Working for your success at every stage of the product development process

With dsm-firmenich, you can enjoy the peace of mind of a partner who works for your success at every stage of the product development process – from evaluating promising skin care, hair care and sun care ingredients, to testing, through to delivery, at production scale, of market relevant formulations. We have the scientific and technological competence to provide supporting analyses and data for all areas applicable to our industry, especially claim substantiation and regulatory requirements.

The expertise we bring to projects derives from years of experience and is delivered through key service hubs, set up to respond to our customers’ priorities.

Global Application and Formulation Service

Whether the goal is to enhance existing product lines or create new ones from scratch, customers can rely on our highly skilled Formulation & Applications team all along the path to a successful product delivery. From solutions to formulation challenges to concepts that reflect the latest market trends, we offer our support in a spirit of creativeness based on solid, consistent and reliable technical competence.

We add value for customers by providing:

Laboratory network

A cross-regional network of five application laboratories (Europe, US, Brazil, China, Singapore) to respond quickly to customer requirements. Local teams are also there to deliver comprehensive and bespoke project support throughout the development process; as well as end-product formulations.

Evaluation and compatibility testing

Evaluation and compatibility testing for dsm-firmenich’s personal care and aroma ingredients.

Performance testing

State-of-the-art performance testing within all our application segments – skin care, hair care, and sun care. We carry out 150 performance evaluation studies in all applications every year.

Development of claims and concepts

Development of innovative claims, product-concepts to illustrate current trends, and ingredients launches.

Sensory expertise

Sensory expertise delivered by a specialist team who work with our formulators to enhance the sensory attributes of personal care products – sun protection in particular

Sensory experience

dsm-firmenich’s team of sensory evaluators offers inspiration and support with enhancing your hair, skin and sun care products by means of quantitative, descriptive sensory analysis. The team can provide objective sensory data for all lotion types and other semi-solid formulations. Together with our market knowledge, this generates meaningful insights we can use to optimize the sensory properties of formulations and applications, ideally in the earlier stages of the development process.

Our sensory evaluation service typically includes:

Objective sensory comparison of products, including benchmarking

Characterization of the sensory properties of ingredients

Concept improvement

Mapping of market formulations

Statistical analysis

Interpretation of sensory results and formulation guidance

Six reasons

you can rely on our sensory expertise

Panellists

trained by and according to world recognized Spectrum guidelines

2/3 panellists

are formulators of cosmetic products

Multiple reference products

to calibrate scale

Rigorous evaluation protocol

weekly sensory session

250 products

from liquid to semi-solid analyzed per year

28 parameters

are evaluated

Scientific expertise

dsm-firmenich’s track record for innovation in bio-actives, photoprotection and polymer science has been built up over a number of decades. Using cutting-edge research and technologies, we create novel ingredients and concepts to meet consumers’ needs while our expertise in pre-clinical and clinical product substantiation delivers compelling, reliable data on product efficacy. Our contributions to more than 30 publications every year are testament to our know-how and experience.

By partnering with dsm-firmenich, customers can draw the benefits of:

Understanding

Our deep understanding of skin and hair biology and physiology, including in the field of sun damage and UV filter protection.

Portfolio

An outstanding portfolio of test methods for sun and hair applications

Visualization

Industry trend-setting visualization technology to demonstrate efficacy and performance in a tangible way.

Expertise

Our expertise in rational design and peptide synthesis – which we are using to create new ingredients to deliver targeted skin care benefits and meet growing expectations for more sustainable products.

Sunscreen Optimizer™

And to help sun care producers assess the environmental friendliness of their formulations, our Sunscreen Optimizer™ – which has more than 3500 users in 98 countries and carries out more than 500,000 calculations each year – has been updated with an integrated eco-profiling feature and ready-to-use eco-labels! 

dsm-firmenich’s free online tool, the Sunscreen Optimizer™, has been designed to provide customers with a quick, efficient and cost-effective way to select and combine UV filters and enhance the performance of their sun care formulations. It has now been updated with an integrated eco-profiling, allowing formulators to evaluate the environmental friendliness of their formulations using a method based on market and SPF benchmarking. It can be used with all UV filters on the market and will also factor in regulatory requirements in different parts of the world. 

This feature has now been extended by the possibility to get new on-pack Eco-labels to offer today’s consumers easy-to-understand guidance to make eco-friendly sun protection choices. 

Product regulatory and Quality assurance

With our Product Regulatory and Quality Management team, customers can be confident that dsm-firmenich’s product portfolio is quality assured and compliant with all applicable safety and regulatory requirements. The team can call on seven worldwide regulatory and quality experts for cosmetic and fragrance ingredients, located in all major markets. 

As well as monitoring and anticipating changes in legislation and analyzing any impact on our products, our experts play an active role in some 30 industry associations and consortia in more than 10 countries around the globe. Through these activities they contribute to and shape future legislation worldwide and advocate for the registration of new and existing ingredients in specific markets.

Recent examples include:

Suncare

dsm-firmenich’s work within the PCPC sunscreen consortium in the US, supporting the GRASE status of 8 sunscreen ingredients.

Suncare

dsm-firmenich's role in the ALT-SPF project and consortium: a new initiative to establish a harmonized, accurate and useable approach to SPF testing across the globe.

Explore more

Customer Documentation

Customer Documentation Center and Customer Care

Dedicated support with regulatory matters

Trends and insights

Market & Consumer Insights

Identifying market trends to deliver innovative products consumers want to use

Formulations

Formulation Inspiration

Browse our collection of formulations across sun, skin and hair care.