BASF’s Care Creations division has opened an evaluation salon for personal care at its site in Lagos, Nigeria. The new facilities will enable in vivo sensory and performance testing of ethnic skin and hair care formulations on volunteers.

Understanding consumers preferences

With this investment, the supplier of personal care ingredients aims helping its customers in the sub-Saharan African market to develop “finished products with high relevance and consumer acceptance”.

“To develop successful formulations and ingredients for ethnic personal care products, a deep understanding of African consumers’ preferences and pain points, their skin and hair characteristics, as well as how ingredients affect them is indispensable,” said Tosin Dania, Technical Manager Personal Care sub-Saharan Africa. “The BASF ‘Care Evaluation Salon’ combines market empathy, science excellence and formulation expertise, allowing us to share this understanding and benefit with our customers across the region.”

Facilitating sustainable growth of the sub-Saharan African market

This new in-house salon is the first of its kind launched by a personal care ingredient supplier in Nigeria. It complements BASF’s Application Technology Laboratory inaugurated in February 2019.