Natural cosmetics and Standard cosmetics - What’s the difference?
In a previous article about natural cosmetic products, I wrote about the difficulty in producing actually natural cosmetics. This is particularly difficult for cleansing products…
What is a natural cosmetic?
This month we are going to focus on formulating natural cosmetic products. This continues to be a hot area for cosmetic marketers and frequently cosmetic…
Upcoming Continuing Education Opportunities
If you are looking for some live courses in cosmetic science, the National SCC is sponsoring a number of them coming up this year. In…
What are claims ingredients?
There are some ingredients that you include in cosmetic formulas to provide a benefit to consumers. These we call functional cosmetic ingredients. There are other…
Types of surfactants in cosmetics
In our cosmetic surfactant series we’ve talked about what surfactants are and what they do in your formulations. In this entry we’ll give a brief…
The addition of colorants in cosmetics
Today we are having a special webinar examining the use of colors in cosmetics. You can sign up for the webinar here. Sign up for…
10 Things Surfactants Do In Cosmetics
In the first part of our cosmetic surfactant series we talked about what surfactants are and how they behave in a cosmetic mixture. In this…
What are surfactants? A Formulators Guide
Of all the ingredients you could use to formulate cosmetics, surfactants are perhaps the most important. They are used for a wide range of applications…
Fatty Acids and the Formulator
In our recent post on cosmetic emollients I mentioned that many of them were derived from triglycerides. Triglyceride molecules are made up of two segments including glycerin…
Formula adjustment ingredients for cosmetics
When creating cosmetic products in a lab it is easy to have control over the final characteristics of your formula. Under this setting you get the…
Humectants - Cosmetic Formulating Basics
This month we are focusing on cosmetic raw materials. In this post we continue our look at functional cosmetic ingredients specifically on humectants. During much…
What are emollients in cosmetic formulas?
This month we are focusing on cosmetic raw materials and in this post we’ll talk about emollients. In a previous post we talked about the…
Naming cosmetic ingredients - part 2
In the first part of this cosmetic ingredient naming series we covered how the ingredients got their official names and some of the regulatory framework…
Guide to naming cosmetic raw materials - part 1
In the US and most places around the world, it is a requirement that you include a list of ingredients on any cosmetic product that…
Optimizing cosmetic formulas - part 2
In the previous post in this formula optimization series we covered the basic process of optimization and also the things you could optimize and how to…
Cosmetic Formula Optimization - part 1
As a formulator one of your main tasks will be to come up with the recipes for the various products that your company sells. But…
What is an emulsion? Back to Basics
You may have heard the term emulsion, but still don’t quite understand what it means, especially if you are not a chemist. Well, I thought…
How to formulate nutricosmetics
As a cosmetic formulator, you are expected to know how to formulate any cosmetic product. But these days the definition of what is a cosmetic…
How to make cosmetic formulations - a complete overview
When you get out of college and start your new formulation job in the cosmetic industry, you will quickly learn that not much of what you…
Should you use a blend for your cosmetic formulation?
The primary job of a cosmetic formulator, namely creating cosmetic products, can be challenging. That’s mainly because you are trying to achieve a number of…