Happy childhood memories stay with us throughout our lives, giving us strength in good times and in bad times. For me it was those endless summer vacations lazing about in the sunshine with family and friends. I always looked up to my father as some sort of wise guy or even hero – for a little while, at least. Parental ‘wisdom’ can sometimes seem a little questionable in hindsight, despite all good intentions. But recently I discovered there was something more than just memories that I had been carrying with me from the good old days – something that would change my life and the way I looked at things forever.

In today’s competitive personal care market where consumers have a variety to choose from, it has become increasingly important for marketers to offer products that not only offer targeted sensorial benefits but also appeal visually. Addressing this challenge, Rhodia has created an innovative rheological polymer Rheomer® 33 that allows formulators to create a diverse range of textures in personal cleansing applications.

A dynamic space for dynamic innovation. Companies introduce on a nearly daily basis novel innovative solutions! Fast and reliable communication becomes a must. “The Corner” is a dedicated fast track space allowing companies to showcase their most advanced products to the specialized readership in nearly real time. Each issue of HPC today hosts a dedicated Corner dealing with the hottest topics of the moment.

In 2013 a total ban of animal testing for cosmetics is foreseen to become operative in the European Union. Up to today it is unclear whether this deadline will be met due to the lack of validated alternatives to a series of essential toxicological tests. Top ranking experts in this innovative field will showcase and discuss the current state of the art during a scientific seminar organized by HPC today on April 18th 2012 at the In Cosmetics fair of Barcelona (ES).

A desire to explore the many facets of the power of fragrance in our daily lives is at the basis of this five-part series. The renowned global fragrance expert Marcella Bartoletti, former Global Fragrance Director at Unilever, together with other experts, will take the reader through a journey across the multiple aspects to be taken into consideration, the commonalities as well as the various challenges, and the critical market/ business imperatives to be handled when planning a new fragrance launch. An opportunity to dig into air care, personal care, home care product categories, cosmetics, prestige as well as niche fragrances and, finally, aromas in food cooking and tasting.

The microbial safety of cosmetic products is an important consideration. It is integral to ensuring the stability of the products for the entire shelf- life and to preventing damage to health of the consumers. Currently, the number of accepted substances for microbial stabilization is limited due to legal restrictions or public discussion. Hurdle technology and the intelligent combination of multifunctional additives help to design microbiologically stable products. The synergistic blend of phenethyl alcohol and ethylhexylglycerin is an effective stabilization system, while consisting of 90 percent nature-identical material.

Sensorial analysis is the examination of a product through the evaluation of the attributes perceptible by the five sense organs (organoleptic attributes) such as colour, odor, taste, touch, texture and noise. It is used in diverse fields like cosmetics, food, personal care products, textiles etc. The Consumer Acceptance Tests, Difference Tests and Descriptive Tests are the three types of sensory analysis. The analysis is carried out in two phases: the first test uses common naïve assessors followed by the second phase employing well trained assessors. In the cosmetic industry sensory evaluation data has been used as a part of marketing decision. It is acknowledged to be a powerful approach in optimizing product preference.

Tear-free formulations for baby shampoos can make bathing much easier and more enjoyable for babies – and their parents. The number of mild and gentle baby care products that claim to be tear-free is steadily increasing. With a comprehensive range of surfactants and extensive formulation knowledge, BASF Personal Care has developed mild and gentle baby cleansing formulations. Having been shown not to cause tears in relevant tests, the unmodified formulations can be used directly by manufacturers. They can also be promoted being “tear-free” without the need for any additional performance testing-related costs.

Hyaluronic acid (HA) is one of the fundamental components of the connective tissues in humans and other mammals. It gives the skin its properties of resistance and its abilities to maintain its shape. In fact a deficiency of HA causes a weakening of the skin with the formation of wrinkles and blemishes. Its concentration in the tissues tends to decrease with age due to the presence of particular enzymes, hyaluronidases, which catalyse HA chain degradation. Chemically the HA is a linear polymer belonging to the class of glycosaminoglycans. The polysaccharide chain is made of thousands of disaccharides, themselves composed of glucuronic acid (a glucose derivative) and N-acetylglucosamine, linked together via alternating β-1,4 and β-1,3 glycosidic bonds.

Today’s consumers’ expectations for a detergent are diverse. On one hand the purchasing price, and on the other hand excellent washing performance at low temperatures based on renewable raw materials and environmentally friendly production processes. Within this context we carried out a study focusing on the synthetic use of renewable Fatty Acid Methyl Esters and the properties and applications of the final products, namely Methyl Ester Ethoxylates.

The Copenhagen Household Care Sustainability Summit, organized by the Danish company Novozymes, celebrated in December 2011 its second edition. The first summit was organized two years prior, with designs on taking advantage of the positive hopes created by the United Nations Climate Change Conference, COP15 / MOP 5 environment, which was held in Copenhagen one week later. COP15 turned out to be de facto a fiasco. On the contrary, the Household Care Sustainability Summit was a success: major players of the world of detergency came together discuss the future of sustainability in the industry. Experts from companies normally in competition were sitting together, exchanging experiences and developing new ideas and approaches. HPC Today was present too and published full coverage of the 2009 Summit in its first issue of 2010.

One thing is sure. The acquisition of Cognis operated by BASF gave raise to a remarkable brand new novelty in our sector. The most interesting novelty of the last period, we would argue. Cognis and BASF are two brands, which made the history of one of the most active markets in today’s worldwide economic landscape, providing products touching our every day’s life! Two worlds, two philosophies, two visions met! To better understand how this process was generated, how it has developed and which are the perspectives for the future, we decided to have a word with Simon Medley, Senior Vice President BASF Personal Care Europe

Many absorbent consumer products incorporate lotions on the surface to improve overall consumer comfort. Manufacturers need to develop ways of measuring the potential effects of lotioned products in order to select formulations that will deliver the desired benefit. This investigation evaluates three established test models for their utility in evaluating the potential benefits of lotioned feminine protection pads. (...)

In vitro 3D skin models are able to recapitulate the major events in the process of skin homeostasis very well. Two cell biological assays have been applied on Phenion®-FT-skin models and demonstrated their usefulness for describing cellular activities in the process of skin renewal and homeostasis in vitro. A cell proliferation assay was applied to study the general proliferative responsiveness of basal keratinocytes and dermal fibroblasts, whereas the MTT-viability-assay was used to analyse the overall improvement of epidermal and dermal tissue viability. For demonstration purpose, single experiments have been performed in which skin models were systematically stimulated with known cosmetic and medical actives (atRA & 13cRA), whose time and dose dependent effectiveness are well characterized (18, 21).