https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2026/jul/07/catnip-lotion-as-effective-as-deet-at-repelling-mosquitoes-study-finds

and here one of the recent scientific studies:
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-026-42618-5

If you are not using DMDM in your hair care formulations, which you hopefully are not, you can go into fear mongering marketing and refer to this lawsuit and promote your products as "not containing DMDM"

https://beautymatter.com/articles/unilever-the-lawsuits-keep-coming-the-science-keeps-getting-in-the-way

Just arrived
from this year's harvest
https://shop.skinchakra.eu/Lavender-oil/KL-188-17

Carotenoids are notorious for being unstable and unreliable as colorants in cosmetics and that is true because it's their job to work as antioxidants. We have realized during all these last years working with "natural" oils and extracts that they are indeed very sensitive to heat but at RT and even in semi-transparent containers they have an outstanding stability. Here two emulsions and a sapogel gel-to-milk mask after 2,5 years storage at RT. The colorant was our paprika oil. Maybe you start using carotenoid containing extracts with more confidence in your formulations

any friends in Italy here?
This might be interesting for you
https://www.ecomondo.com/it

Having enough of lumpy gum dispersion and unstable lotions and gels?
We have a special topic during this live video meeting session on Aug 27th (only a live meeting, no recording and replay available), specially suitable for small scale
Book your place at the meeting if you are interested:
https://shop2.skinchakra.science/Guest-seat-at-a-mastermind-meeting/mm-g-1

Stability testing is the most boring and most time consuming part of the formulation process yet the most important part of it. So as much as you may dislike it, you need to meticulously run the necessary tests. You may even decide to delegate the tests to an assistant or trainee or even outsource the test to an external lab but it's you who needs to interpret the tests and decide about the next step

This might be slightly exaggerated but not very far away from reality
If you have been annoyed but the amount of fragrance they are using these days in cleansing products read this article
https://www.acs.org/pressroom/presspacs/2026/august/scented-cleaning-products-create-invisible-air-pollution.html

friends in Latin America
If you have not yet registered for In-COS here a link
https://www.in-cosmetics.com/latin-america/en-gb.html

are you getting the most from your gums and hydrocolloids?