9 Connecticut 2021 started out with the delivery of adorable succulents to all of our active members. This was our way of saying thank you for your membership and participation in our chapter. We adapted to continuing pandemic restrictions in 2021 and held all of our member meetings virtually. Lunchtime webinars allowed most people to attend. For our April meeting, Dr. David Marsh from Alfred University in upstate New York gave a talk titled “Using Science to Become a Better Cook”. We thought this would be a fun topic since a lot of people took up cooking as a hobby during the early days of the pandemic. In May, Valerie George, Vice President of Research & Development at John Paul Mitchell Systems, presented on “The Science of Hair Color, Blonding, and Hair Repair”. A large number of our members work for companies that specialize in hair care, but don’t necessarily work in the hair color labs. We were all very interested in learning more about this very technical area of our industry. August brought another pandemic-related topic for our lunchtime webinar. Callum Couser, R&D Scientist at Reckitt, presented on “Disinfectant Products and Their Role in Breaking the Chain of Infection”. The presentation contained a lot of valuable insights that many of us implemented at home. We finished out the year with a presentation titled “Ester Chemistry for Cosmetic Applications” by Andrew Goldberg, Technical Manager, Application Lab at Alzo International. It was an educational talk discussing how the structure of esters affects their properties and how to use this information while formulating products. The Connecticut chapter looks forward to our educational seminar every year and was hoping to host a virtual one in 2021. This didn’t turn out as we had planned, and the seminar was cancelled. Fingers crossed it will be in person in 2022. The Board was happily able to finish the year in December with our first in-person meeting! Liz Streland joined us and was able to install the new Board members in person, something we all enjoyed.

10 Intermountain West The first event for the year for the IMWSCC chapter was a free online CEP course for the chapter members on April 27th and 28th on Sustainable Cosmetic Product Development. Thanks to the industry expert Wen Shroeder, the chapter received a wonderful overview of this socio-economic trend and how it is shaping the cosmetic industry. The chapter’s first in-person event for the year happened in August with the Talks ‘N’ Tees Golf Event. We had a beautiful day at Canyons Golf Course for our annual golf outing, as well as two wonderful speakers! We started off with Susan Sperring, the Senior Technical Manager at Symrise, presenting “Challenges in Formulating Effective Sunscreens”. Then ended with a talk on “The Science of Hair Color, Blonding, and Hair Repair”, by Valerie George the Executive Vice Present of Research and Development at John Paul Mitchell Systems. We ended the year with our Holiday meeting in November in Salt Lake City, Utah. The chapter had the pleasure of listening to Jason Nesta, the Consumer Goods Market Development & Innovation Manager at Omya Inc., present on “Oral Care: The New Face of Beauty Wellness”.