FEATURE ARTICLES
Immediate and long-lasting skin tightening
- Lenaers, M. Dana, M. Pinel, B. Closs – R & D Department, SILAB, France
The use of tensor active ingredients in anti-age care products is well-known to provide the users with immediate and visible effects. Nevertheless, these tensor active ingredients provide only mechanical effects on the skin surface that are also short-term effects. In order to extend the tightening active ingredient offer, Silab has searched for an innovative and complementary approach of immediate and mechanical tensor ingredient using its expertise in both skin biology and tightening active ingredient fields.
Ensuring preservative efficacy
Kevin Roden – Asia Pacific Regional Technical Manager, Thor Specialties
Studies conducted on personal care products in the 1960s and 1970s found up to 24% of unopened products were contaminated, mainly with Pseudomonas, while up to 49% of used samples were also contaminated. These studies highlighted the need for the incorporation of preservatives into water-based formulations along with improvements to manufacturing practices.
Focus on starch-based particle technologies
Martin Scott Cardinali and Tak Yu (Fiona) Lam – National Starch and Chemical Company, USA
Cosmetic formulators throughout the world are increasingly facing diverse demands from their customers, marketing managers, and other interested parties. Formulators are expected to deliver products with increasingly sophisticated performance, while also making use of more and more naturally derived ingredients to satisfy expectations for health, safety, and environmental responsibility. This creates a formidable challenge to raw material suppliers to the personal care industry – to develop new naturally derived ingredients that cost-effectively deliver outstanding performance benefits in complex finished goods.
A natural choice for skin brightening
Harry Wu, Daniel Guan, Cathy Du – Merck
Skin brightening is always the hot-point of skin care topics. With thousands of skin brightening products and methods existing in the market, we can see some new trends coming forth:
Properties of geological treasures surveyed
Anthony C. Dweck FLS FRSC FRSH – Technical Editor
Mention the word “naturals” and the first thought that comes into many minds would be plants, botanicals and herbal materials. The next thought would probably be essential oils and after a little more deliberation the idea of honey, seaweeds and sea salts would form. However, there are many interesting materials that do not grow in the soil but are a part of the geology. It was felt that a review of the use of minerals, earths, metals, semi-precious stones and gems in personal care products might be useful.
New multi-functional rheology modifier
Joseph Albanese, Daniel Cantalupi, Nancy Clements, Christine Monro – ISP
Rheology modifiers are no longer expected to just thicken, suspend and stabilise formulations. They must also function over a broad pH range and be compatible with a variety of ingredients. Ideally, rheology modifiers are also expected to deliver consumer perceivable benefits to personal care formulations, while still delivering superior aesthetic properties including clarity in aqueous solutions.
Commonly used preservative systems reviewed
Evelyn G. Su Ph.D. – Sino Lion (USA), Xue Hongyu and Wei Yi – Nanjing Zhongshi Chemical Co
There is no doubt that all kinds of microorganisms are widely spread around us. Microorganisms exist in used or unused cosmetic and personal care products, and the common forms of microorganisms are bacteria (either gram positive or gram negative), mould, and yeast. Some microbes are harmless, but some, such as Staphylococcus aureus, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, are greatly harmful to human beings. The need for preservatives in cosmetic and personal care products is to protect the consumer from contaminated products, i.e. to protect the product from microbial contamination.
High value information to be presented in Mumbai
PCHi is an international event of high status that features a major exhibition, conference sessions, workshops and many technical presentations. Entrance to the exhibition is free. PCHi will provide visitors with invaluable access to technical information and skills that will enhance their knowledge and ultimately make possible what they want to achieve.
Introducing a new active antimicrobial
Doug Mende – Managing Director, Mende-Biotech, New Zealand
Totarol, an aromatic diterpenoid with chemical formula C20H30O,1 is a natural extract from heartwood of the Totara tree (Podocarpus totara).2 The tree is a podocarp, unique to New Zealand, and has an ancient lineage up to 100 million years ago.
Hair colorant technology advances further
Alexander Chan Ph.D., Sean Kung Ph.D. – Jos H. Lowenstein & Sons Inc., USA
Hair colour technology was introduced in the 19th Century1 and experienced slow market growth at the onset. The 1950s saw hair colorants gain better acceptance in the consumer market, although mainly as a means of camouflaging grey hair. Not until increased R&D effort and new products entered the market did hair colorants become a part of daily cosmetics. Today, hair colouring has become a fashion trend, leading to the strong growth of hair colorants in the hair care category and the current multi-billion dollar industry.
Jojoba oil in a nutshell
Jonathan Regev – Jojoba Israel
Jojoba oil is very similar to the natural oil our skin produces, though it is technically a liquid wax produced from the seed of the Jojoba (Simmondsia chinensis) shrub.
New tripeptide for treatment of mimic wrinkles
Marc Heidl Ph.D. – Pentapharm, Switzerland
Mimic wrinkles are part of the visible face wrinkles. As time passes, these wrinkles persist permanently and become deeper and deeper: frown lines, laughter lines and crow’s feet appear more and more due to the repeated movements of facial muscles.
Plants presenting special anti-irritant properties
Manfred Axterer, Cornelia Müller – Symrise GmbH & Co KG Anthony C. Dweck FLS FRSC FRSH – Technical Editor
The mechanism by which the skin becomes irritated and inflamed is both complex and dependent on numerous factors.
Maximising shampoo performance
Wing Li, Clara Goh, Jennifer Amos, Susan Jordan, Alan Theis, Cal Davis – Dow Chemical
Examined in this article is the maximising of the performance of shampoo with the appropriate matching of optimum silicone particle size and cationic polymer structure.
Assessing aspects of versatile lavender
Robert McEldowney – Essential Oils of Tasmania Pty Ltd
Lavender is an ancient herb with a long history of use in fragrance, medicinal, culinary and aromatherapy applications.
Integral peptide remedy reduces skin ageing effects
Dr Arturo Puig, Dr José María García-Antón, Montserrat Mangues – Lipotec S.A.
The formation of wrinkles is the most easily visible sign of skin ageing.
Towards optimum hair conditioning
Beth Johnson – Dow Corning Corporation, USA Stephane Van Oycke – Dow Corning S.A., Belgium
Over the past decade, the global hair care market has evolved rapidly as competition increases and formulators strive to meet specialised regional needs.
Focus on stretch marks and tissue repair
- Mas-Chamberlin, Ph. Mondon, O. Peschard, F. Lamy and K. Lintner – Sederma SAS, France
Skin is notably elastic, but there are limits to its capacity to stretch. One such limit is evident in the visible skin blemishes generally called “stretch marks” (striae distensae or striae gravidorum).
New Permethyl for cosmetic applications
Anthony Ansaldi, Marie Yednak-Carpenter – Presperse, USA
Mascara is one of the most commonly used cosmetics for the eyes. In modern mascara formulations the purpose of mascara is to darken, lengthen, and thicken the eyelashes. For decades formulators have been working on attaining these attributes while trying to eliminate some of the problems associated with mascara such as smudging, difficult removal, clumping etc. In order to solve these problems and provide the consumer with the benefits they are looking for, mascaras must be carefully formulated to allow easy and even application without smudging.
Preventing damage to skin DNA
Dr Cornelia Huber – Pentapharm, Basel, Switzerland
Besides other environmental stress factors, UV radiation – even at low doses – is the main origin for DNA damage in human skin. These stress factors increase free radical levels in the cells, leading to the formation of 8-oxo-2’- deoxyguanosine (8-oxo-dG [Fig. 1]) and single-strand breaks. Cyclopyrimidine dimers directly result from UV radiation energy.1
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Designing ideas for added value
In the fast-moving cosmetic industry, innovation is the most important factor as it enables us to deliver new claims, new efficacy tests, new applications, new biochemical findings, as well as new marketing and communication tools to effectively differentiate products. At Mibelle Biochemistry, our...
17th Sun Protection Conference 2025
Royal College of Physicians, London
24 - 25 June 2025
in-cosmetics Korea 2025
COEX, Seoul
2nd - 4th July 2025