Formulating for the future: IFF on creating sustainable sensory experiences

From the moment a beauty consumer uses a bottle of shampoo or moisturizer, the packaging, scent, feel, and efficacy all contribute to an emotional connection to the product. According to International Flavors & Fragrances (IFF), the hidden architect behind this sensory journey is science, which faces a fundamental challenge: balancing luxury and performance with the growing demand for sustainable ingredients. 

IFF’s Designed Enzymatic Biomaterials (DEB) platform turns familiar building blocks — enzymes, sugars, and water — into a straightforward solution for luxurious and planet‑friendly personal care products. 

DEB uses tuned enzymes to convert water and sugar into advanced biodegradable polysaccharides, enabling formulators to design and customize these materials to meet performance needs and product specifications.

Speaking to Personal Care Insights, Kashimura Takenori, senior technical service manager, Home & Personal Care, at IFF, highlights how the DEB platform balances the growing demand for sustainability with the need for high-performance personal care products. 

“The DEB platform is designed to treat sustainability and performance as complementary priorities. The process utilizes a renewable feedstock, sucrose from sugar beets and sugar cane, as the primary input for the enzymatic polymerization. During the DEB process, the entire sucrose feedstock is utilized, without any loss to waste streams, as the co-products are used to make biofuels, sweeteners, and animal feed,” she says. 

DEB uses a biocatalysis process to produce alpha-glucan polysaccharides found in nature. Takenori adds: “These polymers can be precisely designed and customized to meet specific functional or sensory requirements in personal care formulations — while also being developed with biodegradability in mind.”IFF says it bridges sustainability with biotechnology. 

Conditioning formulations 

IFF’s Aurist AGC conditioning polymer uses its DEB platform. The polymer can be used in conditioners to improve hair gloss, fluffiness, manageability, and heat protection. 

Said to be compatible with most personal care ingredients, Aurist AGC gives formulators control over the sensory profile and remains readily biodegradable. It also does not contribute to nozzle clogging or increase viscosity, making it suitable for multiple formats, including sprays and conditioners.

Takenori explains that DEB uses enzymes to control glucose linkage, creating customizable, biodegradable alpha-glucan polysaccharides that can be further functionalized. “Aurist AGC, the first DEB innovation for personal care, is a cationic biopolymer derived from the alpha-glucan polysaccharides. It can improve hair combability, fluffiness, shininess, and heat protection.”

In body wash applications, she adds that it can improve rinsability and skin feel. “With an Natural Origin Index of 97.85% (ISO 16128), Aurist AGC does not strongly affect viscosity in some wash-off formulations, allowing higher inclusion rates to meet performance without changing final product characteristics.”

Unlike conventional cationic conditioning polymers like cationic guar gum, Aurist AGC can help enable clear formulations.

She also suggests that Aurist AGC stands out as a “next-generation” conditioning polymer because it delivers multifunctional performance across key hair care touchpoints for both wash-off and leave-on, while supporting biodegradability and formulation flexibility.

“Based on our test results so far, Aurist AGC likely forms a film or layer-like structure on hair. It improves cuticle alignment to increase hair gloss, and hair fixation to improve hair manageability,” Takenori says. She adds that external heat stress is also considered to be mitigated by the film-like layer on hair. IFF is helping brands deliver on the no-compromise expectations of today’s conscious consumer. 

Addressing clean beauty standards

Takenori believes there is an evolving definition of clean beauty. She says it increasingly extends beyond “free-from” claims toward a more scientific definition centered on safety, efficacy, and sustainability. 

“As consumer understanding of ‘clean’ remains fragmented and concerns around greenwashing grow, biotechnology offers a credible path forward.”

DEB uses enzymes to transform sugars from renewable feedstock into high-purity, alpha-glucan polysaccharides under mild conditions, avoiding harsh solvents and reducing waste through co-product valorization. This biocatalytic approach enables performance, consistency, and biodegradability to be designed into ingredients from the outset, rather than as trade-offs, she summarizes. 

“With DEB, IFF demonstrates how sustainable innovation can deliver next-generation personal care ingredients that meet modern clean beauty expectations.”