How Do Cosmetic Raw Materials Get Their Names?
I must confess. One of my favorite things about being a chemist is getting to say long words and knowing what they mean. I loved…
Knockout Experiments for Cosmetics - The Fastest Way to Become an Expert Formulator
There are many different routes you can take to learn to become an expert formulation chemist but few are more powerful than conducting your own…
Why Cosmetic Chemists Should Always Try Their Products
The number of people I’ve known who work on products that they’ve never even tried has always amazed me . They miss so much when…
How to Read a Scientific Journal Article
If you want to stay up on the latest research in cosmetic science, you’ll have to learn to quickly filter and read scientific papers. With…
Lab Notebooks and the Cosmetic Chemist
When I was in college I dreaded writing lab reports. They seemed so structured and uncreative that doing them was a chore. Then you had…
Cosmetic Tests You Must Run Before Launching Your Product
Many followers of this website have a desire to create and sell their own product. We continue to work on a training program that shows…
A Dozen ways you can become a luckier Cosmetic Chemist
I played some poker last night and it is always a reminder to me that being lucky is a much bigger factor than anything else…
Cosmetic Chemist Jargon - Acronyms of the Industry
A list of over 100 cosmetic industry acronyms and their meaning. Essential knowledge for a cosmetic scientist.
Most common cosmetic preservatives
We frequently see brands that claim to be “paraben free” and “formaldehyde free.” With so many new brands making this claim it might surprise you…
The Chemistry of Hair Colors
Yesterday, I did a talk for a cosmetic science class at the University of Toledo which outlined the hair research I did which eventually resulted…
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.…