Schedule

As beauty care brands continue to expand into the homecare space, cross-functional formulations will be key to capturing a wellness-driven consumer base.  Elevated ingredients like specialty fragrances, skin-care additives, and enzymes are bridging the gap between personal care and household cleaning.  Here we will showcase three products that cross the beauty-homecare divide and discuss formulation tips, market trends, and product concepts for brands looking to innovate into the cleaning space

Texture can transform a simple formulation into a memorable sensory experience. In this interactive session inspired by the Formulation Arcade theme, we explore how playful textures can bring creativity and engagement to body care products. Attendees will discover how different formulation strategies can be used to design unique sensorial experiences, highlighting the role of texture in elevating product interaction and creating moments of surprise and delight during application.

Everyone is looking for ways to feel good. At surface level cosmetics can be seen as simply designed for enhancing physical appearance, however increasingly, consumers are discovering the ways they have positive effects on mental well-being too.

First, how the skin and brain are linked will be introduced, including discussion of the areas of the brain that are activated, or inactivated, during touch processing and during enjoyable activities. Then a dual approach harnessing a quinoa-derived Pickering emulsification system and an extract of dormant hyacinth bulb to improve different parameters of emotional well-being will be explored and presented. (can shorten depending on timing!)

Discussing the role of plasticizers in shaping texture, sensorial performance, and long-term stability of personal care formulations. Within the spirit of Formulation Arcade, we can explore how different plasticizers act like ‘power-ups’ by improving spread ability, enhancing creaminess, while boosting stability and preventing cracking or syneresis over time. The goal is to optimize the perfect balance between flexibility, sensory delight, and shelf-life robustness for next-level product experiences.

Fashion trends rarely move in isolation. They compete. Today’s runways may express similar ideas of comfort and generosity, yet do so through sharply contrasting textures. From the understated reassurance of cotton to the indulgent depth of velvet, each material delivers a distinct aesthetic and emotional register.

As these fashion textures move beyond the runway, they increasingly inform how beauty products are designed and experienced. This session brings that translation into focus through a texture face-off, Cotton vs. Velvet. Using fashion-inspired skincare prototypes, we explore how these contrasting material codes shape formulation choices, sensorial experience, and product expression. When it comes time to choose a texture direction, which one makes the cut?

The 21st century pits our ability to adapt against the fastest pace of change in human history. Technologies like artificial intelligence are growing logarithmically.  Social networks have left us feeling more separated and lonely.  Together, they have spawned an information environment so thick with static that it’s hard to hear your message.

Fortunately, you have a power that breaks through all these challenges:  the ability to create and share stories.

In this energizing, inspiring, and highly practical keynote, you’ll learn why stories are the preeminent form of human communication, the transformative effects they have on business, and how to achieve these results time after time.

Learning objectives:

• The evolutionary evidence for stories as central to being human

• The neurobiology and psychology of how stories affect us

• Why stories are our most powerful persuasive tool

• What a story actually is—and what it isn’t

• A clear, step-by-step process to craft your own story

• A simple, effective toolkit for making your story more powerful

• How to use stories to transform sales, marketing, and fundraising

• How to use storytelling to unify your organization’s culture