In the service of beauty and care

It's often the simple things that demand enormous expertise: a boat made of reeds — built without a single nail — that crosses the Atlantic; a Japanese haiku that says it all in exactly 17 syllables; or a newly created cosmetic that harnesses the very latest technology to respond to the age-old yearning for physical beauty. Whether it's a lipstick or a skin cream, these staples of every bathroom and beauty case are by no means simple products. They must remain durable in color and uniform in consistency, bond with the requisite adhesive strength, cover evenly, and, furthermore, smooth and protect the skin in a dependable way. And it goes without saying that consumers and manufacturers alike expect all the ingredients to have been fully tested for their safety and tolerability.

In all of these areas, Merck knows its business better than almost any other company — thanks to two traditional areas of in-house expertise. The company is a global player not only in pearl luster pigment technologies, which give products their subtle and distinctive color properties, but also when it comes to the active ingredients that care for the skin. The experienced specialists who work continuously to extend and enhance these two product lines ensure that there is a steady stream of innovations. As a result, Merck customers can be sure of having a wide choice of suggested solutions and basic ingredients for formulating their new cosmetic products.

And now those customers have access to even better service. In September 2009, Merck opened its new Cosmetic Technology Center (CTC) at company headquarters in Darmstadt, which brings together the company's expertise in pigments and active ingredients under one roof. Here, applications experts from both businesses welcome customers and, by means of demonstrations and discussions, help them turn their new product ideas into reality. In other words, the CTC is at once a laboratory, a showroom, and an information forum. Furthermore, rather than being in the middle of nowhere, it's located at the very heart of the company, in close proximity to research, development, and production, thus ensuring short lines of communication. It offers the company's customers advice, insights, and solutions.

Xenia Petsitis, Head of Technical Service for Cosmetic Pigments, is one of the people on hand to provide rapid support at the CTC. For example, if the pigments specialist from a client company has a specific question, he only has to contact Petsitis and her team. "He'll call us up or send an e-mail," she explains. "Let's say he's working on a new shampoo but still can't quite work out how to ensure that the pigment is absolutely evenly distributed throughout the product. So he asks us what to do to make the product perfect. Often we know the answer right away, just from experience." Occasionally, however, it's necessary to reconstruct the problem that the customer is trying to solve.

This is where the CTC lab comes in. "If it's a question we can't answer straight off, our laboratory is usually able to get a handle on it," explains Petsitis. The lab tries out whatever it is that the customer wants to achieve. It is fitted out with laboratory-format versions of the same equipment that is used on an industrial scale: machines for pouring lipsticks and compacting powders or even just for stirring ingredients in a very precise way. If necessary, specialists from the development department where the pigment was created can also be called on to help devise a solution.

"The CTC is a unique facility that provides customers with a very welcome diversity of raw materials," says Dr. Frank Pflücker. As Head of Global Applications Engineering for Cosmetic Active Ingredients, he comes from the "white" side of the CTC — i.e. the part concerned with the active raw materials used in sun protection, skin care, and self-tanning agents. "The supply side of the market is very complex these days, and you can imagine how much work would be involved for our customers if they were dealing with 500 different suppliers. It's obviously a lot easier when there are only 20. And it's even more convenient when a major supplier such as Merck not only meets a great deal of the customer's needs, but can also provide solutions to his problems."