Gleams & Notions

  • Marvel Comics Men’s grooming line

    Men’s grooming line Magic Shave is collaborating with Marvel Comics in a two-part integrated media program featuring an original Luke Cage storyline entitled, appropriately, “Luke Cage in a Close Shave!” The comic was created by…
    07.01.16
  • Color Cosmetics | Functional Ingredients | Pigments | Polymers

    The Last Word

    This month’s column covers a few news items from newspapers and magazines pertaining to the cosmetic industry—it is also my farewell piece. I have enjoyed writing Gleams & Notions for almost 27 years, but it is time now to retire. The…
    Harvey M. Fishman, Consultant 10.01.15
  • Functional Ingredients | Hair Care | Personal Cleansers | Polymers | Skin Care

    Two New Ingredients To Improve Formulas

    New products are the lifeblood of consumer product companies, and suppliers feel the same way about new raw materials. Here are two that are said to be improvements over existing chemistries. A new addition to Lubrizol’s Carbopol line is Car…
    Harvey M. Fishman 08.03.15
  • Actives | AP/Deo | Functional Ingredients | Personal Cleansers | Polymers

    Just Some of the New Ideas Discovered at Suppliers’ Day

    The New York Chapter of the Society of Cosmetic Chemists’ Suppliers Day was a success, as usual.  There were approximately 400 exhibitors and more than 5,500 attendees crowding the aisles. Among the masses, were the following exhibitors pr…
    Harvey M. Fishman, Consultant 06.01.15
  • Functional Ingredients | Hair Care | Skin Care | Sun Care

    Hard as Nails? Or Soft as Silk?

    You are what you eat, and sometimes what you eat can provide multiple benefits. This month’s column is based upon recommendations from Dr. Joshua Zeichner, director of cosmetic and clinical research in the department of dermatology at Mount Sin…
    Harvey M. Fishman, Consultant 04.01.15
  • Functional Ingredients | Personal Cleansers | Polymers | Skin Care

    A Natural Mixer from Lipoid

    The ability to create stable emulsions is a cornerstone of a cosmetic chemist’s training. There are plenty of emulsifiers to choose from on the market, and one of the more interesting ones is Lipoid Kosmetik’s Herbamilk. The Newark, NJ…
    Harvey M. Fishman, Consultant 02.06.15
  • Actives | Functional Ingredients | Hair Care | Personal Cleansers | Polymers | Skin Care

    Bacteria-Based Formulas Offer a New Way to Clean

    It is common to use antibiotics to kill bacteria both internally and externally on the human body.  But researchers say they’ve created a new category of personal cleansers. In an article in The New York Times Sunday magazine, author Ju…
    Harvey M. Fishman, Consultant 12.05.14
  • Skin Care
    Beauty Devices Come of Age

    Beauty Devices Come of Age

    Most of my columns are devoted to formulations, but with device sales growing into a billion-dollar category, it’s time to consider products such as toothbrushes and hairdryers. First, the simpler mechanism: the toothbrush. People have been cle…
    Harvey M. Fishman, Consultant 10.02.14

  • Itching for Effective Eczema Treatments?

    The term eczema is widely applied to a range of persistent skin conditions. These include dryness and recurring skin rashes that may have one or more of the following symptoms: redness, skin swelling, itching, crusting, faking, blistering, cracking,…
    Harvey M. Fishman, Consultant 08.01.14

  • Put a Few New Wrinkles in Your Anti-Aging Regimen

    Happi anniversary to me! I’ve been writing this column for 25 years and have enjoyed the challenge of finding a suitable subject for a monthly discussion.  After a quarter century, it is fitting that this month’s topic is something t…
    Harvey M. Fishman, Consultant 06.02.14

  • Triclosan Remains Under Fire

    Triclosan is an antibacterial that has been used in products such as detergents, soaps, skin cleansers, deodorants, creams and lotions, toothpastes and dishwashing liquids for nearly 40 years.  Simply put, chemically, triclosan structure consist…
    Harvey M. Fishman, Consultant 05.02.14

  • How Molecules Changed The World We Live In

    I just finished “Napoleon’s Buttons” by Le Couteur and Burrescon, published by Penguin. The subtitle is “17 molecules that changed history.” It is the story of how the desire for certain chemicals has affected and change…
    Harvey M. Fishman, Consultant 03.05.14

  • Hair Today... Gone Tomorrow?

    Most men love their hair. The more they have, the better they feel—when it’s on the top of their heads, that is! But body hair? That’s become a completely different, albeit controversial, story in 2014. More men and, of course, wom…
    Harvey M. Fishman, Consultant 02.07.14

  • Croda Tries to Make Sense Of Sensorial Attributes

    Croda, Edison, NJ has developed a system called “Sensification” which attempts to provide quantitative analysis on 33 parameters of the sensorial attributes of a product such as appearance or feel on a scale ranging from 0-100. Using thi…
    Harvey M. Fishman, Consultant 01.01.14

  • Scent Categorization, Computers And Comics Are All in the News

    If you look hard enough, you’ll discover that the general media covers the beauty industry on a regular basis. For example, a recent article in The Los Angeles Times detailed how neuroscientists sorted the complete range of scents that humans c…
    Harvey M. Fishman, Consultant 12.03.13

  • Applied Science

    I thought it would be interesting to do some research to discover when certain cosmetic applicators were first used and, later, improved upon. The first is the lipstick container, but a short discussion of the history of the product is necessary. In…
    Harvey M. Fishman, Consultant 11.04.13

  • Clariant and Innovacos Offer Novel Materials

    Hundreds, perhaps thousands, of products are promoted at Society of Cosmetic Chemist Suppliers’ Days throughout the country. Here’s a look at two that were on display at the New York Chapter’s event, which was held earlier this year…
    Harvey M. Fishman, Consultant 09.27.13

  • Sensient Offers An Easy Way To Color Personal Care Products

    Sensient Cosmetic Technologies, www.sensient-cosmetics.com, has a product called Color’N Cap Sil that encapsulates a dyestuff in a silica matrix. It results from a combination of silica sol-gel chemistry and a spray-drying process. The sol is…
    Harvey M. Fishman, Consultant 09.04.13

  • Hair Color That’s To Dye For

    Before getting to this month’s subject, hair color, a bit of background on melanin, the natural hair colorant. Melanin is derived from the Greek word melas, meaning “black,” and it is a pigment found in most organisms. It is a deri…
    Harvey M. Fishman, Consultant 08.02.13

  • Lipstick Smeared By Cal-Berkeley

    A recent study by researchers at the University of California Berkeley’s School of Public Health found that 32 lipsticks sold in drugstores and department stores contain small amounts of lead, chromium, cadmium, aluminum and five other metals.…
    Harvey M. Fishman, Consultant 07.10.13