Demonstrating a cosmetic benefit
I was reading my twitter feed and noticed someone reporting from the annual PCPC conference (#pcpc2014 in case you are searching Twitter). The following quote…
Cosmetic Brand Review - Old Spice
Many people who follow this website have expressed an interest in starting their own line. In fact, most cosmetic chemists that I know secretly wish…
Skin pH - what does it mean?
I’ve always thought it weird when people say that skin has a certain pH. This seems a complete misunderstanding of the term pH as pH…
What is a cosmetic chemist career like?
Here’s a pretty good video in which a high school student describes what it’s like to be a cosmetic chemist. She got to visit Estee…
What is a cosmetic?
Here’s a video I put together some time back. I’ve finally restored it since the crash.
Valentines Day and the Cosmetic Chemist
If you ever wanted to create a Valentine’s Day themed cosmetic product, here is an ingredient you might consider adding. Synthetic pheromones. In a study…
A further look at the Whole Foods Ingredient list
In our continuing series examining the Whole Foods banned ingredient list, this article is going to focus on the dreaded “sulfates” category (and I’ll include…
5 tips to giving great scientific talks
Last Friday I had the opportunity to speak with a group of high school / college students about the topic of cosmetic chemistry. I like…
Do consumers think about parabens in cosmetics?
If you spend a lot of time on the Internet surfing RSS feeds and social media, you could develop the notion that parabens are dangerous…
Creating New Hair Follicle Cells
If you could “cure’ baldness, you would be a billionaire. You wouldn’t even have to spend much money marketing the product. It would sell itself.…
Cosmetic Innovation - Sleep Cream to Improve Skin
As a cosmetic chemist it’s always a good idea to come up with new ideas even if you aren’t working in a particular area at…
The Whole Foods Unacceptable List - Part 4
As I mentioned in my previous post on the Whole Foods Unacceptable list, I was able to get in touch with the person in charge…
Factors influencing the deposition of conditioning polymers
There was an interesting article in the November/December 2013 issue of the Journal of the Society of Cosmetic Chemists. The research titled “Use of Statistical…
Skin Gun - Wrinkle Treatment of the Future?
Here is an amazing new technology that could represent a new way to treat skin wrinkles. It is being tested for use for treating skin…
Episode 35: Valdata Formulation Software
Tom Winter is the president of Valdata systems a company which creates hardware and software solutions for manufacturers of food, pharmaceuticals, and cosmetics. He has…
Stem Cells for the Cosmetic Chemist
I just read a story about a new skin care product that incorporates both plant and human “stem cells.” This type of marketing is a…
Old time cosmetic formulations
I just opened up a box I had in storage and rediscovered a formulation series of books called Benett’s The Chemical Formulary. I actually have…
Why people age
Here’s a pretty good video demonstrating how and why aging is programmed right in your cells. I’m still trying to figure out this whole Hayflick…
Solubility – Basic Chemistry for the Cosmetic Formulator
Not everyone who formulates cosmetics received a degree in chemistry. In fact, most home formulators have very little chemistry training at all. While having a…
How to make a shampoo from scratch
I thought it would be interesting to deconstruct a shampoo formula. To do that, we need to begin with the formula. Here’s a nice, simple…