Does Beauty Desperately Need A New Hero Ingredient?

Twenty-five years ago, after experiencing the clinically driven and regulated pharmace­utical industry, I joined the innovative world of beauty. Intuitively, my passion was to bring highly efficacious and dermatology-inspired products into cosmetics. New to the cosmetic industry as a bench chemist, I envisioned my lab as an "apothecary" to compound creative and breakthrough formulations using alpha hydroxy acids, retinoids, niacinamide, vitamin C, salicylic acid, caffeine, hyaluronic acid and amino peptides.

In fact, my first patent granted in the industry in 1998 was for the stabilization of retinol in a commercial cosmetic serum. I remember those days when I used to suit up, head to toe, in personal protective equipment (PPE), handling concentrated retinol in yellow lighted chambers and gassing nitrogen in aluminium foiled packaging.

Fast forward to today and ... guess what? Products are still being launched claiming stabilized retinol. Key trending molecules across the world in most leading brands are also the same as I had in my tool chest decades ago. What is different is we are now using higher percentages and playing the numbers game boldly on front of the package. We are creating "fancy" product textures such as jellies, oil-serums, fat-waters; and we are presenting newer…