An approach to developing hi-tech products for personal care products
TONY O’LENICK1*, THOMAS O’LENICK2
*Corrisponding author
1. Siltech LLC, Lawrenceville, USA
2. SurfaTech Corporation, Lawrenceville, USA
Abstract
This article is taken from a keynote presentation given at the 2nd IPCE Conference (Intercontinental Personal Care Excellence Conference) in Sestri Levante Italy on June 4, 2018 by Tony O’Lenick. The high-tech approach to developing personal care products suggested is accomplished not by some new revolutionary technology, but by understanding and refining the selection process of the products we currently have. This is done by learning more about the salient properties of the raw material used in the formulation platform and together with the raw material supplier adjusting the polymer to provide the optimized performance. Salient properties include surface tension, contact angle, solubility and gelation properties.
All this information can be supplied from the raw material manufacturer or be generated in the lab of the formulator. It is these salient properties that determine how a silicone will function in formulation.
BACKGROUND
The personal care industry is starting to focus on “Hi-Tech formulations”. This hi-tech approach focuses on maximizing the performance of a formulation, while minimizing ingredients. This becomes more complicated by several factors: regulations, variation in raw materials, global registration, patent restrictions, and last but not least cost.
The most common meaning of Hi-tech implies the production of products using advanced or sophisticated and often a new concept. I suggest that sometimes Hi-Tech is not achieved by the development of totally new game changing technology, but is the result of looking more deeply into things we already know, have registered, can produce and can optimize in a short time.
The great Albert Einstein has stated “Look Deep into Nature and then you will understand everything better” (1).
4If I may, I suggest that formulator alters this somewhat and say “Look deeply into the nature of the raw materials in our formulations and how they interact with each other will allow us understand our formulations better and make better products. ...
