Fragrant Insights from NYSCC

It's all about fragrance next week for the NYSCC. The New York Chapter of the Society of Cosmetic Chemists will hold its monthly chapter meeting on April 7 at The Bethwood in Totowa, NJ, from 4 to 10pm. To register, click here.


Steve Herman will present “Fragrance Safety and Transparency” during the educational hour from 4:30 to 5:30pm. Herman, president of Diffusion LLC and a principal in PJS Partners, will answer the question: What is in a fragrance and how do we know it is safe? He notes that RIFM (Research Institute for Fragrance Materials) is the industry organization that establishes the test protocols, generates and analyzes the data, and publishes the results in peer-reviewed journals. The basic philosophy guiding the safety evaluation is contained in a series of guidance documents. A new broad based guidance document was made public in December 2014, incorporating the latest toxicological science. We will examine its basic assumptions and procedures including the decision tree approach and the introduction of the Threshold of Toxicological Concern (TCC) into the evaluation process.


Since fragrance formulas are generally kept confidential, Herman will examine a prototype formula that illustrates how the regulatory analysis is conducted to establish IFRA (International Fragrance Association) compliance and how VOCs are calculated for CARB (California Air Resources Board) standards.


After dinner, John Brahms, PhD, will discuss “Enhancing the Consumer Experience through Fragrance Delivery.” Brahms, R&D director at IFF, notes that as an integral part of nearly every consumer product on the market today, fragrances help to mask base odor as well as communicate product benefit to the consumer. In many products, fragrance is the key end benefit in its own right. Encapsulation technologies enhance these benefits by protecting the fragrance during manufacturing and storage while providing a mechanism of release at the appropriate consumer relevant time point during and after use. Because fragrances are complex mixtures of organic compounds, encompassing a range of functionality, water solubility, and volatility, designing encapsulation systems that can accommodate the widest range of fragrance materials is often challenging, according to Brahms.


The unique challenges in applying these techniques to fragrance delivery as well as their effect on stability and performance in end use applications as well as future challenges and opportunities related to fragrance encapsulation will be discussed.