Please activate JavaScript!
Please install Adobe Flash Player, click here for download
ePaper created 2015-04-29, 11:32:09 | version 1.38.0
• Beta hydroxy acids (e.g. salicylic acid) require a pH below 3.0 to be 50% bioavailable. Rarely will there be a commercially available cosmetic prod- uct with a pH this low, but those with a pH > 4.0 will have lost most of the benefits of using this material in the formulation. Products that market a combina- tion of materials requiring a high pH (e.g. retinol) and those requiring a low pH (e.g. beta hydroxy acids) should be avoided. Only one of these materials at best could be efficacious; or really in- ept formulation techniques, yielding a product marketed to have a skin-com- patible pH (around 5.5), would mean neither of these are bioavailable in proportions suitable to be effective. The exact compatibility require- ments of the many hundreds of active ingredients available can vary consid- erably. So the bioavailability of the substances used in the products needs to be checked to ensure that it has been formulated to achieve the best possible performance. Incorrect use or poor marketing Another reason for a poor perform- ance is the incorrect use of active in- gredients and/or marketing. While for- mulation incompatibilities are the most common issue impacting effica- cy, there are also products that simply don’t contain enough of an active to provide the results promised and/or don’t have the capacity to deliver them in the required amount to the desired destination. Active ingredients can on- ly perform in the way intended when the formulation has been designed to ensure their stability and bioavailabili- ty AND enough of the active is present in each application. The number of ap- plications per day or per week is crucial along with the form of the product, to ensure good delivery of the active in- gredient or ingredients to the required layer of the epidermis. However this does not necessarily mean that very small amounts of a substance cannot be effective. Peptides, for example, on- ly need to be present in the order of parts per million (ppm) to provide out- standing results – so the position of an active in an ingredient list can be de- ceptive. What is more important is to be sure that the product has been for- mulated to deliver the actives present to the intended point, and contains an efficacious amount of the active as proven in clinical trials when similarly used. Details of the tests matter – such as the number of participants in the tri- al, how often the product has been applied and whether the active was present in a similar form of product in the same amount. Unrealistic expectations Another reason for a poor product performance can simply boil down to unrealistic expectations. Sometimes consumers just expect far too much from a cosmetic product. Cosmetics are supposed to be designed for topi- cal application to provide a transient change to the appearance of the skin. They should not promise to provide long term physiological changes to the skin’s structure or the way it works. For example, skin-whitening ingredients can use one or more methods to inhib- it melanin production, and assuming the product has been formulated with compatibility, bioavailability and using the clinically proven amounts of active ingredient, it still will not perform as expected if: • the product is not used regularly by the consumer in accordance with the instructions • the consumer undergoes consider- able UV exposure and/or • the consumer is expecting to be- come whiter than the day they were born. Genetics, lifestyle and hormones can prevent a cosmetic product from ever working the way it was intended or has promised; and the consumer look- ing for a miracle in a jar is bound to end up disappointed. So any promise of re- sults should be cautious, as people looking for a miracle are unlikely to be satisfied no matter how good the prod- uct really is. This can also happen where marketing claims and over-am- bitious photo-shopping in advertise- ments exceed what a typical consumer can hope to achieve from regular use of a product. *There is no EU restriction on retinol **In the EU, glycolic acid and lactic acid (alpha hydroxyl acids) have no restrictions listed ***In the EU, salicylic acid is restricted to 2% in leave-on products as an active ingredient and must not be used in products for children under the age of 3 years; as a preservative it is limited to 0.5% input PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT FOCUS: ACTIVE INGREDIENTS Belinda Pilmore Director, Institute of Personal Care Science Coolum Beach, Australia bpilmore@personalcarescience. com.au www.personalcarescience.com.au In Australian cosmetic products retinol is limit- ed to 1% whereas there is no EU restriction on retinol photo:Foxterrier,Shutterstock.com COS1505_18_Pilmore_COS1409_10_Van_Hoeven_GB 27.04.15 07:08 Seite 19 COS1505_18_Pilmore_COS1409_10_Van_Hoeven_GB 27.04.1507:08 Seite 19