The challenges of cosmetic chemists around the world

This is a guest editorial post by Rajat Narang

Cosmetic Chemist!!! A cosmetic chemist is an individual who specializes in a Degree with

majors in Cosmetic Science with subjects like Cosmetic Research, Cosmetic Technology,

Cosmetic Formulation Development, Herbal Cosmetics, Skincare, Hair care, Color Cosmetics,

Perfumery, Immunology & Toxicology, Product Development, Cosmetic Engineering,

Cosmetic Regulatory, Cosmetic raw materials and their processing, Cosmetic Quality Assurance

Techniques and so on…

If you see all the major cosmetic producing companies in the market including P&G, L’Oreal

Inc, Avon Inc, Coty Inc, Avon Inc, Johnson & Johnson group of companies and many more…the

people who are working on the bench to develop cosmetics products are not Cosmetics

Chemists, rather most of them are Chemical engineers, chemistry graduates or some other degree

individuals. If an accounts job is given to Accounting professional only, a Finance job to finance

guy only, medical job to a doctor only, then why not Cosmetics technical job to a cosmetic

chemist only??

Immigration of cosmetic chemists

This incident happened with this guy few days back, he is Masters and Bachelors degree in

Cosmetic Science with hard earned experience of few years within Cosmetic field. He has been

constantly checking many jobs for his career advancement in his specialized cosmetic field in

other countries. These jobs have been displayed for more than 2 months, sometimes even 3 to 4

months, this guy is absolutely suitable to the job, the recruiter between is saying that you qualify

for the job, but the Immigration Visa issues and country borders are so huge that finally he is

rejected on the basis that his immigration visa for work would be too complicated or maybe next

to impossible to do by any employer.

If you see the general trend today on job searching and networking global websites like

Careerbuilder, Simply Hired, Indeed , Monster, LinkedIn and few others too, they have plenty of

jobs open for cosmetic chemists or cosmetic formulators or cosmetics new product development

for couple of months already or time period even more, but they don’t have right people to fill

them. Finally, the outcome is, they hire Chemical engineers, pharmaceutics guys, chemistry

based or other individuals with experience within cosmetic field. These are those individuals

who understand the basic of Cosmetics, but they are not the individuals who have put 4-8 years

of their life just studying Cosmetic Science to get one good job within cosmetic field. Most of

these individuals employed today on cosmetic chemist job are individuals with related science

background who could get jobs in other industrial sectors too.

The pity is that the jobs are available, there is shortage of cosmetic individuals in all the

countries throughout globe, but still Cosmetic Chemists cannot get these well deserved jobs due

to Immigration, Visa or documents issues while getting hired in some other country.

Today FDA, COLIPA and all other Administrative and Regulatory bodies throughout the

globe are in the phase of revolution. They are putting certain restrictions on chemical ingredients

like Formaldehyde, Dibutyl Phthalate, Parabens, Pthalic anhydride and many others, but they are

not letting Companies do quick documents for Cosmetic Chemists, who, the chemists are the real people who can replace and analyse cosmetics products better.

Cosmetic chemists

A Cosmetic Chemist has studied only Cosmetics to the core, of course he will be a better

formulator once given a chance within Cosmetics field, but if you hire individual from a related

field, he will learn first and then he’ll apply. In layman’s language, for instance, there are 2

doctors, one specializes in bones and other is general physician. Now think, if this general

physician is made to do all the work of the bones specialist, he may be successful, but for that

he’ll have to learn, understand and then work on the success. If in case, the bone specialist would

have been called, he would have fixed the issue in half the time or maybe less as he specializes

only in bones.

Hiring cosmetic chemist specialists

My point above is that Cosmetics Chemists who have studied Cosmetic Science are very

limited in number all over the world. They have put years of study and experience just for

Cosmetic Science. Seeing this current revolutionary phase of advancement in Cosmetic Science,

all the Country Administrations and Homeland Security Offices should understand the need

of Cosmetic Chemists in the Cosmetics Industry and their shortage through out the world. The

Visa procedures should be relaxed for the Cosmetic Chemists and it should be made easy for

companies to hire them.

I guess there is a rule of the Administrative Bodies and Homeland security offices of the

countries that a company can hire foreign workers only in case you show that there are no local

workers available. For this, the companies have to put certain ads on recruitment websites for

20-30 days. If nobody is selected then they can hire foreign individual, but how??? Until the time

the administrative bodies won’t make the procedures simple after this time period, how will

a company hire somebody from outside. Hence, for this happening, important is to curb the

Immigration law of the countries seeing the need of Cosmetic Chemists in Cosmetic Industries

today.