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Rediscover the joy in beauty with playful skincare trends

As younger consumers prioritize happiness and sensory experiences, formulators have an opportunity to get creative with personal care products.

Published On: 03/13/24

Can a skincare routine make you happy? Happiness is one of the purest emotions we experience as humans, but it’s notoriously difficult to describe or quantify.

Countless studies have tried to measure happiness and its connections to factors like relationships, work, age, health, stress, spirituality, hobbies, and even pet ownership. As happiness becomes a greater concern for Gen Z and millennial consumers, many are looking for ways to take more direct control over their feelings of happiness.

One of the key outlets used by consumers is self-care in areas such as beauty, wellness, skincare, and hair care, which is where your formulations come in.

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Feel your feelings

Scientists are studying the connection between sensory experience and emotion. Scents have the power to reduce stress, tactile experiences can alleviate anxiety, and different types of visual stimuli can induce pleasure or decrease feelings of loneliness.

Can a beauty product truly make you feel calmer, energize you, or bring back the joyful sensations of a cherished memory? The chemists at BASF think so. To show you how, we developed these creative formulations combining the powers of texture, scent, and color to evoke positive emotions and deliver effective skincare.

Gentle exfoliator: Bring the beach to your bathroom sink

Scrub away the day with a fun, moldable approach to exfoliation. The Happy Scrubs Shapeable Exfoliator is all about playful textures, evoking the feeling of sand between your toes on a day at the beach. The yellow powder gently cleanses, provides effective exfoliation, and leaves skin feeling soft and nourished.

It’s made from a combination of naturally derived ingredients designed to add a pleasurable sensation to the exfoliation experience.


The key ingredients: All smiles

This formulation gets its cleansing power from Texapon® SFA UP PWD and Jordapon® SCI Powder, a pair of anionic surfactants that provide mild cleansing with naturally derived ingredients. Cegesoft® Peel delivers the gentle scrubbing action with its biodegradable wax beads, while Cetiol® CC and Cetiol® Ultimate help to create those unique textures with fast-absorbing application.

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Cooling face mist: Good vibes all around

You know what’s a vibe? This cooling mist with soothing, calming, and moisturizing properties. Dubbed the Energize Your Vibe Face Mist, it refreshes the mind with its lavender scent and delights the eyes with its two-phase system, which gives it a light purple hue on the top layer and dark purple on the bottom.

Beyond its pretty exterior, the mist delivers an instant surge of energy followed by an immediate sense of comfort. With a long-lasting sensation of aftercare, that pampered feeling is designed to stick around. It’s a great way to feel refreshed and reenergized with just a few quick spritzes.


The key ingredients: Bringing good energy

The fast-spreading emollient Cetiol® Ultimate makes another appearance in this mist, delivering the feeling of instant comfort. Luvitol® Lite EM is the medium-spreading emollient responsible for making the pampered sensation last. A molecular patch technology called Sacred Patch™ ties it all together, harnessing the soothing properties of blue-green algae to rejuvenate the skin.

Feeling inspired? Give us a call

Did our formulation inspiration make you feel encouraged, excited, or even a little playful?

Contact BASF to request a sample or discuss how we can help you design a skincare product that sparks joy in your target consumer.

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