FEATURE ARTICLES

Over the last 10 years the UK personal care market has seen a steady shift towards more innovative and novel textures in all areas.

Shiitake mushroom has been recognised throughout history for its youth-promoting benefits, even being acknowledged as an elixir of life.

The desire for natural cosmetics and personal care products has taken the industry into an exciting and challenging direction over the past few years. Indie brands and startups are now seen as proactive pioneers.

The impact of urban pollution on skin ageing has become one of the most important concerns of the cosmetic and personal care industry this century.

Seeds of the Western Australian sandalwood (Santalum spicatumR.Br.) are rich in drying fixed oil and consist of ximenynic acid. This unusual, rare acetylenic fatty acid contributes to several bioactivities including anti-inflammatory and vasodilatation. Sandalwood seed oil is a blend of ximenynic and oleic acids with the characteristics of carrier oil.

The lipid composition of human skin is essential for its function. However, the simultaneous quantification of a wide range of stratum corneum and sebaceous lipids is not trivial.

Esters are one of the most widely used types of chemical compound in the world today. Their simple but versatile chemistry is used in applications as diverse as plastics, resins, explosives, bio-fuel, lubricants, paper, and in cosmetics and the personal care industry.

The macrotrend to use natural ingredients in personal care products and cosmetics is increasing at a global level. Generally speaking, ingredients are considered natural if they are derived from natural sources and are not significantly processed or modified prior to their end use.

This article is taken from a presentation at the AOCS Annual meeting May 2017. The Surfactants and Detergents Session was designed to honour Dr Milton Rosen for his many contributions to the surfactant field. It was presented by Tony O’Lenick.

Silicones are incredibly useful and versatile products, making an enormous difference to personal care formulations across all areas.

Zemea® propanediol is a natural, preservative-boosting humectant for cosmetic formulations. A pure, petroleum-free diol, it offers high performance in a variety of applications and is certified 100% bio-based by the USDA BioPreferred programme.

Are looks everything? A survey indicated that both men and women value appearance more than personality as they age.

The internet-savvy Millennials (also known as Generation Y) are influencing industries1 to pursue sustainable practices, and ultimately towards achieving total transparency.

Believe it or not, the first commercial sunscreen product was launched by Hamilton Laboratories in 1932 some eighty-five years ago.

The purpose of this article is to review the recent amendments that have been made to Regulation (EC) No 1223/2009 from 2015 up to the present time.

In 2016, the quest for natural and organic product innovations skyrocketed, and this created trends for ‘clean labelling’ to assess product safety, ‘homemade’ beauty products whisked up in the kitchen, as well as a huge interest in food- and drink-based beauty ingredients.

SCS Formulate was created by the UK Society of Cosmetic Scientists in 1999, to create a forum for everyone involved in the creating and formulating of personal care and cosmetic products to get the information needed to create market leading products.

The peptide hormone beta-endorphin and the steroid hormone dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) play important roles in the skin. The fact that they are also synthesised locally in the skin makes them interesting targets for cosmetic ingredients.

The analysis of the oil absorption number (OAN) plays a key role during quality control for cosmetic raw and source materials.

Although natural labelling in the beauty industry has traditionally been notoriously unregulated, the outcome of four recent legal cases in the US indicates that the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is willing to hold a company accountable for “100% natural” or “all natural” claims and take action when a product labelled as such is found to contain synthetic ingredients.1