In November 2010 Prof. Wiechers gave two courses in cosmetic formulating at the in-cosmetics Asia exhibition that were both very popular. The first one, Basic Formulating "HLB in Action", attracted about 55 participants and as such was the first ever sold-out training event hosted by Reed Exhibition in Asia.
The course consisted of a theoretical part, followed by an experimental part where people tried to identify the HLB of a mixture of well-known personal care emollients.
In the picture you can see all of us shaking the test tubes in a synchronized manner! Thereafter, the participants studied how long it took for their emulsions to break.
Participants learned from this that when the HLB of your surfactant mixture matches the HLB requirement of the emollient mixture, your cosmetic formulation will be significantly more stable at lower surfactant concentrations.
The afternoon continued with the Advanced Formulating workshop "Formulating Beyond HLB" that attracted around 80 participants. Prof. Wiechers discussed his formulation strategy that allows the simultaneous optimization of skin sensory properties of the final formulation, the skin delivery of the active ingredient(s) from the final formulation, as well as its stability. The majority of this discussion centered around "Formulating for Efficacy" where participants simply kept on asking questions as all saw the immediate benefit for their own formulation work. As a consequence, the group as a whole went a lot further than the advanced level that was intended and reached a close to expert level understanding in a couple of hours.