Dr. Hy Bui is the Sr. Principal Scientist and Head of Transversal and Physical Chemistry of Applied Research at L’Oréal. We are happy to have him join us for the Mineralogy Lecture Series to talk about the rheology in cosmetics, and more specifically how material science allows us to develop better cosmetic products. If you like cosmetics, or even if you don’t, it will be for sure an interesting talk where we learn beyond what we know about it! Attached is the abstract for the talk.

The talk will be held in Room 304 of Olin Hall at 4 pm on Wednesday, April 17th.

Rheology in Cosmetics – How Material Science allows us to develop better cosmetic products

Hy Si Bui , Ph.D.

Head of Physical Chemistry and Transversal of US Applied Research

L’Oréal Research and Innovation, Clark, NJ

Cosmetic products can be in anhydrous liquid form (e.g., liquid lipstick or lip gloss), or in oil-in-water (O/W), or water-in-oil (W/O) emulsion form as seen in liquid foundations, skincare products, sunscreen and lotion. In addition, some products are also in gel form (e.g., hair styling gel or foundation gels). The cosmetic formulations contain many ingredients including polymers, surfactants, oils, water, pigments and preservatives. Interactions between these ingredients play an important role in influencing stability, texture, performance and sensory characteristics of the final products. Therefore, rheology is employed during various stages of product development, starting from the proof of technical concept to the sensory evaluations, in addition to addressing stability issues and other scale-up issues during manufacturing.

This talk will focus on the challenges in cosmetic science and the application of rheology to the field, illustrated through some examples in make-up and skin care by using the thermoplastic elastomer (TPE). From understanding the phase behavior of the TPE such as Styrene-Ethylene/Butylene-Styrene block copolymerassociated with the other resin or copolymer, we are able to create many cosmetic products for consumers such as a lip gloss that can last for 2 to 4 hours or a skin tightening product that can reduce eye bag and wrinkle instantly.