studies, she investigated microbial biofilms in water distribution systems at the Center for Biofilm Engineering in Bozeman, MT, where she collaborated with multinational consumer goods companies. Behnke then joined Reckitt Benckiser as a R&D microbiologist, supporting EPA claim substantiation for disinfectant household products. Additionally, she held roles in personal care formulation innovation and technology scouting. In 2018, she switched from the manufacturer to the supplier side of the industry as a global product manager for Symrise. Today, Behnke is an associate business director for biopolymers and preservatives with Tri-K Industries. 

Sam Collier has spent more than 20 years in the chemical industry in technical, commercial and marketing roles. He joined Arxada in 2023 serving as EMEA marketing lead for home and personal care preservation, after seven years with Azelis UK. 

Matthias Hentz holds a BSc in chemical engineering and obtained two MA in international business from universities in Germany and Australia. He held various positions in different companies throughout the chemical industry. Today, he is the global marketing lead for microbial protection at Ashland Personal Care. He is based in Hamburg.

Pat Lutz is general manager at Lincoln MFG-USA, a part of Barentz. Lutz has over 30 years of global preservative experience. Currently, he is the general manager at Lincoln MFG-USA, a part of Barentz. Lincoln MFG is a domestic preservative manufacturer in North Kingstown, RI. Lutz is a microbiologist and the innovator of naturally derived, natural and alternative preservatives. He is also holder of multiple patents.

Happi: What are today’s preservative customers looking for in their ingredients and why? 

Nicholas Arellano: With today’s preservative customers, it’s not so much what’s new as what’s innovative. Many customers rely on suppliers and distributors to learn about unconventional approaches to preservatives that will work safely and effectively in their personal care formulations and inside their budgets. They often start the conversation by talking about what they don’t want or can’t use—parabens, formaldehyde donors or isothiazolinones. They push to avoid phenoxyethanol. 

At the same time, the market is becoming more accepting that preservatives are necessary. Chemists want to explore mild preservatives—options that are often more less water soluble. They want to know about more than just label claims. They want to know how a new ingredient or innovative approach works. If it is weaker against micro contamination, how will it keep a product free of contamination and recalls? 

Sabrina Behnke: Efficacy and safety are two key parameters. With an ever-increasing scrutiny of personal care ingredients, our customers are paying attention to safety and skin mildness while not compromising on efficacy. We have recently introduced the first line of microbiome-friendly preservatives which is very much in line with the desire for skin mildness. While we don’t believe that preservatives are inherently harmful to the skin microbiome, we feel that our customers appreciate the extra layer of certainty through our microbiome testing certifications. 

Sam Collier: Customers are looking for softer preservation options but with the efficacy you would expect from more traditional chemistries. There is the desire for sustainable feedstocks and multifunctionality to enhance consumer experience. Consumers have started to connect their health with the health of our planet.  

Matthias Hentz: Most personal care consumers demand safe and effective, conscientious, yet affordable, products. Its rather simple: consumers prefer natural labels and sustainability claims at little to no extra cost. Simply put, our customers demand antimicrobials that live up to a wide range of expectations. And with more conscious consumers, the need for multifunctional ingredients has increased. The times of “old-fashioned” preservatives in many areas of the world are numbered.

Safe to use, reliable protection against microbes, along with potential functions and claims—that’s today’s CV of a state-of-the-art antimicrobial. Multifunctionals are a super exciting choice because they protect personal care products, but also provide extra benefits for consumers. Well-aging, anti-pollution and less redness claims, meet moisturization, anti-oxidization and anti-inflammation. Multifunctionals can play a crucial role in personal care products beyond preservation.

Pat Lutz: Customers are looking for sustainability of raw materials and this includes preservatives. Also, they are looking for preservative-free alternatives to conventional preservatives.

This is why Lincoln MFG-USA, a Barentz company, has a new line of “Sustainable, multifunctional protectants” called HydroGuard. The HydroGuard series is sustainable, multifunctional alternatives to preservatives with value add to end formulations, such as antioxidant, humectant and/or emollient just to name a few. 

Happi: What are the newest preservative technologies available from your company? Share with us the benefits and why these are great options for formulators.

Arellano: We work closely with Sharon Personal Care to match their innovation with our customers’ needs. Sharon announced an exciting, industry-first preservative platform at In-Cosmetics Global 2024 that is stirring up interest in the marketplace. Sharon AquaVita is a vitamin-based, multifunctional preservative system built on niacinamide, a commonly-used and trusted vitamin (B3) and nutraceutical. Through extensive research, Sharon identified synergies with selected compounds that work with the vitamin B3 to create a mild, safe and sustainable antimicrobial preservation solution. This preservative platform is backed by extensive clinical and dermatological testing. 

AquaVita not only protects formulations, but it also contributes to skin health. Sharon has created a preservative system based on trusted materials that consumers will recognize when they read the label. For chemists, Sharon provides clinical data to back up efficacy and skin benefits claims of this multifunctional platform. 

Behnke: We launched TriCare CG at In-Cosmetics in Paris this year. The material is not a traditional preservative, but a multifunctional ingredient that helps protect the formula, but also brings additional benefits. This material is certified microbiome-friendly and very gentle on sensitive skin types. We have also just performed a clinical study on this material and it’s a real game-changer regarding skincare benefits. We have found significant sebum and redness reduction on the facial skin in a 14-day use study, making this material a gentle alternative to other skin care actives targeted at sebum/oiliness reduction.  

Collier: Arxada’s latest launches—Geogard Boost PGC and Geogard LA—are very much multifunctional ingredients. Geogard Boost PGC is a natural-derived preservation booster with a whole host of added benefits not seen with traditional booster chemistries. Geogard LA is an antibacterial active from upcycled feedstocks.

Both products offer enhanced skin hydration, improved handling and are friendly to the skin microbiome balance. This allows formulators much more flexibility and the opportunity to simplify their INCI list for a more sustainable product.

Hentz: Ashland’s most recognized launch in recent years is Phyteq raspberry multifunctional. Raspberry ketone is recognized by consumers for its appealing INCI, safety and naturality profile. In addition to its outstanding antimicrobial boosting and fungicidal efficacy, we have generated very comprehensive data to substantiate secondary claims such as anti-oxidization and anti-inflammation. 

Lutz: HydroGuard CS is a patent-pending, multifunctional protectant against microbial biodegradation of formulations. It is a preservative-free alternative to preservatives and readily biodegradable.

Essynce ST is a natural, sustainable and USDA Certified Organic, all-natural alternative to preservatives. It is a multifunctional stabilizer that enhances formulation stability.

Happi: Has your company made any investments into production, facilities or staff in the past 12 months? 

Arellano: Coast Southwest continues to invest in building our future with our new corporate headquarters and state-of-the art facility in Irving, TX. Further planned expansion is coming to the Midwest in 2025.

Behnke: Tri-K is currently seeing some exciting changes with a rebrand under new management—Rusmir Niksic joined as a new CEO in October of 2023. This is more than just a visual transformation; it represents a renewed commitment to customer success, innovation and efficacy in every product and interaction. We have developed a 10-year strategic roadmap, a mix of organic and inorganic initiatives, delivering value for our customers, shareholders and our employees. We will stand out by being a unique package of customer attentiveness, product performance and employee commitment.  

Hentz: Ashland has set its company focus to three major businesses, one of which is personal care. Microbial protection plays a significant role to the overall success of personal care and therefore global investments in innovation, production sites and staff were, and will be made, going forward to allow for sustainable and profitable growth. This year alone we have built a full sales, marketing and innovation team just to support and grow in North America.

Lutz: We are ISO 9001:2015 Certified—Quality Management & Ecovadis Silver Certified—Sustainability Rating.

Happi: Are there any regulatory issues of note that are impacting the category? 

Behnke: Regulatory uncertainty in the area of preservatives has been a key concern of formulators globally for the past few years. Besides the recent ban on zinc pyrithione in Europe, we have not seen any significant changes to the legislation. On the other hand, individual retailer’s prohibited ingredient lists are making it more difficult to create formulations that are compliant with all of these (not always science-based) lists of banned ingredients. We are working with key opinion leaders, putting emphasis on scientific education to maintain a reasonable palette of preservation ingredients.  

Collier: There is still the perception by consumers that preservation is a bad thing. The free-from movement is well documented with product claims. There is the expectation preservation should utilize milder ingredients and move away from more traditional preservative actives.

We need to be mindful that preservation is vital for safe personal care products.   

Hentz: Regulatory changes are constantly impacting personal care, especially for microbial protection and preservation. One of the most recent being the Toxic-Free Cosmetics Act (TFCA) passed in the state of Washington. The law restricts the sale, manufacture and distribution of cosmetic products that contain certain chemicals they define as toxic, specifically, formaldehyde. Whereas it was previously a labelling requirement or consumer perception issue, the TFCA bans the sale of personal care products that contain or release formaldehyde, effectively killing the market for these antimicrobials to any company wishing to sell into the US market.

This is a theme that has been spreading globally, and we are well prepared. Ashland has a full portfolio of progressive and multifunctional antimicrobial products available along with technical expertise to help companies reformulate without compromising safety or performance.

Happi: What are future trends to look out for in the development of preservatives for 2025 and beyond? 

Arellano:When it comes to preservation for personal care, the market is trending toward the concept of clean beauty. 

The focus is not so much that everything has to be “natural” or “green”—not everything from nature is necessarily good for the skin, plus there has never been a clear standard for natural anyway. Rather, the emphasis from consumers is that products must be skin-safe and effective. 

Chemists want to get the most they can out of the ingredients in their formulas—that especially goes for preservatives. That’s why multifunctional preservatives like Sharon’s AquaVita, a system that carries preservative efficacy and clinically proven benefits for skin health, are creating excitement in our customers’ labs. 

Behnke: While sustainability and naturality play an important role in our new product development, we also look at existing processes and try to replace them with green chemistry processes wherever possible.  

Additionally, we are working on extending our line of microbiome-friendly preservatives, multifunctionals and blends with a focus on global compliance, user-friendliness
and naturality.  

Collier: Sustainable ingredients will continue to be a priority due to demand from consumers for greener, environmentally-friendly feedstocks. Multifunctionality and multifunctional ingredients are a great fit for the preservation space benefitting both formulators and consumers alike. 

Efficacy should remain top priority to maintain product integrity and consumer safety. This will continue to be delivered in the form of broad-spectrum blends.

Hentz: Anything natural or nature-derived will continue to grow. The industry is transitioning to using more “green carbon,” especially regarding the chemical categories of glycols, esters and organic acids. 

Extraction and bioconversion will play a major role, paving the way for a more sustainable future. 

Multifunctionals will continue growing, with more exciting benefits and claims to complement the
antimicrobial properties.  

As more regulatory laws and consumer savviness spread, the industry will adapt and research pushed forward  It is an interesting and thrilling time to be part of it.

Need a preservative? Check out the Buyers’ Guide on Happi.com.