Cosmetic chemistry: what is important to know

Danne Montague-King, Doctor of Biochemistry and Pharmacology, founder of DMK (Los Angeles, USA)

Secrets-secrets

The wording “secret formula” has always been one of the levers for successfully promoting skin or body care products to the market. Since the 1970s, cosmetics manufacturers have been allowed to keep their “trade secrets” secret and not even disclose them to government agencies that control exports and imports. There was also an unwritten but widely used rule: to list fictitious ingredient names on packaging to prevent competitors from copying the product, or not to list certain active ingredients in the formula at all. The following principle was also widespread: if the content of a certain component is less than 3%, then it is not necessary to indicate it on the label.

Over the years, the situation has changed radically. Face and body skin care products and treatments were becoming increasingly effective, and manufacturers were scrambling to make the most of the very vague and fashionable word “cosmeceuticals.”

In my own practice, for decades I have balanced on the narrow line between medicine and cosmetology and, hand on heart, I can say: it is my merit that today throughout the world (especially in the European Union) we are seeing tightening of control over the cosmetics used. When you've been writing dozens of articles for 40 years and lecturing on what to use for effective results in skin treatments, you're bound to get noticed - including by the pharmaceutical manufacturers who have ignored us "cosmetics people" for decades. In recent years, pharmaceutical companies have suddenly realized that they could make more money if certain ingredients in skin and body care products were classified as "medicine or preparation authorized for sale in pharmacies without a prescription." Tanning products were the first to fall into this category, followed by a large number of herbal ingredients that are now prohibited from being used in skin care products (unless they are licensed as over-the-counter drugs). This trend has greatly complicated the life and work of manufacturers of professional cosmetics, of which I am a representative. Today I have to spend an enormous amount of time in the laboratory reformulating drugs that I've worked with for years with good results, only because some of the ingredients in them are now illegal for me to use. Fortunately, in the world of plants and medicinal herbs, there is a huge selection of substitutes for the “banned ingredient”, with the same or similar effects on the skin. Any experienced botanist or herbalist knows this and can get ahead of slow-moving bureaucratic government agencies.

But developing, reworking or copying a recipe is not so easy. New regulations require documentation of the ingredients used and their suppliers, the safety of these materials and their test results, the percentage of ingredients used, and even the phases of the manufacturing process step by step! So in the modern cosmetic world, it will not be possible to hide behind the wording “secret formula” or “trade secret”: manufacturers are forced to provide government agencies with their own formulas and can only pray that officials do not copy them onto a disk, take them home and pass them on to a third party. owning or working for a cosmetics company!

Large brands that have been on the market for a long time and occupy a strong position can afford not to take this situation seriously. Some manufacturers choose to protect themselves from copying by creating comprehensive educational standards for the use of their product in professional treatment. In this case, even if a competitor successfully copies the product, it may take many years and additional investment to replicate the concept and methodology of the treatment protocols. Such companies view their products as merely a tool in a series of treatments that have many variables depending on the patient's skin condition. It is quite difficult to copy using counterfeits of one or two products.

But the most amazing fact, in my opinion, which makes caring about the “secrecy” of formulas pointless, is that the Internet is now full of a variety of recipes. Today we can go online and find the formula for anything! Many suppliers of raw materials and ingredients post sample formulas on their websites, indicating the starting materials and components.

In addition, all ingredients used in the production of cosmetics must be registered in the EU or FDA registers. For example, in the United States there is a library of the Association of Cosmetic, Personal Care and Fragrance Manufacturers, which provides a list of all ingredients that can be legally used in a formulation, as well as data on its safety. Let's say, if I happen to extract a hitherto unknown plant, add its extract to the cream, without indicating it in the composition on the product label, then I am taking a very big risk, because if someone finds out about this, I will lose everything and be forced to stop your work. And my competitors are always looking for something similar to report to official agencies! So in the modern world, the concept of “secret formula” is no longer relevant and does not in any way protect products from copying.

What about patents?

Patents are issued for many categories - there is even a "design patent" for a specific package that may be different from some other design. Personally, I am skeptical about using the word “proprietary” in relation to any skin and body care product. I'll explain why. When you patent a formula that no one but you created (which is becoming increasingly difficult to do every year), it becomes available to any competitor who wants to look at this formula in the patent registry. And in the case of herbal and botanical ingredients - and, as I said above, there are many related plants that have similar properties - all your competitors will have to do to bring a similar product to market with impunity is substitute one or two components from your design! You can, of course, legally challenge this. However, in the USA, for example, the validity period of a patent is only 10 years, after which it must be extended (in Ukraine, the maximum validity period of a patent for an invention is 25 years, without the possibility of extension. – Ed.). At the same time, you will be under constant stress trying to protect “yours,” which is why I never tried to patent anything.

Additionally, in my opinion, the worst form of unethical advertising is the use of the phrase “patent pending” on product packaging or advertising. The purpose of this is to reassure the buying public that the product is in some way special and revolutionary. In reality, the only thing this phrase means is that the manufacturing company has applied for a patent. Anyone can apply!

From idea to implementation

The path to creating a new drug is always very long, and it begins with the birth of an idea. At first the idea is nothing more than an abstract fantasy, then a formula or pattern is developed based on it. During these stages, scientists work with hand-mixed samples before setting up system production.

Once all this has been done, it comes time for various technical regulations that vary around the world: for example, a manufacturer is puzzled by the question of which category should the active ingredients used in its product fall into - the category of drugs sold in pharmacies without a prescription , or cosmetic? This step can be a nightmare and usually ends with the scientist trying to change the composition of the drug formula so that it complies with regulations or so that environmentally-minded activists who constantly run around shouting without evidence that everything causes cancer do not scare consumers with this product.

Then the managers come into the process - people who have ate their heads on scouring the Internet and reference books in search of ingredients that in the near future could potentially be called “overly effective” and fall into the category of drugs or medications. This team is supplemented by marketers who constantly press the development scientist, demanding more and more miracle formulas that will allow the business to grow faster.

We then move on to selecting ingredient suppliers. Peptides, proteins, plant extracts and other goodies used in a cosmetic product may or may not comply with rules and regulations imposed by the European Union or the US Food, Beverage and Drug Administration (FDA). Chamomile extract can be purchased in many places, but at the same time, from one manufacturer it will be cheap and ineffective, while from another it will be exactly the opposite. Materials that are well known for their high quality and effectiveness are usually expensive, so most companies use one or two highly active ingredients and try to reduce the final cost of the product by using cheaper components for the base of the drug. It is a common belief that the base, or inactive ingredient, does not matter, that only the active ingredients should be considered. But this is not true. Many so-called inert ingredients act in synergy with the active ingredient, either as precursors or as part of an effective “skin delivery” system. Even preservatives can have a positive effect on the skin, destroying tiny amounts of bacteria or fungi on it, although their main job, of course, is to protect the product and extend its shelf life. All of these steps must be adjusted before the product reaches the consumer, along with the development of packaging and advertising campaigns, training manuals, etc.

Stability tests, as well as independent laboratory studies, are performed to determine the macrobacterial potential of a cosmetic product. Clinical trials are not required for cosmetics, but it is recommended that samples be sent out so that professionals can work with them before going into production - this will avoid a lot of problems in the future. Most “clinical trial” results, graphs and charts used in advertising (for example, claims that Cream X increases skin hydration levels by 85% after 28 days of use) are provided to cosmetic companies by raw material and ingredient suppliers.

Naturalness is in question

As for the naturalness of cosmetics - a trend today aggressively propagated by the media - I can say that I experienced the first such “witch hunt” campaign back in the 1960s, when it was believed that almost any chemical product, if it was not obtained from “ natural source" causes cancer or other life-threatening effects.

When it comes to the fact that a laboratory should use only organic plants or herbal extracts grown without pesticides, etc., in the production of cosmetics, then ideally such a laboratory would have its own farm to be one hundred percent sure that that the raw materials are produced in accordance with all the principles of true organic farming. And ultimately, the cost of this process should be made public.

Of course, today there are already quite a large number of organic farms that grow plants in the traditional way, without the use of modern chemical advances. But how to solve the problem with germs and bacteria? And are there enough state and government agencies with the necessary number of inspectors who can regularly monitor the claimed properties of organic farming products? The latter is just in its infancy and has a long way to go, and the cosmetics industry can't afford to wait until everything is 100% organic and bacteria-free. So today, talk about absolute naturalness and organicity in most cases is nothing more than a marketing gimmick.

In addition to information about fictitious “naturalness,” today’s advertising widely uses the words “free from parabens, sulfates and phthalates,” which are intended to convey that this product is superior and completely natural. Only a very small number of the most curious will go online, study official toxicology reports, and see that parabens and other disgraced ingredients have no real toxic effects. Most people believe that these are bad and harmful substances, otherwise why would the manufacturer keep silent about them?

Because of this consumer sentiment, many cosmetic companies, including mine, are forced to reformulate their products so that they do not include these “bad” ingredients. For example, I spent a whole year agonizing over finding substitutes for preservatives, and I prepared several “tricks” that not very many people know about (yet). I harassed my chemists and the private testing labs I worked with for fear of discrediting my own products that had worked great for decades. As a result, we made changes and they seem to be quite effective. If time shows that the changed drugs work worse than before, then go back to what worked.

In the end, I suspect that in five years all this “fuss” around parabens, preservatives and sulfates will be subject to harsh criticism, because, whatever one may say, substitutes for these substances do not cope with microbacteria as well as tried and true parabens, and most plant-based ingredients sourced from raw materials are riddled with bacteria. This is why many large OTC companies, such as Revlon and Estee' Lauder, have been slow to change their formulas - OTC products are much more likely to be sued than more professionally regulated products in the private clinical sector.

I recently spoke with employees of several independent testing laboratories, and they expressed concern about the "growth of bacteria" that could be caused by the hype around "all-natural products." The truth is this: you can create a completely natural product, but you will have to store it in the refrigerator and use it within about two weeks. Combine this with the point of production, storage until sale, delivery and warehousing by the wholesaler and then at the point of sale to the final consumer - this period is many times greater than two weeks of possible use. And from a marketing point of view it's just a nightmare.

Summary

Knowing the ingredients is great, and I encourage every physician to educate themselves as much as they can with that knowledge. And if you are ready for this, then perhaps the following plan will come in handy:

1. Determine the main active ingredient, purity and potency of the active ingredients (how they are extracted and processed).
2. Find out what its properties are. If it is a plant extract, how does it compare to other plants with similar properties (after all, many plants contain the same vitamins, minerals and active enzymatic properties, with some being more effective than others).
3. Find out what part of the plant or organic matter is used: roots or leaves, oils or dried whole plant?
4. Find out whether the active ingredients work in synergy with the other components of the drug. Often the ingredients can "fight" with each other (in some cases it can be acidic versus alkaline), so I'm suspicious of any product with a huge amount of "active ingredients" listed on the packaging.
5. Does it contain excessive amounts of “hot, new-fangled” ingredients? Skin cells only respond to chemicals that they recognize, meaning the use of large amounts of keratinizing ingredients such as retinoids disorients skin cells and enhances defense mechanisms that may be reactive to the skin.
6. Don't go crazy about ingredients that have peeling properties: they are all keratolytic in some sense, but some are alkaline and others are acidic. Remember: acid hardens dead cells, causing them to become brittle and removed from the epidermis, while alkalis soften them and actually cause instant sloughing. The mixture of ingredients and the time of use of the products play an important role in this case. Regular products should not contain these ingredients - products with these types of formulas should be prescribed by a professional.
7. Research the delivery systems used in the product and remember that they do not rely on external ingredients, particularly peptides - they rely on water/oil fractionation (or wetting agents such as dimethyl sulfoxide, DMSO) and are very delicate and expensive to produce. All substances that could be true nanoparticles should be considered systemic. For now, even despite modern and promising nanotechnologies, the main question is where will nanoingredients end up? The circulatory system is our own delivery system and can be therapeutic or lethal depending on what is administered.

Reading labels should become an automatic process for any esthetician or medical practitioner.

If you follow the above simple rules and check ingredients online or in reference books, and then apply logic and your knowledge of skin histology, you will not be fooled or disappointed by any product, no matter how miraculous and effective the manufacturer's claims may be. And remember: products are just tools. When treating skin, the concept of correction is more important than the products used. Professional treatment should also imitate nature and all the natural functions of the skin.

A good example would be a plastic surgeon teaching a group of pre-med students at a medical college. He wouldn't hold his scalpel over his head and talk about it for two hours, because the scalpel is just his tool. Instead, he would discuss his methods: tissue dissection, suture technique, placement of fatty tissue and muscle, etc. Cosmetologists who strive for real, long-term results, regardless of the chosen treatment methods, should think in the same way and never depend from any devices or products.

First published: Les Nouvelles Esthetiques Ukraine, No. 2 (78), 2013