Using food ingredients in cosmetics may seem like the dream solution when trying to save money in cosmetic formulations.  There are many good and sustainable reasons for doing it, but care needs to be taken to ensure the right checks have been made – the industries are coming from separate places and have different legal and technical requirements which may not align.  In this presentation we will explore the ins and outs of doing it successfully and safely!

This session will provide an overview of the chemicals regulations in the UK and EU and how these are relevant to cosmetic ingredients.  These chemicals frameworks are currently under review in the EU as part of the Chemical Strategy for Sustainability (CSS); and the UK is also setting up its own Chemicals Strategy.  Therefore, the session will also look at the relevant aspects of the EU and UK chemicals strategies and what these will impact cosmetic ingredients in the future.

Hydrogel films can be useful carriers of active ingredients into the skin for cosmetic or pharmaceutical purposes. The preparation of hydrogel films often involves a crosslinking step where the soluble gel converts to an insoluble but reversibly swellable film. With my research group I successfully developed hydrogel films, initially with a synthetic polymer, using UV radiation for the crosslinking reaction; we then continued with natural polymers, such as hyaluronic acid. The use of UV radiation can be high-risk and expensive for large scale manufacture. We therefore explored alternative sources of energy for the crosslinking reaction; we found that the crosslinking reaction is feasible also via thermal (oven-assisted) and microwave energy. The oven-assisted method (~80℃) was most efficient in terms of hydrogel film properties, safety, and cost-effectiveness. We subsequently uploaded active ingredients into the hydrogel films and studied their in vitro release kinetics; the crosslinked hyaluronic acid hydrogel films allowed high percentage loading of the active ingredients and enabled their complete immediate release within 10 min. Therefore, these crosslinked hydrogel films are a promising cosmetic and pharmaceutical immediate-release delivery system and also a sustainable formulation in terms of manufacturing cost-effectiveness, simplicity and safety.

The consumer is the final piece in the journey of a product. To ensure the product is used as sustainably as possible the formulation needs to engage the consumer across multiple sensorial levels from the moment they first see, touch and smell the product, to using the final drop in the jar. This magic happens when the formulations are developed with the consumer at front of mind, by visualising their experience and understanding their behaviours and mindset. 

In this presentation I will explain where today’s beauty customer is in terms of sustainability, share strategic insights into consumer wants and needs, provide learning examples from other industries and explore strategies for developing truly sustainable formulations.

The ongoing move towards a more sustainable personal care industry is driven by consumers. The challenges to our industry and, especially, formulators is to produce truly sustainable products that work as well as their less-than sustainable counterparts.

In my presentation I will explore the advantages of water free/ solid formulations as well as the challenges they present. I will also look to offer some technical guidance on how to formulate good quality, functional solid products and offer an insight into the future.