Valerie George04.21.23
Dear Valerie: I heard you went to In-Cosmetics Global in Barcelona. What are five cool things you saw that we chemists should know more about?
– Armchair Traveler
Dear Armchair:
I have to say, this year at In-Cosmetics Global was phenomenal, even compared with pre-covid times. There were ample booths, great concessions (that’s important when you’re on your stems all day), and lots of new launches to see. My only complaint was that the carpet was a little thinner than years’ past so I definitely felt it on Day 3—although I could just be getting older. My husband, Mr. Cosmetic Chemist, attended the show for the first time. I don’t think he enjoyed the show as much as I did, as he had no cool ingredients to report back on, although he did tell me his favorite part was meeting Kenton Hipsher of Geltor.
Here are my five picks from the show:
Petrochemical-identical ingredients. Biotech is already huge, with ingredients like sugarcane-derived squalane, hyaluronic acid and peptides already on the market. This year was no exception for new launches in the space. We commonly see brands tout natural-identical in their marketing language, which speaks to a synthetic ingredient having the same chemical structure as one found in nature. Well, now petrochemical-identical ingredients produced through biotech may be a thing.
Specifically, I was pleased to see Global Bioenergies’ launch of a biotech-derived isohexadecane. This is a followup to its isododecane launched at In-Cosmetics Global in Paris, last year. IHD and IDD, as we abbreviatedly call them, are commonly-derived from the petroleum chemistry. I’ve found that you can kind of replace their feel with other natural materials (like swapping out IDD for hemisqualane) but they’re pretty unique. Global Bioenergies can produce starting feedstock for both of these materials through fermentation. It’s a little cost prohibitive, with the price being about 500x as much.
Biosurfactants. I predicted a few months ago that biosurfactants were going to be huge. Sure enough, a few launches were announced at In-Cosmetics, including Dow’s EcoSense surfactants (produced in partnership with Locus Performance Ingredients), Solvay’s Mirasoft series, and Evonik’s expansion of its existing biosurfactant portfolio with their launch of Sophance. Not all biosurfactants are created equal, so I recommend working with many different suppliers’ versions to understand the benefits to your product formulation.
Fragrant Waxes. I’m a huge fan of these waxes, which are upcycled from various industries. I currently purvey green tea wax and it’s one of the most wonderful waxes to add emollience to formulations.
At In-Cos, I got to meet jasmine wax and mimosa wax from Kahl. While the eponymous jasmine wax is self-evident, mimosa wax threw me for a loop. I had visions of orange juice and effervescent champagne poking at my nose, but instead I was greeted with a light, floral scent. It reminded me of my brief affair with an orange peel wax as a young formulator. I just love the light scent they add to formulations, with the added benefit of skin care or hair care benefits.
Upcycling. If you were sick of hearing about upcycling before In-Cos, it might be a good thing you weren’t traversing the royal purple carpets. Nearly every intersection of the show’s aisles revealed an upcycled ingredient, including in the Innovation Zone, Sustainability Zone and posters adorning booths. While many ingredients in cosmetics were intrinsically upcycled prior to the trend, the demand for upcycled ingredients is certainly fueling new innovations. From cranberry seed oil to seaweed-derived emulsifiers to aloe-coated pigments to olive water to Chios mandarin orange peel extracts, there was something for everyone.
Hair, Hair, Hair. I was happy to see new ingredient launches for hair this year from companies like Chemyunion, James Robinson, Tri-K, NormActive and others. I’ve been to In-Cos in years where representation for hair was lacking, but I felt the Barcelona show was very hair forward. Hair is one of the leading market segments for personal care right now, so it’s only appropriate there were launches to accompany that. Perhaps you’ll head to New York SCC’s Suppliers Day this month, or California SCC’s Suppliers Day in October and can hear about some of these new hair launches in the flesh.
Dear Valerie: I’m a brand owner that’s considering buying products through private label. What legal documents should I ask for to prove the product is safe and that all ingredients are the best quality? I want to make sure I’m safe from future consumers blaming my products for their skin issues.
—Safety First!
Dear Safety:
There are pros and cons to buying products through private label, which I won’t go through here. Unfortunately, one of the cons is lack of visibility into the formulation, the ingredients used and the suppliers from whom they’re purchased. Nonetheless, the right private label partner may be able to provide some information to ensure you’re purchasing top-quality products.
The manufacturer should supply a Safety Data Sheet, which reports any hazardous materials in the composition, how to handle the product safely and how the product should be transported. Some of your retailers, including Amazon, may require a safety data sheet in order to work with them. This document is provided once, provided there are not any changes to the formulation.
Every batch number of product purchased should come with a certificate of analysis, aka, C of A or COA. This document is unique to each time a product is produced and outlines its physical and chemical specifications. It will characterize its required color, odor and appearance, as well as pH, viscosity, specific gravity and other specifications. Most importantly, it will show the test results against each specification for that specific batch produced. This informs you whether your product is in conformance with its specifications. The COA will also list the retest date or shelf life of the product, as well as the manufacturing date.
A word of caution: it’s not enough to take a COA at face value. Fact-check the info to make sure what you receive matches what was tested. This means measuring pH, viscosity and whatever other parameters are listed. If the product is out of specification, notify the manufacturer immediately so they can investigate the root cause and provide direction for the product that’s out of specification.
If your concerns are less related to the physical aspect of the product and are more about the values behind the product, the manufacturer can still provide support. For example, you may be interested in animal testing, any palm-sourced materials, or whether the product is produced using ingredients derived from genetically-modified organisms. Ordinarily, you would have a list of the trade names of the ingredients with their suppliers and procure this information directly from the ingredient supplier themselves. With private label, or even working with a contract manufacturer, you may not get access to this information. Don’t panic, your manufacturer should be able to provide a regulatory statement on its letterhead, signed by an authorized individual. They can summarize each aspect you’re interested in so you can support the claims.
Safety testing is a bit more complicated; the conversation surrounding safety testing should be conducted up front with the manufacturer so there are no surprises after your product hits the market. They should be able to confirm if the product has preservative efficacy testing, stability testing, irritation testing, repeat insult patch testing, ocular testing or nothing. In the US, even with the coming of MoCRA, safety testing is the responsibility of the brand. Don’t assume your manufacturer has invested in the testing.
Lastly, even with safety testing, you can still face the wrath of a litigious consumer. Invest in product liability insurance and request a certificate of insurance from your manufacturer, showing products are covered under their policy.
Valerie George
askvalerie@icloud.com
Valerie George is a cosmetic chemist, science communicator, educator, leader, and avid proponent of transparency in the beauty industry. She works on the latest research in hair color and hair care at her company, Simply Formulas, and is the co-host of The Beauty Brains podcast. You can find her on Instagram at @cosmetic_chemist or showcasing her favorite ingredients to small brands and home formulators at simply-ingredients.com
– Armchair Traveler
Dear Armchair:
I have to say, this year at In-Cosmetics Global was phenomenal, even compared with pre-covid times. There were ample booths, great concessions (that’s important when you’re on your stems all day), and lots of new launches to see. My only complaint was that the carpet was a little thinner than years’ past so I definitely felt it on Day 3—although I could just be getting older. My husband, Mr. Cosmetic Chemist, attended the show for the first time. I don’t think he enjoyed the show as much as I did, as he had no cool ingredients to report back on, although he did tell me his favorite part was meeting Kenton Hipsher of Geltor.
Here are my five picks from the show:
Petrochemical-identical ingredients. Biotech is already huge, with ingredients like sugarcane-derived squalane, hyaluronic acid and peptides already on the market. This year was no exception for new launches in the space. We commonly see brands tout natural-identical in their marketing language, which speaks to a synthetic ingredient having the same chemical structure as one found in nature. Well, now petrochemical-identical ingredients produced through biotech may be a thing.
Specifically, I was pleased to see Global Bioenergies’ launch of a biotech-derived isohexadecane. This is a followup to its isododecane launched at In-Cosmetics Global in Paris, last year. IHD and IDD, as we abbreviatedly call them, are commonly-derived from the petroleum chemistry. I’ve found that you can kind of replace their feel with other natural materials (like swapping out IDD for hemisqualane) but they’re pretty unique. Global Bioenergies can produce starting feedstock for both of these materials through fermentation. It’s a little cost prohibitive, with the price being about 500x as much.
Biosurfactants. I predicted a few months ago that biosurfactants were going to be huge. Sure enough, a few launches were announced at In-Cosmetics, including Dow’s EcoSense surfactants (produced in partnership with Locus Performance Ingredients), Solvay’s Mirasoft series, and Evonik’s expansion of its existing biosurfactant portfolio with their launch of Sophance. Not all biosurfactants are created equal, so I recommend working with many different suppliers’ versions to understand the benefits to your product formulation.
Fragrant Waxes. I’m a huge fan of these waxes, which are upcycled from various industries. I currently purvey green tea wax and it’s one of the most wonderful waxes to add emollience to formulations.
At In-Cos, I got to meet jasmine wax and mimosa wax from Kahl. While the eponymous jasmine wax is self-evident, mimosa wax threw me for a loop. I had visions of orange juice and effervescent champagne poking at my nose, but instead I was greeted with a light, floral scent. It reminded me of my brief affair with an orange peel wax as a young formulator. I just love the light scent they add to formulations, with the added benefit of skin care or hair care benefits.
Upcycling. If you were sick of hearing about upcycling before In-Cos, it might be a good thing you weren’t traversing the royal purple carpets. Nearly every intersection of the show’s aisles revealed an upcycled ingredient, including in the Innovation Zone, Sustainability Zone and posters adorning booths. While many ingredients in cosmetics were intrinsically upcycled prior to the trend, the demand for upcycled ingredients is certainly fueling new innovations. From cranberry seed oil to seaweed-derived emulsifiers to aloe-coated pigments to olive water to Chios mandarin orange peel extracts, there was something for everyone.
Hair, Hair, Hair. I was happy to see new ingredient launches for hair this year from companies like Chemyunion, James Robinson, Tri-K, NormActive and others. I’ve been to In-Cos in years where representation for hair was lacking, but I felt the Barcelona show was very hair forward. Hair is one of the leading market segments for personal care right now, so it’s only appropriate there were launches to accompany that. Perhaps you’ll head to New York SCC’s Suppliers Day this month, or California SCC’s Suppliers Day in October and can hear about some of these new hair launches in the flesh.
Dear Valerie: I’m a brand owner that’s considering buying products through private label. What legal documents should I ask for to prove the product is safe and that all ingredients are the best quality? I want to make sure I’m safe from future consumers blaming my products for their skin issues.
—Safety First!
Dear Safety:
There are pros and cons to buying products through private label, which I won’t go through here. Unfortunately, one of the cons is lack of visibility into the formulation, the ingredients used and the suppliers from whom they’re purchased. Nonetheless, the right private label partner may be able to provide some information to ensure you’re purchasing top-quality products.
The manufacturer should supply a Safety Data Sheet, which reports any hazardous materials in the composition, how to handle the product safely and how the product should be transported. Some of your retailers, including Amazon, may require a safety data sheet in order to work with them. This document is provided once, provided there are not any changes to the formulation.
Every batch number of product purchased should come with a certificate of analysis, aka, C of A or COA. This document is unique to each time a product is produced and outlines its physical and chemical specifications. It will characterize its required color, odor and appearance, as well as pH, viscosity, specific gravity and other specifications. Most importantly, it will show the test results against each specification for that specific batch produced. This informs you whether your product is in conformance with its specifications. The COA will also list the retest date or shelf life of the product, as well as the manufacturing date.
A word of caution: it’s not enough to take a COA at face value. Fact-check the info to make sure what you receive matches what was tested. This means measuring pH, viscosity and whatever other parameters are listed. If the product is out of specification, notify the manufacturer immediately so they can investigate the root cause and provide direction for the product that’s out of specification.
If your concerns are less related to the physical aspect of the product and are more about the values behind the product, the manufacturer can still provide support. For example, you may be interested in animal testing, any palm-sourced materials, or whether the product is produced using ingredients derived from genetically-modified organisms. Ordinarily, you would have a list of the trade names of the ingredients with their suppliers and procure this information directly from the ingredient supplier themselves. With private label, or even working with a contract manufacturer, you may not get access to this information. Don’t panic, your manufacturer should be able to provide a regulatory statement on its letterhead, signed by an authorized individual. They can summarize each aspect you’re interested in so you can support the claims.
Safety testing is a bit more complicated; the conversation surrounding safety testing should be conducted up front with the manufacturer so there are no surprises after your product hits the market. They should be able to confirm if the product has preservative efficacy testing, stability testing, irritation testing, repeat insult patch testing, ocular testing or nothing. In the US, even with the coming of MoCRA, safety testing is the responsibility of the brand. Don’t assume your manufacturer has invested in the testing.
Lastly, even with safety testing, you can still face the wrath of a litigious consumer. Invest in product liability insurance and request a certificate of insurance from your manufacturer, showing products are covered under their policy.
Valerie George
askvalerie@icloud.com
Valerie George is a cosmetic chemist, science communicator, educator, leader, and avid proponent of transparency in the beauty industry. She works on the latest research in hair color and hair care at her company, Simply Formulas, and is the co-host of The Beauty Brains podcast. You can find her on Instagram at @cosmetic_chemist or showcasing her favorite ingredients to small brands and home formulators at simply-ingredients.com