Interview with Yasemin Engin, Regional Director of the Beauty and Care Department at UnivarSolutions

We conducted an engaging interview with Yasemin Engin, Regional Manager of UnivarSolutions Beauty and Personal Care Department, on the company's activities in beauty and personal care. Engin provided information about innovative technologies emerging in this field. [caption id="attachment_127964" align="aligncenter"] Yasemin Engin[/caption]

Could you tell our readers about yourself and your professional background?

I am a graduate of Yildiz Technical University's Chemistry Department. I completed a master's degree in analytical chemistry. During this time, I decided to build and develop my career in sales. For 17 years, I have held sales positions at different companies, always in the Cosmetics and Personal Care Department, where I felt fulfilled. Currently, I work as Regional Manager in the Beauty and Personal Care Department at UnivarSolutions.

Could you provide information about UnivarSolutions? In this context, what are UnivarSolutions' product portfolio and areas of activity in the "Beauty and Care" field?

UnivarSolutions is an industry-focused distributor with an extensive beauty and personal care portfolio, an international supplier network, specialized solution centers that provide complete, global perspective on products, customers and formulation trends. UnivarSolutions has played an important and successful role in this sector for decades and has developed exceptional relationships. Wherever you are in the world, today's fast-paced and competitive environment requires innovative, market-leading and rapid marketing with beauty and personal care products. This typically requires a reliable and responsive partner who can quickly provide the support you need. As a responsible solution partner, our vertical global approach in the industry leads our commitment to help our customers innovate and grow wherever they do business. With our first-class product portfolio, sales and technical teams supported by best-in-class formulation laboratories, along with our marketing and distribution capabilities, we easily help our customers and suppliers innovate and grow while keeping our focus local across all areas in the regions we serve.

How would you assess the impact of Covid-19 on the beauty and personal care sector? What measures and actions did your company take during this period?

After one of the most challenging periods in modern history, consumers are excited about newly introduced products. While consumers could not explore the world as they were accustomed to during "lockdown periods," they now seek new experiences that offer sensory escape from their daily routines. This is a great opportunity to respond to consumers by engaging all five senses through new innovations in beauty and personal care, just as much as it is possible. UnivarSolutions developed a new concept to gain a new customer experience with new textures and visualize these with new engaging videos.

Could you tell us about R&D and innovation work conducted in the Beauty and Personal Care Laboratory? How is the process progressing?

UnivarSolutions most recently developed the "Rejuvenation - The Power of Bold" concept to inspire our customers and help them navigate the beauty landscape.   Our innovative team at UnivarSolutions developed a bold and new trend concept containing six extraordinary formulas with outstanding beauty and personal care textures. After a challenging year, consumers are visibly excited about upcoming new products, and UnivarSolutions wants to help ensure you are prepared with the latest material innovation. Now is the time to try, explore and inspire new experiences for today's consumers who leverage rich expertise, advanced technologies and content innovation to rejuvenate the senses. Be bold in your formulations, try new approaches, test new materials, aim for premium products with next-generation hybrid products that offer new claims and enhanced benefits. Consumers are open and willing to try new forms and textures. Our "Rejuvenation - The Power of Bold" collection includes trend concepts with new textures for extraordinary hair and skin care results. In hair care, everything is about ensuring our hair has a strong foundation for it to grow resilient and strong. Bold hair care also explores forms suitable for and beneficial to the scalp. Hair care rejuvenation focuses on products that benefit different hair types with formulations rich enough to provide the moisture and softening needed, from 4C textured hair to straight and fine hair.

There are many innovative technologies in personal care and cosmetics. Could you tell us about the products with innovative technologies you have newly introduced to the industry as UnivarSolutions and these technologies?

We developed unique formulas to inspire that will enable the development of all hair types, much like a thick cleansing paste. The innovative shampoo paste has an extraordinary texture that gently cleanses your hair like a traditional shampoo. It is filled with mild surfactants and conditioning agents. The texture comes from an emulsion. The water phase is stabilized with an efficient cold process sulfate-free thickener with ACULYN U Rheology Modifier from Dow. The component has multifunctional properties such as being able to thicken aqueous systems and emulsify oils. When lecithin enriched with COSMOS-certified phosphatidylcholine with emulsion stabilizing properties from Cargill Beauty, Emultop Velvet IP is added, the texture and stability of the paste shampoo are provided.

What measures do you take during production in the name of sustainability?

UnivarSolutions concepts include a formulation process that saves time and energy and contain components with low environmental impact, transparent and pleasant textures. Sustainability goals including features such as biodegradable, zero waste or multifunctional are mandatory. Even in natural component-derived products, low environmental impact is important.

Could you tell us about the innovations you will launch to the market in the coming days? What advantages will these innovations provide to the industry and your customers?

In September, we are launching our latest campaign on natural bio-conditioner content solutions and formulation ideas that will inspire our customers to develop more sustainable hair care products. We see that a conscious consumer desires more natural, simpler formulas containing more environmentally friendly and sustainable ingredients and products with lower environmental impact.