Cosmetic product development that can also lead to regional vitalization

A project to develop cosmetic products from a student perspective has been launched by a voluntary group of students who belong to the research units of Prof. Hidetoshi Kitawaki of the Faculty of Global and Regional Studies and Associate Prof. Takeshi Miura of the Faculty of Life Sciences. This Toyo SDGs Students Project has been named “SUGOMORI BOISEN Project” by the University’s SDGs Promotion Committee.
In March 2022, the project team developed a hand serum, “BOISEN,” on a trial basis.

Prof. Kitawaki says, “The trial product has been manufactured using Shiseido’s licensable patent for its low-energy emulsion manufacturing technology. When I first learned of the proposal for this project via the Center for Sustainable Development Studies, I came up with the idea of using boysenberries, a specialty of Tatebayashi City, Gunma Prefecture, which is near the Itakura Campus, because I thought using it could also be a means to help vitalize the region.”

The project team’s partner in development and manufacturing is CS Labo Inc., an OEM manufacturer of cosmetic products with its main factory in Tatebayashi City. Prof. Kitawaki explains, “We solicited the company’s cooperation because they had already manufactured a skin lotion containing boysenberries. I also thought that we had to ask Associate Prof. Miura of the Faculty of Life Sciences to help us, since he had conducted research on boysenberries. This is how the project team came into being, with students from the two research units. Within my research unit, there was already a student who had expressed interest in research on cosmetic products. So I immediately talked to her.”

Product planning and development for future dreams

That student is Ms. Maho Aizawa, who says, looking back, “I had been interested in beauty and cosmetic products since my high school days. So the project was a great opportunity for me, a precious opportunity to get involved in the planning of a new cosmetic product while a student. It was like a dream come true.”

For the students, it was their very first attempt to plan and develop any product at all. On top of that, the COVID-19 pandemic caused the team a series of hardships. “There were seven of us students on the team. We couldn’t get together in person due to restrictions relating to COVID-19, and we had difficulty communicating smoothly with one another. It was the first experience of that kind for all of us, and it took us a lot of time to finalize the product concept. It was trial and error every day, trying to figure out many things, such as how to differentiate our product from existing ones. We received so much advice from the staff at CS Labo and Prof. Kitawaki.”

The finished trial samples were distributed free of charge on the day of the graduation ceremony. Ms. Aizawa recalls with a smile, “Some friends of mine who tried the product gave me positive feedback. They said that BOISEN didn’t irritate the skin, unlike other hand creams they had used before.”

The project team also contributed to the SDGs by giving careful consideration to the environment, adopting recycled PET as the material for packaging labels.

The product name, “BOISEN,” was conceived mainly by the students. The fragrance of the product, also selected by the students, has been favorably received by sample users. Ms. Aizawa says, referring to her future dream, “Working on the manufacturing side for the first time, I realized that behind the cosmetic products that we use casually every day there is a tremendous amount of thinking involved and hardship on the part of the manufacturer. My dream is to make people happy through beauty, and I hope to pursue it by drawing on this experience. I want to create cosmetic products that will be loved by many people.”

As for future prospects, Prof. Kitawaki says, “Now that a trial product has been completed, I want to see the team develop a mechanism for sales and set out to develop another product. I want any Toyo alumni interested in this project to join us.” The project is scheduled to continue in the future.