Waxes, oils, pigments, functional ingredients: if the combinations are not infinite, we’re not far off. In Confalonieri we explore a good number of them every year, since our R&D team works on close to a hundred projects among new lines, co-creation projects and variants of our existing formulas. The main focus is always on innovative textures and ingredient, when we’re developing new formulas and as a key element of our co-creation system.
Raw materials become pencils
At Confalonieri Cosmetica we carry out the entire production process in our facilities in Gordona, from the development of the formula to manufacture and finishing of the pencils. In this way we control every step of the process, down to the smallest detail, and we’re able to guarantee the quality of the product. Moreover, we can customise every aspect of a pencil or a line, creating custom colours and modifying our textures according to the project we’ve designed during co-creation. In some cases we’ll make small changes to expand the use of a pencil, for other projects we replace ingredients to meet the needs of each customer. In fact we’re building and updating a “repertoire” of alternatives for many ingredients, starting from negative lists and demands submitted by our clients.
A few examples: we’ve identified a series of pigments to make different shades of red without using carmine, to create vegan textures suitable as lip pencils or blushes. In another case we used natural pearls to create an eye pencil with a glitter sparkling effect: the customer wanted to certify the product according to the standard of natural cosmetics, so we found an alternative to run-of-the-mill glitter.
New ideas, tests and products
Tailor-made projects are an interesting challenge, just like finding innovative solutions. Our R&D department is always working on several experimental projects about new raw materials and functional ingredients, to explore the possibilities given by technology. Ingredients obtained with new processes allow us to create special finishes and incorporate components that were nearly impossible to use in pencils.
For the Pearl line we used a new transformation of natural mica, processed into micro-pearls that are nearly transparent and have a very strong reflective effect. Our HP/HA contains an unprecedented percentage of hyaluronic acid using microspheres, a solution that we have successfully applied to other textures in a recent co-creation project.
Many ideas are taking shape in our laboratories: subscribe to the Confalonieri newsletter, we’ll keep you posted on all of our new products!
