Home care is all about lifestyle. With the birth of innovative cleaning solutions, most households choose their cleaning agents based on personal preferences, including fragrance. Today, scented household products are in demand.
With that in mind, manufacturers of cleaning products must focus on adding different scents into their goods.
Whether you are the company owner or product development, you need to know the fragrances that will make your products more attractive to consumers.
More importantly, you need to look for reputable cosmetic fragrance suppliers who can create tailored solutions to make your household products stand out. So when a customer looks for an effective and sweet-smelling cleaning agent, they’ll think of your products first. The goal is to get consumers to associate your cleaning agents with the smell of cleanliness.
To create a better cleaning agent, an in-depth understanding of the ingredients in your product is crucial. A careful balance of these ingredients is highly essential to develop a formula that will work best for what your customers are trying to clean.
Basically, the components of cleaning products fall into the following categories:
1. Surfactants
Surfactants should make up a huge portion of your cleaning formulas since these are considered the primary ingredients for cleaning. However, not all varieties of surfactants are great at removing some types of stains and soils.
So adding two or more surfactants in your formulation is better than using a single kind. Your choice will have a huge impact on how effective the end product will be, whether it is meant to clean dishes, counter-tops or laundry.
2. Builders
Builders are surfactant helpers. They boost your cleaning products’ effectiveness. There are several kinds of these, but you will need to add less of them to your products than surfactants.
Builders boost the cleaning power of surfactants by reacting with calcium, magnesium and other minerals found in tap water. If the water in a household contains lots of minerals, the surfactants can’t get rid of soil. Builders will keep these minerals out of the way so the surfactants can focus on removing dirt.
3. Enzymes
Enzymes break down stains, which is quite similar to how enzymes in your digestive system break down the food you eat.
Enzymes are created by fungi, bacteria, and other microorganisms. In your laboratory, you must choose which microorganisms to use and let them grow in a controlled environment. This way, they will produce your desired enzymes as they grow.
Each type of enzyme comprises a hundred to a million amino acids. Their order will determine their specific function and shape.
When added to a cleaning formula, each enzyme is attracted to a specific type of stain, such as wine or gravy. Once it attaches to the stain it targets, it works by breaking it down into smaller pieces, making it a lot easier for the surfactant to remove the stains.
4. Preservative
Cleaning agents must be preserved too, just like food and beverages. You need to add a certain amount of preservative to protect your product from microorganisms. This way, the product shelf life in the store and in your customer’s home will be prolonged.
Preservatives are added to cleaning agents to make them safe and stable for a long time. Without this component, bacteria or fungi can thrive in your product. As a result, other cleaning agent ingredients like the enzymes and surfactants will not work.
5. Fragrance
The scent of your product will have a tremendous impact on how it appeals to property owners. It is often the driving factor for why people want to buy a specific product. So deciding on which fragrance to add to your product is crucial.
A fragrance is a combination of several substances. It can be essential oils, synthetic compounds, or natural compounds like fruits, flowers, plants, nuts, and trees. The two familiar fragrances found in most cleaning products today are lemon and lavender.
Fragrances work by covering up the unappealing scent of other ingredients. It makes your customers enjoy using your product. It might smell a little different when inside a sachet or bottle, in the wash, and on newly washed clothing. It ensures that the clothes, dishes or surfaces of your clients are not just clean, but sweet-scented, too.
Distillation is one process used to create fragrances. It involves heating the material until it is transformed into gas. After that, the fragrant portion is cooled down and condensed into a liquid to be collected.
Encapsulation is another type of fragrance technology. This process involves enclosing the fragrances in a special kind of shell until it bursts.
To ensure that your products smell great, you must partner with recognized fragrance suppliers. With their knowledge and expertise, they can help you develop a scent that appeals to modern consumers. They may even help you create fragrances meant to stay on clothes, so garments smell fresher and cleaner for an extended period.
6. pH adjuster
pH refers to how acidic or basic a solution is. It ranges from 0 to 14, with seven considered as a neutral pH. A pH lower than seven means that the product is acidic, whereas a pH greater than seven means that the product is basic or alkaline. Though the human skin is a bit acidic, products that are too acidic or basic can cause itching and other discomforts.
Adding pH adjusters to your cleaning products will make sure that it is safe for everyone to use, especially when it touches the skin. The amount usually depends on the other ingredients in your formula.
Furthermore, adjusting the pH will also boost your product’s cleaning ability. For instance, surfactants have a different pH range in which they perform best. Thus, your chemist must adjust the pH to such a level.
7. Disinfectants
Cleaning will wash away germs as it removes stains and dirt. However, your cleaning products can help eliminate germs if you add disinfectants.
Disinfecting or antibacterial agents will further reduce germs in homes to prevent people from getting sick as they get their hands on commonly used surfaces like door handles. Cleaning products with disinfectants are also important in environments where food is prepared or sick individuals are being cared for.
Choose from different types of disinfecting ingredients. The key is to select one that is highly effective on microbes that make people sick, such as viruses, bacteria, and mold.
8. Solvents
If you are manufacturing liquid cleaning products, solvents will keep all the ingredients well-mixed. This way, your customers won’t end up dealing with a separated solution like when you see pulps at the bottom of your glass of lime or orange juice. Solvents will also give your product the right thickness for easy usage, as well as help prevent it from freezing.
9. Foam enhancers
If you want your product to create more bubbles or suds, consider adding foam enhancers. Though this ingredient doesn’t affect the product’s cleaning power, most people enjoy the bubbles that form each time they use cleaning agents.
10. Dyes
Use dyes if you want to give your product a specific color. Certain colors can make your merchandise more appealing to shoppers. The colors white, yellow and blue dominate in cleaning products.
Creating the most effective and in-demand household cleaning products is easy if you know the right combination to use. Besides boosting your product’s cleaning capabilities and making use of creative packaging design, ensure it smells great, too, because the right fragrance can be one factor that will boost your sales.
Author Bio
Lamia Rochdi is the Marketing Manager at Bell Flavors & Fragrances EMEA. A successful family-owned business, Bell’s core competencies include customized solutions for the food and beverages industry, the household and personal care sector, and the perfume industry.