Personal Hygiene Products

Introduction

Personal hygiene products include all cosmetic products as well as perfumes. Examples of cosmetic products are hair products, skin products (including sun screens), make-up products (lip stick, blusher, eye-shadow, etc.) and personal hygiene products (antiperspirants, shaving cream, tooth paste, etc.). Canadians are aging but still want to look good and feel well. The Canadian market reflects this with $1.6 billion of sales in personal hygiene products in Canada in 1994, an increase of 11.6 % when compared to 1993.

The portion of the market taken by plant extracts is also growing: it represents $30 million in sales, with 50 % being used as pure extracts, 12 % as surfactants, 13 % as stabilizers and 11 % as perfumes. Plants are being used increasingly when compared with products of animal origin. Since the end of the 1980s, companies have been protecting themselves against possible infection from viruses, bacteria or even prions, that might come from animal materials, as well as responding to public pressure against animal testing.

Below: rosemary plant

Plants used

The types of plants mostly used in North America for personal hygiene products are:

• aloe vera
• arnica
• sapin beaumier
• chamomile
• citronnella
• hamamelis
• lavander
• lemongrass
• litsea cuvata
• ylang ylang

  Other plants used in smaller quantities include extracts of...

• cucumber plant
• rosemary
• equisetum
• eyebright
• melissa

  Some essential oils...

• ginger
• geranium
• nettle
• sage
• thyme

As a source of raw material, algae (agars, carrageehans and alginates extracted from red and brown algae) are studied extensively by researchers. Tropical countries are producing more and more algae for such products.