I'm a guy, so what should I care about personal-care products? Every time I shave I remove old skin cells, and any wrinkles that may slip through the Gillette only give me more of an air of authority if not wisdom. What, me worry?

That was before my plane flight back from a recent Nutracon/Natural Products Expo West show. I was shot at the end of a long week and nestled into my window seat, where I imagined I would sleep the entire trip home. But who should come to sit next to me but Kristie McNamara, founder of Tilvee Eco Ethical Skincare.

We started a conversation that continues to this day.

It began with the issue of the lack of standards in the personal-care category. A company can trumpet on its packaging that it does not test on animals, but while the bunnies are not going blind the company is still filling the products with synthetic phthalates. Kristie explained that her company is striving to raise the bar on all fronts — not just natural but sustainable, ecological and, lest we forget, functional. Tilvee uses no petrochemicals, synthetic fragrances or chemicals, no parabens, sulfates or phthalates. Did I mention that it's also solar-powered? (Read more about Tilvee here.)

Our conversation also turned to the topic of this month's issue, which is not coincidentally also the topic of this month's NutriCosmetic Summit. And that topic is the beauty-from-within concept.

Also known as "inside-out beauty," this concept is gaining sway in much of the developed world — with the notable laggard being, ahem, the US. I figure the reason is that, while American shoppers love to peruse the supplements aisle for health conditions they might be suffering from, they forget about the largest organ in the human body — the skin.

There's much to be said for the idea of formulating supplements and other oral ingestibles to maintain the health of the skin. There's R&D application. There's marketing strategy. There's formulation advice. There's the muddy area of health claims (as usual) in an area that straddles the traditional OTC drug market. And cosmetics giants like Nestlé and Estée Lauder are getting into it. Should you?

Part of the mission of the New Hope Supply Network is to offer our community of manufacturers and suppliers the cutting-edge information to help you advance your business interests. The NutriCosmetic Summit, like Nutracon before it, is aimed squarely at this pursuit. And so is this issue. Joysa Winter and Jeff Hilton endeavor to help you with successful beauty-from-within marketing strategies and tactics; Mindy Green digs deep into her botanical roots to proffer healing herbs that can help from within; and Joosang Park, PhD, offers formulation tips and trends with the multi-use nutraceutical, collagen. To get a better idea of specific sessions at the conference, check out the article, or surf it at www.nutricosmeticsummit.com.

Read it and reap!

TODD RUNESTAD
Science Editor
[email protected]