Richard Scott – Editor, Personal Care SCS NATURALS CONFERENCE
Power of naturals studied at annual conference
The SCS Annual Conference this year focused on ‘Naturals in Cosmetic Science’ and was held at the Royal College of Physicians on 1-2 July.
Opening on the hottest day of the year, visitors were treated to an excellent programme of presentations that looked at all aspects of the use of natural ingredients in the personal care industry.
Day 1 Session 1
After a welcome from Dr Emma Meredith, the SCS Immediate Past President, Margo Marrone from The Organic Pharmacy delivered a Keynote Address that offered a great insight into the various challenges of setting up a business that relies almost entirely on organic and natural ingredients. Margo Marrone said that organic products used not to be considered very luxurious, however this has slowly changed over the years thanks to improved ingredients and techniques so that consumers can now expect a beautiful experience as well as results. Despite this, organic products have struggled to be taken seriously in some areas. Also labelling restrictions have proved problematic, but perhaps the most universal challenge has been with a lack of reliable natural/organic preservative, stabiliser and emulsifier ingredients. Following the presentation from Margo Marrone, Dr Emma Meredith returned to the podium to deliver an update on the EU Cosmetics Regulation which looked at the many areas that affect natural cosmetic companies. It is now well understood that products must be safe and be proven to be safe and that the Regulation covers all products including natural and organic. However, the Regulation is not without its inadequacies and there are many errors in the Annexes to the Regulation. In April 2013 the Commission published a new Adaptation updating the Annexes with all the changes that had taken place to the Directive between 2008 and 2013. However the errors in the Annexes still remain Cosmetics Europe is working with the Commission on this.
In terms of natural and organic products, After a welcome from Dr Emma Meredith, Margo Marrone delivered a Keynote Address.
Emma Meredith said that safety assessors have to work doubly hard on natural and organic extracts. Also it is vital that consumers are protected from misleading claims associated with natural products. In the past these have been all too common. ‘Free-from’ claims are not banned according to the Regulation but a number of countries (France and Spain in particular) are not in favour of them.
Denzil Phillips followed with a fascinating look into African plants and essential oils. It is no secret that Africa has an enormous resource of biological material and it is already a key part of the economy for many African countries. Shea butter, for instance, provides jobs for tens of thousands of women in Africa. But as Denzil Phillips said, we really know very little about African plants. Our current level of knowledge barely scratches the surface.
The presentation looked at some of the
lesser-known African plants which may offer benefits to personal care formulations, such as the African sausage tree, which, apart from skin cancer studies, is also indicated for pigmentation issues, breast firming, and wound healing.
Other plants include the mongono tree (body rub), Kalahari melon seed (moisturisation – similar but better than shea butter), and umTshitshi (acne). Denzil Phillips said that many of the companies
looking to build products using lesser known African plants will struggle with certification due to the paucity of background information.
The session concluded with an excellent presentation from Dr Wilfried Petersen of Dr Straetmans who looked at naturally- occurring antimicrobials. He began by reminding attendees that antimicrobial substances are inherently unfriendly chemicals. Preserving personal care products is a balancing act and there is no such thing as a totally skin-friendly biocide. The growing trend for ‘free-from’ means a product does not contain an ingredient on the recognised list of preservatives. It does not mean the product has no preserving activity among its ingredients. So the preservatives tool box contains listed preservatives and multifunctional ingredients and some of the chemicals in each of these areas are suitable for natural and organic products. However, different organisations have different opinions on what constitutes natural/organic. Whenever selecting a preservative, one must take into account toxicology, performance, stability, cosmetic function, etc. Many of the ingredients that could potentially be used as a natural preservative have issues with one of the above key areas. For example, flavonoids and polyphenols do have some preservative
September 2015 PERSONAL CARE 17
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