By evaluating glycolic acid across a range of use levels, PureTech Scientific is helping define how efficacy can be tuned across personal care. Happi checked in with Calin Meserschmidt, business development manager, to learn more about the latest advancements. 

Happi: Glypure glycolic acid has a history of proven performance. What’s new from PureTech in this area? 

Calin Meserschmidt: Glypure^® has long been recognized as a benchmark in cosmetic-grade glycolic acid, built on decades of proven performance and manufacturing expertise. What’s new from PureTech Scientific is how we are expanding the Glypure platform into new formats, purity levels, and whole new categories of products.

A key innovation within our portfolio is Glypure^® 70 ULTRA, our next-generation, formaldehyde-free grade designed to align with evolving ingredient preferences while maintaining the performance Glypure^® is known for. More broadly, it reflects our desire to meet modern formulators where they are and to push forward the science of glycolic acid while delivering a proven US-manufactured active that has a high customer recognition and science backed efficacy.

In parallel, we are significantly expanding our internal formulation library to explore new product formats and application spaces for Glypure^®. By evaluating glycolic acid across a range of use levels, we are helping define how efficacy can be tuned. These formats are from mild, daily-use systems to more intensive treatment formats. This work is opening new opportunities in areas such as scalp and hair care, deodorants, lip care, and other emerging categories where glycolic acid can deliver differentiated multifunctional performance.

Looking ahead, innovations such as Glypure^® GL (glycolide) further extend the Glypure^® platform, enabling new approaches to how glycolic acid can be delivered and experienced in finished products. We want to ensure that Glypure^® is not just as a proven ingredient, but can be used as a flexible, multifunctional platform giving formulators and brands a well known active ingredient that can be used across a wide range of products and formats.

Happi: What makes Glypure GL unique?

Meserschmidt: Glypure^® GL is unique because it challenges the traditional way glycolic acid is delivered in skin care. Instead of applying free acid directly to the skin, Glypure^® GL is INCI Glycolide (cyclic diester of glycolic acid). We think of Glypure^® GL as a proactive form of glycolic acid.

We often describe Glypure^® GL as “a non-acid acid” because it delivers the benefits of glycolic acid without putting acid on the skin upfront. In anhydrous formulations, Glypure^® GL remains stable (non-acidic ring) until it encounters moisture in the skin, where it then hydrolyzes to form two glycolic acid molecules within the epidermis. This approach enables a more balanced performance profile, offering strong efficacy including a slow release with improved tolerability, which is especially important as consumers look for results without the trade-offs traditionally associated with AHAs. This makes Glypure^® GL particularly well-suited for sensitive skin applications, lip care, body care, and targeted anti-aging or skin-evening treatments, including delicate areas like the eye region, where controlled delivery and tolerability are critical.

At its core, Glypure^® GL is not just a new ingredient, it’s a new delivery platform of a proven active, enabling formulators to rethink how glycolic acid can be used in modern skin care.

Happi: How does Glypure 70 ULTRA help brands meet the demands of today’s personal care market?

Meserschmidt: Today’s market is demanding more from core ingredients, higher purity, greater transparency, and proven multifunctional performance. Glypure^® Ultra was developed with those priorities in mind.

Glypure^® 70 ULTRA is the only formaldehyde-free cosmetic grade glycolic acid produced in the US from US-sourced raw materials, giving brands a clear and credible story around quality, sourcing, and supply reliability. Based on the long-standing Glypure^® legacy, which has set the benchmark for cosmetic-grade glycolic acid for decades, Glypure^® 70 ULTRA advances it with an even more refined impurity profile. We can do this because of our fully integrated and tightly controlled purification process at our Dayton, TN site. At the same time, it supports modern formulation needs by reinforcing glycolic acid’s role as a multifunctional ingredient, delivering proven efficacy while contributing to overall formulation simplicity and consistency. For brands, Glypure^® Ultra offers a straightforward value proposition: trusted performance, elevated purity, and a supply chain you can stand behind.

Happi:  Where else can Glypure be leveraged? 

Meserschmidt: We’re seeing Glypure^® expand well beyond traditional exfoliating skincare into a much broader set of personal care applications, particularly with Glypure^® 70 and Glypure^® 70 ULTRA, where performance and formulation flexibility are key.

In hair care, glycolic acid is gaining traction in sleek, shine, and heat protection products, where its small molecular size and interaction with the hair fiber can help improve smoothness, manageability, and overall appearance. We’re also seeing increasing interest in scalp care, driven by the “skinification” of hair routines and the need for gentle exfoliation and buildup removal.

In body care, Glypure^® is being incorporated into body washes, exfoliating treatments, and daily-use renewal products, where lower use levels can deliver visible benefits with good tolerability across larger surface areas.

One of the most exciting emerging areas is deodorants. Glycolic acid offers a different approach to odor control by helping to lower skin pH and disrupt odor-causing bacteria, making it a compelling alternative to traditional systems. This aligns well with current market trends toward simpler, more skin-friendly, and multifunctional formulations.

What ties all these applications together is the ability to tune glycolic acid use levels, from very low concentrations for daily-use maintenance to higher levels for more targeted treatment benefits. With Glypure^® 70 and 70 ULTRA, formulators have the consistency and purity needed to confidently expand into these newer categories while maintaining performance. Overall, Glypure^® is evolving from a single-use active into a versatile platform ingredient that can support innovation across skin, hair, and body care.

Happi: What else is PureTech exploring in the lab? 

Meserschmidt: A big focus for us right now is expanding how glycolic acid performs in microbiome-relevant applications, with deodorants being a key area of active research. We’re currently developing glycolic acid-based deodorant systems that take a different approach to odor control—leveraging glycolic acid’s ability to shift skin pH and influence odor-causing bacteria, rather than relying on traditional actives. As part of this work, we’ve initiated microbiome-focused studies to better understand how these systems interact with the skin over time and how they can be optimized for both efficacy and skin compatibility. Luckily Glypure^® is highly compatible with a wide range of ingredients meaning we can make multiple formats and types of deodorant product types.

In parallel, we’re building data around the multifunctional role of glycolic acid in formulation design, particularly its ability to help reduce or even eliminate the need for traditional preservatives. By operating in its optimal pH range (approximately 3.8–4.2), glycolic acid can act as both the primary cosmetic active and a contributor to microbial control, allowing formulators to simplify ingredient lists while maintaining performance.  This is an area we’re especially excited about, using Glypure^® not just to deliver results on skin, but to help enable more streamlined, efficient formulations aligned with where the market is heading. 

Check out Glypure.com, PureTechScientific.com and our white paper on emerging applications in hair and scalp care.