It took three years of development work to find a way to enable this. Up until then it was only possible to achieve a higher sun protection factor, but at the expense of visual appearance, by using a high proportion of titanium oxide or zinc oxide particles. When applied to the skin it is difficult to spread this composition of cream and it produces a white film.
Eco outwitted the “white washing” effect. The titanium dioxide particles are coated with corundum.
Corundum is a natural mineral declared under the name Alumina (Corundum).In this process titanium dioxide particles are enclosed in purified clay. Intense pressure and heat serve to induce crystallization of the aluminium oxide situated in the clay around these titanium oxide particles. A pigment is created, the centre of which contains white titanium dioxide surrounded by clear corundum (AL203) with darker clay deposits. These pigments have a reflection performance up to five times stronger than that of “normal” titanium dioxide. With high-quality emulsifiers, oils and other ingredients these pigments are “stirred to a cream” during a particularly long mixing time.
The UV-filter complex then coats the skin and offers it safe protection. In this way it was possible to find a cosmetic solution for a mineral-based organic sun cream with a very high sun protection factor.