My takeaway from SEPAWA congress

Last week I attended SEPAWA congress and exhibition in Berlin. This is one of the most prestigeous events in Europe with lectures, poster presentations and exhibitors from the industry and various universities around the world.

I found a few exciting and interesting new ingredients that I'm going to test during the coming months and  source some of them depending on our experiments results but today I'm going to share my overall impression about the congress.

1- Sustainibility, water saving and water management were not only considered as a whole separate topic, they are a high piority in every ingredient development.

2- Cosmetic manufacturers have rediscovered natural gums. For decades, the industry have stubbornly used polyacrylates for viscosity modifying and emulsion stabilising. This year, even most of the "non-natural" formulations were made with natural gums.

3- Rethinking the anti-perspirants: antiperspirants without aluminium derivatives. This is still in the research phase but a few universities are working on this subject and hopefully we'll have some reasonable ingredients in the near future

4- Microbiome is still a big topic in skincare. It is not just about throwing a few microorganisms in a formulation and call it probiotics (which doesn't work anyway). The focus is on prebiotics and post biotics (I have a complete post coming out soon)

5- The ingredients of the next decade are working in a cellular level. The most exciting ingredients and delivery methods are coming from the pharmaceutical industry and cellular biology: smart lipids, cellular oils, encapsulated active ingredients are just a few to name

6- Skin protection against radiation and blue rays is quite an attractive topic since a couple of years

7- Most of the speakers (these are the brightest heads of the nations apparently) were like this

well not literally like this but with a mindset like this.

Despite all the amazing progress in product development and testing and despite the fact that everybody is trying to create something "green", "biodegradable" and "sustainable", they still roll their eyes when they talk about green chemistry and "natural ingredients".

paraffins (parabens, phenoxyethanol) are quite safe and effective but the consumer doesn't want them .....

Hey, we have only two months into 2020 and they're still talking about paraffin.

This is so ridiculous. A speaker talks about half an hour about an innovative, green and sustainable ingredient to fulfil the demands of the consumer and at the end:

• Sulphate free formulations contain PEG-derivatives and silicones
• Silicone-free formulations contain phenoxyethanol and PEG-derivatives
• PEG-free formulations contain EDTA and DEA

those dinosaurs in the industry do not see the overall picture and focus only on one demand without paying attention to the whole concept.

7- GMP and preservation are still popular topics. There were even several "new" preservative systems introduced (some of them with phenoxyethanol!!!!). Honestly I didn't find anything new and exciting about them. They were somehow a new blend of the already existing preservative (or non preservative) ingredients.

What I still miss is a broadspectrum preservative system that is palm-oil free and is efficient in a broad pH range.

8- IKA has introduced a viscosimeter for the first time. It is much more affordable compared to the Brookfield system that I have and if you're looking for something to put on your wish list for Santa, this is the perfect tool. They have adapted some excellent features from Brookfield such as small sample adaptor that allows you measure the viscosity of small samples.

Long story short that was quite a fascinating event. I'll come back to you when I have tested some of the new ingredients.

BeHappy and have fun