Cosmetic Actives
3 ingredients from 4 Chinese manufacturers
Three unrelated actives sit here, each defined by its production route. Squalane is the saturated form of squalene and was once taken from shark liver, but the material now traded is largely hydrogenated from squalene of sugarcane fermentation or olive origin, so source is the first question and it changes both price and claim. Ectoine is a small molecule produced by fermentation of salt tolerant bacteria, used at low percentages for water binding and barrier protection.
Ceramide is the least standardised term of the three. It covers several distinct lipid structures, from fermentation derived ceramides to plant sourced glucosylceramide from rice, wheat or konjac, and a stated purity means little without the specific ceramide type and the assay method attached. All three are dosed at fractions of a per cent, so purity, colour and odour weigh more heavily than bulk price.
Sourcing from China
Ectoine is now produced by fermentation at several Chinese sites, mainly in Shandong and Jiangsu, and the arrival of that capacity moved it from a scarce ingredient to a widely quoted one. Konjac and rice derived ceramide follows the konjac base in Hubei and Yunnan. Squalane is hydrogenated either from olive derived squalene or from a fermentation route, and the two are not interchangeable in a claim. Volumes are small, so many sellers are traders rather than makers, and asking for the production site is the first filter.
