End of the year and the tale of the two extremities

As the year is coming to an end everybody who is somebody is forecasting the trends for the next year and I have read and heard like a zillion controversial broadcasts from AI overtaking the place of cosmetic chemists in the lab to the come back of parabens (which to my utter astonishment and horror was cheered and applauded by some top notch scientists of the industry).

I am not good at reading the crystal ball and I keep my 50 cent of forecasting for my community but I can summarize what we have and where we are at the end of 23 years in the 21st century.

Not only the society but the scientific community is extremely polarized now. I am not talking about the polarized world of political conflicts and the Israel-Hamas confrontation or the pro and anti vaccination movements I will keep to our own industry and what I have a nano-sized knowledge about.

At the end of 2023 we are still thorn between:

A public who believes all preservatives are all evil and is ready to go through the risk of contamination and is on the "no-toxins" and similar B.S. wavelength and a group of high-carat old-school scientists who still pray and wish a come back of parabens. (this one is a reality and no April Fool's day prank).

A public that believes (or is wrongly fed by media) that glass is necessarily and categorically better and more sustainable than plastic

The industry and the legislative authorities thorn between "green washing" and "green hushing".

"clean" , "green" and "non-toxic" being extremely popular buzzwords used even by experts and wanna be experts with no metrics.

a public fed by some opportunistic bloggers and organizations believing that 90% of the cosmetics contains microplastic, all polymers are microplastic and unless we go back to the soap nut and cold water we have no other chance to save the civilization (maybe there are some nuggets of reality there, nobody knows with certainty yet)

A public believing in and a part of the industry fanning the flames of the belief that by principle all water containing products are non-sustainable, a hazard to the environment and to the civilization.

A bunch of scientists and wanna be scientists that believe cold-process and "raw cosmetics" is the solution to all environmental problems.

Still a large group of public and entrepreneurs pouring water to the mill of "if you cannot eat it, it is not safe to put it on your face", deliberately or undeliberately ignoring the food allergens and the sensitizing and phototoxicity of the "very natural" essential oils.

And a bunch of old-school and high carat scientist still denouncing climate change (being cheered by a group of politicians and wanna stay blind and deaf but not mute public) and the fact that a circular economy is a possibility and a necessity.

As we come to the end of the year I hope that some of the controversial forecasts come true and some never become a reality. But I wish that all of your creations in the coming year remain safe, stable and sustainable (with measurable metrics). That none of you needs a product recall, that all of your challenge and TVC tests pass with flying flags.