#cosmetic formulating

4 bars of shampoo for me (scented with amber and labdanum)

a fresh batch of summer weight face cream (less cupuacu butter and oil overall)

2 bars of shampoo (one for my aunt who wanted to try one and one for me to use as body wash, scented with fresh bamboo fragrance oil) to experiment with powdered SCI.

the base lip balm for tinted lip balm

The powdered SCI shampoo bars went MUCH faster than the noodles I've been using. The SCMI was being a bit stubborn about properly turning into gel paste, but we mostly got there in the end. The next time I might try melting the SCMI and SLMI in the CAPB first, then adding the powdered SCI. Going to need to think about process a bit, especially since the powdered stuff is very light and prone to going poof.

Face cream is just about at temp for the preservative, so I'll get that in and let it sit to finish cooling all the way. I got the cutest 50 gram/1.7 oz jars for my face stuff (and presents) and I'm so excited to use them!

Carbomer Chemistry & High Speed Mixing / Homogenising.

The other week I was made aware of a new ‘rule’ that’s making its way around the virtual hallways of cosmetic school (which one, who said what and why doesn’t matter), the rule being that you should not homogenise Carbomers. Now I’m not sure of the wider context of this truth or how it was originally meant to be taken but it was clear that in this case the statement had been taken as literal…

Essential Oil Aroma – Impact and Longevity!

I recently stumbled across a part of the Perfumers World website that had me captivated for a good couple of hours.  Anyone that knows me and my ADHD knows that rabbit holes are an occupational hazard of mine and falling into them is one reason why  I’m still not rich or on top of my day-to-day workload 🙂

Anyway, here is what I found.

Anyone who has ever played around with essential oil perfumery…

Of all the things I do in my work, stability testing teaches me the most and that’s why I find it a shame when companies don’t really want to pay for it to be done properly, such a wasted opportunity.  Anyway, it was one such experience that highlighted an issue to me, an issue that I’ve seen to varying degrees over a range of organic products.

The pH of Organic Products often shifts downwards…

Extrinsic Ageing and the Limit of a Cosmetic Ingredient Efficacy.

I really like this picture that I found on ‘On Health’ here.

Apparently the twin on the right smokes and likes to sunbathe whereas the twin on the left doesn’t.

Pictures like this do help me to set customers expectations with regards to what a cosmetic product can and can’t do and for me, that’s a beautiful thing!

The cosmetic industry is full of hype and to be honest some of it just does my…

No need for HLB?

I recently came across this articledismissing HLB for organic/ natural cosmetics and suggesting that ‘Anyone who encourages you to calculate the HLB of your emulsifiers will be mainly used to working with synthetic emulsifiers’.  Reading this triggered me to respond as all I can see is a (quite possibly unintentional) dumbing down of cosmetic chemistry.   Before I go on I must say that the…

The inside story of glucoside surfactants

What could be sweeter than surfactants made out of sugar?

Alkyl Polyglucosides are a key part of any cosmetic chemists ingredient arsenal and it’s for good reason.  These little babies have many pleasing attributes including but not limited to:

Their ability to act as solubilisers or emulsifiers in products.

Their mildness as surfactants (although this does vary from product to product)

Their…

We fuss about the chemicals then stick it in a plastic bottle…….

It’s launch time for a few of my customers and that means that I am in the lab cooking up some small production batches ready for sampling, first orders and marketing campaigns.  It was while making one of these batches that a dark reality hit me.

I had spent ages formulating a product that contained nothing but ‘green’ chemicals, an all natural preservative/ chelating agent combo,  natural…