INTERVIEW Tim Probert – Editor, Personal Care Global
Chicago-based Perry Romanowski is chair of education at the International Federation of Societies of Cosmetic Chemists (IFSCC) and president of US consultancy Element 44. Ahead of this month’s IFSCC Congress in Iguazú Falls, Brazil, Romanowski talks to editor Tim Probert about the future of beauty
Tim Probert (TP): How long have you been working in the personal care industry? Perry Romanowski (PR): I’ve been in the cosmetic industry since the early 1990s, so over 30 years. After I graduated from college with a degree in chemistry, my first job was making shampoo and conditioner at Alberto-Culver, so I’m very well versed in formulating hair care products. I was there for about 17 years, working on well-known brands like Nexxus, TRESemmé, Alberto VO5 and St. Ives.
TP: How did you get into the education side of things? PR: When I got into the industry, I noticed there was a big gap between what they teach you in college and what you need to know to be a cosmetic chemist. I talked with another chemist who had been in the industry for a while, and who thought the same, and that prompted us to start writing a series of articles for people new to the industry: what they need to know about the chemistry, the formulating, the regulations, everything. All of those articles were
put together into a book called Beginning Cosmetic Chemistry [co-authored with Randy Schueller]. That book has become a standard introduction to cosmetic chemistry. It also led to a course that I do for the Society of Cosmetic Chemists (SCC), also called Beginning Cosmetic Chemistry. I’ve been doing that for over 25 years.
TP: What does your role as chair of the education committee at the IFSCC involve? PR: I help to organise speakers for the IFSCC Congress from around the world and I host, every two weeks, a webinar on various
www.personalcaremagazine.com
topics of cosmetic science. We started them during the pandemic when we couldn’t have live meetings and they’ve just been continually popular.
TP: Will you be going to Iguazú Falls, Brazil for the 34th IFSCC Congress this month? PR: I will be in Brazil, yes, in my role as education committee chair as part of the Praesidium. I’m not speaking in Brazil,
but I will certainly be there to participate as much as I can.
TP: What is the focus of this year’s IFSCC Congress? PR: The focus is on sustainability and green technologies, but in a way that others don’t. Brazil is kind of unique as they lead the world in regulations related to sustainability, circular economics, tracing the ingredients and so on.
TP: You’ll also be attending in-cosmetics Asia’s brand new Cosmetic Conference track in Bangkok as well? PR: Yes, I’m actually doing two talks: ‘The future of beauty: how AI will affect cosmetic chemists and formulation’ and ‘Hair care formulations: is innovation still possible?’ examining the latest advancements in hair care through historical examples and modern techniques.
TP: Without stealing your own thunder, is hair care innovation still possible? PR: The reality is that hair care formulations - for shampoo and conditioner – haven’t really changed much since the 1980s. The basic premise of shampoo is its bubbles and your rinse off. That’s been around forever. I’ll look at the new technologies: bond builders, new conditioning ingredients and others, to see
17
INTERVIEW
The future of beauty
where hair care is going next. The big movement in hair care
technology are bond builders - chemistry that can actually interact with the hair fibres to make them less prone to breaking. Then there’s various bonding
technologies. Some of them bond right to the proteins using inorganic bonding between sulphur bonds. There are also peptides that help to bond hold hair better.
TP: Are bond builders genuinely new? Where are they emerging from? PR: Well, there can be a lot of fluff in cosmetics but this is
definitely a technology that came from the lab. Olaplex’s idea was that when you when you colour hair, you chemically process it by breaking sulphur bonds, and those are the ones that make the fibres stronger. So, you are obviously damaging the hair by breaking those bonds. Their idea was to put in a
bond builder that would form a bridge between those sulphur bonds, and that’s going to make the fibres stronger. That was a unique idea, nobody had done that before. It works well, they got a patent on it, and they were able to build up the brand. Another famous bond builder
October 2024 PERSONAL CARE
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102 |
Page 103 |
Page 104 |
Page 105 |
Page 106 |
Page 107 |
Page 108
