Formulators Forum--Optimizing Your Emulsion to Meet Marketing Requirements

By: Ken Klein, Cosmetech Laboratories

Posted: February 2, 2006, from the February 2006 issue of Cosmetics & Toiletries.

Cosmetic formulators are given product briefs from our marketing friends and then we go off to the bench to create our masterpiece. After we submit our idea of what we think the brief really meant, someone from marketing gets back to us and tells us that it doesn’t feel right. It’s too “draggy,” doesn’t have enough “cushion” and doesn’t feel “sophisticated.” Ideally, marketing and formulators can communicate with words whose definitions both parties can agree on, but still there is the problem of optimizing the emulsion to meet marketing requirements. This column illustrates that process.

Marketing has requested that we develop a sunscreen facial moisturizer (SPF 15) that rubs in quickly but doesn't feel draggy.  This product must leave the skin feeling moisturized but cannot be greasy.  It is to be dispensed from a squeeze bottle.   

This is only an excerpt of the full article that appeared in Cosmetics & Toiletries, but you can purchase the full-text version.