MSc Cosmetic Science Industry Day 2022

The MSc Cosmetic Science Industry Day 2022 took place on Wednesday 16 March in the RHS space at London College of Fashion, UAL’s John Prince’s Street site. Third year MSc Cosmetic Science students were asked to present what they did during their one-year industry placement programme; introducing themselves and their placement company to fellow students, alumni and industry guests, explaining how it has contributed to their professional and personal growth.

The aim of the event is to celebrate the collaboration between MSc Cosmetic Science and the cosmetic industry in creating new and amazing cosmetic scientists for the future. The event looks to also celebrate the success of the students that have completed industry placements and how the opportunity has contributed so positively to their personal and professional development as cosmetic scientists. This is also a time to celebrate the community and cosmetic science education at LCF. We spoke to this year’s student speakers to find out more about their placement and how the course helped prepare them for it.

Joyce Lemmer

First to present was Joyce Lemmer. Joyce spent her placement year working as a Beauty Care Intern at Henkel’s headquarters in Dusseldorf, Germany. During her time there she worked on sustainability assessments of raw materials; product development of hair styling products; development of an evaluation method for hair styling products and the evaluation of propellant-free aerosols. The experience benefited her both professionally and personally, with the main skills she said she’d developed being; corporate etiquette, project management, task prioritising, proactiveness, agility, resilience and confidence.

Sustainable packaging and my gained knowledge on Life Cycle Assessment in second year really helped me in my work at the Global Sustainability team at Henkel. The practical work in the lab at LCF was also a great advantage when starting to work in the industry, whereas the theoretical knowledge helped me in the development of evaluation methods for hair styling products.

Shivani Bhamidipati

Shivani spent her placement year working as an Applications Lab Assistant at CPL Aromas based in Bishop’s Stortford, England. Aspects of her role included maintaining the library of oils and preparing samples, which helped her to build industry experience, a good work ethic, organisational skills, time management, team working skills and understanding ways to take initiative and responsibility.

The cosmetic science course is a well-rounded course that explores the different aspects of the cosmetic industry and can expose it's students to a wide range of roles once they graduate. For my role at CPL Aromas, course units like Formulation Science, Product Evaluation, Perfumery and Stability were key areas that helped me through my year in industry.

Georgia Wells

Working as a Technical Intern at Superdrug (part of the A.S Watson Group), Georgia worked partly at their headquarters in Croydon, London and from her home in Portsmouth. Developing skills like confidence, communication, finding a work/life balance, multitasking, autonomy, independence, and networking, her role covered; assisting with new product development, technical database management and dealing with complaints and queries.

The transition into industry was also supported by events such as the industry day, as well as guest lectures, as it was an opportunity to network and gain connections, whilst also finding out about different career paths and roles. This contributed to making the placement search less daunting.

Shivani Mistry

Working for Neal’s Yard Remedies as a Formulation Laboratory Technician Intern, Shivani was based at their Gillingham Eco-Factory in North Dorset, England. With roles such as general lab maintenance, stability testing, attending innovation and supplier meetings, and working on scale-up/pilot batches, she developed skills such as commercial thinking, taking initiative, formulation/lab skills and working with natural and organic ingredients.

The course is structured in such a way that everything we learn I feel has helped me complete my job more efficiently, and also now coming back from placement, I have been able to apply all the knowledge I have learnt there to my third year.

Yuanbei Lim

Yuanbei spent her placement year working as a Cosmetic Application and Technology Intern at Merck in Darmstadt, Germany. Building skills like formulation development, time management, resilience, having a solution-oriented mindset and understanding the working culture of a multi-national company, Yuanbei’s role included collecting, analysing and characterising new data, constructing test designs for both qualitative and quantitative evaluations and testing the performance of alternative ingredients to microplastics.

After working in the industry for 12 months and having exposed to different formulations and projects throughout the year, I'm very grateful that the course is structured in such a way that prepared me for integrating multidisciplinary approaches to complete a project to the best I could.

Jana Frolich

Jana worked for GlaxoSmithKline at their headquarters in Weybridge, Surrey as a Dental Appliance Care New Product Development Placement Student. In the laboratory, she worked mainly on product testing of denture adhesives - testing their physical characteristics and adhesive performance. In the office, she was liaising with the contract manufacturer to create a more natural denture adhesive and working on life cycle analysis tools to evaluate these natural formulations. Some of the skills she was able to develop include expanding her scientific knowledge, laboratory experience, communication skills and project management.

The course touches on a really wide variety of skills from formulation, packaging and product evaluation to regulation, supply chain management and marketing - once you go on placement you realise just how well-rounded the course is and how all of these fields of knowledge may play into your future job role.

Rayanne Golding

Working as a New Product Development Technologist for Barry M at their headquarters in Mill Hill, London, Rayanne’s main jobs focused on formulation, project management (coordinating all end-product testing for a new product range) and research. She spent this time developing skills such as communication, resilience, teamwork, networking, and knowledge application.

The course did a great job at preparing us for working in industry. During my placement at Barry M, I utilised almost every module that we studied. As I was working in formulation, I found myself revisiting the chemistry/formulation/colloidal science lectures. As I was working on a new product range and needed to work closely with the regulatory team, the legislation and regulation modules were also super handy.

In addition to lecturers and tutors on the course, the students were supported by our Graduate Futures team at LCF who provide support for your career, freelancer and business start-up ambitions.

Georgia said “They were especially helpful when my first placement unfortunately got cancelled due to COVID; I had regular email exchanges and tutorials to advise me how to find a new placement. They were very encouraging and helped me remain optimistic despite having a short time to search. I felt they went above and beyond my expectations and assisted my search by reaching out to companies on my behalf, even if interviews had already begun, which ultimately helped me successfully secure a new placement.”

At the end of the presentations, students were asked to assess which one was best presented. With narrow margins of difference in the results, Yuanbei Lim came in 1st with Shivani Mistry coming in at 2nd and Shivani Bhamidipati in 3rd. As a result of winning, Yunbei has been awarded a bursary, through the courses partnership with the Cosmetic Toiletry & Perfumery Association, which will support the funding of her studies in any way she sees fit. The three winners will also have the opportunity to present once again at the Society of Cosmetic Scientists evening lecture in January 2023, which is attended by an audience of cosmetic industry professionals from a variety of companies and backgrounds - a great place for networking.