Irma couldn’t stop cosmetic chemists. The hurricane that wreaked havoc on much of the Florida Keys and traveled north all the way through Jacksonville, FL and beyond didn’t keep the Florida Chapter of the Society of Cosmetic Chemists  from holding its biannual Sunscreen Symposium, which took place Sept. 14-16 at Disney’s Yacht & Beach Club, Orlando, FL.


According to the FLSCC, 415 cosmetic chemists from around the world registered for the Symposium and 338 made it to Orlando. By the time the last podium presentation was made and the 64 exhibitors were packing up their booths, everyone agreed that the scientific information presented made the trip very worthwhile.


“The hurricane threw us a bit off-track; that made things a bit difficult with so many people traveling,” acknowledged Florida Chapter chair-elect Marisa Bailey-Forlonge. “But it turned out great. It was a very successful event. We’re very happy with it.”


The Symposium got underway with an education course entitled, “New Suncare Formulation Concepts.” Instructors were Julian Hewitt and Mark Chandler. They covered a variety of topics including consumer trends, maximizing inorganic and organic sunscreen actives and innovative formulation platforms.


Podium presentation topics included the effect of the sun spectrum on skin biology, erythemal action spectra effect on SPF, broad protection in sun care and proactive skin defense. In total, there were 17 presentations by some of the world’s leading sun care authorities.


Leading off was Nava Dayan, owner, Dr. Nava Dayan LLC, who asserted that when assessing the effects of sun exposure to skin, scientists focus only on segregated wavelengths that do not represent real life conditions.


She urged researchers to test sunscreens using the entire sun spectrum rather than focusing only on UVA or UVB. Dayan also called on the industry to initiate a program to test the biological implications of sunscreen on the skin in order to correlate it to cancer prevention.


“Right now, we’re testing for either UVA or UVB protection, by mitigating erythema and skin darkening and erythema respectively,” she noted. “What I am proposing is looking at protection from the entire sun spectra and creating a plan to test specific biomarkers that are associated with the initiation and progression of skin cancer.”


“Natural” sunscreens. It has been a topic of interest, and controversy, for years. Dermatologist Jeanette Jacknin added fuel to the fire with her overview of natural ingredients like green tea, ferulic acid, green algae and raspberry seed oil and the literature that supports these ingredients’ role in UV protection.


For example, she cited a 2011 study that demonstrated drinking green tea polyphenols protected skin against harmful UV radiation and helped improve overall skin quality in women. One researcher performed a 12-week, double-blind, placebo-controlled study with 60 female volunteers, randomized to the intervention or control group. Participants consumed either a control beverage or a beverage with green tea polyphenols, providing 1402mg total catechins a day. 


“UV-induced erythema decreased significantly in the intervention group by 16 and 25% after 6 and 12 weeks, respectively,” according to Jacknin.


In 2000, Antonella Saija performed in vitro and in vivo experiments, and confirmed that caffeic and ferulic acids may be successfully employed as topical protective agents against UV radiation-induced skin damage. Several years later, in 2008, JC Murray conducted a similar study involving a topical formulation of 15% L-ascorbic acid or vitamin C, 1% alpha-tocopherol or vitamin E, and 0.5% ferulic acid. Murray said the combination provided significant photoprotection for skin by all methods of evaluation. The topical combination was applied to separate patches of normal-appearing human skin for four days. Each patch was irradiated with solar-simulated light. One day later, skin was evaluated for erythema and sunburn cells, and immunohistochemically for thymine dimers and p53.


“The topical combination was particularly effective for reducing thymine dimer mutations which are associated with skin cancer,” explained Jacknin. “Its mechanism of action was different from chemical sunscreens and would be expected to supplement the sun protection provided by them.”


During her presentation, Jacknin reviewed the UV prevention benefits of resveratrol, green algae, lichen, raspberry seed oil and piperine.


“Although several natural sunscreens are now on the market incorporating the ingredients that I discussed today, great opportunity in this field still exists, especially incorporating rice bran, lichen, cinnamon, tamarindus, and Piper Nigrum into chemical sunscreens,” concluded Jacknin.


Adding Enzymes

Enzymes have been credited with boosting the efficacy of everything from laundry detergent to skin creams. But can they boost the efficacy of sunscreens? Yes, asserts Tia Alkazaz of Active Concepts.


“Enzymes are quickly becoming a potential method of mending DNA damage after exposure to UV radiation,” she said.


Alkazaz detailed the results of a study whereby photolyase-containing liposomes were topically applied to UV-radiated skin. Subsequent exposure to photo-reactivating light decreased the number of pyrimidine dimers by 45%.


“Repair of DNA damage after exposure to UV radiation is as vital to the maintenance of healthy skin as prevention,” concluded Alkazaz. “An exciting area of interest to further explore is the potential for actives such as these enzymes to repair damage while simultaneously enhancing sunscreens.”


But no matter what ingredients are used in a sunscreen, if manufacturing equipment isn’t clean, products can be contaminated and recalled. Dijana Hadziselimovic of Steris reviewed cleaning validation and critical cleaning of equipment. She detailed some of the common issues with personal care manufacturing sites, noting that they include some of the most difficult soils to clean due to issues such as equipment design, pH and water temperatures, and cleaning agent cost. She reviewed the steps necessary in plant evaluations noting that a validation run is deemed acceptable when the equipment is both visibly clean and meets the acceptance criteria for product residues and cleaning agents at the first sampling without additional cleaning required. Hadziselimovic reminded attendees that interim reports must be run and approved by the cleaning subject matter expert and the quality unit. She also reviewed what to include in the final cleaning validation package: cleaning protocol summary, executed protocols and revisions, cleaning run data, cleaning records and/or procedures, routine monitoring of cleanliness, cleaning validation process conclusions and an approval page.


Arianna Cozzi, TRI Princeton, explained why vibrational spectroscopy and imaging are relevant techniques to understand the alterations sustained by the skin barrier function in relation to UV exposure. Both are appropriate techniques to test the efficacy and safety of sunscreen products in terms of retention and penetration.


Cozzi advised that technological strategies such as encapsulation could be a way to improve sun care product stability, efficacy and safety.


Sébastien Miska, CEO, Suncert, detailed how testing certification can solve sun protection testing problems. To improve reliability, he called for inspections by external companies and urged the industry to agree on one sign/seal that would assure compliance. Miska insisted that the benefits of a sunscreen testing certification include:

• Expertise comparison between laboratories;
• Assurance of reliable tests for customers;
• Formalization, homogenization and optimization of sun-    screen tests;
• Guarantees compliance with international standards;
• Reduces additional external audits and monitoring;
• Improves hierarchy security and lab’s brand name; and
• Boosts health and safety for the consumer.

Oceans of Issues

Consumer health and safety is paramount, but Daniel Knorr, founder of Tropical Seas, Inc., a sun care product marketer, urged the audience to produce products that don’t damage oceans and coral reefs. Knorr reviewed many of the threats to coral reefs including warming oceans, rising sea levels, changes in storm patterns, precipitation and currents, and acidification.


He cited a National Geographic report that estimated 25% of sunscreen comes off skin immediately upon entering the water. Therefore, he called for optimization of formulations in general and water-resistance properties in particular.


“Make yourself a steward of the environment and be eco-responsible when formulating products,” he insisted.


Knorr concluded by urging industry to join him in creating a coral-sunscreen coalition.


Beyond UV?

After a night of socializing and dancing at Epcot, attendees got back to work on Saturday with an opening presentation by Croda’s Rob Sayer who posed the question, “Do we need to go beyond UV?” He noted that UV only accounts for 2% of radiation at the earth’s surface.


Sayer also pointed out that although UVB, UVA and IR(A) rays penetrate more deeply into skin, IR(B) and IR(C) rays heat the skin’s biological structures. Furthermore, IR and visible light significantly increase reactive oxygen species production in fibroblasts and increase DNA damage in fibroblasts, too; therefore, fibroblasts can be a good screen for effects of visible and IR radiation.


“Actives may offer protection for certain wavelengths,” concluded Sayer, “But their stability must be assessed under broad band irradiation.”


That’s because they may protect against IR radiation but they might degrade rapidly under UV radiation.


Sun care formulas present unique preservation challenges, according to Chris Johnson, Kinetik. He proposed incorporating methyl propanediol, a non-biocidal preservative booster, in the water phase of sun care formulas to boost preservative efficacy. In fact, in his research, methyl propanediol induced a significant increase in the overall efficacy of the mixture of caprylyl glycol and phenypropanol in all tested formulations.


That efficacy boost was more pronounced in formulations containing either chemical or physical sunscreens, but less in sunscreen formulations containing both chemical and physical sunscreens, noted Johnson.


“The combination of caprylyl glycol, phenylpropanol and methylpropanediol proved to be a highly effective non-traditional preserving system for sun care formulations,” he concluded.


Once formulators have their formula, how can they be sure of its efficacy? DSM’s Uli Osterwalder said work must be done to restore consumer trust in SPF determination, especially after recent Consumer Reports’ tests found half of the sunscreens tested failed to meet label SPF values. He reviewed the shortfalls of in vitro and in vivo tests and recommended an in silico alternative that he called accurate and easy to use.


The DSM Sunscreen Optimizer, www.sunscreen-optimizer.com, is a free tool that allows formulators to develop efficient sunscreen formulations and optimize existing ones before generating large numbers of in vivo SPF measurements.


According to Osterwalder, this simulation tool considers various performance criteria, including regulatory boundaries; utilizes inorganic filters; addresses polymeric filter synergies, includes state-of-the-art results of water-soluble UV filters and considers research on photostabilization.


But what good is a sunscreen if its film-forming properties are poor? Hari Fares of Ashland detailed a novel technique that enables scientists to visualize sunscreen films created on a stratum corneum substrates.


According to Fares, the method confirms earlier findings that a polymeric film typically forms over the sunscreen film when an anhydrous sunscreen is sprayed on the skin.


How many times a day do you touch your face, 5, 10, 20? Nope. It’s somewhere between 2,000 and 3000 times, according to Vincent Hubiche, Gattefossé. All of these touches impact the wearability of sunscreen, but now there’s an easy to use UV camera, developed by Newtone, that can more accurately measure UVA protection.


Earlier this year, Gattefossé used the device to measure a sunscreen film’s homogeneity and durability. The camera enables users to rank products in relation to their UVA protection level, but only protection derived from organic filters, according to Hubiche. Furthermore, the differences are visible primarily on pale skin (types I to III max.).


Hao Ouyang of Johnson & Johnson Consumer Inc., systematically evaluated sunscreen formulations under in-use conditions to determine if they interfered with sweat cooling during exercise. An SPF 70 lotion for face and a SPF 70 spray for arms were tested in a randomized, split-face and split-body controlled application study. Advantages of this design, according to Ouyang, is that test sunscreens had known sweat-resistant properties so that they couldn’t be washed off during exercise, skin temperature and sweat rate were measured non-invasively in a non-contact manner and sunscreens were directly compared to eliminate clinical variables.


According Ouyang, sunscreens do not elevate skin temperature during exercise, indicating that sunscreens are compatible with recreational activities.


“Topical application of sweat-resistant sunscreen lotions and sprays at recommended dose levels does not have any measurable effects on natural sweating,” concluded Ouyang. “(Furthermore) single application of sunscreen is unlikely to clog sweat ducts. We have shown that skin remains ‘breathable’ with the application of these sunscreens both at rest and during exercise.”


The list of regularly used sunscreens is surely limited, but that doesn’t mean the old ones don’t show promise. Julian Hewitt, JPH SunCare Technologies Ltd., reviewed the benefits of zinc oxide, and how coating the material can aid dispersion, modify skin feel and prevent interaction with other ingredients. Adding a dispersing agent stabilizes ZnO particles against agglomeration and improves SPF stability; polyhydroxystearic acid and polyglyceryl-2 polyricinoleate are the most common dispersions in the oil phase, according to Hewitt.


In a finished formulation, data show that ZnO can be used as the sole active and still deliver a high SPF. However, zinc oxide can be combined with titanium dioxide and/or organic filters, too, to achieve high SPF.


The symposium’s final presenter, Ratan Chaudhuri, Sytheon Ltd., detailed the benefits of incorporating Synoxyl AZ (INCI: Acetyl zingerone) in UV protection formulas. He explained how the material is a quencher of photo-excited states and reduces delayed UVA- and UVB-induced skin damage, too.


In addition, Synoxl AZ protects mitochondria by reducing disruption and maintaining ATP synthesis, according to Chaudhuri. It has also been shown to reduce matrix metalloproteases and increase tissue inhibitory metalloproteases. At the same time, Synoxl AZ stimulates key skin proteins, cell adhesion proteins and collagens.


“Synoxyl AZ is a multifunctional skin care ingredient that helps maintain skin’s health and appearance,” concluded Chaudhuri.   Despite the challenges posed by Florida’s hurricane season, the event was a success, noted FLSCC executives.


“We had two days of talks and we heard everything from DNA damage and ingredients that provide adequate protection to questions such as is UVA and UVB protection enough?” said Bailey-Forlonge. “There were so many topics covered by speakers at the national and international levels. It was a global symposium.”


And a symposium that turned out to be stronger than the storm. 


For those interested in long-range forecasting, set aside Sept. 12-14, 2019 for the next Sunscreen Symposium!