Color change technology creates interactive cosmetics

By Guy Montague-Jones

Biotechnology firm Beacon Sciences has created a business unit that will specialize in technologies that change the color of personal care products. The new company Reveal Sciences has developed biomaterials that may be added to formulations to use color change as a means of indicating when or how consumers should use their beauty products.

Interactive personal care
Possible applications include soaps that change color when the user has washed for the appropriate amount of time or sunscreens that remain visible long enough for consumers to see whether they have covered all exposed areas. Such interactive personal care products may sound futuristic but they are already beginning to make their way onto the market. Dial Corporation has just launched a soap called ColorClean which contains an active ingredient that causes the foam to change color after a specified washing time.

Technology tests cosmetic needs
Reveal Sciences has also developed CareType Analysis which helps consumers to determine which personal care products are suitable for their bodies. The technology tests and measures the biological elements that underlie skin and hair type so users can identify appropriate products. The company claimed the CareType tests offer a level of feedback currently unavailable elsewhere.

Ingredients range
In addition to its interactive technologies, Reveal Sciences has also developed specialty functional ingredients for personal care and cosmetics, including hyaluronic acid, chondrotin and heparosan. These biopolymers can be made to a low molecular weight to ensure good skin permeability and they can be customized to deliver fine-tuned results in formulations. Reveal Sciences will be presenting its new technologies and ingredients at In-Cosmetics in Amsterdam next month from Booth K170. The company is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Beacon Sciences, which uses color change technology to develop tests in the medical sector and was created on the back of research by Dr Eric Anslyn at the University of Texas.