Recently I was asked by a patient why her bio resin container was failing and had started flaking. The company was boosting that it was superior and green forging ahead with a good fight against the environmental damage and doing their bit to make the world better by using this new Bio Resin. The company has spent many hours and a huge amount of marketing dollars on promoting this new product because someone in their company, most probably a marketing manager or hit executive has pitched the idea showing how good it would be if they changed over to this new bio “green” product . The executives, the owner and even the customers has back this new venture, with champagne toasting and pats on the back for all those around. This new Bio Resin was going to be a winner for them, for their bank accounts and the environment so they re-released all their products in this new bio resin changed their website pumping how fantastic it was and how they were doing their part in the fight against global warning.
Being Green was a bad move.
But using Bio Resin in their product has backfired and is now damaging their brand and their bank account. Simply they forgot to invite the cosmetic chemist to the party. Why was is it so important to invite a cosmetic chemist? Simple Skin and Skincare Science. The container is worn by the customer on a full time basis against their skin. The company did not take into account the pH of the skin and the daily products used on the skin. When looking at the specification of the bio resin it was stable at pH neutral – pH7. Thus is stable in water. But the company had not tested and proven that the Bio Resin to be stable against pH of healthy skin, which is between pH4.5 to pH5.5. Plus they did not test its stability against skin care products with some traditional body soap with a high up to pH9. When researching some of the specification of bio resin, it was noted in the MSDS that the Bio Resin becomes unstable at levels below pH5 and above ph8. This is why the product is breaking down.
Being green is great but it must be fit for the purpose and not create other problems.
I see this problem all the time, especially when companies are promoting green packaging for skincare, they promote their bottles as food safe thinking that this means that they will be great for skincare. They are working on the theory if it is safe for food it is safe for skincare. Unfortunately this can be disastrous. For example some essential oils can only be sold in glass as they eat through all plastics and especially the environmental plastics.
I also see it when they promote preservative free skincare as some preservatives are bad for you and the environment. These companies have jumped on the anti preservative wagon without understanding the natural environment of a bathroom where 99.9% of skincare after being open is stored. By having a preservative in your skincare it will protect the product and your health.
Read: Why Preservatives are important in Skin Care
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