While there are a variety of cosmetic chemist jobs, the formulation chemist is the most interesting if you want to be an inventor and create products.

Come up with new product ideas

This is one of the most interesting parts of being a cosmetic chemist. You actually think of things that do not yet exist and imagine ways that you can make them happen. While it is interesting, it’s also one of the hardest parts of the job. How do you imagine that which hasn’t been created yet? It’s tough. But there are things you can do. First, look for the things that bother you most in your grooming habits. Then ask your friends and family. Next, go to the internet and check out beauty product discussion forums. Get engaged in the conversation and see what people really want to know. The other angle is to look at your suppliers and see if they have some interesting new technology that could be turned into a clever product. These types of ideas are the most likely ones to be turned into patents so spend a lot of time coming up with new ones.

Invent products that fit marketing concepts

While your own ideas might be your favorite, the ones that marketing gives you will be the ones that you’ll be required to spend the most time developing. In some ways this is easier because you have a target product and you just need to adapt technology to fit the claims. Try to inject something new in the formulas and resist the temptation to take existing formulas, change claims ingredients, and pass it off as a new product.

Improve existing products

New products are not always required. Sometimes you’ll be required to take existing products and make them better. The key to making a formula better is to have a good set of tests for which you have specific scores that you need to beat. For example, the foam of a cleansing product should be tested and given a score. Then your task will be to try to exceed that score. For skin products, the test might be moisturization of a feel test. Without a set score on specific tests, you’ll have a difficult time improving an existing product.

Find cost savings

Making things better is great but during tough economic times, your company is going to look to save money. This means you have to find a way to make your current cosmetic formula perform just as well at a much lower cost. Try doing knockout experiments to find cost savings. It’s also possible that you can just water down your formula by a little bit and consumers will not notice.

Solve production problems

One of the only times a cosmetic chemist gets called in the middle of the night is when the production department has a problem with a batch. Usually, the viscosity or pH are out of spec on a formulation. You’ll look at the batch sheet and everything will be added properly and at exactly the right levels. As a formulation chemist, you’ll need to give them ideas on how they might fix the batch. Production never wants to throw out a screwed up batch if they don’t have to.

Make products easier to produce on a large scale

The other way that you will interact with Production is that they’ll want you to come up with (or approve) methods that help speed up the production process. The first conditioner that I developed took over 6 hours to make in production. With some process and formulation modifications we were able to get that production time down to 2 hours.

Create tests to prove claims

The other essential skill will be to come up with impressive claims and tests that help prove them. Typically, your marketing people will point to claims that competitors are making about their cosmetics and ask you to beat them. For example, if a competitor says their shampoo makes hair 3 times stronger, they’ll want you to make hair 6 times stronger. But the real creativity in this area comes when you have to take your existing formula and figure out some test that proves it is superior to other products in some way. This often takes the same amount of cleverness as developing a completely new product.

What skills do you think are essential for cosmetic chemists? Leave a comment below

If you want to be a cosmetic chemist and make cosmetic products, there is certain essential equipment that you’ll need to get.

Here is a list of the basic equipment for setting up a cosmetic lab.

Basic cosmetic Lab equipment

1. Weighing equipment. To make proper measurements of the raw materials, you’ll need a good balance. Be sure to get one that can measure up to at least 500g.

Other weighing equipment that helps includes disposable pipettes (for measuring liquids) and weigh boats (for measuring solids).

2. Containers. The most common container you’ll use to make a cosmetic formula is a beaker. You’ll need a variety of sizes because you’ll be making different sized batches. Be sure to have a number of 500mL, 800mL, 1000mL, 1500ml and 2000mL beakers. You really want 400g to be the minimum size batch you make.

3. Mixers. In college, you most frequently used a magnetic stirrer to mix your creations. These are rarely used in a cosmetic lab. For mixing, you’ll want an industrial type mixer, something like the Lightnin mixer. It is like a single blade hand mixer with a variable speed control. Quite handy.

4. Controlling Temperature. Most cosmetic formulas require heating and cooling so a good hot plate is a must.

Sometimes you can air cool batches but for things like emulsions, you’ll want to have a water bath for cooling it down quickly. This could simply be a tub you fill with cold water and ice.

5. Testing equipment. After you’ve finished a cosmetic formulation, you’ll need to test it to ensure that it meets specifications. For this, you’ll want to have a pH meter and a viscometer (for measuring rheology).

Of course no cosmetic lab would be complete without a good stock of cosmetic raw materials. Which of these you have will depend on the type of formulas you make. Everyone will want to have a supply of deionized water. Most will also want to have a stock of common preservatives, acids, bases, and dye solutions.

Fortunately, if you work for a company they’ll have this stuff for you. They’ll also have more specific equipment for the types of formulas you’ll mostly be working on. However, if you are setting up your own lab or helping your company get into the field of cosmetic science, be sure to stock your lab with the proper equipment.

What equipment do you use for cosmetic formulations? Leave your comment below.

As a cosmetic chemist, you will be often visited by chemical sales people and presented “new” raw materials to put in your formulas. Or you may be asked by your marketing people about ingredients and which cosmetic ingredients are better than others. Unfortunately, it’s not an easy question to answer. Read on to see why.

What are better cosmetic ingredients?

Although this might sound like a simple question, it really isn’t. That’s because the answer is highly dependent on what you mean by the phrase “better than.” And this is true of ANY raw material or beauty product for which you might have this question.

What makes one cosmetic ingredient better than another?

It all depends on which of the following factors are most important to you.

Ingredient Performance

This is related to how well a product does what it says it will do and how it compares to what you are already using. If a new emulsifier makes makes the product more stable then from a performance standpoint, it is better. If a surfactant improves your foam, or a moisturizing agent improves moisture scores, then these ingredients are better. The nice thing about a performance standard is that you can run a test, make a measurement and determine which is better.

Unfortunately, there are other less obvious factors to consider when figuring out which is the “better” cosmetic ingredient.

Price

Another important characteristic in determining whether something is better is price. The assumption is that if one product performs the same as another product but is less expensive, then it is better.

Of course, this is simplistic and the list price of a raw material doesn’t take into consideration other factors that can affect the cost impact to your company. For example, your purchasing department might have a contract with a supplier where you get price breaks based on volumes. If you change to a cheaper ingredient, this could raise the price of other ingredients.

But sometimes the performance doesn’t have to match exactly either. If you can get away with using a less expensive ingredient and still have most of the performance, sometimes it’s worth it.

Production Desires

While there are some ingredients that are easy enough to work with in the lab, they can often be nearly impossible to work with in production. I’m thinking of things like powders and highly viscous ingredients. When formulating and thinking about what is the “best” cosmetic raw material, consider also what your production people will think is the best. Generally, if it’s easier to work with in production, it’s a better ingredient.

Personal preference

I have to admit that there were ingredients that I liked working with. Often this was because I had success with the ingredient in the past. Or maybe I just liked to have a “signature” ingredient in all my formulas. Some cosmetic chemists just prefer to avoid using single sourced ingredients or animal derived products or other arbitrary choices. If you as the formulator think one ingredient is better than another, often that means the ingredient is better. Of course, your boss might make you have a different opinion.

Marketing concerns

Sometimes your marketing department will have an opinion about what is a better ingredient. If your group is hung up on the green movement, they’ll think that vegetable derived is better than petroleum products. They’ll think natural preservatives are better than parabens. They’ll also push for free-trade ingredients, biodegradable, low carbon footprint, etc. If you’re looking for a better ingredient, think about what your marketing group would say.

Better cosmetic ingredients

So how do you figure out which cosmetic ingredients are the best to use? The following checklist can help you figure it out.
1. First, have a standard test to compare performance
2. Consider the overall cost impact of the ingredient
3. Consider the impact on production
4. Figure out what your marketing people would say
5. Decide what you like

Cosmetic formulating is a creative endeavor. Remember, you are the artist and should always have the final say on what you think is the “better” technology.

Formulating is one of the most enjoyable aspects of being a cosmetic chemist. This is when you get to blend all the cosmetic science you’ve learned with your creative inspirations. It’s how you can make your mark as a formulation chemist.

The following 6 steps will help you take your ideas and convert them into functioning cosmetic products.

Step 1 – Define your product

Before you get started, you need to think about what you are going to make. Figure out what functions you want your product to achieve. Is it a cleansing product, a moisturizer, a coloring product, or maybe a combination of factors? Also think about the aesthetic characteristics like color, thickness, clarity, etc. and the cosmetic product form. Write these parameters down so you’ll know when you done whether you’ve been successful.

It is always helpful to have a target product with characteristics that you are trying to match. Be sure to get a sample to look at and feel.

Step 2 – Find a starting formula

Next you need to figure out a good starting formula. Starting formulas can be found from a variety of sources. You can look at some of the most useful cosmetic science books. You can also look at online formularies like the one from Happi.com or Chemidex.com. Raw material suppliers like Croda and Rhodia also have formularies that you can use. Another useful source is patents. You can use Google patents or the USPTO.gov website to find formulas. Of course, you can also talk to a colleague who may be able to share one of her starting formulas with you. Finally, if you work at a big company, they will have a big archive of old formulas that will give you a great starting basis.

Remember, starting formulas are not meant to be finished formulas

Step 3 – Prepare for your batch

Once you have your starting formula, you’ll want to determine how much you want to make and create a spreadsheet which lists out how much of each ingredient you need. Then you’ll need to list the specifications that you will test when the batch is finished. After that you’ll have to gather up all the raw materials and processing equipment needed to make the batch. Next, put on your safety glasses & start making your batch.

Step 4 – Making the batch

Making a cosmetic product is much like cooking. You weigh or measure out your ingredients, mix them together as dictated in the procedure and heat & cool as required. During the entire process you should be writing detailed notes and observations in your lab notebook. These will come in handy when you need to make refinements for future prototypes.

You almost never make a perfect batch on your first try

Step 5 – Test your batch

Once you’ve finished your formula, you’ll want to test it to see how successful you were. After letting the sample equilibrate to room temperature, take appropriate measurements like pH and viscosity to see if you are within specifications. Also, weigh the batch to see how much water weight you lost during the heating and cooling process. If you’ve lost more than a few % of water you may want to add water to make up the difference. In addition to specification tests, you should also do some performance tests to see how well the product functions. At the very least try the product on yourself. If the formula meets your satisfaction then you’ll want to do a stability test.

If you won’t use the product you made, why should anyone else?

Step 6 – Revise formula and Repeat

After you’ve tested the product and determined where it doesn’t quite measure up, you’ll need to make adjustments to see if it can be improved. I’ve found that knockout experiments are the most helpful way to figure out the effect that every ingredient has on the final formula. Once you know what the ingredients do, you’ll know which ones to increase or decrease to improve your formula.

After a dozen or so revisions, you should have a formula that meets your needs.

Cosmetic formulating is as much an art as it is a science. As you gain more experience, you’ll find ingredients that you like to work with and others that you avoid. You’ll develop your own style and ideally make products and formulas that are genuinely unique to you. I always liked to add a “signature” in my formulas by using some ingredient at a % that included the number 44. It didn’t usually have much affect on the formula but it did make me feel like the formula was my own creation. And it was.

Good luck in your formulating career!

Beginning Cosmetic Chemistry

Sure it might be a bit much to include my own book on a list like this, but it really is one of the best resources for introducing someone to the world of cosmetic science. The book is in its third edition and has been expanded to over 50 chapters. It covers everything from industry jargon, raw materials, formulating, and even testing. It also includes chapters written by other industry experts so it’s not just “my book”.

Chemistry and Manufacture of Cosmetics: Science 4th edition
This is one of the original, complete set of books about cosmetic science. It is packed full of technical information covering cosmetic science, formulating and cosmetic ingredients. Almost every industry expert has written a chapter for this 4 volume book series. If you have a question about cosmetic chemistry, no doubt this book will have the answer for you.

Harry’s Cosmeticology
The first edition of this classic book on cosmetic science was first published in 1940. It is now in its 8th edition and is one of the most comprehensive tomes on the subject. It covers all aspects of cosmetic science in 5 sections including the substrates (skin, hair, nails), formulation approaches, ingredients, specific formulations, and production. As a formulation chemist, you will find this single volume book an indispensable resource that you frequently reference.

Handbook of Cosmetic Science and Technology, Third Edition
Much like Harry’s, the Handbook of Cosmetic Science & Technology attempts to cover as many aspects of cosmetic science as it can in a single book. This 880+ page work covers everything from the biology of hair, skin and nails to cosmetic formula types, cosmetic ingredients and even cosmetic claims. Of all the books mentioned thus far, this one does the best job of covering cosmetic claims and testing. It’s definitely worth having on your bookshelf.

A Short Textbook of Cosmetology
I don’t know where I got this book but it is a nice, short volume that covers the basics of cosmetic science. It was written by an author from Switzerland so it has a more Euro-centric view of the cosmetic industry. Other books discussed many focus on the North American cosmetic industry. I particularly enjoyed the extensive historical section in this book. The book is significantly shorter than others weighing in at only 435 pages, but it packs a lot of information in those pages.

Surfactants in Personal Care Products and Decorative Cosmetics, Third Edition (Surfactant Science)
This book is a bit more technical about the science of surfactants than any others on the list. It has chapters written by a variety of cosmetic industry experts and is an excellent resource for the advanced cosmetic chemist. It is probably not one you want to start with but after a few years of formulating, you’ll definitely want to have it in your cosmetic science library.

Chemical and Physical Behavior of Human Hair
This is the most specific of all the books on this list and its inclusion is more reflective of the fact that I spent most of my time formulating products for hair. However, if there is anything you want to know about the science and biology of hair, you need go nowhere else but this book. It explains all aspects of human hair and is based on the latest research. In the hair care world, the book is so ubiquitous it is simply referred to as “Robbins”.

Do you know of a cosmetic science book that helped you which wasn’t included on this list? Leave a comment below and let the cosmetic chemists of the world know about it.