The Matinales de la Cosmétique (The Breakfast Meetings - Cosmetics), the professional conferences organized every month by Sylvain-Romain Cotte ( SRC Consulting ), held in February 2012 was about a very interesting topic: the relationship between cosmetics and health. “Reality or utopia?” Dr Christine Lafforgue, the speaker, asked as a preamble of her paper. True reality, and a reality of the future, was her conclusion. Here is a report.
Christine Lafforgue is renowned in the cosmetics world. She is currently the Manager of the DermoPharmacology and Cosmetology Department of the Faculty of Medicine, Châtenay-Malabry , near Paris. She works on the cosmetics formulation and the way a cosmetic enters our skins, “to optimize the cosmetic product, so that its ingredients arrive in the right area, at the right moment and in the right condition to be efficient,” she explained.
Her idea, during this 23rd Breakfast Meeting - Cosmetics, was to think about the relationship that exists between the cosmetics, the skin on which they are applied, the effects on the user’s health. A broad field, which we are still far from knowing everything about, though already exciting.
Obviously, the field of action of a cosmetic product is a healthy skin, which has no disease (such as acne, psoriasis, atopy …). However, Dr Christine Lafforgue has also explained how cosmetics could be a help, along with or after medical treatments, for a skin disease, or even in case of severe disease (such as cancer or senile dementia). Indeed, they are also just a factor in improving the quality of our lives!
Who dare say that cosmetics are superficial?
