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Sciences in Cosmetic Formulations
I just came back from West Coast Supplier’s Day…
The question was asked by Mark Chandler (who was teaching the Cosmetic Formulation workshop) what are all the sciences that are involved in cosmetic formulations….Do any of you have any ideas? :*
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18 Replies
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Four: chemistry, physics, biology and mathematics.
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Thanks … and there was more that was mentioned at the work shop too. I hope more people answer.
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According to Gabriella Baki and Kenneth Alexander’s book “Introduction to Cosmetic Formulation and Technology” the sciences involved in Cosmetic Science are: Anatomy, Physiology, Chemistry, Pharmacology and Dermatology. Really good book for the cosmetic geek.
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Psychology for psycho sensory awareness and consumer attitudes/habits.
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What about thermodynamics or fluid dynamics, mathematics… Think about all of formulation from concept to packaging.
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if you’re talking about physically creating a product from the raw materials, materials science, thermodynamics and fluid dynamics would be the main ones
in some cases (oxidative hair dyes, exothermic perms, soaps,
old-fashioned shaving creams) ‘simple’ chemistry takes one of the front
seats, in the form of acid/base neutralisation, saponification, or oxidative
polymerisationthe choice of packaging involves mechanical engineering and fluid dynamics
when the product physically interacts with the body, that’s mainly biochemistry and psychology
and when the product is manufactured and filled, that involves chemical engineering
so in short, quite a lot!
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I guess it is all in how you break these things out.
Biology - Human physiology, Biochemistry, Dermatology, Toxicology
Chemistry - Organic, Analytical, Quantitative Analysis, Physical Chemistry, Polymer science.
Certainly Mathematics but I would say it’s not technically a science.
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There’s more, too:
Biology: Microbiology, Dermatology
Chemistry: Biochemistry, Surface Chemistry
Physics: Particle Morphology, RheologyLike Perry said, it’s all in how you organize your categories.
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Mathematics is the language of science particularly in Physics and Quantum Mechanics
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And for the Marketing; Psychology and Abnormal Psychology.
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also: cryptography, which comes into play when the customer complains about the product and uses terms in a manner at odds with their generally recognised definition, so you don’t know what they’re talking about
e.g. when they use ‘pink’ to mean ‘undercooked / under-processed’ rather than ‘tinted red/purple’
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Sexology.
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cryptozoology, kinetics
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Pharmacology
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Mark said in his workshop he had a class where the students named at least 20 different sciences. We have these so far
1)Chemistry
2)Physics
3)Pharmacology
4)Sexology
5)Microbiology
6)Psychology
7)BioChemistry
8)Dermatology
9)Surface Chemistry
10)Particle Morphology
11)Rheology
12) Human physiology
13)Toxicology
14)Organic Chemistry
15)Analytical Chemistry
16) Quantitative Analysis
17) Physical Chemistry
18) Polymer science
19)Anatomy
20) Fluid Dynamics
21) FlowologyCan we add more?
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Biology
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@Chemist5000 what is flowology? (apart from a linguistic abomination which botches together Germanic and classical Greek)
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lingusitic abomination??? HAHA! I can’t remember the exact term but it is an engineering term
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