Formulating for Emotion: Microplastic-Free Visual Beads that Boost Perceived Efficacy

Most labs are set up to optimize what instruments can measure; far fewer are set up to engineer what people feel. Yet it’s those feelings that drive repeat purchase, brand love, and “this actually works” moments.

Recent consumer studies using conversational AI, multimodal analytics and large panels (up to 1,313 women across four countries) show that formulas containing microplastic-free, biodegradable Unispheres® significantly outperform identical controls without visuals on overall liking, premium perception, and perceived efficacy.

This article translates that evidence into formulation decisions—sphere size, colour, chassis, and distribution—so you can design cleansers, serums and shampoos that look more effective, feel more premium, and still meet modern expectations for clean, vegan, microplastic-free beauty.

Why Perceived Performance Now Matters as Much as Measured Performance

Formulators already know how to move a hydration curve or reduce TEWL. What’s newer is the realization that emotional and sensory responses can amplify—or blunt—those hard-won functional gains. Neuroscience and cosmetic science are converging on a simple conclusion: when texture, scent and visuals align, products don’t just work better; they feel like they work better.

For example, EEG-based studies have shown that applying a cosmetic can shift brain activity toward patterns associated with positive emotion and approach motivation, and those changes track with self-reported product preference. A 2024 review of neurophysiological methods in cosmetics goes further: combining EEG, heart-rate variability and facial coding provides a robust way to quantify emotional responses to formulations, beyond classic questionnaires.

At the same time, regulators are tightening their stance on microplastics. In the EU, Commission Regulation (EU) 2023/2055 restricts intentionally added synthetic polymer microparticles, with phase-out timelines for rinse-off and leave-on cosmetics. In the U.S., the Microbead-Free Waters Act has already removed plastic exfoliating beads from many categories. That leaves formulators who loved the story-telling power of visual beads with a clear brief: keep the emotional and perceived-efficacy benefits, without microplastics.

What the Unispheres® Data Actually Shows About Emotion and Perceived Efficacy

Givaudan Active Beauty’s Unispheres® platform was built to answer precisely this challenge. The technology uses a minimalist, microplastic-free chassis—primarily water, mannitol and microcrystalline cellulose—to create highly uniform, crushable visual beads that disappear on the skin without residue.

The evidence base behind these beads is unusually deep for a visual ingredient:

Global online study – 1,313 women, 4 countries
Personal cleansing formulas were shown with and without Unispheres® in different sizes and colours. Products containing Unispheres® were:

• Significantly more liked
• Significantly more premium and effective in perception
• More strongly associated with positive feelings such as “refreshed,” “happy,” “energized,” and “sensual.”

Home-use test – 142 women, France, 14-day face serum
Two serums—identical formula, with or without small blue Unispheres®—were tested. Conversational AI captured spontaneous reactions at first use and after two weeks. Compared with the control:

• Average perceived efficacy scores increased from 7.5/10 to 8.1/10
• The share of panelists giving high efficacy scores (8–10/10) rose from 56% to 74%
• Purchase intention (“probably” to “very certainly” buy) increased from 87% to 92%
• Verbatims described the Unispheres® serum as “more premium,” “more effective,” and “more pure and modern.”

Multimodal AI and neuroscience tools
Across shower gels and laundry detergents, formulas with small blue Unispheres® elicited more joy, surprise, confidence and perceived performance than their clear counterparts, confirmed via facial expression analysis, voice emotion, gesture tracking and physiological signals.

These findings align closely with independent literature on multisensory cosmetic design. Spence and Zhang (2024) show that visual, tactile and olfactory cues in skin cosmetics jointly shape mood, self-perception and product satisfaction, beyond purely functional outcomes. When you add a strongly positive visual cue—like a coloured bead that signals actives or freshness—you are not just decorating the formula; you are adjusting the emotional “starting point” for how performance will be judged.

Microplastic-Free Visualisation: What Makes Unispheres® Different

From a lab perspective, many formulators still remember the headaches of early microbead systems: swelling, pigment bleed, phase separation, or gritty residues on skin. If visual beads are going back into your toolbox, they need to behave as well as they look.

Unispheres® are designed to solve exactly those issues:

• Minimalist, microplastic-free chassis
  The core matrix is based on microcrystalline cellulose and mannitol, with water as a processing aid—no crosslinked plastic polymers. This composition supports “clean beauty” positioning while meeting microplastic regulations.
• High precision and Swiss-engineered uniformity
  Beads undergo tight sieving, microscopic evaluation, and rub-out testing to ensure consistent size, colour, and cohesion. That consistency matters in production (no visible size outliers) and in use (reliable crush and disappearance).
• Formulation-friendly behaviour
  • Stable over pH 3–10 (with a precaution for Ultramarine-based blue at pH < 6.5)
  • Suitable for most emulsions, gels, serums and cleansers containing ≥30% water
  • Added at the end, at cold or moderate temperature, under gentle stirring
  • No swelling, no colour change, no leaking of hero ingredients without mechanical pressure
  • Dosage range: 0.1–3% depending on visual density.

For formulators, that translates into a relatively simple checklist: as long as your system has enough aqueous phase and you respect shear and pH guidance, Unispheres® will sit visibly in suspension, hydrate over a few hours and then crush cleanly under fingertip pressure, disappearing without residue.

Designing for Emotion: Colour, Size and Distribution That Tell a Clear Story

Givaudan’s consumer work makes one point especially useful in formulation workshops: different Unispheres® colours are consistently associated with different emotional territories. That gives you a rational way to connect bead design to concept language and on-pack claims:

The key is consistency: if you’re promising “refreshed and detoxed” on pack, small blue beads suspended in a water-clear gel are more believable than opaque cream with random confetti colours. The bead design makes the story legible at a glance, which is exactly what the global studies found: panellists spontaneously connected specific colours to specific feelings and benefits.

Independent work on texture and emotional potential of skin-care formulas supports this mapping approach. Changes in ingredients and textures can shift not just the type of emotion, but its intensity, especially when combined with non-verbal measurement methods. Visual beads give you another controllable lever in that system.

Turning Perception Shifts into Credible Claims

A visual strategy only becomes valuable if it can translate into defensible messaging. Here, Unispheres® have two advantages:

• They are anchored in controlled studies with clear protocols and statistics.
• Their benefits sit squarely in accepted claim categories—functional, sensorial and emotional—so they can support, not replace, your core efficacy data.

This sort of table does two things. First, it keeps everyone honest about where the data comes from and what it really says. Second, it gives marketing a controlled vocabulary that reflects both the supplier data and broader industry expectations around claim substantiation.

Practical Formulation Guidelines: From Lab Bench to Scale-Up

Once the concept and emotional territory are clear, the next question is very practical: how do you integrate Unispheres® without compromising stability, line efficiency or sensorial experience?

Key formulation points from the technical documentation:

▶ Water phase

• Ensure at least 30% water in the system to properly hydrate the beads.
• For surfactant systems, check that viscosity and suspending agents keep beads visually suspended over shelf-life.

▶ pH and pigments

• General range: pH 3–10.
• If using Ultramarines for deep blue tones, avoid pH < 6.5 to prevent colour drift.

▶ Processing

• Add Unispheres® at the end of the process, at cold or only moderate temperature.
• Use gentle stirring to avoid crushing the beads in-tank.
• Verify no air-entrapment zones where beads accumulate or break.

▶ Dosage and distribution

• Typical use level: 0.5–3% for strong visual impact; lower levels for subtle cues.
• Pilot small lab batches with different dosages, then visually assess bead distribution in clear packaging and in use.

▶ Sensory and rub-out
In stability and HR panels, confirm:

• Beads hydrate and soften over several hours in bulk.
• Beads crush quickly under normal finger pressure, with no gritty residue.
• No change in perceived slip or spread vs. control formulas beyond what’s intended.

If you already run neurosensory or biometric studies (EEG, facial coding, HRV) for hero launches, Unispheres® are a natural candidate for inclusion in those design spaces. Recent work shows that combining composition changes with objective emotional measures can reveal subtle but meaningful differences in how products are experienced.

Integrating Unispheres® into Your Innovation Pipeline

From a pipeline point of view, there are three straightforward ways to experiment with Unispheres®:

1. Essential range – fast track concepts
   Use small or large matte spheres in standard clear gels or serums to quickly prototype “emotional” versions of existing heroes. This is ideal for line extensions (“fresh-look” cleansers, limited editions) where you want strong shelf differentiation with minimal reformulation.
   
2. Signature range – high-storytelling launches
   Bicolour, pearlescent or shape-specific spheres loaded with lipophilic hero ingredients (up to ~5%) can become the visual anchor of a prestige launch: think vitamin-rich beads in an anti-fatigue serum or botanical oil beads in a “stress repair” body wash. In these cases, you’re not only signalling efficacy—you’re literally encapsulating it.
3. Customization – brand-coded beads
   For strategic brands or retailers, a fully customized Unispheres® design can become a signature code: your exact colour + size + shape combination that ties together multiple categories (face, body, hair). Lead times and MOQs apply, but the pay-off is a recognizable, ownable visual across shelves and feeds.

In each case, the emotional and perceived-efficacy data gives you a solid rationale to invest: you’re not just adding “pretty beads”—you’re systematically improving how the formula will be judged before and after use.

Bring Microplastic-Free Emotional Design into Your Next Launch

If you’re working on a cleanser, serum, shampoo or hybrid format where first-impression impact and perceived efficacy can make or break the launch, Unispheres® offers a practical way to build emotion directly into the formula—without compromising your regulatory, sustainability or performance targets.

To explore which Unispheres® references best fit your chassis and brand story check out the technical leaflet below—or to request additional technical documentation and formula prototypes—send us a document/sample request by adding the product to your cart or forward this article to your Deveraux Specialties account manager for tailored support on your next project.

References

Supplier and technical documentation

1. Givaudan Active Beauty. (2025). Unispheres® technology – Emotion & perception booster [Marketing presentation]. Internal technical material on file with Deveraux Specialties.
2. Givaudan Active Beauty. (2025). Unispheres® – Emotion & perception booster [Technical leaflet, LEAFLET-UNISPHERES-07.25]. Internal technical material on file with Deveraux Specialties.
3. Givaudan Active Beauty. (2025, October 1). Givaudan Active Beauty takes Unispheres® Technology to the next level: Visual ingredients that awaken emotion and elevate perception [Trade media release].

External scientific and industry sources

1. Gabriel, D., Mérat, P., et al. (2021). Emotional effects induced by the application of a cosmetic product: A pilot study using EEG. Applied Sciences, 11(11), 4766. https://www.mdpi.com/2076-3417/11/11/4766
2. Spence, C., & Zhang, T. (2024). Multisensory contributions to skin-cosmetic product interactions. International Journal of Cosmetic Science. https://doi.org/10.1111/ics.12975
3. Roso, A., et al. (2023). Contribution of cosmetic ingredients and skin care textures to emotions. Journal of Cosmetic Dermatology. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/37914390/
4. Diwoux, A., et al. (2024). Neurophysiological approaches to exploring emotional responses to cosmetic products: A systematic review. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 18, 1443001. https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fnhum.2024.1443001/full
5. Skinobs. (2025, October). Cosmetic efficacy testing: From concept to consumer trust. Skinobs News – Testing & Claims. https://news.skinobs.com/en/cosmetic-efficacy-testing-from-concept-to-consumer-trust/
6. European Commission. (2023). Commission Regulation (EU) 2023/2055 – Restriction of microplastics intentionally added to products. https://single-market-economy.ec.europa.eu/sectors/chemicals/reach/restrictions/commission-regulation-eu-20232055-restriction-microplastics-intentionally-added-products_en
7. U.S. Congress. (2015). Microbead-Free Waters Act of 2015. Public Law 114-114. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microbead-Free_Waters_Act_of_2015

Citation Note
The external references listed above were selected to do three things:

1. Ground the emotional-design narrative in peer-reviewed evidence. Studies by Gabriel et al., Spence & Zhang, Roso et al. and Diwoux et al. were chosen because they use objective tools (EEG, multimodal sensing, structured clinical designs) to link cosmetic formulas with emotional responses, perceived efficacy and consumer satisfaction.
2. Reflect current best practice in cosmetic claim substantiation. Skinobs content was included as an industry reference on how brands and labs structure sensorial and emotional claims within a robust testing framework.
3. Contextualize microplastic-free positioning within the regulatory landscape. EU and U.S. sources on microplastic restrictions and microbead bans were included to justify the strategic shift toward cellulose-based, biodegradable visual beads rather than plastic microbeads.

All statistics and factual statements taken from these sources and from Givaudan’s Unispheres® documentation were checked directly against the original papers, regulatory texts or supplier literature at the time of drafting.