A short podcast commentary by Lorraine Dallmeyer (Formula Botanica) examining "scientific inclusivity" in cosmetics. Lorraine frames the issue across three areas: diversity within STEM (noting UK Royal Society statistics showing low Asian and Black representation among young STEM academics), inclusivity of research samples (criticising studies that test mainly on white skin and straight hair and citing RSC and Nature reports), and the ethical imperative that science should benefit all people (UN framing). She references interviews with Noelie Michoux (456Skin) and Deeja Ayedele (EP101), urges listeners to discuss scientific inclusivity, and promotes Formula Botanica resources.
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Have you ever heard the term scientific inclusivity before? Do you know what it means and how does it apply to cosmetics? Well, if you heard my interview on the podcast last week, then you'll know that it was so interesting speaking with Noelie Michoux from 456Skin who talked us through why inclusivity is so important in the research of skin science and cosmetic formulation. After all, the cosmetics industry doesn't represent one homogenous person, it represents all of us and everyone's different. So I wanted to pick up on this topic of scientific inclusivity that Noeli mentioned, but also Deeja Ayedele mentioned in the podcast interview I did with her back at the start of 2022 in episode 101 when we discussed why black skincare matters. And if you haven't listened to either of those episodes with Noeli or DJ yet, please do head back into the podcast archives because you are missing out. Believe me. Now, Noeli very clearly discussed how inclusivity is changing in terms of marketing and pr, but still needs work in the science of cosmetics. And I think this topic of scientific inclusivity is so important that I want to dedicate today's whole episode to it. What does it mean? Where does it start? How does it affect cosmetic science? Let's explore this topic together. Hi, it's Lorraine Dallmeyer, chartered environmentalist, biologist and CEO of award winning online organic cosmetic formulation school Formula Botanica. I host the Green Beauty Conversations podcast and these are my green beauty opinions which I share my takeaways from the podcast interview we released last week and set you a challenge to make the green beauty sector a better place. If you want to be the first to hear all of my latest episodes, make sure you subscribe to this podcast. So in order to explore what scientific inclusivity actually means, I think we need to break it down into three distinct areas. So firstly, there's the actual inclusivity of the field of science and how many people from different backgrounds step into science, technology, engineering and mathematics, the so called STEM careers. Science benefits from diversity of thought, diversity of approach, diversity of experience. So although some cynical people, and I am not one of them, view this as a tick box exercise, it genuinely allows for better science to be done. Now, the world of science has a long way to go though. The UK's Royal Society revealed that in 2018 and 2019, of those STEM science, Technology, Engineering and maths academic staff at age 34 and under in the UK, just one in five were Asian and under 2% of them are black. And if you want to drill down more into the world of chemistry, because I appreciate that's all STEM careers, I also read a fascinating paper by the Royal Society of Chemistry, which represents chemists all over the world, and the paper is called Missing Racial and Ethnic Inequalities in the Chemical Sciences. Now, there were so many damning statistics in there that I couldn't possibly summarize them all in this short podcast. I'd need several hours to summarize it all, so I do recommend that you go and download a copy as the link is with our show notes. But the consensus was very much that the world of chemistry needs to do an awful lot. So do go and read it for yourself if you're interested. Now, secondly, then there's the actual study that gets undertaken through the inclusivity of samples, because if you only test on white skin and straight hair, then that's as far as your sample size goes, right? And I think we can all appreciate that that's not good science. We heard last week from Noeli that it's very challenging to find research that's done on darker skin tones and that black and brown skin has some physiological differences which need to be researched more and catered for better. And it's not just cosmetics that struggle with scientific inclusivity either. The journal Nature reported that a high proportion of the research that comes out of the Western world uses tissues and blood from white individuals to screen drugs and therapies that are applied to a very diverse population. So it shouldn't come as any surprise to anyone that if your sample size is limited to one group of people, then you'll also just be learning about that one group of people. Right? I first encountered this when I was working with our team to research the science and formulation for our Diploma in Organic Hair care formulation. All of the textbooks I looked at talked about Caucasian, Asian and ethnic hair. And they presumably did this because virtually every single scientific study I saw only looked at straight hair types. So then they just lumped everyone else together into one giant group, the ethnic hair group. And I kept saying to my team at the time, I was like, what on earth is ethnic hair? Because I'm sure that the people who would be defined as having ethnic hair don't feel like they have ethnic hair. They have hair. And there must surely be a better way of classifying hair textures. So this is another perfect example of sample inclusivity not being good enough and then filtering through into the way people talk about hair care science. And then thirdly, and finally bringing both of those other points together, scientific inclusivity means that science gets to benefit more people. Now, the UN and I love this, they defined that science is a common good, that all humankind should enjoy the benefits of scientific knowledge, and therefore all of humankind has the right to participate in science. But if your researchers don't represent all of humankind and your samples and studies don't look and represent all of humankind, then how will the science benefit everyone? So this is a really big topic, really big. And I probably can't even do it proper justice in this tiny podcast. And the whole industry needs to do better. It's something that's also very high up on our radar screens at Formula Botanica. Because believe me, I'm not just saying these words to point the fingers at others. I want us to do better too. But we all need to be thinking about scientific inclusivity. So my challenge to you for this week is to remember those two words, scientific inclusivity, and to start talking to people about them. Because inclusivity goes beyond the images that are used by beauty brands in their marketing campaigns. Instead, it goes to the very core of the research undertaken, the formulations made and the products that are designed. So let's all start thinking and most importantly, talking about it. Thank you for listening to my Green beauty opinions. Remember to visit the Formula botanica website@formulabotanica.com to try our free online formulation course. And if you haven't subscribed yet to the Green Beauty Conversations podcast, please make sure you do so now in your favorite podcast app. Leave me a five star review if you enjoy the conversations. I host and I'll be back soon with my next episode. Sam.
