When can speaking in front of 30,000 people be considered a warm-up act? When you’re the new chief scientific officer for the Personal Care Products Council!

That’s the situation that Beth Lange found herself in after joining the Council on July 1, after serving for more than five years as chief scientific officer at Mary Kay Inc. In her former role, Lange was often called upon to translate scientific jargon into something that was meaningful for Mary Kay’s millions of independent representatives—thousands of whom converged in Dallas each year for Mary Kay’s Convention. And that educational role is something Lange is building on at the Council.

“We have to translate technical issues in ways that are meaningful to consumers, NGOs and retailers,” explained Lange. “I am a scientist, but you need other approaches in order to communicate (with stakeholders).”

An extensive scientific background actually makes it easier to translate hard science into something a bit softer for the non-scientist. Prior to her career at Mary Kay, Lange held senior scientific positions at Schering-Plough, Kimberly Clark and Unilever.
She earned a PhD in radiation biology from the University of Iowa, College of Medicine and a BS in nuclear medicine from Oakland University.
 
The Ways of Washington

Before joining the Council, Lange was no stranger to the work being done in Washington DC. She’s been in the beauty industry for nearly 20 years and has served the Personal Care Products Council in a number of ways, such as sitting on numerous task forces, working as vice chairman or chairman of various committees both on the national and international levels.

“I got a lot of exposure to the Council and I loved the advocacy end of things, as well as the opportunity to help shape policy and advice and bring an industry perspective,” she explained.

Her background has made representatives from member companies very comfortable about reaching out.

“I know the pain of dealing with negative media or replacing preservatives,” she told Happi. “I’m a good representative for them.”
In fact, it is the controversy surrounding parabens that has been one of the biggest challenges since Lange joined The Council.

“They have a long, safe history of use, they are easy to use and they are inexpensive. But a lot of companies shy away from them because of consumer pressure—not science,” she noted. “And the alternatives may not be as robust or may even be unpleasant. There is a lot of misinformation about them.”

If preservative issues create headaches for Lange and the Personal Care Products Council staff, then sun care has become a bright spot, thanks to the recent passage of The Sunscreen Innovation Act.

“I am very excited about the Act. It will give us more ingredients and more options for formulators,” she told Happi.
More than six months into her new role, Lange has found that best thing about her job is how focused the industry is on product safety.

“Safety is the No. 1 priority; our members spend so money making sure that products are safe before they reach the market,” she explained.

Safety Is Critical
On the flip side, Lange has been surprised by how quickly key stakeholders, such as NGOs and retailers, can make decisions without seeking input from industry or its association. When she joined The Council, Lange assumed that other stakeholders would use PCPC as a resource before making decisions.

“Too often, they ignore us, or they call us an hour before announcing a strategy,” she observed. “If you are trying to do what is best for the consumer, why not reach out and ask?”

Council members want decisions to be science-based, she noted. That said, members are often the first to recognize the need to eliminate a questionable ingredient or material. Lange pointed out that member companies recognized the need to reformulate away from polyethylene beads and were happy to move away from these materials in exfoliating cleansers.

Similarly, the biggest issue facing the association now and for the foreseeable future is the expansion of retailer sustainability scorecards that are being developed without input from industry, according to Lange.

“We are trying to work with them to show that we are a credible scientific resource.”

At the same time, Lange is committed to promoting the credibility of the Cosmetic Ingredient Review (CIR), which was established in 1976 by the Personal Care Products Council’s predecessor, the Cosmetic, Toiletry, and Fragrance Association, with the support of the US Food and Drug Administration and the Consumer Federation of America. Although funded by the Council, CIR and the review process are independent from the Council and the cosmetics industry.

“It provides a great venue for people to see how science is assessed,” she insisted.

Pictures Tell the Story
Educating consumers about the science behind cosmetics is a key goal of Lange. To that end, the Council has revamped cosmeticsinfo.org to make it more user friendly, adding infographics to help consumers understand complicated issues such as the importance of preservatives and naturally-occurring lead in lipsticks.

“People respond to visuals more than words, so we’re using pictures to help get the story right.”

Now the Council is developing an infographic on product reformulation, a topic that is near and dear to Lange’s heart. She noted that there always some group somewhere that is urging the industry to immediately eliminate a particular ingredient.

“You can’t just get out of an ingredient overnight,” Lange noted. “So our new infographic will explain the expertise involved and the approximate time that it takes to get a new formula to the market.”

As the Personal Care Products Council works with disparate groups on a number of critical issues, not to mention dealing with regulators around the world in key markets such as Brazil and China, it is clear that Lange and her co-workers have a full slate of issues to deal with in 2015. But The Council’s chief scientific officer is undaunted.

“I am really proud to work in the cosmetics industry,” she concluded. “It is innovative, safe and something that touches people’s lives every day.”

And so, while she’s rarely called up to speak in front of 30,000 people at one sitting these days, Lange and the Personal Care Products Council are still making decisions that can impact millions of consumers.