The new year brings new resolutions, new ambitions, and new ingredients. Upcycled materials have informed a key pillar of the industry’s sustainability endeavors over the last few years: carbon-capture packaging from the likes of Element and Oco and L’Oréal; Givaudan’s coffee oil; Eurofragrance’s wood captive; reappropriated food waste from LOLI, Hub.cycle and Seeds of Colour; and repurposed plant waste for paper packaging by James Cropper.
Hamburg-based ingredient manufacturer Lignopure is bringing in its own contender: LignoBase. The material is powered by lignin-focused technology. Lignin is a polyphenolic compound which can be found in the cell walls of vegetation and is a byproduct of pulp manufacturing. “Sadly, just over 90% of this precious material is disposed of. However, thanks to Lignopure’s patented particle technology and expertise, we can upcycle this amazing natural material and use its multitalented properties that would otherwise remain unutilized on a commercial scale for the beauty industry,” comments Gabriela Meza Armenta, Marketing and Business Development Manager of Lignopure. The end product is available in non-nano powders in three different shades of brown, which can be added to SPF-containing CC and BB creams, mascaras, and brow gels, as well as functional cream formulas.
The entrepreneurial journey of LignoBase began when co-founder Joana Gil discovered the material’s potential during her time studying for her PhD in processing technology at Hamburg University of Technology. She founded the company in 2018, with fellow bioprocessing academics Wienke Reynolds and Daniela Arango—Gil specializing in technology and core science, Reynolds in scaling the technology, and Arango in business concept development.
Following a first round of funding through a €150K ($158K) grant thanks to investment and development bank IFB, participant in the InnoRampUp incubator program, Lignopure received an investment of €2.2MM ($2.319MM) and obtained the International Nomenclature Cosmetic Ingredient (INCI) registration for the ingredient in 2021. The company set up its first production plant in 2022.
LignoBase has antioxidant, UV protectant, stabilizing, antimicrobial, and natural colorant properties. Juliana Carrizosa, Product Innovation at Lignopure, notes that “its inherent polyphenolic structure makes it a free radical scavenger that protects both the cosmetic formulations and the skin from damaging oxidative processes. Accordingly, LignoBase has been shown to boost the antioxidant activity of an oil-in-water cream by up to 30 times compared to the control.” Furthermore, the natural tones of the powders mean that formulas can be simplified without or with a reduced amount of iron oxides. In in vitro testing, adding LignoBase to sunscreen formulations resulted in a 50% increase in SPF. The material can absorb its quintuple weight equivalent in oil when combined with other biopolymers, making it an ideal partner for matte formulations.
The company will continue diving into the material’s potential in the near future. “Lignin’s structure is highly complex and still not yet fully understood. Therefore, its potential high-value applications have not yet been fully discovered nor have they become widely available on a commercial scale. The information available on lignin in cosmetic formulations is scarce, which has been very challenging,” Armenta explains.
As the structure of lignin differs from plant to plant, Lignopure is also ensuring the optimal source for its hero ingredient to enable “a perfect combination of great organoleptic and performance properties together with clean, ethical, and traceable sources.” Citing a survey conducted by open-access publisher MDPI that shows roughly 85% of survey respondents strongly agree that ingredient origin and sustainable production are important to them, and about 70% are concerned with the environmental impact of synthetic ingredients, the company sees immense potential for its popularity.
