According to research by Mintel, laundry detergent is the dominant category in the laundry care market, accounting for over 90% of total sales since 2016. Thanks to active product innovation around shape and function, laundry detergent is growing at around 4% annually, maintaining its leading position in the market.
The upgrade of laundry detergent fragrance is driving the high-endization of the laundry detergent subcategory. Different fragrance types and lasting fragrance are important selling points of hot-selling laundry detergent products. Many popular products create different fragrances and lasting fragrance effects.
However, it is difficult to achieve long-lasting fragrance effects in laundry detergent. Laundry detergent is a water-soluble system, while fragrance is oil-soluble. In laundry detergent, fragrance is dissolved in the micelles of surface active agents. However, in the actual washing process, the fragrance will not have a solubilization system as the micelle structure is destroyed. It is easy to be washed away by water during washing and cannot adhere to the clothes to achieve long-lasting fragrance.
Through literature retrieval, the market can adopt the following fragrance retention methods:
- Adsorption of fragrance by porous materials. This technology has poor closure of fragrance and low fragrance strength.
- Microencapsulated controlled release technology. By using insoluble walls of polymers, fragrance is sealed to improve fragrance retention. This technology has adjustable fragrance strength and generally longer fragrance time.
- Matrix bonding. Fragrance is combined with polymer materials together, and fragrance is released through some environmental factors to achieve fragrance retention. This technology also has a generally longer fragrance time.
- Improve fragrance time by mixed technical means. Various fragrance controlled release technologies are constantly being updated. Major international fragrance suppliers have proposed a number of highly refined microencapsulated fragrance technologies.
Microencapsulated fragrance technology can achieve the purpose of fragrance retention by adding microencapsulated fragrance to the laundry detergent system. During normal washing of clothes, microencapsulated fragrance will be intercepted by the fibers of the clothes, and then remain on the clothes. When people wear clothes, the microencapsulated fragrance remaining on the clothes will gradually break under the action of external factors such as friction, releasing fragrance to achieve the effect of long-lasting fragrance.
In this study, we further studied the “microcapsule locking fragrance” technology. By adjusting the combination ratio of ordinary fragrance and microencapsulated fragrance, we obtained the optimal combination ratio that can release fragrance immediately during washing, have long-lasting fragrance, and be stable and uniform in the system.
Conclusion
A systematic study of the application of ordinary fragrance and microencapsulated fragrance in the fragrance retention of laundry detergent bases showed that increasing the amount of ordinary fragrance added to laundry detergent has a significant effect on the immediate fragrance retention effect, but has no significant effect on the long-term fragrance retention effect of clothes; increasing the amount of microencapsulated fragrance added to laundry detergent has a relatively significant effect on the long-term fragrance retention effect of clothes.
Consumers will consider the two factors of immediate fragrance retention effect during washing and long-term fragrance retention effect of clothes after washing when purchasing scented laundry detergent. When ordinary fragrance and microencapsulated fragrance are added to the laundry detergent base at the same time (amount: 0.2% ordinary fragrance + 0.08% microencapsulated fragrance), the stability of the laundry detergent base meets the requirements of QB/T 1224, a liquid laundry detergent for fabrics, and a laundry detergent with relatively good fragrance retention is obtained, meeting the consumer demand for laundry detergent fragrance retention.
