Should You Formulate a Scalp Serum? A Look at the Science
Walk through any beauty aisle or scroll TikTok for five seconds and you’re sure to see a scalp serum. Brands ranging from The Ordinary to…
Category: Formulating
How to Read a Raw Material Specification Sheet
You’ve found the right ingredient, or so you think. But before you place that order, there’s one more critical step: reading the spec sheet. Raw…
Formulator’s Guide to Contacting Ingredient Suppliers
If you’re sourcing cosmetic raw materials, especially for the first time, reaching out to a supplier can feel intimidating. But clear communication, preparation, and the…
What Ingredient Lists Don’t Tell You
You’ve seen it before, a trendy skincare product with rave reviews and ingredients like niacinamide, hyaluronic acid and peptides highlighted on the label. Sounds impressive.…
Why Understanding Raw Materials Improves Your Formulas
It’s easy to get caught up in the excitement of finished products. But behind every unique texture and performance claim is a web of carefully…
The 3 Types of Cosmetic Raw Materials You Need to Know
Cosmetic ingredient lists can be long and overwhelming but nearly every ingredient in a formula serves one of three core purposes. While there’s some overlap…
AI Cosmetic Formulation - A cosmetic chemists guide
AI’s Role in Cosmetic Chemistry In the ever-evolving world of cosmetic science, the intersection of artificial intelligence (AI) and cosmetic chemistry is not just a…
Solving cosmetic formulation problems
One the cosmetic science formulation forum we often get people looking for advice on how to improve their formulas. While each question and formulation is…
Why companies might change a product formula
As a new cosmetic formulator you might be surprised to learn that you won’t get many opportunities to create completely new formulas. It is rare…
Why beauty products are going waterless
Water (aqua) is usually at the top of most ingredient lists - and for good reason. It’s an effective and inexpensive solvent. Still, waterless beauty…
Places to find ingredient lists for cosmetics
In the days before the Internet became what it is now, it was tough to find lists of ingredients. Even back then analyzing cosmetic ingredient…
Cosmetic product analysis - How do you do it?
Someone wrote in and asked the following. “If you were given a formulated scrub containing pulverized avocado seed/peel. What steps would you take to evaluated…
How to analyze a cosmetic ingredient list
An important skill for every budding cosmetic chemist or formulator to develop is the ability to analyze a cosmetic ingredient list. By honing this skill…
The Colorful History of Synthetic Organic Pigments Used in Color Cosmetics
Azo chemistry is one of the most widely used methods of making synthetic dyes and pigments. The term azo refers to a nitrogen double bond…
The Challenges of formulating natural cosmetics
Clean Beauty is all the rage these days and it can be directly related to the difficulties in formulating natural cosmetics. Although there are not…
Cruelty Free Cosmetics - Are they really free from cruelty?
Hello and welcome to Hot Topics from Chemists Corner, the show where I pick some topic about the cosmetic industry that caught my eye and…
The Problem With Cosmetic Ingredient Research
I was scanning through the various science magazines I follow and stumbled on this interesting article about a couple of essential oils and their effect…
What Silicones Are In Cosmetics
Silicones are definitely controversial ingredients in cosmetic products. The misinformed reasons people suggest avoiding them include things like being unsafe for the environment, causing acne,…
What is the best preservative to use?
One of the most common questions we get here on Chemists Corner about formulating is what is the best cosmetic preservative to use. Before I…
Lotion Serum Cream - What do they mean
Formulating cosmetics can be challenging, but convincing people to buy products can be even harder. The biggest challenge in getting consumers to pick your product…