Rainbow Nation presents colourful Congress

IFSCC president, Panvipa Krisdaphong, said: “IFSCC is a world class community for cosmetic science, which helps members from all over the world to meet, greet, and share ideas with one another. As many of you are aware, creating and organising a world class event of this magnitude is a challenging task. I would like to thank you for your efforts and undying energy in ensuring a successful Congress.” Wayne van Wyk, president of The Society of Cosmetic Chemists South Africa welcomed delegates by saying: “The SCCSA welcomes each and every one of you to the 27th IFSCC Congress here on African soil. We are proud to host this event in South Africa and have no doubt that you will be in awe of our beautiful country. The support of our international colleagues has resulted in a Scientific Programme that will showcase comprehensive podium and poster sessions, and this alongside our diverse social line up, will be a Congress to be remembered.”

Oral programme

Following a spectacular opening ceremony featuring the African Frenzy dancers, Aubrey Parsons of AP Consulting in South Africa delivered the first Keynote Lecture entitled: An update on bio-phytochemistry of sub-saharan and South African botanics. In this lecture, Parsons opened by saying that South Africa has one of the largest selections of plant bio-diverse species on the planet which represents a great opportunity for skin care ingredients, and as such many have already been researched for their benefits and interest is growing. He then examined the various benefits of native South African species which can offer antimicrobial, antiinflammatory, wound healing, and fragrance properties. Following Aubrey Parson’s Keynote Lecture, a cocktail party was held for delegates, bringing to an end the first day of the Congress. To close the morning session of the second day, Mr Yamashita of Shiseido gave a talk entitled: Non invasive in situ assessment of structural alteration of human dermis caused by photoageing using a novel collagen-specific imaging technique. In this study, Shiseido aimed to provide in-depth analysis on how UV light affects dermal ECM in healthy subjects on a day-to-day basis. This was achieved using a novel method; a collagen-specific SHG microscopy system which allows visualisation of fine collagen fibres in the human reticular dermis, and the light detected by this microscopy is specifically generated by collagen fibres due to their structural asymmetry. Mr Yamashita picked out the reticular dermis, or ‘the deep layer’, as the most important in the evaluation of photoageing. The human studies were conducted on the hand, arm and cheek skin of healthy subjects aged between 20 and 50 years, and the quantitative image analyses of collagen fibres were performed focusing on their density. The imaging of the collagen fibres was carried out using a wide field, which allows imaging of deeper dermis and faster acquisition. Other forms of commercially available in vivo multiphon microscopy have limitations associated with them, such as shallow imaging depth, long acquisition time and a small scan area. The study found that the content of dermal collagen fibres decreases with age, and moreover, photodamage on people who have a life history of UV exposure was indicated by a lower SHG signal relative to an age-matched subject with less history of UV exposure. Mr Yamashita concluded by saying that Shiseido plans to use this technology in the development of new cosmetics, particularly anti-ageing and UV protection products. The afternoon session was opened by Jennifer Marsh of Procter & Gamble, who delivered a lecture on: Strategies for suppressing radical chemistry in hair coloring products. Dr Marsh’s study was carried out in conjunction with the University of York in the UK and opened with her stating that hair colouring is big business, with 50% of US women colouring their hair in some way. Colouring is also becoming more popular in markets such as Brazil, India, and China, which makes it an even more important area for cosmetic companies to understand. Dr Marsh then gave a brief overview of hair colouring chemistry before explaining that their objective in this study was to control all the unwanted chemistry that takes place during the hair colouring process that leads to damage, without compromising the colour result. A study was carried out in nine different countries to ascertain the amount of copper present in people’s hair, along with a questionnaire which asked people to rate the quality of their hair. The results showed that there was a wide distribution of copper content in hair – some people with 10-15 ppm, up to 200-300 ppm. In general, those with the highest levels of copper rated their hair quality lowest. Copper content can be attributed to the copper levels in local water supplies, either from the source water or the copper piping within the property. The reaction of copper with hydrogen peroxide is catalytic and therefore will form high levels of highly reactive hydroxyl radicals which can damage the protein structure of the hair. Data was then presented following a study into the consequences of the presence of copper in the hair causing generation of hydroxyl radicals during hair colouring. This was measured using a UV probe. Four types of hair were used with different copper levels, and these were within the same range of levels that were identified in the previous study. The data showed that as the level of copper in the hair increased, the level of radicals being formed also increased. The next part of the study was to establish how effective chelants were at preventing the damage associated with radicals. EDDS was the main focus in this area, and the results were compared to another chelant, EDTA. The results showed that with EDTA, radicals are still formed, which was as predicted. However, with EDDS, there was virtually zero radical formation, even at high levels of copper. Following this, Dr Marsh discussed the importance of another metal, calcium, in this context. On its own EDTA is able to prevent radical formation, but with calcium in the system, radicals start to form. In fact it is not the specificity for copper that is important about these two chelants, but a specificity for calcium. EDTA binds very well with calcium, whereas EDDS does not bind so well and will then bind with copper instead. The benefits of EDDS to hair structure were then shown to increase hair quality in terms of shine, manageability, and general structure such as the lack of split ends. Featuring under the heading of ‘Cosmetics: Physical, Chemical, Biological and Engineering’, Rainer Voegli of DSM delivered a lecture entitled: Corneocare – the key to understanding dry skin disorders. Moisturising products represent the largest segment of the skin care market. However consumer studies have shown that many people do not feel that the products they buy meet the moisturising needs of their skin. The significance of this is amplified when the study also revealed that consumers rate moisturising as a more important feature of their skin care products than anti-ageing. Another study showed that 80% of consumers in the US claim to have dry skin and 70% of those people are dissatisfied with the products they are using. So, this would indicate that dry skin continues to be the number one unmet skin care need globally. According to Mr Voegli, understanding the control of desquamation is one of the key drivers in the future of moisturisers, and Corneocare is a concept that will address this issue. Currently it is acknowledged that epidermal proteases control desquamation, corneocyte maturity and the number of cell layers in the stratum corneum. Reduced proteolytic activity leads to dry skin. Also, increased proteolytic activity in favour of proteases can thin the stratum corneum and lead to inflammation, redness and itching. Studies conducted by DSM revealed that different areas of the body have different levels of key serine protease activity. For instance, facial skin had an increase of both TEWL and proteolytic activity which leads to premature corneodesmosomal degradation, and this suggests that facial stratum disjunctum is diminished. DSM’s study suggests that serine proteases could represent key markers for otherwise invisible skin abnormalities. Rainer Voegli’s lecture pinpointed the understanding of stratum corneum thickness and the ratio between stratum compactum and stratum disjunctum as key to the development of more effective dry skin products. Immediately after Rainer Voegli’s lecture, Alexandre Cappon of Sensient spoke about: New carbon black waterbased dispersion for optimum hair colouring effect. Carbon black is one of only a few available direct black dyes to give pure black colour with global regulation compliancy. It is noted for its small particle size and intense colour; however, dispersions of carbon black currently available on the market may contain ingredients that are not necessarily conducive to cationic hair formulations, resulting in insufficient deposition. Sensient have therefore developed a new carbon black dispersion with a high level of dispersion onto keratinic fibres while also being compatible with hair care formulations. A study was conducted which comprised a hair colouring performance test, a characterisation of carbon black pigment deposition, and carbon black particle size measurement, which has a strong influence on colouring. For the performance evaluation, 1% of the new dispersion was introduced in a cationic conditioner formulation and compared to other available dispersions with the same carbon black concentration. Ten grams of each was applied to yak hair swatches for five minutes. For the deposition characterisation, before and after pictures were taken using a scanning electron microscope, while the particle size measurement was conducted via a laser light scattering device. Results showed that the new aqueous carbon black dispersion is highly compatible with hair care products and offers an intense colour deposition. Alexandre Cappon said that this patent pending technology has potential applications beyond hair colouring, including mascara and eyeliners. On the final day of the Congress, Stephane Diridollou of L’Oréal discussed: Skin of African descent: biophysical and clinical characterisations. Influence of age’. Stephane Diridollou opened by saying that clinical and biophysical data on African skin, its features and the effect of ageing are quite sparse. As a result of this, his L’Oréal team aimed to characterise skin of African descent through a series of studies; in vivo biophysical experiments including skin micro relief, colour and evenness, sebaceous function, and surface hydration, performed on 130 African-American women between the ages of 18 and 87. A second study concentrated on age-related changes. The results showed that in terms of sebaceous function, this is lower for Chinese than African and Caucasian, though there is a lower decrease for African skin with age. For dryness, there is no difference between skin types for young people, however there is a greater increase in dryness with age for African skin. There was a significant increase in the heterogeneity of skin colour on the forehead and cheek with age in African skin (spots, dyspigmentation), though there were only minor changes in the physical and structural properties of skin with age. In terms of the onset of ageing, the first visible signs came latest with African skin, and it was shown that most of the clinical signs are the same for all ethnicities. The lecture was aided by some extremely effective new technology in the form of dynamic morphing software which illustrated how specific features change with age. Also on show was L’Oréal’s ‘Skin Ageing Atlas’ the result of intensive study into the features of skin ageing across different skin types.