Jim Bullock
iFormulate Ltd
Member of H&PC Today Scientific Advisory Board

A lot can happen in fifteen years. This year, the in-cosmetics exhibition will be held in London for the first time since 2002 and for me that has been a cause to reflect on some of the many changes that have happened since that year. Politically speaking the world looked very different of course: Tony Blair was the prime minister of the United Kingdom and a firm supporter of the European Union, having won his second general election the previous year, whilst in France, Jacques Chirac started his second presidential term in 2002. In Germany, Gerhard Schröder was Chancellor - while in the USA a certain Donald Trump was a fairly well-known property developer who had just sold his share in the Empire State Building.

But we may come back to politics later, so what about the world of cosmetics in 2002? In Europe, cosmetics were still regulated by Directive 76/768/EEC which had been implemented in 1976 and amended many times. Organic cosmetics were barely being discussed, the first Ecocert cosmetics specification was not introduced until 2003. According to Google Patents, over 230 patents referring to cosmetics and microbeads were filed in 2002. For formulators of cosmetics i ...