FEATURE ARTICLES

By Jon Williams - Aquapharm - UK

Cosmetic product developers have long been keen to capitalise on the instant appeal and strong consumer resonance inherent in sea-sourced ingredients and products. The continual search for innovative ingredients and fresh marketing angles has led to a multitude of cosmetic product launches based on traditional marine sources such as sea salt, seawater, seaweed and mineral-rich muds and clays;

Conditioning polymers are common in hair care, typically used to provide hair with a well-defined set of benefits including improved deposition of silicone and better feel through a slippery nature that eases combability.

Hair can be easily damaged due to mechanical causes (brushing, friction), chemical causes (colouring, perms, etc.) and environmental causes (solar radiation, etc.), because its structure is very sensitive and fragile.

Daniel Whitby - Cornelius Group, UK.

Traditionally skin care products were relatively simple vehicles designed to deliver moisture to the skin and overcome dryness. Claims were few and far between and the ingredients functional but basic.

Silicone quaternium-22 (trade name: ABIL T Quat 60) represents a universally applicable conditioning agent with outstanding conditioning features: easy detangling, smooth wet comb and superior feel.

Ensuring that products remain stable, safe and suitable for use on skin is a highly important consideration for cosmetics manufacturers and the decision on how to preserve a product now requires searching through an increasingly wide range of ingredients.

Personal care products are often in the form of emulsions or gels. There are many ingredients used in creating personal care products from the oily phase to the aqueous phase and all manner of additives to hold the two together.

Silicones are recognised as versatile materials across the board in personal care, not only for their multifunctional performance, but also their distinctive sensory properties.

Making Cosmetics is an exhibition featuring seminars and technical presentations, while also being a problem solving centre for everyone sourcing, manufacturing and outsourcing personal care products and deals with the detailed issues of taking products from concept to consumer.

The personal care industry’s foremost current marketing desire is to produce cosmetics and personal care products with “green” claims to meet perceived customer requirements.

Doing things efficiently and fast is a key part in the Korean culture. It has been ever since 1950, when the country had to get its economy back on its feet in the aftermath of the devastating Korean War.

The Chinese cosmetics and toiletries (C&T) industry experienced tremendous growth in the last decade, to say the least. At present, the country’s personal care market is the second largest in Asia-Pacific after Japan, and the third largest worldwide.

Silicone crosspolymers (also known as silicone elastomers) are relatively novel products that have provided silicone formulators with new tools to modify rheology and sensory attributes of personal care formulations.

As presented in a previous edition of this magazine, the ASEAN Cosmetics Association (ACA) held its AGM on 20 June in Brunei Darussalam. Representatives of all the member organisations were present and duly elected the new committee for 2011-2013.

The Asian cosmetics market represents one of the most dynamic in the world, with imported and exported products displaying impressive growth over the last few years.

We exist with odours all around us from the food we prepare, buy and eat, the environment we live within, and the offices, houses, apartments, toilets, animals, and people we come across day in, day out.

Stem cells are unspecialised cells with the capacity to self-renew over the whole life period of the organism. When needed, stem cells produce cells that undergo differentiation to specialised tissue cells.

One of the major current trends in the cosmetics industry, based on both scientific and “marketing” criteria, is the pronounced aspiration to use an increasing number of plant extracts or natural molecules not used in cosmetic formulations before.

Ecogel is the first natural origin gellingemulsifying agent registered by ECOCERT. It allows the emulsification, the increase in viscosity and the stability of formulae. Easy-to-use, Ecogel is compatible with electrolytes, surfactants and is stable over a wide range of pH.

Melanin, is a dark pigment produced by the skin as a natural sunscreen in response to ultraviolet radiation exposure. Although a tanned skin is considered attractive, the long-term exposure to ultraviolet radiation entails serious risk of skin damage.