Where can a beauty company turn to find a partner that understands its needs as well as the consumer’s needs? Executives at DSM insist that they have built a business unit that does much more than supply ingredients. It has a deep understanding of beauty and how it impacts people’s lives.

“We believe that beauty enriches people’s lives,” explained Joerg Richter, senior director, global marketing and innovation, DSM Personal Care. “During the past three years, we have been striving to become one of the innovators in beauty care.”

Today, DSM can offer its customers skin bioactives, sun filters, hair polymers, emulsifiers, and, of course, vitamins. But just as important as its broad product offerings, is DSM’s understanding of people’s beauty aspirations.

“We did a deep dive to understand what beauty means to people,” recalled Richter. “And our view that beauty has an immense power to enrich people’s lives was truly confirmed. ”

The insights were generated based on a recent study with more than 7000 women (McCann research data, in 15 countries worldwide). Findings included: 83% of women agree they have higher beauty standards than women had in the past; 72% of women state they know more about beauty and believe in its power compared to their moms and aunts; 76% of women believe that if you use the right beauty products, you can look younger for longer; and, most importantly, 93% of women said they felt more confident when they knew they looked beautiful.

“These insights are very powerful in themselves, and the opportunities they create for us and our customers are endless,” stated Richter. “We are able to change the dialogue between supplier and marketer by talking about how we can fulfill together people’s beauty aspirations. Our newly created teams play a key role in this. We have unique mix of people with strong beauty marketing expertise gained from working in leading fast-moving consumer goods companies and people with a strong science background.”

As a result, DSM’s customers can expect concepts that are strongly driven on consumer insights as well as the latest scientific breakthroughs that combine to reveal beauty’s true potential, he explained. But it all begins with a rich dialogue between DSM and personal care marketers.

We engage deeply with our customers to get their feedback and build on it,” explained Richter. “We want to become a true beauty innovation player—deeply rooted in bright science. As a leading global life science and material science company, with highly dedicated people and innovative products and concepts we have all the assets and the commitment to achieve that.”

Beauty and Lifestyle Trends
DSM has the insights as well, and aims to stay ahead of the game.

“We constantly capture and predict the megatrends that impact people’s lifestyles and beauty aspirations. To do this with excellence we partner with the best trend experts worldwide allowing us to guide innovations and to offer cutting edge propositions for customer’s brands,” stated Richter. “At In-Cosmetics in Paris we proudly presented the 3 Beauty and Lifestyle trends that we see for 2014: Ambition and Optimism, Enveloped Statement and Departure to Tradition.”

DSM executives insist that they can help customers exploit these trends.

“We have invested heavily and have a strong global reach and are capable of leveraging insights very quickly,” insisted Richter.

A Solid Foundation
DSM has always been known as the global leader in vitamins and UV protection. Now, it is able, based on a strong skin bioactives portfolio and the newly launched hair polymers, to fully leverage and connect its bright science in skin, sun and hair care.

“We have created a solid foundation,” observed Mathias Gempeler, senior marketing manager, skin care, DSM Personal Care. “We have made it clear that we now stand for transformational beauty care ingredients and concepts that are loved.”

“We have invested heavily in the US and around the world to bring key people to our team,” explained Paulo Rodrigues, regional head, personal care North America at DSM Nutritional Products North America. “With such a strong organization in place we are now revealing to the beauty care industry our new Power of Beauty identity which describes our capabilities in skin, hair and sun care and our ability to translate the needs of our customers’ brands and people’s beauty aspirations worldwide to help our customers to develop successful products that deliver consumer’s unmet needs for skin, hair and sun.”

The company’s commitment to personal care began in earnest in 2010, with the appointment of Ilona Haaijer as president of DSM Personal Care. Her career began in product development and marketing with Koninklijke PTT Nederland. Before moving to DSM, Haaijer was with The Boston Consulting Group and Royal Philips Electronics NV.

Richter joined DSM in 2011. He has more than 15 years experience in product management, business management and marketing. He started his career at Braun GmbH, Germany, followed by senior global and regional leadership functions in product management and marketing at Wella AG and Procter & Gamble SA. Most recently, he was head of strategic marketing and communications in the global marketing with Roche Diagnostics GmbH, Germany.

Gempeler joined the personal care industry in 2001 as global head of Pentapharm’s cosmetic business. In 2006 he took over global product management responsibility at Pentapharm and was deeply involved in the successful business integration of Pentapharm into the DSM.

Rodrigues has more than 20 years of experience in the personal care ingredients industry and worked for companies such as Henkel/Cognis, Givaudan and BASF. In 2010, he joined DSM as personal care business director for Latin America and was appointed to his current position in 2011.

All of the DSM executives say their goal is to intensify collaboration with customers in an effort to become the partner of choice. Besides building a strong team, the company has expanded geographically to offer its product portfolio around the world.

What’s New?
Since 2010, DSM has ramped up with its new product development, rolling out products such as Syn-Hycan, Regu-Fade and Syn-TC for skin care formulas, Tilamar Fix A100 and Tilamar Fix A140 for hair care formulas and new concepts in sun protection. This broad product offering has been expanded in the first half of 2013 with two new innovations for anti-aging skin care applications.
Elhibin PF (INCI: Glycine soja (soybean protein, glycine and valine) is a purified natural protein complex that is said to inhibit leukocyte elastase’s damaging activity in the papillary dermis. Increased elastase activity is today considered as key factor of reduced skin elasticity as people age. According to DSM, at levels ranging from 3-7%, Elhibin PF can help skin retain elasticity, diminish skin sagging and improve skin resilience and counteract UV-induced skin damage. In in vivo studies, Elhibin PF reduced irritation by more than 30% after application and by more than 50% throughout the study.

Taking a holistic approach to epidermis-related skin sensation, the new Corneocare approach includes a range of ingredients that are intended to improve skin sensation and epidermal barrier functionality. According to DSM, feeling good about skin is just as important as the way it looks. Each ingredient in the Corneocare line offers a clear epidermal benefit in the short-, mid- and long-term and is fully substantiated by in vitro and in vivo testing. Moreover, each ingredient is said to build on an unmet consumer need, offering finished product companies a new field for marketing concepts and products.

“Corneocare is our vision; it is how we see ultimate skin sensation allows people to express their personality and confidence in a natural, open and inspirational way,” explained Gempeler. “Traditionally, people use a moisturizer, but they aren’t happy with the results—so we asked, ‘what can we do about that?’”

Through its investigations, DSM researchers learned that the epidermal skin barrier is key to good skin sensation. Moreover, perfectly functioning skin epidermis is crucial to keep skin looking younger for longer. By focusing on the epidermis, DSM’s Corneocare approach imparts a good skin-feel sensation to products and ultimately, consumers.

The Corneocare line will be expanded in the coming years; but today, the lineup includes:

• Alpaflor Edelweiss: increases levels of transglutaminase 1 and reduces levels of inflammatory stress markers and thus adds a new level epithelial barrier protection;
• Stimutex AS: decreases histamine and inflammatory cytokine related activities and offers immediate relief for sensitive and irritated skin;
• Penatvitin: increases filaggrin and ceramide levels and leads to deep skin hydration for 72 hours; and
• Pepha-Active: increases ATP synthesis with the power of microalgae to support perfect luminous skin.

Over time, Corneocare has been shown to improve skin sensation and help delay and reduce the visible signs of aging, according DSM’s data.

Driven by this strong belief that beauty enriches people’s lives, DSM executives say they are proud to create together with their customers a brighter more beautiful world for people today and generations to come.