FEATURE ARTICLES

Personal care products specifically for babies have been around for over a century. Possibly the first supplier was Johnson & Johnson who released Baby powder in 1893 followed by Baby Cream in 1921, Baby Oil in 1938, Baby Lotion in 1942 and the benchmark for gentle shampoo, Johnson’s Baby Shampoo in 1953.

Mild formulations are no longer the preserve of baby products. The desire for mild products has become a major feature of the personal care industry as an increasing number of people claim to have sensitive skin and are conscious of sensitising ingredients.

Homogeneity of the skin is known to influence perception of attractiveness and youthfulness. The aesthetic ideals in most cultures involve an even skin tone, while in Asia these also implicate a lighter complexion.

Cellulose is the main component of all plant cells. It is a biological resource created and accumulated in large quantities on the earth. The quantity is said to be 100 billion tonnes/year.

Bicosomes emerge as a strategy for skin treatment and to facilitate the permeation of actives into specific layers of the cutaneous tissue. These structures are based on spherical vesicles around 100 nm-300 nm in diameter that encapsulate discoidal structures (Fig. 1).

For many people, hair is one of the most important mediums for expressing individuality. Different styles, lengths and colours can be quickly adopted according to mood or occasion, and high quality hair care products are essential for making the process easy and non-detrimental to overall hair health.

Consumers and formulators of personal care products continue to prefer more natural and sustainable ingredient options, but will not compromise on price or performance for natural ingredients.1

Hyperpigmentation or excessive melanin production is undesirable since it causes darker or uneven skin colour.

Melanin is a pigment common to a variety of animals, plants and microorganisms. In humans, it resides in the skin, the hair and the iris as well as the retina of the eye. Melanin gives the skin its colour and protects it against the damaging effects of UV sun radiation.

Over the past several years, a number of scientific papers have been published that suggest the skin pigmentation process can be fully mapped by following the cellular pathways and the molecules involved in melanogenesis.

‘Free from’ claims are held to be controversial by many members of the personal care industry. While some within the industry believe that it is entirely valid to make specific claims on the absence of ingredients that have been very closely scrutinised and judged to be safe by independent scientific experts, others see such claims as wrongly/unfairly denigrating products that still contain these materials.

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) is approaching a new, highly anticipated milestone – economic integration through the creation of the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC).

Natural cosmetics are one of the very few segments of the personal care market which has shown strong growth over the last 10-15 years.

Formulating Cosmetics, together with Making Cosmetics offer a two-day event with more exhibitors and seminar content than ever before. Exciting new content awaits attendees this November with scientific, technical and professional content delivered by leading suppliers and experts.

Today’s lifestyles expose the body to all sorts of constant environmental stress which is difficult to avoid in a continuous and efficient way.

New consumer moisturisation and sensory testing has shown that by using a blend of Zemea and glycerin in a lotion formulation it is possible to improve the consumer perceived aesthetics without compromising hydration performance.

Initiated in the 2000s, ‘neurocosmetics’ refers to topical ingredients that work on the cutaneous nervous system to restore the mediator-receptor balance in the epidermis. It has led to new ways of inducing a positive action on the skin’s nervous system which results in increased skin health.

While most anti-ageing products promise to fight signs of ageing and turn back time, older skin care users are reported to be perfectly comfortable with their age.

Biomimetics is a cutting edge technology platform that involves the concept of taking inspiration from nature; its models, systems and processes and exploiting them to meet consumer demands.

in-cosmetics is to launch the first international technical summit dedicated to texture in personal care formulation.