Evonik and Celtic Renewables partner on upcycled beauty ingredients
The partnership reflects the cosmetics industry’s growing shift toward more sustainable formulation, as brands look for alternatives made from upcycled feedstocks instead of fossil-based chemicals.
GERMANY – Evonik and Celtic Renewables have partnered to produce sustainable cosmetic ingredients from Scotch whisky by-products, using Celtic Renewables’ bio-butanol to create ECOHANCE® Soft BOL.
This product is a sustainable emollient that delivers a silky, luxurious skin feel.
According to Celtic Renewables, the bio-butanol is entirely from waste materials at its Scottish biorefinery, drawing on locally sourced feedstocks such as whisky pot ale and rejected potatoes, while Evonik combines that raw material with its formulation expertise to produce an ingredient that meets both performance and environmental expectations.
Celtic Renewables says the sector faces a major challenge in reducing Scope 3 emissions because fossil-derived chemicals are still used widely in products ranging from face creams to lip gloss.
The company argues that switching to bio-based alternatives could cut emissions from everyday cosmetics by up to 60% without changing consumer habits or significantly disrupting manufacturing.
EcoHance Soft BOL is designed to support that transition by offering both strong sensorial performance and a lower-carbon production profile, with Evonik saying the ingredient provides excellent texture, touch and pigment wetting while also helping with UV filter solubility in sun and colour formulations.
The ingredient is made from side-stream and waste-stream materials through a green chemistry process that Evonik says significantly reduces CO2 emissions, and it is produced using an enzymatic process powered by 100% renewable electricity.
That makes it an upcycled beauty ingredient as well as an eco-friendly emollient, fitting into a wider trend in personal care in which discarded materials from agriculture, food, and drink are being turned into higher-value cosmetic inputs.
Market data cited in the text points to that momentum, showing sustainability remains a key consumer priority in 2026, with 39% of consumers defining sustainable beauty as naturally sourced ingredients, product launches featuring upcycled ingredients rising by 196% between April 2020 and March 2025, and half of global consumers saying they actively seek out upcycled ingredients when shopping for beauty and personal care products.
Bettina Brierly, chief commercial officer at Celtic Renewables, says partnerships like this are essential to accelerating the cosmetics industry’s move toward sustainable innovation, warning that companies slow to adopt bio-based chemicals will face a harder transition later.
Wolfgang Goertz, vice president of Cosmetic Solutions at Evonik, says the butanol from Celtic Renewables fits the company’s needs well and helps deliver the sensory qualities customers want in the finished emollient.
More broadly, the collaboration sits alongside other upcycled beauty examples such as biosurfactants made from upcycled feedstocks and fragrance ingredients derived from olive by-products, reinforcing the idea that circular chemistry is becoming a practical route to cleaner, lower-carbon personal care products.
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