Cargill’s CocoaDesign emollients bring emotional benefits of chocolate in skin care
05 Oct 2023 | Cargill Beauty
Leveraging its expertise in cocoa and chocolate, Cargill Beauty showcases two CocoaDesign emollients, one liquid and another solid, for boosting emotional well-being. Tiffany Quinn, applications development and clinical services manager discusses the calming and energizing properties of the emollients while sharing its added skin benefits and sustainable sourcing via its Cocoa Promise program.
Hello.
Welcome, Tiffany to Personal Care Insights interview.
My name is Vina Patel, acting editor at Personal Care Insights.
Today, we will be discussing emollients from Coca specifically, discussing on its product creation, emotional impact on consumer use, and ensuring sustainability in supply chains.
Can you please introduce yourself?
Yes, of course.
I'm Tiffany Quinn.
I am the applications development and clinical services manager at the Cargill, Chandler, Arizona location.
So I oversee all of our formulation development as as our clinical testing lab where we substantiate claims for our products.
OK, it's great to have you today, Tiffany.
So tell me, what inspired the creation of Coca design emollients for the skincare market?
And how did you leverage your expertise in coca and chocolate to develop these products?
Yeah, of course.
So we wanted to create a functional stable emollient, like others in our portfolio, but we know we needed a wow factor because there's so many different emollients on the market that consumers and formulators have to choose from.
So our inspiration really came from our expertise in chocolate.
We really do have a great understanding on why consumers choose chocolate.
It's relaxing, indulgent, and it brings joy.
So we wanted to explore whether or not our cocoa design products, a cocoa butter derivative in the personal care space, could also bring about similar emotions, and we found out that it does.
Mhm.
So, could you tell me a little bit more about how the coca design emollient differ from other emollients in terms of their sensory properties such as texture, smell, and feel on the skin?
Yes.
So when it comes to choosing skincare products, sensory is gonna be the number one attribute that drives consumers' purchase decisions.
So formulators need to carefully select emollients in order to make the perfect formulation or finished product.
So we knew we had to differentiate our derivatives from cocoa butter itself.
So coco design is gonna bring about a unique texture.
So it's either the liquid, which is our cocoa design L, or the solid that melts right around skin temperature, which is our coco design S.
And what it can do is deliver a cushiony, rich feel that more, that are, that is more similar to more substantive emollients like cocoa butter, but it's also gonna be very light on the skin.
So it's gonna be ideal for daily use or nightly use.
It can be used underneath makeup, but it's gonna have the added benefits of being very stable in formulation, having a very low odor, so not really deve not really contributing to the odor of the product itself, and, also being non-commutogenic.
Mhm.
So how would you measure the emotional impacts of this product on consumers and what are the main benefits that consumers have reported after using them?
Yeah, so what we did is we used a new method by an outside laboratory.
It was able to evaluate the emotional state of consumers in 3 ways.
So the first way was verbatim analysis.
So really focusing on the word choice that subjects use when describing the emotions that were invoked by the texture of the product after use.
The next one was prosity analysis.
This looked at the pitch and the volume in order to analyze whether the product made the consumers feel pleasant or unpleasant, or whether they felt energized or relaxed, so those different emotional states.
And then the third analysis was a.
Trademarked product that they have, which is called Emochar.
This relies on the emotional characterization of key emotions, so looking at things like awakening, relaxation, sensuality, pleasure, tenderness or cocooning, enjoyable, and self-esteem.
So the benefits that we saw with Coco design was that it evoked more positive emotions compared to the placebo.
So, more pleasant versus unpleasant compared to the placebo product.
And then excitingly, we also showed that this study for the cocoa emollients in a cream application, also demonstrated a similar emotional response that, for that was similar to the consumption of chocolate, which we had previously done as cargo having such a large role in this, of those emotions like relaxation, energy, and treating myself.
Oh, yeah, thank you for sharing these findings.
That's a lot to take in.
But touching upon another topic, how would, how does the coca design emollient contribute to sustainability and social responsibility in the cosmetics industry?
And how do you ensure that the coca butter you use is sourced ethically and transparently?
So synthetic ingredients have long been used to really develop, to deliver emolliency and functionality.
So many of these are not gonna be biodegradable.
So we wanted to create a biodegradable option that wouldn't have a negative impact on the environment and that consumers would feel good about using.
So we use the cocoa source through Cargill's Cocoa Promise, our signature program to deliver our cocoa sustainability efforts.
Through the Cargill Cocoa Promise, we can support local farmers and their organizations and building farming businesses as as protecting natural resources.
So we're able to help against and address deforestation.
We're also able to support cocoa farming communities by implementing different initiatives to ensure that children are in school, children are in school and not on the farm, and also empower women entrepreneurs and provide our customers with better transparency and digital traceability from the cocoa farm into our supply chain with our leading digital infrastructure.
Mhm.
OK.
And what were some of the most surprising or interesting findings from the study?
So the most interesting thing to me, I'd have to say, is the fact that the Coco Coco Design L and Coco-design S, when applied to the skin, delivered very similar benefits that we saw with chocolate.
So when you eat chocolate, that indulgence, that treating yourself, having that similar experience with a product that's applied topically to the skin was really neat to see, and I thought it was very surprising to see that.
Yeah, yeah, that, that sounds really interesting how that happens.
How do you translate the emotional benefits of Koka design emollients into marketing messages and claims for consumers and how do you communicate the sensory and emotional aspects of your products to potential consumers?
So many customers and consumers can relate to the positive emotional experience that comes from indulging in a piece of chocolate at the end of a long stressful day.
So at the same time, we know that beauty products can also provide that emotional connection by combating anxiety and stress in our everyday lives to hold enormous potential as.
So we kind of wanted to combine these two things within a product.
So consumers are increasingly looking for products that can reduce the feelings of tension, stress, and anxiety in their everyday lives.
So cocoa design is going to be that new cosmetic emollient that is derived from cocoa butter, and maybe that solution for what consumers are looking for.
Mhm.
So, this is kind of related to my last question.
What role do personal care products have on improving emotional -being in consumers, and do you think all products should have this impact?
So I definitely would say that all products, it would be great if all products could have this impact.
What I think it really provides is that we know that in the times of this post-COVID era and, you know, with the market and such that people are stressed, there's more anxiety, more than ever than we've seen in the past.
So really having a personal care product that you can apply either in the.
The morning before your routine, or at the end of the day after you've had a long day at work or a long day, you know, whatever that day may be, a long stressful day, being able to apply products that can really help with that emotional -being is just another step in the right direction, really being able to have a -balanced lifestyle and use your personal care products to help deliver that as.
Mhm.
So, those are some really interesting insights on the importance of skincare and its emotional impacts for improved -being.
Thank you again for sharing, Tiffany.
Oh, not a problem.
Thank you.
