There was an interesting article about ‘clinical testing’ of cosmetic products. Essentially, the authors suggest that the science used to support the claims made by the nutrition supplement product Inneov Sun Sensitivity is faulty, biased, and practically worthless.

I don’t yet have access to the original BJD article but if the news report is accurate, indeed this is sketchy science. The extraordinary claims are not quite supported by the testing.

Unfortunately, this is usually the case with studies designed to prove a point rather than discover a truth. In the cosmetic industry, it is called Claims Testing.

Let’s look at some of the questionable testing that goes on in the cosmetic industry and suggest how it could be improved.

Using consumer opinions to make claims

This happens all the time. When a cosmetic manufacturer wants to make a strong claim their product, they go to consumers and see what they think. If it is a bad study, consumers will be given a product that they use for a certain amount of time, then they answer questions about it. Their answers will then be used to support claims made about the product.

Why is this questionable?
There are a variety of reasons this is not good science but the biggest is that consumers are easily fooled. If they like how something smells or feels, or they just enjoyed the overall experience, they will be inclined to rate everything higher. For example, if a consumer likes the fragrance of a hair conditioner, they’ll be much more likely to rate highly the performance of the product for shine, detangling, manageability, etc. The positive feelings about the fragrance has a “halo” effect on all other attributes.

So, if you ask a consumer whether a product made their hair more shiny, the answer will likely be influenced by something that has nothing to do with shine at all!

How to make it better.
If you are really interested to know whether a product improves a specific attribute consumer testing isn’t the best thing to use. Better are lab tests or trained panel tests. However, if you want to use consumer tests then at the very least make it a double blind controlled test. This means that you give them your test product and a control product that look and smell the same. You should then have the products made by someone who is unaware of the test purpose so you don’t know which samples are which. You should also use a minimum of 30 people for the test however, >100 is even better.

Using improper controls

This is a fairly common occurrence in the cosmetic industry. Perhaps most common is in studies done by cosmetic raw material suppliers. They show impressive looking data that is much less so when you consider the control. Frequently, a raw material will be evaluated against a ‘no-treatment’ control. It should come as no surprise that any skin lotion will improve skin condition when compared to no treatment.

Why is it questionable
The problem with improper controls is that you set up a test in which you know your product isn’t going to fail. You already know there will be a positive outcome. This is not science.

How can you make it better?
The way to make this testing better is to use a proper control. Not only should you have a positive control, but you should have a negative control. Suppose you want to know if your moisturizing shampoo makes hair easier to comb. Your proper controls would be a Normal shampoo and an alternative Moisturizing shampoo. Compare the performance of all 3 to answer whether your product is indeed better than other moisturizing products.

Using unrealistic lab tests to support claims

To make incredible claims, products are often taken into the lab and tested in ways that specifically support the claim. For example, to measure hair shine a single fiber is sometimes used. This is fine if the claim is that it makes a hair fiber more shiny but it doesn’t answer the question whether it makes bundles of hair more shiny. Similarly, the thickness of a hair fiber is measured using a laser micrometer. This is supposed to support “thicker hair” claims even though the increase in thickness is something consumers would never be able to notice.

Why is it questionable
The reason that these tests are questionable is that they create support for claims that are different than the consumers might believe. If a product claims to make hair 50% more shiny and the data is based on single fiber tests, it really isn’t true.

How can you make it better?
Lab tests like these are excellent to use while developing new products and refining prototypes. But you can’t just stop with this testing. Additional testing should be used to check to see whether the changes are noticeable to a trained panel and ultimately a consumer.

There is some excellent testing going on in the cosmetic industry but it could be improved. Using proper controls, minimizing consumer halo effects, and validating lab tests with trained panels are simple measures that could lead to significant improvements.

If you’re interested in making cosmetic products from scratch but you don’t have fancy software to do it, you can easily make them using a simple spreadsheet formula.

Here’s a video that explains the process.  It allows you to make different batch sizes, calculates ingredient masses, and also costs out the formula.

Cosmetic Formula Template

Cosmetic scientists can be found all over the world.  In this episode we talk with Joel Edwards, a cosmetic chemist from Australia.  He tells his story how he started out as an environmental chemist but transitioned to the cosmetic industry.

Show notes:

1. News
P&G teams with Amyris to make bio materials for cosmetics. Where is the new innovation in cosmetics coming from?  Probably the biotech industry.

Consumer infidelity hurting luxury brands.  What is happening to the luxury beauty market during this uncertain economic times?  People aren’t necessarily trading down.

2. Cosmetic Science

We review the different types of equipment that every cosmetic laboratory needs to function properly.  We look at 5 different areas of equipment including…

Weighing equipment
Containers
Mixers
Temperature control equipment
Testing equipment

3. Interview with Joel Edwards
Joel Edwards is a cosmetic chemist who works with Trendpack in Australia. He has been in the cosmetic industry for about 8 years. He shares his insights on what it’s like to be a cosmetic chemist and where he thinks cosmetic research of the future should focus.

If you have a question, comment or other suggestion about the podcast, leave a message in the space below.

Chemists Corner is a podcast about cosmetic science and is broadcast to help educate, entertain, and inspire current and future cosmetic scientists. The information and opinions discussed on Chemists Corner are those of the hosts and the guests alone. They do not necessarily reflect those of any past, present or future employers.

In college, most chemistry classes were focused on creating chemical reactions. We were constantly challenged to figure out what reaction would happen when you mix chemicals together.

Cosmetic science is not usually reactive

So, you might find it surprising that cosmetic scientists usually do the opposite. We mix chemicals together and hope that nothing happens. In a cosmetic formula, chemical reactions are bad. They are a sign of instability and we do everything we can to prevent them.

This drive to make nonreactive systems might lead you to wonder whether all those chemical reactions you memorized in Organic Chemistry were a waste of time. And if you work as a cosmetic formulator, you might wonder, “Are there any chemical reactions in cosmetic science?”

Yes, there is!

Reactive cosmetic products

While most of the chemical reactions in our industry occur at the raw material suppliers labs, there are some cosmetic products specifically designed to chemically react.  Here’s a list of the most common.

Permanent Waves

These products are designed to permanently change the shape of hair. People with straight hair often use permanent waves to get a little curl in their hair. A permanent wave formula has a reducing agent like thioglycolic acid that reacts with the di-sulfur bonds in the cystine amino acids breaking down the hair structure. Hair is first shaped into curlers, then the product is put on hair. It begins reducing hair and is rinsed with water to stop the reaction. A neutralizing chemical like hydrogen peroxide, is added which reforms the di-sulfur bonds into the new configuration.

Hair Relaxers

These products do the opposite of permanent waves. They make curly hair permanently straight. The method is similar you chemically break down hair, reshape it, then reform the protein bonds in the new configuration. Sometimes ammonium thioglycolate is used but most often it is sodium hydroxide or lithium hydroxide. The compounds break down the di-sulfur bonds in hair and the neutralizing step stops the reaction.

This is the most damaging chemical treatment for hair.

Hair Bleach

Hair bleaching is a process used to turn brunettes into blonds. You didn’t really think that there were that many blonds in the world did you? Hair bleach is a chemical reaction between melanin (the material in hair that gives it color) and hydrogen peroxide.

Hair Colors

Hair coloring is a slightly more complicated version of hair bleach. It uses hydrogen peroxide to break down hair’s natural color, then the peroxide also oxidizes a polymeric reaction with dye monomers. When the dye polymerizes inside the hair, it creates a color molecule that is too big to easily come back out.

Skin Darkening

These products are designed to give fair-skinned people a tanned look. They work by using an ingredient called dihydroxyacetone or DHA. It reacts with the proteins in the stratum corneum via the Maillard reaction to produce the brown (although sometimes orange) color. All the steps haven’t been worked out, but basically when DHA is exposed to skin protein, it is converted to pyruvaldehyde, which then reacts with arginine, lysine, and histidine amino acids in skin to form brown/yellow pigments called melanoidins.

Be sure to see Kelly’s article about DHA in Cosmetics & Toiletries magazine.

Depilatories

These are products designed to help people to remove unwanted hair. The primary active in these types of cosmetics is some version of thioglycolic acid. The acid reacts with the cystine amino acids in hair and breaks down the S-S linkages. The hair is reduced to a jelly like mass that can then be wiped away. Note this is the same reaction as in permanent waves.

2SH-CH2-COOH(thioglycolic acid) +R-S-S-R(cystine)—–> 2R-SH + COOH CH2 SS CH2 COOH (dithiodiglycolic acid)

Chemical reactions are not the primary focus of most cosmetics, but there are a few reactions so don’t fret. Memorizing those reactions in Organic Chemistry wasn’t a complete waste of time.

To become a college graduate with a degree in chemistry, you probably had to take at least a year of calculus and some type of statistical analysis. Then classes like Physical Chemistry or Inorganic Chemistry further demonstrated the complicated math that was required to be a scientist. Who remembers partial differential equations?

Well, if the math in your college chemistry classes wore you down, then we’ve got good news for you. Cosmetic chemists use almost no complicated math. In fact, all the math you need to know to be a cosmetic formulator, you likely learned in high school. Here are the top mathematical challenges faced by cosmetic chemists and how to do them.

Cosmetic Chemist mathematical challenges

1. Figuring out % activity of an ingredient
This is one of the most common problems you’ll face. Most liquid raw material are not supplied as 100% ingredients but instead are water solutions (or other diluent). So, if you buy SLS it is usually sold as a 28% solution. You can find the activity of an ingredient by looking at the specification sheet. Usually, it is listed as % solids.

If you have a formula that calls for 30% SLS, the product doesn’t actually contain 30% SLS. It contains 30% of a 28% solution. By multiplying the % solids by the % required in the formula, you can find the % activity. Therefore, a formula calling for 30% SLS only contains 8.4% SLS. For formulators, this is the most important mathematical concept you must learn.

Math skill required – Multiplication

2. Adding up formulas
When creating formulas, you have to make sure everything adds up to 100%. Fortunately, this is fairly simple.

To make sure the formula adds up to 100%, you just need to add the percentages of all the ingredients in the formula. If they are higher or lower than 100, just add or subtract from the main diluent (usually water) to make it equal to 100. For example.

Water 78%
HEC 1%
Citric acid 1%
Cetyl Alcohol 5%
Cetrimonium Chloride 2%
Preservative 0.2%
Fragrance 1%

This conditioner formula adds up to 88.2%. You subtract that from 100 and you are left with 11.8%. This is the amount that should be added to your water % to make the formula square. So, the amount of water in this formula should be 89.8%

Math required – Addition and subtraction

3. Figuring out required ingredient amount
Frequently, you’ll inherit a formula and will have to figure out the amount of raw materials required to make a certain sized batch. This just requires simple multiplication.

First, determine the size batch you want to make. Next, find the % of the ingredient in the formula. Multiply the two numbers and your result is the required amount of the ingredient. For example.

Suppose you want to make a 500g batch of the conditioner in the example above. It calls for 2% of Cetrimonium Chloride. To figure out how much CC you’ll need, just multiply 500g * .02 = 10g. After you’ve figured out all the raw materials, add up the gram totals to ensure they equal the batch size.

Math required – Multiplication and addition

4. Figuring out HLB
When you’re formulating emulsions, HLB can help you figure out which emulsifier you need for your oil phase. Go see this previous post to see how to do cosmetic HLB calculations.

5. Converting units
It’s a fact of life in the US that industry continues to use Pounds and Gallons rather than Kilograms and Liters. In the lab, everything you do will likely be measured using the metric system. But when you take your formula to the compounding area, you’ll have to convert them to English units.

To convert your formulas, you just need to convert Kilograms to Pounds. This is done simply by multiplying the Kilogram mass by the conversion factor (1 kg = 2.2046 pounds). So, if your formula calls for 25 kg of Cetyl Alcohol, you’ll need to add 51.15 pounds of it.

For liquid measurements, it’s usually necessary to figure out how many gallons of an ingredient you need. If the specific gravity of the liquid is 1 (as it is for water) then you simply take the Kilograms required and divide by the conversion factor (8.35 Kg per gallon). So, 44 kilograms of water is really 5.27 gallons.

Perhaps the easiest way to do these conversions is to look them up on Google or use a conversion calculator like this one.

The Mathematical Cosmetic Chemist

Once you have systems set up to do these calculations for you (like automated spreadsheets), there is even less math required to be a cosmetic chemist. But math is good for your brain so even if you have a computer that calculates these things for you, you should practice them to ensure you know how to do them.

The last thing to mention is statistics. There is some statistical math that you’ll have to do on occasion but it’s more complicated than this post can allow so we’ll write a separate entry on the statistics of cosmetic science.

When developing products we often walk a fine line in terms of formulating for efficacy and marketing claims. It is important to understand the regulatory and legal implications of the decisions we make.

Cosmetic or Drug?

In the United States, the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act defines cosmetics as “article intended to be rubbed, pour, sprinkled, or sprayed on, introduced into, or otherwise applied to the human body… for cleansing, beautifying, promoting attractiveness, or altering the appearance.” Examples include blush, lipstick, nail polish, shampoo, and toothpaste.

But once the product claims venture into diagnosis, treatment, or prevention of disease and alleges to affect the structure or any function of the body, the product is a drug. Drugs are subject to stringent regulations, labeling (actives are called out from other ingredients) and testing requirements, which result in the investment of both time and money.

Products can be both cosmetic and drug if the intended use meets both definitions. Moisturizers with sunscreens, moisturizing hand sanitizers, and anti-dandruff shampoos all fall into this category. These cosmetic/drug combinations are subject to the regulations for both drugs and cosmetics. They are considered OTC or Over the Counter drugs.

Soaps

True soaps represent an additional category and are regulated by the Consumer Products Safety Commission, not the FDA. True soaps are made purely of fat and alkali. Soaps made with any other ingredient or claim any other benefit like moisturization or deodorizing are cosmetics.

Cosmeceuticals

One other classification of products is cosmeceuticals. The oft-controversial but significant contributor to our field, dermatologist Dr. Albert Kligman, coined the term cosmeceutical almost 30 years ago. He defined cosmeceuticals as topically applied products that do have a physiological effect on the skin. The industry was quick to respond because the potential regulation of cosmetics as drugs could cripple innovation due to time and cost. Kligman, however, intended to draw attention to the potential biological effects of all cosmetics that did not just merely camouflage or add color. In fact he said it was “scientifically silly to pretend that cosmetics did not do anything” and that cosmetics might actually be doing a lot of good.

The term cosmeceutical is not recognized as part of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act. But whether you agree or disagree, this term has become part of our consumer’s vernacular. The controversy and conversation the term has created remains, in my mind, one of Kligman’s great contributions to cosmetic science.

Further information can be found on the FDA’s website.

Are you a cosmetic scientist who dreams of one day starting your own line of cosmetics? On today’s show we talk to Kimberly Riley of FSL Cosmetics

Show notes:

1. News
Wrinkles are scarier for young people than cancer. If you want to stop people from exposing themselves to harmful radiation, just tell them it will make their skin look bad when they get older.

Benefits of Vitamin D in skin care products. Do these sound like drug or cosmetic claims?

2. Cosmetic Science Ideas
How to use the SCAMPER method for coming up with new cosmetic product ideas.

* Substitute

* Combine

* Adapt

* Modify

* Put to other Purposes

* Eliminate

* Rearrange

3. Interview with Kimberly Riley
Kimberly Riley is a cosmetic chemist who began FSL Cosmetics in January 2010. She earned a bachelor’s degree in Chemical Engineering and had double minors in Chemistry and Business Administration. Her goal in life is to use nature as an aid that fosters in revolutionizing and enhancing women’s beauty worldwide.

You can contact Kimberly through her website FSL Cosmetics You can also follower her on Twitter (FSLcosmetics)

If you have a question, comment or other suggestion about the podcast, leave a message in the space below.

Chemists Corner is a podcast about cosmetic science and is broadcast to help educate, entertain, and inspire current and future cosmetic scientists. The information and opinions discussed on Chemists Corner are those of the hosts and the guests alone. They do not necessarily reflect those of any past, present or future employers.

I put together this video about cosmetic ingredient nomenclature that you might enjoy.  It’s about 15 minutes long and gives you a basic introduction to how cosmetic ingredients get their names.

Just click on this link

Every year Happi magazine does a listing of the top beauty companies. They actually do two rankings where they give the 50 top US companies and the 30 top International companies.  I always wished they did a compilation list.

Well, it turns out, they did. This article lists the top 20 beauty industry companies. Click the picture for the full list.

Filtered beauty company list

What I like about the list is that it separates out the beauty company part of the business from the rest of the company. For example, Johnson & Johnson is listed as the 9th company with $5.6 billion in yearly sales. However, J&J is more of a pharmaceutical company making over $63 billion a year in sales. Baby shampoo is profitable but it doesn’t bring in nearly as much as their drugs.

Why should cosmetic chemists care?

While this list is interesting from a trivial standpoint, it can also be quite useful to a cosmetic chemist. Here are just a few ways you can use the list.

1. Interview research – If you want to stand out when interviewing for a cosmetic science job, it’s helpful to know something about the company. This list can quickly get you familiar with your potential employer. It can also help you learn about the company’s competition. The more you know about the industry, the better your chances of landing a job.

2. Competitive research – If you already have a job, it’s good to know which brands go with which company. This can help you compare formulas and determine what raw material blends they might be using. This could help you in your efforts to knock-off their formulas. You can also see where they are using the same basic formulas for different brands.

3. New product ideas – This list gives you an idea of where these companies are putting their development efforts. It can help spark ideas on what areas you might want to pursue or even avoid.

Becoming knowledgeable about the companies in the beauty industry is a crucial part of being a well-rounded cosmetic chemist. Hopefully, this list has gotten you started.

While learning how to become a cosmetic scientist is fun, it doesn’t do you much good if you don’t have a job. Sure, you could start your own company and we love to encourage people to do that, but if you are like most people, you’ll first get a job working for someone else.

Cosmetic Science Jobs

Here are a few places that you might find cosmetic science jobs.

Careers in Cosmetics
This is a site that helps connect employers with job seekers. You can post your resume and search for cosmetic science jobs by job title, company, and location. If you’re searching for a job in the beauty industry, you should be looking here.

Indeed.com
This website takes aggregate results from a variety of online job search sites and puts them conveniently in one place. You can search by job title or location. It also gives you alternative terms which will help you expand your search. For example, if you search for cosmetic chemist, it will suggest cosmetic formulator.

Juju
This job search engine is much like Indeed.com but it seems to give slightly different results.

Twitter
Many people are finding that Twitter can help them make connections with important people and are landing jobs directly. Here is an articles that gives you 50 tips on using Twitter to find a job. After you create your twitter presence, start following all the people in the cosmetic industry that you can find. You can start with this list of >20 cosmetic chemists on twitter.

Society of Cosmetic Chemists
Many of the SCC chapters have job listings in their monthly newsletters. Most of the chapters have websites where you can read their newsletters online. So, if you’re looking go to one of the SCC chapters (find them at the National SCC webpage) and look at their newsletters.

Finally, here is a list of 10 of the best job hunting websites as decided by DigitalTrends.com.

Is there a job finding website that we missed? Leave a comment below and let your fellow cosmetic chemists know.