I had the great pleasure of co-charing the 2022 Formulation Summit with dr Barbara Brockway. The event took place in London at the end of October with the support of sponsors, such as Apprinnova, Cargil Beauty, CompLife and Lubrizol Life Sciences. This face to face event dedicated to the latest in cosmetic science and future trends, is the only global summit with attendees from twenty one countries and four continents.
The program (1) was packed with great content and delivered by excellent speakers, from market leaders and universities. In this article I will share what for me are the key take aways.

The consumers, by Mintel
Consumers eco expectations are still strong, affecting their purchase habits and usage trends, however there is also eco skepticism caused by lack of validation and clarity behind eco claims.
There is also a feel good factor surrounding sustainability therefore by validated eco claims and sustainable innovation with ethical and environmental credentials is certainly the way to go for the beauty industry.

Eco Beauty Score, by the Eco Beauty Consortium
The Eco Beauty Score Consortium was born as an answer to provide validated sustainability related claims to consumers based on impact assessment using a scoring system. Given the complexity behind impact assessment the initiative is still in the development phase with the first test products on the market planned for the end of 2023.
Major brands are part of the consortium, such as L’Oreal, Unilever, Amore Pacific, Puig and Wella to name a few, with the speakers inviting other brands to join and also raw materials suppliers to provide the data necessary to run the scoring tool.

Environmental Claims, by Bloom Regulatory
Claims are not only done in writing, but also with campaigns, images and logos, and as such need to meet the key four principles of truth, honesty, clarity and evidence based. The same claim done in two different contexts can be misleading or acceptable. For example Sainsbury “better for the planet” campaign is about the brand philosophy and promoting a particular lifestyle, whereas Tesco’s claim being referred to a specific product is considered misleading because it is a comparison claim and lacks life cycle analysis.

Microbiome research by Unilever
Barry Murphy shared key insights about the microbiome research done at Unilever. Not only the microbiome varies in different parts of the body, but it also changes with age. Prebiotics applied topically tend not to boost the skin microbiome, whereas there are brands on the market, ie Yun and Sencyr, with viable probiotics such as Lactic acid bacteria used by the skin microbiome. Postbiotics, ie ferments, lysates extracts, despite having potential skin benefits, are non viable for the skin’s microbiome.

Nutricosmetics, by the Naples University Federico II
Can nutritional supplements boost cosmetics performance? To answer this question professor Sonia Laneri designed a study with a moisturiser and nutritional supplement containing the same blend of actives ie., acerola fruit extract, curcuma extract, Vitamin E and a selenium complex. One group of panelists was given only the moisturiser and the second group was given the moisturiser along with the supplement. After 4 weeks of use six parameters were evaluated, from wrinkles reduction, dermal thickness, hydration, skin firmness, to skin elasticity and collagen index. Both groups showed improvements, however the one combining the cream with the supplement showed significantly better results.

AI and the future of fragrance, by Future of smell
The eyes have three colour receptors, red blue and green, versus the nose which has four hundred smell receptors, indicating the massive potential behind the use of fragrance as well as the emotional evoking power.

Colour and images can be easily reproduced online, whereas scent is a different matter. To help bridging the gap between the sense of smell and the online world Scentgenie has created an AI online tool. It is based on finding fragrances using images and moods rather than an abstract questionnaire. One can describe the place and mood they would like to experience, like romance by the ocean with summer breeze and mango, and the AI tool comes up with fragrances on the market to choose from. This could even open to doors to developing fragrances in a complete new way by using AI and its access to impressive data and insights.

Round table on cosmetic preservation with green chemistry
The event also had interactive round tables on different topics. I moderated the one about green chemistry preservation, which was really well attended, showing this topic is of great interest for the industry. Attendees were asking about alternatives to Phenoxyethanol and preservation solutions for baby’s products, plus issues regarding the head space protection. We also discussed how my interactive handbook about green chemistry preservation can help with the initial selection of ingredients based on various criteria. (2)

References and notes

1. https://www.in-cosmetics.com/summit/en-gb/programme/formulation-summit-programme.html#/sessions
2. https://school.thegreenchemist.com/

Author
dr Barbara Olioso, MRSC, https://thegreenchemist.com/