Ashland Showcases New Haircare and Skincare Ingredients for 2027

Ashland offered an update on the company and its progress of new personal care ingredients on a live Innovation Day webcast from its offices in Wilmington, DE on Sept. 17, 2026.

Ashland’s industry-leading portfolio includes components for skincare, haircare, oral care and home care, according to event organizers. The webcast focused on new product introductions and included business updates about commercial progress. 

Guillermo Novo, chair and chief executive officer of Ashland, said company goals for 2027 include improving technology performance, sustainability and collaboration.

“To succeed in this highly competitive specialty chemicals and additives industry, sustained differentiation is critical” said Novo. “Regarding innovation, our solvers have continued to push boundaries by questioning and asking more of science while asking less of the planet. They have continued seeking to understand how one breakthrough can solve more challenges than what it was created for.

“Our teams have built a hierarchy of differentiation including application know-how and intense customer focus, scalable and proprietary technology platforms, clearance for regulatory and qualification hurdles; and manufacturing and supply-chain advantage​ and scale,” he continued.

During the event Ashland announced it has filed four patents for the upscaling of sugarcane bagasse to “new-to-the-world materials​.”

Innovation takes “imagining something familiar such as cellulose or starch and unblocking new applications,” Novo said.

Innovations Abound

Osama Musa, senior vice president and chief technology officer, shared information about new super wetting agents that are expanding beyond coatings into personal care. Ashland filed seven patents on this for multiple markets. Applications span from hair care to oral care, he said.

Jim Minicucci, senior vice president and general manager, personal care, then showcased new ingredients.

Silkhance TVO is biodegradable, made from vegetable oils and is ideal for hair conditioning or styling, he said. It promotes scalp health as well as tames hair fibers by delivering lubricity during and after treatment. Its status is in the consumer testing stages, said Minicucci.

“This is the next generation of hair conditioning agents,” he said. “It has market expansion potential beyond hair care into skincare, color cosmetics and deodorants as well.”

Styleze S polymer is a nature-derived rheology modifier designed for high-performance hair styling formulations.

For skincare, Stabileze S is a double-crosslinked carboxymethyl multifunctional starch that can be used for skin rheology. Its “innovative textures and powdery elegance” works in clean beauty formulations such as serums, lotions or butters, noted Minicucci. It is “cold-processable and easy to formulate” with its proprietary starch chemistry.

“These ingredients demonstrate the depth of our innovations,” said Minicucci. “We look forward to building on this momentum into 2027.”