Purity and performance — The advantages of synthetic surfactants in skin and hair care
Market forces are changing ingredient strategies
Personal care formulators are under increasing pressure to meet rising consumer expectations, comply with tightening environmental regulations, and deliver products that are both effective and safe.
Several interlocking trends are reshaping ingredient strategies:
Meeting rising expectations for transparency and safety
Today’s consumers, especially Millennials and Gen Z, continue to value more sustainable products, but they’re also demanding consistent safety, high performance, and greater ingredient transparency.
That’s putting pressure on brands to deliver on multiple expectations.
Synthetic options can offer a complementary path, helping formulators meet these expectations and comply with regulations such as EUDR.
Aligning formulations with sustainability commitments
Major personal care manufacturers t have set zero-deforestation targets and are revising sourcing strategies for palm oil and other natural feedstocks.1 2
The forthcoming EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR) imposes traceability and compliance standards on imports tied to deforestation3. This is accelerating interest in biodegradable, synthetic alternatives that help maintain product integrity while supporting sustainability claims.4
Naturally derived oleochemicals continue to play a major role in personal care, but their variable sourcing and traceability requirements can create compliance challenges. Synthetics offer a scalable option that helps manufacturers meet performance and regulatory expectations.
Drive product innovation with consistent, flexible surfactant ingredients
Personal care formulators need ingredients that deliver consistent performance, scale efficiently, and meet demanding standards for safety, quality, and compliance.
While natural alternatives were previously a go to, synthetic surfactants, such as Shell NEODOL®, are gaining traction for their formulation advantages including: flexibility, performance, stability, regulatory compliance, and supply consistency.5
This is critical as new regulations place stricter demands on traceability, sustainability, and ingredient transparency across global supply chains.
Assessing supply chain reliability as EUDR looms
Ingredient sourcing has become more complex as personal care manufacturers face pressure to strengthen traceability, reduce environmental impact, and comply with evolving regulations.
Mintel notes, “Consumers are demanding products that not only deliver on performance but also prioritise environmental responsibility.”6
Natural feedstocks like palm and coconut oil can be vulnerable to disruptions from weather and deforestation regulations. EUDR will require full traceability for products linked to deforestation.
Synthetic surfactants offer an alternative that’s easier to control and scale.
Shell Chemicals’ global supply infrastructure and reach helps manufacturers:
- Secure consistent ingredient availability
- Simplify compliance reporting
- Reduce supply chain exposure to agricultural volatility
Biodegradability as a competitive advantage
Biodegradability is becoming a key factor in ingredient selection, especially for rinse-off products that enter wastewater streams.7
Biodegradable synthetics provide a path forward for manufacturers seeking to innovate in sustainability-conscious markets.
Shell NEODOL is readily biodegradable, giving formulators the confidence to meet consumer and regulatory demands without compromising performance.
Several Shell NEODOL products are on the EPA Safer Choice ingredient list and included in the CleanGredients database, meaning they adhere to the voluntary program’s strict criteria on biodegradation and aquatic toxicity of degraded products.
Discover innovation-ready ingredients from a leading synthetic surfactant manufacturer
Formulators are developing new textures, high-performance ingredients, and sensorially rich product formats to stay competitive in today’s fast-moving personal care market.
Synthetic surfactants offer the consistency, precision, and flexibility needed to bring these innovations to life.
As a proven synthetic surfactant choice, Shell NEODOL is designed to support performance, aesthetics, and formulation stability across skin and hair care applications. These solutions can help formulators achieve:
- Gentle, effective cleansing and rich foam in shampoos, body washes, and other rinse-off formats
- Soft and supple skin feel and emollience in facial cleansers, moisturisers, and cream-based formats
- Reliable viscosity and texture control, even in formulas with multiple actives
- Excellent solubility and compatibility with propylene glycol, mineral oil, and more.
1 https://www.colgatepalmolive.com/en-us/impact/sustainability/our-sustainability-policies/no-deforestation
2 https://corporate.target.com/sustainability-governance/responsible-resource-use/environmental-impact-products/palm-oil
3 https://www.iisd.org/system/files/2025-04/unpacking-european-union-deforestation-regulation.pdf
4 https://www.personalcareinsights.com/news/biodegradable-ingredients-cosmetics-sustainability-health.html
5 https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11320967/
6 https://www.mintel.com/insights/beauty-and-personal-care/beauty-trends/
7 https://www.personalcareinsights.com/news/biodegradable-ingredients-cosmetics-sustainability-health.html