With the winter solstice past and days starting to get longer, who can blame us if our minds turn to sun-drenched days and hours of outdoors activities? In fact, this is a great time to be thinking of product formulations that help protect us from the sun and sunflower wax is the perfect ingredient to highlight as it brings ideal structure to skin care and sunscreen sticks.
Sunflower Wax – Natural, Renewable, and Compatible
Sunflower wax is a natural, renewable wax that demonstrates superior gel strength in a wide range of compounds. The height of practicality, sunflower wax gives your systems the benefits of both consumer-positive provenance and stability.
Sunflower wax is compatible with many different oil mediums, producing consistent hard gel structures across a broad range of compounds. The monoesters in sunflower wax are easily solubilized in oils at elevated temperatures, then, as they cool, precipitate out of the oil, forming a solid three-dimensional network.
The wax crystallinity and narrow melt point are critical properties that contribute to gel formation in anhydrous products. As seen in the graph below, the structural strength imparted by the sunflower wax is both consistent and effective across the range of oils.
Sun Drenched Koster Keunen Formulations Featuring Sunflower Wax
Our Friends of the Sea Mineral Sunscreen Stick uses Sunflower Wax to its best advantage, combined with Sustainable Beeswax and Cocoa Butter to form a stable stick with good structure, a pleasant texture and smooth glide. It combines the convenience of a stick sunscreen with natural ingredients, forming a product that is reef-friendly and doesn’t whiten on the skin.
Formula: #10/20-421/258/358-7
| Ingredient Trade Name | INCI Name | % |
| Phase A | ||
| Beeswax1 | Beeswax | 12.0 |
| AR Cocoa Butter1 | Theobroma Cacao (Cocoa) Seed Butter | 9.0 |
| Sunflower Wax1 | Helianthus Annuus (Sunflower) Seed Wax | 10.0 |
| Kester Wax K-60P1 | Polyhydroxystearic Acid | 6.0 |
| Kester Wax K-241 | Lauryl Laurate | 9.0 |
| Extra Virgin Coconut Oil2 | Cocos Nucifera (Coconut) Oil | 23.5 |
| Vitamin E Acetate3 | Tocopherol Acetate | 1.0 |
| UV Cut ZnO-68-CG4 | Zinc Oxide, Caprylic/Capric Triglyceride, Polyhydroxystearic Acid | 29.5 |
In our Sunny All Day Sunscreen Stick, Sunflower Wax blends with Sustainable Beeswax and Kester Wax K-24 to offer a formula in a stable, no-melt stick. These ingredients combine to provide structural and emollient properties that make it easy to apply, with a pleasant feel and good slip, in addition to a non-greasy after-feel.
Formula: #10/20-258/421/358-3
| Ingredient Trade Name | INCI Name | % |
| Phase A | ||
| Sunflower Wax1 | Helianthus Annuus (Sunflower) Seed Wax | 18.0 |
| Beeswax1 | Beeswax | 8.0 |
| Kester Wax K-241 | Lauryl Laurate | 8.0 |
| Escalol HMS2 | Homosalate | 10.0 |
| Escalol 5972 | Octocrylene | 10.0 |
| Escalol 5172 | Butyl Methoxydibenzylmethane | 3.0 |
| Escalol 5872 | Ethylhexyl Salicylate | 5.0 |
| Jeechem TN3 | C12-C15 Alkyl Benzoate | 10.0 |
| Jeechem CTG3 | Caprylic/Capric Triglyceride | 10.0 |
| Carnation White Mineral Oil4 | Mineral Oil | 18.0 |
Are you Prepared for Summer?
Whether you are considering the upcoming sun season or personal care products for year-round use, take a look at the sustainable ingredient science available from Koster Keunen, including our sunflower wax studies. If you have formulation questions, our chemists are here to help you find solutions that work for you and your customers. Contact us to start a conversation.
About Koster Keunen
Koster Keunen has been working with wax since 1852 and has used our extensive experience and knowledge base to continuously develop new chemistries. Whether you are developing a new product, or need help with a reformulation or replacement, contact us to learn more about how we source, refine or develop waxes so you can create the perfect formula.
