Plant-Based Solvents: Where Green Beauty Products Start

The clean‐beauty trend has been booming for years now, projected to reach $21.29 billion by 2030, and as consumers search for better natural personal care ingredients and safer formulations, even solvents, the ingredients that help deliver oils and actives, must be reimagined.

Consumers now expect, and want to pay for a formula that is green and safe to use. This means that personal care formulators must look beyond, choosing plant-based solvents for their cosmetics as a key step in making safer, greener personal care products.

Ready to learn more about our bio-based solvents? Producing green personal care cosmetics doesn’t have to be a complex endeavor. With our help, as a formulator, you can now invent a green product while maintaining consumer appeal at the same time!

The Role of Solvents in Cosmetics

Solvents are the workhorses of the best cosmetic products in the world. They dissolve every active ingredient such as UV filters or pigments and help them distribute evenly in creams and lotions, ensuring all agents disperse properly.

Moreover, solvents control the product’s texture and viscosity, helping achieve the desired feel and spread for the end user. A good solvent keeps all the ingredients stable and balanced in the formulas, meaning there’s no unnecessary spillage or hardening of the products.

Most importantly, solvents, particularly the bio-based ones, help products penetrate the right ingredients into the person’s skin. In short, solvents are not a cosmetics bystander - they’re what makes a face cream or a hair solution work the right way.

The Downside of Petrochemicals

By now, you’re probably familiar with the traditional petrochemical solvents in personal care cosmetics formulas. However, most of them come with some serious drawbacks in terms of environmental pollution and people’s health.

For instance, volatile cyclic silicones such as cyclomethicone or cyclopentasiloxane give personal care products a silky feel, but they also evaporate quickly. However, being derived from non-renewable sources that stay in the environment long after they leave the product, the environmental impact of petrochemical solvents has led to strict limitations regarding how and why they’re used in products.

Moreover, simple alcohols like ethanol or isopropanol are commonly found as solvents and cosmetics penetration boosters. Sure, they can mix well with the water and help spread the ingredients on the skin. However, products with too much alcohol can be volatile and dry the skin, increasing changes for irritation and leave the skin aggravated as a result.

Let’s not forget the volatile organic compounds from petrochemical solvents that can easily evaporate and are often flammable if not carefully handled by formulators and product users alike. Extensive VOC use is a regulatory and safety breach, and consumers expect more from cosmetics companies.

RE:CHEMISTRY’s Plant‑Based, Bio Solvents

At RE:CHEMISTRY, we're at the forefront of the green skincare revolution, offering a range of plant-derived bio-solvents that enable personal care formulators to meet these evolving demands without compromise. Our plant-derived solvents provide multiple advantages for natural personal care product formulators.

Milder on skin (hypoallergenic): Our plant-based glycols and levulinate esters have much lower irritation and allergy risk than petro-based alcohols or ethers. In practice, this means a bio-solvent is less likely to sting or dry the skin.

Biodegradable and non-toxic: We design solvents that break down in nature. Our solvents are biodegradable and non-toxic to aquatic life. Levulinate ketals such as NEW320 and EXP400 have a minimal impact on the environment.

Renewable and lower carbon: Our plant-based solvents are made from agri-waste instead of fossil oils. The renewable feedstock that we’re using significantly slashes the carbon footprint, resulting in a sustainable personal care formulation.

High performance: The eco-friendly solvents that we offer for your formulas doesn’t mean that your product will trade feel and function as a result. Eco-friendly solvents no longer mean a trade-off in feel or function.

In fact, RE:CHEMISTRY’s NEW320 is designed as an alternative to cyclopentasiloxane, helping achieve that luxurious sensory experience on the skin, without the harm.

Our bio-based solvents check every box: they are biocompatible, lower in human and environmental toxicity, and fully renewable, yet still powerful enough to make great lotions, creams and sprays. By switching to these greener solvents, formulators get safer products without sacrificing quality or feel.

Try It Yourself – Contact us Today!

Ready to upgrade your personal care formulations? Our levulinate ketals like the NEW:320 are designed specifically for cosmetics – they dissolve oils, boost absorption, and deliver that silky smooth feel, all while meeting clean-label demands.

By including plant-based solvents, you can reimagine your skincare cosmetics, or sun care products for maximum performance and sustainability. Reach out to our team today, and see first-hand how our natural solvents can improve your sustainable personal care formulations.