Whether COVID-19 has strained your inventory and increased your production demand, or you see a bright future in hand hygiene and want to join the category, Inolex ingredients can help you fulfill your needs. In this article we will cover 3 crucial issues and provide technology solutions for each of those.

1. Improving Aesthetics in Hand Sanitizers
2. Creating Gentle Cleansing
3. Preserving Hand Cleansers

Alcohol-based hand sanitizers can be drying when used multiple times a day. Humectants like Lexgard® O or Lexgard® Natural GC88 MB and skin conditioning emollients like Lexol™ IPM-NF MB, LexFeel® 7, and LexFeel® Natural provide skin moisturization so consumers can have soft, moisturized skin even when using product all day long to protect themselves.

Healthcare workers and dermatologists know... as hand washing becomes more prevalent, consumers will start to feel higher levels of dryness and irritation after hand washing. The first step in protection against this: selecting less irritating products. Kerazyne™ MB has been shown to significantly reduce the irritation potential of traditional hand cleansing formulations, including sulfate-free formulations. Expression of IL-1α, an inflammatory marker, indicates the irritation potential of an Alpha Olefin Sulfonate hand wash with and without Kerazyne™ MB. Including 1-2 wt% of Kerazyne™ MB in a hand soap formulation can significantly reduce the potential for skin dryness and redness. This clean rinsing conditioning polymer also adds a feeling of softness. Milder and gentle hand soaps for consumer and professional use will become a significant market need as behaviors shift to more frequent hand hygiene product use.

Many ingredients in cosmetic products can irritate teh skin. Although not strongly irritating or corrosive, surfactants, both sulfate-based and sulfate-free surfactants, have the potential to induce skin irritation especially with frequent and repeated use of hand washes. The EpiDerm Study with cytokine analysis is an in vitro test that combines the release of cytokines with a standard irritation assay in order to resolve levels of irritation to non-to-mildly irritating products. This evaluation provides the skin irritation potential of topically applied test materials by assaying for both tissue viability (MTT assay) and pro-inflammatory cytokine analysis such as interleukin L-1α, (ELISA assay). The greater the cytokine expression, the higher the potential for skin irritation to be induced by the tested product when used as directed. For more information about this test visit www.iivs.org.

1. WHO Guidelines on Hand Hygiene in Health Care: First Global Patient Safety Challenge Clean Care is Safer Care (Section 14). 2009. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK144008/

Hand washing has become more prevalent as consumers look to safeguard themselves and their families against seasonal illnesses. Hand washes are traditionally made with high water content so adequate preservation is critical to providing a safe product. Consumer interest in safer and more natural preservation alternatives will become even more heightened as they use more hand cleansers. Alternative options to preservation give consumers the ingredient peace of mind they desire and the safety they need.