This mood note was inspired by listening, a little distracted at first, then more attentively and even repetitively in a later stage, to a program of La Méthode Scientifique. If you feel like it, and if you have the time or take it, I recommend you listen to this podcast ...

In a recent information, we are told that the cosmetic preservative market is expected to grow exponentially to US$1.4 billion by 2024, despite the highly controversial consumer position. This only confirms another similar, though different, piece of information reported in the report on the frequency of use of antimicrobial preservatives ...

After a few periods of ill humour due to practices I do not really support, because they are associated with insidiously tyrannical approaches, like the tyranny of the immediate, or the tyranny of novelty, I am going on with my crusade, this time against commoditization.

In 1932, Aldous Huxley tried to imagine what the future beauty world would be like. He said that this world should be perfumed and that cellulite would be out-of-place. Society members’ tastes would be oriented towards leisure that would require buying specialized equipment, instead of enjoying free or cheap pastimes. For ...

I am sure regular readers of our mood notes were not surprised by the recent news about the notion of Artificial Intelligence (AI). For those that do not feel concerned, it is still time. All of a sudden, this AI notion has been put in the spotlight, in particular with ...

I recently discussed a much talked-about subject, ‘new varnish’, with one of the people we spent some of our time with working on nail varnish. Specialist Éric Wimmer dedicated a great part of his life to this field, and he has already honoured La Cosmétothèque with a beautiful tale on ...

These terms are more and more frequently used when certain players in our trade express their concerns. They even end up constituting a unique way of thinking that would replace the previous one. For this note, I drew inspiration from Jacques Sebag’s relevant article in Expression Cosmétique #48, in ...

The word ‘Fandom’ is composed of ‘fan’ [for ‘fanatic’] followed by the suffix ‘dom’ [for ‘domain’]. The French also use the word ‘fanbase’ to describe this trend. These words refer to the sub-culture of a set of fans, i.e. everything that concerns the favourite area of a group of ...

I used these mood notes several times to report about the boom of artificial intelligence, in particular as regards formulation trades. In one of them, I had even mentioned the idea that combining artificial intelligence and robots might eventually offer astonishing changes in this field.

This mood note’s title may sound provocative or rather cheeky, but to me, it does reflect reality. Indeed, our industry always boasts about being innovative, and many players revel in big words that make them think they are at the forefront of innovation, when they have actually never been ...

Progress in general, whether it is technical, scientific, or more specifically social, has made us get used to being offered advances, a few of which gradually became utopias, and over time, did not keep their promises or live up to the hopes they had raised. I tentatively discussed this issue ...

If you have a close look at the History of cosmetics, it is pretty easy to identify several periods corresponding to quite different practices. After the very beginnings, and then the industrialization of formulas and the contribution of Biology, new notions have just been introduced, marked by the impact of ...

Everyone has long been praising K-Beauty’s fantastic ability to invent tomorrow’s cosmetics. Why not. Apparently, the latest trend - after cushions, which clearly worked well – is the appearance of a new little wonder called ‘tension pack’.

It is not because politicians have just discovered this issue that I am taking interest in it now, but simply because things are all focused on this theme. This issue of endocrine disruptors is playing an increasingly more significant role and will not go without creating serious problems to the ...

One of those sad, grey days of January, the pride of the cosmetics industry gathered in Paris to discuss a highly topical issue. Kindly invited by the organizers, I humbly got involved in the debates to try and clarify a few questions I had on this theme. After a brilliant ...

A few people have already pointed out to me that they were surprised I could take interest in issues related to artificial intelligence applied to formulation. Of course, I happen to have published a few notes on this topic, and I easily admit I am keen on this theme: I ...

Should we be sceptical as regards the spectacular wave we have been observing on pollution, or more precisely antipollution? For my part, I must admit the fact that this concept has become ubiquitous is starting to get on my nerves. I do not think I will get that many positive ...

In a recent article, I raised the question of the use of AI in formulation. Since then, things have taken shape, so I felt the need to tackle this issue again.

You have all probably followed the emergence of what is called Slow Cosmetics. If you have liked this concept, you are also likely to be interested in a new trend, Clean Beauty. Both are greatly inspired from what is going on in the food industry, and it would be presumptuous ...

Innovation is making good progress in all beauty fields, including instrumental beauty. Many techniques are regularly developed as significant advances, compared to what is already available.

Artificial intelligence is much debated in many fields, and discussions are quite animated on this issue. Brilliant minds like Stephen Hawking speak on how, in the long run, artificial intelligence might replace human intelligence. One might consider this debate quite far from our small cosmetics industry’s concerns. However, as ...

The latest version of In-Cosmetics has just been held in Paris, and the least we can say is that anti-pollution, and by extension pollution, was at the centre of the debates. Indeed, it was very difficult to find an alley in which this theme was not treated in one form ...

At a time when we talk a lot about artificial intelligence with the computer's repeated victories over the best go players, another notion, cognitive enhancement, is beginning to develop gradually and make people talk about it. In particular for its relationship with cosmetic innovation.

COP 21 was particularly well publicised and the political stakes often masked a whole series of concomitant events that were not really lacking in interest. While COP 21 has come under bad auspices since the US Supreme Court questioned the basis of the agreement signed in Paris, what concerns POC 21 will certainly have more consequences ...

The cosmetics industry loves using scientific progress to make its products and proposals more advanced. Scientific breakthroughs, most of which are derived from academic research, are regularly put forward, and the industry jumps on the bandwagon to develop new products. In some cases, it even anticipates these new concepts a ...

After ending the year 2015 with a paper on this theme, I start this new year on the same, because if there are current topics, this one is really part of it. If I put a ? in the title, it does not mean that, in my opinion, things raise questions, but simply ...

Everyone agrees that connected objects are about to revolutionize some of our habits, in particular in the world of health. This revolution mainly relies on what we call self-assessment. However, it should be said that this self-assessment is carried out by devices, not the users themselves. Many applications have already ...

At first I called this ticket: what if? Until one of my friends, knowing my activities, suggested this sentence by Régis Debray. Finding it perfectly adapted to my purpose, I propose it to you at my turn:"The desire for the future must have a long memory".

I do not mean to take part in the controversy recently reported – I would not be qualified for it –, which consists in finding out whether what is said about stem cells in anti-aging cosmetics practices, and others, is relevant or not. However, it seems to me that this concept of ...

Some time ago, there was this expression from a famous novel: ‘All Quiet on the Western Front’. Now, the following could be said of the recent changes in the cosmetics world: ‘It is nirvana on the Eastern front!’ It is not new: Asia long created a sort of fascination. But ...

Foresight has always been a very difficult exercise. Psychics or mediums of all kinds or experts were very wrong in the interpretation that one could make of the future. The only proof of this is the reissue of a very beautiful series of postcards made at the beginning of the ...

I really do not mean to become an unquestioning defender of the cosmetics industry, but it is quite unfortunate to see that no one comments reports like the one recently broadcast in French TV magazine Envoyé Spécial, entitled Beauty at low cost. As a matter of fact, it contains many ...

It seems to me that certain signs have been disturbing the microcosm of cosmetics for a while, and they may possibly lead to people changing their views, attitudes, or even roles. I am actually talking about the role of ingredient manufacturers who offer quite unexpected, most cheeky initiatives.

I would like to come back with this mood post to an issue that has occupied part of the press and that concerns our field of activity. It's actually an ingredient that this time gave me buttons, not as some commentators say because it would be hydrogenated, but because ...

When I first became interested in skin biology, there was a popular belief that having the nerves flush with the skin had a very specific meaning. The concern was that anatomically the nerves did not appear clearly in the upper layers of the skin, let alone in the epidermis. So ...

A recent article in L'Obs magazine recently began:"I no longer buy day cream. I make it myself, it's like mayonnaise! This was followed by a description of the ingredients and the manufacturing process. Pure DIY sugar!

Sensory cosmetics have been praised regularly and for a long time, and among the effects highlighted, several have been cited such as warmth, softness, soft touch, hearing, vision, etc. The cold has never been outdone: the use of certain substances to generate so-called cooling effects is ample proof of this ...

Some of you may have noticed that the trend towards detoxification is becoming more widespread and that many approaches are being proposed in this direction. Some are more or less serious, others a little more anecdotal. Among these practices, one such trend is the fairly intensive use of"coal" for ...

I have been talking about it for a long time, and some of us have even been waiting for it quite impatiently, but here it is: the first Smartphone fitted with an application wholly dedicated to skin analysis and beauty skincare. It is called OKU, and it is the first ...

In a"dinner in town" as they say, I found myself next to a charming person who, knowing my professional past, challenged me on a fairly common question. This question concerned a recent publication concerning yet another comparative test of face creams, with as always the unavoidable comparison: low prices ...

Ariane Le Febvre's interesting article on"Primers" recently published by the Observatoire des Cosmétiques caught my attention, with both interest, but also a little nostalgia and irritation.

Today, it's more of a news post than a mood post because I want to talk to you about an issue that is now coming back with some insistence and that has to do with fat management. My first alert on this subject was a few years ago, in ...