FEATURE ARTICLES

Mickey McDonnell – Honeywell, United States

Desquamation is the natural process of old, dead cells falling off the surface of our skin. It is estimated that each of us sheds as many as a billion cells each day.1,2 Desquamation has been postulated to evolve in order to remove the cells damaged by airborne toxins and eliminate waste from inside the body, such as excess iron.2 Exfoliation hastens the desquamation process and exposes skin cells with a brighter appearance and a tighter feel. Chemicals can be used to reduce the cohesion between the cells and promote sloughing, but the physical action of exfoliating beads may be a safer way to achieve the same result.

Anne Laurie Rodrigues – Laboratoires Sérobiologiques, France

Sensitive skin is healthy but overresponsive, i.e. it will react faster and more intensely to environmental factors – temperature changes (heat as well as cold), and sunlight – and external stimuli including the use of cosmetic products and certain medicines.

Kevin Roden – Regional Technical Manager, Asia Pacific, Thor Specialties

Preservatives are regarded by some segments of the public as toxic chemicals put into our food and personal care products by uncaring manufacturers indifferent to the fact that they are causing all types of horrible effects on unsuspecting consumers.

Sheree E. Cross, Michael S. Roberts – University of Queensland, Australia Michael Russell, Ian Southwell – NSW Department of Primary Industries, Australia

This article examines an assessment of the human skin penetration of essential components of Australian tea tree oil.

Sophia Kim of Cognis Korea and Isabelle Benoit of Laboratoires Serobiologiques

Traditionally, white skin conveys “beauty” in Asia and developing brightening skin care products are challenges for cosmetic formulators who need to meet the high expectation of consumers. To achieve effective whitening from active ingredients, formulators need to consider the right selection of polymers, emulsifiers and emollients for a successful formulation.

Wong Shuiling – Croda China / Beijing University of Chinese Medicine

Ageing has many definitions. Most of us define ageing in terms of the appearance of people in our life experience. Some scientists described ageing as a decrease in functional capacity. This view actually is consistent with the traditional Chinese medicinal concept as presented in Yellow Emperor’s Inner Classic (Huang Di Nei Jing) thousands of years ago. The book described in detail the functional cycles of men’s and women’s lives and the deterioration of functional capabilities with old age.

Dr R.J.W. Hefford – Consultant, Independent Cosmetic Advice Ltd, UK

This article covers three areas: hair lightening achieved with an oxidation reaction process, oxidative hair colouring, and direct hair colouring.

12. Schubnel, S. Moyrand – Gattefossé, France

Sensorial characteristics are often of major importance in the development of products. In the personal care area, these characteristics relate to texture, colour and smell. Sensorial qualities are also elsewhere valued widely in such sectors as food, textiles, packaging, decoration, and even architecture.

Pierre-Yves Morvan and Romuald Vallée – Codif International, France

The fundamental role of urea in maintaining the skin’s moisturisation is well known.1

Concentrated in the stratum corneum, where it represents 7% of the natural moisturising factor (or NMF),2 it is naturally present in normal skin, but its concentration falls rapidly by 50% in dry skin and 85% in skin suffering from dermatosis.

This drop in urea content is irremediably accompanied by a depletion of NMF and therefore loss of moisturisation.3 The skin becomes wrinkled and loses its suppleness and radiance.

Martha Tilaar – Founder of the Martha Tilaar Group Wong Lip Wih, Anna S. Ranti, Suryaningsih, Maily – Martha Tilaar Innovation Center, Indonesia; S.M Wasitaatmadja – Dermatologist, University of Indonesia

The demand for naturally-derived active ingredients for cosmetics continues to increase. Several aspects should be considered when utilising plant materials in cosmetics – these aspects include the quality of the plant materials, processes, biological activity, and safety.

The objective of our study was to look for moisturising and antioxidative agents in Indonesian botanical resources which contain flavonoid and polyphenol.

John Staton – Dermatest, Australia

Anti-ageing covers a substantially broad area of claims associated with both the prevention and the treatment of chronological and environmental effects on the condition of human skin.

A large number of instrumentally based clinical methods are available for the substantiation of claims related to anti-ageing. This article describes the most common of these and considers only those which are essentially non-invasive.

Alain Khaiat Ph.D – Seers Consulting

Intrinsic ageing is the natural process of ageing, due to the clock ticking. Extrinsic ageing is the process of ageing due to external factors.

The 13th Cosmoprof Asia beauty sector event is to be held from 12 to 14 November at the Hong Kong Convention & Exhibition Centre. This trendsetting event each year confirms its global role in the world’s beauty event calender. With its 48,000 m2 of exhibition space, the fair is surpassed only by the giant Cosmoprof Worldwide Bologna.

J.M. Carey, B. Moran, F. Shuster and B. Vondruska – Lubrizol Advanced Materials, Noveon Consumer Specialties, USA

Careful design of sensory properties can transform a skin care routine into a pleasant, memorable experience. Imagine being able to efficiently tailor sensory profiles to individual preferences. The Noveon Consumer Specialties group of Lubrizol Advanced Materials has developed visual tools that will enable formulators to easily select the appropriate products to meet desired formulation aesthetics and skin feel. These tools centre on proper selection of Carbopol polymer and Schercemol ester combinations to influence sensory properties, which is the essence of the SensiMap concept.

Karin Stoffels – Kaden Biochemicals (subsidiary of Symrise), Germany

Surfactants are of widespread importance in the detergent industry as well as in the cosmetic industry. Additionally they are used for lubrication, catalysis, and in drug delivery.

Harald van der Hoeven, Sabrina John – CLR Chemisches Laboratorium Dr Kurt Richter GmbH, Germany

For any living organism, presence of water at the sites where it is essential for normal functioning is crucial for survival. The outer layer of the skin provides a typical example of the human body preserving water at an essential site (in close proximity to a dry environment). It is therefore understandable that control of the presence of water is one of the fundamental properties of the skin.

Dr Fernando Ibarra – Dr Straetmans GmbH, Germany

Alternative preservation is becoming more and more popular, and many products that claim to be “preservative free” or “free of synthetic preservatives”, “paraben free” etc are on the market.

Julian P. Hewitt – Croda Europe, UK Jonathan Stott, Alice Duggan – Oxonica Materials, UK

In order to maximise efficacy in sunscreen formulations, it is desirable to have sunscreen actives which are photo-stable. It is known that certain organic UV filters are subject to photo-degradation,1-5 and therefore the development of technologies to improve the photo-stability of these filters has been the subject of much research in recent years.1,6

R.M.R. Gijsen – PURAC, The Netherlands

The human skin is a vital organ with many functions, the most important being to protect the body against undesired influences from the environment. In order to maintain this barrier function, the skin should stay in a healthy condition.

Roland Jermann, Kimberly Smith, Aline Hueber – DSM, Switzerland

Titanium dioxide is often added to sun care formulations to complement organic UV filters and boost the SPF value, particularly when trying to achieve an SPF of 30 or higher.