OREANDA-NEWS. Anti-aging remains a main focus in personal care business. This also applies to France, one of the most important cosmetic markets in the world. At this year's IFSCC Congress (October 27-30) in Paris, BASF showcases new ingredients that answer to this market trend and contribute to skin rejuvenation and sun protection (booth 38).

One of the main beauty secrets to keep an ageless look is to maintain the first shield of the body healthy and young: the epidermis. A young epidermis is dense, thick and its major components are continuously regenerated. With age, the epidermal innervation decreases and this depletion is sufficient to cause epidermal thinning. With Epigenist(tm) - BASF's new active ingredient - the epidermis is re-innervated and regains the quality of its youth. When applied on the skin, it reverses the natural degradation of nervous fibers and their growth restarts, counterbalancing the time passing by.

Extracted from the African bambara pea (voandzeia subterranea), Epigenist is able to rejuvenate the aged skin and makes it visibly appear younger: Longevity of cells is improved, the epidermis is thicker and better organized and the proliferation of cells is increased. After eight weeks of treatment with Epigenist, the skin complexion is enhanced, the skin surface is smoothed and the wrinkles are reduced comparatively to placebo treatment.

With age, epidermis also loses its integrity and structure, which causes blemishes that appear on its surface. As BASF experts discovered recently, the integrity of the epidermis can be restored, if keratinocytes in the epidermis are enabled to differentiate in an optimal way. New and smoother skin appears as fine lines and visible pores fade. Indispensable to the differentiation of keratinocytes is LOX (lysyl oxidase), a key protein that decreases with age.

LOX-AGE(tm) - a skin relief perfector developed by BASF - is capable of restoring the expression of LOX to a similar level as in young skin. The extract of chicory (cichorium intybus) leaves, which stimulate LOX, promotes improvement of the layers of the epidermis and its integrity by virtue of the differentiation marker transglutaminase 1 (TG1) and desmocollin 1 (DSC1) - a marker of cell cohesion - without targeting cell proliferation. LOX-AGE also participates in the functionalization of collagen 1, improving the density of the skin that appears more moisturized. With a clinical efficacy similar to Retinol, LOX-AGE contributes to the restoration of youthful skin appearance. It fades skin blemishes to perfection, restoring the vitality and beauty of youth. The skin appears revitalized and free from the most visible signs of skin ageing.

Over the decades, the purpose of a sunscreen has shifted from just tanning without sunburn to prevention of premature skin-aging and skin cancer in addition. As a consequence, designing and manufacturing a sunscreen has become more and more complex. To overcome this complexity, BASF has developed a sunscreen concentrate that turns into a sunscreen just by adding water: Uvinul (r) Easy is a transparent, oil based concentrate with UV filters and emulsifiers. The addition of water at a constant temperature with moderate stirring leads to a spontaneous formation of a white oil-in-water emulsion. With Uvinul Easy, any sunscreen between SPF 6 and SPF 50 - the range of SPF categories recommended in Europe - can be readily manufactured. For making an SPF 30 sunscreen, for example, the concentrate needs to be diluted down to 30 percent. Thickener can be added to achieve the desired rheological properties to make various sun protection formats, such as lotions, creams or sprays. The right amount of UVA protection is automatically achieved.