The in-cosmetics group successfully concluded its first stand-alone technical conference. Dedicated to texture in personal care formulation, the in-cosmetics Formulation Summit brought together 102 industry professionals on November 24-25 in London.
Participants came from 16 countries on three continents, a testament to the in-cosmetics group’s global reach. Delegates included formulators from leading beauty brands and contract manufacturers as well as industry suppliers.
“The in-cosmetics Formulation Summit is an exciting addition to the industry calendar,” says in-cosmetics Exhibition Director Cathy Laporte. “The content was well-received and delegate satisfaction was very high (83%*). Based on the success of this first edition, it is going to be an annual event.”
The Summit was one of the industry’s first educational events to focus exclusively on formulation challenges related to texture and sensory aesthetics.
Day one – texture development
Liz Earle, MBE and Founder of Liz Earle Naturally Active Skincare, kicked off the conference. In her keynote, she described her own involvement in the brand’s formulation and ingredient research and shared examples of product reformulations.
Content on the first day covered reformulation drivers, global texture trends, innovative blending technologies and new emollients. Case studies from Oriflame and L’Oreal related texture developments to sustainability and preservatives.
Franco-Asian beauty trend expert Florence Bernardin led the session on globalisation and geo-localisation of texture. She highlighted the latest texture trends from Asia – including jelly waters, watery oils, visible water droplets and pearl capsules in new shapes and colours. A particular hit with delegates was the bouncy texture of the Cloud 9 Blanc de Whitening Cream from South Korean brand Claire’s.
Paula Lennon, Innovation Director, Gattefossé, showed how measuring absolute humidity can be effective for fine-tuning formulations for tropical, temperate or arid climates. She also emphasised the need to consider how product layering differs by country and region.
In the session on ingredient innovation Dow Corning’s Jean-Luc Garaud presented a variety of silicone-based formulations with creative textures. These included an elastic chewing gum textured cream, a low viscosity water-in-oil suncare lotion and a foaming hair oil.
Day two – sensory analysis
Trends in food and drink provided a benchmark for the day and an indication of where the cosmetics industry is headed. France is the first country to develop a cosmetic-specific standard for sensory analysis. Lise Dreyfuss, Chair of the ISO Committee for Sensory Analysis (Food) reviewed the French standard and outlined the challenges in developing an international standard. Leatherhead Food Research’s Amirah Ashouri presented new temporal methods from food science for sensory measurement and how they could be adapted to cosmetics, skincare and hair care.
“Taxonomy for Texture” was a primer on rheology and tribology. Neil Cunningham, Director of the UK Centre for Industrial Rheology provided a useful classification for structure and flow in personal care products. Ashland’s Principal Scientist Roger McMullen explained how LAOS (Large Amplitude Oscillatory Shear) can be used to measure rheology and changes in microstructure, key in analysing today’s transforming textures.
Other speakers presented new research on gel formulations, micro-rheology and sensory testing methods.
The texture bar showed that food continues to provide inspiration for texture and sensory trends in beauty with a selection of mousses, “taffy”, cheese cream and jelly oils.
The 2015 in-cosmetics Formulation Summit was sponsored by Ashland, Dow Corning, AMA Laboratories, EFP Biotek, Inolex and Lambson.
It was chaired by Barbara Brockway, Special Advisor to IMCD and Immediate Past President of the UK Society for Cosmetic Scientists.
The next edition of the in-cosmetics Formulation Summit will be held in autumn 2016.
*completely/very satisfied