# Chemists Corner

> Cosmetic science resource site where you can learn all about cosmetic chemistry

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## Pages

- [AI Workshop Replay](https://chemistscorner.com/ai-workshop-replay/)
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- [Cosmetic Raw Materials - lesson 3 - Choosing the best ingredient](https://chemistscorner.com/cosmetic-raw-materials-lesson-3-choosing-the-best-ingredient/)
- [Cosmetic Raw Materials - Lesson 2 - Analyzing Ingredient Lists](https://chemistscorner.com/cosmetic-raw-materials-lesson-2-analyzing-ingredient-lists/)
- [Cosmetic Raw Materials - Lesson 1 - Types of raw materials](https://chemistscorner.com/cosmetic-raw-materials-lesson-1-types-of-raw-materials/)
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- [What is a cosmetic chemist](https://chemistscorner.com/what-is-a-cosmetic-chemist/)
- [Cosmetic Chemist Career - A plan to become a cosmetic chemist](https://chemistscorner.com/cosmetic-chemist-career-a-plan-to-become-a-cosmetic-chemist/)
- [Cosmetic Chemist Jobs in the Cosmetic Industry](https://chemistscorner.com/cosmetic-chemist-jobs-in-the-cosmetic-industry/)
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- [Creating a Formula](https://chemistscorner.com/creating-a-formula/)
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- [Getting raw materials online](https://chemistscorner.com/sources-for-online-raw-material/)
- [Sources for Online Raw Materials](https://chemistscorner.com/sources-for-online-raw-materials/)
- [PCF: Module 5 Bonus Videos](https://chemistscorner.com/pcf-module-5-bonus-videos/)
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- [Cosmetic Regulatory Seminar with Lisa Leigh](https://chemistscorner.com/cosmetic-regulatory-seminar-with-lisa-leigh/)
- [Copying a cosmetic formula](https://chemistscorner.com/copying-a-cosmetic-formula/)
- [How to make a cosmetic formula](https://chemistscorner.com/how-to-make-a-cosmetic-formula/)
- [Essential things for formulators to know](https://chemistscorner.com/essential-things-for-formulators-to-know/)
- [Formulating Natural Cosmetics Video 3](https://chemistscorner.com/formulating-natural-cosmetics-video-3/)
- [Formulating Natural Cosmetics video 2](https://chemistscorner.com/formulating-natural-cosmetics-video-2/)
- [Formulating Natural Cosmetics](https://chemistscorner.com/formulating-natural-cosmetics/)
- [Pre-Module - Math for Cosmetic Chemists](https://chemistscorner.com/pre-module-math-for-cosmetic-chemists/)
- [Cosmetic Industry Consultant](https://chemistscorner.com/cosmetic-industry-consultants/)
- [Free Naturals Formulation eBook](https://chemistscorner.com/free-naturals-formulation-ebook/)
- [Cosmetic Science Mini-Course Lesson 2](https://chemistscorner.com/cosmetic-science-mini-course-lesson-2/)
- [Cosmetic Science Mini-Course Lesson 3](https://chemistscorner.com/cosmetic-science-mini-course-lesson-3/)
- [Cosmetic Science Mini-Course Lesson 4](https://chemistscorner.com/cosmetic-science-mini-course-lesson-4/)
- [Cosmetic Chemist toolkit](https://chemistscorner.com/cosmetic-chemist-toolkit/)
- [Cosmetic Science Mini-Course Lesson 1](https://chemistscorner.com/cosmetic-science-mini-course-lesson-1/)
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- [About](https://chemistscorner.com/about/)

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## Posts

- [Does Beef Tallow Belong in Skincare?](https://chemistscorner.com/does-beef-tallow-belong-in-skincare/)
- [What Cosmetic Chemists Should Know About Natural and Clean Beauty](https://chemistscorner.com/what-cosmetic-chemists-should-know-about-natural-and-clean-beauty/)
- [Why Your Formula Isn’t Working (and How to Fix It)](https://chemistscorner.com/why-your-formula-isnt-working-and-how-to-fix-it/)
- [Should You Formulate a Scalp Serum? A Look at the Science](https://chemistscorner.com/should-you-formulate-a-scalp-serum-a-look-at-the-science/)
- [How to Read a Raw Material Specification Sheet](https://chemistscorner.com/how-to-read-a-raw-material-specification-sheet/)
- [Formulator's Guide to Contacting Ingredient Suppliers](https://chemistscorner.com/what-to-know-before-reaching-out-to-an-ingredient-supplier/)
- [What to Know About Preservatives in Cosmetic Formulas](https://chemistscorner.com/what-to-know-about-preservatives-in-cosmetic-formulas/)
- [Selecting Emollients by Function Not Hype](https://chemistscorner.com/selecting-emollients-by-function-not-hype/)
- [The Science Behind Surfactants](https://chemistscorner.com/the-science-behind-surfactants/)
- [Choosing the Right Emulsifier](https://chemistscorner.com/choosing-the-right-emulsifier/)
- [How to Source Cosmetic Ingredients If You’re Just Getting Started](https://chemistscorner.com/how-to-source-cosmetic-ingredients-if-youre-just-getting-started/)
- [The 5 Types of Raw Material Suppliers Every Formulator Should Know](https://chemistscorner.com/the-5-types-of-raw-material-suppliers-every-formulator-should-know/)
- [Cutting Through The Confusion Between Natural and Synthetic Cosmetic Ingredients](https://chemistscorner.com/cutting-through-the-confusion-between-natural-and-synthetic-cosmetic-ingredients/)
- [What Ingredient Lists Don’t Tell You](https://chemistscorner.com/what-ingredient-lists-dont-tell-you/)
- [Why Understanding Raw Materials Improves Your Formulas](https://chemistscorner.com/why-understanding-raw-materials-improves-your-formulas/)
- [The 3 Types of Cosmetic Raw Materials You Need to Know](https://chemistscorner.com/the-3-types-of-cosmetic-raw-materials-you-need-to-know/)
- [Review of InCosmetics Asia 2024](https://chemistscorner.com/review-of-incosmetics-asia-2024/)
- [How to become a cosmetic chemist - podcast relaunch](https://chemistscorner.com/how-to-become-a-cosmetic-chemist-podcast-relaunch/)
- [Innovation in cosmetics: The haircare conundrum](https://chemistscorner.com/innovation-in-cosmetics-the-haircare-conundrum/)
- [Embracing Artificial Intelligence as a formulator’s assistant in the cosmetics industry](https://chemistscorner.com/embracing-artificial-intelligence-as-a-formulators-assistant-in-the-cosmetics-industry/)
- [AI Cosmetic Formulation - A cosmetic chemists guide](https://chemistscorner.com/ai-cosmetic-formulation-a-cosmetic-chemists-guide/)
- [What does Chat GPT mean for beauty and cosmetic chemists?](https://chemistscorner.com/what-does-chat-gpt-mean-for-beauty-and-cosmetic-chemists/)
- [First Aid Beauty Bump Eraser Body Scrub and the science behind its TikTok success](https://chemistscorner.com/first-aid-beauty-bump-eraser-body-scrub-and-the-science-behind-its-tiktok-success/)
- [Pixi Glycolic Body Wash - Formula Review](https://chemistscorner.com/pixi-glycolic-body-wash-formula-review/)
- [Clinique Cleansing Balm - Formula Review](https://chemistscorner.com/clinique-cleansing-balm-formula-review/)
- [Solving cosmetic formulation problems](https://chemistscorner.com/solving-cosmetic-formulation-problems/)
- [Chemistry concepts most important for cosmetic formulators](https://chemistscorner.com/chemistry-concepts-most-import-for-cosmetic-formulators/)
- [Environmental Impact of the cosmetic industry](https://chemistscorner.com/impact-of-the-cosmetic-industry/)
- [Why companies might change a product formula](https://chemistscorner.com/why-companies-might-change-a-product-formula/)
- [Cosmetic thickeners and stabilizers](https://chemistscorner.com/cosmetic-thickeners-and-stabilizers/)
- [Research and the cosmetic industry](https://chemistscorner.com/research-and-the-cosmetic-industry/)
- [Cosmetic Chemists - Are we Scientists or Marketers?](https://chemistscorner.com/cosmetic-chemists-are-we-scientists-or-marketers/)
- [The best cosmetic preservatives](https://chemistscorner.com/the-best-cosmetic-preservatives/)
- [Why beauty products are going waterless](https://chemistscorner.com/why-beauty-products-are-going-waterless-1/)
- [Are sunscreen claims and other beauty claims accurate?](https://chemistscorner.com/are-sunscreen-claims-and-other-beauty-claims-accurate/)
- [What conditioner ingredients work the best?](https://chemistscorner.com/what-conditioner-ingredient-work-the-best/)
- [Cosmetic product effectiveness](https://chemistscorner.com/cosmetic-product-effectiveness/)
- [Do cosmetic products really work?](https://chemistscorner.com/do-cosmetic-products-really-work/)
- [Cosmetic brand transparency - More marketing fluff?](https://chemistscorner.com/cosmetic-brand-transparency-more-marketing-fluff/)
- [Misunderstood motivations of big cosmetic companies](https://chemistscorner.com/misunderstood-motivations-of-big-cosmetic-companies/)
- [Places to find ingredient lists for cosmetics](https://chemistscorner.com/places-to-find-ingredient-lists-for-cosmetics/)
- [Cosmetic product analysis - How do you do it?](https://chemistscorner.com/cosmetic-product-analysis-how-do-you-do-it/)
- [Why natural cosmetics aren't better](https://chemistscorner.com/why-natural-cosmetics-arent-better/)
- [Cosmetic innovation challenges - Is there innovation in cosmetic science?](https://chemistscorner.com/cosmetic-innovation-challenges-is-there-innovation-in-cosmetic-science/)
- [Cosmetic science - why isn't there more research?](https://chemistscorner.com/cosmetic-science-why-isnt-there-more-research/)
- [How to analyze a cosmetic ingredient list](https://chemistscorner.com/how-to-analyze-a-cosmetic-ingredient-list/)
- [Herbal Extracts in Cosmetic Formulating - A reality check](https://chemistscorner.com/herbal-extracts-in-cosmetic-formulating-a-reality-check/)
- [Challenges of being a cosmetic chemist](https://chemistscorner.com/challenges-of-being-a-cosmetic-chemist/)
- [The Colorful History of Synthetic Organic Pigments Used in Color Cosmetics](https://chemistscorner.com/the-colorful-history-of-synthetic-organic-pigments-used-in-color-cosmetics/)
- [The Challenges of formulating natural cosmetics](https://chemistscorner.com/the-challenges-of-formulating-natural-cosmetics/)
- [Cruelty Free Cosmetics - Are they really free from cruelty?](https://chemistscorner.com/cruelty-free-cosmetics-are-they-really-free-from-cruelty/)
- [Fragrance Loophole Fears Are Unfounded](https://chemistscorner.com/fragrance-loophole-fears-are-unfounded/)
- [The Problem With Cosmetic Ingredient Research](https://chemistscorner.com/the-problem-with-cosmetic-ingredient-research/)
- [What Silicones Are In Cosmetics](https://chemistscorner.com/what-silicones-are-in-cosmetics/)
- [Cosmetic Regulations Around The World](https://chemistscorner.com/cosmetic-regulations-around-the-world/)
- [What is the best preservative to use?](https://chemistscorner.com/what-is-the-best-preservative-to-use/)
- [Lotion Serum Cream - What do they mean](https://chemistscorner.com/lotion-serum-cream-what-do-they-mean/)
- [Cosmetic Ingredients to Avoid when formulating](https://chemistscorner.com/cosmetic-ingredients-to-avoid-when-formulating/)
- [Expiration Date of a Cosmetic Formula](https://chemistscorner.com/expiration-date-of-a-cosmetic-formula/)
- [Creating a cosmetic - what is a concept](https://chemistscorner.com/creating-a-cosmetic-what-is-a-concept/)
- [Cosmetic testing - in vitro - in vivo - ex vivo - and more](https://chemistscorner.com/cosmetic-testing-in-vitro-in-vivo-ex-vivo-and-more/)
- [Should you learn to make cosmetics?](https://chemistscorner.com/should-you-learn-to-make-cosmetics/)
- [Testing Your Products on Hair Tresses – Types Of Tests And Tresses](https://chemistscorner.com/testing-your-products-on-hair-tresses-types-of-tests-and-tresses/)
- [New formulation club by the in-cosmetics Group announced](https://chemistscorner.com/new-formulation-club-by-the-in-cosmetics-group-announced/)
- [How Shampoos Are Made](https://chemistscorner.com/how-shampoos-are-made/)
- [Cosmetic Science Programs Around the World](https://chemistscorner.com/cosmetic-science-programs-around-the-world/)
- [How to Become a Cosmetic Chemist](https://chemistscorner.com/how-to-become-a-cosmetic-chemist/)
- [The 20 Biggest Cosmetic Companies in the World](https://chemistscorner.com/the-20-biggest-cosmetic-companies-in-the-world/)
- [What are the startup costs for a cosmetic business?](https://chemistscorner.com/what-are-the-startup-costs-for-a-cosmetic-business/)
- [Color Selection for Cosmetics and Personal Care Products](https://chemistscorner.com/color-selection-for-cosmetics-and-personal-care-products/)
- [Find a cosmetic chemist for your product idea](https://chemistscorner.com/find-a-cosmetic-chemist-for-your-product-idea/)
- [Cosmetic Science - What is it?](https://chemistscorner.com/cosmetic-science-what-is-it/)
- [What is in a cosmetic ingredient](https://chemistscorner.com/what-is-in-a-cosmetic-ingredient/)
- [Basic cosmetic chemistry course](https://chemistscorner.com/basic-cosmetic-chemistry-course/)
- [Why are some cosmetic ingredients added hot and others added cold](https://chemistscorner.com/why-are-some-cosmetic-ingredients-added-hot-and-others-added-cold/)
- [Why are some oils solid while others are liquid?](https://chemistscorner.com/why-are-some-oils-solid-while-others-are-liquid/)
- [Vitamin E is not a preservative - and other cosmetic preservation misconceptions](https://chemistscorner.com/vitamin-e-is-not-a-preservative-and-other-cosmetic-preservation-misconceptions/)
- [Making money as a cosmetic chemist](https://chemistscorner.com/how-cosmetic-chemists-can-make-more-money/)
- [Exercise your way to younger looking skin](https://chemistscorner.com/exercise-your-way-to-younger-looking-skin/)
- [Should you be worried about asbestos in your cosmetics?](https://chemistscorner.com/should-you-be-worried-about-asbestos-in-your-cosmetics/)
- [Why cosmetic ingredients with the same name aren't always the same](https://chemistscorner.com/why-cosmetic-ingredients-with-the-same-name-arent-always-the-same/)
- [in-Cosmetics Global in Amsterdam to home in on R&D](https://chemistscorner.com/in-cosmetics-global-in-amsterdam-to-home-in-on-rd/)
- [How to be convincing](https://chemistscorner.com/how-to-be-convincing/)
- [5 Reasons Sulfate-Free Products Exist](https://chemistscorner.com/5-reasons-sulfate-free-products-exist/)
- [To start a cosmetic lab you need Lab Supplies](https://chemistscorner.com/to-start-a-cosmetic-lab-you-need-lab-supplies/)
- [Things to know about starting an organic or natural cosmetic line](https://chemistscorner.com/things-to-know-about-starting-an-organic-or-natural-cosmetic-line/)
- [The challenges of formulating a natural cosmetic line](https://chemistscorner.com/the-challenges-of-formulating-a-natural-cosmetic-line/)
- [Creating a cosmetic lab - Heating and Cooling equipment](https://chemistscorner.com/creating-a-cosmetic-lab-heating-and-cooling-equipment/)
- [in-Cosmetics North America Partners with Leading Cosmetics Trade Associations](https://chemistscorner.com/in-cosmetics-north-america-partners-with-leading-cosmetics-trade-associations/)
- [Naturals, facial masks and color cosmetics featured at in-cosmetics Asia 2017](https://chemistscorner.com/naturals-facial-masks-and-color-cosmetics-featured-at-in-cosmetics-asia-2017/)
- [Setting up a cosmetic formulating lab - Mixers](https://chemistscorner.com/setting-up-a-cosmetic-formulating-lab-mixers/)
- [Setting up a cosmetic lab - Scales and weighing equipment](https://chemistscorner.com/setting-up-a-cosmetic-lab-scales-and-weighing-equipment/)
- [How to set up a cosmetic lab - containers](https://chemistscorner.com/how-to-set-up-a-cosmetic-lab-containers/)
- [Natural cosmetic preservative ingredients and strategies](https://chemistscorner.com/natural-cosmetic-preservative-ingredients-and-strategies/)
- [Natural surfactants for cosmetic products](https://chemistscorner.com/natural-surfactants-for-cosmetic-products/)
- [in-Cosmetics 2017 recap](https://chemistscorner.com/in-cosmetics-2017-recap/)
- [Natural cosmetics and Standard cosmetics - What's the difference?](https://chemistscorner.com/natural-cosmetics-and-standard-cosmetics-whats-the-difference/)
- [What is a natural cosmetic?](https://chemistscorner.com/what-is-a-natural-cosmetic/)
- [Upcoming Continuing Education Opportunities](https://chemistscorner.com/upcoming-continuing-education-opportunities/)
- [What are claims ingredients?](https://chemistscorner.com/what-are-claims-ingredients/)
- [Types of surfactants in cosmetics](https://chemistscorner.com/types-of-surfactants-in-cosmetics/)
- [The addition of colorants in cosmetics](https://chemistscorner.com/the-addition-of-colorants-in-cosmetics/)
- [10 Things Surfactants Do In Cosmetics](https://chemistscorner.com/10-things-surfactants-do-in-cosmetics/)
- [What are surfactants? A Formulators Guide](https://chemistscorner.com/what-are-surfactants-a-formulators-guide/)
- [Fatty Acids and the Formulator](https://chemistscorner.com/fatty-acids-and-the-formulator/)
- [Formula adjustment ingredients for cosmetics](https://chemistscorner.com/formula-adjustment-ingredients-for-cosmetics/)
- [Humectants - Cosmetic Formulating Basics](https://chemistscorner.com/humectants-cosmetic-formulating-basics/)
- [What are emollients in cosmetic formulas?](https://chemistscorner.com/what-are-emollients-in-cosmetic-formulas/)
- [Naming cosmetic ingredients - part 2](https://chemistscorner.com/naming-cosmetic-ingredients-part-2/)
- [Guide to naming cosmetic raw materials - part 1](https://chemistscorner.com/guide-to-naming-cosmetic-raw-materials-part-1/)
- [Optimizing cosmetic formulas - part 2](https://chemistscorner.com/optimizing-cosmetic-formulas-part-2/)
- [Cosmetic Formula Optimization - part 1](https://chemistscorner.com/cosmetic-formula-optimization-part/)
- [What is an emulsion? Back to Basics](https://chemistscorner.com/what-is-an-emulsion-back-to-basics/)
- [How to formulate nutricosmetics](https://chemistscorner.com/how-to-formulate-nutricosmetics/)
- [How to make cosmetic formulations - a complete overview](https://chemistscorner.com/how-to-make-cosmetic-formulations-a-complete-overview/)
- [Should you use a blend for your cosmetic formulation?](https://chemistscorner.com/should-you-use-a-blend-for-your-cosmetic-formulation/)
- [In-cosmetics Global 2017 focused on Sustainability and Artificial Intelligence](https://chemistscorner.com/in-cosmetics-global-2017-focused-on-sustainability-and-artificial-intelligence/)
- [An Open Letter to Cosmetic Chemists](https://chemistscorner.com/an-open-letter-to-cosmetic-chemists/)
- [Cosmeceuticals in cosmetics](https://chemistscorner.com/cosmeceuticals-in-cosmetics/)
- [What is an active ingredient in cosmetics](https://chemistscorner.com/what-is-an-active-ingredient-in-cosmetics/)
- [How do you become a cosmetic chemist consultant?](https://chemistscorner.com/how-do-you-become-a-cosmetic-chemist-consultant/)
- [Cosmetic ingredient expiration dates](https://chemistscorner.com/if-oils-expire-soon-will-my-cream-also-expire/)
- [8 ways to reduce your cosmetic formula cost](https://chemistscorner.com/8-ways-to-reduce-your-cosmetic-formula-cost/)
- [Natural Colors in Cosmetics](https://chemistscorner.com/natural-colors-in-cosmetics/)
- [Cosmetic Product Marketing and Weasel Words](https://chemistscorner.com/cosmetic-product-marketing-and-weasel-words/)
- [Is Increased Cosmetic Regulation Needed?](https://chemistscorner.com/is-increased-cosmetic-regulation-needed/)
- [Cosmetic Formulating - How much of an ingredient should you use?](https://chemistscorner.com/cosmetic-formulating-how-much-of-an-ingredient-should-you-use/)
- [In-cosmetics returns to Korea to showcase next generation of cosmetics](https://chemistscorner.com/in-cosmetics-returns-to-korea-to-showcase-next-generation-of-cosmetics/)
- [Color Cosmetics - A Practical Guide to Formulation Review](https://chemistscorner.com/color-cosmetics-a-practical-guide-to-formulation-review/)
- [Cosmetic Science - What is known and unknown](https://chemistscorner.com/cosmetic-science-what-is-known-and-unknown/)
- [Where to get raw materials for making cosmetics](https://chemistscorner.com/where-to-get-raw-materials-for-making-cosmetics/)
- [Why don't consumers trust the cosmetic industry?](https://chemistscorner.com/why-dont-consumers-trust-the-cosmetic-industry/)
- [World Perfumery Congress is coming](https://chemistscorner.com/world-perfumery-congress-is-coming/)
- [The Importance of UV Protection Ingredients in Cosmetics Formulations](https://chemistscorner.com/the-importance-of-uv-protection-ingredients-in-cosmetics-formulations/)
- [Cosmetic Preservation - What’s In a Name?](https://chemistscorner.com/cosmetic-preservation-whats-in-a-name/)
- [Day 30 - Becoming a Cosmetic Science Expert](https://chemistscorner.com/day-30-becoming-a-cosmetic-science-expert/)
- [Day 29 - Natural Cosmetic Products](https://chemistscorner.com/day-29/)
- [Day 28 - Evaluating Cosmetic Products](https://chemistscorner.com/day-28/)
- [Day 27 - Reducing Cosmetic Formulation Costs](https://chemistscorner.com/day-27/)
- [Day 26 - What To Do With Raw Material Samples](https://chemistscorner.com/day-26/)
- [Day 25 - Cosmetic Science - Skin Moisturization](https://chemistscorner.com/day-25/)
- [Day 24 - Cosmetic Career - Creating Your Online Profile](https://chemistscorner.com/day-24/)
- [Day 23 - NGOs And The Cosmetic Industry](https://chemistscorner.com/day-23-ngos-and-the-cosmetic-industry/)
- [Day 22 - Using Patents To Find Test Methods](https://chemistscorner.com/day-22/)
- [Day 21 - Calculating Formulation Costs](https://chemistscorner.com/day-21/)
- [Day 20 - Dissecting An Ingredient List](https://chemistscorner.com/day-20/)
- [Day 19 - The Science of Surfactants](https://chemistscorner.com/day-19/)
- [Day 18 - How To Further Your Education In Cosmetic Science](https://chemistscorner.com/day-18/)
- [Day 17 - Regulation Of The Cosmetic Industry](https://chemistscorner.com/day-17/)
- [Day 16 - Product Testing Required Before Launching](https://chemistscorner.com/day-16/)
- [Day 15 - Types Of Cosmetic Formulas](https://chemistscorner.com/day-15/)
- [Day 14 - Raw Materials - Claims Raw Materials](https://chemistscorner.com/day-14/)
- [Day 13 - Basic Chemistry For Formulators](https://chemistscorner.com/day-13/)
- [Day 12 - Types Of Jobs In The Cosmetic Industry](https://chemistscorner.com/day-12/)
- [Day 11 - Companies In The Cosmetic Industry](https://chemistscorner.com/day-11/)
- [Day 10 - Claims Testing For Cosmetic Chemists](https://chemistscorner.com/day-10/)
- [Day 9 - Equipment Needed For Formulating](https://chemistscorner.com/day-9/)
- [Day 8 - Cosmetic Raw Materials - Aesthetic Ingredients](https://chemistscorner.com/day-8/)
- [Day 7 - The Biology Of The Hair](https://chemistscorner.com/day-7/)
- [Day 6 - Non-Formulating Skills Every Formulator Needs](https://chemistscorner.com/day-6/)
- [Day 5 - Cosmetic Stability Testing](https://chemistscorner.com/day-5/)
- [Day 4 - Biology Of The Skin](https://chemistscorner.com/day-4/)
- [Day 3 - Best Formulating Books & Resources](https://chemistscorner.com/day-3/)
- [Day 2 - Functional Raw Materials](https://chemistscorner.com/day-2/)
- [Day 1 - Types Of Cosmetic Products](https://chemistscorner.com/day-1/)
- [Do Active Ingredients in Cosmetics Work?](https://chemistscorner.com/do-active-ingredients-in-cosmetics-work/)
- [Harry's Cosmeticology Book Review - Edition 9](https://chemistscorner.com/harrys-cosmeticology-book-review-edition-9/)
- [Should you formulate with essential oils](https://chemistscorner.com/should-you-formulate-with-essential-oils/)
- [Using Extracts in Cosmetic Formulas](https://chemistscorner.com/using-extracts-in-cosmetic-formulas/)
- [Episode 48: An Unconventional Route to Cosmetic Formulating – Interview Bill Basinski](https://chemistscorner.com/episode-48-interview-bill-basinski/)
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- [Start with simple cosmetic formulas](https://chemistscorner.com/start-with-simple-cosmetic-formulas/)
- [Will cosmetic chemists become obsolete?](https://chemistscorner.com/will-cosmetic-chemists-become-obsolete/)
- [Episode 47: Harry's Cosmeticology - Interview Meyer Rosen](https://chemistscorner.com/harrys-cosmeticology-interview-meyer-rosen-episode-47/)
- [Product categories in the cosmetic industry](https://chemistscorner.com/product-categories-in-the-cosmetic-industry/)
- [Speaking Engagement - CTSCC September Meeting](https://chemistscorner.com/speaking-engagement-ctscc-september-meeting/)
- [Functional raw materials in the cosmetic industry](https://chemistscorner.com/functional-raw-materials-in-the-cosmetic-industry/)
- [Improve your chances of getting a cosmetic chemist job](https://chemistscorner.com/improve-your-chances-of-getting-a-cosmetic-chemist-job/)
- [In-Cosmetics Brazil 2015 begins September 1st](https://chemistscorner.com/in-cosmetics-brazil-2015-begins-september-1st/)
- [3 Ways to Make Surfactant Free Emulsions](https://chemistscorner.com/3-ways-to-make-surfactant-free-emulsions/)
- [Episode 46: Cosmetic Raw Materials - Interview Kathleen Norris](https://chemistscorner.com/cosmetic-raw-materials-episode-046-interview-kathleen-norris/)
- [Why the EWG Skin Deep Database is Still a Dubious Source](https://chemistscorner.com/why-the-ewg-skin-deep-database-is-still-a-dubious-source/)
- [How to be a Complete Cosmetic Chemist](https://chemistscorner.com/how-to-be-a-complete-cosmetic-chemist/)
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- [What is Chemists Corner About?](https://chemistscorner.com/what-is-chemists-corner-about/)
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- [Episode 43: Robert Tisserand - Essential Oils in Cosmetic](https://chemistscorner.com/robert-tisserand-essential-oils-in-cosmetic-podcast-43/)
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- [How to Reduce the Cost of a Cosmetic Formula](https://chemistscorner.com/how-to-reduce-the-cost-of-a-cosmetic-formula/)
- [Episode 11: Colin Sanders](https://chemistscorner.com/colin-sanders-podcast-episode-011/)
- [Cosmetic Chemists Guide to Natural and Organic Cosmetic Standards](https://chemistscorner.com/cosmetic-chemists-guide-to-natural-and-organic-cosmetic-standards/)
- [How to Find Starting Cosmetic Formulas](https://chemistscorner.com/how-to-find-starting-cosmetic-formulas/)
- [Cosmetic Science Program Re-Opening](https://chemistscorner.com/cosmetic-science-program-re-opening/)
- [Episode 10: Cosmetic Science - Doug Schoon](https://chemistscorner.com/cosmetic-science-podcast-010-doug-schoon/)
- [The 12 Most Maligned Cosmetic Ingredients](https://chemistscorner.com/the-12-most-maligned-cosmetic-ingredients/)
- [Allured Opens New Bookstore Website](https://chemistscorner.com/allured-opens-new-bookstore-website/)
- [How to test Cosmetic Raw Materials](https://chemistscorner.com/how-to-test-cosmetic-raw-materials/)
- [The "Science" of Cosmetic Product Testing](https://chemistscorner.com/the-science-of-cosmetic-product-testing/)
- [Cosmetic Formula Spreadsheet Template](https://chemistscorner.com/cosmetic-formula-spreadsheet-template/)
- [Episode 9: Chemists Corner - Cosmetic Science in Australia](https://chemistscorner.com/chemists-corner-podcast-009-cosmetic-science-in-australia/)
- [Math Used in Cosmetic Product Formulation](https://chemistscorner.com/math-used-in-cosmetic-product-formulation/)
- [Episode 8: How a Chemist Launched Her Own Cosmetic Produc](https://chemistscorner.com/how-a-chemist-launched-her-own-cosmetic-product-podcast-008/)
- [Cosmetic Ingredient Nomenclature - An Introduction](https://chemistscorner.com/cosmetic-ingredient-nomenclature-an-introduction/)
- [Cosmetic Chemists Guide to the Top 20 Beauty Industry Companies](https://chemistscorner.com/cosmetic-chemists-guide-to-the-top-20-beauty-industry-companies/)
- [5 Places to Find Cosmetic Science Jobs](https://chemistscorner.com/5-places-to-find-cosmetic-science-jobs/)
- [Useful Search Engines for Cosmetic Chemists](https://chemistscorner.com/useful-search-engines-for-cosmetic-chemists/)
- [Cosmetic Science Training Program Syllabus](https://chemistscorner.com/cosmetic-science-training-program-announced/)
- [New Source For Personal Care Science Information](https://chemistscorner.com/new-source-for-personal-care-science-information/)
- [Elephant Toothpaste and other Science Videos](https://chemistscorner.com/elephant-toothpaste-and-other-science-videos/)
- [5 Reasons to Attend the Mid Year SCC Scientific Meeting](https://chemistscorner.com/5-reasons-to-attend-the-mid-year-scc-scientific-meeting/)
- [Cosmetic Chemists Guide to Staying Informed on the Web](https://chemistscorner.com/cosmetic-chemists-guide-to-staying-informed-on-the-web/)
- [Cosmetic Science Online Training Program Announced](https://chemistscorner.com/cosmetic-science-online-training-program-announced/)
- [Episode 7: FDU Cosmetic Science Program - Steve Herman Interview](https://chemistscorner.com/podcast-fdu-cosmetic-science-program-steve-herman-interview/)
- [Episode 6: Kevin Young Cosmetic Consultant Interview](https://chemistscorner.com/podcast-episode-006-kevin-young-cosmetic-consultant-interview/)
- [Learn About Making Stable Emulsions in this Online Course](https://chemistscorner.com/learn-about-making-stable-emulsions-in-this-online-course/)
- [How Do You Start a Cosmetic Chemist Career?](https://chemistscorner.com/how-do-you-start-a-cosmetic-chemist-career/)
- [Periodic Tables for Your Amusement](https://chemistscorner.com/periodic-tables-for-your-amusement/)
- [Episode 5: Chemists Corner - Fluid Viscosity](https://chemistscorner.com/chemists-corner-podcast-episode-005-fluid-viscosity/)
- [Premier Cosmetic Industry Trade Show Coming to Chicago](https://chemistscorner.com/premier-cosmetic-industry-trade-show-coming-to-chicago/)
- [Ingredients Cosmetic Companies Add As Puffery and Why](https://chemistscorner.com/ingredients-cosmetic-companies-add-as-puffery-and-why/)
- [4th International Applied Hair Science Conference Announced](https://chemistscorner.com/4th-international-applied-hair-science-conference-announced/)
- [Episode 4: Amanda Foxon-Hill Interview](https://chemistscorner.com/podcast-004-amanda-foxon-hill-interview/)
- [How Cosmetic Chemists Can Help Forensic Science](https://chemistscorner.com/how-cosmetic-chemists-can-help-forensic-science/)
- [6 Steps to Create a Cosmetic Formula](https://chemistscorner.com/6-steps-to-create-a-cosmetic-formula/)
- [Episode 3: Cosmetic Chemist Goes Shopping](https://chemistscorner.com/podcast-episode-003-cosmetic-chemist-goes-shopping/)
- [Episode 2: Dr Johann Wiechers Interview](https://chemistscorner.com/podcast-episode-002-dr-johann-wiechers-interview/)
- [Chemist Careers for the Uncertain Science Major](https://chemistscorner.com/chemist-careers-for-the-uncertain-science-major/)
- [How a Cosmetic Chemist can use the Medici Effect to Innovate](https://chemistscorner.com/how-a-cosmetic-chemist-can-use-the-medici-effect-to-innovate/)
- [Who Knows the Most Important Causes of Aging Skin?](https://chemistscorner.com/who-knows-the-most-important-causes-of-aging-skin/)
- [Top Cosmetic Science Stories of the Decade](https://chemistscorner.com/top-cosmetic-science-stories-of-the-decade/)
- [Other Cosmetic Science Blogs You Will Find Interesting](https://chemistscorner.com/other-cosmetic-science-blogs-you-will-find-interesting/)
- [Innovation in the Cosmetic Industry](https://chemistscorner.com/innovation-in-the-cosmetic-industry/)
- [More Ways to Become a More Innovative Cosmetic Chemist](https://chemistscorner.com/more-ways-to-become-a-more-innovative-cosmetic-chemist/)
- [The Top 7 Cosmetic Science Books](https://chemistscorner.com/top-10-book-cosmetic-science-book-resources/)
- [Emulsions Made By Bouncing Oil and Water Droplets](https://chemistscorner.com/emulsions-made-by-bouncing-oil-and-water-droplets/)
- [Cosmetic Stability Test - Freeze Thaw Cycles](https://chemistscorner.com/cosmetic-stability-test-freeze-thaw-cycles/)
- [Search the Cosmetic Ingredient Dictionary for Free](https://chemistscorner.com/search-the-cosmetic-ingredient-dictionary-for-free/)
- [Cosmetic Surfactants - An Introduction for Cosmetic Chemists](https://chemistscorner.com/cosmetic-surfactants-part-1/)
- [What Kinds of Surfactants Are Used in Cosmetics?](https://chemistscorner.com/what-kinds-of-surfactants-are-used-in-cosmetics/)
- [Skepticism and the Cosmetic Industry](https://chemistscorner.com/skepticism-and-the-cosmetic-industry/)
- [Top Cosmetic Industry Magazines You Should Be Reading](https://chemistscorner.com/top-cosmetic-industry-magazines-you-should-be-reading/)
- [To Be An Innovative Chemist You Have to Ask Questions](https://chemistscorner.com/to-be-an-innovative-chemist-you-have-to-ask-questions/)
- [Use Twitter to Find a Cosmetic Chemist Job](https://chemistscorner.com/use-twitter-to-find-a-cosmetic-chemist-job/)
- [Useful Cosmetic Product Information from the FDA](https://chemistscorner.com/useful-cosmetic-product-information-from-the-fda/)
- [20+ Cosmetic Chemists Who Tweet - Do You?](https://chemistscorner.com/20-cosmetic-chemists-who-tweet-do-you/)
- [Weirdest Ingredients Used By Cosmetic Chemists](https://chemistscorner.com/weirdest-ingredients-used-by-cosmetic-chemists/)
- [What Should You Do With Your New Product Idea?](https://chemistscorner.com/what-should-you-do-with-your-new-product-idea/)
- [How To Stability Test a Cosmetic Formula](https://chemistscorner.com/how-to-stability-test-a-cosmetic-formula/)
- [Could You Start Your Own Cosmetics Business?](https://chemistscorner.com/could-you-start-your-own-cosmetics-business/)
- [Who Wants to Discover How to Generate New Cosmetic Product Ideas?](https://chemistscorner.com/who-wants-to-discover-how-to-generate-new-cosmetic-product-ideas/)
- [Top 10 Unsolved Skin Care Problems](https://chemistscorner.com/top-10-unsolved-skin-care-problems/)
- [Top 10 Unsolved Hair Care Problems](https://chemistscorner.com/top-10-unsolved-hair-care-problems/)
- [Journal of Cosmetic Chemistry Now Online](https://chemistscorner.com/journal-of-cosmetic-chemistry-now-online/)
- [Online Sources to Help You Become a More Innovative Chemist](https://chemistscorner.com/online-sources-to-help-you-become-a-more-innovative-chemist/)
- [How to Sell An Idea to Advance Your Career](https://chemistscorner.com/how-to-sell-an-idea-to-advance-your-career/)
- [Cosmetic Chemist Site Coming Soon](https://chemistscorner.com/cosmetic-chemist-site-coming-soon/)

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## Forums

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## Courses

- [AI Formulation Workshop](https://chemistscorner.com/courses/ai-formulation-workshop/)
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- [AI Tools and the Cosmetic Chemist: A Guide for Formulators](https://chemistscorner.com/courses/ai-tools-and-the-cosmetic-chemist-a-guide-for-formulators/)
- [The Essentials of Cosmetic Regulatory Compliance](https://chemistscorner.com/courses/the-essentials-of-cosmetic-regulatory-compliance/)
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# Detailed Content


## Pages


Unlock AI’s Power for Cosmetic Formulators Workshop + Bonus eBook – Only $79 https://vimeo. com/1108746654/756b2b2003? ts=0&share=copy Get Instant Access for only $79 What You’ll Learn in This Workshop If you want to quickly master useful AI prompting skills without taking a full course, this workshop replay is your shortcut.   Recorded live on July 10th, 2025 it’s packed with demonstrations, real-world examples, and audience Q&A — all tailored for cosmetic formulators. In Just One Session, You’ll Discover How to: Write the best AI prompts for creating starting formulas Get AI assistance to make formulas more natural and sustainable Avoid common mistakes that waste time and give bad results Use AI to conduct in-depth ingredient research in minutes Apply tips from real formulators using AI in their daily work Your Free Bonus – The AI Prompt Starter Pack Along with the replay, you’ll get our exclusive eBook with proven prompt templates for:Starting new product formulationsResearching active ingredientsGenerating marketing claims ideasThis eBook alone will save you hours of trial and error. Only $79 for Lifetime Workshop Access + eBook Download Buy Now

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Featured Courses

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Featured Webinars

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Featured ebooks

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MOCRA Regulations Webinar Replay Thank you for signing up for the Chemists Corner Regulatory webinar! The replay will be available through September 20, 2024. Days Hours Minutes Seconds Expires on March 29, 2024 Yes, I want to learn more about Cosmetic Regulations Approximate Webinar Timestamps0:00 – Introduction to MOCRA. 2:00 – FDA definitions7:00 – Main Obligations10:00 – Passed deadlines for compliance. 19:00 – Serious adverse event reporting24:00 – Upcoming deadlines33:00 – How to get regulatory support42:00 – Q&A session with webinar attendees. Get the Newsletter

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Get the Free handbook Get the Slides Ask a question

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https://vimeo. com/818552748/4372281f62

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5. What is your ultimate goal? - What would you like to achieve in your career? To become a cosmetic formulator and consult for brands I would like to get high in a cosmetics company. I see myself in a decisive position. To become a successful cosmetic scientist! Cosmetic formulation chemist To marry esthetics and cosmetic science Mine is getting a job in the industry first then maybe becoming an entrepreneur for my own product To become a cosmetic chemistry. I have a Bachelor degree in Science and now I would like to narrow down to studying cosmetic chemistry. I already have the right education (science degrees) so brushing up on my technique and learning beauty basics by exploring the raw ingredients available to me is where I have focused my goals in becoming a beauty science formulator. I have been hired on a contract by contract basis by a online school and raw ingredient supplier just this year. So far so good! i want to become a cosmetic formulator Formulation chemist To know how to formulate a cosmetic product without referring to old formulas To become a certified cosmetics formulator I want to make good products for my clients and fully understand interactions within my product and with regards to a number of substrates Maybe one day I could start a company too, but I just want the skill to begin with I would love to work as a formulator but since there are not many industry opportunities in my country, I would like to try to start my own business. I want to be a cosmetics formulator I need to develop cosmetics from plant To become an effective trainer offering professional Cosmetic Science training to students and young people in Africa with an interest in the beauty industry. To start educate more To understand formulating and make it simple and assessable. Living in South Africa, a lot of the ingredients are not available to the home formulator Be a better formulator to become a cosmetic chemist, mostly working in formulations for now.

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work with all actives that are effective and make them stable Able to formulate good formulation To include in my course ability to formulate Knowledge about actives Be more informed on the new regulations, usage and what we need to be in compliance with How to effectively formulate with actives Yes insight to formulate effectively and select active smartly. way to synthesis and characterize active ingredients I want to make vitamin C skin care range To be able to know the Biochemistry of action of tretinoin and how to use it properly to achieve its usefulness More knowledge on this subject matter. That I can keep reliable actives on my shelf that I can easily pick and incorporate in my formulation To know ingredients that work for Anti aging Be able to formulate functional curling products for ethnic hair. Develop gentle yet effective products for acne prone skin Know how the formula work when bleeding all ingredient together Three days Formulate effective products with it. Understand and recognize if those active ingredients work and know how to research new ingredients from scientific papers. Formulate with these ingredients, make marketing statements I would like to be able to create serums including ascorbic acid and face toners including glycolic acid as a peeling solution with up to 7% (actual active glycolic acid). Able to analyze the formula Better formulatory knowledge select the most effective ingredient Be able to recognize & decipher an ingredient label Better understanding of active ingredient along with effective use level and to be able to formulate with Understanding, as journalist Knowledge of the actives and how to use effectively in my formulation Educate on the topic A more in depth understanding I’m excited to take it! Feel comfortable choosing actives for my formulas Information on how to use in a formula with recommended inclusion levels. An innovative product A clearer understanding of each of these, how to use it, to what purpose, level or %, Design a high performance product knowledge to be able to make my own products that are work and healthy for the skin Be able to incorporate the active ingredient in my formulations better compounding Formulation More knowledge about the ingredients and the confidence to really formulating with those acids Know in detail the working of the active ingredients Find actives that give best result. Formulate hair and skin moisturizer become professional formulator for start business Reformulate my products wisdom Feeing more confident about making creams and lotions with different kinds of emulsifiers To understand this ingredients Know all the ingredients function and also what ingredients is bad and good Role of active ingredients in cosmetic products making be able to formulate with them correctly Get educated on the various active ingredients in skin and hair product formulation to refine the quality to the next level quality product Better skills. understand the chemistry of actives and how to apply them Make a vitamin c serum Making stable and aesthetically pleasing formulas using those ingredients....

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What skin and hair active ingredients do you want to learn about? werer Salicylic acid retinol, retinoids Alpha Aurbutin Active for whitening ang brightening skin Active for hair growth, anti dandruff essential oils conditioners Botanicals Substitutions for "bad list items" ALL OF THEM from the Acids to the Peptides. Yes Sunscreen, antioxidant long time moisture content ingredient Vitamin C TRETINOIN Both active materials for OTC drug applications and hydrating materials for non OTC needs Oil soluble actives - clean, vegan, organic Anti aging Actives/ polymers for curl retention (ethnic hair), actives for acne & hyperpigmentation, Everything about skin Skin whitening,glowing,hair styling gel Skin penetration enhancers and damaged hair treatments High performance active ingredients for mature skin Keratin, peptides , silk protein Vitamine C & Glycolic acid Acne prone skin Skin rejuvenation and curl control hyperpigmentation, sensitive skin, hair loss... All ingredients found in the manufacture of skin & hair products Anti-aging, DNA repair ingredients for skin and hair strengthening ingredients for hair Peptides and retinol derivates Lactic acid Niacimide Glycolic acid Salycilic acid Colloidal oat meal for hair, bonding complexes, and for skin, sunscreens Growth factors Personally I want to most about actives for mature skin new trends, new anti wrinkle actives or scalp cleansing, boosts hair growth Peptides Alpha-Hydroxy Acid (AHA), Probiotics, Retinol, Salicylic Acid, Ceramides, Niacinamide, Hyaluronic Acid. Aha, bha, pha, retinol and it’s derivatives, niacinamide,

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What would you expect to be able to accomplish at the completion of this course? werer Good amount of knowledge work with all actives that are effective and make them stable N Able to formulate good formulation To include in my course ability to formulate Knowledge about actives Be more informed on the new regulations, usage and what we need to be in compliance with How to effectively formulate with actives Yes insight to formulate effectively and select active smartly. way to synthesis and characterize active ingredients I want to make vitamin C skin care range To be able to know the Biochemistry of action of tretinoin and how to use it properly to achieve its usefulness More knowledge on this subject matter. That I can keep reliable actives on my shelf that I can easily pick and incorporate in my formulation To know ingredients that work for Anti aging Be able to formulate functional curling products for ethnic hair. Develop gentle yet effective products for acne prone skin Know how the formula work when bleeding all ingredient together Three days Formulate effective products with it. Understand and recognize if those active ingredients work and know how to research new ingredients from scientific papers. Formulate with these ingredients, make marketing statements I would like to be able to create serums including ascorbic acid and face toners including glycolic acid as a peeling solution with up to 7% (actual active glycolic acid). Able to analyze the formula Better formulatory knowledge select the most effective ingredient Be able to recognize & decipher an ingredient label Better understanding of active ingredient along with effective use level and to be able to formulate with Understanding, as journalist Knowledge of the actives and how to use effectively in my formulation Educate on the topic A more in depth understanding I’m excited to take it! Feel comfortable choosing actives for my formulas Information on how to use in a formula with recommended inclusion levels. An innovative product A clearer understanding of each of these, how to use it, to what purpose, level or %, Design a high performance product knowledge to be able to make my own products that are work and healthy for the skin Be able to incorporate the active ingredient in my formulations better compounding Formulation More knowledge about the ingredients and the confidence to really formulating with those acids Know in detail the working of the active ingredients Find actives that give best result. Formulate hair and skin moisturizer become professional formulator for start business Reformulate my products wisdom Feeing more confident about making creams and lotions with different kinds of emulsifiers To understand this ingredients Know all the ingredients function and also what ingredients is bad and good Role of active ingredients in cosmetic products making be able to formulate with them correctly Get educated on the various active ingredients in skin and hair product formulation to refine the quality to the next level quality product Better skills. understand the chemistry...

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Thank you so much for your donation! It means a lot to me that you have helped support the forum! cause! Perry, 44 Click here to go to Forum

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Bonus Video Lessons https://vimeo. com/719937735/86e02e8a67 Ingredient Trends for 2022 https://vimeo. com/719156154/cdf12aa974 Making Formulating Easier https://vimeo. com/719196369/b1f1199300 How to start your own brand Types of Jobs for a cosmetic chemist https://vimeo. com/720354172/3fc4f332fa Finding Niche Markets https://vimeo. com/722275528/de852f254b Optimizing cosmetic formulas https://vimeo. com/720050621/71de5cddf4 Formulator's guide to Social Media https://vimeo. com/722315925/2314aaaa45 Tips for attending a trade show https://vimeo. com/722336446/13157d74e1 Knockout Experiments https://vimeo. com/719902683/b52aaa6a05 Using Alternative Raw Materials https://vimeo. com/720050199/3e212ad2f0 Working with raw materials https://vimeo. com/719880754/6f54889c54 Becoming a Formulation Consultant https://vimeo. com/720369337/595f0b6335 Tips for giving scientific talks https://vimeo. com/720281293/b2710631a2 Coming up with new product ideas https://vimeo. com/722288882/34eeffeeb7 The best cosmetic science formulation books https://vimeo. com/720324886/4d3ee13ff7 Where to find starting formulas https://vimeo. com/720460825/7c50df480c Combating scientific misinformation Course Content Expand All Lessons Module 1: Getting Started 3 Videos | 1 Quiz Expand Lesson Content 0% Complete 0/3 Steps Part 1 – Introduction to the Industry & Regulation Part 2 – The cosmetic laboratory Part 3 – Anatomy of a cosmetic formula Quiz For Module #1 Module 2: Cosmetic Product Development 3 Videos | 1 Quiz Expand Lesson Content 0% Complete 0/3 Steps Part 1 – The Product Development Process Part 2 – Generating cosmetic product ideas Part 3 – Turning ideas into prototypes Quiz for Module #2 Module 3: Cosmetic Raw Materials 5 Videos | 1 Quiz Expand Lesson Content 0% Complete 0/5 Steps Video 1 – Raw material naming Video 2 – Functional Raw materials – Pt 1 Video 3 – Functional Raw materials – Pt 2 Video 4 – Aesthetic cosmetic raw materials Video 5 – Marketing cosmetic raw materials Quiz for Module #3 Module 4: Cosmetic Formulation Types 3 Videos | 1 Quiz Expand Lesson Content 0% Complete 0/3 Steps Video 1 – Solutions and Emulsions Video 2 – Gels, Sticks and powders Video 3 – Aerosol Formulas Quiz for Module #4 Module 5: Hair Care Products 4 Videos | 1 Quiz Expand Lesson Content 0% Complete 0/4 Steps Video 1 – Shampoos Video 2 – Conditioners Video 3 – Styling Products Formulas PCF Module 5 – bonus Quiz for Module #5 Module 6: Skin Care Products 7 Videos | 1 Quiz Expand Lesson Content 0% Complete 0/7 Steps Video 1 – Introduction Video 2 – Cleaners Video 3 – Cleansers 2 Formulas Video 4 – Moisturizer Formulas Video 5 – Sunscreen Formulas Video 6 – Anti-aging Products Video 7 – Skin colors / Shaving formulas Quiz for Module #6 Module 7: Color Cosmetic Products 5 Videos | 1 Quiz Expand Lesson Content 0% Complete 0/5 Steps Video 1 – Introduction Video 2 – Color cosmetics Video 3 – Lip products Video 4 – Nail products Video 5 – Facial masks and peels Quiz for Module #7 Module 8: Prototyping and Scale-up Tips 3 Videos | 1 Quiz Expand Lesson Content 0% Complete 0/3 Steps Video 1 – Prototyping Tips Part 1 Video 2 – Prototyping Tips Part 2 Video 3 – Scale-up and Packaging Quiz for Module #8 Module 9: Cosmetic Product Testing 4 Videos | 1 Quiz Expand Lesson Content 0%...

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Thank you so much for signing up for the Practical Cosmetic Formulating course. We are very happy to have you in the program. To access the course we need to add you to our system. Please enter your name and email below Loading... Thanks again! If you have any questions, feel free to leave a comment below or send me an email - perry. romanowski@gmail. com. I look forward to working with you! Regards Perry, 44

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Cosmetic Raw Materials lesson 3 This lesson introduces you to the factors involved in helping you make the choice of the right ingredient to use in your formula. This includes a 5 step process including... Effectiveness Formula type Manufacturing conditions Raw material sources Cost considerations Marketing considerations What did you think? ! Or Do you have more questions about raw materials. Please leave a comment here

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Cosmetic Raw Materials lesson 2 This lesson introduces you to the method I use to analyze the ingredients you find in any cosmetic product. This includes a 5 step process including... Finding ingredient lists Reviewing product claims Identifying functional ingredient Identifying aesthetic modifiers Identifying claims ingredients What did you think? ! Or Do you have more questions about raw materials. Please leave a comment here

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Cosmetic Raw Materials lesson 1 This lesson introduces you to the main types of cosmetic ingredients. It includes information about the following topics Functional ingredients that make product work Aesthetic modifiers that make products stable and appealing to use Claims ingredients that give marketers a story to talk about What did you think? ! Or Do you have more questions about raw materials. Please leave a comment here

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If you have any questions or concerns please use the contact form on the contact page to get a hold of me, or if you would like to use the new system for your course. We can add you to the site and send new login information. Thanks. P. s I will try to respond within 24 hours . Contact Us

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Loading Jesse Montague Edit profile 9 Courses 0 Completed 0 Certificates 0 Points Your Courses Search Expand All close Search Your Courses Course Name Expand AI Formulation Workshop Course Progress 0% Complete 0/2 Steps Expand The Essentials of Cosmetic Regulatory Compliance Course Progress 0% Complete 0/35 Steps Expand AI Tools and the Cosmetic Chemist: A Guide for Formulators Course Progress 0% Complete 0/32 Steps Expand Cosmetic Active Ingredients Course Progress 0% Complete 0/34 Steps Expand Cosmetic Launch Coach Course Progress 0% Complete 0/31 Steps Expand Practical Cosmetic Formulating Course Progress 0% Complete 0/46 Steps Expand Practical Cosmetic Formulating: Naturals Edition Course Progress 0% Complete 0/27 Steps Expand Pre-Modules Course Progress 0% Complete 0/4 Steps Expand Cosmetic Raw Materials Course Course Progress 0% Complete 0/63 Steps

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One of the most common questions we get here on Chemists Corner is someone asking for help to find a cosmetic chemist. Unfortunately, the majority of people who have expertise in developing cosmetics work for companies so they typically can't help you out. However, there are a number of independent formulators or chemists who work for contract manufacturers who may be able to work with you. There are a few things you should know when trying to find a cosmetic chemist. Can you make the cosmetics yourself? Typically, people try to find a cosmetic chemist when they have a great idea for a cosmetic product. After doing a quick Google search and seeing all that is written about making cosmetics yourself, some get the idea that they don't need a cosmetic chemist and can make the products themselves. Depending on the type of product you want to make this is certainly an option. We even have an online course where you can learn cosmetic formulating if you're interested. However, the reality is that learning to make cosmetic products and developing an idea into a successful beauty brand are completely different skill sets. If your goal is to start a beauty product line or develop a great product that doesn't already exist, you don't need to make the product yourself. It is a much better idea to hire a chemist or a company to make the product for you. As we teach in our course on starting a cosmetic line, you need to focus on sales and marketing if you want to have a successful beauty brand. Do you really need a chemist? So, if starting a product line is what you really want to do then working with a chemist or a company is the best way to go. Then you'll have to decide whether you want to work with a chemist or with a company that can make the product for you. Let me explain the difference. Formulating Chemist - A formulating chemist or cosmetic consultant is an independent scientist who will come up with the formula for you. You discuss with them your idea, your budget, and everything else about the project and they create a formula to your specifications. The nice part is at the end of the process you typically will own the formula. Contract Manufacturer (CM) - There are companies that will work with you to develop the formula and make the product. Depending on the project, the lab work might even be free if you agree to make your production runs with the company. Private Labeler (PL) - Another type of company you can work with is a private labeler. The difference between a PL and a CM is that the private labeler will only allow minor customizations of the product. They offer you existing formulas which you can put into containers that have customized labels. The product will look like your own but the actual stuff in the bottle might not be unique...

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A career in cosmetic chemistry is one of the most satisfying and creative things you can do with a chemistry degree. Of course, you can also start a career with other science degrees like chemical engineering and biology but most cosmetic scientists have chemistry degrees. On this page you will find many of the best articles we’ve written about how to get started in a cosmetic chemistry career, what you will do on the job and other tips to help you advance in your career. If you are just starting out or are unsure whether cosmetic science is for you, sign up for the free introductory mini course on cosmetic science. You just need to enter your name and email address in the box below. Here are some of our best articles published about starting a cosmetic science career. Getting started How to become a Cosmetic Chemist How I became a cosmetic chemist 75 Things a Cosmetic Scientist Does Top 10 reasons to become a cosmetic chemist Basic cosmetic science career questions answered More cosmetic science career questions answered How to start a cosmetic chemist career Cosmetic Science Degrees Cosmetic Science programs around the world Cosmetic Careers for Uncertain Science Majors What background do you need to become a cosmetic chemist? What major should you take to become a cosmetic chemist? Is a degree in cosmetic science worth it? Finding a cosmetic science job 3 Tips for finding a cosmetic science lab job 5 Places to find cosmetic science jobs Where to find cosmetic science internships The differences between working for a small or big company How a blog can help you get a cosmetic science job How much money does a cosmetic chemist make? The realities of a cosmetic chemist career Looking for a cosmetic science job? Could you become a cosmetic chemist consultant? How to use Twitter to find a cosmetic science job Start your own cosmetic line List of cosmetic science jobs around the United States

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A career in cosmetic chemistry is one of the most satisfying and creative things you can do with a chemistry degree. Of course, you can also start a career with other science degrees like chemical engineering and biology but most cosmetic scientists have chemistry degrees. On this page you will find many of the best articles we’ve written about how to get started in a cosmetic chemistry career, what you will do on the job and other tips to help you advance in your career. If you are just starting out or are unsure whether cosmetic science is for you, sign up for the free introductory mini course on cosmetic science. You just need to enter your name and email address in the box below. Here are some of our best articles published about starting a cosmetic science career. Getting started How to become a Cosmetic Chemist How I became a cosmetic chemist 75 Things a Cosmetic Scientist Does Top 10 reasons to become a cosmetic chemist Basic cosmetic science career questions answered More cosmetic science career questions answered How to start a cosmetic chemist career Cosmetic Science Degrees Cosmetic Science programs around the world Cosmetic Careers for Uncertain Science Majors What background do you need to become a cosmetic chemist? What major should you take to become a cosmetic chemist? Is a degree in cosmetic science worth it? Finding a cosmetic science job 3 Tips for finding a cosmetic science lab job 5 Places to find cosmetic science jobs Where to find cosmetic science internships The differences between working for a small or big company How a blog can help you get a cosmetic science job How much money does a cosmetic chemist make? The realities of a cosmetic chemist career Looking for a cosmetic science job? Could you become a cosmetic chemist consultant? How to use Twitter to find a cosmetic science job Start your own cosmetic line

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What is a Cosmetic Chemist? This lesson introduces you to the wonderful world of cosmetic chemistry. We specifically look at what does a cosmetic chemist do on the job. This video includes information about the following topics What are cosmetic chemist responsibilities? What does a cosmetic chemist do all day? How do cosmetic chemists help get products made?

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This cosmetic chemist video focuses on your cosmetic science career. If you don't yet have a job in the industry this will be helpful to let you know your options. If you are already employed in the cosmetic industry, this will let you know about different career paths you might rather pursue. In this video, we are going to go over Types of jobs for cosmetic chemists Companies that hire cosmetic chemists The 6 types of cosmetic chemist job levels

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This cosmetic chemist video focuses on your cosmetic science career. If you don't yet have a job in the industry this will be helpful to let you know your options. If you are already employed in the cosmetic industry, this will let you know about different career paths you might rather pursue. In this video, we are going to go over Types of jobs for cosmetic chemists Companies that hire cosmetic chemists The 6 types of cosmetic chemist job levels

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In this video, we are going to go over the educational background needed to become a cosmetic chemist and the classes that will be most helpful. Chemistry courses you need Aligned sciences & other useful courses What kind of degree do cosmetic chemists need?

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Become an Excellent Formulator Chemists Corner is a website written for cosmetic chemists by cosmetic chemists about cosmetic science and chemistry. It is meant to be a resource and gathering place for cosmetic chemists to learn tips, swap stories, and find out how to survive and thrive in the cosmetic industry. Learn More "Our mission is to help you land a job in the cosmetic industry and become a better scientist once you get there" Perry Romanowski Founder Chemist Corner Courses Offered: Learn to Become a Cosmetic Chemist! The ONLY online science-based cosmetic formulation courses you need to get started creating your own beauty products! Sign up to get a FREE Mini Course about Cosmetic Science! Learn More Register Now Learn More Register Now Learn More Register Now Learn More Register Now Learn More Get the book Learn More Get the book I Need Help To ... What people are saying! “The course is terrific. I wished I had such a course long time ago. Perry’s instructional skill is awesome, especially the way he organized the subject very detailed. I would refer this course to someone who would like to have interest in practical cosmetic formulation. ”"The class is extremely interesting and I truly appreciate each page/slide or video offered, enjoying them to the maximum! ”. “The courses are written in a simple and understandable way especially for me that English is my third language and I don't find any problems to understand”“The courses are very good and helpful. The lectures are really amazing. I can say Perry is my best teacher I have ever have. I learn a lot from him and hope to learn more and more. “

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Thank you for subscribing to the cosmetic chemist career series. To make sure that you receive it, go to your inbox right now and look for my email request to confirm your subscription. Click the link in the email to confirm. After you confirm, you’ll automatically get the first video that will teach you how to get you started on your way to becoming a cosmetic chemist. Thanks again and I look forward to working with you! Perry, 44 PS. If you don’t see an email, contact me directly at perry@chemistscorner. com

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Thank you again for your interest in the cosmetic chemist career series. Hopefully, the videos will help you realize your dream of becoming a cosmetic chemist. Be sure to check out our community of cosmetic chemists in the Chemists Corner forum. Here you can get answers from people who work as cosmetic chemists. Cheers! Perry, 44

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Note: To book Perry to speak at your event please send the request through our Contact Us page Why Book Perry to Speak? Perry Romanowski is the founder of Chemists Corner, The Beauty Brains, Phique Beauty Products, and a variety of other websites. He is a sought after keynote speaker who has presented around the world at events like in-Cosmetics (Berlin, Paris), Australian SCC, IPCE (Italy), PCHI (China), HBA (New York), SupplySide West (Las Vegas), New York Suppliers Day, California Suppliers Day (Las Angeles), Southwest Suppliers Day (Dallas) and many more. Perry has delivered talks to audiences of many hundreds of people and smaller workshop sized groups. He has numerous television appearances including multiple segments on the Dr Oz show, the Rachel Ray show, Fox and Friends, and more. He lives in Chicago, but regularly travels around the United States and Internationally to speak. Speaking at Ignite Chicago Topics Perry can speak on Perry is a dynamic, interesting speaker who embraces the motto “never be boring. ” He can speak on a wide range of topics related to the cosmetic industry, science, product formulating and entrepreneurship. Here is a list of topics he has spoken on in the past. Education – Practical Cosmetic Product Development Education – Beginning Cosmetic Chemistry Education – NGO’s and their impact on formulators Education – Cosmetic Science for Forensic Scientists Education – Guide to making cosmetic claims Education – Skepticism and the Cosmetic Chemist Technology – Sunscreen technology Technology – Preservation of cosmetics Technology – Cosmetic raw materials Formulating – Stability testing of cosmetics Formulating – Creating Natural Cosmetic Products Entrepreneurship – Starting your own cosmetic line Entrepreneurship – Using Social Networking to Expand Business Innovation – What Formulators need to make superior products Resources – Cosmetic Chemists Guide to the Internet Career – 7 non-chemistry skills every formulator needs Career – How to become a cosmetic chemist Note: To book Perry to speak at your event please send the request through our Contact Us page

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Practical Cosmetic FormulatingThe ONLY online science-based cosmetic formulation course you need to get started creating your own beauty products Learn More Hurry... only $547 Includes Training Plus all modules + All bonuses! Natural Cosmetic FormulatingA realistic, science-based formulation course that teaches you how to make Natural and Organic Cosmetics that actually work! Learn More Cosmetic Raw Materials 101To be an excellent cosmetic formulator, you need to know about raw materials. This course teaches you what you need to know to become a competent cosmetic chemist. Learn More 30 Days to Become a Better Cosmetic ChemistDesigned to Make you Learn, but more Importantly DO! Learn More Introduction to Cosmetic FormulatingBecome a cosmetic chemist by learning what you need to know to get started in the cosmetic industry. Learn More

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So you decided you want to create a cosmetic formula or product? Here is all the information you need to get started. Formulation overview Create a cosmetic formula - Here are the main steps needed to create a cosmetic formula Basic cosmetic chemistry course Creating a concept From product idea to concept Picking a benchmark product Finding starting formulas Basic cosmetic formulas Where to find free cosmetic formulas Getting Raw Materials Sources for raw materials Smaller quantities of raw materials Evaluating raw materials Putting together prototypes How to set up a cosmetic lab Cosmetic product formula spreadsheet Start with simple formulas Optimizing cosmetic formulas

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You can't make cosmetic and personal care products without raw materials. Here is some useful information about raw materials that will get you on your way to creating the best beauty products you can. Background information about cosmetic ingredients What is a cosmetic ingredient? Guide to naming raw materials Cosmetic ingredient naming guide - part 2 Types of cosmetic ingredients The three types of cosmetic raw materials Functional raw materials What are surfactants? Varieties of cosmetic emollients What are fatty acids? Humectants in cosmetics Formula adjustment ingredients Cosmetic thickeners Preservatives for natural formulas Why use multiple preservatives Selecting colors for a formula Natural colors in cosmetics Types of peptides in cosmetics 9 topical cosmetic compounds that work Claims ingredients in cosmetics Do natural extracts in cosmetics make sense? Other things to know about ingredients Understanding cosmetic raw material research How to know if an ingredient has an effect Even with the same name, raw materials aren't always the same Most active ingredients don't work Why are some ingredients liquid and some solid? What to ask about your raw materials What makes one ingredient better than another? Podcasts about raw materials The different types of functional raw materials Aesthetic raw materials Raw materials for claims The science of surfactants Functional natural ingredients

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Welcome to the Chemists Corner podcast page. Here you can find links to all the past podcast episodes. If you have any comments or suggestions, please leave them below.

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Start Here! Chemists Corner is a website written for cosmetic chemists by cosmetic chemists. It is meant to be a resource and gathering place for cosmetic chemists to learn tips, swap stories, and find out how to survive and thrive in the cosmetic industry. Our mission is to help you land a job in the cosmetic industry and become a better scientist once you get there. The first step is to sign up for our free ebook and mini course in cosmetic science. Just put your information in here. https://player. vimeo. com/video/509912009 Sign up to get a FREE Mini Course about Cosmetic Science! What will you learn? Technology: Reviews of available technologies and assessments of how well the ingredients work for your applications. Not the stuff you get from raw material sales and marketing people. Real assessments of what works and whether it’s worth changing your formulas. Formulating 101: A review of basic cosmetic chemistry and formulation. Sure, you might be an expert in one particular area, but what do you do when you need to formulate a product that you’ve never done before? Read these articles to quickly get up to speed on the basics of cosmetic formulating. Innovation: Tips and tricks on how you can become more innovative. Do you find yourself creating the same formula and merely changing the color and fragrance? You didn’t need a degree in chemistry to do that! Be innovative. Be creative. Make original formulas and make revolutionary ideas. Industry Happenings: These are articles about the cosmetic industry and how things that happen might affect you and your job. Learn about the various trade associations and how they can be beneficial to you. Resources: Reviews of books, articles and other products that will be helpful to the cosmetic chemist. Chemists Lifestyle: Practical advice for time management, setting goals, handling insurance and finances. All the things that you have to know, but were never taught in science classes. Career: This section will have articles about getting a job, networking, dealing with headhunters, and using the Internet to stay connected & aware of new opportunities. Chemists Corner Forum: This is a place to swap stories, tips, tricks and other advice to help the community of cosmetic chemists thrive. Stay connected with friends & colleagues while getting your questions to cosmetic chemistry challenges answered. Free Cosmetic Science InformationWe will be adding new information frequently so check back each day for fresh updates. Also, consider subscribing to email list here. You will get a free e-book on cosmetic formulating and also a free 4-part series on cosmetic science and the cosmetic industry. About the Author Perry Romanowski has been formulating cosmetic products and inventing solutions to solve consumer problems since the early 1990’s. Additionally, he has written and edited numerous articles and books, taught continuing education classes for industry scientists, and developed successful websites. His latest book is Beginning Cosmetic Chemistry 3rd Editionpublished by Allured. Connect with Perry on the following social media sites. Follow Perry on...

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Guide to Cosmetic Formulation Basics 1. Hair Conditioner 2. Body Wash 3. Lipstick 4. Hair Gel 5. Skin Lotion 6. Sunless Tanning 7. Antiperspirant 8. Nail Polish 9. Foundation 10. Toothpaste On formulating cosmetics To be a cosmetic chemist you have to learn to make cosmetic formulas. For most people starting out in the cosmetic industry, you'll specialize in a specific type of formulation such as skin, hair, or color cosmetics. However, to be a complete cosmetic chemist you should have an understanding of how ALL cosmetics work and are formulated. This doesn't mean you have to go make them (although that is encourage) but it does mean that if someone asks you how a product works, you'll be able to answer them. In this series we are going to cover as many types of cosmetics and personal care products we can imagine. We'll discuss what a product is designed to do, how it works, and some of the ingredients that make it work. Before we get into the specific formulas, it makes sense to give an overview of all the types of products that are considered cosmetics. While there are thousands of personal care or cosmetic products on the market, they can all be sorted into 5 distinct categories. Skin Care Products These are products designed to improve the appearance and feel of skin. The skin care market makes up about 30% of all cosmetics sold which is the largest share of any category. Skin care products can be classified further by how they work and what they do. So, there are products that are left behind on the skin. These include moisturizing products designed to improve the look and feel of skin. There are also anti-aging products that promise to get rid of the signs of aging skin (for example wrinkles, age spots, dry skin, etc). There are sunless tanners which change the color of skin. And there are over-the-counter drug products that protect from the sun, treat skin medical conditions, treat acne, and actually reduce wrinkles. The other types of skin products are those designed to remove things from skin. This include cleansers like body washes, hand soaps, facial washes, toners, bubble baths and more. It also includes scrubs, masks, and exfoliation products. You could also add shaving creams and depilatories to this group since they are designed to remove hair from the skin. 2. Body Wash 5. Skin Lotion 6. Sunless Tanning Hair Care Products The next category of cosmetic products is hair care. Products for the hair are the second most popular type of cosmetic making up approximately 25% of worldwide sales. Like the skin care category, hair products can be further grouped by how they work and what they do. The most frequently purchased hair products are those designed to remove things from the hair. These are liquid shampoos which clean hair, but there are also powdered and aerosol shampoos. They remove dirt, oil and other things from hair. There are specialty shampoos which...

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Sources for smaller cosmetic makers to get raw materials online. North America: http://www. makingcosmetics. com http://www. ingredientstodiefor. com http://www. lotioncrafter. com/ Europe: http://www. gracefruit. com http://www. activeformulas. com http://www. aromantic. co. uk/ http://www. thesoapkitchen. co. uk/ http://www. phoenixproducts. co. uk/ http://www. sensoryperfection. co. uk/ http://www. zrobsobiekrem. pl/pl/i/Information-for-foreigners/129 http://www. glamourcosmetics. it/ http://www. dermolife. it/shop/index. php http://www. farmaciavernile. it/ http://www. dragonspice. de http://www. manske-shop. com http://www. alexmo-cosmetics. de/ http://www. aliacura. de/ http://www. aroma-zone. com http://www. jabonariumshop. com http://kosmetikmacherei. at http://www. candlemaking. gr/ Australia: http://stores. skinessentialactives. com/ https://www. escentialsofaustralia. com/ http://www. n-essentials. com. au/ http://www. aussiesoapsupplies. com. au/ http://www. heirloombodycare. com. au/ Asia: http://www. bulkactives. com http://stores. skinessentialactives. com/ Other Sources Amazon. com eBay. com Prospector. com

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North America: http://www. makingcosmetics. com http://www. ingredientstodiefor. com http://www. lotioncrafter. com/ Europe: http://www. gracefruit. com http://www. activeformulas. com http://www. aromantic. co. uk/ http://www. thesoapkitchen. co. uk/ http://www. phoenixproducts. co. uk/ http://www. sensoryperfection. co. uk/ http://www. zrobsobiekrem. pl/pl/i/Information-for-foreigners/129 http://www. glamourcosmetics. it/ http://www. dermolife. it/shop/index. php http://www. farmaciavernile. it/ http://www. dragonspice. de http://www. manske-shop. com http://www. alexmo-cosmetics. de/ http://www. aliacura. de/ http://www. aroma-zone. com http://www. jabonariumshop. com http://kosmetikmacherei. at http://www. candlemaking. gr/ Australia: http://stores. skinessentialactives. com/ https://www. escentialsofaustralia. com/ http://www. n-essentials. com. au/ http://www. aussiesoapsupplies. com. au/ http://www. heirloombodycare. com. au/ Asia: http://www. bulkactives. com http://stores. skinessentialactives. com/ Other Sources: Amazon. com eBay. com

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Module 5 Bonus Videos Thanks to Paketcorp. com Relaxer formula mentioned in video

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Bonus video from Module 2 – Formula from an LOI

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Bonus video from Module 1 – In the Cosmetic Lab

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Video 3: How to create a starting formula

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Video 2: How to make a cosmetic formula

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Video 1: Essential things for formulators to know

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Are you curious about whether the Practical Cosmetic Formulating course is for you? Here's a sample of the pre-module explaining the math required to be an excellent cosmetic formulator. Click Here to Learn more about the course

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FACT: Natural Formulations are the hottest type of cosmetic product currently being formulated. Sign up for this free Primer on Naturals Formulation and let us get you started on your way to... Becoming An Expert at Creating Natural Product Formulations This 6 chapter, 54 page natural formulations ebook from Allured will teach you The industry accepted definitions for "Natural" and Organic products How to create effective, natural skin care formulations How to make functional, natural hair care products The challenges of developing natural formulations What the future of green and natural cosmetics will look like (function(d, s, id) { var js, fjs = d. getElementsByTagName(s); if (d. getElementById(id)) return; js = d. createElement(s); js. id = id; js. src = "//forms. aweber. com/form/15/799756015. js"; fjs. parentNode. insertBefore(js, fjs); }(document, "script", "aweber-wjs-9gb2inwmn"));

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Cosmetic Science lesson 2 This lesson introduces you to 8 science topics that are important in the cosmetic industry but are not usually covered in college course. It includes information about the following topics Surfactants Emulsions Fatty Acids Silicones Polymers Skin biology Hair biology Chemical Nomenclature If you would like to download the slides or transcript, please leave a comment and let us know what you think.

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Cosmetic Science lesson 3 This lesson introduces you to 10 types of cosmetic forms that every cosmetic chemist needs to know to become a competent formulator. It includes information about the following topics Solutions Creams Lotions Ointments Suspensions Sticks Gels Capsules & Tablets Powders Aerosols BONUS: If you would like a copy of the slides & script, please leave us a comment here and let us know what you thought!

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Cosmetic Science lesson 4 This lesson introduces you to the 4 different types of testing that are done to cosmetic products. Formula testing is something you will spend lots of time on in your career as a cosmetic chemist so it is important to become familiar with the primary types. This video includes information about the following topics QA/QC testing Stability testing Safety testing Product performance testing BONUS: If you would like a copy of the slides & script, please leave us a comment here and let us know what you thought!

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Recommended Additional Resources for Cosmetic Chemists. These will be occasionally updated so check back on a regular basis. Getting Started If you want a refresher on basic chemistry, the following is a good introductory textbook. Virtual Chemistry Textbook Learn the vital vocabulary. Cosmetic industry jargon. Here's a list of websites that any cosmetic chemist will find useful. Cosmetic Science web resources. Books Chemistry and Manufacture of Cosmetics Formulating, 4th Edition This is one of the original, complete set of books about cosmetic science. It is packed full of technical information covering cosmetic science, formulating and cosmetic ingredients. Almost every industry expert has written a chapter for this 4 volume book series. If you have a question about cosmetic chemistry, no doubt this book will have the answer for you. Harry's Cosmeticology 8th Edition The first edition of this classic book on cosmetic science was first published in 1940. It is now in its 8th edition and is one of the most comprehensive tomes on the subject. It covers all aspects of cosmetic science in 5 sections including the substrates (skin, hair, nails), formulation approaches, ingredients, specific formulations, and production. As a formulation chemist, you will find this single volume book an indispensable resource that you frequently reference. Handbook of Cosmetic Science and Technology, Third Edition Much like Harry’s, the Handbook of Cosmetic Science & Technology attempts to cover as many aspects of cosmetic science as it can in a single book. This 880+ page work covers everything from the biology of hair, skin and nails to cosmetic formula types, cosmetic ingredients and even cosmetic claims. Of all the books mentioned thus far, this one does the best job of covering cosmetic claims and testing. It’s definitely worth having on your bookshelf. A Short Textbook of Cosmetology I don’t know where I got this book but it is a nice, short volume that covers the basics of cosmetic science. It was written by an author from Switzerland so it has a more Euro-centric view of the cosmetic industry. Other books discussed many focus on the North American cosmetic industry. I particularly enjoyed the extensive historical section in this book. The book is significantly shorter than others weighing in at only 435 pages, but it packs a lot of information in those pages. Surfactants in Personal Care Products and Decorative Cosmetics, Third Edition (Surfactant Science) This book is a bit more technical about the science of surfactants than any others on the list. It has chapters written by a variety of cosmetic industry experts and is an excellent resource for the advanced cosmetic chemist. It is probably not one you want to start with but after a few years of formulating, you’ll definitely want to have it in your cosmetic science library. Chemical and Physical Behavior of Human Hair This is the most specific of all the books on this list and its inclusion is more reflective of the fact that I spent most of my time formulating products for hair. However,...

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Cosmetic Science lesson 1 This lesson introduces you to the cosmetic industry. It includes information about the following topics Definition of a cosmetic Market size of the cosmetic industry Distribution of sales around the world Types of companies in the cosmetic industry Jobs that scientists do in the industry If you'd like a copy of the slides, please leave a comment here and let us know what you thought.

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FACT: Most cosmetic chemists are thrown into their jobs with little or no training. Sign up for the Chemists Corner newsletter and let us show you ... "How To Create and Test Personal Care and Cosmetic Products Like a Pro" Let us Take You 'Behind the Scenes' Of a Cosmetic Laboratory and We'll Show You How to Create or Copy Almost Any Cosmetic Formula... Here are some things you'll learn by signing up. The vital chemistry knowledge every formulator need but isn't taught in college. How to use ingredient lists to figure out competitor's formulas. Where to find ingredients lists without leaving your lab. The best sources for free starting formulas. (function(d,s,id) { var js; var fjs = d. getElementsByTagName(s); if (d. getElementById(id)) return; js = d. createElement(s); js. id = id; js. src = "https://forms. aweber. com/form/99/2122560199. js"; fjs. parentNode. insertBefore(js, fjs); }(document, "script", "aweber-wjs-2146738304")); What did you think of the report? Leave a comment here and let us know what you thought of the report! Thanks! Perry, 44

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Blog - Chemists Corner Toggle Side Panel Start Here Blog Courses Books Webinars Forum Resources Career Podcast Login More options Shopping Cart No products in the cart. Sign in Search for: Log In Register Start Here Blog Courses66 Books Webinars Resources Podcasts Career Forum Search for: Close search Does Beef Tallow Belong in Skincare? “Ancestral skincare.”“Back to basics.”“Just like our great-grandmothers used.” Beef tallow, the rendered fat of cows, has found its way into modern skincare, thanks to the… sromanowski August 7, 2025 What Cosmetic Chemists Should Know About Natural and Clean Beauty Clean and natural beauty products remain on trend but the roots of the movement lie in a long-standing problem: formulating with natural ingredients is hard.… sromanowski July 7, 2025 Why Your Formula Isn’t Working (and How to Fix It) Every formulator has been there. You’re developing a new formula and something just won’t cooperate. It separates. It’s too thick. It’s too thin. When cosmetic… sromanowski June 12, 2025 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… sromanowski June 11, 2025 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… sromanowski June 9, 2025 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… sromanowski June 5, 2025 What to Know About Preservatives in Cosmetic Formulas Preservatives get more scrutiny than almost any other cosmetic ingredient and not always for the right reasons. Between “paraben-free” marketing and natural preservative claims, the… sromanowski June 3, 2025 Selecting Emollients by Function Not Hype Emollients affect not just hydration but also slip, spreadability, skin feel, absorption, finish and barrier function. They can make or break the sensorial profile of… sromanowski May 29, 2025 The Science Behind Surfactants Surfactants are among the most versatile raw materials in cosmetic formulations. But with that versatility comes complexity. Not all surfactants clean the same way. Some… sromanowski May 27, 2025 Choosing the Right Emulsifier You can’t make a lotion, cream, or serum without creating an emulsion. And, at the heart of any emulsion is the emulsifier, a raw material… sromanowski May 21, 2025 How to Source Cosmetic Ingredients If You’re Just Getting Started One of the most common challenges for indie formulators and early-stage brands is sourcing raw materials. You can have a great product idea, but without… sromanowski May 19, 2025 The 5 Types of Raw Material Suppliers Every Formulator Should Know When we talk about cosmetic formulas, the focus is usually on ingredients. But behind every emulsifier, surfactant, or botanical extract is an ingredient supplier and… sromanowski May 15, 2025 Cutting Through The Confusion Between Natural and Synthetic Cosmetic Ingredients...

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Here is a list of links that any cosmetic chemist will find helpful. Organizations American Academy of Dermatology American Chemical Society COLIPA CTPA CTPA Fragrance Foundation IFSCC Personal Care Products Council Society of Cosmetic Chemists Research FDA Cosmetic info Get Chemist Jobs Journal of SCC (searchable) Trade Journals Cosmetics & Toiletries Cossma GCI Magazine HAPPI magazine Modern Salon Perfumer and Flavorist Dermatology News Spray Technology Womens Wear Daily Jobs There are some different job search engines. Cosmetic chemist jobs at Indeed. com

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We've written a lot on this website but the nature of blogs makes it difficult to sort through everything. We encourage you to check out the 'Categories' on the sidebar for things you might specifically be interested in. But to make things easier, here is a list of the posts we think you will find most useful if you are here for the first time. Getting started in the Cosmetic Industry How to Become a Cosmetic Chemist What is a Cosmetic? The Most Important Cosmetic Industry Trade Groups Top 10 Reasons to Become a Cosmetic Chemist How To Use Twitter to Find a Cosmetic Chemist Job Most Useful Cosmetic Industry Magazines You Should be Reading Basic Cosmetic Science 10 Science Topics for Cosmetic Chemists That Were Barely Covered in College How do cosmetic raw materials get their names? The basics of cosmetic science How do skin moisturizers work? Basic science of cosmetic preservatives How to Quickly Read a Scientific Article Cosmetic Formulas List of basic cosmetic formulations Formulating Cosmetics The 10 Different Cosmetic Formula Types You Must Know Using the HLB System to Create Formulas How to Run a Knock out Experiments to Become a Great Formulator How to Stability Test a Cosmetic Formula The Basics of Writing a Good Lab Notebook Why Cosmetic Chemists Should Try Every Formula they Make How to label a cosmetic product Becoming a Better Cosmetic Chemist Making an effective presentation - part 1 Making an effective presentation - part 2 Making an effective presentation - part 3 Learn all you need to know about business for free To be an innovative cosmetic chemist ask the right questions We'll continue to update this page as we add more content. If there are article topics that you would like to see covered, leave a comment below.

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Perry Romanowski has been formulating the smartest cosmetic products and creating solutions to solve consumer problems since the early 1990's. He most recently worked in the hair care innovation group at the famous Alberto Culver company. They have since been bought by Unilever but the brands he worked on, VO5, Tresemme, St. Ives and Nexxus are still on the market. Additionally, he has written and edited numerous articles and books, taught continuing education classes for cosmetic industry scientists, and developed successful websites. He is currently Vice President at Element 44 Inc and is responsible for producing Chemists Corner and other science educational websites & products. His latest book is Beginning Cosmetic Chemistry 3rd Edition published by Allured. At one point he held the official Guinness World Record for the fastest 50 mile run while juggling. He also strives to be the most famous cosmetic chemist. *For his full profile, click on the LinkedIn profile button below. You can connect with Perry on the following social media sites. Follow Perry on Twitter If you would like to contact Perry to ask a question or get help, just post a message in the cosmetic science forum.

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Chemists Corner is a website written for cosmetic chemists by cosmetic chemists. It is meant to be a resource and gathering place for cosmetic chemists to learn tips, swap stories, and find out how to survive and thrive in the cosmetic industry. Our mission is to help you land a job in the cosmetic industry and become a better scientist once you get there. The first step is to sign up for our free ebook and mini course in cosmetic science. Just put your information in here. What will you learn? Technology: Reviews of available technologies and assessments of how well the ingredients work for your applications. Not the stuff you get from raw material sales and marketing people. Real assessments of what works and whether it’s worth changing your formulas. Formulating 101: A review of basic cosmetic chemistry and formulation. Sure, you might be an expert in one particular area, but what do you do when you need to formulate a product that you’ve never done before? Read these articles to quickly get up to speed on the basics of cosmetic formulating. Innovation: Tips and tricks on how you can become more innovative. Do you find yourself creating the same formula and merely changing the color and fragrance? You didn’t need a degree in chemistry to do that! Be innovative. Be creative. Make original formulas and make revolutionary ideas. Industry Happenings: These are articles about the cosmetic industry and how things that happen might affect you and your job. Learn about the various trade associations and how they can be beneficial to you. Resources: Reviews of books, articles and other products that will be helpful to the cosmetic chemist. Chemists Lifestyle: Practical advice for time management, setting goals, handling insurance and finances. All the things that you have to know, but were never taught in science classes. Career: This section will have articles about getting a job, networking, dealing with headhunters, and using the Internet to stay connected & aware of new opportunities. Chemists Corner Forum: This is a place to swap stories, tips, tricks and other advice to help the community of cosmetic chemists thrive. Stay connected with friends & colleagues while getting your questions to cosmetic chemistry challenges answered. Free Cosmetic Science information We will be adding new information frequently so check back each day for fresh updates. Also, consider subscribing to email list here. You will get a free e-book on cosmetic formulating and also a free 4-part series on cosmetic science and the cosmetic industry. About the Author Perry Romanowski has been formulating cosmetic products and inventing solutions to solve consumer problems since the early 1990's. Additionally, he has written and edited numerous articles and books, taught continuing education classes for industry scientists, and developed successful websites. His latest book is Beginning Cosmetic Chemistry 3rd Edition published by Allured. Connect with Perry on the following social media sites. Follow Perry on Twitter And if you are curious for mores, see this post on how Perry...

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“Ancestral skincare. ”“Back to basics. ”“Just like our great-grandmothers used. ” Beef tallow, the rendered fat of cows, has found its way into modern skincare, thanks to the rise of natural, paleo and Tik-Tok beauty influencers. The claims? That it's closer to our skin’s natural oils, highly nourishing, and safer than modern lotions “full of chemicals. ” But is any of that true? And more importantly, does beef tallow offer anything you can’t already get from existing skincare products? Let’s look at the chemistry, the claims, and whether this trend holds up. What Is Beef Tallow? Beef tallow is rendered animal fat from the fatty tissue of cows. When properly processed, it's solid at room temperature andcontains a blend of saturated and monounsaturated fatty acids, primarily: Palmitic acid Stearic acid Oleic acid These fatty acids are also found in plant-based butters (like shea and cocoa) and in human sebum, which is where a lot of the “bio-identical” marketing comes from. Tallow is also sometimes claimed to contain trace amounts of fat-soluble vitamins like A, D, E, and K, although their levels are typically too low to be considered active cosmetic ingredients. What Tallow Can Do in Skincare Tallow is an emollient. Like other fats and butters, it: Softens skin Prevents transepidermal water loss (TEWL) Creates a barrier on the skin surface Has a relatively low chance of causing irritation, assuming it's well-purified In short: it moisturizes. From a formulation perspective, tallow behaves similarly to other saturated fats. It's semi-solid, occlusive, and compatible with many anhydrous systems (like balms and salves). It can be used in emulsions as a fatty component, though its odor and texture may require masking or blending. What Tallow Can’t Do (That the Hype Suggests It Does) Many of the boldest claims about beef tallow are based more on nostalgia and natural fallacy than science. For example: “Tallow is better because it’s from animals, like us. ” While it’s true that tallow contains some of the same fatty acids found in human sebum, so do plenty of plant-based oils like jojoba oil, for example, which closely mimics sebum in structure and function. Also, your skin barrier doesn’t care whether oleic acid came from a cow or a sunflower. It cares about structure, concentration and context. “Tallow is rich in vitamins A, D, E, and K. ” Unless the tallow is specifically fortified or fractionated, the levels of these vitamins are not standardized and not present in meaningful cosmetic concentrations. You’ll get better results from using stabilized derivatives of these vitamins like retinyl palmitate (A) at proven concentrations. “Tallow heals eczema and acne. ” There’s no clinical evidence that tallow treats skin conditions. Like any occlusive, it may reduce dryness-related irritation. But it doesn’t have antimicrobial or anti-inflammatory activity on its own. In fact, the oleic acid content in tallow (about 40–50%) could worsen barrier function in some people with sensitive or compromised skin, especially those with eczema, where linoleic acid is often more beneficial. What About Safety,...

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Clean and natural beauty products remain on trend but the roots of the movement lie in a long-standing problem: formulating with natural ingredients is hard. Really hard. And complicated. Not just because nature doesn’t grow cosmetic-grade emulsifiers, but because the industry, and the consumer, often operate on very different definitions of “natural. ” As a cosmetic chemist, I’ve seen this disconnect firsthand: expecting nature to behave like a synthetic lab ingredient is like expecting a grapefruit to behave like glycolic acid. Let’s unpack what “natural” really means in formulation, why so many brands have pivoted to “clean,” and what the science tells us about both. There’s No Such Thing as a Truly Natural Cosmetic Let’s get this out of the way. There is no lipstick bush. No wild cleanser trees. No serum streams. Cosmetics, by definition, are manufactured, even if they include ingredients derived from nature. Most so-called “natural” ingredients are either: Extracted from plants and heavily processed Chemically identical to compounds found in nature Or completely synthetic, but nature-inspired This doesn’t make them “bad” or “unsafe. ” It makes them functional. But it also means that when a brand promises a “100% natural” product, it’s either stretching the truth or stretching the definition. The Real Challenges with Formulating Natural Products 1. There Aren’t That Many Truly Natural Ingredients The INCI dictionary lists over 20,000 approved cosmetic ingredients. Maybe 10% of those would pass as “natural” under stricter interpretations. And that’s being generous. Most “natural” standards simply bend the rules, allowing ingredients that are synthetically processed from natural sources, or selectively ignoring synthetic additives (like solubilizers or preservatives). So while you may think you’re formulating with avocado and aloe, you’re probably also formulating with ethoxylated surfactants and synthetic chelators. 2. The Natural Ingredients That Do Exist Often Don’t Perform Well Nature doesn’t always make great emulsifiers, preservatives, or surfactants. For example, if you’re looking for a fully natural cleansing surfactant, your shortlist is basically: Soap bark extract (saponins) Soapnut berry extract Maybe a few glucosides, depending on how strictly you define "natural" These aren’t as stable, effective, or easy to work with as their synthetic counterparts. And when it comes to colorants? Many natural extracts are not FDA-approved for use as colorants in the U. S. even if they look pretty in a Pinterest post. So, what’s a brand to do when natural doesn’t perform? They pivot to “clean. ” Clean Beauty: The Natural Alternative to Natural Clean beauty emerged as a marketing workaround, offering the feeling of natural without the performance limitations or regulatory risk. The clean beauty approach generally says: "We don’t claim to be 100% natural... " "But we leave out certain ingredients consumers don’t like... " "And we focus on being safe, gentle, and non-toxic... " The problem? Clean beauty isn’t clearly defined either. Different retailers and certifying bodies use different “free-from” lists, and none of them are legally binding. One brand’s “clean” is another’s “questionable. ” But from a formulation standpoint, clean beauty at least...

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Every formulator has been there. You’re developing a new formula and something just won’t cooperate. It separates. It’s too thick. It's too thin. When cosmetic formulas fail, it's not always obvious why. But whether you’re an experienced chemist or an indie formulator learning as you go, one thing is true: The faster you can diagnose the issue, the faster you can fix it. Here’s a straightforward approach to troubleshooting formulation problems without spinning your wheels (or wasting raw materials). Step 1: Get Specific About the Problem “Doesn’t work” isn’t helpful. Get clear on what’s actually wrong. Ask: Did it separate? (Oil from water, layers, floating solids? ) Is the texture off? (Too thick, thin, gritty, sticky? ) Are there microbial or odor issues? Is it unstable at high or low temperatures? Is it reacting to packaging? Does it feel bad on skin or hair? Naming the problem is your first tool in solving it. Step 2: Review the Basics of the Formula Double-check your formulation setup: Are you within recommended usage levels for each ingredient? Was the order of addition correct? (Especially for emulsifiers and thickeners) Was the mixing speed and temperature appropriate? Did you adjust pH as needed for active or pH-sensitive ingredients? Small missteps in process can lead to big product failures, especially with emulsions and actives. Step 3: Eliminate Variables Methodically Change one variable at a time. Otherwise, you won’t know what fixed, or worsened, the issue. Try: Swapping out a surfactant Adjusting pH within the material's effective range Reducing (or increasing) use level of a polymer, gum, or active Modifying your mixing procedure or equipment Keep notes. Compare results. Then repeat. Step 4: Use Your Resources Use ingredient supplier data to your advantage. This includes: Technical data sheets (for usage level and solubility guidance) Stability suggestions pH range and compatibility notes And if you're using a new raw material, always start with a simple base to test its behavior before working it into your full formula. Step 5: Build a Reference Library Start your own “what went wrong” log. Include: Failed batch descriptions Variables tested Resolution steps Notes on storage conditions Over time, this will save you time and help you build your own internal knowledge base. Step 6: Know When It’s Time to Reformulate Sometimes, a formula just won’t do what you want it to. The emulsifier isn’t suited for your oil phase. The preservative system doesn’t hold up at low pH. The skin feel never improves no matter what emollient you try. Rather than endlessly patching a flawed base, it may be more efficient to rebuild the formula from the ground up, using what you’ve learned as a roadmap. Final Thoughts Troubleshooting cosmetic formulas takes patience, observation, and a systematic mindset. There's no quick fix but there is a clear path forward: ? ? ? ? Define the problem? ? ? ? Control your variables? ? ? ? Iterate and document Follow the chemistry Bonus: Common Formulation Issues and Possible Causes Issue Possible Causes...

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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 Prose are offering scalp serums promising to boost hair growth, “detox” the scalp, balance the microbiome, and create the perfect environment for thick, healthy hair. Sounds great. But does the science support the hype? We always take a skeptical lens to any product category that suddenly explodes in popularity, especially when the claims are wide-reaching and vaguely worded. Whether you're looking to formulate a scalp serum or just curious about what they are, let’s look at what scalp serums really do, what they can’t do, and how they stack up against the biology of the scalp. The Scalp ≠ the Skin It’s easy to think of scalp care as “skincare for your scalp,” but the biology is meaningfully different: The scalp has a high density of sebaceous glands and hair follicles and the skin is thicker than other parts of the body It has a unique microbiome, influenced by oil production and occlusion from hair and styling products Conditions like dandruff, seborrheic dermatitis, and some forms of hair loss are linked to microbial overgrowth, inflammation, and hormonal shifts What Do Scalp Serums Claim to Do? Most scalp serums fall into one or more of these categories: Hydrate or soothe the scalp Balance the scalp microbiome Support follicle function and reduce shedding Stimulate new hair growth Some products make soft claims like “create a healthy scalp environment,” while others go all in with “clinically proven to boost hair density. ” Let’s break those down. What the Research Says (Including the Microbiome Angle) The study by Trüeb et al. (2020) highlights the role of the scalp microbiome in both healthy anddiseased states, especially the presence of Malassezia species (a type of yeast) and their link to dandruff and seborrheic dermatitis. A few key takeaways: A disrupted microbiome may contribute to scalp inflammation, which in turn can affect follicle health There’s a growing interest in modulating the microbiome (via antimicrobials, prebiotics, or postbiotics), but evidence is early-stage Most scalp serums on the market don’t disclose any microbiome-specific testing, so claims about “balancing the scalp” are more speculative than proven In other words, the microbiome may be a valid area of research, but for now, it’s mostly being used as a marketing hook, not a functional claim backed by clinical data in the finished formula. What Ingredients Are Common in Scalp Serums? Here’s a breakdown of what you’ll typically find, and what the science says: Ingredient Type Examples What It Can Do What’s Missing Botanical extracts Caffeine, ginseng, saw palmetto May improve circulation or reduce DHT in vitro Evidence in actual formulas is limited or inconsistent Peptides Acetyl tetrapeptide-3, copper peptides Some data supports follicle stimulation Often used at low concentrations; expensive to test in vivo Humectants Glycerin, hyaluronic acid Help hydrate the scalp Hydration ≠ hair growth Exfoliants Salicylic acid, PHA Help clear buildup, reduce flaking Can be...

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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 material specification sheets (sometimes called product specs, technical data sheets (TDS)) tell you what you're actually getting in that drum, bag, or bottle. If you’re formulating for performance, safety, or regulatory compliance, reading this document isn't optional. Here’s a step-by-step breakdown of what to look for. 1. Identify the Trade and INCI Names At the top of most spec sheets, you’ll see: Trade name (supplier’s brand name) INCI name (international standard name) Sometimes a CAS number or EC number Use this to verify what you’re ordering and ensure it aligns with what your formula or marketing requires. 2. Check the Ingredient Composition Look for: Active concentration (e. g. , 70% sodium lauroyl lactylate in water) Dilution medium (e. g. , propylene glycol, water, ethanol) Additives (e. g. , stabilizers, preservatives, chelators) This is critical when calculating actual use levels or understanding how the material interacts in your formula. 3. Review Physical and Chemical Properties Common specs include: Appearance (color, texture, phase) pH range Solubility (in water, oil, ethanol, etc. ) Viscosity Specific gravity or density These affect not only how you handle the material but how it behaves in your product. 4. Pay Attention to Stability and Storage Check for: Shelf life Recommended storage conditions (e. g. ,

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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 right questions can make all the difference. Whether you're contacting a global distributor or a niche online reseller, a little prep goes a long way in helping you get the right materials and be taken seriously as a formulator. Here’s what to know before you hit “send” on that supplier email. 1. Know Exactly What You're Looking For Don't just say “I need a preservative” or “a natural emulsifier. ” Be specific. Include: INCI name (or at least a few examples) Function (e. g. , solubilizer for fragrance, broad-spectrum preservative) Application/product type (e. g. , low-pH serum, rinse-off shampoo) Any restrictions (e. g. , PEG-free, vegan, COSMOS-compliant) You’ll get better recommendations and avoid back-and-forth communication that delay sourcing. 2. Clarify Your Stage Are you: In R&D/prototyping? Pre-production? Scaling an existing formula? Letting suppliers know this helps set expectations around MOQ (minimum order quantities), sampling options, and lead time. Some distributors won’t offer samples unless you’re in the development stage. 3. Be Prepared to Discuss Quantities and Lead Times Even if you’re working small-scale, you should know: How much you plan to order How often you’ll need it Whether you need immediate delivery or can wait on longer lead times Suppliers appreciate customers who think ahead and it improves your chances of building long-term sourcing relationships. 4. Ask for Documentation Up Front If you're formulating for commercial use, you’ll need more than a name and price. Be ready to request: SDS (Safety Data Sheet) TDS (Technical Data Sheet) COA (Certificate of Analysis) Allergen or regulatory status sheets (if needed) Some suppliers automatically include these. Others only provide them if asked. Either way, don’t skip this step, it protects your formula and your business. 5. Set Expectations Around Communication If you're contacting a new supplier, consider these quick tips: Use a professional email address (not a Gmail with no name) Include your company, lab, or project name Be polite but clear about what you need and by when Follow up if you don’t hear back in a few business days but don’t hound Suppliers are more responsive when they know you’re serious and organized.

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Preservatives get more scrutiny than almost any other cosmetic ingredient and not always for the right reasons. Between “paraben-free” marketing and natural preservative claims, the science often gets lost. But if you’re a formulator, there’s no room for guessing. Preservation is about safety. Here’s what you need to know to select and use preservatives responsibly, effectively, and in line with real-world chemistry. 1. Preservatives Prevent Microbial Contamination Cosmetic preservatives aren’t just nice to have, they’re required in most water-based formulas to prevent: Bacterial growth Yeast and mold contamination Spoilage during shelf life and post-opening use If your product contains water, humectants, or plant extracts, you need preservation. 2. Broad-Spectrum Is the Goal An effective preservative system covers bacteria, yeasts, and molds. Rarely does one preservative do it all. That’s why you’ll often need: A primary antimicrobial (e. g. , phenoxyethanol, parabens) A booster or chelator (e. g. , ethylhexylglycerin, sodium gluconate) pH adjustment for optimal activity 3. Preservative Efficacy Depends on Context Preservatives aren’t plug-and-play. Their effectiveness depends on: pH (many are only effective under pH 6) Solubility (some need to be dissolved in glycols or alcohols) Formulation type (oil-in-water vs. anhydrous) Packaging (open jar vs. airless pump) Test the system in your actual formula, not just on paper. 4. Natural Preservatives Have Limits While there's rising demand for "natural" preservation, many natural or “eco” options: Require higher concentrations to be effective May be less broad-spectrum Often have odor, color, or stability issues Can be more prone to irritation They can work but they require more testing and typically higher formulation support (chelators, low water activity, pH control). 5. Don’t Choose Based on Fear-Based Marketing “Paraben-free” sells, but parabens are still among the most studied and globally approved preservatives. Avoiding them is fine but do it with eyes open, not out of fear. What matters more is: Is the preservative appropriate for your formula type? Is it within legal and safe use limits? Will it actually prevent contamination? 6. Test, Always Preservative efficacy testing (PET or challenge testing) is not optional if your product is going to market. It’s the only way to confirm your system: Works with your specific formula Holds up during shelf life Complies with regulatory expectations Preservatives are critical for safety. Choose them with intention, not trend pressure and test like it matters, because it does.

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Emollients affect not just hydration but also slip, spreadability, skin feel, absorption, finish and barrier function. They can make or break the sensorial profile of your formula and they play a major role in product performance. Here’s a breakdown of the main types of emollients, how they differ, and how to choose the right one for your formulation. What Is an Emollient? An emollient is an ingredient that softens and smooths the skin by filling in gaps between skin cells. They are oil-like substances that can also: Reduce transepidermal water loss (TEWL) Improve skin barrier function Alter the texture and viscosity of a formula Influence absorbency and finish (e. g. , matte vs dewy) Unlike humectants (which attract water) or occlusives (which seal it in), emollients work by directly modifying skin feel and surface smoothness. Types of Emollients 1. Silicones These are synthetic, highly stable materials known for their silky, non-greasy feel. Examples: Dimethicone – smooth slip, barrier effect, water-insoluble Cyclopentasiloxane – volatile, fast-drying, lightweight feel Dimethiconol – silicone gum for cushion and film-forming Best for: Lightweight moisturizers Haircare products Barrier creams Non-greasy skin finish Watch out for: Some consumers avoid silicones (perceived as “unnatural,” despite their safety and performance) 2. Esters Esters are synthetically produced but often naturally derived. They tend to be elegant, non-greasy, and more biodegradable than silicones. Examples: Isopropyl myristate – fast-absorbing, improves spreadability C12-15 alkyl benzoate – dry, silky feel Octyldodecanol – light and lubricating, commonly used in sunscreens Best for: Serums and emulsions with a fast-absorbing profile Sensitive skin products “Green chemistry” approaches to replace silicones 3. Natural Oils Plant oils are triglyceride-based and contain fatty acids, antioxidants, and minor actives. Examples: Jojoba oil – technically a wax ester, stable and similar to skin sebum Sunflower oil – rich in linoleic acid, light and stable Rosehip oil – high in unsaturated fatty acids, prone to oxidation Best for: Natural and organic skincare Barrier repair products Lip balms and body oils Watch out for: Variability in quality, stability, and rancidity risk 4. Butters and Waxes These are solid at room temperature and provide richness, cushion, and occlusion. Examples: Shea butter – rich, reparative, slow-absorbing Cocoa butter – very occlusive, adds structure Beeswax or candelilla wax – for thickening and film-forming Best for: Balms, salves, and night creams Waterless formulations Products needing body and structure Watch out for: Can feel heavy or greasy if used at high levels How to Choose the Right Emollient Start by defining what your formula needs in terms of sensory experience, skin interaction, and function. Ask yourself: Do I want fast or slow absorption? Light esters or volatile silicones = fast Butters or heavy oils = slow What finish do I want? Dewy/glossy = natural oils, rich emollients Matte/dry = light esters, powders, or volatile silicones Is occlusion or barrier support important? Use heavier emollients or pair with occlusives (e. g. , petrolatum, lanolin) Are there stability or oxidation concerns? Natural oils high in unsaturated fats are more prone to rancidity...

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Surfactants are among the most versatile raw materials in cosmetic formulations. But with that versatility comes complexity. Not all surfactants clean the same way. Some emulsify, some solubilize, some foam and some do none of the above. Let’s break down what surfactants really are, what they do in your products, and how to choose the right one based on performance and compatibility. What Is a Surfactant? A surfactant (short for “surface-active agent”) is a molecule with two distinct parts: A hydrophilic (water-attracting) head A lipophilic (oil-attracting) tail This dual nature allows surfactants to interact with both water and oil, making them essential for: Lifting dirt and oils from skin and hair Creating emulsions Solubilizing oils or actives into water Generating foam or lather (in some cases) Main Roles of Surfactants in Formulas 1. Cleansing This is the most familiar role, especially in shampoos, body washes and facial cleansers. Surfactants surround oil and dirt, forming micelles that trap it, suspend it in water, and allow it to be rinsed away. 2. Emulsifying Some surfactants (or surfactant blends) can stabilize emulsions, particularly in oil-in-water systems. These are often used alongside co-emulsifiers and thickeners for long-term stability. 3. Solubilizing When you need to incorporate a small amount of oil, essential oil, or fragrance into a water-based product, you’ll often reach for a solubilizing surfactant—one that forms clear or translucent microemulsions. 4. Foaming Not all surfactants foam, but some (especially anionic types) create rich lather. While foam doesn’t equal cleansing, it affects user perception—especially in rinse-off products. Types of Surfactants (Based on Charge) Understanding surfactant charge is critical for performance and compatibility. Type Charge Traits & Uses Anionic Negative High-cleansing, high-foaming (e. g. , SLS, SLES, sodium cocoyl isethionate) Cationic Positive Conditioning, used in haircare (e. g. , BTAC, behentrimonium methosulfate) Nonionic Neutral Mild, versatile, often solubilizers or emulsifiers (e. g. , polysorbates, decyl glucoside) Amphoteric Positive or negative (depends on pH) Boost mildness, good foam stabilizers (e. g. , cocamidopropyl betaine) Most modern cleansers use blends of these to balance cleansing power, foaming, mildness, and feel. Choosing the Right Surfactant for Your Formula Start by asking a few key questions: 1. What is the product format? Rinse-off (e. g. , cleanser, shampoo): Prioritize cleansing power and foam aesthetics Leave-on (e. g. , micellar water): Use ultra-mild, low-foaming systems 2. What’s your pH target? Surfactant charge and solubility shift with pH. Some amphoterics and anionics become unstable or irritating outside certain pH windows. 3. Who is it for? Children’s, sensitive skin, or barrier-repair products should use mild surfactant systems like nonionics and amphoterics, often paired with moisturizers or conditioning agents. 4. Do you need solubilization or emulsification? Use surfactants designed for that function like PEG-40 hydrogenated castor oil for fragrance solubilization or polysorbate 80 for oil solubilization. Common Surfactants by Use For Cleansing: Sodium cocoyl isethionate (SCI) – Mild, good foam Cocamidopropyl betaine – Amphoteric, foam booster, mild Disodium laureth sulfosuccinate – Ultra-mild anionic For Solubilizing: PEG-40 hydrogenated castor oil Polysorbate 20 or 80...

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You can’t make a lotion, cream, or serum without creating an emulsion. And, at the heart of any emulsion is the emulsifier, a raw material that lets you combine ingredients that normally want nothing to do with each other. Choosing an emulsifier isn’t just about picking one from a dropdown menu. You need to understand how they work, what their limitations are, and when to use oil-in-water vs. water-in-oil systems. What Is an Emulsion? An emulsion is a mixture of two immiscible liquids (usually oil and water) where one is dispersed in the other in the form of small droplets. Since oil and water naturally repel each other, they need help staying mixed. That’s where emulsifiers come in. What Does an Emulsifier Do? An emulsifier is a surface-active molecule with: A hydrophilic (water-loving) head A lipophilic (oil-loving) tail This dual nature allows the emulsifier to sit at the oil-water interface, reducing surface tension and forming a physical barrier that keeps droplets from coalescing (merging). The result? A stable, uniform product. Oil-in-Water vs. Water-in-Oil The type of emulsion you’re building determines what kind of emulsifier you’ll need: Emulsion Type Description Use Cases Oil-in-Water (O/W) Oil droplets dispersed in water Lightweight creams, serums, lotions Water-in-Oil (W/O) Water droplets dispersed in oil Rich creams, balms, sunscreens In O/W emulsions, the continuous phase is water, so the product tends to feel lighter. In W/O systems, the continuous phase is oil, giving more occlusion and water resistance. The HLB System (Hydrophilic-Lipophilic Balance) To choose the right emulsifier, formulators use the HLB system, which rates emulsifiers on a scale of 0 to 20 based on how hydrophilic or lipophilic they are. HLB 3–6: Suitable for W/O emulsions HLB 8–18: Suitable for O/W emulsions The oil phase in your formula also has an HLB requirement called the required HLB. Your goal is to match the emulsifier’s HLB (or blend of emulsifiers) to the oil phase’s required HLB for optimal stability. Some emulsifier systems are pre-optimized and don’t require you to calculate HLB manually, but understanding the principle still helps you troubleshoot and substitute more effectively. Choosing the Right Emulsifier Here’s what to consider: 1. System Type Are you building an oil-in-water or water-in-oil emulsion? 2. Oil Phase Composition What oils, esters, or silicones are you using? Do they have a high required HLB? 3. Application Needs Do you want a light feel (e. g. , esters, PEG-based emulsifiers) or richness (e. g. , polyglyceryl-based, W/O systems)? 4. Processing Constraints Some emulsifiers require heating; others work cold process. Some need high shear, others don’t. 5. Compatibility and Charge Is your formula anionic, nonionic, or cationic? Charged emulsifiers don’t always play well with certain actives or polymers. Common Emulsifiers by System Oil-in-Water (O/W): Polysorbate 60 + Sorbitan Stearate (classic pair) Ceteareth-20 Glyceryl Stearate SE PEG-100 Stearate Water-in-Oil (W/O): Sorbitan Oleate PEG-30 Dipolyhydroxystearate Cetyl PEG/PPG-10/1 Dimethicone Polyglyceryl-4 Oleate Final Thought: Emulsifiers Don't Work Alone Even with the right emulsifier, emulsion stability depends on: Oil phase composition Viscosity modifiers (like cetyl...

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One of the most common challenges for indie formulators and early-stage brands is sourcing raw materials. You can have a great product idea, but without access to the right ingredients in reasonable quantities, you're stuck. Finding high-quality, well-documented raw materials at small volumes is possible but it takes strategy. Here's how to navigate ingredient sourcing when you're not ordering by the drum. 1. Start With a Clear Ingredient Strategy Before you source anything, get specific: What function are you sourcing for (e. g. , emulsifier, humectant, preservative)? Do you have any constraints (natural origin, vegan, allergen-free)? What’s the INCI name and, if possible, a preferred trade name or supplier? Don’t search for “natural surfactant”, search for “sodium lauroyl sarcosinate, 30% active. ” The more precise your ask, the better your results. 2. Use Small-Batch Suppliers for R&D and Prototyping Platforms like Lotioncrafter, Making Cosmetics, and SimplyIngredients are tailored for small-scale formulators. They: Break down bulk ingredients into manageable sizes Offer INCI transparency and basic documentation (SDS, COA) Provide access to both functional and trendy actives Best for: Testing ingredients Formulating in batches under 1 kg Early-stage concept development Watch out for: Higher cost per gram Branded ingredient names that may differ from commercial versions Limited access to detailed technical data 3. Stay Cautious With Marketplace Sellers Amazon, Etsy, and other general marketplaces often carry cosmetic ingredients but quality and traceability are inconsistent. Many listings: Use vague or incorrect INCI names Lack documentation or batch data Repackage without proper quality control If a seller won’t provide a COA, SDS, and ingredient source, skip it. 4. Contact Distributors Even If You're Small Distributors like Essential Ingredients or Glenn Corp may work with small formulators, especially if: You're professional in your communication You’re requesting samples for future production You express intent to grow with them Ask clear, specific questions: What’s the minimum order for R&D quantities? Can I sample before buying full-size? Do you have documentation for regulatory compliance? Sometimes, building a relationship early helps you secure flexibility later. 5. Don’t Forget About Documentation Even in small batches, proper documentation matters: SDS (Safety Data Sheet): For handling and compliance COA (Certificate of Analysis): For quality and consistency TDS (Technical Data Sheet): For understanding performance If your supplier doesn’t offer these, or dodges the question,you’re taking a risk, especially if you’re planning to go to market or work with contract manufacturers later. 6. Plan Around Lead Times and Ingredient Shelf Life When working at small scale, it’s tempting to buy “just in time. ”But if your emulsifier has a six-week lead time or goes out of stock, you’re stuck. Keep a buffer of high-use ingredients Track expiration dates, especially for oils and actives Store materials properly to extend shelf life Smart inventory planning saves you from reformulation delays and unnecessary waste. 7. Build Long-Term Relationships Early Even as a small buyer, act like a pro: Be prompt and clear in communication Treat samples and documentation seriously Follow up when you’re scaling up Suppliers remember...

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When we talk about cosmetic formulas, the focus is usually on ingredients. But behind every emulsifier, surfactant, or botanical extract is an ingredient supplier and the type of supplier you choose can affect everything from product quality to cost and compliance. If you're a formulator or small brand working with cosmetic raw materials, understanding who you're buying from is just as important as what you’re buying. Here’s a breakdown of the major supplier types, what they offer, and how to work with them. 1. Manufacturers These are the companies that actually produce the ingredients—through chemical synthesis, fermentation, distillation, or extraction. Examples: BASF, Evonik, Croda, Gattefossé What they offer: High-quality, standardized raw materials Detailed technical data (TDS, SDS, COA) Regulatory support for global markets Innovation pipelines and application labs Pros: Direct access to source and expertise Consistent quality and traceability Best for scale-up and production-level consistency Cons: High minimum orders (25 kg or more is typical) May not sell directly to small brands Often require purchasing through a distributor Best for: Large-scale manufacturers, labs, or consultants with volume needs. 2. Distributors Distributors act as intermediaries between manufacturers and buyers. They carry a portfolio of materials and usually serve specific regions or industries. Examples: Univar, Brenntag, Essential Ingredients, Glenn What they offer: Access to multiple manufacturers’ product lines Local warehousing and more flexible minimum order quantities Basic technical support Some sampling options Pros: Easier access to pro-grade ingredients in smaller quantities Better shipping and service options for local formulators Helps bridge the gap between small and large-scale sourcing Cons: May have limited stock of niche materials Technical depth may vary across product lines Best for: Mid-size brands, labs, or independent formulators scaling up from R&D. 3. Brokers and Traders Brokers don’t typically manufacture or warehouse materials. Instead, they connect buyers with hard-to-source or specialty ingredients, often from international suppliers. What they offer: Sourcing support for rare or trending materials Negotiated deals and one-off batches Flexibility in global ingredient access Pros: Useful when traditional suppliers can’t meet your needs Can help bypass MOQ restrictions in certain cases Cons: Less reliable for documentation and quality control High variation in supplier transparency Risk of receiving diluted or misrepresented materials Best for: Specialty projects and only if you can verify documentation and authenticity. 4. Small-Batch and Online Retailers These are reseller platforms that repackage ingredients in small volumes, ideal for indie formulators or those still in development. Examples: Lotioncrafter, Making Cosmetics, Formulator Sample Shop, SimplyIngredients What they offer: Low minimum order sizes (25g–1kg) Easy ordering with credit card or PayPal Access to popular functional and trending ingredients Basic COA/SDS documentation Pros: Ideal for R&D prototyping, and hobbyist experimentation Lower barrier to entry for new formulators Some carry niche actives or cosmetic bases Cons: More expensive per gram Limited tech support or regulatory depth Not always the exact grade used in scale production Best for: New brands, indie formulators, or anyone doing small-batch testing. 5. Contract Manufacturers and Private Label Suppliers While not raw material suppliers in...

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The “natural vs synthetic” debate is one of the most persistent and misunderstood topics in cosmetic formulation. It’s also where marketing often clashes with science. If you’re a formulator, especially someone building your own product line or working with clients, you need to be able to separate opinion from function. That means asking the real question: Is this ingredient fit for purpose? Not: Does it sound natural? Let’s unpack what these terms really mean, what the science says, and how to navigate this space without falling into hype. What Do We Mean by “Natural”? There’s no globally accepted regulatory definition of “natural” in cosmetics. That’s part of the problem. Some standards, like ISO 16128, attempt to define what counts as naturally derived, but they aren’t legally binding. Some retailers have also created their own standards but those aren't widespread and don't have any legal premise. In practice, “natural” may refer to: Direct plant extracts (e. g. , cold-pressed oils, essential oils) Processed but plant-derived compounds (e. g. , ethylhexylglycerin, coco-glucoside) Any ingredient claimed to come “from nature,” regardless of processing steps Most “natural” ingredients are chemically processed to improve safety, performance or shelf life. The idea that natural equals untouched is a myth. What Counts as Synthetic? “Synthetic” simply means the ingredient was made through a chemical process, usually in a lab or industrial facility. This doesn’t make it unsafe or undesirable. It just means it was engineered, often for consistency and performance. Examples: Silicones (e. g. , dimethicone) Preservatives (e. g. , phenoxyethanol) Polymers (e. g. , carbomer) Petroleum-derived emollients (e. g. , mineral oil)/ Many synthetics are chemically identical to compounds found in nature they’re just lab-produced. So again, the “natural vs. synthetic” distinction is often more about marketing than chemistry. Safety Is Not About Source One of the most widespread misconceptions in cosmetics is that “natural” means safe and “synthetic” means harmful. That’s not how toxicology works. Toxicity depends on the dose and context, not the source. Examples: Clove oil is natural, but a known skin sensitizer. Petrolatum is synthetic, but highly refined and non-irritating. Every ingredient, regardless of origin, must be evaluated based on: Use level Skin compatibility Stability and purity Regulatory status As a formulator, safety should be evidence-based, not emotionally driven by a label claim. Focus on Function, Not the Buzzwords In formulation, your raw materials need to: Perform their intended role Stay stable in your system Be safe at their use level Meet your regulatory and marketing requirements If a “natural” emulsifier keeps breaking in your emulsion, it’s not the right ingredient, even if it sounds appealing. Similarly, a well-tested synthetic polymer may be the only way to achieve the texture or stability you need. If marketing limits your options, then formulation becomes a technical challenge. But science should guide your choices, not fear-based messaging. Transparency Beats Greenwashing You don’t need to take a side in the natural vs. synthetic debate. But you do need to be clear: About what your ingredients are...

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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. But if you're a formulator, you know better than to take an ingredient list at face value. Ingredient lists are useful, but they’re not the whole story. In fact, they can mislead you if you don’t know how to read between the lines. Here’s what ingredient labels don’t tell you and why understanding that matters when you're developing or evaluating a cosmetic product. 1. Concentration Is a Guess After the First Few Ingredients Ingredients are listed in descending order of concentration until the 1% threshold. After that point, everything 1% or below can appear in any order. That includes: Preservatives Actives Botanical extracts Fragrance So when you see something like “niacinamide” near the end of the list, don’t assume it’s at an effective dose, it might just be enough to support a label claim. Without the actual formula or technical data, you won’t know how much is in there. 2. Function Isn’t Disclosed An ingredient like glycerin could be in your formula as: A humectant A solvent Part of a premixed ingredient blend You won’t know from the label. INCI names don’t tell you how the ingredient is being used or what its real impact is in the formula. 3. Grade and Purity Are Invisible An INCI name stays the same whether you’re using: A pharmaceutical-grade 99% active A 5% solution in a carrier A blend of multiple materials labeled under one name This can affect performance, compatibility, and even safety. The same “niacinamide” might behave differently depending on its source and format. 4. Delivery Systems Are Hidden Encapsulated actives, time-release systems, liposomes, and microemulsions don’t get called out clearly on most labels. You’ll just see the active name. So “ascorbic acid” on one label might be stabilized in a phospholipid complex, while another is just free-form and highly unstable. That matters for performance but it’s invisible to the consumer and even to many formulators who aren’t digging into supplier data. 5. Ingredient Lists Don’t Show Synergy You can’t tell how ingredients are interacting. For example: Are emollients being used to balance skin feel? Are polymers creating rheological structure? Are surfactants buffered by co-surfactants for mildness? The ingredient list doesn’t show formulation architecture. Two products can have identical ingredient lists and behave differently because of ratio, processing or ingredient synergy. 6. Skill and Intent Are Not Reflected Some formulas are well thought out using a minimal and balanced approach. Others are a mess of redundant or conflicting ingredients. Formulation is engineering. And a good formula isn’t just about the ingredients, it’s about how those ingredients are chosen and combined. So How Should You Use an Ingredient List? As a formulator, treat ingredient lists as a clue, not a conclusion. They’re useful for: Understanding basic structure (e. g. , emulsion vs. anhydrous) Spotting functional groups (humectants, emulsifiers, etc. ) Learning common ingredient pairings But don't assume...

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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 chosen ingredients. If you don’t understand your raw materials, you’re just guessing. Whether you’re formulating from scratch, modifying a base or scaling up for production, knowing your ingredients at a functional is essential. 1. Intentional Formulation Starts With the Right Inputs Anyone can follow a recipe, but real formulation is about: Choosing materials with purpose Understanding why each one is in the formula Making substitutions based on chemistry, not guesswork If you’re using an emulsifier because it was in a blog recipe, not because you understand its HLB, system compatibility, or charge you may not get the results you want and not understand why. When you understand raw materials, you make informed choices from the beginning. 2. Troubleshooting Gets Faster and Smarter If your serum is cloudy, your moisturizer separates or your preservative system fails, the root cause is often ingredient-related: Incompatible surfactants Incorrect pH range Poor solubility Instability due to light or oxidation If you know how your raw materials behave, you’ll troubleshoot effectively without wasting hours on random reformulations. You’ll also know what not to change. 3. You Can Design for Performance, Not Just Appearance A product might look nice and feel elegant, but does it work? Real performance comes from understanding how raw materials interact with skin, hair, and environmental conditions: Is your humectant concentration high enough to retain moisture? Is your active stabilized and bioavailable? Does your emollient system actually reduce TEWL (transepidermal water loss) or just feel greasy? Formulators who understand raw material function build products that look good and deliver. 4. You Avoid Wasteful or Redundant Formulas When you don’t understand your ingredients, you’re more likely to: Stack multiple ingredients that do the same thing Overload the formula with unnecessary components Create instability through incompatible combinations That leads to expensive, ineffective products. Ingredient knowledge helps you strip down to what’s needed and what actually works. 5. You Can Innovate With Confidence Innovation requires technical insight. You need to know: How to create structure in the absence of water How volatile emollients behave How emulsifiers interact under different conditions Understanding your raw materials means you’re able to experiment because you know the boundaries. 6. You Become More Efficient and Scalable Small-batch formulators and indie brands often burn time (and budget) making unnecessary iterations. Knowing your ingredients helps you: Streamline R&D Scale with fewer reformulations Maintain consistency across batches The result? Faster product development and better cost control. What Kind of Ingredient Knowledge Matters? It’s not just memorizing INCI names. You should understand: Solubility and compatibility (water, oil, glycols) Recommended usage ranges pH stability Sensory profile and finish Preservation challenges Regulatory status and sourcing. With these guidelines you can approach formulating strategically and efficiently.

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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 and these categories can be further divided, they’re a useful starting point for students and formulators. This way of grouping ingredients was inspired by cladistics in biology which means organizing by shared traits. Understanding these categories is foundational to effective cosmetic formulation, and knowing which is which helps you formulate with intent rather than guesswork. Let’s cut through the marketing and take a closer look at what these types are, how they function and why they matter. 1. Functional Ingredients These are the backbone of your formula. They exist to make the product do something. Functional ingredients contribute to the physical performance of the formula, whether that’s cleansing, moisturizing, conditioning, exfoliating or protecting. Examples: Surfactants – for cleansing or emulsifying (e. g. , sodium lauryl sulfate, polysorbate 80) Emollients – for skin feel and barrier support (e. g. , isopropyl myristate, dimethicone) Humectants – for hydration (e. g. , glycerin, propylene glycol) Preservatives – for microbial control (e. g. , phenoxyethanol, ethylhexylglycerin) Film-formers – for hold or wear (e. g. , PVP, acrylates copolymer) Formulators should prioritize these when building the basic structure of the product. If a formuladoesn’t function, nothing else matters. 2. Aesthetic Modifiers These ingredients don’t alter the product’s primary function but they do impact how the user experiences it. That includes texture, appearance, spreadability, and scent. They also make the formula stable, safe, and usable. Examples: Fragrances – synthetic or essential oil blends Colorants – FD&C dyes, iron oxides, or natural pigments Opacifiers – like titanium dioxide used to create a creamy look Silicones or esters – for glide/slip and afterfeel pH adjusters – like citric acid or sodium hydroxide Chelating agents – like EDTA to reduce metal ion activity Solubilizers – for dispersing oils into water (e. g. , PEG-40 hydrogenated castor oil) Thickeners and rheology modifiers – like carbomer or xanthan gum Consumers rarely say "this works but feels unpleasant. " Aesthetic modifiers help you create a sensory experience that complements performance. These often go unnoticed in consumer-facing discussions, but they are critical to creating a stable and safe product. A product might have a trendy ingredient, but without the right product feel or pH control, it won’t last on the market. 3. Claims Ingredients This is where marketing and science often collide. Claims ingredients are typically added in small amounts to support label claims like "made with natural ingredients" or "contains vitamin C. " Examples: Botanical extracts Peptides Vitamins Claims ingredients are often present at concentrationstoo low to deliver measurable results and are included to support product positioning and marketing. As a formulator, be skeptical. Ask: Is this doing something functional, or just something marketable? Why This Framework Matters When you understand these four categories, you can start analyzing formulas with more clarity. You can also start asking better questions: What purpose does this ingredient serve? Is it...

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In November, I had the privilege of attending and speaking at In-cosmetics Asia 2024 in Bangkok. Held at BITEC from November 5-7, this year’s show apparently saw record-breaking participation, with nearly 20,000 visits recorded, including a remarkable 13,000+ unique attendees which they say is a significant 11% increase from 2023. And there was so much scanning of people's badges, I believe those numbers! Reportedly, the event drew international attention, with 43% of visitors traveling from outside Thailand! An increase compared to last year which suggest there is a growing importance of Asia as a hub for personal care innovation and collaboration. I've got to admit, for a person from the US, that was a long 20+ hour flight to get there. Creativity and Innovation The show floor was buzzing with activity, featuring more than 600 exhibitors from 36 countries. Global leaders like Ashland, BASF, Clariant, and Croda showcased alongside smaller suppliers. The diversity of participants highlighted the continued interest and growth in the industry. One of the more interesting features was the Innovation Zone, where companies debuted cutting-edge ingredients developed within the past eight months. There were over 100 new launches, with Givaudan earning Gold for Neuroglow™, an ingredient mimicking the positive effects of sunlight, and Lucas Meyer Cosmetics taking Gold for Pickmulse™, a quinoa starch-based emulsifier. These innovations exemplify the blend of creativity and advancements shaping the future of cosmetics. But in truth, I was a bit underwhelmed by what passes for "innovation" in our industry. I know it's hard to come up with truly new raw materials due to testing restrictions and the fact that it is just really hard to find anything new. However, the things that get touted as amazing innovation, emulsifiers, esters, and extracts? ? Suffice it to say, from my perspective there wasn't much exciting innovation at least in terms of formulating. There was nothing here that consumers would notice beyond marketing stories. Educational Highlights The educational sessions were another major draw, with experts from leading brands like L’Oréal, Shiseido, Estée Lauder, and P&G sharing insights into emerging trends. I had the honor of presenting a keynote on the potential of AI tools for cosmetic chemists, highlighting how technology is transforming the way we approach formulation and product development. I also spoke on the future of hair care products and the role and development of cosmetic claims. All the sessions were well attended and I got some good questions afterwards. Hands-on demonstrations in the Formulation Lab provided practical insights into creating new formulas. From lightweight sunscreen systems by Clariant to serum sunscreens by Nikko Chemicals, the sessions offered some useful knowledge for formulators who hadn't necessarily worked on those types of formulas. Asian Suppliers Take Center Stage One aspect of the show was the increasing prominence of Asian suppliers. Countries like Japan, China, and Thailand showcased their advancements, from multifunctional moisturizers to sustainable ingredient solutions. For instance, TriBeaute from Japan introduced AzePore™, an ingredient with anti-ageing and anti-acne benefits, while Thailand’s Speciality Natural Products...

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How to become a cosmetic chemist - podcast relaunch - Chemists Corner Toggle Side Panel Start Here Blog Courses Books Webinars Forum Resources Career Podcast Login More options Shopping Cart No products in the cart. Sign in Search for: Log In Register Start Here Blog Courses66 Books Webinars Resources Podcasts Career Forum Search for: Close search How to become a cosmetic chemist - podcast relaunch Perry44 November 21, 2024 Categories: General Perry44 Perry has been formulating cosmetic products and inventing solutions to solve consumer problems since the early 1990’s. Additionally, he has written and edited numerous articles and books, taught continuing education classes for industry scientists, and developed successful websites. His latest book is Beginning Cosmetic Chemistry 3rd Edition published by Allured. Related Articles How to Become a Cosmetic Chemist The job of a cosmetic chemist, or as they call it in the UK a cosmetic scientist, requires you to do a wide variety of things both in and out of the lab. Your main responsibility will be that of a formulator. This means you mix raw materials together to create cosmetic products like lipstick, nail polish, skin lotions, shampoos, toothpaste and any other type of personal care product. Perry44 April 8, 2018 Cosmetic Science Programs Around the World A list of cosmetic science schools and other programs that teach you how to create your own cosmetic formulas and beauty products. If you are truly interested in making products like it is done in the cosmetic industry or in getting a job as a cosmetic chemist, the following courses are legitimate programs recognized by people and companies in the cosmetic industry. Perry44 April 11, 2018 Find a cosmetic chemist for your product idea One of the most common questions we get here on Chemists Corner is someone asking for help to find a cosmetic chemist. Unfortunately, the majority… Perry44 April 2, 2018 How do you become a cosmetic chemist consultant? I received the following question and thought it would make a good post.  I’m an Senior Cosmetic Chemist with an Bachelors Degree, with 18yrs experience… Perry44 November 29, 2016 20+ Cosmetic Chemists Who Tweet - Do You? If you’re a recent college graduate or are up on Web 2.0, you have no doubt heard about Twitter.  And if you’re really up on… Perry44 August 11, 2009 Search for: Categories Book reviews Career Cosmetic Chemistry Cosmetic Claims Cosmetic Formulations Cosmetic Industry Cosmetic Regulations Entrepreneurship Formulating Fun General Innovation Makeup Chemist Natural cosmetics Podcast Raw Materials Resources Science Technology About Blog Resources Podcasts Terms Contact About Blog Resources Podcasts Terms Contact © 2025 - Element 44 Inc By, Perry Romanowski Report There was a problem reporting this post. Harassment Harassment or bullying behavior Inappropriate Contains mature or sensitive content Inappropriate Contains mature or sensitive content Inappropriate Contains mature or sensitive content Inappropriate Contains mature or sensitive content Misinformation Contains misleading or false information Offensive Contains abusive or derogatory content Offensive Contains abusive or derogatory content Offensive Contains abusive or derogatory content Offensive...

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Innovation is and always has been one of the core foundations of the beauty and personal care industry. Cosmetics products are most likely to see success if they leverage cutting-edge technical formulations to meet the evolving needs and preferences of consumers. However, as the cosmetics industry has grown and developed, formulators have had to manage a huge variety of factors, beyond just the curation of innovation. This phenomenon has been particularly relevant to the world of haircare. Despite recent trends and buzzwords such as "bond building" or "customisation," the core technology and scientific innovation behind shampoos has remained largely unchanged since the 1950s. But why exactly is this? It’s a multifaceted web of challenges, which has been impacted by many different factors. Primarily, formulators within haircare (but also the wider cosmetics industry) are facing several key issues which are impacting their ability to innovate and create truly unique products. Limitations within formulation When developing new and exciting products, formulators in the cosmetics industry must comply with a variety of different rules, regulations, needs, preferences and restrictions from consumers, regulators, associations, brands, and other industry stakeholders. Managing these perspectives and requirements necessitates a juggling act for formulators. A tightening regulatory environment In the cosmetics industry, new laws and regulations are constantly being brought into effect in order to protect the safety and wellbeing of consumers, employees and the environment. However, due to difficulties around implementing new regulations – both in terms of the timescales, and the complexity of the regulatory landscape – they can often hinder the process of creating true innovation. Misinformation among consumers Fear mongering and misinformation frequently plays a key role in determining the products created and used in this industry. Over the years, certain ingredients in the cosmetics world have gained a negative reputation among consumers. This can be a result of misleading media reports, unsubstantiated claims, or misunderstandings about scientific evidence. For example, ingredients such as sulphates and silicones have been subject to unwarranted scrutiny and negative publicity as a result of (often) unfounded concerns about their safety and potential health risks. As a result, formulators frequently avoid using these ingredients in the creation of new products, in order to pacify consumers. However, it can be difficult for formulators to identify and implement effective replacements. The ‘green beauty’ movement The increasing demand for natural and sustainable products has also presented challenges for formulators. While consumers seek products that are perceived as gentle and environmentally friendly, there can be limitations in terms of performance and efficacy compared to traditional formulations. While it’s clear that innovation will always remain essential, cosmetic formulators must strike a delicate and complex balance between delivering true innovation in the industry and sticking to ‘accepted’ ingredients and practices from the consumer perspective. Despite these prevalent challenges, there is opportunity for formulators to drive innovation in haircare. By staying informed about emerging trends, collaborating with the relevant industry experts, and investing in research and development, formulators can create products that meet the evolving needs...

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Over the past couple of years, Artificial Intelligence (AI) has begun to permeate businesses across the board, spanning numerous regions and industries. A study from Zoom found that nearly 7 in 10 (69%) of APAC employees say they’re excited about AI, while additional data suggests that organizations in this region plan to grow their investments in generative AI faster than those in other regions. Recent research demonstrates that AI has even begun to work its way into the fabric of the cosmetics industry. Notably, in 2023, the AI in Beauty and Cosmetics market was valued at USD 3,736 million and is predicted to reach USD 16,006 million by 2031. So, how is this technology being incorporated into the formulation process, traditionally a highly specialized, technical and creative field? And what impact will this have on the industry? Introducing the newest lab assistant Though AI has a long way to go before it can create credible cosmetics products autonomously, the use of this technology – particularly large language models (LLMs) – as part of a formulator’s toolkit will likely have huge implications for the industry in the not-too-distant future. While it’s still early days, AI may be able to offer huge benefits to the daily function of a cosmetics formulator. One of the key areas it could impact is in cosmetics testing, specifically by suggesting relevant tests to help prove the claims that formulators need to make. By analyzing regulatory requirements, product claims and existing scientific literature, AI can identify the most appropriate testing procedures to ensure product safety and efficacy. AI tools can also help with generating product and development ideas – a staple and often time-consuming task for any formulator. By analyzing trends, market data, and ingredient profiles, AI can suggest new product concepts and identify potential gaps in the market. This can help formulators to stay ahead of the competition and develop products that resonate in the market. Cosmetics formulators also need to stay abreast of a huge amount of new and upcoming research into the ingredients, formulations, and actives. Often released in the form of lengthy research papers, AI tools can help formulators to summarize and digest new research, identifying key findings and potential applications for their work in a timely manner. These are just several of the ways in which formulators are and could be using LLMs to help improve efficiency and productivity in the workplace, but the possibilities truly are endless. That said, AI tools are still relatively in their infancy, and users need to understand the limitations of this technology. AI won’t be a silver bullet As with any new technology, AI tools will have a number of drawbacks, particularly when used in a business context. To make the most of the benefits that AI can provide, formulators must be aware of these limitations to mitigate and minimize any potential risks. Most importantly, it’s essential to remember that AI is not a substitute for real life experience in the lab. Though it can help...

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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 distant future—it's here. At a recent IFSCC webinar, I delved into this fascinating topic, exploring how AI cosmetic formulation is reshaping the way cosmetic chemists work. AI and the Cosmetic Chemist: A Game Changer The cosmetic industry is witnessing a paradigm shift, courtesy of AI. This technology is influencing everything from formula creation to ingredient discovery, opening new avenues for innovation and efficiency. It will only increase in the future. If you are avoiding the topic you do so at your peril. Your peers are going to be embracing these tools and will become more efficient and productive cosmetic chemists. It's time we all learn to use these tools in order to keep up. Here are some of the ways AI will be impacting the job of a cosmetic chemist. 1. AI Cosmetic Formulation Development AI tools, particularly those focused on formulation, are proving to be invaluable allies for cosmetic chemists. With capabilities ranging from suggesting starting formulas to offering insights on ingredient interactions, these tools enhance the formulation process significantly. You may no longer need to search through raw material supplier formularies or old textbooks for starting formulas. Using a tool like ChatGPT can get you started with a reasonable formula. 2. Customization and Personalization AI's potential in creating personalized beauty products is immense. But we don't have nearly enough data to have it impact formulating to any real extent. Sure, by analyzing customer data and preferences, the AI might be able to guide formulators in developing products tailored to individual needs, but consumers can't really notice a product working better so this application will be of limited use to formulators. 3. Streamlining Research and Data Analysis Navigating through extensive research papers and data can be daunting. AI tools simplify this process by summarizing research findings and extracting relevant data, making it easier for chemists to stay updated with the latest developments. 4. Enhancing Learning and Communication AI chatbots and other tools are becoming essential for continuous learning and effective communication within teams. These tools can simplify complex scientific concepts, making them accessible to both seasoned chemists and newcomers in the field. 5. Your editor and writing helper The role of AI extends beyond the lab and into the realm of communication and documentation in cosmetic chemistry. AI-driven tools are emerging as invaluable assistants for writing scientific papers, patents, and even marketing materials. These sophisticated tools help in refining complex technical language, ensuring clarity and coherence. They can also assist in maintaining a consistent tone and style, which is crucial in professional writing. For cosmetic chemists, this means less time spent on editing and more on lab experiments and innovation. AI editors can suggest improvements in grammar and style, while also ensuring technical accuracy. This is particularly beneficial when dealing with intricate formulations and scientific data that require precise expression. Furthermore, for global teams,...

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No doubt you have heard about Chat GPT which seems to have taken the world by storm. AI is a fast growing and ever developing field and will have far reaching effects on consumers and industry... including beauty. But, before we dive into the impact on beauty, let's start with a brief overview of what Chat GPT actually is. Chat GPT is conversational AI which combines machine learning, natural language processing and natural language generation to communicate and converse with humans. Conversational AI can answer questions, understand sentiment, and mimic human conversations. So, you may be wondering how conversational AI will impact cosmetic chemists and the beauty industry? Well, I decided to ask it. How will Chat GPT impact the beauty industry? "The use of Chat GPT in the beauty industry can provide several benefits. For instance: Personalized Recommendations: Chat GPT can generate personalized recommendations for different types of skincare and beauty products based on the user's skin type, skin issues, and desired beauty goals. This personalized approach can help users find the perfect products for their unique needs, leading to more satisfied customers. Virtual Try-Ons: Chat GPT can assist in creating virtual try-on experiences for makeup products. This can help customers try on different makeup looks virtually before purchasing, leading to an increase in customer satisfaction. Improved Customer Service: With the help of Chat GPT, beauty brands can improve their customer service by providing quick and accurate responses to customers' inquiries about products, orders, shipping, and returns. It can handle customer queries 24/7 with the same efficiency. Overall, Chat GPT can help the beauty industry provide better customer experiences, enhance brand loyalty, and increase revenue. ” How can Chat GPT help cosmetic chemists? "Here are some possible ways that Chat GPT could benefit the field of cosmetic chemistry: Enhanced Product Development: Chat GPT can help cosmetic chemists gather feedback from customers to refine and improve formulations. By analyzing customer reviews and feedback on specific cosmetic products, Chat GPT can provide valuable insights into what works and what doesn't for customers in terms of ingredients, formulation, and packaging. Streamlined Testing and Development: Chat GPT can automate the testing and development of new cosmetic products, which can speed up the process and reduce costs. This technology can help predict the properties of new ingredients and formulations, optimize the manufacturing processes, and reduce the risk of negative side effects. Improved Personalization: Chat GPT can assist in creating customized cosmetic products that meet the needs of individual consumers. This technology can help identify the individual needs of consumers and suggest personalized products to address their specific issues. Improved Communication: Chat GPT can help cosmetic chemists communicate better with customers by providing an efficient and automated customer service channel. This technology enables consumers to ask questions, receive instant answers, and resolve their queries effectively and efficiently. " Overall, Chat GPT technology has the potential to assist cosmetic chemists in creating innovative products, improve the manufacturing process, reduce costs, and improve customer satisfaction by offering...

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Love it or hate it TikTok is one of the fastest growing digital platforms and has become an essential marketing platform for beauty brands. In fact, TikTok has surpassed other digital platforms like Instagram and YouTube among Gen Z (according to market research firm Mintel). There is no magic formula for knowing why products go viral. But understanding what consumers want and the science behind the products can inspire how you formulate and market your products. You can also become a more informed consumer! One product that has been a viral sensation on TikTok is KP BUMP ERASER BODY SCRUB 10% AHA by First Aid Beauty. This product was introduced several years ago but thanks to a TikTok video in the Summer 2021, content views and product searches soared, leading to the highest ever weekly sales for the product. Let’s take a look at the formula and why this product has catapulted into popularity. As we have written about before, there are basically three categories of ingredients including: Functional – ingredients that deliver the claimed product benefits Aesthetic modifiers – ingredients that improve the usability of the formula Claims (or hero ingredients) - ingredients that support the marketing or brand story but often don’t provide any measurable benefit Primary purpose and claims: A body scrub that claims to sweep away dry, rough bumps associated with KP (keratosis pilaris), strawberry skin and bumps to reveal healthier, smoother skin. Product appearance: Thick, opaque paste-like scrub packaged in a tube - retails for $30 for 8oz (on firstaidbeauty. com). Ingredient list: pumice, water/aqua/eau, glycolic acid, sodium cocoyl isethionate, lactic acid, dimethicone, stearic acid, cetearyl alcohol, sodium hydroxide, palmitic acid, glycerin, c12-15 alkyl benzoate, sorbitol, colloidal oatmeal, tocopherol, chrysanthemum parthenium (feverfew) extract, camellia sinensis leaf extract, glycyrrhiza glabra (licorice) root extract, salix nigra (willow) bark extract, bisabolol, hydrogenated coconut acid, xanthan gum, steareth-20, steareth-21, myristic acid, sodium isethionate, phenoxyethanol, potassiumsorbate, sodium benzoate, leuconostoc/radish root ferment filtrate, edta Functional ingredients: Glycolic acid and Lactic acid are chemical exfoliants that are part of the broader AHA category (Alpha Hydroxy Acids). They facilitate the shedding of dead skin cells to improve skin tone and texture Pumice (powder sourced from finely ground volcanic stone) is a physical exfoliant that removes dead skin cells to improve skin tone Sodium cocoyl isethionate is a mild anionic surfactant that provides gentle cleansing and moisturizing benefits Water is the primary solvent Phenoxyethanol, potassium sorbate, sodium benzoate, EDTA and leuconostoc/radish root ferment filtrate comprise the preservative system. Although it’s questionable whether you really need the radish root ferment in there since it is not a particularly effective preservative. Aesthetic ingredients: Dimethicone is a low viscosity silicone polymer that provides good slip and skin feel, making the product more aesthetically pleasing to apply Stearic acid is the emulsifying agent to produce a stable product that won’t separate Cetearyl alcohol acts as the thickener and has some emulsifying properties as well Sodium Hydroxide is an alkaline ingredient that stabilizes the pH of acidic formulas Palmitic...

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Next up in our series of evaluating ingredient lists is Pixi’s Glycolic Body Wash. As we have written about before, when you analyze a cosmetic ingredient list, there are basically three ingredient categories including: Functional – ingredients that deliver the claimed product benefits Aesthetic modifiers – ingredients that improve the usability of the formula Claims (or hero ingredients) - ingredients that support the marketing or brand story but often don’t provide any measurable benefit Primary purpose and claims: Body wash that claims to cleanse and improve the texture of the skin. Product appearance: Clear gel Ingredient list: Aqua/Water/Eau, Disodium Laureth Sulfosuccinate, Sodium C-14-16 Olefin Sulfonate, Cocamidopropyl Betaine, Cocamidopropylamine Oxide, Glycolic Acid, Sodium Glycolate, Aloe Barbadensis Leaf Extract, Panax Ginseng Extract, Cucumis Sativus (Cucumber) Fruit Extract, Vaccinium Myrtillus Fruit/Leaf Extract, Saccharum Officinarum (Sugar Cane) Extract, Citrus Aurantium Dulcis (Orange) Fruit Extract, Citrus Limon (Lemon) Fruit Extract, Acer Saccharum (Sugar Maple) Extract, Parfum/Fragrance, Xanthan Gum, Tetrasodium Glutamate Diacetate,Phenoxyethanol, Ethylhexylglycerin Functional ingredients: Disodium Laureth Sulfosuccinate, Sodium C-14-16 Olefin Sulfonate and Cocamidopropyl Betaine are surfactants (cleansing agents). Aesthetic ingredients: Aqua/Water/Eau is the solvent and likely accounts for 80-90% of the formula. Glycolic Acid is an exfoliant and can also be used as a pH adjuster. While Glycolic Acid is an effective chemical exfoliant, it likely has limited impact in a rinse-off formula. Sodium Glycolate is the salt of Glycolic Acid, and is used as a pH adjuster and skin-conditioning agent. Cocamidopropylamine Oxide is a secondary surfactant that is used to make the foam look and feel better. Parfum/Fragrance covers the base odor and delivers a pleasant scent. Xanthan Gum is a thickening agent. Tetrasodium Glutamate Diacetate is a chelating agent to help the preservative system work better. And speaking of preservative systems... they’re using Phenoxyethanol and Ethylhexylglycerin which is a pretty common blend. Claims ingredients: Aloe Barbadensis Leaf Extract Panax Ginseng Extract Cucumis Sativus (Cucumber) Fruit Extract Vaccinium Myrtillus Fruit/Leaf Extract Saccharum Officinarum (Sugar Cane) Extract Citrus Aurantium Dulcis (Orange) Fruit Extract Citrus Limon (Lemon) Fruit Extract Acer Saccharum (Sugar Maple) Extract Formulator takeaways: If you strip away all of the claims ingredients (extracts), this is a pretty straightforward body wash formula. The addition of Glycolic Acid does provide some skin smoothing benefits but, as previously mentioned, the impact is limited in a rinse-off formula. Nonetheless, the product does contain ingredients that cleanse and theoretically improve skin texture, as the product claims. This product retails for $18 USD for 6. 67 fl oz which is a bit steep in my opinion for a body wash. Still, I do use this product as I find the texture more pleasant and less harsh than other clear gel body washes.

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Understanding how to decipher cosmetic ingredient lists is an essential skill in developing your formulating skills while also making you a more informed consumer. By honing this skill it will help you understand the purpose of an ingredient, what ingredients work well together (and what don’t) and help you make informed purchasing decisions. As we have written about before when you analyze a cosmetic ingredient list, there are basically three categories of ingredients including: Functional – ingredients that deliver the claimed product benefits Aesthetic modifiers – ingredients that improve the usability of the formula Claims (or hero ingredients) - ingredients that support the marketing or brand story but often don’t provide any measurable benefit Given the importance of understanding ingredient lists, we are starting a new series of posts that evaluate popular products on the market and will break them down by category of ingredients. To start, we’ll take a closer look at Clinique’s Take the Day Off Cleansing Balm. Primary purpose and claims: Facial cleanser/makeup remover that claims to dissolve long-wearing makeup, sunscreen and oil. Product appearance: Opaque solid balm that turns into oil once applied to the skin. Ingredient list: Ethylhexyl Palmitate (emollient), Carthamus Tinctorius (Safflower) Seed Oil, Caprylic/Capric Triglyceride, Sorbeth-30 Tetraoleate, Polyethylene, Peg-5 Glyceryl Triisostearate, Water\Aqua\Eau, Tocopherol, Phenoxyethanol Functional ingredients: Ethylhexyl Palmitate is an emollient (meaning it softens and smooths skin). It’s insoluble in water but it is soluble in alcohol and some oils. Safflower seed oil is an emollient and contains fatty acids (primarily linolenic acid) which moisturizes and softens skin. Caprylic/Capric triglyceride is a light emollient that also works to bind other ingredients together. Aesthetic ingredients: Soreth-30 Tetraoleate and Peg-5 Glyceryl Triisostearate are self-emulsifying surfactants which means they have good compatibility with oils and water, promoting good rinsability. Polyethylene is a binding and thickening agent. In this formula it was likely used to thicken oil-based ingredients and modify the rheology. Phenoxyethanol is the preservative. It’s broad spectrum and given that this is a low water formulation, microbial growth is not a big concern. Tocopherol is a Vitamin E derivative and has antioxidant properties and some moisturizing benefits. Claims ingredients: None! Formulator takeaways: The functional ingredients are a blend of emollients that work together to dissolve other oil-based ingredients on the skin (“like dissolves like” concept). So, these ingredients “cleanse” the skin of oily substances like makeup and sunscreen as the product claims. The aesthetic modifiers are used to promote easy rinsing of the emollients while also providing a pleasant product texture. Overall, this is a pretty straightforward formula and every ingredient serves a purpose.

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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 a little different, there is one thing nearly all of the formulas have in common. They are using too many ingredients! Formula Minimalism I have long embraced the philosophy of formulation minimalism and there are a number of reasons why. If you are having trouble with your cosmetic formulas in terms of stability or performance, the most simple, effective solution you can try is: use FEWER ingredients. Here is why. Problems with using too many ingredients To understand why you should use fewer ingredients, it's helpful first to know how the business of selling raw materials works. The marketing of cosmetic raw materials involves chemical companies first inventing some ingredient and then trying to figure out what someone might use the ingredient for in their formulating. They literally have technical service chemists who's entire job is to take an ingredient and determine every reason why anyone would use it. The more uses for an ingredient, the better, at least from the perspective of a raw material supplier. This means that even if an ingredient has only a tiny impact on some characteristic, the company will create sales brochures and marketing material that highlights the use of this chemical. That doesn't mean it actually will work! But beyond the problem of not working there are a number of other issues caused by using too many ingredients. Cons of using a lot of ingredients Most ingredients don't provide a benefit While ingredient marketers claim that their raw material has an effect, most ingredients don't. Even if an ingredient is shown to have some positive benefit in a peer reviewed research paper that almost never translates into real world effectiveness in formulating. Stability problems Every addition ingredient in a formula increases the chance that there might be some unwanted interaction with another ingredient. This can result in stability problems which are much more difficult to solve when you have more ingredients. Higher formulation costs Another problem with using numerous ingredients is that each ingredient has the potential to increase the cost of your formula. There is a principle of bulk savings. This just means when you purchase a large quantity of an ingredient, you get it at a lower price. Buying 10 kg of something might cost $100 or $10 a kg. But if you buy 1000 kg, the price might be $800 which is only $8 a kg. The more ingredients you use the less likely you are to get this bulk price savings and thus your formulation costs are higher. Space and inventory problems In addition to the ingredient cost, using numerous ingredients can increase your storage space costs too. For every ingredient in your formula you will need a place to store it. Every drum, bag, or other container has to go somewhere. If you work at a large company this can lead to huge...

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Whenever we do a webinar, we find that about 30 - 40% of people interested in formulating cosmetics don't have a background in science. In fact, most home formulators have very little chemistry training. While having a degree in chemistry is not required to be an excellent formulator, there are some chemistry concepts that can make your formulating efforts much easier. In this post, we'll remind you of some basic concepts in chemistry that will make formulating easier for you even if you don't have a chemistry degree. Now much of this information you probably learned in grade school or high school, but if you haven't thought about these things in many years, this refresher should help. Chemistry for Cosmetics The main chemistry concepts every formulator should know include... Elements Types of molecules Phases of matter Chemical reactions Solutions pH General chemistry terms Chemical Elements If you really want to know about chemistry you have to start with elements and the periodic table. It's one of the greatest inventions in the history of humanity. There is a ton of worldly information packed into this simple chart. Most of it isn't directly relevant to formulating, but some of it is. Everything that is matter is made up of chemical elements on this table. Everything you've ever touched, eaten, worn, lived in, or put on your body is composed of these chemical elements. A single unit of these elements is an atom. You are composed of these atoms. It frequently amuses me when I see advertisers claim that they have a product that is “chemical free”. This is wrong. Unless they are selling you something made of electricity, magnetism or gravity, they are selling you a chemical. Water is a chemical. Pretty much anything you can touch is a chemical. Atoms These atoms are made up of smaller particles called neutrons, protons, and electrons and it is the different number of those that give the elements their particular properties. Neutrons and protons exist in the center of the atom called the nucleus. Electrons exist in the outer shell of the atom which has important implications for their ability to react. We'll talk about this shortly. At room temperature some of the elements are solids and some are gases. A couple of elements including Mercury and Bromine are liquid at room temperature. The periodic table lists all of the known elements in a nice simple chart. You will no doubt have heard of many such as Carbon, Hydrogen, Oxygen, Gold, Silver, etc. The elements are arranged on the periodic table in terms of their mass. Mass is like weight, but it is not dependent on gravity like weight. Anyway, heavier elements have higher numbers and lighter ones have lower numbers. The lightest element in Hydrogen. In cosmetic formulating we primarily work with elements in the top 4 rows. Molecules & chemicals Atoms typically exist in a combined form called molecules. When an oxygen chemically bonds with two hydrogen atoms, we call the resulting...

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When I started formulating cosmetics back in the late 1990's, one regulatory movement was to reduce the VOC (volatile organic compounds) of cosmetics. What this primarily meant was that all the hairsprays we sold would have to be reduced to 55% VOC. Since these formulas could be composed of up to 90% VOC, that made it a big challenge. I always thought it was a ridiculous thing to regulate. It seemed to me the amount of VOC produced by personal care products was minuscule compared to that of automobiles and airplanes. And if you look at the numbers, this is true. Less than 4% of VOC emissions come from personal care products. Vilification of the Cosmetic Industry While this study of VOCs is worth considering further, this experience prompted me to start noticing other instances where the cosmetic industry was seemingly unfairly targeted. It seems the media and internet provide a steady stream of stories about the harms and hazards of the cosmetic industry. In addition to causing air pollution you can find claims that the cosmetic industry is Killing choral reefs Excessively killing animals Creating too much plastic waste Hugely impacting global warming Causing cancer Let's look at the relative impact that each of these might be having on the specific problem. Are cosmetics killing choral reefs? There are lots of sources claiming that sunscreens are responsible for the bleaching of choral reefs. A few governments have banned what they believe are the offending ingredients including oxybenzone and octinoxate. Numerous brands have popped up claiming to sell "reef safe" sunscreens. The justification they are reef safe? They don't contain any of the banned sunscreen ingredients, but instead feature mineral sunscreen ingredients like Zinc Oxide. This is a weak rationale for two main reasons. First, there is no good evidence that sunscreens are causing choral bleaching. Global warming and the acidification of the oceans are the main culprit. And second, if one does find the evidence compelling, there is also evidence that zinc oxide can cause choral bleaching. So, if you believe sunscreens are causing choral bleaching, using a zinc oxide based sunscreen isn't going to help. No, sunscreens are not the main cause of choral bleaching. There is not even good evidence that they contribute to the problem at all. But banning cosmetic ingredients is a lot easier to do than better regulating CO2 emissions and agricultural runoff. And if we banned sunscreens, the choral reefs would continue to bleach. Are cosmetics killing animals? Concern about animals being used for testing in cosmetics first garnered a lot of attention in the 1970's. Some suggested this was spurred on by Peter Singer and the establishment of the animal rights movement. Since then numerous groups have attacked the cosmetic industry for doing unnecessary testing. This has led to significant government action and currently animal testing of cosmetics is "banned" in numerous places around the world, most notably the EU. So, there is a lot less animal testing being done in the...

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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 that you would start a project without a starting formula. Often what happens when a company hires a formulator is you get handed a list of in-house formulas and your job will be to make small changes to those. In reality, companies don't really want new formulas. They usually don't want to change formulas at all. Here's why. Modifying cosmetic formulas As I said, brands do not want to change formulas. This is especially true for products that are selling well. The idea is that if something is selling well, you don't want to change anything. Each change creates the potential that you will disturb current customers and they will start looking for other options. This is likely one reason why it took J&J Baby shampoo so long to remove a formaldehyde releasing preservative from their formula. Even a preservative change might make a negative consumer perceptible difference. Cosmetic formula changes But there are a few reasons why brands would change a formula. And these changes are often what you will be working on as a new chemist.

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Thickeners are considered an aesthetic modifier (as discussed more in this post about types of cosmetic ingredients). In a formula they are essential for creating a product that is appealing to your consumer. While function (ie moisturizing, cleansing) is paramount, how a product feels can be almost as important to the end user and set your product apart from the competition. Reasons for using thickeners: As the name suggests, thickeners (sometimes referred to as rheological additives) are used to build viscosity and deliver optimal product consistency to your consumer. They are also used to suspend additives in your formula And improve product stability Choosing a Cosmetic Thickener Here are the factors to consider when choosing a thickener. Formula type Packaging Viscosity and rheology Consumer use Manufacturing conditions Let’s dig into this list a little deeper... What type of formula are you making? While it’s fairly intuitive that thickeners build viscosity in water and oil based products, you may be surprised to learn that thickeners are also used in waxes and solid formulations. Thickeners can provide stability in emulsions and foams and suspend solid particulates. In other words, it may not always be obvious that you need a thickener or stabilizer so understanding the basic chemistry is important in creating a stable and consumer desirable product. Also, while a product may have optimal consistency in a small beaker in a lab, you could see different results as you scale-up your formula for full production. We’ll discuss this in more detail later in the post when we review the different types of thickeners and the products they are best suited for. How does packaging impact your product? Product packaging can actually have a big impact on viscosity. The act of pumping a product out of a bottle or squeezing it out of a tube can alter the rheology and negatively impact the consumer experience. It’s critical that you perform stability testing and consumer testing (if applicable) in the actual packaging that it will be sold in to make sure you’re not compromising product aesthetics. Why are viscosity and rheology important? These aren’t terms you use every day (I had to bust out some chemistry books here myself! ) but viscosity and rheology are both important terms to understand in your path to identifying the best thickener for your formula. While viscosity indicates the thickness of your formula (or resistance to flow), rheology speaks to the flowability of your formula - in other words, how viscosity is impacted by different conditions (like shear). Newtonian liquids like water and oils produce straight lines in both the flow and viscosity curves (viscosity and shear are proportional). However, cosmetic emulsions often exhibit non-Newtonian properties, meaning these materials exhibit different flow characteristics depending on shear rates. As mentioned previously, this is really important to take into account when scaling up formulas for production as shear rates are vastly different in beakers vs manufacturing drums. What’s the intended consumer use? When formulating, you want to ensure that your...

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In my recent post about cosmetic chemists and marketing I made some assertive claims about the effectiveness of Green Tea extract. Basically, I said it doesn't do much in a formula and is added just for the marketing story. And I went on to complain about scientific organizations propagating what qualify in my view as marketing stories. The science strikes back So, I tweeted my opinion and I received a response from one of my fellow beauty science communicators (Lab Muffin beauty science) directed my attention to some research published in the Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology. It was on Green Tea extract and how it can protect against UV damage. But that's not all, there's more! A search of Google Scholar for "green tea extract skin topical review" since 2018 showed a whopping 10,400 results. Of course, not all of the results are related to cosmetics (many are cancer research papers) but and high percentage likely are. So, it makes me wonder, am I too cynical or also, am I just wrong? Skepticism or Cynicism of an industry chemist To the question of cynicism, there is a fine line between cynicism and skepticism. I see the differences as follows... A cynic holds a belief that will not change no matter what evidence is provided. A skeptic holds a belief that gets updated when new evidence warrants updating. Cosmetic scientists should be skeptics not cynics. And they should be willing to say that a belief they previously held is wrong if new data that they become aware of shows they are wrong. However, the default position for any claim should be one of disbelief. Cosmetic science is complicated especially when you are looking at the way a compound or system affects people's skin. Coming up with generalizations is just really hard. But how do you get away from being a cynic? You try to keep up on all of the available research. Google Scholar, industry journals and magazines are all great places to do that. Of course, there is way more information published on too many topics that you can't possibly keep up with every subject. And there are significant problems with a lot of this research. Problems with research Truth imbalance. It takes almost no effort to make a claim about the effectiveness of an ingredient. It takes vastly more effort to expose flaws or debunk a claim. Poorly designed studies. In addition to poor design much of the research related to cosmetic ingredients is not relevant to real life conditions. What happens in a contrived lab setting is not the same as what happens to consumers using formulated cosmetic products. Exaggerating results. This happens a lot with supplier studies. They'll purposely pick easy targets to compare their raw material to so it will show impressive, statistically significant results. But is it something a consumer will notice or benefit from? Not usually. Publication bias. There's a publication bias in favor of publishing positive studies. Studies that are...

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We just recently started posting things on Instagram. (Be sure to follow us there if you like). And in going through Instagram seeing the sheer amount of BS out there is troubling. In the old days you could expect beauty brands to be peddling an exaggerate marketing story. You also expected it from raw material suppliers. We all knew to take what they said with a grain of salt. But it seems like something has changed. Now, social media is flooded with dubious information about the "science" of ingredients and beauty products. No longer is it just brands or people with a financial stake in getting you to believe what they are selling. Now, there are social media influences and bloggers who help spread this shaky science. Myths get propagated and a whole new generation of misinformants dominate the internet. And this wouldn't be so bad but what is most troubling is that new and old chemists alike are falling for marketing stories. Driven by marketing There is no doubt the cosmetic industry is driven by Marketing. In an industry where the technology hasn't changed much in decades, it's not surprising that marketing stories are all that's left to pass for innovation. Unfortunately, the marketing stories have infiltrated our industry beyond the messages going out to consumers. These days you see it in magazines, scientific journals, normally reliable online publications and of course, on social media. If you are not a suitably skeptical cosmetic chemist, you might get fooled by marketing too. Being better What prompted this post is a twitter or instagram post I saw by one of our SCC chapters. Who it is doesn't matter much but it was a post all about the great benefits of Green Tea extract. Now, I have nothing against green tea extracts. In fact, I like to drink green tea. But do we have to celebrate an ingredient that is literally only added to formulas as a cosmetic claims ingredient? All the benefits of features talked about in the post are just marketing fairy tales. This ingredient is not having a real impact on anyone who uses the formula. Is green tea a potent antioxidant? Maybe but you're not going to use it in place of BHT. Does green tea contain catechins, tannins, and caffeine? Sure, but so what? There's no benefit to having these things in your formula. Does green tea reduce sebum production? No. Not in any consumer noticeable way anyway. Does it sooth & reduce redness, alleviate puffiness and inflammation and protect skin from free radicals? No, no, no. Just because something can be shown in a petri dish in the lab doesn't mean that translates into a real life benefit for a cosmetic product. Green tea in your formula is not going to do anything. It's a pixie dust ingredient that supports the marketing story. That's it. Who will stand up for truth? Now, I don't really mind this kind of nonsense coming from marketers. This is what...

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At Chemists Corner, one of the most frequent questions we get is from people looking for the best cosmetic preservative to use for their formula. This is a complicated question and really depends on many factors. But, before we dive into what preservatives you should consider, let's step back and review why you need preservatives in the first place. There are two primary reasons you need preservatives: To stop microbes from spoiling your products. To stop microbes from causing disease. The microbes that can infect your formulas primarily include bacteria, mold, and yeast. In small quantities they don’t represent much of a problem but when they multiply, look out. Bacteria like Pseudomonas can cause health problems including skin and eye infections, toxic shock, strep throat, and even food poisoning. Yeast like Candida albicans can cause thrush. And many other bacteria can cause your products to smell bad, change color or otherwise break down (this is what cosmetic stability testing is for). What factors impact the preservative you should use? While product safety is the most factor to consider when identifying the best preservative system for your formula, there are other factors to take into account such as: Formula type Ingredients in the formula Cost tolerance Packaging Raw material quality Manufacturing conditions Consumer behavior / benefit Marketing position Regulations and retailer requirements Let’s dig into this list a little deeper... What type of formula are you making? Is the product meant to be left on the body? Some preservatives like Methylisothiazolinones are fine to use when the product is going to be rinsed off, but shouldn't be used on leave-on products due to sensitization issues. Other preservatives like parabens are best for products left on the skin because they don’t generally cause bad reactions. Is the product anhydrous or does it contain a large amount of water? For many anhydrous systems, you may not have to include a preservative. Microbes require some source of water to grow so they don’t usually grow in anhydrous systems. However, you may want to include preservatives even in anhydrous formulas because water can get in which could lead to problems of contamination. What type of ingredients are you using? The type of ingredients in your formula will be an important factor in what preservative will be the “best” for your formula. For example, parabens are not compatible with certain proteins. Organic acid preservatives are not compatible with cationic and some nonionic materials. Xanthan gum, Lecithin, cellulose gums, can inactivate certain preservatives. Kaolin, Titanium Dioxide and Silica can tie up preservatives and make them less effectives. Natural ingredients can contribute to microbial growth so you’ll need extra preservation than you might otherwise. What are your cost constraints? Since preservatives add cost to your formula this is another thing you have to consider when deciding what is the “best” preservative. If you’re looking for a functional, formaldehyde free, paraben free, natural preservative, that’s going to cost much more than a standard preservative. What type of packaging are...

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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 products are gaining traction as both brands and consumers are looking to reduce their “water footprint”. Positives of waterless beauty: Water-based formulas need preservative systems in order to inhibit bacterial growth. Waterless products can often be formulated without cosmetic preservatives or with more “natural” preservative systems. Less water also means reduced shipping weight, less packaging waste and less risk of packaging failures (ie spills and leaks). Negatives of waterless products: It’s important to note that while the finished product may be waterless, water was inevitably used in the lifecycle of the product. Farming and harvesting of ingredients, manufacturing, shipping and of course using the product (many waterless products still need to be rinsed or use water to activate) all require water. Verdict While waterless products aren’t truly waterless and are not a sustainability “cure-all”, they do provide tangible benefits. Also, unique formats help create differentiation in the extremely mature beauty and personal care market. As formulators, it’s important to be aware of beauty trends, particularly as both brands and consumers are looking to be more water-conscious. Here are some formats and ingredients to consider as you look to enter the world of waterless beauty. Powders This format can be used for oil absorbing products like dry shampoo as well as cleansing products. For oil absorption you’ll typically use talc or starch. Given that talc has fallen out of favor with consumers most dry shampoos or other oil absorbing formats use corn or rice starch. Cellulose is another common secondary ingredient. For cleansing products, you’ll want to use powdered anionic surfactants such as Sodium Lauroyl Sarcosinate. A good example is this Dermalogica Daily Microfoliant product. Solids/bars Of course, bar soaps are the original solid format but now solid shampoos, conditioners and moisturizers are flooding the market. Solid products also tout limited packaging which helps support their sustainability story. Solid/bar products usually contain a wax like carnauba (hard wax) or an emulsifying wax like Cetyl Phosphate depending on your product and how rigid you want the formula to be. Emollients like shea or cocoa butter are often used for moisturizing/conditioning and for cleansing products you’ll want to use a mild surfactant like Sodium Cocoyl Isethionate. For example, this Eco Friendly Solid Shampoo Oils Oils have long been used to nourish hair and skin but oils are also growing in popularity as a way to cleanse skin. Cleansing oils can remove makeup and impurities from skin (like attracts like) without drying skin due to the use of detergents. Certainly, there are limitless plant and botanical oils such as coconut oil, macadamia nut oil, grapeseed oil etc that can fit the bill here. Still, you’ll generally need to add other emollients and emollient esters to improve spreadability and product aesthetics. Caprylic/capric triglyceride and Isohexadecane are just a few examples. You can see something like that in this Biossance Squalane...

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The recent "scandals" related to sunscreen testing of brands like Purito, Krave and other sunscreen brands, made me think about cosmetic claims in general and how consumers (and chemists) should think about them. So in this post we'll look at what are claims, how are they substantiated and what do they mean. I hope it will illustrate why it isn't surprising that when a separate company investigated the Purito sunscreen claims themselves, they got different results. What are claims? Claims are any statement you make about your product. Everything from the description of what the product is, the amount in the bottle, the ingredients that are written about and any performance statements made are claims. If it is written on your bottle, in magazine ads, on TV, radio, or even a paid sponsorship on social media, they are all claims. And one of the overriding rules about claims (at least in the US) is that it is illegal to knowingly make false claims. Unless it's political advertising, then you can pretty much make any claim you like. Who knew cosmetic claims were more highly regulated than political ones? Incidentally, in our Practical Cosmetic Formulation course we go into much more detail about claims. Sunscreen claims In the case of sunscreens, there are lots of different claims made. Let's look at the Purito sunscreen for their claims. From the front of their bottle they have... And their main claims are "Unscented Sun" SPF50+ PA++++ +Essential Oil Free + Safe ingredients for all skin types + UV Shield + Brightening + Anti-wrinkle + Calming & Moisturizing + Not-sticky & No-white cast "Water-based sunscreen cream formulated with Centella extracts and mild ingredients... " "... to help reduce skin stresses... " "... which protects against UV rays and harmful environments... " "... without stickiness nor white residue left on the skin. " "It does not contain any essential oils and artificial fragrance. " How are claims substantiated? For most everyone, the most important claim on this bottle is SPF50+ PA++++ Since this is a Korean based sunscreen they aren't following the FDA rules for labeling but rather the rules in South Korea. SPF is for Sun Protection Factor. The PA is a claim made about protection against UVA rays. It simply means Protection Grade of UVA rays. This Japanese measurement ranking is based on the Persistent Pigment Darkening (PPD) reading at 2-4 hours of sun exposure. Protective grade of sunscreen is often labeled as PA+, PA++, PA+++. More pluses mean more protection from UVA rays. Testing Standard The test methods for SPF and PA calculations are based on two international standards for in-vivo evaluation: ISO-24442 and ISO-24444. These methods require you to apply 2 mg or 2 µL per cm2 of product on skin then irradiate it with UV from an artificial sunlight source. The minimum time until redness develops is evaluated to get the SPF value. While these test methods have been around a long time, they are not what I would call...

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This question was posted in our cosmetic forum. The answer took many more words than the forum would allow so I post it here. Hi. I'm looking for recommendations where to read about the basic difference between different type of hair conditioning agents (how they work, their structural differences) and how they suit for different hair types. Are CTAC or BTAC better for fine hair or are dimethylamines/methosulfates etc. better? I've tried to search from books and articles but haven't yet found any that answers my questions. My hair type (straight Asian) basically works with anything but my friend's fine, slightly curly is very tricky and I'd like to understand better the conditioning needs of different hair types. Hair Science The most comprehensive book about hair structure and chemistry was written by Robbins and called “Chemical and Physical Behavior of Human Hair. ” In this book you will learn about the structure of hair, its chemical composition, the physics involved in styling and the chemistry of how relaxers, bleach, shampoos, conditioners and color affect hair. They do cover the different types of conditioning agents however, they don't get into the details of which one works better than another. The main reason is likely that the book is primarily about hair and not about conditioners. However, another reason is because not everyone would agree on the definition of what “better” means. In fact, not everyone would even agree on the definition of hair types. I see the term “porous hair” thrown around a lot and the concept is not even mentioned in the Robbins' book. But let's start from the beginning. Types of hair conditioning ingredients In a book I co-edited called Conditioning Agents for Hair and Skin we have authors cover all the major types of conditioning agents. These include Lipids Humectants Emollients Proteins Silicones Quaternized surfactants Quaternized polymers Why are conditioners used? To understand how conditioning ingredients work, you have to first understand why are these ingredients used? What problems are they attempting to solve? Hair conditioners have a few functions but the main ones are... Making hair easier to comb Making hair feel better Protecting hair from future damage Making hair look better How do conditioning ingredients work? There are really only 2 ways in which conditioning ingredients work. One way is by creating a film on the hair fiber surface. This makes the hair feel smoother when touched, reflects light better, and allows a comb to slide passed more easily. The other way a conditioning ingredient might work is by penetrating the hair fiber. This helps make the fiber more flexible which can improve manageability and reduce the chance of the fiber breaking. Some ingredients have the additional effect of attracting water to themselves which can further improve the flexibility and feel of the hair. Conditioning ingredients like Lipids, Silicones, Cationic Surfactants, and Cationic Polymers are all about depositing a water resistant film. Humectants are more about penetrating and attracting water to the fiber. For a conditioning...

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In our post related to do cosmetics work we went through and explained how a cosmetic product can both work, and not work. Much of this comes down to the interpretation of what is meant by the notion of a product working. The brand means one thing while the consumer thinks they mean something else. What we didn't cover is the situation when both the cosmetic product marketer and the consumer have basically the same idea of what a product is supposed to do. I'll show you that even in those cases the answer of whether a cosmetic product works is not so simple. Why do people use cosmetic products? There are a few reasons people use beauty products and to understand if they work, you have to first know why a product is used. There are various reasons people use products including... 1. To solve a specific problem – such as an anti-acne product or a deodorant 2. To solve a general problem – for example they want to make hair look better 3. To prevent some problem in the future – like sunscreens or anti-aging products 4. To improve their mood – like a bubble bath or fragrance spritz Of course, reasons may overlap as in the case where someone styles their hair and that makes them also feel better. While I would argue ultimately people use cosmetics to improve their mood, we'll ignore that and focus on the other three reasons. That's because using a product may make you feel better even if it doesn't actually do anything. There is a lot of placebo effect in cosmetics. Solving cosmetic problems So the main challenge of creating a cosmetic product is to make formulas that solve problems. To be able to do that you need some way to measure the problem and a way to determine whether you've solved it or not. This is where things get complicated. Easy cosmetic problems Some problems are pretty straightforward and products can quickly solve them. Your hands feel dry, you use a skin lotion and voila, hands feel better. You smell bad, use a deodorant and you smell better. You don't like the color of you lips, put on lipstick, and it's changed. These are the easiest problems to solve and for which to make products. Pretty much all cosmetic products on the market work for these problems. That's because if a product didn't work, people wouldn't continue to buy it. These problems are also easy to measure. Whether a consumer likes how something looks, smells, or feels will be obvious to them. If they use your product you can just ask them if they liked how it worked. Now, they might not be a good judge of that, but most people know what they like and don't like. Harder cosmetic problems Making products that solve or prevent longer term problems is a bit harder. That's because whether a treatment solved the problem is not immediately evident. For example, when a...

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On my beauty science podcast we frequently get asked about whether this or that product works. And more often than not the answer is “maybe, but probably not. ” This has led some to conclude that I'm too cynical and that I don't believe anything “works. ” However, this is not quite an accurate assessment of my position. In fact, I do believe many cosmetic products work. I dare say, most cosmetic products work. But that doesn't mean products work in the ways that people think or because of specific cosmetic ingredients. It's important to clarify what it means for a product to “work. ” Beauty product claims There are a few ways that cosmetic companies let consumers learn what products are supposed to do. The main route is through claims which are simply images or statements made about a product. They can be anything that tells people what is in the product, what it can do, and also how to use the products. One of the main purposes of cosmetic claims is to help differentiate your products from your competitor's and convince consumers to buy. Now, the reality is that most cosmetic products on the market right now work well for their main function. While there may be some aesthetic differences like feel, fragrance and color, the actual function of the products can pretty much be the same. In theory, everyone can create products just as good as everyone else. The cosmetic industry is not technology driven. It is marketing story driven and one of the key elements of a good marketing story is the claims made about products. What do they claim? To answer the question of whether a product works, you have to first look at what do they claim. This is where it gets tricky. Beauty product makers are clever in the way the word their claims. They are done in such a way that they typically tell the truth however, consumers are left with the impression of something else. Delivering benefits Let's look at an example. Here's a commercial from Dove in which they claim their hair product is going to make hair stronger. https://www. youtube. com/watch? v=dtQuXWQjAkU They go through and explain that the product has keratin proteins in it that and that they get “deep down into the cellular level” to repair and protect hair keratin. Then they end with claiming to make hair up to 10 times stronger. Now, if you are a consumer watching this it's reasonable that you would get the impression that this Dove hair care product will make your hair 10 times stronger. It's also reasonable to get the idea that it is the keratin protein that is responsible for getting you this benefit. There are two things wrong with this impression. First, hair isn't going to be 10 times stronger and second, the keratin protein isn't responsible for the benefit you are getting. So you might be wondering how does Dove get away with making these statements....

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The other day a reporter contacted me about a story related to a new brand that was highlighting their clinical results right on the front of their packaging. The reporter was impressed with this bold move and wanted to hear what a cosmetic scientist thought of it. I'm always happy to talk to reporters because I want to help them get the story right. There are way too many "fake experts" quoted in the media leading to the publication of lots of nonsense. What gets used While we talked for nearly an hour here is what they used “When I look at numbers, I have to ask myself, ‘What does this mean to consumers? '” said Perry Romanowski, a cosmetic chemist and founder of the cosmetic chemist resource website Chemists Corner. “Are you going to notice it? Does that have an impact to you? ” Certainly that represented one of the things I said, but there was a lot that they didn't use. That's fine and what you should expect if you're ever getting quoted for stories. Truth in advertising But the entire slant of the story and the product launch made me think about beauty product testing, transparency and what is really true. Now, many people believe that the beauty industry is filled with lies. This is wrong, at least when it comes to advertising. In fact, in the US (and around the world) it is illegal to lie about your products. The way it's policed is both through the FTC, but also through the magazines, newspapers, radio and television stations that run the ads. They can be held accountable for broadcasting any lies so they make you prove what you say. Therefore, what you see advertised about beauty products is usually true, especially from large corporations. Little companies can get away with lying a bit more easily than big companies. Transparency in advertising This story reminds me of one of the latest trends in the cosmetic industry: Transparency. All the clean beauty products are falling over themselves to tell everyone just how transparent they are. The new company claims to be transparent by showing all their testing data. Another company is claiming transparency by showing their formulas on the front of their bottles. Other companies prove their transparency by showing all added ingredients, their supplier information, safety data sheets and more. Why it's a marketing gimmick Of course, the way I see it all this transparency is a marketing gimmick. Companies are providing more information than ever which has lead to a more misinformed consumer. Here's why more information and transparency may not actually be better for consumers. Information overload One trick that works on most everyone is to overload people with information. P&G, Unilever and all the other big companies have been participating in a website where you can go and look up every ingredient in their formulas. Really. They provide more information than they can fit on their package. But how many people really go and...

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There is a lot of misinformation posted about beauty products on the Internet. For consumers this is a big problem because it causes them to end up paying more for products and using things that don't work. It also gives them the false sense that they are behaving in a more ethical way than they actually are. For cosmetic chemists this represents a problem because they end up having to avoid perfectly safe ingredients and make products that cost more, are less sustainable, and don't work as well. Often this information is generated by people who frame it as Big Corporations are evil and Small Companies are good. Here are my thoughts on why this heuristic is mistaken. Myths about Big Beauty Companies Claim: Big cosmetic companies produce inferior products This common claim takes the form of disparaging name brand products that you can buy at Target or Walmart. In the business we call these "mass market" beauty products. They are called that because they are popular. Most everyone knows these brands and have tried the products. They are also relatively inexpensive which is why people come to believe they are inferior. Reality: But mass market beauty products are not inferior. The biggest cosmetic companies who make them like P&G, Unilever, L'Oreal, etc. also spend the most money on Research & Development. They pay the chemists who make the products the most money in the industry. They do the most testing. And they use the latest technologies. Overall, beauty products produced by large companies are the best performing products on the market. Claim: Big companies make cheap products This goes along with the first myth but the notion is that big companies water down their formulas with unnecessary fillers and cheap ingredients that don't work as well. That is how they can make them so cheaply. Reality: Companies can make products cheaply because they make a lot of them! When they buy chemicals they get what's know as "economies of scale. " That just means when P&G wants to buy a surfactant they can buy tanker truckloads which costs much less. And when a company owns multiple brands who use the same ingredient, they can buy more to save even more. Big companies do not use "filler" ingredients. There are no filler ingredients in cosmetics. Every ingredient in the formula is there for a reason. Claim: Big companies produce unsafe products This is perhaps one of the most mistaken claims I've seen about cosmetic products. It's easily shown to be false. In fact, the products produced by big corporations are among the most safe consumer products you can buy. There are a number of reasons why. Reality: First, corporations are compelled by governments to follow regulations. And in the cosmetic industry it is illegal to produce unsafe cosmetic products. This is true in the US, the EU, Japan, and in all the other cosmetic markets around the world. In some places companies will face government fines and in places like...

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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 lists was an extremely helpful exercise for developing your skills as a formulator. Typically, we had to buy the product or physically search store shelves if we wanted ingredient lists. Not any more! Today, there are lots of source for ingredient lists online. Here are some of my favorites. 10+ Sources for Beauty Product Ingredient Lists Mainstream products Target - Here's where you go to find the most comprehensive list of mainstream products. If it's put out by a big brand, you'll probably find it here. Walmart - They're the biggest in the world so they have a huge number of products listed. This is the first place to go for mainstream beauty products. Information is highly reliable. Walgreens - Another source for mainstream personal care and beauty products. Highly reliable information. Specialty brands Ulta - If you're looking for salon brands or products from department stores or spas, this is a good place to. Ingredient lists are highly reliable. Sephora - Another source like Ulta with salon brands and higher end specialty products. Another highly reliable source. Credo Beauty - If you're looking for indie beauty, natural products you can probably find it here. But this source is less reliable because some of the small companies don't follow proper labeling rules. Beautypedia - Lots of specialty brands here and a nice format for finding information. Information is reliable. Unique listings Incidecoder - This site has lots of listings including both mainstream and specialty products. One of the best things about this site is that it gives you the ability to search ingredient lists by a specific ingredient type. Unfortunately, some of the information they list about ingredient function is a bit dubious or exaggerated. Amazon - The biggest retailer on the Internet. You can likely find almost any product listed here. Unfortunately, not every product has the full ingredient listing. Also, the information is not always official and there are a lot of individual sellers who don't put accurate information. So, this source can be a bit hit or miss. Ebay - Like Amazon, there is are a lot of products listed here and things from around the world. But not all the products have ingredient lists although you can contact the seller and get some ingredient lists. I've found this useful for products from outside the US. Brand websites - Of course, a great place to find ingredient lists is the product website. Many beauty brands include their full product ingredient list. However, there are a number of brands that don't. Or they provide their "marketing" ingredient list which can be misleading. It may be helpful for consumers / marketing but not as helpful for formulators. Ingredient list errors While these sources are helpful and filled with information, you need to realize that often there are errors. The errors can come from data...

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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 the product? What would be the challenges in formulating such product? ” I thought it would be helpful to tell you the steps I take in evaluating a product. In summary, here are the 5 basic steps to follow when evaluating a cosmetic product Step 1 – Review the ingredient list Step 2 – Pick a benchmark Step 3 – Evaluate characteristics Step 4 – Evaluate performance Step 5 – Start prototyping Step 1 – Review the ingredient list Presumably if you are given the product it will have come in a container with proper labeling. And if they are following the proper rules to label a cosmetic, they will provide an ingredient list. In the business, we call it the LOI (list of ingredients). I've recently gone through and explained how to analyze an ingredient list so do that to figure out what are the most important ingredients and which are the “claims” ingredients added only to tell the marketing story. Of course, if you don't have a sample of the product you can also look up the ingredient list online. There are a variety of sources I have used to find ingredient lists. Going to the brand's website is where I would first check, but for the most popular mainstream products sites like Ulta, Sephora and Target are helpful. Also Amazon and eBay may have product ingredient listing (but not always). And doing a Google Image search can often lead to finding a picture of the ingredient list online. It is important to note that some companies don't follow the ingredient labeling rules and that some ingredient lists online are not accurate. There are also errors made when entering data which further reduces the accuracy. Step 2 – Pick a benchmark While the ingredient list is a good start, it's also helpful to find a benchmark so you have something to compare your product to. A benchmark is a product that exists in the marketplace and is popular with consumers. If you are looking at a product category in general then your benchmark would be the product that is the best seller. When I worked at Alberto Culver I had access to this information through a service we used called IRI. This gave sales data for products sold through mass market stores like Target and drug stores like CVS / Walgreens. It was pretty handy. Now, if I want to find such information it's a bit harder. But you can look on Amazon to find the “best sellers” which can still be useful. The whole point of finding a benchmark is using it to figure out what people who use the product expect in terms of performance. Step 3 – Evaluate characteristics You can get a pretty good sense of how a product will work by looking at the LOI and comparing it...

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It's easy to find people claiming on the Internet that natural cosmetics or natural skin care is better than synthetics. These claims are inherently believable because most people embrace the “appeal to nature” rhetorical trick. This is the idea that something is good because it's from nature while something not from nature (man made) is bad. This naturalistic fallacy is further supported by marketers of “All Natural” products, naive bloggers and a media who consistently produce stories about the dangers of toxic synthetics. It's not surprising to me that a large majority of consumers say they want natural or clean beauty products. But I think if consumers were better educated or at least not misinformed, they would have a different view. From my perspective, natural cosmetics aren't better. Here's why. Natural cosmetics have inferior performance To understand why natural cosmetics don't work as well as standard beauty products, you simply have to look at how beauty products have evolved over time. Cosmetics have been in society for at least 30,000 years, maybe even longer. People have used them as camouflage, to improve appearance and to make themselves more appealing to a potential mate. Since there weren't cosmetic chemists back then, people putting together these products relied on things available to them in nature. Fruit juices, plant oils, seeds, spices, natural pigments, or anything else they might smear on their bodies was tried. Things that were effective continued to be used. Things that didn't work, weren't. In this way, the performance of products steadily evolved to maximize the effectiveness of the ingredients they had available. Following this strategy of product development, formulators were always on the lookout for new ingredients that might lead to better products. But at some point they tried everything that could easily find. Products were optimized to the technology. Impact of synthetic chemistry It wasn't until modern synthetic chemistry was introduced that there could be significant improvements in product performance. Chemists came to understand why some natural ingredients worked better than others. This allowed them to create synthetic chemicals that could perform even better than any natural ingredient. Not only were there many more chemicals to choose from, they were able to pick only the ones that worked the best. Therefore, the performance of synthetic-based cosmetics has just evolved to be superior to natural based cosmetics. Synthetic ingredients just work better This doesn't mean that chemists have found replacements for all natural ingredients. There are still lots of natural ingredients like beeswax, lanolin, natural colorants that perform quite well. But following this evolution strategy of product performance, ingredients that work the best continue to get used, and ingredients that are inferior aren't. So, the main problem with natural cosmetic is that it is old technology that doesn't work as well as new, synthetic technology. Natural cosmetics represent a devolution of performance much like going from a car to a horse drawn carriage or from a light bulb to a candle. Yes, those old technologies can still work....

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Every year, many of the magazines and websites dedicated to the cosmetic industry publish their lists of cosmetic innovations or trends that will affect formulating. For example, the popular In-Cosmetics show gives awards each year for innovative ingredients of the year. While these companies mean well and certainly the awardees and nominees deserve to be recognized, the choices for "innovation of the year" demonstrate a significant problems in the cosmetic industry when it comes to innovation. Namely, there isn't much real innovation. What is innovation? Before pointing out the problems, it's worth mentioning what I consider constitutes "real" innovation. While there are lots of things that qualify as innovations, all of them should involve some type of improvement. Improvements can be found in ingredients that Deliver new or improved benefits to the consumer Reduce the cost of making the product Decrease the environmental harm caused by the product Reduce the time required to make the product Of course, there may be other innovations I'm missing but those are the main ones as far as formulators are concerned. However, as far as cosmetic consumers are concerned, only the first type of innovation will matter much to them. Sure cost might be important but to some but a product's price is not a big driving factor. Environmental concerns make for good marketing stories but they don't drive purchase in the way that product performance or cost does. Almost everyone will say they want products that are good for the environment, what they purchase tells a different story. In my view, "real" innovation is something that makes the products better for the consumer. With that definition in mind, let's see where the problems are with innovation in the cosmetic industry. Focus on ingredient source One problem hampering "real" innovations is the focus of ingredient sourcing. Raw material companies come out with new ingredients that are "green" or "natural. " The big selling point is supposed to be that the ingredients are good for the environment and more sustainable than petroleum derived ingredients. There is also the implied cosmetic fear mongering claim that natural ingredients are somehow better and safer for consumers. While it would be helpful to make ingredients that are more sustainable, this type of innovation has no immediate impact on consumers. There is a reason that synthetic ingredients were invented. That is primarily to improve on the shortcomings of the ingredients that were used before it. Invariably, these ingredients were plant or animal derived compounds. This push to find plant based ingredients to replace synthetics is often leading to ingredients that don't work nearly as well as the synthetic alternatives. A good example of this is the push for saponin surfactants. While they come from nature, they pale in performance when compared to Sodium Lauryl Sulfate. Innovation focused on raw material source may lead to some useful ingredients from the producers standpoint, but it doesn't provide any "real" benefit to the consumer. Ultimately, this will result in products that work only...

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I was having a discussion on a recently developed Discord channel about cosmetic science and people were lamenting the fact that there were not very many cosmetic science programs. While I agree there are fewer university programs dedicated to cosmetic science than to theoretical physics, there still are a number of cosmetic science programs around the world. But you might still be left wondering why there aren't more. Or why, as Timothy Caulfield points out in this Atlantic article, there isn't much good cosmetic science research being done. Challenges for Cosmetic science programs Here are a few reasons I think cosmetic science isn't more widely taught in universities or even that there isn't a lot of solid, scientific research being done. Lack of demand Subject is viewed as frivolous Most big discoveries have been made The subject is too complicated Demand for cosmetic science programs In the US there are ~5000 members of the Society of Cosmetic Chemists. Now, not every cosmetic chemist or researcher in the subject is going to be a member, but it's a pretty good approximation. Just compare that to the American Chemical Society which has over 155,000 members. Colleges and Universities cost a lot of money and students who go through these programs expect that they'll be able to use their degrees to do something once they are finished. While the topic of cosmetic science is interesting, there aren't an unlimited number of jobs available for everyone who graduates. Universities would rather churn out students with degrees in a more general subject like Chemistry or Biology than in Cosmetic Science. It just makes the students more employable. The subject is seen as frivolous Developing a program in a university typically requires a researcher to run it. And the amount of independent research being done on cosmetics is low. This is related to funding but it is also related to the notion that cosmetic science is seen as frivolous. As a researcher, even if you discovered something that seems important to you, does it really matter? You haven't cured a disease, saved a life, or done anything that others see as important. When a university has to decide between funding a program for drug development or cosmetic development, most of them will choose investigating new drugs over new cosmetics. While I don't think this is necessarily a good reason or that other “unimportant” topics get funding and university programs, it does make it less likely that a researcher or college is going to want to pursue the topic. Most discoveries have already been made I know this opinion may not age well as there could be some amazing future discovery that changes everything, but for now there really isn't much new to discover in cosmetic science. The biggest discoveries like surfactants, colorants, perfumes, moisturizers, etc. have already been found. Most of the work now is focused on incrementally improving those things. However, there haven't been many real breakthroughs in decades. The raw material suppliers and cosmetic...

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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 some things you'll be able to do include choosing the right ingredient for any effect you want knowing which ingredients work together and which don't duplicating or closely matching any cosmetic product on the market If this sounds interesting to you, read on to learn how you can go from being baffled by ingredient lists to a competent ingredient list detective. Preliminary stuff to know – Ingredient list rules Alright, the first thing you have to know if you're going to analyze ingredient lists is the rules companies are supposed to follow when putting them together. We've done a previous post on how to label cosmetic ingredients but the few basic rules you need to know is Ingredients must be listed by their proper INCI names. For more information see this post on cosmetic ingredient names. Ingredients must be listed in order of concentration if they are in the formula at higher than 1% concentration level Ingredients used at 1% or below can be listed in any order And there are some other rules followed by companies who sell products outside the US such as Known allergens are listed near the end Colorants are listed last Language appropriate to the country is used OTC Product labeling Also, in the US some products that seem like cosmetics may actually be over the counter drugs. Here is a list of cosmetics that are drugs. For these products you follow different labeling rules but the most important for our purposes includes Separately listing the approved active ingredients with concentration percentages & function Listing inactive ingredients in alphabetical order using INCI names Types of ingredients Knowing the rules of how ingredients are supposed to be listed is important but so is being able to identify the general types of ingredients in a formula. We have an entire course on Cosmetic Raw Materials which gets into all the details, so you should check that out if you're interested. However, you can start understanding ingredients by understanding that there are only three categories of cosmetic ingredients. See this post on the types of cosmetic ingredients, they include Functional ingredients – ones that make deliver the claimed product benefits Aesthetic Modifier ingredients – ones that make the functional ingredients more pleasant to use Claims ingredients – ones that are used to help marketers tell a story Of these raw materials, the functional and aesthetic modifiers are the most important for making the products work. Claims ingredients are likely the most important for selling a product. Ingredient analysis procedure With those preliminaries out of the way, let's move on to actually analyzing a cosmetic ingredient list. Here are the 7 easy steps. And if you are not looking to duplicate someone else's formula, you can just do the first 5 steps. Step 1 – Review the claims Step 2 – Identify the functional...

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There has been much written about the benefits of herbal and plant extracts in cosmetic products. You can find entire books like this one and this one dedicated to expounding on all the great things plant extracts will do when incorporated into a cosmetic formula. There are numerous magazine articles, volumes of supplier literature, and even entire conferences about botanicals in cosmetics. But you know what you don't see very often? The truth about formulating with natural extracts. You never get to hear the gritty reality behind herbal extracts, what they are, what they do in formulas and how the industry actually uses them in product development. That is what this article is meant to do. This article is also meant to be for cosmetic formulators who are serious about using science to drive the development of their cosmetic products. I'll leave the marketing stories for the raw material suppliers, finished goods manufacturers, DIYers, and internet self-taught formulators. What are botanical extracts? In essence, botanical ingredients those derived mainly from plants, although microbial and even animal derived materials get lumped in there too. Botanicals also go by different names such as herbal extracts, plant extracts, hydrosols, tinctures, distillates and they are derived from plants in different ways. An herbal extract of pretty much any plant you can imagine is available. They come from all parts of the plants including the leaves, stems, roots, flowers, fruits, etc. You can get them from a direct supplier like Carrubba or a distributor like MakingCosmetics. They are typically supplied as solutions of the extract in a solvent like propylene glycol which is one of the main reasons you find propylene glycol on the label. It’s a good cheap solvent for extracts. Other solvents include glycerin, ethanol and water. Hydrosols, essential oils & extracts There are a few different types of ingredients you can get from plants depending on the part and type of plant that you use. One way that natural ingredients are processed is through steam distillation. This is how you can get both essential oils and flower waters, also called hydrosols. In the distillation process, the plant material if put in a kettle and steam is run through it. Any material that is volatile will break away from the solid mass and be sent with the steam to the distillation tube. As the ingredients are cooled down through condensers surrounding the distillation tube, they become liquid again and are gathered in a separate kettle. The oil soluble materials will separate from the water soluble materials resulting in essential oils and hydrosols. Ineffective ingredients The hydrosols are primarily made up of water but will have some floral ingredients that are soluble in water. There is typically less than 5% plant matter in a hydrosol. It's worth mentioning that in general, hydrosols are not ingredients used in mainstream cosmetic formulating. They are more of an ingredient that a person who does formulating as a hobby or an indie brand might use. The reason is...

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Most scientists who end up in the cosmetic industry didn't plan it that way. While there are now college and university cosmetic science programs, the vast majority of cosmetic chemists are more like me and they just stumble into the industry. You can read how I became a cosmetic chemist. Unfortunately, when you study chemistry or science in college it does not prepare you for working in industry. Doing research in industry is not the same as doing research in college. There are a number of challenges that get in the way of the science and make getting to the truth of a subject much more difficult. Marketing driven The first thing you have to know about the cosmetic industry is that it is marketing driven. In some industries like electronics or pharmaceuticals, the Research and Development departments drive the development of new products. They have teams focused on basic research to make breakthroughs that will eventually lead to new products. If the scientists make some new discovery or develop some technological advance, it can get turned into a product and the marketing and sales groups get on with selling it. The cosmetic industry is not like this. Instead, the Marketing department essentially tells the R&D department what projects they will be working on. This is not necessarily bad, but it does make it more difficult to do basic research and make new discoveries. There is much more focus on "development" and less focus on "research. " For a scientist, this can be a bit distressing. Most scientists are curious sorts who want to investigate the world and discover what is true. Spending all your time adapting formulas to fit marketing requests can get a bit dull, although it can be fun too. Free time research We were actually given some "10% time" which was free time you were supposed to use to be innovative, do whatever research you want and come up with a cool new technology/product. This was a bit of a fake program though. The reality is that they kept you so busy with all your projects, you never had 10% time to work on anything. And even if you did come up with a new technology or product, the company wasn't really interested in it unless you could also prove that it was something consumers were asking for. This can be frustrating. Cosmetic Science While doing science in a marketing driven industry is hard, there are still times when you might manage to conduct experiments. Unfortunately, these experiments are usually more pseudo science than real science. You see, the goal of scientists in industry does not always coincide with the goal of science. While the goal of science is to determine the truth of any subject or question, the goal of an industry scientist is to support the marketing story that your company wants to tell. Evidence is collected in a way that supports beneficial business claims. Discoveries that don't support your claims are ignored and...

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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 within the molecule. The discovery of nitrogen is attributed to Daniel Rutherford who was the first to isolate the gas and demonstrated that it was an asphyxiant and did not support combustion. Azo is abbreviation for azote, the name proposed by French chemist Antoine Lavoisier for the element nitrogen. Azote derives from the Greek a (not) and zoe (to live). William Henry Perkin is credited with the discovery, albeit accidental, of the first synthetic organic dye called mauvine in 1856. The key to synthesis of mauvine was analine, an aromatic amine. In the 1800s, the burning of coal became an important source of heat and light in many European and American cities. Burning of coal leaves behind a viscous, brown liquid that was called coal tar because it resembled the pine tar. In failed experiments aimed at making quinine, Perkin created the bright purple dye from coal tar derived benzene. During a time when most fabric dyes were based on natural sources that were expensive to produce and highly variable in quality, Perkin patented the dye making process and promptly reigned from college in order to set up the business of manufacturing the dye. Many new dyes were synthesized from aniline, eventually leading to the development of azo dyes. Synthetic organic pigments are sometimes referred to as coal tar dyes today, but the term is outdated as modern cosmetic dyes are prepared from petroleum distillates. Azo pigments account for most of the red, orange, and yellow pigments used in cosmetics including Red 6 and 7 Lakes. A quick look at the FDA’s reports on total pounds certified reveals Red 6 and 7 lakes are the most widely used. This is due to their bold hues, excellent economic value, and good stability properties. They are the two main colorants used to create bright red lipsticks and nail polish with Red 6 being a yellow-shade red and Red 7 a blue-shade.

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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 actually any cosmetics that I would consider natural (there is no lipstick bush) some things are seen as more natural than others. Ingredients that are obtained from plants or chemically modified from plants or chemically identical to plant ingredients are considered by some people “natural. ” The problems with formulating natural However, there are some significant challenges to formulating natural. It was these problems that led to the creation of this new niche called Clean Beauty. Some of the problems are as follows. There aren't many natural ingredients First, when you commit to formulating natural you've significantly reduced your formulation options. The INCI dictionary lists about 22,000 different chemicals that can be used in cosmetics. Maybe 10% of those would be considered natural. Now, most natural standards groups and retailers solve that problem by just making exceptions and letting formulators use synthetic ingredients that seem natural so it expands the actual ingredient pallet. However, if you're being a natural purist there aren't many things you can use. The natural options don't work as well Another problem with natural formulating is that the ingredients you are restricted to are not the best functional ingredients. As an example, if you wanted a truly natural, from the planet cleansing surfactant, you're only real choice is a saponin from the berries of a soapnut tree. These are not nearly as effective as synthetic surfactants and they're hard to work with. And consider colorants. There are very few truly natural colorants that have been approved by the FDA. I saw a blog post where they went through and listed all these extracts and the different colors you can get from them. But you know what? In the US it is illegal to use most of them for the purpose of coloring your product. There are less options and they don't work as well. The supply is inconsistent And even if you find a natural ingredient that works great, you can't necessarily count on always being able to get that ingredient. I know in the recent past there was a significant problem with the yearly jojoba crop and getting jojoba oil was a challenge for many brands. If you are a smaller brand and there is a problem with any crop, you could be out of luck for getting a supply. Or you might get an ingredient that worked one way one year but the growing conditions made it such that you got an ingredient with the same name that didn't work the same way. Natural ingredients are harder to work with When you formulate natural your limited in what you can formulate with and it is particularly difficult in terms of preservation. Natural ingredients are more prone to contamination than synthetic ingredients. That's what happens when you leave something outside and exposed to the natural environment. And there are just...

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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 give my 2 cents. Today’s topic... Cruelty Free Cosmetics. I’ve seen a lot of articles about this topic and a quick look at Google trends shows that interest in cruelty free beauty products has rapidly increased in the last three years. Just the other day I read that Unilever has gone on a crusade to get animal testing banned around the world, Dove was credited with being cruelty free by PETA and California just passed a law called the Cruelty Free Cosmetics act that banned animal testing. I’ll save animal testing for another day but in this video I wanted to cover the claim “cruelty free”. What does it mean? What effect does it have on animals? And are cruelty free cosmetics, really cruelty free? According to Wikipedia the term cruelty-free refers to “products or activities that do not harm or kill animals anywhere in the world. ” Now, Wikipedia isn’t always the most accurate source of information but it does reflect the beliefs of many people so there is a large segment of the population that believes cruelty-free products are not harming animals. But is this true? Are cruelty free beauty products ones that do not harm or kill animals? No. This isn’t true at all. In fact, with the recent movement towards more plant derived ingredients, the production of cosmetic products may actually be becoming more cruel and harmful to animals. How’s that you ask? Well I’ll tell you. When beauty product companies use the claim “cruelty free” what they really mean is that their company has not done any animal testing. Essentially they rely on using only ingredients that were previously tested on animals by other companies and they use human volunteers for other testing. To cosmetic companies & the state of California cruelty free means not tested on animals. Well, non-human animals anyway. While it is true that companies claiming cruelty free don’t harm animals by testing on them, this isn’t the only place in the production of cosmetics where animals can be harmed and killed. Consider farming. Now, it’s complicated to figure out exactly how many animals are inadvertently killed during plowing, planting and harvesting but one study by Fischer and Lamey published in the Journal of Agricultural and Environmental Ethics estimates about 7. 3 billion wild animals are killed every year. And this doesn’t even include the insects that are both accidentally and purposely killed. Of course, this is a controversial number because no one has actually gone out and counted wild animal deaths. Critics will claim that most of the animals escape. But certainly everyone would agree that some animals are killed during this process of growing & harvesting crops. And this is my point... . Cosmetic products that use plant derived ingredients are not cruelty free. Indeed they are still responsible for killing and maiming a vast...

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A common claim I see about cosmetics and fragrances in particular is that there is a "fragrance loophole" that allows cosmetic companies to fill their formulas with toxic chemicals without listing them. The idea is that if something is part of a fragrance it is secret and can be listed on the label simply as "Fragrance" (or Parfum if you happen to be in a French speaking country). While this claim is technically true, it's misleading in a couple of different ways. Some fragrance ingredients are listed In the EU, there is a list of 26 ingredients in fragrances that are known allergens. It is a requirement that companies list out any of these ingredients on their labels if they are included in their products. So, the ingredients that represent the biggest risk to consumers are specifically listed out on ingredient labels. This is not a strict requirement in the US however, all the biggest cosmetic companies do this as a matter of course. Smaller US companies often ignore this step which is why I think people who are sensitive to fragrance ingredients should stick to purchasing products from large companies. There are safety limits on ingredients in fragrances The International Fragrance Association (IFRA) sets safety limits on ingredients used in fragrances. All the legitimate fragrance houses in the world adhere to the safety limits as published by IFRA. This is a legal requirement in the EU and it is something that companies follow in the US. Any product you use that has fragrance (especially if it is from a large company) uses ingredients that have been safety tested. All ingredients in fragrances While the fragrance loophole technically exists, some companies have still found it helpful from a marketing standpoint to let consumers see all the ingredients in their fragrances. You can see every ingredient in the fragrances used in products by Unilever and by P&G. Real reason for the loophole The reason the loophole was created in the 1970's was because fragrance houses didn't want their trade secrets to be shared with competitors. But a more important reason is because fragrances are made up of dozens or even hundreds of ingredients. If all the ingredients were listed on the container the ingredient lists would become too long and unhelpful to consumers. There is no nefarious conspiracy by cosmetic companies to expose consumers to dangerous chemicals through the fragrance. The main reason the fragrance loophole exists is because it's not practical to list all the ingredients for fragrance on the container and having that information won't help consumers anyway.

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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 on skin. The researchers looked at geranium and calendula essential oil for their potential as antioxidants and sunscreen ingredients. It turns out the authors discovered that Geranium essential oil had a SPF value of around 6 while the Calendula essential oil had an SPF of around 8. Interesting, right? Well, I guess but then the authors go ahead and claim that "The SPF of CEO was higher than GEO, and the results of SPF show that these essential oils can be employed in sunscreen formulations to protect the skin from sunburn. " This is where they lose me and also where I think cosmetic science research often goes wrong. Assuming that these oils indeed have the experimentally determined SPF values, this is far less effective than ingredients that have already been proven to protect against the sun! Why would a formulator use an inferior performing ingredient when they have perfectly good, validated ingredients to choose from? No, people should not use geranium and calendula essential oils as sunscreens. They should use Zinc Oxide and Titanium Dioxide and Avobenzone or any of the other 16 approved sunscreens by the FDA. Cosmetic Science Research And this demonstrates a big problem with cosmetic science research. Often, the research is being done by someone who is keen to prove some point. In this case, the authors wanted to demonstrate that a natural essential oil can be used as sunscreen. And maybe they proved it. However, the really important question of what should people use as sunscreen actives is ignored. Cosmetic science research too frequently answers the wrong question. We want to know what is the best technology to use, not whether some ingredient has a modest effect. When doing research on ingredients, the authors should find the best technology available and compare whatever they are investigating to the best available. The best sunscreen available is Zinc Oxide. Geranium and Calendula essential oil pales in comparison.

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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, interfering with other ingredients, being difficult to remove, providing no benefit and not being natural. Of course, these concerns are mostly wrong and if you are focused on making the best performing products that you can, silicones are often your best ingredient choice. In this post we'll look at silicones; what they are and why they are used in cosmetics. Other people have already explained why concerns about silicones are not supported by science. What are silicones? Silicones are compounds derived from the element Silicon which is the 14th on the periodic table of elements. It is located just below Carbon which means it will have some of the same chemical bonding characteristics of carbon. Like Carbon it has four positions in which it can form chemical bonds. Silanes are structurally similar to hydrocarbon alkanes and are a string of silicon atoms bonded (-Si-Si-) to each other and to hydrogens. These are much more reactive than organic alkanes and are rarely found naturally occurring. Instead of silanes, most of the silicones you find in cosmetics are based on (-Si-O-Si-) bonds. They are produced by converting quartz into silicon then further reacting with methyl chloride which produces a variety of chlorosilanes. These are reacted further with water to produce silanols (-Si-OH) which can then be converted into things like Dimethicone, Cyclomethicone and all the other familiar silicones in cosmetic products. Why are silicones used in cosmetics? There are a number of reasons silicones are used in cosmetic products. These include Spreadability - Silicones have a lower surface tension then both oils and water which means the more easily spread on surfaces than those types of compounds. Feel - The low surface tension also makes silicones feel more slippery and lighter on the skin. This means they improve the feel of skin products. For hair products they can also the fibers feel less rough and more smooth. Slip - Still another consequence of the low surface tension is that silicones are great for detangling hair and making it easier to comb. Shine - Many silicones are not water soluble so they can leave a film on whatever surface they are applied. This property is useful for making hair look more shiny. It can also provide a shiny effect on skin when incorporated into makeup. Barrier - When used at a high enough level, silicones can create a barrier on skin which can protect it from chemical exposure and other environmental insults. This can also provide a great deal of moisturization through an occlusive action on skin. Foam reduction - When you want to create a cleanser that doesn't produce a lot of foam, silicones are extremely useful. What are the types of silicones in cosmetics? The most basic silicones used in cosmetics include Cyclomethicone, Dimethicones, and Silanols (dimethiconol). Then there are derivatives of all these. Cyclomethicone -...

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It has never been easier than it is now to create your own cosmetics for personal use and for sale. The Internet has made it simple to get raw materials, find formulas, and even sell and distribute your products. It's so easy that many formulators and cosmetic brand owners start their businesses with little or no knowledge of the regulations that affect their efforts. In this post we'll cover the relevant agencies that regulate the cosmetic industry in the US and around the world. Cosmetic Regulation agencies Here's a quick list of the regulatory agencies that affect the cosmetic industry around the world. FDA - USA European Commission- EU Health Canada Ministry of Health - Japan Department of Health - Australia China FDA Cofepris - Mexico Department of Health and Family Welfare - India CTFA - South Africa ASEAN Cosmetic Directive - Southeast Asia nations ANMAT - Argentina INMETRO - Brazil North America Cosmetic Regulations FDA - USA One of the most common claims you'll hear about cosmetics is that they are not regulated in the United States. This is false. Cosmetics are very much regulated in the United States. In fact, the word Cosmetics is mentioned specifically in the regulations that govern it, the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic act. First passed in 1938, it created the government agency responsible for regulating cosmetics, the Food & Drug Administration (FDA). If you are a formulator in the cosmetic industry, you need to know the FDA rules regulating cosmetics and cosmetic ingredients. While the FDA only regulates cosmetics in the United States, it's rules also impact anything that is imported or sold into the US. The US is also effected by the efforts of individual states, particularly California which has passed regulations related to environmental emissions (CARB), carcinogens, and organic labeling. Health Canada If you are creating products for the Canadian cosmetic market then you'll have to follow the guidelines set up by Health Canada. They follow many of the same rules as the US but they also have adopted some of the rules of the EU. They are in the process of banning animal testing of cosmetics. Cofepris - Mexico Mexico's equivalent to the FDA is the Federal Commission for the Prevention of Sanitary Risks, COFEPRIS. In 2015 they updated their regulatory standards that apply to cosmetics, perfumes, and personal care products. The two standards that affect product labeling and allowed ingredients are NOM 159 and NOM 259. Europe European Commission The EU represents 28 countries which makes it pretty convenient if you are a formulator for multiple countries in Europe. In the EU, cosmetics are regulated by a document called the Cosmetics Directive 76/768/EEC. Their regulations tend to be a bit more detailed than in the US specifically governing ingredients that can and can't be used. They also have banned animal testing of cosmetics. South America There are a variety of countries in Central and South America. They primarily follow International regulations for cosmetics adopting some of the EU...

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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 go into a long explanation about how this is a complicated question, here's a quick answer. What preservative should I use? - short answer Use a paraben like Methylparaben or Propylparaben, a formaldehyde donor like DMDM Hydantoin or Imidazolidinyl Urea or both types. These have been safely used for years and are compatible with a large number of different formula types. If product safety is your number one concern, following this advice will work true in the vast majority of your formulations. How do decide what preservative to use - longer answer Of course, these days things are much more complicated than product safety. When trying to decide what is the best preservative to use that answer depends on numerous factors such as Formula type Ingredients in the formula Cost tolerance Packaging Raw material quality Manufacturing conditions Consumer behavior Marketing position Where product will be sold You can't really answer the question of what is the best preservative to use without more information. What are you allowed to use? Governments have regulations on the type and amount of preservative you can use. These limitations are different whether you're selling in the US, Canada, EU, Japan or other places around the world. And in the US, there are also states that have attempted to regulate the preservatives you're allowed to use. The first thing you have to know to figure out the best preservative is what is legally allowed. You do this by checking the cosmetic regulations that affect you. In addition to government regulations, the store where you want to sell your product may have limitations on what you're allowed to use. Whole Foods has a specific list of banned ingredients for cosmetic products and many of these are preservatives. Also, your brand marketing position or your consumers' biases may prevent you from using specific preservatives. When figuring out what the "best" preservative to use, figure out what you are allowed to use first. What type of formula are you making? The next factor in deciding what is the best preservative is identifying the product type. Is the product meant to be left on the body? Some preservatives are fine to use when the product is going to be rinsed off (e. g. Methylisothiazolinone . Other preservatives are better for products left on the skin because they don't cause allergic reactions. Is the product anhydrous or does it contain a large amount of water? For many anhydrous systems, you may not have to include a preservative. Microbes require some source of water to grow so they don't usually grow in anhydrous systems. However, I recommend including preservatives even in anhydrous formulas because water can get in the product during use which could lead to problems of contamination. What type of ingredients are you using? The type of ingredients in your formula will be an important...

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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 is the fact that from a technology standpoint, it's very difficult to stand out. If you have the right cosmetic formulator, any company can make a product just as good as any other cosmetic company. That's not to say all the products are the same, but from a consumer's standpoint, they can't tell much difference. Since it's hard to differentiate based on technology, product marketers try other ways to differentiate their products. This includes brand name, colors, packaging, and even product name. This post will focus on the product name. Specifically, "what do you call your product? " Types of formulas From a formulator's standpoint there are really only a limited number of types of cosmetic formulas. See that post for more details but the main ones you find in skin care include Solutions Creams Lotions Ointments Gels Powders Sticks This means that nearly every product on the market could be called one of these things. However, they aren't. That is because cosmetic marketers use the description of their products as a way to differentiate themselves on the marketplace. That's why terms like Lotion, Cream, Serum, Pomade, etc. don't have a single meaning. Often, the meaning of those words is whatever the marketer wants it to mean or whatever consumers expect it to mean. Definition of products But let me give you a rough guideline of what these terms mean. These won't always be true for all products, but they will be good enough for a cosmetic formulator. Cream - An opaque, thick product, typically white or light yellow in appearance unless some color is added. Thickness varies but they are almost always thick enough that the product won't move on its own once put on a surface. Most commonly used when making skin moisturizers. Lotion - An opaque, thin product, which is just like a cream but thinner. However, it can range in thickness from that of a runny liquid to an unmoving paste. Popular for hair conditioners, skin moisturizers, sunscreens, etc. Serum - These are thickened liquids that are often clear. They are delivered from a small pump bottle or even an eye dropper package. They are very similar to lotions and can even be opaque. They are used for applications for both skin care and hair care. Gel - These are thick, clear products. They have a different rheology than creams and often have thixotropic behavior which means they require a force on them to make them thin out. While they are most often clear, sometimes a gel will be translucent. Ointment - These products are generally anhydrous and are thick and opaque. They can feel like creams but are usually heavier and greasier. They also will usually have a darker yellow color. You find ointments for injuries or extremely dry skin. Balm - Balms are similar to ointments but are so...

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It's getting harder to be a cosmetic formulator these days. It used to be you could mix together any reasonable ingredients to get the performance you wanted and everyone was fine with it. Formulators didn't even have to list the ingredients on the products! But times have changed. Now, you need to not only achieve product performance, but you have to do it with ingredients that are acceptable to your marketers, government regulators, and discerning consumers. That means a lot of standard, reliable ingredients have to be avoided. We'll examine which ones in the rest of this post. Banned by regulators Before continuing it should be noted that there are some ingredients banned for use in cosmetics. The FDA bans these 10 ingredients (or classes of ingredients) while the EU lists over 1300. This is a misleading comparison because the EU regulations list ingredients that no formulator would use in the formulation. For example, Arsenic & Cyanide are banned by the EU but not by the FDA. Of course, just because an ingredient isn't banned by the FDA doesn't mean you can use it. The overreaching rule in both regulatory frameworks is that it is illegal to produce unsafe cosmetic products. Vilified Ingredients While regulatory agencies ban ingredients for proven health concerns, there are a number of sources that call for ingredient bans without supporting science. These include scaremongering NGO's, dubious natural marketers, biased retail outlets and misinformed bloggers. And despite the fact that an ingredient is perfectly safe to use, your company may ask you to avoid it due to its reputation. Here are some ingredients you may have to avoid in your formulating. Preservatives Pretty much all formulas need cosmetic preservatives, but lots of cosmetic marketers want to use the phrase "preservative free. " This puts formulators in a bind. Also, since preservatives are meant to kill cells it's not surprising high levels can have negative side effects. Some of the most effective and reliable preservatives including Parabens, Formaldehyde donors, and Methylisothiazolinones have developed such poor reputations that many formulators just avoid them. Even an ingredient like Phenoxyethanol is viewed negatively among some consumer groups. There are some alternatives. For example, some formulators have had success using organic acids and their salts Benzoic Acid, Sorbic Acid, Potassium Sorbate or Sodium Benzoate. Benzyl Alcohol and Iodopropynyl Butylcarbamate are other options. These aren't nearly as easy or effective to work with but they can work in some systems. Surfactants Surfactants are the most widely used functional ingredients in cosmetics so it's not surprising some of them have developed poor reputations. Unfortunately, this includes some of the most effective and versatile ingredients. Sulfates like Sodium Lauryl Sulfate and Sodium Laureth Sulfate are best avoided for some consumer groups. Also, you may want to stay away from diethanolamines like Lauramide DEA or Cocamide DEA. Finding surfactants that don't include the word "sulfate" or have an "-eth" in its name is one option for formulators. Betaines can be a good substitute for diethanolamines....

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One of the more frequent questions received here at Chemists Corner is about the expiration date of products. Formulators, and beauty product consumers alike, want to know how long a formula will last. Unfortunately, there is no simple answer but here are some guidelines to determining the expiration date of a cosmetic formula. What is expiring? Before we can talk about an expiration date, it makes sense to first define what is meant by "expiring. " When it comes to cosmetics, there are various things that indicate a product has expired. Continues to work - A good indication of whether a cosmetic has expired is if it continues to work. If a product stops providing the benefit for which you use it, then it is expired. If a shampoo doesn't clean your hair or a moisturizer doesn't sooth your skin, the product has expired. However, the way that most cosmetic products are formulated, it's pretty rare that a product stops working completely. Even a 10-years-old body was will still clean skin to some extent. Has acceptable aesthetics - Perhaps a more important indication of whether a product has expired is whether it continues to be aesthetically pleasing to use. Over time, there can be chemical reactions going on in your product which can result in color changes, odor changes, pH drift, viscosity changes, texture changes and more. While these products might technically continue to work, they aren't as pleasing to use as they were when you first bought them, so the manufacturer would consider them "expired. " Meets specifications - Since aesthetics is a subjective characteristic, it would be difficult to define an expiration date based on that. For this reason characteristics of products are quantified through testing and a specification (numerical range) is set. That way you can say a product has expired if it no longer meets the specifications originally set out. So, if the viscosity of a body wash had a specification range of 5000 cps - 8000 cps, the product can be considered expired if the viscosity range ever goes higher or lower than the specification. How do determine cosmetic expiration dates By defining an expiration point as the time when the product no longer meets specifications, you can then run a test to determine an approximate expiration date. The industry standard way of doing this is called stability testing. Stability testing - Stability testing involves an experiment in which you take samples of your product and put them at different environmental conditions for a set period of time. The conditions vary in temperature and light levels and are meant to simulate what happens to the product during its life cycle from shipping, to store shelves, to consumer's bathrooms. At select intervals you evaluate your samples for various physical, chemical and performance characteristics to see how they have changed. If the changes are minimal according to your company standards, then the product is still good. When characteristics of the product go outside of the specified ranges,...

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Learning the chemistry of cosmetics and how to formulate products is not actually the first step required in making a cosmetic product. The first thing you have to do is to create a concept. Once you've tested the concept and found something that appeals to your target consumer, then you can start making your formulas. Let's look at this process of creating a cosmetic product concept. The concept process The basic steps involved in creating a winning concept are as follows: Step 1 – Generate ideas Step 2 – Filter ideas and turn them into concepts Step 3 – Test concepts with consumers and refine Step 4 – Write a product information sheet We'll go through each of these steps to give you a sense of exactly how it is done. If you work for a company this will be the way that you eventually get projects to work on. If you are an entrepreneur and want to start your own product line this is the process you should follow to get your idea in a form that can be easily turned into a cosmetic product. Generating Ideas There are a number of ways of coming up with product ideas but you can give yourself a good chance of coming up with something novel by first, creating a lot of different ideas. Use brainstorming, mind-mapping or any of the other innovation techniques to come up with lots of different ideas. And while you do that, keep an eye on ways of making your products stand out. These include Solving big problems in hair or skin Creating novel forms of traditional products Using novel packaging Make products for Niche markets Creating a concept If you're reading this you probably have at some point had an idea for a new cosmetic product line. You may love the idea and are eager to turn that idea into a real product. Before you can turn that idea into a product, you'll have to see what your consumers think about it. To do this, you'll need to take that raw idea and write a description that can be tested with consumers. You'll need to create a concept. During the idea phase you will come up with a number of different ideas and you need some way to flesh them out and filter them down to the best ones with the highest chance of success. The standard method by which an idea is tested in the cosmetic industry is to do a concept test. A concept will differ from company to company but it is essentially a document that describes the idea in a simple manner that can be understood by a consumer. The exact format varies but it will typically include things like Product claims – explaining what the product does Product description – explains the features of the product Illustration – to help give the person an idea of what the product looks like Tag line – A phrase that is identified with the...

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When evaluating cosmetic products there are some terms you'll here in reference to specific types of testing. These include in vitro, in vivo, and ex vivo. If you have a background in science you may have learned these terms. However, if it's been awhile since you've been in school or you didn't have formal scientific training, you'll find these descriptions helpful. Also, I'll explain how they relate to testing cosmetic products.   In Vitro testing - This type of testing refers to conducting experiments on cultures of cells to determine the effect of an ingredient or formula. Essentially what you do is take a petri dish of cells (human or microbial), expose them to your composition, and take measurements on how it effects them. This is a way in which raw material suppliers can find exciting new technologies. It's also a way for companies to predict product stability and whether their products will negatively effect people by causing irritation or even cancer. In Vitro testing is typically the first type of tests that are run on any ingredient that will go into a cosmetic. In Vivo testing - This refers to experiments on humans or small animals to determine the effect of an ingredient or formula. Animal testing of cosmetics is a hugely controversial topic and it has been banned in various markets around the world. The amount of animal testing done on cosmetics has been largely reduced since the 1970's. But to find the effect of a material on the whole body there currently aren't effective replacements for all types of animal testing. The EU continues to track the work on animal testing alternatives and you can read the progress there. The more widely done in vivo testing of cosmetic products is directly on human volunteers. These are clinical tests for things like irritation, product effectiveness, and claims testing. This type of testing is only done after the product developers have eliminated ingredients that might possibly cause cancer or other serious human conditions. Ex Vivo testing - This is a cross between in vitro and in vivo testing. These types of test involve removing living tissue from a source or creating one then experimenting on how different treatments will affect it. This can work for testing on hair follicles or skin tissue. This type of testing is still being developed but it is hoped that one day it will replace all cosmetic animal testing. In Situ - This term refers to doing testing on a specific site and in terms of cosmetic testing, this means the skin, hair or nails. Essentially, it means putting probes on skin and hair and measuring things like moisturization, wrinkle depth, color changes, etc. It's similar to in vivo testing in that it is done on living tissue, but it doesn't require separating the tissue from the test subject. In Silico - An advanced type of testing that is still developing, this type of testing involves collecting data on skin, hair and other body systems...

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I've been a cosmetic chemist for over 25 years and have come to love the process of creating personal care and beauty products. It appeals to my interest in science, it lets me invent things, it leads to the creation of products that can be used every day, and those products make people happy. As far as careers in science goes, it is excellent. Many people find this website when searching for tips on how to make cosmetics. I'm happy to provide information and love encouraging and inspiring anyone who wants to learn cosmetic science. However, sometimes people spend time, money and energy learning how to make cosmetics when that's not really what they want to do. In fact, there are times when it makes sense to learn how to make cosmetics but there are also times when it is probably a waste of time. Let's look at those. When you should learn to make cosmetics Cosmetic chemist career - If you want to work in the cosmetic industry as a cosmetic chemist or other scientist, it makes a lot of sense to learn how cosmetics are made. There are a number of places you can learn formulating and here we've listed cosmetic science programs around the world. You don't necessarily need to get an advanced degree in cosmetic science but it will give you an advantage over other candidates that don't have one. But if you have a degree in chemistry or biology and want to start interviewing in the cosmetic industry, you'll benefit from going through an online course like our Practical Cosmetic Formulating course. It's a good introduction to the subject and is taught by someone who actually worked in the cosmetic industry. Working in the cosmetic industry - Not everyone who works in the cosmetic industry is looking to become a cosmetic formulator. Some people want to sell cosmetics or raw materials, or they want to work in the QA/QC departments. If you are in the cosmetic industry but are not a formulator, it still makes sense to learn how the products are made. This can help you in a number of ways. For example, if you are a salesperson for products or cosmetic raw materials, learning how the products are made will give you an excellent sense of the challenges your customers face. It will also give you ideas on where you can provide solutions. If you are in marketing learning how the products are made will let you know what types of claims you can make and the limits of what is technologically possible. If you are starting your own cosmetic line it can also be helpful to know how the products are made. This will allow you to pick the right suppliers and avoid getting taken advantage of by some industry suppliers. However, as we'll see later, learning to formulate will not be the most important thing for you if you're starting your own cosmetic line. Looking for an interesting hobby - Another...

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This is a guest post by Preeti Gupta. There are a number of cosmetic formulators, hair shampoo manufacturers, as well as manufacturers of hair dye and hair care products of various brands, would no doubt need to test their products on human hair. A rigorous scientific testing process like this can be a critical factor to the success of a product. It will help to reduce liability claims while also providing a much more robust scientific foundation for your product claims and quality. Testing on hair Conducting this type of tests requires a number of things. You’ll need to clearly articulate and summarize your product claims and benefits in different groups most of which may include improving hair strength, reducing hair fall or better still, improving hair color among others. You’ll be required to perform certain tests depending on your claims. Some of the required tests may include testing for frizz control which may include humidity resistance testing for maintaining and managing styles, hair internal structure exams, and tensile strength testing among others. Many products require extensive testing for conditioning, fiber alignment or repeated grooming for checking detangling benefits. Another area of testing is for dyes and this often requires measuring colour uptake and protection. The effect of these products is most suitably done on hair tresses. This could range from natural brunette colour hair tresses to hair tresses in grey or greyish white colours. It is usually difficult to find colour tresses uniform grey colours or those which have been completely cleaned, with no mix of dyed hair. The rigorous quality of product requirements may require hair to be further tested on fiber performance with treatment in situations like twisting, torsion on a repeated basis, and testing for static build-up and dissipation. A series of products in areas like split ends and much more will also require hair tresses from natural virgin hair to undergo a variety of test for the mending of split ends after application of products. Other variety of tests could include style retention, fiber alignment, testing for shine, the volume rate of drying, etc. This is a comprehensive but not an exhaustive list and each of these tests would require some necessary equipment. Type of hair needed for testing Tests like these require hair tresses for testing. Grey hair may be used to test for color or dyeing related tests. The challenge in grey or blonde hair is that you may end up with a dyed or bleached product whose consistency in test results is substantially compromised. You will also need a clear understanding of the country of origin of some of these tresses to better align your test to demographics. In summary, you need to know – The country of origin The consistency of hair tress – Coming from a single person Color requirements – Ensuring that hair is presented in its natural color and not in a bleached or treated form Length of hair – you may need to test your hair for...

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This may be useful for all the cosmetic formulators out there. 24 May 2018 - Its events are a trusted source of formulation know-how for thousands of R&D professionals around the world, and today the in-cosmetics Group has announced the launch of a new initiative. The all-new R&D Club will provide cosmetic chemists from the global beauty industry with yet another opportunity to network and learn. The Club is in-cosmetics’ first major step outside the events space since its inaugural exhibition 29 years ago. Providing a series of free online training modules and a digital platform to share best practice, it will help international cosmetic chemists enhance their formulation skills and contribute to scientific advancement. Free to join, members will gain exclusive access to leading experts, including Belinda Carli from the Institute of Personal Care Science; Barbara Olioso from The Green Chemist and Asian regulations luminary Dr. Alain Khaiat, via a closed LinkedIn Group. They will be joined by other industry leaders over the coming months, each of whom will encourage debate and solution finding, and help cosmetic chemists further their knowledge. R&D Club members will also receive discounted entry to in-cosmetics Global’s highly respected paid-for workshops and the group’s popular autumn Formulation Summit event in London. They will also gain fast-track entry and privileged access to Formulation Labs at in-cosmetics events around the world. Cathy Laporte, Senior Exhibition Director at the in-cosmetics Group, commented: “With the cosmetic industry being so fast-paced, it is important that the in-cosmetics brand evolves. The Club will provide a platform for R&D teams to have a trusted resource for all their questions and enjoy special benefits at our events to help them fulfil their role with maximum convenience. ” The in-cosmetics R&D Club is now accepting applications, but membership is exclusively granted to R&D staff working for cosmetic and contract manufacturers, as well as private labels. To find out more and to join, visit www. in-cosmetics. com/rdclub

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In this cosmetic formulation series we will go through the various cosmetic & personal care formula types and describe what they are, what raw materials are in them and how they are manufactured. Since this is a cosmetic science blog geared to introduce people to the topics of formulating, we thought it would be helpful to have a series introducing the absolute basics of formulating. And since I spent many years as a hair care formulator, the easiest to start off with is Shampoos. What is a shampoo Shampoos are cleaning formulations made up primarily of chemicals called surfactants that have the ability to surround oily materials on surfaces which allows them to be rinsed away by water. While there are numerous forms of shampoos the majority are slightly thickened solution formulas delivered from a plastic bottle. Often they are marketed towards different hair types or conditions. Shampoos are typically, a solution form of cosmetic product designed to clean hair and leave it in a more manageable state. Solutions are the simplest type of cosmetic formulation, and if you're just getting started in making cosmetics, these are the good one to start with because you mix the raw materials all together, they blend very nicely, you rarely have to worry about significant stability properties. Types of shampoos There are a limited number of shampoo types marketed, although they have lots of different names. In general, these shampoo include normal, extra body, moisturizing, baby, two-in-one and specialty shampoos. Almost all brands have a normal shampoo line. Now, they might call it a daily shampoo line or a regular, but it's the base formula that will appeal to the most number of consumers. Volumizing and Moisturizing Most shampoo brands also have an extra body product, although sometimes they’ll be called volumizing or thickening, and these are products designed to make you look like you have more volume in your hair. Next, are the moisturizing products. These are also known by names like conditioning, restorative, revitalizing, and they’ll address specific things like smoothing or shine. These products are designed to bring better conditioning to your hair and make the hair feel softer and behaved more manageably. Hair breakage is a big problem for many people, so companies have designed strengthening shampoo products. These products are very much like the moisturizing products and mostly they are just a different marketing spin. But there are some tests which show that hair systems, which include shampoo and conditioner, can help to prevent hair breakage, so companies sell them as strengthening products. Then there are the two-in-one shampoos. And two-in-one stands for shampoo plus conditioner. These are like moisturizing shampoos but with a lot more conditioning. They're much better moisturizing shampoos than even moisturizing shampoos. Essentially, they are designed to replace the shampoo plus conditioner, so you get the most conditioning from two-in-one shampoo. Shampoo for hair types There are shampoos designed specifically for people with curly hair. Curly haired people could probably use the moisturizing shampoos...

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Here is a list summary of all the cosmetic science programs and courses outlined below. If you want to become a cosmetic chemist or formulator, these are the best courses to take. Undergraduate programs The University of Toledo University of Canterbury (NZ) University of Sunderland (UK) Seneca College (Canada) Singapore Polytechnic De Montfort University (UK) London College of Fashion (UK) Monash University (Australia) Somalwar Academy Education Society (India) Graduate programs University of Cincinnati Fairleigh Dickenson — M. A. in Science (Cosmetic Science Concentration) Long Island University (US) -M. S. in Pharmaceutics University of Rhode Island (US) - M. S. in Pharmaceutics Rutgers (US) - MBS Personal Care Science program University of Greenwich (UK) London College of Arts (UK) EFCM Program (France) ISIPCA (France) Professional Online / Live Courses Society of Cosmetic Chemists Montclair State University (US) UCLA Extension course Practical Cosmetic Formulating Diploma in Cosmetic Science by Distance Learning (UK) Institute of Personal Care Science (Australia) Special4chem e-Training courses Center for Professional Advancement We frequently get asked her on Chemists Corner about cosmetic science programs that teachyou to become a cosmetic chemist in the cosmetic industry or even to just formulate your own products. So much so that we created our own, online training course that you can learn more about here. Practical Cosmetic Formulating. In recent years, the Internet has become inundated with courses that promise to teach you how to make cosmetics. It's difficult to tell which of these are worthwhile since many of these cosmetic science programs were created by people who no nothing about chemistry. They even promise “diplomas” despite the fact that these certificates mean nothing. If you are truly interested in making products like is done in the cosmetic industry or with getting a job as a cosmetic chemist, the following courses are legitimate programs recognized by people and companies in the cosmetic industry. These include programs ranging from four-year university degrees to one-hour online seminars. We've compiled a list of all the cosmetic science training programs we could find from around the world. Note: There is no official accrediting body in the cosmetic industry so if a program claims to be accredited, that is not necessarily recognized in the industry. Cosmetic Science Schools and Undergraduate Degrees The University of Toledo offers an undergraduate program in cosmetic science. You will learn from industry experts and get 2 years of formulation training in a lab. You'll also be required to complete an internship program. This program will also connect you with people and companies that are part of the US cosmetic industry. A good place to start for anyone who is just going to college and knows they want to be part of the cosmetic industry. University of Canterbury (NZ) - Bachelor of Product Design in Chemical Formulation Design. Combines science, process engineering, business and creative design. Hands-on chemistry and formulation science courses, including natural products processing and perfumery, cover cosmetics and personal care product formulation. Features group and individual creative design projects to make...

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When I’ve spoken at high school career days, the most often asked question (after how much do you make? ) is “How do you become a cosmetic chemist? ” Since you may soon be looking for a chemist career that uses your science background, you might be wondering the same thing. Before we get into the steps to becoming a cosmetic chemist, let's review what a cosmetic chemist is first. What is a cosmetic chemist The job of a cosmetic chemist, or as they call it in the UK a cosmetic scientist, requires you to do a wide variety of things both in and out of the lab. Your main responsibility will be that of a formulator. This means you mix raw materials together to create cosmetic products like lipstick, nail polish, skin lotions, shampoos, toothpaste and any other type of personal care product. You also have to come up with ideas for new products, test cosmetic prototypes, fix production problems, evaluate competitive products, and develop skills to better understand the difference between a good product and one that doesn't work as well. If you like using products, you'll have plenty of opportunities to do that. There is a whole lot more that cosmetic chemists do and for a more thorough list, you can see these 75 things a cosmetic chemist does. A cosmetic chemist can find a job with cosmetic manufacturers like some of the biggest cosmetic companies, raw material manufacturers, contract manufacturers, testing houses, or can even start your own formulating consulting business. It's a fun job with lots of opportunity to be creative and make products that people use every day. Here's the quick summary Get a science degree Get an advanced degree in cosmetic science Research companies in the industry Figure out what cosmetic science job you want Apply for jobs and interview Start with a temporary job in a lab Network with cosmetic chemists How to become a cosmetic chemist Alright, now that you know you want to be a cosmetic chemist and a little about what they do, here is a path you can follow to become a cosmetic chemist yourself. There are different paths, but the following has proven consistently effective. Steps to Becoming a Cosmetic Scientist 1. Get a science degree Some people attempt to learn formulating on the Internet, start their own company, then declare themselves a cosmetic chemist. This isn't how most people in the cosmetic industry become cosmetic chemists. Most people get a science degree from a college or university. The most common degrees that cosmetic scientists get are bachelors degrees in Chemistry, Chemical Engineering, Biology, or Microbiology. You also find a few Physics majors too. For most companies, the specific school you attend is less important than the degree you received however, in the United States, big companies tend to hire people from schools on the east coast. Recently, a few schools have developed undergraduate chemistry programs that focus on Cosmetic Science. In the US, this includes the...

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While having a good working knowledge of raw materials and formulations is important for being a great formulator, having a working knowledge of the cosmetic industry is just as important for your cosmetic chemist career. Today, we'll take a look at the companies in the cosmetic industry and who owns some of the biggest brands. Every year the trade magazines put together a list of the biggest cosmetic companies in the beauty industry. It's a pretty handy list and if you are just starting or have been working for a while in cosmetics, you should be familiar with these companies. At the very least, you'll know where there might be future employment opportunities. These companies hire lots of cosmetic chemists. You can see the complete list of the Top 20 Global Beauty Companies as compiled by Beauty Packaging magazine. Here is the quick list. They are ranked by yearly sales. After that I'll write a little about the main companies and how that can be useful for cosmetic formulators looking for jobs. Note that these are the biggest companies worldwide and it considers only the beauty portion of the business. Some of these companies are much larger than reported here, but that is because they also have significant business in other industries like household or food. Beauty Sales (US Billions) 1. L’Oréal $27. 2 billion 2. Unilever $21. 3 billion 3. Estée Lauder Cos. $11. 8 billion 4. P&G $11. 8 billion 5. Coty $7. 7 billion 6. Shiseido $7. 3 billion 7. Beiersdorf $5. 9 billion 8. Johnson & Johnson $5. 9 billion 9. AmorePacific $5. 6 billion 10. Kao $5. 3 billion 11. LVMH $5. 2 billion 12. L Brands $4. 6 billion (est. ) 13. Avon $4. 1 billion 14. Henkel $4 billion 15, Mary Kay $3. 5 billion 16. Colgate-Palmolive $3 billion 17. Chanel $2. 8 billion (est. ) 18. Natura $2. 4 billion 19. Revlon $2. 3 billion 20. Kose $2. 3 billion Before we talk about the specific companies let's discuss how this information will help you. Of course knowing the industry companies can be of trivial interest, it can also be quite useful to a cosmetic chemist in the following ways. Knowing the biggest companies in cosmetics First, it is useful in terms of competitive research. If you already have a job, it’s good to know which brands go with which company. This can help you compare formulas and determine what raw material blends they might be using. This could help you in your efforts to knock-off their formulas. You can also see where they are using the same basic formulas for different brands. A chemist who is more knowledgable about their competitors is more valuable to their company. Next, knowing the industry players can help stimulate new product ideas. You can get a good idea where these companies are putting their development efforts. This can spark ideas on what areas you might want to pursue or even avoid. Finally, you ultimately work...

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CloseMenu Download your FREE Report How to Launch Your own Beauty Product line Name: Email: We respect your email privacy Powered by AWeber email marketing   // Special handling for in-app browsers that don't always support new windows (function { function browserSupportsNewWindows(userAgent) { var rules = ; var pattern = new RegExp('(' + rules. join('|') + ')', 'ig'); return ! pattern. test(userAgent); } if (! browserSupportsNewWindows(navigator. userAgent || navigator. vendor || window. opera)) { document. getElementById('af-form-238107618'). parentElement. removeAttribute('target'); } }); If you have an idea to startup a cosmetic business you might be wondering how much it will cost you and whether it will be profitable. The original question posed to us was on a business forum and the questioner specifically wondered, how profitable a natural cosmetic business (skin care line) that was started in my kitchen. Many of you may be wondering the same, so here are some key things you need to know. When beginning a cosmetic business you first need to know a little bit about the cosmetic industry. Cosmetic Industry While you might think the cosmetic industry is limited to products like lipstick, nail polish, or eyeshadow, it is actually much bigger than just that. Color cosmetics represent only one part of the cosmetic industry. Other products like skin lotions, shampoos, body washes, and even toothpastes are considered cosmetics. In fact, almost any personal care product is considered a cosmetic. That means the cosmetic market is a great one to get into as nearly everyone on the planet uses some kind of personal care product. There is a ton of competition of course, but consumers are always looking to try something new and with the right dedication you can create a following of loyal consumers who will be the basis of your business for years to come. Cosmetic Regulations You may have seen on the Internet or elsewhere that the cosmetic industry in the US is not regulated, but this is just wrong. In fact, the cosmetic industry is regulated by the Food & Drug Administration (FDA). Before you even get started, it would be a good idea to check out the information published by the FDA specifically for startups and home based cosmetic businesses. This will help you when you get started and are figuring out your costs. Cosmetic start up costs While starting your own skincare line from home *can* be profitable, how quickly it becomes profitable is where it gets sticky. If you are a small shop starting out, it is unlikely that you are going to get your products into major retail stores or even mid sized local stores. Your best bet is to begin online where you can build some sales data and get some customers. You can then use this information to take to your local markets when you try to convince them to carry your product. The more places you can have your product on sale, the more likely you will be successful. To start any cosmetic business, or...

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Part 1: Stability of Certified Colors An important consideration in the color additive selection process is stability. Once the regulatory requirements for the market(s) where a cosmetic or toiletry product will be sold are satisfied, it must be determined that the colorants used will be stable when used in formulation. This is typically done via stability testing. Colors must not react with other chemicals in the formula and must be stable under the conditions to which they will be subjected to during the manufacturing process, including factors such as temperature, time, concentration and pH. Additionally color additives must be stable under the conditions to which they will be exposed to during storage, display, and use. These conditions include light humidity changes of temperature. In order to study the stability of color additives, they are divided into two general categories. These categories are the synthetic organic colorants, defined by the US FDA certifiable colors, and the FDA designated exempt colors. This post will cover certifiable colors and part two will address the exempt colors. Certifiable cosmetic colors The certifiable colors can be put into subcategories based on their chemistry. The colorants in each of these categories exhibit similar stability characteristics. These categories are as follows: Non-soluble Azo Colors – The most common colorant in this category is D&C Red No. 36. Double bonded nitrogen atoms form the azo linkage, which is one of the earliest, and still most important, means of producing colored compounds. These double bonded nitrogen atoms combining two aromatic structures set up a resonance in the molecule, which results in the perceived color. Azo colors, as color additives with this type of structure are called, are the most important class of synthetic organic colorants used in cosmetic and toiletry products. D&C Red No. 36 contains no water solubilizing groups, such as SO3 or COOH. At the same time, even though it is completely organic, it is not soluble in normal organic oils or hydrocarbons because of its structure and charges. Colors of this type are hydrophobic, bleed resistant to water and alkali and are quite lightfast. They do have a slight tendency to bleed in oil or organic solvents. Because of this, they should not be used in products that contain strong solvents like nail polish. One other caution with D&C Red No. 36 is its tendency to bleed slightly in the oils and waxes used in lipstick. This bleed causes it to crystallize and darken upon continued re-heating of the bulk. When used in a single heat bulk lipstick, it is not normally problematic. Soluble Azo Colors – A typical soluble azo color is D&C Red No. 33. Again, double bonded nitrogen atoms, connecting the aromatic rings, form the azo group. The two SO3 groups make this colorant water-soluble. All of the color additives in this group are water soluble dyes that are used to color toiletry products. They are precipitated as chemical lakes to form the pigments that are used in decorative cosmetics. The dyes are...

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One of the most common questions we get here on Chemists Corner is someone asking for help to find a cosmetic chemist. Unfortunately, the majority of people who have expertise in developing cosmetics work for companies so they typically can't help you out. However, there are a number of independent formulators or chemists who work for contract manufacturers who may be able to work with you. There are a few things you should know when trying to find a cosmetic chemist. Can you make the cosmetics yourself? Typically, people try to find a cosmetic chemist when they have a great idea for a cosmetic product. After doing a quick Google search and seeing all that is written about making cosmetics yourself, some get the idea that they don't need a cosmetic chemist and can make the products themselves. Depending on the type of product you want to make this is certainly an option. We even have an online course where you can learn cosmetic formulating if you're interested. However, the reality is that learning to make cosmetic products and developing an idea into a successful beauty brand are completely different skill sets. If your goal is to start a beauty product line or develop a great product that doesn't already exist, you don't need to make the product yourself. It is a much better idea to hire a chemist or a company to make the product for you. As we teach in our course on starting a cosmetic line, you need to focus on sales and marketing if you want to have a successful beauty brand. Do you really need a chemist? So, if starting a product line is what you really want to do then working with a chemist or a company is the best way to go. Then you'll have to decide whether you want to work with a chemist or with a company that can make the product for you. Let me explain the difference. Formulating Chemist - A formulating chemist or cosmetic consultant is an independent scientist who will come up with the formula for you. You discuss with them your idea, your budget, and everything else about the project and they create a formula to your specifications. The nice part is at the end of the process you typically will own the formula. Contract Manufacturer (CM) - There are companies that will work with you to develop the formula and make the product. Depending on the project, the lab work might even be free if you agree to make your production runs with the company. Private Labeler (PL) - Another type of company you can work with is a private labeler. The difference between a PL and a CM is that the private labeler will only allow minor customizations of the product. They offer you existing formulas which you can put into containers that have customized labels. The product will look like your own but the actual stuff in the bottle might not be unique...

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Simply put, cosmetic science is the area of study focused on the development of products designed to improve the look and feel of skin, hair, nails and other surfaces of the body. The subject of cosmetic science actually overlaps with a number of sciences including Chemistry, Physics and Biology but also includes softer topics like Marketing and Market Research. What are cosmetics When talking about cosmetics, it's helpful to understand what they are. Before I got into the cosmetic industry, I had assumed that cosmetics were color cosmetics such as lipstick, eyeshadow, blush and nail polish. These things are cosmetics but so are other things like shampoo, body wash, skin moisturizers, hair gel, etc. In fact, almost any product that you put on your body for the specific purpose of improving the appearance or feel is considered a cosmetic. See this video for a more expanded description of what are cosmetics. Chemistry Since all cosmetics are made up of chemicals (yes even so-called "natural" cosmetics are chemicals), the most important aspect of cosmetic science is chemistry. This is the study of chemicals and how they interact with each other. As a cosmetic scientist you need to first get to know the cosmetic raw materials available and what they do. You also need to learn how to put the raw materials together into a safe and effective formula. Raw materials The raw materials that are used in most cosmetics around the world are listed in the International Nomenclature of Cosmetic Ingredients Dictionary. The latest edition of the INCI Dictionary has over 22,000 entries so it takes some time to learn about everything you could include in your cosmetic formulas. In reality, those thousands of options can all be simplified and we've described how there are really only three types of cosmetic ingredients. These include functional, aesthetic and claims. Functional ingredients are the ones that provide the benefit of cosmetics. They include cleansers (surfactants), conditioning agents, colorants, fragrances, reactive ingredients, film formers, and drug actives. Every cosmetic you’ve ever used or made has at least one functional ingredient. Aesthetic ingredients are those that help make delivery of the functional ingredients more acceptable. These are ingredients like solvents, cosmetic thickeners, preservatives, fragrances, pH adjusters, plasticizers, fillers, appearance modifiers, anti-oxidants, anti-irritants, and delivery systems. Claims ingredients (sometimes called fairy dust) are ingredients added to a formula at a low level for the primary purpose of getting to put the ingredient name on the label. This includes ingredients like natural extracts, vitamins, proteins, biotechnology, and fanciful made-up ingredient names. You can learn more about what the raw materials are and their function in our cosmetic science course. Formulating While knowing the raw materials is important, it is equally important to know how to put the ingredients together in a formulation. There are a wide variety of formulation types including solutions, emulsions, gels, sticks, aerosols, powders and more. See this post on the types of cosmetic formulas for more information. Physics Depending on the type of...

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Formulating cosmetics can be a challenge. You've got to make a product that performs well enough for your consumers, is easy to make for your manufacturer, is inexpensive enough for your purchasing department, and contains story ingredients that make your marketing people happy. But formulating “natural” cosmetics is even tougher. Not only do you have to satisfy all the typical things as a standard formulator, you also have to do it with a much smaller pallet of possible ingredients. Some of the best-performing ingredients like petrolatum, mineral oil, surfactants, and paraben preservatives are off limits to natural formulators. It's a tough job. And it's even tougher than you think. That's because working with natural ingredients is much harder than working with synthetic ingredients. Let me explain why. What's in an ingredient To understand the problem of working with natural ingredients, you first have to understand what goes into creating a raw material. When you learn chemistry in college you typically focus on identifying individual molecules. You learn that water is H2O or salt is NaCl. In organic chemistry, you learn about more complicated molecules like Acetone or Benzene or 1,2-n,n-diethylmetatoluamide. This creates the erroneous impression that when you see the name of a substance that you know the chemical composition of that substance. The reality is that you don't. Here's why. More than just the ingredient Consider a simple example like Sodium Lauryl Sulfate (SLS). If you happen to know anything about naming ingredients you can work out that SLS has the following molecular structure. When you buy SLS from one of the many raw material suppliers it's reasonable to have the impression that the slightly yellow liquid is mostly made up of molecules of SLS. It's not. Typically, SLS is sold as an aqueous solution often around 30%. That means the liquid sample of SLS you hold in your hand is really 70% water molecules. But wait, it's more complicated than that. SLS is an attractive food source for some microorganisms so the detergent supplier can't just sell you a solution of SLS and water. To ensure the ingredient remains free of potentially dangerous microbes a preservative is added. Not much (maybe 0. 2%) but this adds more molecules to the ingredient you thought was just SLS. The exact preservative used varies but DMDM Hydantoin is common. So, that “simple” SLS sample really contains SLS, Water, and DMDM Hydantoin. But the complication doesn't end there. To really understand the composition of your SLS sample, you have to know how the raw material supplier creates the SLS in the first place. Chemical reaction complication SLS does not exist in nature. It can be obtained through different chemical reaction pathways but typically it would go something like this. According to Wikipedia, “SLS is synthesized by treating lauryl alcohol with sulfur trioxide gas, oleum, or chlorosulfuric acid to produce hydrogen lauryl sulfate. The resulting product is then neutralized through the addition of sodium hydroxide or sodium carbonate. ” In considering this chemical...

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When you study chemistry in college, they don't spend much time teaching you what to do with your degree after you get out. In reality, you learn basic chemistry and some advance concepts in the subject, but you don't learn practical information that you'll use on a day-to-day basis on a job. That's one of the reasons we created Chemists Corner. We do offer a more advanced course if you are interested in a formulating cosmetics course. But in this post, I'm going to give you a primer or a basic cosmetic chemistry course that will get you up to speed and bridge the gap between college and the cosmetic industry. Six Areas of Focus for Cosmetic Formulating There are really six main areas you need to know to have a good basic understanding of cosmetic chemistry. Setting up your cosmetic lab Choosing a target product to emulate Getting a starting formula Finding and identifying cosmetic raw materials Making prototypes Testing and refining those prototypes Setting up a cosmetic lab When you are hired as a cosmetic chemist out of college you typically start in a lab that is already equipped with all the things you’ll need to make cosmetic products. This is one of the big advantages of working for a sizable company right out of college. But if you’re hired on with a startup, small company, or consultant service you might not be as well-equipped. This is also true if you want to start your own cosmetic line or make products at a lab you set up at home. So, you may need to purchase equipment to get your lab set up to do the work of a cosmetic formulator. Here is the basic equipment you’ll need. Containers Weighing equipment Mixers Heating & Cooling equipment Lab supplies Testing equipment You can find more detail about this equipment in our series on setting up a cosmetic lab. Choosing a cosmetic product to emulate Whenever you start a new project it is a great idea that you find an existing formula that will serve as a benchmark for your formulation efforts. Typically, your marketing person will propose a benchmark for you but you should also have your own benchmark that you try to outperform. Here are some guidelines on picking a cosmetic product benchmark and using it to guide formulation. benchmarking What is benchmarking Before picking a benchmark it’s helpful to know what it is. A benchmark is an existing formula that has many of the same characteristics that you want in your future formulation. It doesn’t have to be exactly what you are trying to create, but it should give you a target for your formulation to meet or exceed. This is the product you want to emulate. Incidentally, if you're working with a cosmetic formulator, giving them a benchmark is the best way to ensure you get the formula made the way you want. Factors in picking a benchmark There are a number of things to consider when...

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Formulating cosmetics can be a lot like cooking. And just like when you are making lunch or dinner, some dishes and cosmetic formulas must be heated and others can be mixed at room temperature. Here are some reasons there is a difference. Room Temperature Formulating Ideally, you would be able to formulate all your products at room temperature (RT). There are a number of benefits such as Faster to make Requires less energy input Easier to make adjustments Less chance of ingredient breakdown Of course, there are some downsides like increasing the chance of contamination or getting inadequate blending, but lower temperature formulating is usually the ideal. Unfortunately, there are a number of ingredients that you can't add at lower temperatures plus there are formulations that just won't form at a lower temperature. Why heat cosmetic formulas Cosmetic formulations are heated for a few reasons: 1. Speeds up formulation: While formulating at RT can be quicker, this is not always the case. Some ingredients will more quickly dissolve in your solvent if they are heated up. For example, mixing salt crystals in cold water takes a lot longer for them to dissolve than in hot water. 2. Some ingredients need it: There are a number of ingredients used in cosmetic formulating that have a melting point that is higher than room temperature. In general, you want to mix things together that are in a liquid state. If you're using an ingredient like Cetyl Alcohol or Glyceryl Stearate, you'll have to heat your formula to above the melting point of these materials if you want to incorporate them into the formula. It doesn't matter how long you mix Cetyl alcohol in water, at RT it won't dissolve. 3. Make some formulas possible: While it's possible to mix the oil phase and water phase at RT, it's not likely that you'll be able to produce a stable emulsion using standard emulsifiers. In fact, some mixes of oil and water will not form any emulsion at a lower temperature. Heating your different phases, then blending them at a higher temperature helps make smaller particles that will then be more stable. 4. Makes it easier to fill: Typically, lower temperature batches tend to be thicker. This can be a challenge when you are trying to fill the formula into a bottle or finished product container. For this reason formulas are heated up to around 35C. This keeps the formula fluid and makes it much easier for filling. As it cools down in the package it will thicken up. Ingredients added as you cool down formula While there are a number of benefits to hot batching, there are some ingredients that you shouldn't add hot to your batches. This is because they can chemically change when heated. Ingredients like formaldehyde donor preservatives will convert to formaldehyde too quickly so they lose effectiveness. Some of the components of the fragrance will evaporate off so the product won't smell right. Some proteins or enzymes will chemically denature...

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Fats, oils, waxes and butters are natural materials that find use in improving the look and feel of skin and hair. They can provide shine, smoothness, supple feel, slip, and aid in combating the negative effects of low moisture. The number and type of these materials available to cosmetic formulators are numerous. An excellent book on the subject that goes through all the different types can be found in the book Oils of Nature. Different oil structures A thing I find interesting about these materials is that some of them like Coconut Oil and Babassu Oil are solids at room temperature while others like Olive Oil or Sunflower Seed Oil are liquids. The reason has to do with the molecular structure of the compounds that make up these materials. It is first important to understand that natural (and synthetic) oils, butters, waxes and fats are all mixtures of different molecules. There really is no such molecule as Coconut Oil. Rather, it is a blend of different fatty acids and triglycerides. The exact ratio of different compounds is what makes these materials have different properties and effects. Composition of fats and oils The materials we're talking about are all classified as Triglycerides. Triglycerides - These are compounds made up of relatively long sequences of Carbon, Hydrogen and Oxygen atoms. They are tri-esters of glycerin with three fatty acids attached. In plant derived ingredients these fatty acids have a number of carbons from at least 5 to more than 20. Triglycerides are typically studied in Organic chemistry courses. In fact, the term Organic chemistry refers to the study of compounds made up of Carbon. Fatty acids - These materials are also made up of carbon, hydrogen and oxygen. They are a string of connected carbon atoms, surrounded by hydrogen atoms, and capped off with two oxygens and a hydrogen to make a carboxylic acid. Some of these fatty acids are saturated which means they have the maximum number of Hydrogens and there are no double bonds between carbon atoms in the molecule. Some fatty acids are unsaturated which means there are some Carbon-Carbon double bonds. It is the presence or absence of these double bonds that is responsible for whether something is liquid or solid at room temperature. Solids and liquids The characteristic that makes these materials solid or liquid at room temperature is the ability for the molecules to pack close together and Van der Waals forces. Oils or fats made up of mostly saturated fatty acids are able to pack very close together and produce a regular structure. Think of it like stacking cards from a new deck of cards on top of each other. They make a nice even pile. This configurations gives rise to the materials being solid at higher temperatures. Coconut oil is made up of mostly saturated fatty acids, C12, C14, C16. It only has 7% unsaturated fatty acids. Babassu oil has 14% unsaturated fatty acids. For materials that are liquid at room temperature, they have...

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Somehow there developed this idea on the Internet that Vitamin E is a cosmetic preservative. It's not. Vitamin E is not a preservative! If you put vitamin E in your formula, you are not preserving it. You are not protecting the formula from the most dangerous microbes that might contaminate your product. It's not a preservative. It doesn't protect you or your customers. It just doesn't. Antioxidant Vitamin E is an antioxidant so if you are using oils in your formula, it might slow down the tendency for those ingredients to go rancid. It is commonly used in food for this reason because it "preserves taste. " However, people do not eat cosmetics so vitamin E will have no preservative benefit in your cosmetic formula. Cosmetic Preservatives Cosmetic preservatives are put in formulas for the specific reason to prevent the growth of disease causing microbes in your formulas. Here is a list of the microbes that could be growing in your cosmetics. Any formula that contains water and other materials like oils or proteins or anything else, needs a preservative. To make safe products you need to add ingredients that will prevent microbial growth. You need to add preservatives. Vitamin E is NOT a preservative. Anhydrous preservation Another misconception I often hear is that you do not need to add a preservative to an anhydrous product. The idea is that if there is no water for the microbe to grow, you don't need a preservative to stop growth. While it is true that microbes can't grow in a completely anhydrous system, it's not true that you don't need to add a preservative to these formulas. In fact, you SHOULD add a preservative to anhydrous formulas. Preventing microbial growth in your formula is the primary reason you add a preservative. And if your product sat on the shelf and was never touched by human hands, you wouldn't need a preservative. But most cosmetics are used. They are touched by human hands. They get contaminated. They pick up moisture. Over time even an anhydrous cosmetic product can pick up microbial growth. For this reason, you should also include a preservative in your anhydrous formulas. Phenoxyethanol or propylparaben are good options. Health scares as preservatives There's another misconception about cosmetic preservatives that they are somehow dangerous to your health. They aren't. Cosmetic preservatives have been thoroughly tested for safety and have been confirmed as safe for use in cosmetics by independent science groups. Do you think parabens are a problem? They aren't. They are safe. That is the conclusion of the independent group of toxicologists from the SCCS. As a formulator, you should not be afraid to use paraben preservatives. But other preservatives have also been found to be safe. Formaldehyde donors for example. They are safe for use up to 0. 2% which is more than is typically used for preserving cosmetics. When a website claims that "preservatives are very unhealthy" they are misrepresenting the facts. Preservatives as they are used in...

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Getting a degree in chemistry is highly satisfying and emotionally rewarding. The classes you take like Physical Chemistry, Organic Chemistry, and Advanced Inorganic Chemistry are tough, especially compared to the courses that Business majors or Communication majors are taking. But alas, getting through tough classes does not always translate to making the most money when you get out of school. In fact, compared to Business majors most Chemistry majors make significantly less money when they first start out. And if you're not careful, you can coast into a good career that ultimately doesn't make nearly as much money as some of your non-scientist friends. To help combat that feeling of not being compensated enough, it's a good idea to consider all the different ways that chemists can make money once they get out of school. Since the focus of this website is cosmetic chemistry or formulating, I write this with that in mind. However, much of the advice here would apply to any type of chemist. Get a job The first option is probably the most obvious, get a job. We have some tips on starting a cosmetic science career here. Basically, you have to find companies you want to work for, network with people in the industry and take any lab job you can find. QA/QC job are probably the easiest ones for new graduates to get. Here are some sources for finding cosmetic industry science jobs. Advance in your career Once you've started working in the cosmetic industry, you'll want to do the appropriate things to advance in your career. Perhaps the most important thing you can do is to impress your boss. It is rare that anyone will have more power over your career than your boss. And if you don't get along with your boss, you're going to have a difficult time advancing in your career at your company. If you do happen to not get along with your boss, I suggest you find another place to work. Very few careers can flourish with a boss who strives to keep you down. Write articles One of the biggest problems with a job is that you are limited to the amount of money you make by your salary. If your company has a bad year, you might not even get a raise. For this reason it's a good idea to develop skills where you can make money on the side. I started my "side hustle" by doing freelance writing for encyclopedias. This wasn't a lot of extra money but it was enough that it gave me confidence if my job disappeared I'd have another source of income. In the cosmetic industry, you can always pitch article ideas to trade journals like Cosmetics and Toiletries, GCI or Happi. They don't pay much but it is a little money and it will also help build your reputation in the industry. Make money online Another way you can make money is to pick one of the variety of ways to...

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Here’s a study which shows that you may not have to spend a lot of money on expensive facial creams to make yourself look younger. Instead, you may be able to exercise the wrinkles off your face. Researchers at Northwestern University published a study in JAMA Dermatology reporting that middle aged women were able to improve their youthful appearance simply by doing facial exercises. How the study worked Twenty seven women aged 40 - 65 were first trained in how to do facial exercises. The exercises were developed by a yoga instructor. The women then did these exercises at home. There were 32 distinct facial exercises that were performed 1 minute each. For the first eight weeks they did them 30 minutes daily. For the next twelve weeks they did them every other day. This was a small study and only 16 of the participants did all the exercises the whole length of the study. The results - The average age of the group of women as judged by dermatologists went from 50. 8 years at the start of the study to 48. 1 years at the end. The participants also reported being happier and highly satisfied with the results. What does this mean for formulators? The reality is that even if this works, this is never going to replace skin creams. Thirty minutes a day requires a huge amount of dedication. Most people can’t generally exercise thirty minutes a day. I can’t imagine many would be able to exercise just their facial muscles that often. The other thing is that these exercises don’t have an impact on the surface appearance of skin. While they might have an impact on the shape of the face and the droopiness of the skin, it’s not going to impact skin dryness, redness, or features like that. Skin moisturizers are here to stay. But this might make a good marketing angle for those sport beauty product brands. Someone should put together a booklet or a youtube video series. It sounds like this work would be perfect for that.

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According to a story in Happi the cosmetic retailer Claire’s has had to recall a number of its cosmetic products because they are thought to be contaminated with asbestos. It seems that a worker at a law firm that specializes in asbestos litigation sent a sample of her child’s makeup kit to be tested. They found asbestos. Subsequent testing by Claire’s using an independent lab, found there wasn’t any asbestos. Asbestos dangers Before commenting further it would be helpful to understand what is asbestos and why would in be found in a cosmetic. Asbestos is a group of naturally occurring minerals linked to various human diseases (who still thinks natural is more safe? ) It has been useful for insulation, fire protection and heat resistance and was used since ancient times. Its use would have continued except in the early 20th century people discovered that asbestos scarred lung tissue. Later in the 20th century various cancers related to asbestos exposure were discovered. Its use was heavily restricted in the 1970’s and was ultimately banned from use in the EU in 2005. The way asbestos might end up in a cosmetic is as a contaminant in talc. Talc is a natural mineral too used as a filler or pigment extender in powdered cosmetics. While there are no proven safety issues with talc, in nature, sources of talc can be found with asbestos mixed in. Since the 1970’s the use of talc contaminated with asbestos has been banned in the US. Asbestos in cosmetics So, asbestos contaminated talc has been banned from cosmetics and it shouldn’t be found in any makeup products from Claire’s or anyone else. But a law firm says they found asbestos in this company’s cosmetics. Who do we believe? The law firm who found asbestos in a sample or the cosmetic company who found none? I’m more inclined to believe the company for a few reasons. 1. Terrible for business: There are so many options for buying makeup that any company who uses asbestos in their products would quickly be out of business. There are law firms who specifically search for situations which would allow them to sue companies. This would not be something you could get away with for long. And if it was found to be true, no consumer would buy your cosmetics again. It’s a terrible business idea. 2. Talc specifications: If you look at the specifications from any talc supplier to the cosmetic industry, there is a specific test done to detect the presence of asbestos in the product. Unless the company is playing fast and loose with their ingredient specifications, asbestos should not end up in the product. 3. No benefit: There really is no benefit to the company to use talc that might contain asbestos. Maybe the contaminated version of the talc might cost a few pennies per pound less but the cost savings they would get could not make much difference at all to the company. And the downside of doing...

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When you learn chemistry in school, they teach you the molecular structure of materials and the chemical and physical characteristics of the compound. It's easy to get the impression that the world is filled with these discrete materials that behave in predictable ways. That's why I found it strange when I started in the cosmetic industry that many cosmetic ingredients which share the same name, were actually not chemically identical. And it's this lack of being identical that is the reason you can't simply switch one supply of a material out for another without doing appropriate testing. But why are materials with the same name different? There are a few reasons. Composite materials The majority of raw materials used in making cosmetic formulas are not pure ingredients. They are often mixtures of a number of ingredients. For example, Glyceryl Stearate is a common cosmetic emulsifier. You might think when you purchase glyceryl stearate from a raw materials supplier you are getting a molecule that looks like this. But the reality is that when you buy glyceryl stearate, the composition of what you are buying is usually only just "mostly" glyceryl stearate. The ingredient is usually composed of a number of different materials including Glycerin, Glyceryl Distearate, & Glyceryl Tristearate. There might also be Stearic Acid, Palmitic Acid, and a wide range of other fatty acid esters that aren't glyceryl stearate. This is because the raw material supplier does not have 100% control over the chemical reactions that create Glyceryl Stearate. The chemical reaction can lead to various final compounds and can also leave unreacted starting materials. That's why there are specifications. Specification differences A company like Oleochemicals offers at least four different types of ingredients that all have the name Glyceryl Stearate. But they differ in how much glyceryl stearate and other ingredients are present. Their Imwitor 491 is 90% glyceryl stearate while their Imwitor 900 contains between 40 - 55% glyceryl stearate. Both of them have the INCI name Glyceryl Stearate. When you compare the Glyceryl Stearate between companies you'll find that they also have different specifications which can lead to a different composition of the ingredient you're buying. This is why it is so important for your company to have its own internal specification for every raw material that you buy. Synthesis method Another thing that makes ingredients that otherwise have the same name different is the way in which they are produced. Chemical suppliers may have different methods by which they synthesize whatever raw material you are making. These different chemical synthesis pathways may lead to the same primary ingredient, but could have vastly different residual ingredients. For example, consider an ingredient like Sodium Lauryl Sulfate. This useful detergent is synthesized by reacting lauryl alcohol with sulfur trioxide gas, oleum (sulfur trioxide solution), or chlorosulfuric acid. This produces hydrogen lauryl sulfate which is then neutralized with something like sodium hydroxide or sodium carbonate to produce Sodium Lauryl Sulfate. As you can imagine, whether you use sodium carbonate,...

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The leading personal care ingredients event reveals a focus on R&D at its Global event in The Netherlands from 17-19 April 2018 The ever-evolving personal care industry changes radically from one year to the next. With 2017 witnessing the rise of color cosmetics, facial masks and ramped up haircare products, what can we expect to hit the market in 2018? Fortunately for cosmetic manufacturers, in-cosmetics Global will return in April, putting the spotlight on all the latest trends. According to Mintel, the four big trends will be: biotechnology, in response to environment stressors on skin and hair; definitions of beauty; brands with personality; and customization driven by digital technology. R&D professionals the world over will gather at RAI Amsterdam from 17-19 April next year to benefit from in-cosmetics Global’s unmissable one-stop-shop of networking, knowledge transfer and technical tips for the next formulations. Attendance at the event will guarantee visitors are first in line to learn about innovations, upcoming trends and start-up companies. Around 95% of exhibitors are international and will be on hand with their latest ingredients. They will be complemented by an exciting educational program, featuring prominent speakers from across the globe and an unmatched array of interactive areas on the show floor. Show highlights For the first time, in-cosmetics will introduce a series of R&D Tours, building on the show’s focus on education and inspiration. Two topics will be covered – Biotechnology Actives and the Future in Anti-Ageing – with R&D professionals invited to join an exclusive tour that will highlight the most unique, innovative ingredients on display. Also new to the 2018 show will be a Pre-Show Regulatory Conference, held in association with Conusbat, which will provide a wealth of valuable information to manufacturers. The Formulation Lab®, (sponsored by Brentag) will be one of the most popular interactive areas, where R&D professionals will learn from highly skilled experts through a series of bookable hands-on demonstrations. Providing delegates with the latest guidance on how to overcome common formulation challenges and learn the secrets to creating winning formulations, these sessions are not to be missed. Event organizer Reed Exhibitions has announced its exciting Formulation Challenge will run at the Global event for the very first time. Sponsored by Croda, on 19 April, a select few leading cosmetic manufacturers will battle it out to create the most innovative and impressive formulation from a box of mystery raw materials in just 90 minutes. A panel of market specialists will judge their work and, following a nail-biting wait, the winner will be revealed. Six other reasons to visit in-cosmetics Global in Amsterdam: Browse the popular Make-Up Bar for the latest product innovations and the opportunity to touch and test the ingredients on display. Experience the Sensory Bar’s unusual textures and sensations first-hand, including hybrid textures, jellies, butters and powders. Visit the event’s Innovation Zone – a launchpad for more than 100 state-of-the-art ingredients (sponsored by Ashland). Stop by Sustainability Corner, which will showcase a selection of initiatives and insightful presentations as the...

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When I participate in discussions about cosmetic ingredients, I'm usually disappointed in the quality of arguments people put forth in support of their positions. It is especially disappointing when I know the person genuinely believes their position and wants to make a difference. While it may seem that I'm stubborn and unswayed by arguments, the opposite is true. It's EASY to convince me. And it should be easy to convince any rational, science-driven person. You just need to make a scientific argument. Here are some tips. Clearly & specifically state your position If you want to convince someone, make your argument easy to understand. If people are confused by what you are saying they won't easily accept it. Also, make your argument specific. Specific things are provable. General statements are much more difficult. For example, your argument shouldn't be "cosmetics are causing cancer. " It has to be more specific. What type of cosmetic? What type of cancer? Any position is fine to take. However, to be convincing you need to go the next step and find supporting evidence. Find good supporting evidence Finding evidence to support your beliefs is not hard. Since anyone can write anything about anything on the Internet, a quick Google search will likely turn up a blog post (or many) that support exactly what you want to say. Unfortunately, this is not "good" evidence. Finding good evidence to support a position is difficult. Here is what counts as good evidence: ++ Peer reviewed studies published in journals ++ Review papers that examine multiple peer reviewed studies Less good, but still reasonable + Position papers by organizations in the field of interest + Consensus opinion of experts in the field +/- Opinions from experts in the field Practically worthless - Personal experiments (might be useful for yourself, not useful for a general claim) - Anecdotal evidence - Emotional appeals - Social media evidence - Pictures - Evidence from people who financially benefit from a position being true - Opinions from non-experts on the topic - Opinions from belief-motivated groups - Logical fallacies Find evidence why your position is wrong Most people are so focused on proving themselves right they ignore anything that might prove them wrong. This is a huge mistake. Your objective should not be proving yourself right. The objective should be to discover what is true. Truth is more important than being right. Don't fall in love with your own ideas. Always keep an open mind and adjust your thinking based on new evidence. Seeking out disconfirming evidence can only strengthen your argument. If what you believe is true, then you'll be prepared to refute any argument against you. This will make you much more convincing. And if you find something that makes you doubt your position, at least you know you need to change your position. You should ALWAYS be able to answer the question, what evidence would convince me that my position is mistaken? If there is nothing that will change your...

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Have you ever wondered why companies sell sulfate free products? If there is some safety issue with sulfates, why do companies continue to sell those products? Why would L'Oreal sell a sulfate free shampoo and also a sulfate containing shampoo? It all comes down to marketing... mostly. Interest in sulfate free A while back I was interviewed by a reporter at Teen Vogue about sulfate free products. It's a good article and for the most part, my views on sulfate free products were properly portrayed. There was a fair amount of fear mongering from some of the other experts they quoted, but that's not unexpected. Some "experts" are not always knowledgable or motivated to get the science right. The article did make me think about sulfate free and how and why it came about. As far as I can remember, companies started making sulfate-free claims back in the late 1990's. It began with salon brands, but steadily more mainstream brands like L'Oreal started getting into the act. 5 Reasons for Sulfate Free Formulas In my view, there are really 5 reasons that companies sell sulfate-free shampoos. Only one of these has to do with concern for the consumer. None of these have anything to do with product performance. Irritation There is no doubt about it, for almost everyone sulfates can be irritating to skin and scalp. In fact, when we do chemical irritation tests the positive irritation control is a solution of Sodium Lauryl Sulfate. This is because when held on the skin for a long period of time it will cause skin irritation and inflammation in almost anyone's skin. Of course, shampoos and body washes are meant to be put on your hair or skin then quickly rinsed off so irritation is not typically a problem. But some people have more sensitive skin than others, so for them avoiding sulfates may be a good idea. For most other people, this isn't a real problem. Incidentally, most things that can clean your hair will irritate the skin if you leave it on long enough. Even sulfate-free surfactants like Lauryl Decyl Glucoside will be irritating if left on skin. Differentiation The main reason companies sell sulfate free products is because they want to have a way to differentiate themselves from all the other products on the market. If you look at the top 10 selling shampoos (in mass market store like Target & Walmart) all of them are sulfate formulas. Therefore, if you are a smaller salon brand, one way you can make yourself stand out those big guys is to base your formula on sulfate-free formulas. That gives you some reason to tell your clients to buy your shampoo over their's. The sulfate free shampoos work well enough, but they are more expensive and don't work quite as well as sulfate containing products. Fear Marketing Now, you might convince some people to buy your shampoo over someone else's because it doesn't have sulfates, but most savvy consumers will ask "Why"?...

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Here's the next article in our series about starting a cosmetic lab. Here is the basic equipment you'll need. Containers Weighing equipment Mixers Heating & Cooling equipment Lab supplies Testing equipment See the link above for more information about starting a cosmetic lab. In this post we will cover the topic of lab supplies. What lab supplies you need Once you have your containers, mixers, weighing stuff, and temperature control equipment, there are still a few more things to get for completing your cosmetic lab setup. While this isn't an exhaustive list, here are some things that I've found helpful. Raw materials / water Paper towels Aluminum foil / plastic wrap Electronics - calculator / computer Lab notebook Lab wear Let's look at these a little more in-depth. Raw Materials Obviously, you can't have a cosmetic lab without having the right raw materials on hand to make your prototypes. The exact type of raw materials you'll need will depend on the type of products that you will primarily be making. If you make hair care products you'll need surfactants suitable for making cleansing products. If you make skin care products you'll need emulsifiers and moisturizing ingredients. See the post we've previously written about cosmetic raw materials for more details. No matter what type of products you'll be primarily making there are some raw materials that make sense for everyone to have on hand. These include... Water - There are a few different types of water used in cosmetics. Be sure to stock your lab with deionized or distilled water. You should also have access to tap water for cleaning your lab equipment. Colors - Most cosmetics are colored so having a supply of FD&C dyes makes sense. These are expensive but you don't use them in large quantities for most products (except color cosmetics). See this post about colors in cosmetics. I've found creating dye solutions to be a great way to measure colors into batches at the right levels. Surfactants - SLS or SLES are useful. If you formulate more "naturally" then you'll want to have Alkylpolygulcosides on hand. Humectants - Propylene glycol and glycerin are widely used Oils - Mineral oil is useful but so are oils like Coconut oil, soybean oil, or olive oil. Adjustment agents - These are used to adjust the batches you are making. So, you'll need things like acids (citric acid, lactic acid, hydrocholoric acid), bases (sodium hydroxide, potassium hydroxide, TEA), sodium chloride, and chelating agents (Sodium EDTA). Preservatives - You'll need these for almost every product you make Fragrances - It's good to have different options on hand Cosmetic thickeners - It's useful to have a way to thicken any prototype you are making As I said, the exact type and amount of raw materials you have on hand will depend on the type of prototypes you're making. But most cosmetic labs will need a stock of each of the type of ingredients listed above. Paper towels When you are making batches...

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I frequently get requests here on Chemists Corner from people who want to start their own organic skin care line or their own natural cosmetics line. Sometimes they want to know how to make it themselves and other times they are looking for a chemist that can help them. If you have such ambitions, I wish you good luck and will provide you any information you need to help you along your journey. But before you launch your own natural or organic personal care or cosmetic line, here are some things you need to know. Natural cosmetics are not safer One of the most common reasons people give for wanting to start an organic cosmetic line is that they want to make products that are "chemical free" and natural. Many believe that these products are safer than standard cosmetics. This is just not true. In the US and around the world, it is illegal to sell unsafe cosmetic products. While you might have read otherwise on the Internet, this is what the FDA has to say about cosmetics. "... cosmetics must not be adulterated or misbranded. This means that they must be safe for consumers when used according to the labeling, or as people customarily use them, and they must be properly labeled. Any cosmetic you buy at the store is safe whether it is natural or not. Big corporations who make most of the mass market products conduct extensive safety testing on products. Another thing you need to understand is that whether something is synthetic or natural is no indication of whether it is safe or not. Safety depends on two factors, the ingredient and the amount of the ingredient. It does not depend on the origin (synthetic or natural) of the ingredient. This means there are both unsafe and safe use of synthetic ingredients and safe and unsafe use of natural ingredients. Plus, the amount of exposure matters as well. The bottom line is that the natural or organic products you produce will not be safer than the synthetic products produced by competitors. Natural products will not work better (or as well) Another reason I hear people want to launch natural cosmetic lines is because they believe that natural products work better than synthetic cosmetics. Well, this isn't true. In fact, the opposite is usually true. To formulate a "natural" or "organic" cosmetic product you have to limit yourself to a certain set of ingredients. These are the raw materials that are acceptable to whatever definition of natural that you happen to be following. This necessarily means that you will not be able to use the most effective ingredients to deliver benefits to your consumers. Cosmetic chemists who make standard formulas are focused on making the best-performing products that they can make. They can use any natural ingredient that a natural formulator uses, but they can also use synthetic ingredients that can improve the functionality of the product. A standard formulating cosmetic chemist can use all the best...

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Natural cosmetic and beauty products are in vogue these days and cosmetic marketers around the world are looking to launch their own version that appeals to green-seeking consumers. However, making natural cosmetics is fraught with difficulties stemming from the fact that beauty products do not exist in nature. The biggest challenges in making natural cosmetics include defining what is natural, making products that are suitably functional, and preservation. We'll review each of these in detail and suggest how to deal with them. Defining Natural Before we can review natural cosmetics it is helpful to first discuss what is meant by the term “natural. ” Since there is no Shampoo bush or Skin Lotion tree by some measures there are NO natural cosmetics. However, it is acceptable to define natural cosmetics following specific standards. For this discussion we’ll use a three level classification system of natural cosmetics. These include True natural – Ingredients are isolated from a plant, chemically purified, but otherwise unchanged Acceptable natural – Ingredients conforms to some acceptable natural standard which allows some chemical modification Greenwashing natural – Ingredients are naturally derived but requires significant chemical synthesis to produce. Also, it is not normally used so looks more natural on the label. Of these, the vast majority of natural products on the market would be considered greenwashed. Making functional products The biggest challenge of making natural cosmetics is that consumers have an expectation of how well products are supposed to work. While consumers might say they want green or natural products, they really want products that work. When formulating natural cosmetics it becomes difficult because natural or naturally derived ingredients do not work as well as some of the synthetic ingredients. This is especially true for surfactants, colorants and preservatives. Surfactants Cosmetic surfactants are the most versatile and important ingredients in cosmetic formulations. Unfortunately, there are not many surfactants that naturally occur so trying to make natural formulas with surfactants is a real challenge. True natural – There aren’t many natural surfactants that are adequate for use as a cleansing surfactant. The only one that comes close are Saponins. These are glycoside compounds which have the ability to form foam when put in a water solution. They are found in plants like Yucca (Yucca schidigera), Soapwort (Saponaria officinalis), Soapbark (Quillaia saponaria) and Soapnut (Sapindus spp). The majority of commercial saponins are derived from Quillaja bark or soapnut and obtained through water and alcohol extraction. Unfortunately, formulators who have reported using saponins for cleansing products have been disappointed. Acceptable natural – If you are formulating to the USDA natural organic standards there are no natural surfactants you can use. Some companies like Nourish Organic use a chemical trick where they create a surfactant in-situ by including natural ingredients that chemically react to make a soap. In the formula linked the Coconut Oil will saponify with the Potassium Hydroxide. But liquid soaps like these are harsh on skin and most consumers don’t like how they feel. If you are following...

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Here's the next article in our series about starting a cosmetic lab. Here is the basic equipment you'll need. Containers Weighing equipment Mixers Heating & Cooling equipment Lab supplies Testing equipment We have already covered the first three topics. In this post we will cover the topic of Heating and Cooling equipment. Why you need lab heating / cooling equipment There are a few reasons why you need a way to control the temperature of your prototypes. These include... Melting water-insoluble solid ingredients Creating emulsions Reducing air entrapment Reducing viscosity Speeding up production Since many cosmetic ingredients are solids that aren't soluble in water and most finished products are liquids or creams, when formulating you need a way to melt them. This is particularly true when creating emulsions. Creams & liquids are typically emulsions and these need to be heated above the melting point of some of their ingredients, then mixed at a high temperature to ensure you get a small particles size when finished. It takes energy to make an emulsion. From a production standpoint there are good reasons to have lab heating and cooling abilities. If you don't have the proper mixing equipment it is likely that you'll trap air in your batch. When you make products at a higher temperature the air is less likely to get trapped. Also, if you are producing a product that is very thick often heating will reduce the viscosity making it easier to incorporate other ingredients. Finally, your production people like batches to be a little warmer than room temperature because this makes it easier to pump and fill the bulk formula. Lab Temperature Control Systems To set up a proper cosmetic lab you'll need a way to easily heat and cool your batch. The best option for heating your batches is a hot plate. The best option for cooling your batches is a water bath. Additionally, you'll need a thermometer to be able to measure the temperature inside your batch. Cosmetic lab hotplates Hotplates have a number of features that are variable such as their top temperature, the heating surface, and temperature controls. For a cosmetic lab it is useful to have A ceramic coated plate for chemical resistance which is also easy to clean A temperature range of at least 200C. Since most formulas don't require you to go higher than 100C, this is more than adequate. Stirring capacity of at least 3L. Depending on the size of your batches you may need a larger hot plate than this. Temperature control - so you can modify the speed at which your batch heats. Lightweight - Since you will often be moving your hot plate it is useful to be lightweight One options suggested by one of the chemists in our forum is the Scilogex MS-H280. I personally don't like to heat beakers or other containers directly on the heating plate. For this reason I like to use a metal bowl filled with water. That way you ensure that the...

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Two leading US cosmetic trade associations have been confirmed as partners for this year’s in-cosmetics North America exhibition. The Independent Cosmetic Manufacturers and Distributors Association (ICMAD) and The Personal Care Products Council (PCPC) are backing the region’s newest cosmetic ingredients event, highlighting its importance and value to the country’s booming personal care market. Both partnerships will primarily focus on promotion of the event – which takes place from 11-12 October 2017– to their respective membership databases. The associations will highlight how in just two days, in-cosmetics North America will help professionals in the personal care industry develop and build their businesses thanks to its unique sourcing, educational and networking opportunities. Following a successful launch in 2016, this year’s event has been extended to further meet the requirements of the US cosmetics market. A new venue – The Javits Center in New York City – accommodates the expanded exhibition floor, offering space for visitors to meet with more innovative ingredient and service suppliers than before, while an increased educational programme focused on latest consumer trends, science and regulations will enable cosmetic manufacturers to update their industry knowledge. ICMAD and PCPC members will also benefit from an extended experiential features program which includes the addition of a number of new show areas. Alongside the highly popular hands-on Formulation Lab sessions, the Formulation Challenge and Innovation Zone showcase of last year, visitors will benefit from brand new Make-Up and Sensory Bars. The Make-Up Bar will highlight the latest innovations in colour cosmetics, enabling marketers to quickly identify ingredients that can lead to a stand-out product, while the Sensory Bar will showcase products that provide a truly unique sensorial experience. Plus, brand-new Marketing Trails will help marketers navigate the science behind the world’s newest ingredients. Pamela J. Busiek, ICMAD President and CEO, commented: “We are delighted to be collaborating with in-cosmetics North America once again. ICMAD’s more than 700 members represent the lifeblood of our industry; hardworking small businesses and entrepreneurs. This event strikes a perfect balance between business and knowledge, both of which are extremely important to our members as they work to create the next cosmetic innovation. I know our members will leave the event feeling inspired, informed and ready to shape the future of the cosmetics industry. ” Mark Pollak, Senior Executive Vice President at the PCPC, added: “in-cosmetics North America is becoming an extremely important event for the US cosmetics industry. At the Personal Care Products Council, we represent over 600 companies who manufacture distribute and supply the vast majority of personal care products marketed in the region. This event provides our members with the perfect opportunity to meet with companies that can help them ensure quality, safety and innovation when it comes to developing products in the future, and we are very proud of the partnership. ” Registration is now open for in-cosmetics North America. For more information or to register visit http://www. in-cosmeticsnorthamerica. com.

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Three major cosmetics trends which are driving substantial growth within the beauty and personal care market across APAC will be examined at this year’s in-cosmetics Asia exhibition. Natural extracts, facial masks and color cosmetics will be highlighted as part of the ‘Spotlight on’ feature, enabling visitors to easily identify and learn about the latest developments in these highly popular sectors. Natural Cosmetics Aptly, the world’s natural & organic personal care and cosmetic market is projected to reach $19. 8bn by 2022, representing an annual growth rate of 10. 2% from 2016 to 2022 and Asia-Pacific is estimated to register the highest annual growth of 11. 1% during this time. Facial masks Meanwhile, the well-entrenched popularity of facial masks in APAC is spreading across the western world. The low unit price and instant hydrating properties have rendered them an essential part of the beauty routine for many years and the recent explosive K-beauty phenomenon has given facial masks a renewed push. Color Cosmetics The third trend to be explored in detail at in-cosmetics Asia 2017 will be color cosmetics. Euromonitor International anticipates that APAC will replace the US as the leading color cosmetics region by 2020, whilst in India alone the color cosmetics market is projected to grow by more than 20% by 2020 – driven by an increasing number of women entering the workplace and demanding products such as lipsticks, lip gloss, nail polish, eye liners and mascara. Why attend in-cosmetics Asia 2017? The APAC region is forecast to grow to around US $192 billion by 2021 at an annual growth rate of 5. 52%, according to Euromonitor International. With more than 4 billion potential consumers spanning 48 countries, the markets in this region are abundant with opportunity. Propelled by the unprecedented growth in the region over the past five years, in-cosmetics Asia 2017 is expected to be the largest edition in its history – uniting the entire APAC cosmetic industry. The 2017 event will provide personal care product manufacturers with a platform to source new ingredients and technologies, expand their networks, establish new partners and learn about predicted future trends. This year’s event will build on the success of last year’s event, which attracted cosmetic manufacturers from 77 countries across Asia Pacific. in-cosmetics Asia will take place from 31 October – 2 November 2017 at the BITEC in Bangkok, Thailand. Further information is available at www. in-cosmeticsasia. com.

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Here's the next article in our series about starting a cosmetic lab. Here is the basic equipment you'll need. Containers Weighing equipment Mixers Heating & Cooling equipment Lab supplies Testing equipment This article will be about the equipment you need to create your batches. The main piece of equipment is a lab mixer. Factors influencing mixer type Your mixer is one of your most important pieces of equipment when setting up a cosmetic product lab. If you have done any searching on the Internet you've probably gotten the advice that you can use a hand mixer or immersion blender. While this may be true, this is not the proper way to make cosmetic products. Immersion blenders are fine enough for the kitchen but to make working, stable formulas you are going to need proper mixing equipment. Here are a few things to consider when choosing a proper mixer. What types of products will you be making? There are numerous types of cosmetic products that you can make from liquids to gels to emulsions. You want to have a mixer that is versatile enough to handle as many different types of products as you'll make. Some things to consider. Product viscosity. If you are going to be making very thick products like gels and creams you'll need a mixer that has enough torque to move the solution. Stick blenders and magnetic stirrers will just not work for most cosmetic formula applications. Formula sample size — One of the things I see people doing wrong is that they make batches that are too small. Even if you are going to make a product for yourself a 100 g batch is just too small for most purposes. This is because it is too difficult to weigh to the right accuracy but more importantly, it is too difficult to get proper mixing without incorporating too much air. Air in batches is not good. Laboratory overhead mixers are designed to process up to a certain amount, usually specified in liters. Examples: 35, 100, 150 and 200 liters. Since viscosity issues enter the equation in direct proportion to volume both must be considered when picking a mixer. For most cosmetic labs ideally, you'll have two types of mixers. One that works for batch sizes of 5000g or less and one that works for batches up to 5 or 10 gallons. Mixing speed. The maximum mixing speed your stirrer can achieve is another thing to consider when picking a mixer. You want to have a device that can start slow (to avoid splashing contents all over the place). Then you can adjust the mixing speed after it starts. A variable mixer speed control is important. Examples are stirrers operating from 50 to 500 RPM, from 40 to 2,000 RPM and 20 to 700 RPM. This should be adequate for most cosmetic product labs. Other mixer features. There are a number of fancy mixer features you can get such as programming time and schedules plus digital RPM displays....

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Here's the next article in our series about starting a cosmetic lab. Here is the basic equipment you'll need. Containers Weighing equipment Mixers Heating & Cooling equipment Lab supplies Testing equipment In this article we'll talk about an important device in making your prototype formulas, the weighing equipment. Making formulas First, a word about making cosmetic formulas. You might find recipes on the Internet for cosmetic products that list ingredients in terms of volume measurements like tablespoons or cups. While this works well enough for cooking food, it does not work for cosmetic formulas. Whenever you are making a formula you need to measure things in terms of mass, not volume! This is because volume measurements are just not accurate enough. To see why, consider the measurement of 1 tablespoon. If a formula calls for 1 tablespoon of water, that is the equivalent of 14. 8 g (see this conversion calculator). If you were making a 100 g batch that would be the equivalent of 14. 8%. Now, suppose you didn't get exactly 1 tablespoon but were off by something like 10%. That's equal to 13. 3 g or 13. 3% in your formula. Your small measuring error has been magnified and you've changed the formula significantly. If you weighed out the 14. 8 g on a scale you could get much closer & have a more accurate formula. Scales Therefore, when setting up a lab it is crucial that you have a scale to accurately measure your ingredients. There are a wide variety of scales available and the cost can range from rather cheap to obscenely expensive. The exact scales you get will depend mostly on the size of the batches you'll be most often making. The ideal cosmetic lab will have three types of scales. Small measurements - This is a scale that can measure things in quantities of 100 g down to 0. 001 g. When you are making smaller sized batches you'll need to have accuracy on the lower end. Ingredients like dyes can have a huge impact on the resulting batch so if color is going to be part of your formulating get a good, small sized scale. For this scale having it enclosed is helpful to prevent any air currents from impacting the measurement. This makes it less convenient to use by improves accuracy. A scale like this balance from US Solid is a reasonable choice. Mid-range measurements - This is the scale which you are going to use most often and it is the most important one to get. This scale can measure ingredients from 2000 g down to 0. 01 g accuracy. For most anything you make you could probably use this scale. Especially if your batches are less than 1000 g. When getting a scale for this purpose you'll want to make sure it is accurate enough but is also durable enough to maintain its accuracy while being used repeatedly. You also don't need to worry about air currents so no...

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When you are hired on as a cosmetic chemist out of college you typically will start in a lab that is already equipped with all the things you'll need to make cosmetic products. This is one of the big advantages of working for a sizable company right out of college. But if you're hired on with a startup, small company, or consultant service you might not be as well-equipped as some other places. This is also true if you want to start your own cosmetic line. So, you may need to purchase equipment to get your lab set up to do the work of a cosmetic formulator. Here is the basic equipment you'll need. Containers Weighing equipment Mixers Heating & Cooling equipment Lab supplies Testing equipment Over this series of blog posts, we'll go through each of these in detail. In this post, we'll focus on containers. Containers Containers are used to hold your raw materials and formulations. There are three primary types of containers that every cosmetic lab needs. These include Raw material containers Prototype making containers Product storage containers Raw material containers The type of container you use for storing your raw materials depends on the nature of the cosmetic raw material you're storing. The most versatile container is a glass jar. These are useful for storing both solids and liquids, plus they can hold pretty much any kind of chemical without worry of chemical interaction. The specific glass jar you use depends on how many batches you make and how much of an ingredient you use. The more of an ingredient you use, the larger a container you'll want. In the lab that I worked, we made batches daily. We found that clear, one quart jars were most useful. For ingredients we used a lot of, like Sodium Lauryl Sulfate, we stored it in a large gallon jar or even a 5 gallon plastic pail. Labs at smaller companies can get away with using smaller glass containers to hold their raw materials. Useful sizes include 4oz, 8oz and 16oz jars. You can get appropriate glass storage jars here. While clear glass jars work well for many applications, there are some ingredients that can break down when exposed to light. For these you'll want to use brown colored glass jars which prevent light from reaching the raw material. Ingredients like fragrances, essential oils, and other oils should be stored in these types of bottles. Most raw material samples will be sent to you in plastic containers and it is ok to store ingredients in those containers as well. However, there is a chance that the plastic can interact over time with the ingredient so this is not ideal. Glass storage of ingredients is best. Mixing containers You'll need containers for making your batches and the most common ones of these are glass beakers. For a cosmetic lab the sizes that are most useful include 100mL, 500mL, 800mL, 1000mL, 2000mL. I personally, found the 500mL most useful because it...

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One of the most common type of questions we get asked here on Chemists Corner is about natural preservatives. On the one hand this is great because it demonstrates that people understand they should be using preservatives when formulating cosmetics. On the other hand it is troubling that some formulators (or the marketing people they answer to) have lost faith in standard, proven effective & safe, preservatives. But there is certainly a desire to have formulation preservative strategies that stay away from using traditional preservatives such as parabens, formaldehyde donors, and organic biocides. We'll look at some natural preservation options below. Hurdle strategy of cosmetic preservation In the old days of formulating if you had a microbial problem you could simply put in parabens and formaldehyde donor ingredients and that would be effective most of the time. If you had a particularly persistent problem you could also include something like Kathon. As a natural formulator those ingredients are generally frowned on and not allowed. This means you'll need some alternative cosmetic preservatives. But even before choosing a new preservative you can employ hurdle strategy for reducing the preservative need. Hurdle technology - The idea behind hurdle technology comes from the food industry. This strategy involves finding different materials and factors that inhibit microbial growth on their own but at high levels. By combining these factors you can reduce the amount of any of them while still killing off more and more microbes. The idea is that you make it more and more difficult for microbes to grow and thus have a preserved product. Some of the factors involved in hurdle technology include Low pH - Most bacteria grow best at a pH level of 6. 5 - 7. 0. Fungi grow better at pH levels from 5. 0 - 6. 0. So, if you keep your pH below 5. 0 you help preserve your products. Heat - Use of heat during production can reduce the initial microbial count and help preserve your product. Reduce water - If you use a lower level of water activity or include ingredients that can tie up water in your system microbes can't grow. With a water activity level below 0. 87 most organisms won't grow. Anhydrous - of course you could just make an anhydrous formula. This limits your options but it also reduces the amount of preservative you need. Chelating agents - These ingredients can help boost the effect of your preservative. Standard cosmetics would use EDTA but for natural formulators you can try an ingredient like phytic acid extracted from rice bran. Antioxidants - These will help prevent rancidity and will also slightly inhibit microbial growth. Antioxidants are more relevant in food products than cosmetics. Emulsion type - Products that are Water-in-Oil emulsions require less preservatives than the typical oil-in-water emulsion. This is because it is more difficult for microbial colonies to establish themselves. Packaging - You can use single use or air tight packaging which will make it difficult for microbes...

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Cosmetic surfactants are the most versatile and important ingredients in cosmetic formulations. Unfortunately, there are not many surfactants that naturally occur so trying to make natural formulas with surfactants is a real challenge. In this post we'll look at your options for natural surfactants in cosmetic products. Levels of natural Before we can review the surfactants it is helpful to first discuss what is meant by the term "natural. " Since there is no Shampoo bush or Skin Lotion tree by some measures there are NO natural cosmetics. But as we saw you can define natural cosmetics following specific standards. In this discussion we'll use a three level classification system of natural cosmetics. These include True natural - Ingredient is isolated from a plant, chemically purified, but otherwise unchanged Acceptable natural - Ingredient conforms to some acceptable natural standard which allows some chemical modification Greenwashing natural - Ingredient is naturally derived but requires significant chemical synthesis to produce. Also, it is not normally used so looks more natural on the label. Types of surfactants As we saw in a previous post on what surfactants do, they have many applications and different surfactants are used for different formulating purposes. This includes cleansing, emulsifying, foaming, conditioning and more. The natural surfactants available are not nearly as versatile as synthetic surfactants so you need different kinds for different applications. Natural cleansing surfactants True natural - There aren't many natural surfactants that are adequate for use as a cleansing surfactant. The only one that comes close are Saponins. These are glycoside compounds which have the ability to form foam when put in a water solution. They are found in plants like Yucca (Yucca schidigera), Soapwort (Saponaria officinalis), Soapbark (Quillaia saponaria) and Soapnut (Sapindus spp). The majority of commercial saponins are derived from Quillaja bark or soapnut and obtained through water and alcohol extraction. Unfortunately, formulators who have reported using saponins for cleansing products have been disappointed. Acceptable natural - If you are formulating to the USDA natural organic standards there are no natural surfactants you can use. Some companies like Nourish Organic use a chemical trick where they create a surfactant in-situ by including natural ingredients that chemically react to make a soap. In the formula linked the Coconut Oil will saponify with the Potassium Hydroxide. But liquid soaps like these are harsh on skin and most consumers don't like how they feel. If you are following the COSMOS standard there are a number of surfactants that are acceptable. The ones that are typically used for cleansing products are Lauryl Glucoside Decyl Glucoside Caprylyl/Decyl Glucoside Coco Glucoside Cocamidopropyl Betaine Interestingly, the COSMOS standard even allows for the use of Sodium Lauryl Sulfate since it can be derived from natural sources. Greenwashing natural - Since many natural consumers are tuned in to chemical scaremongers the use of cleansing surfactants like SLS is probably not a good idea. Sulfates have a bad reputation on the Internet and even though they are considered natural by the COSMOS...

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The second day of in-cosmetics Global closed in style, with awards presented to suppliers excelling in innovation, green and sensory product development. New to this year, the personal care industry also found out who had scooped the Make-up Bar Award and won the first Johnson & Johnson Innovation Flash Cosmetics Pitch. In total, around 100 entries were received from suppliers based across the globe, with businesses hoping their exciting developments would be the talk of the event. An audience of more than 400 professionals gathered at the ceremony, where Caroline Neville, the President of CEW UK, presented this year’s awards. "I have really enjoyed my visit to in-cosmetics Global and am glad that the show is back in London after a 15-year break. Innovation from raw materials is the basis of creativity in the market place for finished products. Without the technical, savoire-faire many of the products that delight consumers today would not exist," commented Caroline. Best ingredients revealed Fending off a stellar list of suppliers, who have launched new products in the last six months, Laboratoires Expanscience and Ashland took home the Innovation Zone Best Ingredient Gold Awards in the active and functional ingredient categories respectively. Chosen by an esteemed judging panel, including representatives of Neal’s Yard Remedies, GlaxoSmithKline Consumer Healthcare and L’Oréal Research and Innovation, Laboratoires Expanscience impressed the judges with PASSIOLINE®, while Ashland was commended for its FiberHance BM Solution innovation. Belinda Carli, Director at The Institute of Personal Care Science and the head judge of the awards, said: “The quality of entries this year has been fantastic and it has been very difficult to choose a winner. The breadth of entries demonstrated just how creative the industry we work in has become. The in-cosmetics Global event is a perfect platform to highlight the ingredients that will help inspire a new generation of cosmetics and this competition showed just how exciting the future is. ” PASSIOLINE® is a concentrate, rich in unsaponifiables derived from the co-valorization of the Peruvian fruit juice industry. When making maracuja fruit juice, the seeds are left out while the pulp is used to obtain juice. Laboratoires Expanscience dries and presses the seeds to obtain virgin oil of maracuja. It has shown remarkable efficacy in tissue repair, cell regeneration, anti-inflammatory properties that help it smooth any kind of skin imperfections. FiberHance™ BM Solution is a new, innovative patented ingredient that strengthens and repairs internal hair fibers by creating additional bonds within the hair structure. It is a small, low molecular weight molecule based on a unique natural glucoside chemistry that allows penetration deep into the hair fibre up to the cortex. Hydrogen and ionic bonding of the keratin structure restores hair fibre strength back to levels of virgin hair. It is supplied as a 50% active solution. Gattefossé (GATULINE® LINK N LIFT) and Lipotec (REPROAGE™ peptide) won the Silver and Bronze awards for their active ingredients. Meanwhile, in the functional category, Hallstar (Micah) and Inter Actifs – Aceto Corporation (Helicoidal Emulsion Technology) both...

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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 like shampoo or body washes. I thought it would be instructive to compare a standard shampoo and a natural shampoo to see how they are different. If you're formulating these types of products you have to decide which formulation route you'll take. What to compare For this article I had to decide which products to compare. It's pretty easy to find a standard shampoo (most of them are) so it makes sense to just take one that sells pretty well. In the US, Suave is the most popular shampoo in terms of bottles sold. Other brands make more money but if we're just talking units sold, no one beats Suave. Finding a natural shampoo is a little trickier. I wouldn't consider any of the top 10 selling shampoo brands to be "natural. " Herbalessences tries to look natural but there is nothing particularly natural about their marketing. In doing a search for "organic shampoos" I came upon this article about the top organic shampoos. It's amusing because the author of the post is clearly taken in by the product marketing and has no idea that the products she is promoting are hardly natural at all. But this is an approach that many companies take so I'll just pick one of these products to compare. Products Seaweed Bath Company - Balancing Eucalyptus and Peppermint Argan shampoo Suave Professionals Rosemary mint shampoo General observations One of the things you'll notice about products in the natural arena is that they are often small manufacturers who don't know the rules required for labeling cosmetic products. For example, in the Seaweed Bath company ingredient listing they use disallowed words like "plant derived" "natural version" and "corn & vegetable derived) in their ingredient list. They also specific "vegetable glycerin" which is not an approved INCI name. The natural product is also a lot more expensive. It costs about $1 an ounce while the Suave product costs $0. 10 per ounce. Since Suave is such a low cost product made by a gigantic corporation and the natural product is made by a small start-up, the price difference isn't surprising. On to the formulas... Formulas Suave Ingredients: Water (Aqua), Sodium Laureth Sulfate, Sodium Chloride, Cocamidopropyl Betaine, Eucalyptus Globulus Leaf Oil, Mentha Viridis (Spearmint) Leaf Oil, Simmondsia Chinensis (Jojoba) Seed Oil, Aloe Barbadensis Leaf Juice , Cymbopogon Schoenanthus Oil , Rosemarinus Officinalis (Rosemary) Leaf Oil, Chamomilla Recutita (Matricaria) Flower/Leaf Extract, Lavandula Angustifolia (Lavender) Flower Extract, Fragrance (Parfum), Polyquaternium-10, Tetrasodium EDTA, DMDM Hydantoin, Citric Acid, PPG-9, Methylchloroisothiazolinone, Methylisothiazolinone Seaweed Bath company ingredients: Aqua (water) with Fucus Vesiculosus (bladderwrack seaweed) Extract, Aloe Barbadensis (Aloe), Sodium Laurylglucosides Hydroxypropylsulfonate (corn & vegetable derived), Decyl Glucoside, Sodium Cocoyl Glutamate, Vegetable Glycerin, Argania Spinosa (Argan) Oil, Hydroxyethylcellulose (plant derived), Ricinus Communis (Castor) Seed Oil, Babasuamidopropyl Betaine, Panthenol (Pro-Vitamin B5), Citric Acid, Tocopherol (Natural Vitamin E), Polyglyceryl-10 Laurate, Eucalyptus Globulus (Eucalyptus)...

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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 chemists are asked to make products that are "natural. " But what exactly is a "natural" cosmetic? We'll explore that question in this post. What is a natural cosmetic? Deciding what is natural or not is a little more difficult than you might imagine. When asked "what is natural? " many people will just say that something is natural if it "comes from nature. " This description isn't helpful because the term nature remains vague. On some level, everything comes from nature! When pressed further people might say something like "not made by people. " But by that definition something like Petroleum would be considered natural and almost nobody considers petroleum natural. Oil is found in nature but people don't think of it as natural. Natural cosmetics Usually, the term natural is thought to refer to something related to plants. This helps eliminate petroleum derived products, but it also eliminates things like naturally occurring minerals which many people consider natural. Even just considering plants is not adequate because many people don't think of GMO plants as "natural. " Then there is the issue of natural identical. There are many ingredients that are found in nature but can also be produced synthetically. Would a synthetic version of a natural material be considered natural? Some people would say yes, some would say no. All this is to suggest that what is considered natural varies from person to person and organization to organization. As a formulator it will ultimately be up to you to decide which definition of natural fits your brand story and formulation style. The problem with natural cosmetics The vast majority of cosmetics are not natural. This is because nature just does not produce the types of chemicals that work best to solve the problems that cosmetics are meant to solve. There are few natural cleansing surfactants. There also aren't many natural emulsifiers. Similarly, there aren't a lot of great natural cosmetic thickeners or chelating agents or preservatives. Even most of the natural colorants that exist in nature are not useable because they are contaminated with dangerous heavy metals. To make useful cosmetics you almost always have to chemically modify natural ingredients. It's the specifically allowed modifications that are the basis for how different groups define natural. Organizations that have attempted to define natural include governments, NGOs, retailers, cosmetic producers and consumers. Let's examine these definitions next. Legal definitions of Natural Since the marketing of cosmetics as natural is a relatively new phenomena the regulations of it have not yet been created. At the moment the FDA has this to say about natural cosmetics FDA has not defined the term “natural” and has not established a regulatory definition for this term in cosmetic labeling. This means that you are free to define the term as you like and market things as natural if they fit...

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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 fact, yours truly will be teaching 4 courses this year. Here is the information about some of the upcoming courses. Basic Hair Science May 18, 2017 (9:00 am – 5:00 pm) at the National Office Instructed by Dr. Roger McMullen – Principal Scientist at Ashland Specialty Ingredients This course will be beneficial to anyone interested in learning more about hair science and hair care technology and how they relate to problems facing cosmetic scientists. After attending this course, attendees will be able to better understand the fine structure of hair and how it relates to its mechanical and surface properties. In addition, the basics of hair will be explored allowing for attendees to create better formulations. Register today to attend this CEP course highly focused on providing a foundation on Hair Science >>>>> REGISTER HERE Practical Basics and Theory in Emulsion Technology August 23, 2017 (9:00 am – 5:00 pm) at the National Office Instructed by Mark Chandler, President – ACT Solutions Corp From the sales and marketing personnel who would like to gain greater insight on emulsion formulation, or the quality control and manufacturing personnel who want to gain an appreciation for the products they are testing and producing – to the formulators looking to learn better ways to make oil and water peacefully coexist; these are the perfect candidates for this course. Mr. Chandler will cover the Introduction to Emulsion Formulation, the numerous Concepts, Evaluations and Processing. Register today to expand your knowledge of Emulsion Technology >>>>> REGISTER HERE Cosmetic Chemists Guide to Product Development September 20, 2017 (9:00 am – 5:00 pm) at the National Office Instructed by Perry Romanowski – Vice President of Brains Publishing Covering the basic process of generating ideas for new cosmetics, developing them into functional products and scaling them up to be sold commercially; this class would be useful for cosmetic formulators, quality control scientists, regulatory scientists, marketing and product development professionals and others who are interested in the process of taking an idea from a brainstorm session to a store shelf. This class will cover Technology Transfer and Market & Consumer Research. Attendees will learn how to start formulas, create prototypes and understand the process for engineering and scale up, production batching and Regulatory issues. Register today to attend the Cosmetic Chemists Guide to Product Development >>>>> REGISTER HERE 1st Intercontinental Personal Care Excellence Conference June 18-20, 2017 at the Stresa Convention Centre in Stresa, Italy A new conference launched in partnership by the SCC and the Italian Society of Chemistry and Cosmetological Sciences (SICC), with the endorsement of the Japanese Society, will come together on the beautiful Lake Maggiore (Italy) at the Stresa Convention Center to open a wide window on the Cosmetic Science & Technology World for the first ever Intercontinental Personal Care Excellence Conference! Invited scientists will showcase their cutting-edge research on three...

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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 ingredients you use to make your formula feel better, smell nicer, look better, and remain stable. We call these aesthetic modifiers. But there is one other class of ingredient that helps sell cosmetics. These are claims ingredients. These ingredients are important because the specifically help to support the story that your marketing people want to tell. Marketing ingredients Let's face it, the main functional ingredients in cosmetic products so not have pretty, consumer-friendly names. If you want to make a skin lotion that is great for moisturizing, you will use petrolatum or mineral oil. Or you might use one of the many synthetic emollients or silicones that get results. These things will create great working products. But they won't thrill the cosmetic-buying consumer. Sodium lauryl sulfate might be great for making lots of suds and cleaning skin and hair, but the name sounds like something you might find in garage floor cleaner. (You actually will because it's an excellent detergent). While consumers want the benefits that these synthetic, man-made ingredient can provide, they often don't like the name of the ingredients that go with it. Consumers would rather think that their formulas contain special, natural ingredients that are wholesome, easy-to-pronounce, and are "chemical free. " If you want to sell products that consumers want to buy, you'll need to placate their desire for simpler, less chemical-sounding ingredients. That's where marketing ingredients come in. Fairy dust These ingredients go by many names including Marketing ingredients Featured ingredients Claims ingredients Story ingredients Fairy dust They all basically mean the same thing. These are ingredients added to your formula specifically to provide a story for your marketing group to talk about. How much do you use? When an ingredient is used for claims purposes you don't have to use very much. When I first started in the industry my company had a rule that you had to add these ingredients at a minimum of 0. 05%. So, even if the ingredient didn't have any impact on the performance of the product, you had to include at least that much. I guess that was because if someone did an analysis of the product you'd still be able to detect the presence of the ingredient. But detection levels got better and we saw that if we lowered the level of these claims ingredients to 0. 005% we could save more than a million dollars a year in cost savings. So, that was the new standard for our claims ingredients. In the US, the FDA has no defined limit on how much of an ingredient you have to add to claim it on your packaging. The overriding rule is that if you claim there is an ingredient in your product, you have to be able to demonstrate that you added it. This isn't homeopathy. Why not use more of them? While...

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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 overview of the different types of surfactants found in cosmetic products. Classified by Charge If you recall in the previous article, surfactants are molecules that have both a polar portion and a nonpolar portion. Since polar molecules have an imbalance of charge, one side of the molecule has a more negative charge while the other side has a more positive charge. In the case of some surfactants this charge can be so strong that it actually forms a salt with a counterion. The nature of the counterion is the basis for one classification of surfactants. Basically, surfactants can be put into four different categories. Anionic surfactants - These are surfactants that have a negative charge. Cationic surfactants - These are ones with a positive charge Zitterionic surfactants - Also called Amphoteric surfactants these can have a positive or negative charge depending on the environment in which they exist. Nonionic surfactants - These are surfactants that have no strong charge. Anionic surfactants A classic example of an anionic surfactant used in the cosmetic industry is Sodium Lauryl Sulfate. The surfactant portion of the molecule is Lauryl Sulfate which has a negative charge. In this surfactant, the Lauryl part is the nonpolar end while the Sulfate is the polar end. Sodium (which has a positive charge) is the counterion. These types of surfactants are great for cleansing systems like shampoos, body washes and facial washes which is typically where you find them used. Cationic surfactants Sometimes the surfactant has a positive charge when put in an aqueous solution. A common type of cationic surfactant is Cetrimonium Chloride. In this molecule, the surfactant portion, Cetrimonium, is positively charged while the counterion, Chloride, is negatively charged. These surfactants have an ability to form electrostatic bonds with damaged protein (negatively charged) which makes the surfactant "stick" to a surface. This makes them great for products that are meant to condition a surface of skin or hair. Amphoteric surfactants Some surfactant molecules have the ability to form both positive and negative charges when put in a solution. This is due to having both a positive ion such as an amide group on the molecule and a negative ion like a carboxylic acid. Depending on the pH of the overall solution, the surfactant may have an overall positive charge or a negative charge. A classic example of an amphoteric surfactant is Cocamidopropyl Betaine. These surfactants are typically used as secondary surfactants because they can boost foam and reduce irritation. They may also be used for gentle cleansing but other surfactants work better. Nonionic surfactants Finally, there are some surfactants that do not form ions when placed in an aqueous solution. These are nonionic surfactants. Depending on the molecular structure these surfactants are more or less polar without charge. Typically, they contain a number of -OH groups. These groups will strongly associate with...

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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 the Colors in Cosmetic webinar This is a free webinar and it is being conducted by one of the industry experts in color cosmetics and makeup technology Kelly Dobos. In this webinar you'll learn... The difference between pigments, dyes, and effects Properties of colorants and what they mean in formulation Importance of pigment dispersion How you evaluate color The general rules for colorant selection If you are wondering what these color molecules are and some of the regulations that go into picking the right one for your formula, this is a webinar you won't want to miss. Even if you can't make it at the scheduled time you can sign up and be alerted when the replay is available. Colors in Cosmetics Did you know that of all the chemicals used in cosmetics, the most highly regulated is Colors? In fact, the FDA specifies the allowable ingredients for coloring cosmetics. If it is not on the list of approved colorants it is illegal to use a colorant in a cosmetic produced for the United States market. Colors are similarly regulated in the EU, Japan and around the world. If you're making cosmetics be sure you know the legality of the colors that you are using. And remember, just because something is natural does not mean it's legal to use.

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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 next part we look at what you can do with surfactants. Surfactants are widely used in cosmetics because they let you do a number of different things in your cosmetic formulating. Here are ten things that surfactants can do in cosmetics. 1 - Combine oil and water One of the most useful things surfactants allow you to do in your formulations is to blend oils and water. This opens up a world of formulation possibilities. When you want to deliver occlusive agents and emollients to the skin, surfactant emulsifiers let you do that in a way that feels great and spreads easily. If you want to deliver a light coating of oil to hair, emulsifiers let you do that too. Nearly every cosmetic on the market uses some type of emulsification system. 2 - Cleaning No doubt one of the oldest applications of surfactants is to clean dirty surfaces. People were using surfactants for this purpose before they even knew what surfactants were. Soap, which is a surfactant made by the saponification of fatty acids has been the most widely used surfactant in human history. Surfactants work as cleansing ingredient because they are attracted to surface non-polar dirt particles. They can surround those particles, lift them off the surface allowing them to be rinsed away. Whenever you need to create a cleaning product, you'll need some surfactant. 3 - Foaming Whenever you want to create a cosmetic product that foams, you'll want to include a surfactant. While foam is not a good indication of whether a surfactant will clean a surface or not, it is a cue that consumers pick up on to decide whether they like a product or not. In general, low foaming cleaning products are not liked. Foam is created when their is mechanical agitation to a system and the surfactant molecules stabilize the surface of trapped air. 4 - Conditioning There are a wide variety of conditioning agents used in cosmetics that are not surfactants. However, there are some surfactants that work great as conditioning materials. These are cationic surfactants and include things like Cetrimonium Chloride or Behentrimonium Chloride. These materials have long fatty acid backbones which can provide the smoothing and conditioning benefit, but they also have a positively charged head group that is attracted to the negatively charged damaged protein in hair. They stick to the surface and provide the conditioning effect. 5 - Spreading While some surfactant effects make them functional ingredients other uses for them are related to their aesthetic properties. One of the problems with most skin conditioning ingredients is that they are tacky, sticky and don't spread very easily on dry surface. Adding water will help but if you really need to make your product spread out on the surface of hair or skin, a surfactant is what you need. When placed on the surface...

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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 such as cleaning surfaces, delivering conditioning materials, making materials compatible, creating foam, killing microbes, and more. To be a complete cosmetic chemist you'll have to know about the chemistry of surfactants. In this post we will begin with an introduction to surfactants. The Polarity of Molecules To understand surfactants it's first important to understand a property of all chemicals, polarity. We explained this a bit in our post on cosmetic emulsions but basically compounds can be classified as polar and non polar. Non-polar molecules like oils have enough electrons in them to make them stable. Polar molecules, like water, have an imbalance in electrons which make them attracted to other imbalanced molecules. The important part to understand here is that Polar molecules are attracted to other polar molecules while nonpolar molecules are attracted to other nonpolar molecules. Or as chemists like to say, Like attracts like This means that things like Water and Oil will not mix. It is a bit more complicated since there is a range of polarity values and some polar molecules aren't compatible with other but the old adage works fairly well in most situations. Formulating cosmetics If you are formulating a cosmetic product you could create a product using only nonpolar molecules and it would be fairly easy to blend them together. In fact, products like body butters, balms, salves and ointments are typically simple blends of nonpolar molecules. You could also formulate with only polar molecules and make things like moisturizing mists, moisturizers, and leave-in conditioners. The problem is that single note formulas like these are extremely limited in the benefits you can deliver and they don't usually look, feel or smell good. The best cosmetic products are a blend of Polar and Nonpolar materials. But as we said above, these materials don't mix. That is unless you have another material that is able to help. That's where surfactants come in. What are surfactants? Surfactants are materials that are made up of both polar and nonpolar parts. That means a part of the molecule will be compatible with polar molecules while another part of the molecule will be compatible with non-polar molecules. There are four technical terms you might hear when someone talks about surfactant molecules Hydrophilic - the "water loving" or polar part of the molecule Hydrophobic - the "water hating" or nonpolar part of the molecule Lipophilic - the "oil loving" part of the molecule (same as hydrophobic) Lipophobic - the "oil hating" part of the molecule (same as hydrophilic) If you examine a surfactant molecule like Sodium Lauryl Sulfate you'll see that one end of the molecule is hydrophilic and the other end is hydrophobic. This dual compatibility is what makes surfactants useful for cosmetic formulators... . dual compatibility is what makes surfactants useful for cosmetic formulators. The term Surfactant is a portmanteau of the words...

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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 and fatty acids. Since fatty acids are the main components of many natural oils and used to create thousands of different types of cosmetic ingredients, it's worthwhile to know a bit about them. What is a fatty acid Fatty acids are molecules made up of repeating units of Carbon attached to Hydrogen. One end of the molecule is capped off with a Carbon attached to two Oxygen atoms. This is called the Carboxyl group. (see picture). They are found widely in nature providing a natural way for living organisms to store energy. Common sources of fatty acids are natural oils like coconut oil, palm kernel oil, soybean oil, and sunflower oil. The number of carbons and hydrogens affects the physical and chemical properties of the fatty acid. In cosmetic products, fatty acids range in carbon length from 6 to 22. Much longer fatty acids can be produced but they are more rare and not normally used as cosmetic ingredients. Since these are produced through a natural biochemical reaction you typically find only even numbered carbon chains. That's just how the mitochondria works. Why are they used in cosmetics Fatty acids are used in cosmetics for a number of reasons. First, they are emollients and can provide conditioning effects to both skin and hair. They are also good wetting agents which can make a formula feel more slippery on the skin. Many fatty acids are starting materials for a number of cosmetic ingredients including cleansing surfactants, emulsifiers, esters, alcohols, and more. They are also chemically reacted and placed on polymers to provide flexibility and conditioning. Natural Formulating While fatty acids may not be superior to petroleum derived ingredients they do have the benefit of being sustainable and having a natural sounding name. This is useful when it comes to creating products that will be touted as natural.

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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 maximum control over everything such as mixing conditions, raw material consistency, and ingredient amounts. Your finished formula will have the most reliable characteristics in terms of physical and chemical properties. However, in production you won't have such controls. This is why you need to include ingredients in your formula specifically to adjust production variation. Let's examine some of these ingredients. Product Specifications The first thing to understand is that every formula will have a range of specifications it needs to achieve for quality control purposes. As the formulator and product creator it is your responsibility to set the specifications for the formula. The exact characteristics and ranges you include in your specifications will depend on the type of formula you are making, its expected aesthetic and performance characteristics. The most common specification parameters for most cosmetics formulas are pH and viscosity. pH adjusters Most personal care and beauty products contain water. When this is the case pH is a convenient parameter for which to set a specification. The pH of a system tells you a lot of information such as Chemical changes - if there is a chemical reaction going on in your system it may result in a pH change. Performance - some products perform optimally at specific pH ranges. For example, hair conditioners work better when formulated at a pH around 4. 0 Safety - Products that are too high or too low in pH may result in burns or skin irritation. Also, some preservatives will not work outside a certain pH range. Typically, you set a pH range of a half a unit. For example, the pH range for a shampoo might be pH 5. 0 - 5. 5. Sometimes what happens in production is that the pH of the final batch will be outside the specification range. Since production won't want to discard the product they'll come to you for suggestions on how to "save the batch. " This is where adjustment ingredient come in. When you are formulating a water containing cosmetic be sure to include an acid and a base in the formula. The acid will allow for adjusting the pH down and the base will allow for upward adjustment. These ingredients won't have much impact on the product but they will make it easier in production. When you are formulating a water containing cosmetic be sure to include an acid and a base in the formula. Viscosity adjusters Another important property for cosmetic products is viscosity. This is one for which you'll frequently have problems in production. Viscosity is a measure of the rheology and thickness of the formula. When you are creating your formulations you'll need to set a viscosity specification. The range will depend on your target viscosity but a 10 - 20% value is not unreasonable. The exact ingredients to include in your formula...

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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 of your time in college chemistry you learn about chemical reactions, molecular structure, and the methods for synthesizing ingredients. However, as a cosmetic formulator learning the functional properties of specific ingredients and what they do when incorporated into formulas is much more important. You don't have to learn about how to make ingredients, you need to learn how they work. We've previously discussed the 3 types of cosmetic ingredients and recently discussed at length emollients in cosmetics. In this post we will be focusing on another conditioning agent like emollients, humectants. What are humectants Humectants and emollients are used for similar reasons. Both are conditioning ingredients incorporated into cosmetics to improve the look and feel of skin and hair. Because of their different molecular composition humectants and emollients perform this function in a different way. Basically, humectants attract and retain water. The reason that humectants are hygroscopic (can attract and bind water) is because of their molecular composition. While there are both organic and inorganic materials that are humectants, organic humectants are primarily used in the cosmetic industry. And when I say 'organic' I mean organic in the way that chemists use the term. Organic means an ingredient is a hydrocarbon. Structure of humectants The molecular structure of humectants vary widely, but they all have multiple hydroxyl group (-OH) or other hydrophillic sites that can interact through hydrogen bonding with water molecules. For the most part humectants are non-polar molecules compatible with water. The way humectants work is that they attract water from either the atmosphere or from the body and bind it to itself via hydrogen bonding. This property known as hygroscopicity can be measured for any kind of humectant. The amount of water that a material can bind at a specific humidity is called the equilibrium hygroscopicity. It is determined by placing a known quantity of a material in a fixed humidity chamber then measuring the change in mass of the material. When this test is done on a common humectant like Glycerin you find that it will absorb 25% of its weight in water when exposed to 50% humidity. Under the same conditions another common humectant, Propylene Glycol will absorb 20% its weight in water. In general, the more moisture a humectant will absorb, the better a humectant it makes for formulations. Ideal cosmetic humectants Although many materials have this humectant property, not all of them work well in cosmetics. There are a variety of characteristics we look for when choosing cosmetic humectants. These include... High moisturize absorption over a wide range of humidities. Consistent moisture content even with changing humidity Non-toxic and safe to use for cosmetics Low odor and low color Low viscosity to make compounding easier Generally non-reactive with other cosmetic ingredients Low cost and readily available These days it may also be important for formulators that the humectant...

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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 three different kinds of cosmetic ingredients including functional, aesthetic and claims ingredients. Emollients would be considered functional ingredients. Specifically, they would be considered 'conditioning' ingredients. Emollients The term emollient refers to materials that are able to soften skin. The word is actually derived from mollire which is a Latin verb meaning “to soften. ” In the cosmetic formulating world emollients are ingredients incorporated into products to improve the feel of skin and hair. Use of these ingredients for cosmetic purposes dates back to the earliest days of recorded history. Emollients are a class of ingredient with a wide variety of molecular structures. They are typically non-polar materials and come from both natural and synthetic sources. Natural emollients Most of the oldest cosmetic ingredients come from natural sources. This makes sense because synthetic chemistry wasn't invented. Humans may have stumbled on methods for synthesizing soap and alcohol but it would be years before we actually knew what was happening. For this reason people took ingredients that nature already made and applied them to hair and skin. Triglycerides The most common natural emollients, triglycerides, are plant and animal fats and oils. These ingredients are made up of three fatty acids attached to glycerin. When the triglyceride comes from a plant it is referred to as an oil. That would include materials like coconut oil, soybean oil, palm oil, etc. When the source of the triglyceride is an animal the ingredient is often referred to as a fat. Examples include lard and tallow. But animal triglycerides are also called oils including shark liver oil and mink oil. Triglycerides have different characteristics such as melting point, oily feel, compatibility with other ingredients, and the ability to penetrate the skin. When formulating with these ingredients you have to experiment to find which of these works best with your formula. In general, triglycerides will feel more oily than other types of emollients. Fatty acid distribution The characteristic responsible for the differences among triglycerides is the distribution of the fatty acids in the material. As stated previously, triglycerides are composed of fatty acids. Fatty acids are hydrocarbons with varying number of Carbon and Hydrogen atoms. Different triglycerides will have differing compositions of fatty acids. Coconut oil has a high level of 12 Carbon fatty acids. Palm oil has a high level of a 16 carbon fatty acid. This chart shows the fatty acid distribution of different types of natural oils. It's important to note that a number of cosmetic raw materials are derived from triglycerides. This requires the material to be chemically modified to separate the fatty acids from the glycerine. The free fatty acids are used to create emollients called esters which we will discuss shortly. Lanolin Lanolin is an emollient derived from sheep's wool. It's like the sebum that is naturally formed on your scalp and is a by-product of...

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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 in the US that set it up. In this next section, we will cover what the ingredient names mean and how they relate to the chemistry of the ingredient. By knowing the structure and chemistry of ingredients you will be in better shape to figure out what the ingredient might do in your formula. Common Trivial Names Since the INCI naming system was only created in the 1970's there were a number of compounds that already had existing names. So, rather than change what people already called these ingredients the system incorporated common names. Ingredients like Glycerin and Menthol are examples. Also, the INCI system used names for things that were already listed in sources like U. S. Pharmacopoeia (USP), National Formulary (NF), the Food Chemicals Codex (FCC), Merck Index, and more. Sometimes these names reflect the structure of the materials but usually they don't. To learn what the material is you have to look it up. Hydrocarbons A large portion of cosmetic ingredients are hydrocarbons. You may have first learned about naming hydrocarbons in Organic Chemistry. This is the IUPAC system and it allows you to figure out the chemical structure of any compound by its name. While this naming system is too complex for the cosmetic industry the INCI naming system did incorporate the old semi-systematic list of stem names to designate hydrocarbons. On the right side of this post you'll see a list of stem names used in the INCI system. So, if an ingredient has 12 carbons you would use the terms "Lauryl" for the alcohol version and "Lauric" for the acid version. A 16 carbon ingredient is Palmitic for the acid and Cetyl for the alcohol It's helpful for a formulator to memorize this list. Source names Some ingredients come directly from natural materials like coconut oil, palm oil or sunflower oil. While these ingredients have a primary component they usually a blend of multiple fatty acids. Rather than spell out every ingredient in the material they are simply named using the starting material name. So there is coconut acid, soy acid, or tallow alcohol. And derivatives of these materials also maintain the source stem name. Ammonium Palm Kernal Sulfate for a surfactant made from Palm Kernal oil for example. To be a great formulator you'll want to learn the fatty acid distribution of different types of starting raw materials. Nitrogen-containing materials Hydrocarbons that contain nitrogen atoms are referred to as amides. Therefore, lauramide is used to describe a 12-carbon molecule (lauryl) that has an NH2 group on its end. If the nitrogen has other hydrocarbons attached, those are also named. So, lauramide DEA would be that same 12-carbon molecule attached to a nitrogen, which also has ethyl groups attached to it. When these nitrogen-containing compounds are turned into salts, the suffix -monium is added. So, a 16-carbon attached to...

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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 is sold. On the FDA website you can even find the rules for listing ingredients. This is incredibly helpful if you are just starting your own cosmetic line. But knowing the ingredient listing rules is not much use if you don't know the names of the ingredients you're listing. In this post we'll look at the names of the cosmetic ingredients including where they come from, what they mean, and why they can be so complicated. How chemicals get their namesIf you took any chemistry courses during you schooling career you will no doubt have heard the names of many different materials or chemicals. There are simple names like Acetic Acid, Sucrose, and Sodium Chloride. And you might have even heard some more complicated names like n,n Diethylmetatoluamide (DEET). The ingredient names you learned in chemistry courses include some common names but most come from the naming system of the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC). The IUPAC system was designed for chemists as a way to easily communicate information about chemicals. If you are skilled in the nomenclature system you'll be able to see the name of any ingredient and immediately know its molecular structure. The system is efficient, but complicated chemical structures can lead to incredibly long and complicated names. While this is useful for chemists writing academic papers, it's not so useful for consumers who want to know the names of the ingredients in their cosmetics. So, the self regulatory body of the cosmetic industry (with the blessing of the FDA) came up with their own ingredient naming system. The details are spelled out in the official book of cosmetic ingredient names, the International Nomenclature of Cosmetic Ingredients (INCI) which is produced by the PCPC. The latest edition of the INCI Dictionary contains over 15,000 ingredients that have been registered for use in cosmetic products. Unfortunately, the book is not freely available. But you can purchase it here. Naming cosmetic ingredients is complicatedThe IUPAC system is great for naming individual molecules, but the reality is that most cosmetic ingredients are not individual molecules. They are blends of chemicals so naming them gets complicated. When the INCI naming system was put together in the 1970's there was an attempt to make names short, uncomplicated while still providing identifying information to consumers. And they've done a good job of this. But the system is made more complicated by the fact that different raw material suppliers create custom blends and endeavor to make their products stand out from the competition. This leads to all sorts of different names that aren't official INCI names. Let's take a look at the different types of cosmetic ingredient names. Types of ingredient namesCosmetic raw materials can have multiple names. Here are some that you can expect. INCI names - These are the "official" names for specific cosmetic...

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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 measure them. In this post we'll cover some of the formulation techniques used to optimize formulas. Optimization formulation techniques There are various ways you can use for optimizing your formula but here is a look at three of the most useful prototyping techniques. Optimizing for cost Knockout experiments Ingredient level optimization Cost optimization Reducing the cost of your formulation is something that every cosmetic chemist will be asked to do. Even though you spent lots of hours getting just the right ingredient levels and the product meets your target benchmarks, you can have no doubt that a year from now your marketing department will ask you to make the product work the same but be less expensive. We've previously covered some formula cost savings techniques, but the basic strategy is this. Step 1 - Figure out the cost of each ingredient in your formula Step 2 - Identify raw materials that contribute the highest cost Step 3 - Make prototypes with lower level of those ingredients Step 4 - Test the prototypes against the current formula Step 5 - Modify the prototype until you match performance at lower cost Figuring out the cost of the formula is not too difficult but it does require some math. We've previously done a video explaining how to determine the cost of a formula. Once you figure out the cost you can make a few changes to your prototypes to optimize formula cost. Reduce: First, you can reduce the level of expensive ingredients and also your claims ingredients. Eliminate: You can eliminate any ingredients that have no effect. And to figure out which one of those you can run a knockout experiment which we’ll be talking about shortly. Replace: Replace expensive ingredients with less expensive ones. Increase: Increase the amount of less expensive ingredients (e. g solvents like water) Knockout experiments While cost optimization will be something you do frequently, there are other things for which you need to optimize. That's when doing a formulation knockout experiment comes in handy. A knockout experiment is just a series of formulas in which you replace one of the ingredients with the primary solvent. That way you knockout the ingredient and see what effect is has on the formula. When you are performing the knockout experiment you should keep track of numerous formula changes. To help identify ways to optimize manufacturing keep track of the speed of formulation. Also measure the specification numbers because you'll be able to determine what ingredients can be adjusted if you have a problem in production. Measure how the knockout formulas affect performance. This will give you an idea of what ingredients to increase to improve whatever characteristic you're trying to change. It will also let you know what ingredients aren't necessary for the performance of the product. Also conduct stability and safety tests to see...

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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 even after the product is launched your work on the formula is not complete. No doubt your company will look to you to improve things so they can either launch a "new and improved" version or have the same product but improve the margins. To make improvements to your cosmetic formula you'll have to learn how to optimize it. Here is how you do that. What is optimization? On the most basic level formula optimization means finding the ideal level of every raw material in your formula. The ideal level of an ingredient depends on a number of factors and it is something that you have to figure out on a case by case basis. Ultimately, the ideal level depends on what characteristic you are optimizing. 5 step optimization strategy Here is a simple 5 step formula optimization strategy. You can use this to develop pretty much any formula for any purpose. The steps are... Decide what you want to optimize & why. Find a way to measure whatever characteristic you are trying to optimize for. If you can’t measure something, you can’t optimize for it Create your prototypes. You need a starting point from which you can optimize. You can’t optimize right away. Test your prototypes. One of the most challenging parts of optimizing & formulating in general is creating tests that can quantify formula differences Refine those prototypes and repeat the process. Eventually, if you go through this cycle enough times you’ll get to the most optimized formula possible. That's the goal anyway. What can you optimize? So, let’s begin with the first step, deciding what to optimize. As I said finding the ideal level of an ingredient depends mostly on what you want to optimize for. There are a number of things you can optimize in a formula including product performance (in lab tests), consumer acceptance (how well consumers like the way the product performs). This is probably the most important of things to optimize. You know, happy consumers make loyal customers. Other things you can optimize for include product stability, formula cost (your business people will be highly interested in making sure you do this) and you can optimize for your manufacturing people. I’m sure there are other things for which you can optimize but most of them fall under one of these categories. So when you are looking to optimize a formula, you need to decide which of these things is the most important for your optimization program. Sometimes you can optimize for multiple characteristics simultaneously (for example improving a lab performance may increase consumer acceptance) but usually, optimization requires you to focus on one at the expense of other things. Hopefully not, but sometimes that happens. What can you measure? Once you decide what to optimize your formula for, you have to figure out some way to measure it....

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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 we go back to basics and take a simple look at emulsions. What are they and why should a cosmetic formulator care? Cosmetic Emulsions In the most basic sense, emulsions are mixtures of liquid materials that are not normally compatible. And when I say "not compatible" I mean that when you put these materials together they don't combine to form a single, uniform solution. Instead, they form separate layers. The most common examples are mixing oil with water. In an emulsion, these materials that normally create separate layers get blended together so they appear to be a single, uniform solution. This happens because another material called an emulsifier is added to the mixture. Science To understand emulsions you have to know something about the chemistry of molecules and liquids. Despite what some misleading natural marketers & scaremongers try to say, all materials are chemicals. And all chemicals are made up of molecules. Hopefully, you remember from grade school science class that molecules are made up of atoms and atoms contain electrons. It's the electrons in these molecules that are important for our discussion of emulsions. You see depending on how the electrons in the molecules are arranged most materials can be considered either Polar or Non-Polar. Non-polar materials - We'll start with non-polar materials. These are materials that have electrons symmetrically arranged throughout the molecule. The material has no charge and is perfectly happy existing in its current form. It blends well with other non-polar materials because each molecule just wants to be left alone. You put a bunch of these molecules together and they just blend in doing their own thing while leaving all the other molecules around them alone. This is metaphorical of course since molecules aren't known to have conscious motivations or desires. Non-polar molecules include things like oils, waxes, and esters. Non-polar = Oil Polar materials - Polar materials on the other hand are different. These materials have electrons that are asymmetrically arranged. Since there are more electrons on one side of the molecule than on the other, this means one side is more positively charged while the other is more negatively charged. This difference in charge causes internal tension (since all molecules want to be neutrally charged) and sets the molecule on a quest to get more electrons or give some away. For this reason they like to blend with other polar molecules each either giving away or taking extra electrons. They don't blend well with non-polar molecules because these materials have no electrons to share. Polar molecules include things like water, alcohol, and salt. Polar = Water If the world contained only polar and non-polar materials it would be a lot less interesting and life would have had a hard time getting started. But despite our simple description polarity is not like an on/off light switch. All materials exist...

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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 product is expanding. Now, brands are launching nutricosmetics to tap into the “beauty from within” trend. And your marketing people may expect you to formulate ingestible cosmetics. If you’re faced with having to make one of these products, here is a general procedure you can follow. Nutricosmetics and regulations In the US, cosmetics are regulated by the FDA. Some groups claim that the regulations are loose but the regulation framework has resulted in products that are safe and pretty much the same as products found in the EU, Japan, and Canada. The additional regulations of those countries have not had any impact on product safety. Food supplements, which ingestible cosmetics and nutricosmetics would be considered, are a different story. The FDA does regulate them however, with the passage of the DSHEA act in 1994 there is much less government oversight. The claims that can be made and are pretty substantial despite the fact that the science supporting those claims is sketchy at best. Formulating nutricosmetics The form of your ingestible cosmetic can vary and includes things like tablets, capsules, softgels, gelcaps, liquids, or powders. Sephora has a whole section on their website dedicated to beauty supplements. If your marketing people want to launch their own supplement you will first have to figure out which form you want to make. To get starting formulas and background information check out the extensive series on Food Technology published by Woodhead. Ingestible Cosmetic Ingredients Once you have your form you have to figure out what marketing ingredients you want to include. This is really going to depend on the claims that your company wants to make. Most nutricosmetic ingredients fall into one of the following categories Antioxidants - Consumers have heard the term antioxidant enough and most believe that skin or hair aging is caused by a lack of antioxidants. Including these in your formula is a good idea. Most any vitamin will be an antioxidant and also so are things like carotenoids, polyphenols, and flavonoids. Anti-inflammation - Inflammation is another scary term that consumers are being convinced is wrecking havoc on their skin, hair and health. When formulating a nutricosmetic be sure to include something in your formula that can be called an anti-inflammatory. This would be ingredients like omega 3 fatty acids, polyphenols, and curcumin. Immune protection - Another phrase thrown around in this marketing space is immune suppression. Supplements are supposed to "boost your immune system. " If you want to include one of these immune boosters you'll want to put in enriched polysaccharides, green tea extracts, or silymarin. Skin hydration - Everyone knows that collagen and elastin are important for skin structure and hydration. So, you'll find lots of supplements that include these ingredients. Please ignore the fact that these things are destroyed in the digestive system. Aloe is another skin hydration ingredients that people...

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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 learned in your Chemistry courses applies to cosmetic science or formulation. You'll also discover that creating new cosmetic formulas can be challenging. But if you understand the basic steps to making a finished product, you'll be well on your way to becoming a famous cosmetic chemist. Before we go through the steps it's important for you to realize that the cosmetic industry is run mostly by the Marketing and Sales department. When was working in Corporate America this used to bother me because the marketing folks never seemed to know what they were doing. Plus, the chemists actually make the product. But what I learned is that when it comes to generating income, Marketing and Sales have a much greater impact that the people who actually produce the products. From a corporation standpoint, it makes sense that they are put in charge. Ok, here are the 7 basic steps of making cosmetic formulations. Step 1 - The concept Since Marketing is in charge, the first thing that happens before you make a cosmetic formula is that they find a winning product concept. Concepts are just ideas described on paper that is shown to consumers. The ideas that consumers like the best are the products that will eventually get launched. Of course, this is not an exact science and sometimes the products that get launched are the ones that the president of marketing or the company likes best. But mostly, it is consumers that direct marketing as to which concepts are the most promising. After a few rounds of market research testing and refining, the concepts then go to R&D to get turned into actual product. Step 2 - The starting formula For the most part, winning concepts are minor iterations on products that have already been successful. This is because consumers have a difficult time envisioning things that don't already exist. That's also why cosmetic products haven't changed much in the last 30 to 40 years. People basically want what already exists... just different. But from a formulator's perspective this makes the job easier. Rather than starting completely from scratch, you can go to your company's in house formulations, a supplier's formulary or one of the many formulation books to get a starting formula that meets most of the parameters for the concept. For example, when I was formulating products for Tresemme, the winning new product concepts were always some new shampoo and conditioner that provided a specific benefit or had a special new ingredient. That allowed us to take the current formulas, make minor changes, and call it a whole new product. And it worked. In the last 15 years the brand has gone from $50 million a year in sales to over $600 million. So, the first step in creating a cosmetic formula is to get a starting formula. This will speed...

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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 goals with every formula you make. Each formula has to... Perform the primary product function well Be aesthetically appealing to consumers Remain stable for a year or more Remain safe to use over the life of the product Have a story your marketers can use to sell the product Be easy for your manufacturing people to make Remain within the desired cost parameters And these days you also have to worry about sustainability, ingredient inventory, environmental impact plus a host of other issues specific to whatever type of product you are making. Oh yeah, you usually are on a strict time crunch and the project has multiple parallel paths requiring different formulas for each option. It can be tough. Raw material blends The raw material suppliers know the formulator's challenges and have devised a solution that can make things easier for you and also help them sell more of their own product. The solution is raw material blends. Raw material blends are ingredients sold to you as a single product, but they contain multiple ingredients you could have bought separately. The blends can be simple like a preservative blend of DMDM Hydantoin plus Iodopropynyl Butylcarbamate (Glydant plus). There are lots of preservative blends. Or the blends can be more complex like this hair conditioner base from J Edwards International. Should you use a raw material blend? Whether you should use a blend or not depends on your company, their risk tolerance and the speed at which you need to get products out the door. Let's briefly look at the benefits and disadvantages of using ingredient blends. Benefits of blending There are a number of benefits to using a blend. Speed of formulating - Depending on how complex the blend is you should be able to get to a finished formula more quickly. Speed of production - With less ingredients to add, your production time should be shortened. Plus your compounders will like having to add fewer ingredients. Product stability - If you're using a blend the supplier should have done testing on it making you less worried about product instability. Less chemical inventory - If you only have so much room for ingredient storage using a blend can help make that more efficient. Reduced cost - Using a blend may or may not reduce your product cost Disadvantages of blends Given all those benefits, you might be wondering why everyone doesn't use ingredient blends when making their products. Well, you just have to consider the disadvantages. Reduced formulating flexibility - If you are buying a blend that comes with a specific ratio of one ingredient to another you can't easily adjust those ratios. You could just buy the individual ingredient and adjust the ratio that way but if you're doing that there's less benefit to using a blend. Increased cost - While the blend may...

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As Euromonitor International hails UK consumers among the biggest beauty and personal care spenders in Western Europe, the stage is set for in-cosmetics Global as it returns to London for the first time in 15 years. 2016 has been a year for political and economic changes. With Brexit presenting its own unique challenges, the beauty industry is currently remaining positive with sales in the UK expected to hit the £4bn mark for the first time, while global cosmetics sales increase to $675bn by 2020. The Asia-Pacific region continues to remain the biggest market for cosmetics with 36% of the total market share, followed by North America (24%) and Western Europe (20%). According to IBIS World, skincare, haircare and make-up are the top three most popular sectors, followed by fragrances, hygiene products and oral cosmetics. However, the influx of advancing beauty technologies, changing consumer shopping habits, the rise of online influencers, shifting regulations and environmental ethical debates are all forcing manufacturers to evolve. As brands look to tempt consumers with the most innovative, on-trend products, in-cosmetics Global will provide a fantastic of opportunity for R&D professionals to source and learn about new ingredients, formulations, and the latest consumer trends. Taking place at London’s ExCeL from 4-6 April, the event will feature 800 leading and niche suppliers showcasing thousands of products. Visitors will find two new topical features – the Sustainability Corner and Make-Up Bar – that will run alongside more than 100 hours of trends-led sessions, all of which are free-to-attend. New show features In an exciting addition to the world’s premier ingredient event, R&D professionals and formulators will be invited to put new make-up formulations – including eye, skin, nail, and lip products – to the test. The Make-Up Bar has been designed for exhibitors to demonstrate their expertise, enabling visitors to identify innovative pigments and technologies that will deliver the next generation of trend-setting colour cosmetics products. Sustainability has come to the fore in the cosmetics and personal care industry recently and represents a pressing issue for manufacturers, R&D and regulatory professionals. As such, The Sustainability Corner, an open theatre, will help visitors explore the latest developments and initiatives in personal care sustainability. Participants will walk away with an understanding of what the cosmetics industry is currently doing to support the achievement of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and how they can help them to accomplish this. A blazing trail of innovation Product innovation continues to remain a key driver of sales. With ‘one in three’ prestige make-up buyers revealing they purchased a product in order to sample it, in-cosmetics Global is primed to inspire a new generation of products as it expects to gather ingredient suppliers from more than 40 countries worldwide. Ashland, BASF, Clariant, Croda, Dow Corning and Solvay are already among those confirmed to attend. Novel ingredients launched within six months of the show opening will also be presented in the Innovation Zone. As one of the most popular areas of the show, cosmetic professionals...

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I saw this article about Bodisafe Cosmetics which claims their products are natural and chemical free. Normally, I would just file this away with all the other scaremongering, BS, natural cosmetic marketing, but this article featured quotes from a cosmetic chemist. I was horrified by what he said. I won't do a detailed debunking of the nonsense claims attributed to here. In this post, I want to talk to my fellow cosmetic chemists. Hey chemists, listen up! Behave like a scientist If you are going to represent yourself in the public as a scientist, then behave like a scientist. You have a responsibility to be truthful and as accurate as you can be. Society elevates scientists to the level of experts who are expected by the public to provide reliable information in whatever area you are discussing. Don't lie to people or spread misinformation just because it may help with your company's product marketing. I know we cosmetic chemists work in an industry that uses misleading claims to get consumers to buy one company's products rather than a competitor's. I also know that the R&D groups in the industry have very little say in what claims are made and how they are written. It's true, we are sometimes required to find ways to support dubious claims our marketing departments want to make. Yes, we've all done something like adding a drop of aloe to a standard lotion so your marketing people can call it Aloe Vera Lotion. And we've done things like adjusting the levels of some ingredient in a non-significant way so your company can proclaim that it's an "all new formula. " Don't lie I get it. These are the things we have to do to stay employed as cosmetic chemists. But you know what we don't have to do? We don't have to outright lie to consumers or the media. Don't do that. Don't tell uninformed reporters that "... 60 percent of those chemicals cross the skin and get into the body. " That's not true. Don't mislead the media by telling them that chemicals in cosmetics are dangerous or that your natural products are somehow more safe. They aren't. It is illegal to sell unsafe cosmetics in the US. Replacing parabens and other preservatives or using organic ingredients does not make your products more safe! It just doesn't. Your products aren't more safe And if you are under the delusion that your products are somehow more safe than products put out by large, multi-national corporations, I've got news for you... they aren't! In fact, if you work at a small company it's more than likely that your products are less safe since you undoubtedly haven't done the amount of safety testing as the big corporations. Misquoted Now, I understand that sometimes you can be misquoted when interviewed for articles. The press doesn't always do a great job of getting the quotes just right. You can even be edited to seem like you said something but you...

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A reader asked me why there weren't more high performance cosmeceutical ingredients in cosmetics. I think there are a few reasons you don't see many of them used. 1. Cosmeceutical claims are limited. In the US (and elsewhere) cosmetics are not allowed to actually have an impact on the body's biochemistry. They are only allowed to superficially "change the appearance. " So, you can't legally claim things like "increase collagen production" or "stimulates superoxide dismutase" or claims like that. So, even if the cosmeceutical ingredient had some great effect, it is not legal to tell people. Arguably, it is not legal to actually use the ingredient in your formula either. 2. Consumers can't tell a difference. Perhaps the biggest reason is that consumers are terrible at noticing performance differences. This is especially true for products that are supposed to provide a long term benefit. If someone buys a product that has Vitamin A in it and they use it for 2 weeks, it is highly unlikely that person would notice any difference whether they were using a "high performance" vitamin A or one of the readily produced, less expensive vitamin A. If you were a manufacturer of a product and you could make something for less money where consumers can't tell a difference, it would make no sense to use a premium ingredient. 3. It's difficult to demonstrate real differences. While consumers can't tell differences you might say that showing lab differences are at least worth it for claims. But showing a real difference between a standard Vit A and a "high performance" one would be really hard. Then when you put the ingredient in a formula, showing differences are even more difficult. And the differences that you mentioned like irritation, solubility & stability, they are easily overcome through formulating or they don't matter to the consumer. I think the bottom line answer is that these ingredients aren't used more often because they haven't been shown to be worth the added cost. If you can prove a difference that matters to consumers they would be used more.

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I was recently asked this question by a reader, what is an active ingredient? You hear this term a lot in cosmetic marketing. And according to this article in Happi. com you can't have a successful skin care line if you don't have an active ingredient. When it comes to cosmetics, people are using the term 'active ingredient' in the wrong way. Let me explain. Active ingredients in OTC When you are talking about products classified as Over the Counter drugs (OTC) the active ingredients are the ingredients that make the product work. So that would be the functional ingredient in all these products that have FDA monographs. Cosmetic active ingredients But when you are talking about cosmetic products the term "active ingredient" no longer applies. If a cosmetic had an ingredient in it that changed the biochemistry of the skin or otherwise interfered with normal skin biology, then it would be an illegal drug. Cosmetics are not allowed to have drug effects. So in cosmetics, the term "active ingredient" is a marketing term for an ingredient that people believe has some effect but is not legally allowed to. For example, some marketers say Vitamin C is an active ingredient for skin lightening. While there may be some lab studies to show this ingredient may have an effect it is not an approved ingredient for skin lightening, so it's not really an active ingredient. In fact, if it had an effect on skin like that it would be a mislabeled drug. Basically, there is no such thing as an active ingredient in cosmetics. If a product has an active ingredient, it is a drug. Here are some articles where we cover the topic of active ingredients. Do active ingredients in cosmetics work? Cosmetic active ingredients don't work Functional ingredients This is not to say that cosmetics do not have ingredients in them that provide a benefit. However, instead of calling these "active ingredients" which is a drug term, I prefer to call them "functional ingredients. " Functional cosmetic ingredients are those whose main purpose in the formula is to deliver a benefit to a consumer. They may have some secondary effect of improving the feel of the product when it’s applied or stabilizing the formula but the primary reason they are added is for the effect they have on skin or hair. Remember, if things marketed as "active ingredients" in skin care were actually active ingredients, the products would be illegal drugs at least here in the US.

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I received the following question and thought it would make a good post. I’m an Senior Cosmetic Chemist with an Bachelors Degree, with 18yrs experience in formulations, color matching and production, I’m thinking about being an consultant, how do I go about the change and what would be a good starting salary for my position? Start Learning about Business & Marketing Nearly all scientists coming out of college have the same problem. They spent most of their time in school learning complicated subjects like Physical Chemistry, Physics, and Molecular Biology, but little time was spent learning things that are most helpful in business, such as Entrepreneurship, Economics, and Marketing. Most scientists are smart about technical subjects but clueless about business subjects. And if you want to become a cosmetic chemist consultant, knowing business subjects are extremely important. This problem continues in their career as it becomes more important for R&D people to improve their technical knowledge and skills than to learn about Marketing. But to become a cosmetic chemist consultant it is not good enough to just be technically smart or a great formulator. You need to develop skills and knowledge about marketing, networking, and generally running a business. So, the first step to becoming a consultant is to study up on those subjects. To get started on these subjects read a book like Book Yourself Solid or listen to a podcast like Ducktape Marketing. Identify your expertise If you've been working in the cosmetic industry for a number of years you should have developed an expertise in some aspects of the job. You may have a good background in hair care, skin care or color cosmetics. Or maybe you've gotten really good at testing products or writing claims. You need to be able to clearly communicate what you are an expert in. When a big company is looking for a consultant to work with them on a specific problem, they will seek out whoever is the best well-known expert in that subject. As a consultant you want to become known as the expert in some subject. Incidentally, many individual entrepreneurs who will be looking to hire you will just want a "cosmetic chemist. " They figure every cosmetic chemist should be able to make any kind of product. And if you are a skilled formulator this may be true. But you'll be much more successful if you find an expertise and highlight that. Showcase your expertise If people don't know that you're an expert you might as well not be an expert. The best way to showcase your expertise is by giving talks at relevant meetings and writing articles for relevant publications. The cosmetic industry provides lots of opportunities for people seeking out an audience. There are 19 chapters of the Society of Cosmetic Chemists who are always looking for good speakers on relevant topics. And there are magazines like Cosmetics & Toiletries, GCI and Happi who seek articles. If you want to become an expert you need to...

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We recently did a webinar on cosmetic emulsions and asked people for questions prior to the event so we could cover the most important information. Here was an interesting question that came up which I think deserves an entire blog post. "If my raw material expires in 6 months, does that mean my cosmetic formula will expire in 6 months? " Expired raw materials To answer this question we have to first decide what we mean by an "expired raw material. " There isn't a simple definition but you can think of an "expired" raw material as one which has chemically changed so much that it doesn't behave the same way as the raw material you purchased. This difference in behavior can mean different things. For example, it could mean that there are aesthetic changes that make the raw material different such as color or odor changes. It could also mean there are chemical changes that show up in measurements of pH, viscosity, melting point, refractive index, IR or Mass Spectrophotometer readings. Or the ingredient no longer shows activity in some specific test for example, sunscreen actives may no longer absorb UV radiation. It is these changes that go into setting an expiration date. However, changes can happen gradually over many months (or years) so your company, or the raw material supplier, has to decide when a material has changed enough to consider it expired. Is a pH change of 0. 1 units enough to consider a raw material expired? Probably not. Maybe a pH change of 2 units? Probably. There isn't some magical date in which one day a raw material is "good" and the next day it becomes "bad. " You'll have to determine what characteristic can change and by how much to make the ingredient unusable or "expired. " This will vary greatly depending on the stability of the raw materi Setting an expiration date The right way to set an expiration date for a cosmetic product raw material would be to determine what characteristics the ingredient must have for it to perform properly in the specific formulation in which it is incorporated. You would do stability testing at different storage conditions to predict how long it will take to see those changes. Based on these test results you could set an expiration date for a specific application. This would be incredibly complicated. Rather than do all that extensive testing for every raw material in every formulation, most companies just arbitrarily pick a date for which they consider an ingredient "expired. " This can be either 6 months or 1 year after the raw material is made. Conflicting priorities It's worth noting that since expiration dates are mostly arbitrary, companies that buy raw materials are motivated to set long expiration dates so they don't have to dispose expired chemicals. Companies who sell raw materials are motivated to have short expiration dates because you'll have to buy more when the ingredient goes bad. At my former company an...

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When I got my first formulation job, I was hired as a “cost savings” chemist. This meant it was my job to identify ways to reduce the costs of our formulas. It wasn’t a particularly glamorous job but I did take pride in the fact that I literally saved the company a few million dollars a year. Some of the projects were even ideas I had myself! Too bad I didn’t get a portion of that cost savings. But that’s the life of a cost saver. Even if you are not a “cost savings” chemist, as a formulator or product development chemist you should have an eye on how you might reduce the cost. Here are some of my favorite tricks for reducing formula cost without sacrificing product quality. 1. Reduce or remove nonfunctional ingredients. Typically, you will inherit a formula so the level and choice of ingredients may not have been ones you made. Frequently, there are ingredients that may have been added without checking whether they make a difference or not. Some chemists are inspired to add ingredients if they like the supplier and claims enough. You may be able to remove ingredients completely from your product without anyone noticing a performance difference. To identify these I recommend you do a knockout experiment. 2. Optimize your formula - Sometimes the ingredients in a formula were not optimized when it was originally created. This makes sense because once an ingredient is put in a formula and it works, there is little extra incentive to optimize. There is also usually not enough time. But there may be many ingredients in your formula that could be reduced by half or even more. Use your knockout experiment to guide you. You may also use the cost of the ingredients in your formula to guide you. When you are looking for cost savings, reducing the levels of the most expensive ingredients is an efficient way to go about it. 3. Replace expensive ingredients - There is a wide range of prices for ingredients that essentially do the same thing. If you can find a less expensive alternative for an ingredient in your formula, you can significantly cut the cost of your formula. Identify the most expensive ingredients you’re using, then seek out less expensive alternatives. 4. Find a new source - You don’t have to necessarily change the ingredients to get a cost savings. If you are buying a raw material from one supplier, look for the same raw material with another supplier. They may be able to match or beat the price you are currently getting. If you work for a big company, make recommendations for ingredients that could be better sourced to your purchasing department. 5. Consolidate formulas - If your company has a few lines of products or the brand that you use has a number of SKUs, find ingredients that could be commonly used among all the formulas. This will allow your company to buy a higher amount of...

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Many consumers desire natural cosmetics. While some countries, including the US and EU, have natural colors in their positive lists these color leave a lot to be desired in terms of color properties and stability. The US FDA has no official definition of natural, but generally refers to them as ingredients extracted directly from plants or animal products as opposed to being produced synthetically. In the US natural colorants are covered in the Code of Federal Regulations Title 21, Part 73 and in Annex IV of the European Cosmetic Directive. Below is some information about natural colorants allowed for use in cosmetics in the US. Natural Colorants for US Cosmetics Annatto – Annatto is a yellow to orange colorant derived from the evergreen shrub Bixa oreallana. It is not stable with respect to light and in acidic conditions. Annatto is also used to color cheese, baked goods, and snack food. Chlorophyllin CU Complex- This green colorant is produced from chlorophyllin extracted from alfalfa. The central copper atom in this complex is replaced with magnesium. It is stable with regards to light and alkaline conditions but will precipitate as a sodium salt in acidic conditions. Chlorophyllin CU complex is limited to use in dentifrices in the US. Carmine – Carmine is chemical lake that has a unique blue shade red and stands apart from other natural colorants, which tend to be duller. It is derived from the extract of dried female cochineal beetles found in Peru. It takes approximately 155,000 beetles to make one kilogram of carmine. Carmine has reasonable light stability and it is not stable in acid conditions or temperatures about 60 C. And because it is a chemical lake, it will break down in strong acids or bases, liberating free carminic acid. Carmine finds use in eyeliner and eyeshade as no other red colorant is approved for this are in the US. Carmine is not consider when products claim no animal derived ingredients or cruelty free due to its insect origins. Henna – Henna is a dye extracted from the henna plant. It is used to color hair and a temporary dye on the skin. Its use in the US is limited to hair applications and specifically prohibited from use on eyelashes or brows because of the concern for eye irritation. β-Carotene – A yellow to orange pigment that is obtained from the fungus Blakeslea trispora. It has good stability with respect to light, heat, acid and alkali. Caramel – Caramel is a brown colorant made by burning of sugar. It has excellent heat and light stability and stable in acid and alkali systems. Guaiazulene - A derivative of azulene, a component of chamomile. It is a blue colorant that is approved for external use only in the US. At a cost of over $200 per kilogram, it has very limited use. Guanine – Gaunine is a natural pearl pigment made from the scales of herring, sturgeon, or salmon fish. It is extremely fragile; the crystal structure can...

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I received the following question from a reader which I thought would make a good jumping off point to talk about cosmetic product marketing. I read some experts saying in a UK magazine that shampoos cannot actually repair damaged hair, even though they often claim the opposite. Could you comment on that? Cosmetic marketers are often accused of lying to consumers about their products. And if you quickly read through some of their advertising and product claims, it's understandable how people can get that impression. But the reality is that cosmetic marketers rarely outright lie. In fact, in the US it is illegal to knowingly lie about your products. That is false advertising and it can get you in trouble with the FTC. Weasel Words So, how would you respond to the questions from this reader? Do shampoos actually repair damaged hair? No, they don't. No shampoo (or any product for that matter) can repair damaged hair at least from my perspective. Now you might be wondering, if no product can repair damaged hair, how can a company claim their product repairs damaged hair and still not be lying? One answer is weasel words. In advertising or marketing, weasel words are words or phrases written in such a way to imply a claim without actually making said claim. Weasel words are descriptors like "helps", "looks", "feels", "with", "appearance" and things like that. So, when you read a claim like reduces the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles You naturally think that the product will reduce fine lines and wrinkles It won't and that wasn't what the claim said. It was only claiming to reduce the appearance of those skin problems. Ambiguous Definitions This weasel word explanation is not the only way that companies get away with making claims that are true but feel like lies. The other thing they depend on are ambiguous definitions. Let's look at the original question. Do shampoos actually repair damaged hair? Well, the answer depends on the meaning of a couple key words, specifically the words"damaged" and "repair". What does the word damaged mean when it comes to hair? Think about this. What is the definition of damaged hair? It can mean lots of different things. If you think of hair as a single fiber then damaged hair could mean a split end, a broken hair, a discolored hair, a rough feeling hair, smelly hair, and any number of things. On a more microscopic level it could mean the cuticles are broken or split or chipped off. On a molecular level damaged hair could mean a rupture in the naturally produced protein chain structure of the fiber. Since there is no single definition for what constitutes "damaged hair" a marketer is free to define it for themselves. So, they could simply say that damaged hair is a hair that doesn't feel smooth. So, anything they do to make hair feel smooth again is repairing the damage. And that brings us to the second word, "repair"....

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I read an opinion piece in the New York Times that looked at some proposed cosmetic regulations and pondered “Is Your Lipstick Bad for You? ”. The answer is NO but they didn’t bother answering that question. But the opinion piece got a few things wrong which I’d like to clear up. Cosmetic Product Testing In the very first paragraph the authors make a misleading claim. It’s true that there are specific testing protocols required for drug testing that are not required for cosmetics. But the vast majority of products that people use every day have undergone tests to prove the products are safe and effective. It is illegal to sell unsafe cosmetic products. Large corporations who make most of the products that people use every day spend lots of time and money safety testing products. Incidentally, this is why big companies like P&G and J&J support legislation like this. They are already doing it and it would create a financial barrier to entry for anyone else who might want to get into the business. EU cosmetics The products in the EU are not measurably different than the ones found in the US. This would suggest that their tighter regulations haven’t lead to safer products. The fact that 1300 chemicals are banned in the EU versus 11 in the US is not relevant. How many of those 1300 chemicals were ingredients that formulators would use? None. You could ban another 65,000 chemicals from cosmetics and it wouldn’t make the products more safe since those chemicals aren’t used in formulating anyway. Again, big companies won’t care if the US bans 1300 chemicals that they aren’t using anyway. More regulation will not improve product safety. The industry already has a group that reviews the safety of ingredients (Cosmetic Ingredient Review) and they set use limits. Responsible companies already abide by these rules. Further regulation Cosmetic products are among the most safe consumer products people can buy. This legislation aims to fix a system that isn’t broken. It will not make products more safe and will increase product cost for consumers. So, to answer the question posed at the start "Is Increased Cosmetic Regulation Required? " I'd say, NO. But if it quiets non-science based fear mongering groups like the Environmental Working Group and forces small companies to use proper preservative systems, I say bring it on.

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As a formulator one of the hardest things to do is to create new formulas from scratch. This is because formulations are a mixture of chemicals and it is extremely difficult to predict what will happen when multiple ingredients are mixed together. If you remember phase diagrams from physical chemistry class, it’s like that but even more complicated. cosmetic formulating This is why formulating continues to be a mixture of art plus science. No one has created a computer program that can tell you exactly what ingredients to mix together and in what proportion to get a formula that functions the way you want and is loved by consumers. This is ultimately good for cosmetic formulators as it ensure job security for at least a little while longer. Fortunately, the process of coming up with formulations is not as complicated as the prediction of what happens when you mix ingredients together. If you’re faced with creating a new formula or evaluating a new ingredient here are some tips on how to determine the cosmetic ingredients to use and how much to add. Figure out what your product is supposed to do Of the thousands of raw materials available there are only three basic types in cosmetics. And of these three, only one type actually provides the functional benefit to the formula. This is what I call the functional ingredient. We’ve previously written about functional ingredients. When formulating, decide what your product’s primary purpose is (cleaning, conditioning, moisturizing, holding hair, changing skin color, etc. ) then find the right functional ingredients for that purpose. If it’s a cleansing product you’ll most likely be using an anionic surfactant. Moisturizers are a bit more complicated and you’ll use occlusive agents, humectants and emollients. Once you identify your main functional ingredients, figure out what solvent you are going to use. The vast majority of cosmetic products use water as the main solvent. It’s mostly benign and relatively cheap as ingredients go. If your functional ingredient is compatible with your solvent, great! If not you’ll need some aesthetic ingredients to make it more compatible. How much of an ingredient to use After you have your solvent and main functional ingredients you can start making crude prototypes. But you’ll have to have a starting point for your functional raw material. Here are some suggestions. 1. Start with the amount suggested by manufacturer - Suppliers almost always overstate the amount that you actually need but it’s good to start high because that will let you know the best performance you can expect from an ingredient. Typically, the more of an ingredient you use, the greater the effect you will observe. 2. Use an amount that works with your formula costs - Once you find a level that gives you the performance you want, you can then start optimizing to find the right level. The right level is the level that gives you the maximum required performance at the minimum cost. When you are formulating your project group...

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In-cosmetics Korea, Coex Hall B, 159 Samseong-dong, Gangnam-gu, Seoul 135-731, Korea, 6-7 July 2016 In-cosmetics returns for its second exhibition in Korea from 6-7 July 2016. The free-to-attend event will showcase the latest products in the personal care ingredient industry. With more than 4,000 visitors expected and 200 suppliers on show, the event will feature a wealth of ingredients and formulations and the latest scientific developments. Korea’s cosmetic industry is certainly in the spotlight as the boom in its domestic market is predicted to continue. The global cosmetics market has grown by 3. 8 percent over the last decade to £142. 39bn, according to a report from EY, with Koreans spending the most on skincare in comparison to any other nation. Anti-ageing and anti-pollution products are now the prime focus for Koreans, as is the use of color in cosmetics, and this will be in evidence at in-cosmetics Korea. With exhibitors hailing from countries including Belgium, China, France, Germany, India, Singapore, Taiwan and the USA, there will be plenty of hot new international but also local products showcased at this year’s event. Belinda Carli, Director of the Institute of Personal Care Science and the in-cosmetics Group’s Official Technical Advisor, believes the exhibition will house a number of innovative and exciting products. Given the trends in Korea on antipollution and anti-ageing, it’s no wonder that there are several emerging products focusing on the topic. Givaudan’s product Neurophroline is one to watch. The science behind this product works to brighten and reduce stress through neuro-cosmetics. Similarly, Gattefossé’s Gatuline Renew is a new product that targets anti-ageing from a different scientific approach for visible benefits. With skin-type sensitivity also a priority for many manufacturers and consumers, Incospharm Corp’s products Aquatide and Aquatide TripleShield use new technology, addressing ageing and pollution, as well as catering for different skin types. With millennials in Korea focusing on individualised care and personalised cosmetics, Incospharm Corp is clearly on trend. With the health concerns and awareness of UV and blue light, it is little wonder that skin protection is the latest emerging interest in the industry. Greentech’s Solilberine is a new product focused solely on this issue. Finally, SpecChem Industry’s SpecAWK Plus is a multi-functional, natural, traditional Chinese medicine approach to address all skin concerns. But it’s not just the products that are a talking point. With 25 percent of exhibitors new to the show this year, visitors will be able to meet and network with companies they may never have had a chance to meet before. They include: AB Speciality Silicones from the USA (Stand E71), a manufacturer and worldwide distributor of specialty silicone chemicals. Its core brand is Andisil®, a series of vinyl and speciality polymers. Astier Demarest from France (Stand H17) is situated in Grasse - the world’s capital of perfume in the South of France. The company specialises in aromatic raw materials including natural products such as conventional and organic essential oils and extracts, as well as aromatic chemicals. Croda from Singapore (Stand E70)...

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The newest textbook to launch on the Allured Bookstore is Color Cosmetics: A Practical Guide to Formulation by Jane C. Hollenberg. Mrs. Hollenberg wrote this text because there is not a great deal of comprehensive literature on color cosmetic formulation. The information contained in this book is from her 40 years’ experience in the color cosmetics industry, including Coty, Revlon, Merck, and consulting. Book Layout After a forward, preface, and a few acknowledgements, Color Cosmetics: A Practical Guide to Formulation jumps right into cosmetic product formulation types, each given their own comprehensive chapter. There are 10 Types of Cosmetic Formulations, and the textbook details those included in these categories: Emulsion Foundation Loose and Pressed Powders Anhydrous Products (further segregated by Face & Eye, Lip) Mascara, Eyeliner, Eyebrow Makeup Nail Color (featuring guest authors) Each chapter is relatively formatted in the same way. Mrs. Hollenberg first details properties each formulation category should have, then describes how you can evaluate their performance as a formulator. The chapter segues into the raw materials that are typically used in these formulations. Of course, there are thousands of functional raw materials at your fingertips, so she covers the most common ones and discusses their chemistries. A part of cosmetics formulation that should not be overlooked is processing. It is critical your lab manufacturing procedure is reproducible to scale up. Mrs. Hollenberg reviews common processing techniques and manufacturing equipment necessary to produce typical formulations, starting in the lab and then moving to production. Shade matching, specifications, and stability are the final aspects detailed in each chapter. Why should this book be in your library? While my main focus is hair color and hair care, I found this text contained extremely useful as a formulator in any segment of our industry. There is often a lack of basics to provide the building blocks necessary to fully understand the big picture of formulation. This textbook is a solid overview of cosmetic products that will get you from the beaker, past production. I highly recommend it for anyone new to the industry. It is a perfect supplement to the first cosmetic product text on my shelf, Coloring the Cosmetic World by Edwin B. Faulkner, which provides a detailed overview of cosmetic pigments and their regulatory status. Valerie Patton is currently a cosmetic chemist specializing in hair color and hair care in Southern California. She is the 2016 Chair of the Society of Cosmetic Chemists, California Chapter, and a board member at the College of Arts & Sciences at Kent State University. You can follow her on Twitter as @thelahobo.

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One of my Facebook friends posted a question looking for advice about which sunscreen she could use for her child. It turns out her daughter had a skin reaction to the sunscreens she had been using. Of course, without knowing what was in the formulas that could have caused the reaction I was hesitant to give advice. But that didn't stop her well-meaning friends from making a number of suggestions including various natural brands, popular brands and even a reference to the Environmental Working Groups sunscreen guide to 2016. And some of them were certain that their suggestion was absolutely correct. They seemed to have no doubts at all despite the fact that they weren't dermatologists, toxicologists or even cosmetic chemists. Why is it that subject experts are so cautious while people with no expertise are so sure of themselves? It turns out this phenomena is called the Dunning – Kruger effect. It's a fascinating topic and I encourage you to read the Wikipedia entry on it for a little background. This got me thinking about the kind of knowledge that we have about cosmetics and cosmetic science. The reality is that we know a few things with a high level of certainty but most of the information we have in cosmetic science is uncertain. For formulators it is useful to know what we know and what we don't really know. Solid Cosmetic Science There are a wide variety of subjects for which we have good experimental evidence. Perhaps the most informed are high level mechanisms of action. For example, the behavior of surfactants in oil and water environments is well established. We know why they remove dirt, how they can make water and oil compatible, why bubbles are formed and all the other characteristics that make them useful. We know how preservatives work and on which microbes they are effective. We know about moisturizers, colorants, fragrances, cosmetic thickeners, polymers, sunscreens, and pretty much how all cosmetic raw materials work. We also have a great idea about the chemical structure of the raw materials we use. Well, at least for ingredients that are primarily one material. When you start talking about plant extracts, resins, or other naturally-derived materials our knowledge about the composite molecules is less certain. There are just so many different types of chemicals that can be found in natural extracts that most suppliers don't bother figuring out everything in there. Raw material uncertainty While we have solid answers to questions about the structure and function of the raw materials, we are much less certain when you turn to questions like “what material is best to use” or “will my system be stable”. This type of knowledge is not known by most of the scientists in the cosmetic industry. The reasons are varied, but it is a combination of the fact that the research hasn't been done, or it has been done and not widely published. We are in a competitive industry and companies use technological advantages to...

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When I was working for a company it was pretty easy to get the raw materials I needed for making cosmetic formulas. I would just look up a raw material, contact the sales person I knew from the company and ask for a sample. Within a day or two I would have a sample waiting for me. And if it was a material that my company already used (we had a few thousand in inventory), I could just contact our manufacturing people and get a sample. It was actually much more complicated than this but I knew how to get samples anyway. However, now that I don't work for a corporation and am independent, it is much more challenging to get raw materials. In fact, it's much more challenging to even find out about them. But if you are going to be a cosmetic formulator, you'll need to have sources for all the raw materials you might want to use. So, in this post we'll cover what you need to know about where to get raw materials to make cosmetics. Learning about materials Before you can get raw materials you have to know what raw materials you need to get. There are over 15,000 raw materials listed in the INCI Dictionary and you can pretty much use any of them in your cosmetic formula. This number is actually much higher because for every material listed in the dictionary there are multiple suppliers who make materials that can be slightly different. So, you'll want to narrow this selection down. You can do this by first learning about the different types of cosmetic raw materials. We cover this much more in-depth in our cosmetic formulation course. Next, you can review things like the Buyer's Guide from C&T. A Buyer's Guide is a listing of all the companies that sell raw materials plus the types of materials they sell. Other sources include... Happi Buyers Guide — Limited selection but useful PCPC Buyers Guide — They list suppliers for over 3800 raw materials with international sourcing. SpecialChem4Cosmetics — The INCI directory is an excellent source of raw material information. ULProspector - An excellent source for raw material supplier information. You can also learn about new raw materials at trade shows. The best ones for the cosmetic industry include inCosmetics New York SCC Suppliers Day Getting Raw Material Samples Once you figure out what raw materials you want to start testing, you'll need to get samples. If you work for a big company this is simply a matter of contacting your supplier or distributor and asking for a sample. They'll send it to you pretty fast. It is not well-known but the supplier sales people are judged on how many samples they can send out so you are actually doing them a favor when you ask for samples. But if you don't work for a big company it could be a bit harder to get samples. Your best bet is to develop a relationship with...

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An industry friend of mine posed this question to me in regards to the proliferation of so much junk science when it comes to the safety of cosmetic products. Although cosmetics continue to be among the most safe of all consumer products selling billions of units each year with minimal adverse reactions, the Internet is awash in scare stories to steer consumers away from perfectly safe products. So, what is the cause of this mistrust? I think there are a number of factors. Anti-Corporation sentiment: A certain percent of the population believes corporations are evil and are out to poison the population while chasing down profits. Some corporations have certainly done their part to create this feeling (e. g. tobacco industry). Of course, it's true that corporations sometimes behave badly, but it is wrong to say they all do and all behave badly all the time. Naturalistic Fallacy: There are a certain amount of people who believe that things that come from nature are good and things that are man-made are bad. Cosmetic industry complicity: Certain companies in the cosmetic industry benefit by scaring consumers. They make it a selling point that their products are "safe" while implying (or saying straight out) that their competitor's products are unsafe. Unfortunately, fear marketing works and is much easier to spread with the Internet. This awful sunscreen article is an example. Here is a company that is selling products by misleading people saying that other company's products are causing cancer. There is zero evidence for this. Non-governmental organizations: These groups thrive when they can scare consumers about fake problems. A group like the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics benefits greatly in terms of donations when they can scare people about chemicals in the environment. They are staffed by professional PR people and have no scientists on staff who know anything about the cosmetic industry. They don't mind using junk science to support their dubious assertions. Consumer Scientific illiteracy: Our population as a whole is not well-educated when it comes to science or chemistry in particular. When consumers don't understand a concept (like toxicology) they just assume anyone telling them something that is not what they want to believe are lying to them. They think 15 minutes searching on Google qualifies them to hold opinions about toxicology that are superior to those of researchers who do actual research and publish in peer reviewed journals. Where is the cosmetic industry headed? If the false stories about cosmetic ingredients continues to grow, we'll eventually get cosmetic products that don't work as well and cost more money. That's what you have right now with products in Whole Foods. On some level this is good for cosmetic chemists because we constantly have to be reformulating products for essentially arbitrary reasons. But there is a limit to the impact this will have on cosmetics. Ultimately, consumers want products that work and if they can't get them, they'll revise their thinking about whether any of this carcinogenic BS is true. If...

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World Perfumery Congress returns to the US in 2016 World Perfumery Congress, 13-15 June 2016, Fontainebleau Resort, Miami Beach, Florida The organizers of the biennial World Perfumery Congress (WPC) have announced that it will return to North America in June, 2016. The popular event, which attracted 1,100 professionals in 2014, will once again showcase the fragrance industry’s latest innovations and provide attendees with invaluable insights on game-changing fragrance technologies, trends in fragrance creation, and market and global trends in and of impact to fragrance and fragrance products. From 13-15 June, perfumers, marketers of fragranced products, fragrance ingredient manufacturers, suppliers of fragrance materials and other fragrance industry professionals will gather in Miami for the 2016 edition of WPC. Presented by the American Society of Perfumers and produced by Perfumer & Flavorist magazine, the event will showcase some of the most exciting innovations impacting fragrance development. BASF SE, Givaudan, International Flavors & Fragrances (IFF), MANE, Robertet Inc. and Symrise AG are among the confirmed companies exhibiting (http://wpc. perfumerflavorist. com/exhibitors/). Alongside the exhibition, WPC’s renowned conference programm returns. With a focus on providing unique educational content, topics to be discussed include sensory technology, sustainability, regulations, ingredients and the latest market trends. Event organizers, guided by the WPC advisory board (which includes representatives from the likes of P&G, Takasago and Bath & Body Works), are finalizing content for the 2016 show. Sandy Chapin, Show Director, WPC 2016, commented: “WPC is the fragrance industry’s leading event, bringing together professionals from across the globe to one meeting place. The 2014 event in Deauville, France was hugely successful, and we’re excited to again bring WPC to the US in June . We pride ourselves on providing both exhibitors and attendees with an excellent opportunity to network and develop new relationships while discussing the future of fragrance. ” The event organizers and the American Society of Perfumers (ASP) have also announced a special 25 percent discount on registration for all qualified perfumers. To register your attendance at the World Perfumery Congress, please visit: http://wpc. perfumerflavorist. com/register/

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There was a time when having tanned skin and laying out in the sun’s rays was considered healthy. However, the dangers of UV rays are becoming more apparent as cases of melanoma have risen dramatically over the past three decades. These sobering statistics have prompted people to avoid the sun’s rays and use UV-blocking skin lotion. While this may lower the risk of developing skin cancer, what many people do not consider is that the skin on their face is constantly vulnerable to UV damage as they go about their daily activities, even if they wear makeup. As such, today’s cosmetic products should be formulated with UV protection, no matter if they are meant to cover blemishes or balance the complexion. How UV Protection Works Understanding of how UV protection works to guard the skin against damage and dangerous growths that may develop into melanoma is paramount to creating effective formulations. UV rays create molecules called free radicals, which are highly unstable and unbalanced. When free radicals invade unprotected skin, they begin to scavenge missing elements from healthy skin cells. As a result, functioning cells begin to behave abnormally and are eventually destroyed. Free radicals also destroy collagen and elastin, the two proteins in the skin that keep it firm and elastic. When many free radicals enter unprotected skin, wrinkles, dark spots, and other signs of premature aging begin to appear. Eventually, some damaged cells begin to mutate, which can lead to melanoma. UV protection blocks free radicals from entering the skin by reflecting the sun’s rays and protecting healthy cells. Choosing a UV Protection Level UV protection should be an element of any cosmetic formulation; however, not all ratings are equal and some are not even sufficient enough to properly protect the skin. Some existing foundations, BB creams, and lotions currently include SPF 15 protection. However, many dermatologists assert that this is not enough, especially for those who spend a great deal of time exposed to the sun’s rays. While research shows that SPF 15 may be strong enough if applied in thick layers, it is not suitable as a cosmetics additive due to how most foundations and creams are applied. To create cosmetics formulations that protect the skin from the sun, SPF 30 or more should be included. Natural UV Ingredients A large percentage of cosmetics consumers today are concerned about applying ingredients to their skin that may prove harmful in the long run. As a result, today’s cosmetics’ formulations should include natural UV solutions that consumers will feel confident about using. Breakthroughs in natural UV protection are being introduced all the time and some of the most recent discoveries include: Propolis, which is a natural sealing element made from bee pollen Elements from the alder buckthorn tree, which is native to the UK, Asia, and Africa Buriti oil, which is extracted from the moriche palm of South Africa In order to keep formulations safe, formulators should carefully consider how these elements might react with other ingredients before...

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What’s in a name, the preservation name? Whether it's Montague or Capulet... . love or scorn... parabens or not? Brands, marketers and formulators find themselves in a quandary of hearsay to balance consumer demands and functionality. The ideals of traditional formulations past have suffered a lot of R&D heartache to produce romantic paraben and phenoxyethanol-free emulsions. Let me lay the scene in fair “clean” formulations to reduce your frustrations by providing some cosmetic preservative history, implications for emulsions and time saving solution. Preservative History Parabens’ epilogue many years ago led to the US Market introduction of multi-functional ingredient Glyceryl Caprylate for natural preservative solutions. This coconut and/or sustainable palm oil-derived ingredient historically functioned as an emollient and wetting agent. However, its surface tension reducing behavior made it a prime preservation candidate to destabilize some microorganism membranes that help lead to its eventual demise. Presently, developers immediately associate this ingredient with preservation and forget or never knew about its historical use and past. Have you every dropped in this ingredient for a quick reformulation and found your luxurious, creamy emulsion turn to a pourable lotion? If so, you have experienced its surface tension reducing behavior on your emulsion system. Developers quickly learn the current preservative demands can add a significant amount of R&D time, as well as cost. Emulsions now require careful building for a preservative love story and happy ending. Solutions So what’s the antidote and how can we escape the feuding? A blended potion by Dr. Straetmans’ of Glyceryl Stearate Citrate, Cetearyl Alcohol, Glyceryl Caprylate (symbio®muls GC) exists where the Glyceryl Caprylate serves as a co-emulsifier, adding stability to an emulsion as well as providing anti-microbial benefits. What? Can this be true – stability and preservation properties all in one? The results are proven and challenge tested. One should know, that directions should be followed carefully and supporting ingredients such as Organic Acids will cover the broad spectrum of your microorganism foes. But hope can be found in the symbio®muls GC. As the markets’ mercurial attitude has long moved away from parabens and now phenoxyethanol (gasp! ), rest assured, with the right ingredients and support, your emulsion and efforts do not have to end in tragedy. ~ Beakers Up! Dandizetté Beauté For more information, please visit: http://www. dr-straetmans. de/en/products/productdescription_symbiomuls_gc. php http://www. kinetiktech. com/contact/index. php

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Welcome to Day 30 of the 30 Days to Become a Better Cosmetic Chemist series This 30 day challenge is all about giving you lessons and basic exercises that will improve your abilities as a cosmetic chemist. Get your copy of the Become a Better Cosmetic Chemist workbook In this episode In today's program we focus on your career as a cosmetic chemist and talk about how you can increase your career success chances by becoming a well-known expert on some topic in cosmetic science. In this episode you'll learn: The benefits of becoming a cosmetic science subject expert The three key things you can do to become an expert Research you need to do to become an expert Why you need to be a generalist and specialist The importance of sharing your expertise How to keep increasing your knowledge and learning Today's challenge Our final challenge is an obvious one but will take more than just a day. Today's challenge is to become a subject expert. Make a plan. Figure out what type of expert you want to be. Create a list of books, magazine articles, blogs, patents or anything else to help you learn. Immerse yourself in the topic and learn everything you can. Start writing about that topic. Make people love your subject as much as you do. Find a place where you can give a talk about your expertise. I'd love to hear what topic you choose to become an expert in. So after you have given it some thought leave a comment as to what you are going to become an expert in.

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Welcome to Day 29 of the 30 Days to Become a Better Cosmetic Chemist series This 30 day challenge is all about giving you lessons and basic exercises that will improve your abilities as a cosmetic chemist. Get your copy of the Become a Better Cosmetic Chemist workbook In this episode In today's program we talk about the cosmetic industry and specifically the trend of natural cosmetics. As a formulator you are going to be asked by your marketing group to come up with formulations that can tap into hot trends and the natural marketing trend is hot. This episode will help show you what people mean when they talk about natural cosmetics and how it affects formulations. In this episode you'll learn: The size of the natural cosmetic market History of the development of the natural market Various definitions of natural Governmental and non-governmental organizations affecting natural products The marketing approach of successful natural product brands Buzzwords and concepts in the natural cosmetic market Today's challenge Look through some of the brands in the natural cosmetic market and see if you can figure out what qualifies as natural for them. Go to their website and look at their background information and story. Also look at their product offerings and see if the ingredient lists fit in with their natural positioning. Is the brand simply a greenwashing brand or do they really try to make an effort to be “natural. ” When you're finished put your comments about what you found below.

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Welcome to Day 28 of the 30 Days to Become a Better Cosmetic Chemist series This 30 day challenge is all about giving you lessons and basic exercises that will improve your abilities as a cosmetic chemist. Get your copy of the Become a Better Cosmetic Chemist workbook In this episode In today's program we cover product testing and how you can become an expert evaluator of the personal care products you create. In this episode you'll learn: Why you should test your own products How personal evaluations can direct your revisions What product use can teach you about raw materials 8 step process for evaluating cosmetic prototypes Today's challenge Run a blinded test on two different products. For example, go get a sample of a low-cost shampoo or body wash and another sample of a similar smelling higher priced product. Or you can use your own formulas and compare them to a market leader. First use the product and write down scores for the characteristics we talked about earlier in this show. If you are testing a hair product make notes about the different aspects of the foam and how well your hair feels and combs after your done. Give your prototype and the benchmark scores for each characteristic. Then see if you can tell any differences. See if you can reduce the cost of one of your formulas by 10%. When you've completed the challenge come over to the show notes and leave a comment about your experience.

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Welcome to Day 27 of the 30 Days to Become a Better Cosmetic Chemist series This 30 day challenge is all about giving you lessons and basic exercises that will improve your abilities as a cosmetic chemist. Get your copy of the Become a Better Cosmetic Chemist workbook In this episode In today's program we talk about a little discussed topic for cosmetic formulators, cost savings or how to reduce the cost of your formula without sacrificing quality. In this episode you'll learn: Five strategies for reducing the cost of a formula How to find and eliminate unnecessary ingredients Which ingredients can be safely reduced The ingredient which usually has the most impact on formula price How to find alternative ingredients that cost less The power of dilution Today's challenge See if you can reduce the cost of one of your formulas by 10%. Example of a cost reduction exercise

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Welcome to Day 26 of the 30 Days to Become a Better Cosmetic Chemist series This 30 day challenge is all about giving you lessons and basic exercises that will improve your abilities as a cosmetic chemist. Get your copy of the Become a Better Cosmetic Chemist workbook In this episode In today's program we're going to discuss raw material samples including how to get them, when you should get them and what to do with them after you get them. In this episode you'll learn: How to get raw material samples from suppliers Alternative sources for obtaining raw materials What information you should collect about a material Questions you should ask about your new raw material How to evaluate a raw material The importance of testing new materials on a blind basis Today's challenge Start your own raw material evaluation system. Spreadsheet for tracking new raw materials

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Welcome to Day 25 of the 30 Days to Become a Better Cosmetic Chemist series This 30 day challenge is all about giving you lessons and basic exercises that will improve your abilities as a cosmetic chemist. Get your copy of the Become a Better Cosmetic Chemist workbook In this episode In today's program we discuss cosmetic science and specifically talk about how skin moisturizers work. This is a topic that all cosmetic formulators should know whether you work in skin care or not since moisturization and skin moisturization in particular is one of the most basic functions of cosmetic products. In this episode you'll learn: The basic function of skin Skin structure and why moisturization products are needed Ingredients that make moisturizers work The differences between humectants, emollients and occlusive agents Today's challenge For today's challenge get some of the different skin moisturizing ingredients and see if you can tell a difference between them when placed on the back of your hand. Get a sample of glycerin, mineral oil and petrolatum and see if you notice any differences. Write about your experience testing these ingredients in the comments below. Skin moisturizing experiment

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Welcome to Day 24 of the 30 Days to Become a Better Cosmetic Chemist series This 30 day challenge is all about giving you lessons and basic exercises that will improve your abilities as a cosmetic chemist. Get your copy of the Become a Better Cosmetic Chemist workbook In this episode In today's program we will show you how to develop your online profile and why it is important to get accurate information about you on the Internet. In this episode you'll find: How to determine your current online reputation The benefits of a good online reputation and problems with a bad one What you can learn by Googling yourself Key elements to include in your LinkedIn profile Profile tips for other social media sites Tips for improving your online reputation Today's challenge Take control of your online reputation. Go through the steps and figure out what your online reputation is now by doing a Google search of your name. Create a profile on LinkedIn and other social networking sites. Make sure the profile you create has the key elements of a good profile and reflects what you want the world to know about you. Think in terms of what a future employer might be saying about you. Connect with me on LinkedIn!

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Welcome to Day 23 of the 30 Days to Become a Better Cosmetic Chemist series This 30 day challenge is all about giving you lessons and basic exercises that will improve your abilities as a cosmetic chemist. Get your copy of the Become a Better Cosmetic Chemist workbook In this episode In today's program we cover a topic that will make you better educated about the cosmetic industry. You'll learn about Non-Governmental Organizations and how they impact cosmetic formulators. In this episode you'll find: Who are the NGOs that affect the cosmetic industry Claims they make about cosmetic products Toxic chemicals, animal testing and other issues of NGOs What NGOs are trying to achieve How NGOs are impacting the cosmetic industry Why NGOs are more effective than scientists What formulators can do to combat the effect of NGOs Today's challenge The challenge today will be for you to become familiar with one of the NGOs that we talked about and get an idea of the types of claims they make, how they generate money, and how it might affect your formulations. After you complete today's task go to the show notes page and leave a comment about what you found out. Also, if you are left with questions that you can't answer please post those as it can start a valuable discussion.

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Welcome to Day 22 of the 30 Days to Become a Better Cosmetic Chemist series This 30 day challenge is all about giving you lessons and basic exercises that will improve your abilities as a cosmetic chemist. Get your copy of the Become a Better Cosmetic Chemist workbook In this episode In today's program we cover Cosmetic product testing and research. Specifically, you'll learn of a way to use information found in patents to help improve your formulation efforts. In this episode you'll find: The reality of test methods in the cosmetic industry How foam testing is really done The different parts of a patent and what you can learn from them How to read a patent Where to find cosmetic patents How to get starting formulas and test methods from patents Today's challenge Go to the Google Patent page and find a test method or formulation that you can use in your lab. Focus on finding something that will help you in your prototyping work today. If you work on hair care products, look for a new way to measure some aspect of hair that you hadn't thought of before. If you work on skin products, search for ways to demonstrate the product makes skin look or feel better. After you come up with your method, post a link to the patent you used and let us know what you found there.

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Welcome to Day 21 of the 30 Days to Become a Better Cosmetic Chemist series This 30 day challenge is all about giving you lessons and basic exercises that will improve your abilities as a cosmetic chemist. Get your copy of the Become a Better Cosmetic Chemist workbook In this episode In today's program we cover how to figure out the cost of a cosmetic formula. In this episode you'll find: Four step method for calculating formula costs Getting your formula to be consistent Obtaining cosmetic raw material costs Calculating component costs Calculating the cost of the complete formula Today's challenge For today's challenge, I want you to figure out the cost of one of your formulas. Just follow the steps outlined above and you should be able to do it. Cosmetic Formula Costing Spreadsheet http://www. youtube. com/watch? v=k5NvK6IbDcY

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Welcome to Day 20 of the 30 Days to Become a Better Cosmetic Chemist series This 30 day challenge is all about giving you lessons and basic exercises that will improve your abilities as a cosmetic chemist. Get your copy of the Become a Better Cosmetic Chemist workbook In this episode In today's program we're going to talk about raw materials, ingredient lists, and what you can learn from them. We'll be covering exactly how you can create a close approximation of any formula just by using their ingredient list. In this episode you'll find: Six step method for analyzing an ingredient list Where to find ingredient lists for products Figuring out which ingredients are important Finding the 1% line Guessing the level of ingredients in the formula Including important low-level secondary ingredients Making your new prototypes Today's challenge Follow the 6 steps and see if you are able to create a reasonable duplicate. Put your analysis in the comments below. My two favorite places to find LOIs is Drugstore. com and Ulta. com

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Welcome to Day 19 of the 30 Days to Become a Better Cosmetic Chemist series This 30 day challenge is all about giving you lessons and basic exercises that will improve your abilities as a cosmetic chemist. Get your copy of the Become a Better Cosmetic Chemist workbook In this episode In today's program we're going to cover the basic science of one of the most important types of raw materials used in cosmetics... surfactants. In this episode you'll find: Definition of surfactants History of the developments of surfactants Why surfactants are used in cosmetics How surfactants work Four types of cosmetic surfactants When to use the different types of surfactants Today's challenge Try a classic experiment to demonstrate the effect of a surfactant in water. It is the old pepper, water, soap experiment. To do this experiment you need to get some black pepper, a dish of water, a toothpick and a body wash, shampoo, or bar soap. But doing the experiment is not the only part of today's challenge. The real challenge is to see if you can figure out a way to explain what is going on. Answer a few questions. For example, why does the pepper stay on the surface of the water? And why does it move away when you expose it to a surfactant? First, explain it in a way that makes sense to you. Then see if you can come up with a way to explain it to a 10-year-old. When you've got that go to the show notes for today's program and leave your explanation.

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Welcome to Day 18 of the 30 Days to Become a Better Cosmetic Chemist series This 30 day challenge is all about giving you lessons and basic exercises that will improve your abilities as a cosmetic chemist. Get your copy of the Become a Better Cosmetic Chemist workbook In this episode In today's program we'll be talking about how you can further your education in cosmetic science. After listening you should have a good idea about some of the things you can do to improve your educational background to make yourself a more valuable cosmetic chemist. In this episode you'll find: The level of education you need to be a cosmetic chemist Universities that offer advanced cosmetic science degrees Undergraduate cosmetic science programs Cosmetic programs outside the US Continuing education options - live classes Online cosmetic science education options Today's Challenge For today's challenge, I challenge you to find a program or course that you can take to improve your knowledge of cosmetic formulating or the cosmetic industry. This could be our Practical Cosmetic Formulating course or any of the other things we talked about in this program. Take the time and research the program from which you want to learn. Then go do it.

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Welcome to Day 17 of the 30 Days to Become a Better Cosmetic Chemist series This 30 day challenge is all about giving you lessons and basic exercises that will improve your abilities as a cosmetic chemist. Get your copy of the Become a Better Cosmetic Chemist workbook In this episode Today's program is all about the regulation of the cosmetic industry and what you as a cosmetic formulator need to know. In this episode you'll find: The reality of cosmetic product regulations The history of cosmetic regulations in the US Comparisons between US regulations and EU regulations Two overriding laws for cosmetic regulation by the FDA Resources for cosmetic regulatory information Today's Challenge Today's challenge is meant to help get you up to speed on cosmetic regulations. The FDA website is the best source for finding the relevant information however there is so much information there that it is difficult to know what is relevant to formulators. FDA article list relevant to people in the cosmetic industry. Go through the list and read as many of these as you can. I would suggest you start with ones that I think are most relevant including... “What the law says about cosmetics” “Is it a cosmetic, drug or both? ” Labeling Guide Inspection of Cosmetics GMP Guidelines

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Welcome to Day 16 of the 30 Days to Become a Better Cosmetic Chemist series This 30 day challenge is all about giving you lessons and basic exercises that will improve your abilities as a cosmetic chemist. Get your copy of the Become a Better Cosmetic Chemist workbook In this episode On today's program we're going to talk about the types of tests you need to do on your cosmetic formulas before you start marketing and selling it. In this episode you'll find: The four types of tests you must run Different kinds of microbial tests and what they do More information about stability and safety testing The reason you need to do performance and claims testing Today's Challenge Choose either one of your own products or a competitor's product and make a list of all the tests that should have been done prior to launch. Useful resources: Drugstore. com or Ulta. com Example: TRESemme Platinum Strength Strengthening Shampoo Required tests - Stability testing, microbial challenge tests, claims testing

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Welcome to Day 15 of the 30 Days to Become a Better Cosmetic Chemist series This 30 day challenge is all about giving you lessons and basic exercises that will improve your abilities as a cosmetic chemist. Get your copy of the Become a Better Cosmetic Chemist workbook In this episode On today's program we're going to talk to you about all the different types of cosmetic formulas you need to learn how to make. In this episode you'll find: The 10 basic types of formulas all cosmetic chemists should know how to make Solution formulas and when you use them How to create an emulsion & lotion The basics of making stick products Gel Aerosols and more Today's Challenge Today's challenge is designed to help you become more familiar with the product forms and to get you thinking about the ingredients that are used to make them. For this challenge go searching for an example of each of the 10 product forms. Ideally, you will get a sample of each type to start a library of product forms. Find the form in any type of cosmetic that you can and keep a sample. Make note of the ingredients in the products and see if you can figure out which ingredients are most responsible for the product form. The leave your example list in the comments below. Types of cosmetic product forms Solution Cream Lotion Ointments / Pastes Suspension Tablet Powder Gel Stick Aerosol Useful resources: Drugstore. com or Ulta. com

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Welcome to Day 14 of the 30 Days to Become a Better Cosmetic Chemist series This 30 day challenge is all about giving you lessons and basic exercises that will improve your abilities as a cosmetic chemist. Get your copy of the Become a Better Cosmetic Chemist workbook In this episode On today's program we're going to finish our segments on the main types of cosmetic raw materials by talking about claims ingredients. In this episode you'll find: What are claims ingredients and why they are added to formulas The effect of vitamins in cosmetics Why natural extracts are put into formulas Biotech ingredients and what they are supposed to do in cosmetics Plus... how to figure out if an ingredient actually works Today's Challenge Look through some ingredient lists and see if you can figure out which ingredients are the "claims" ingredients. Useful resources: Drugstore. com or Ulta. com

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Welcome to Day 13 of the 30 Days to Become a Better Cosmetic Chemist series This 30 day challenge is all about giving you lessons and basic exercises that will improve your abilities as a cosmetic chemist. Get your copy of the Become a Better Cosmetic Chemist workbook In this episode On today's program we're going to step back and talk about chemistry. Specifically, we'll be going over some of the most important basic principles in chemistry that are applicable to the job of a cosmetic formulator. Most of the things you learn in college about chemistry are not relevant to your job as a formulator. But some of them are. Today, we'll talk about those. In this episode you'll find: What are elements and why should a formulator care The various types of molecules Chemical bonds and reactions Phases of matter as they matter to chemists The science of solutions How pH affects your formulations Relevant to Exercise Go check out the Khan Academy. Here is the free course in general chemistry.

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Welcome to Day 12 of the 30 Days to Become a Better Cosmetic Chemist series This 30 day challenge is all about giving you lessons and basic exercises that will improve your abilities as a cosmetic chemist. Get your copy of the Become a Better Cosmetic Chemist workbook In this episode On today's program we're going to focus on your cosmetic science career. If you don't yet have a job inthe industry this will be helpful to let you know your options. If you are already employed in the cosmetic industry, this will let you know about different career paths you might rather pursue. In this episode you'll find: The degrees that are best suited for the cosmetic industry The 10 types of cosmetic jobs for scientist Cosmetic industry jobs for biologists Typical hierarchy in the cosmetic laboratory Relevant to Exercise For today's challenge, go through some of the jobs listed and figure out if you have the qualifications to do the job and if it is something you would want to do. Then write down a plan of how you might get the job. Here is the listing of cosmetic jobs around the US. If you have any questions about these jobs leave a comment below.

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Welcome to Day 11 of the 30 Days to Become a Better Cosmetic Chemist series This 30 day challenge is all about giving you lessons and basic exercises that will improve your abilities as a cosmetic chemist. Follow along in the workbook In this episode In today's episode I’ll share: Why you should know about the top cosmetic companies Top 10 largest companies in the cosmetic industry Sales information and top brands The top company in the cosmetic industry in 2015 had over $30 billion in sales and was... . listen to the program. Relevant to Exercise Pick one of the companies on this list and do a deeper dive into the products they make. Go to the company's website and write down all the brands they make. Then look for some of the products from those brands and make note of the technology they are using. Do they use basically the same formula between brands? Are the brands vastly different from each other? Are their product offerings the same across brands? After you've done this go get samples of products made by this company, use them. See if you can find similarities in their offerings and whether you can start to tell which big company make which brands just based on the products. When you're done go to the show notes and tell us about your experience.

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Welcome to Day 10 of the 30 Days to Become a Better Cosmetic Chemist series This 30 day challenge is all about giving you lessons and basic exercises that will improve your abilities as a cosmetic chemist. Follow along in the workbook In this episode In today's episode I’ll share: What are cosmetic claims Why cosmetic formulators need to care about claims The 7 different types of claims How to support cosmetic claims What is meant by the word "puffery" Relevant to Exercise Analyze the claims of a product in the marketplace. Step 1 – Get the label copy and ingredient list Step 2 – Figure out what claims need to be supported Step 3 – Figure out how they might be supported Post your analysis in the comments below

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Welcome to Day 9 of the 30 Days to Become a Better Cosmetic Chemist series This 30 day challenge is all about giving you basic exercises that will improve your abilities as a cosmetic chemist. In this episode Here are all the types of equipment essential for any formulation lab Weighing devices Equipment to contain your creations Mixers you need Temperature control equipment Devices for testing your cosmetics Relevant to Exercise Here is the equipment checklist

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Welcome to Day 8 of the 30 Days to Become a Better Cosmetic Chemist series This 30 day challenge is all about giving you basic exercises that will improve your abilities as a cosmetic chemist. In this episode In today's episode I’ll share: The 8 types of aesthetic modifying ingredients Key solvents used in cosmetics Formulation adjustment ingredients you need to add All the difference preservatives you can use in formulating What cosmetic thickeners to use and when Fragrances and cosmetics How to change the appearance and texture of formulas Relevant to Exercise Link to the product reviewed in the show. Jergens Natural Glow Revitalizing Daily Moisturizer Water, Glycerin, Zea Mays (Corn) Starch, Cetearyl Alcohol, Dihydroxyacetone, Mineral Oil, Petrolatum, Ceteareth 20, Ethylhexyl Isononanoate, Steareth 2, Dimethicone, Fragrance, Octyldodecyl Myristate, Stearic Acid, Hydroxyhexyl Acrylate/Sodium Acryloyldimethyl Taurate Copolymer, Isohexadecane, DMDM Hydantoin, Methylparaben, BHT, Ethylparaben, Propylparaben, Polysorbate 60, Citric Acid, Olea Europea (Olive) Fruit Oil, Avena Sativa (Oat) Kernel Extract, Tocopherol, Persea Gratissima (Avocado) Oil, Simmondsia Chinensis (Jojoba) Seed Oil, Calendula Officinalis Flower Extract, Caramel, Erythrulose After you are done with the exercise go to the comments below and list the results. First list the product you looked at, the main claims, the ingredient list, and the ingredients that you think are the main aesthetic ingredients.

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Welcome to Day 7 of the 30 Days to Become a Better Cosmetic Chemist series This 30 day challenge is all about giving you basic exercises that will improve your abilities as a cosmetic chemist. In this episode In today's episode I’ll share: The biology of hair relevant to cosmetic formulating The composition of hair and its structure How hair grows 10 most significant hair care problems Relevant to Exercise Drugstore. com After you make your list, leave a comment below with the products you reviewed. Also, if you have any questions or comments on the topic, leave those below.

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Welcome to Day 6 of the 30 Days to Become a Better Cosmetic Chemist series This 30 day challenge is all about giving you basic exercises that will improve your abilities as a cosmetic chemist. In this episode In today's episode I’ll share: Advice on having your most successful cosmetic career Getting along with people How to motivate people Writing clear & short emails Becoming knowledgeable of the market Networking Relevant to Exercise Society of Cosmetic Chemist events Connect with us on Twitter at @chemistscorner Connect with me on LinkedIn

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Welcome to Day 5 of the 30 Days to Become a Better Cosmetic Chemist series Get the 30 days to become a better cosmetic chemist book This 30 day challenge is all about giving you basic exercises that will improve your abilities as a cosmetic chemist. In this episode In today's episode I’ll share: Information about stability testing Why stability testing needs to be done 6 step method for conducting a proper stability test Equipment needed to run a stability test Factors which determine a formula's stability When you should do stability tests Relevant to Exercise See this video I did on stability testing If you have questions about stability testing leave a comment below. Also, let us know how your mini stability test worked out.

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Welcome to Day 4 of the 30 Days to Become a Better Cosmetic Chemist series Get the 30 days to become a better cosmetic chemist book This 30 day challenge is all about giving you basic exercises that will improve your abilities as a cosmetic chemist. In this episode In today's episode I’ll share: The key skin structures every cosmetic chemist needs to know How skin grows Where cosmetics are allowed to work on skin The 10 unsolved problems in skin care Relevant to Exercise Learn technologies to solve skin problems. Drugstore. com - Source for product information Put your list of products in the comments section below.

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Welcome to Day 3 of the 30 Days to Become a Better Cosmetic Chemist series Get the 30 days to become a better cosmetic chemist book This 30 day challenge is all about giving you basic exercises that will improve your abilities as a cosmetic chemist. In this episode In today's episode I’ll share: Standard references for learning cosmetic science The books that people who make cosmetics in the industry use Industry magazines you should be reading The best books to have in your lab How to find free cosmetic science information on the Internet Relevant to Exercise Find your cosmetic science books on Amazon. Best formulating books Best formulating magazines

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Welcome to Day 2 of the 30 Days to Become a Better Cosmetic Chemist series Get the 30 days to become a better cosmetic chemist book This 30 day challenge is all about giving you basic exercises that will improve your abilities as a cosmetic chemist. In this episode In today's episode I’ll share information about raw materials: Three types of cosmetic raw materials 7 types of functional raw materials How to tell the difference between functional & other materials Relevant to Exercise Identifying functional ingredients. For example, let's look at the example of the Jergens Natural Glow Revitalizing Daily Moisturizer Water, Glycerin, Zea Mays (Corn) Starch, Cetearyl Alcohol, Dihydroxyacetone, Mineral Oil, Petrolatum, Ceteareth 20, Ethylhexyl Isononanoate, Steareth 2, Dimethicone, Fragrance, Octyldodecyl Myristate, Stearic Acid, Hydroxyhexyl Acrylate/Sodium Acryloyldimethyl Taurate Copolymer, Isohexadecane, DMDM Hydantoin, Methylparaben, BHT, Ethylparaben, Propylparaben, Polysorbate 60, Citric Acid, Olea Europea (Olive) Fruit Oil, Avena Sativa (Oat) Kernel Extract, Tocopherol, Persea Gratissima (Avocado) Oil, Simmondsia Chinensis (Jojoba) Seed Oil, Calendula Officinalis Flower Extract, Caramel, Erythrulose Functional ingredients: 1. Glycerin 2. Mineral Oil 3. Petrolatum 4. Dimethicone 5. Erythrulose Share your results from the exercise in the comments below.

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Welcome to Day 1 of the 30 Days to Become a Better Cosmetic Chemist series This 30 day challenge is all about giving you basic exercises that will improve your abilities as a cosmetic chemist. Today the challenge is for you to learn about a new category of cosmetic formulas. In this episode In todays episode I share: Information you need to know about the cosmetic market The size of the worldwide cosmetic market The 5 key types of cosmetic products Different types of skin care, hair care & color cosmetics Difference between drugs and cosmetics Daily Challenge - Analyze the market Here is a spreadsheet example of the market analysis. You can use this spreadsheet to do your own analysis. Analysis of specialty hair conditioner market spreadsheet Best places to find product information: Drugstore. com Ulta. com Share your analysis, questions and comments below.

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Last week I gave a presentation of my Beginning Cosmetic Chemistry course to a full house at the National SCC meeting in New York. I was pleased that there were nearly 50 students! Doing that course is always fun. Incidentally, if you couldn't make the live course you can get the information and more in our online formulating course. During the course I was talking about "claims ingredients" and the fact that many of the things that are touted as active ingredients are really just added for the marketing claims. I further stated that if you are adding a compound in your formula that is having a drug effect that would make the product an illegal drug. This met with some disagreement and another participant and I had a nice exchange about it. In reality, we didn't disagree on the facts, but we did disagree on the way these facts should be considered. Here is my opinion about cosmetics, active ingredients and their effectiveness. 1. If an ingredient is added to a cosmetic and it is going to somehow interact with your skin cells and change the body metabolism, then the ingredient (and product) is a drug. 2. If your product is not a drug then it will not have any significant impact on the skin cell metabolism... ergo it won't work like a drug. So the short answer is No, active ingredients in anti-aging cosmetics do not work. If they do, they are drugs. For these reasons when you see anti-aging products that claim to "boost collagen" or stimulate elastin production, they either don't work or they are illegal drugs. This statement is what met with disagreement. There are people in the cosmetic industry who hold the opinion that you can use ingredients that are known to have an effect on skin, as long as you don't claim that they do what you know they do. They believe that you can add ingredients known to boost collagen as long as you don't claim that your product does that. It's an understandable position but not one that sits right with me. I should add that they make the point that it is demonstrably false that things like moisturizers don't have an impact on skin metabolism. They do. Even touching your skin can be shown to stimulate the production of certain compounds in skin. This is all true so it makes the situation complicated. FDA weighs in It is interesting to guess about the FDA feelings on this topic. This recent letter they sent to Dr Brandt Skincare is illuminating. Essentially, Dr Brandt was making claims on their website that make their products illegal drugs. Here is a listing of some of the claims they made which make a cosmetic product an illegal drug. 1. "Boosts collagen production" 2. "dvanced collagen boosters and botox alternatives that actually work” 3. “elps breakdown fat deposits... ” 4. “epairs damaged skin” 5. “ntibacterial action” 6. “helps fade dark circles by stimulating microcirculation” So it...

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I’m a huge fan of the Harry’s Cosmetology book and have gotten a lot of use out of my copy of the 8th edition. That’s why I was excited to get a hard copy of the latest, 9th edition. It is 3 books instead of 1 and has been expanded to nearly 2300 pages. For comparison the previous book had 966 pages. The pages in the new edition are a bit smaller and the font is a little larger but it still represents about 40% more information than the 8th edition. Overall, I liked this new edition and believe it would be a helpful addition to the library of any cosmetic formulation lab. Since much of the content has changed from the 8th edition, I believe this new work should be looked at as an expansion of the previous book rather than a replacement for it. Book Structure The 9th edition of Harry’s Cosmeticology is divided into three volumes. The first volume is an introduction to the cosmetic industry and has excellent information about regulations around the world. It also delves into the biology of the human body including chapters on skin, hair, nails and most any other body part where you would use a cosmetic. It’s a much more thorough treatment of the subject than in past editions. The second volume focuses on ingredients used in cosmetics and has useful chapters on surfactants, botanicals, preservatives, antioxidants, and many more. This volume explores the latest and emerging technologies in cosmetics but still covers most standard technologies. The third volume is the largest of the three and looks at everything from product development, formulation, testing, packaging, manufacturing and more. There is a lot of great information here but even with 1000 plus pages, there were some topics that could have been covered in more detail. Positives There is a lot to like about this new edition of Harry’s. The expanded content is great, as was the addition of green chemistry topics and cutting edge science in the field of cosmetics. The new information on anti-aging pathways was particularly interesting and will be helpful to anyone formulating skin care products. The book was written by dozens of experts who have many years of experience in the cosmetic industry. These authors range from formulating chemists, to dermatologists to college professors. The different voices helps make the work even more comprehensive. I also like the inclusion of mind maps to help navigate the book. This gives a good sense of the entire topic in a single page. And while I have not tried the digital version I think this would in some ways be even more useful than the print version. One of the drawbacks of this new edition is that it doesn’t contain an index so when you are looking for specific topics it can be difficult. The search function on the digital version removes this obstacle. Negatives Although my overall impression of this new work is positive there were a couple of...

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Here was a question sent in by our readers about formulating with essential oils. I'm not a chemist but I have been formulating cosmetic products for my wife for a short time and have been getting a lot of information from Paula Begoun. I recently ran across some critiques of Paula and wondered if you could shed some light on her opinions from a Chemists point of view. Paula is very much against using most essential oils in cosmetic products and she cites various studies to back up her opinion. My question is, regarding essential oils, is Paula interpreting the evidence correctly? I've looked very hard to find a Chemists point of view on her opinions but all i can find are people who sell essential oils complaining about her. Is there a consensus view in the scientific community on Paula Begoun? Here is a link to her websites article on Lavender oil. Your website looks to be a great source of information and Im very glad i found it. I've just started exploring it and so far it's already been a great help. Thank you for the service you are providing. Response Your question is a little bit complicated to answer directly because I don't exactly know what you are really asking. If you want to know whether essential oils safe to use in cosmetics? The answer is yes. They are safe to use. Paula seems to suggest they aren't or perhaps that they shouldn't be used because of what they can do to skin. There are certainly reasons for concern. The primary problem is that essential oils contain ingredients to which some people will experience allergic reactions. If you are a person who reacts to those ingredients then you should avoid those essential oils in your products. However, only about 4% of the population show any allergic reaction to ingredients in essential oils so most people don't have to worry about it. Benefits of essential oils But the more important question is whether essential oils have any added benefit in cosmetic. They are used to create fragrances and they are good for that. But for skin, essential oils do not provide a superior moisturizing benefit than standard ingredients like mineral oil or petrolatum. From a formulation standpoint the only reason to put essential oils into a formula (if not for fragrance reasons) is for marketing reasons. To do this, you create a standard skin lotion then put a tiny amount of the essential oils in the formula so you can call it out on the package. It will have no effect on the formula but is compelling to consumers. Essential oils used in this way are perfectly safe. So, I don't know if I answered your question but hopefully, you found the opinions of a formulator useful. Perry, 44

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On a Facebook page that I participate in someone there was a discussion about extracts in cosmetics and someone posed the question "Do a significant number of cosmetic chemists and formulators really hold that extracts are worthless in a product? " This quick answer is Yes. Most cosmetic chemists that I know believe that extracts in a formulation are nothing more than claims ingredients added to support the story that the marketing group wants to tell about the product. We do not expect these ingredients to have any impact on the functionality of the product. This position naturally leads to some questions which I'll address now. Why don't you think they do anything? There is so much (mis)-information about natural extracts on the Internet that it is understandable people would think they have some benefit. Additionally, there is the wisdom of ancestors that helps reinforce the idea that certain home remedies provide great benefits. On my other website The Beauty Brains we frequently get asked whether this or that treatment suggested by someone's grandmother is really going to improve hair or skin. And many people use treatments like olive oil, apple cider vinegar, lemon juice or things like this as beauty treatments. There just seems to be a natural inclination to want to believe that nature provides everything we need to have great looking skin and hair. As a scientist our goal is to create the best performing product that we can make. This means taking all the materials that we can access, testing them to see their effect, improving on things that work and rejecting things that do not work. Most importantly, we are (should be) driven by testing and data. If aloe vera does not moisturize better than petrolatum there is no performance reason we should use aloe vera. If it did, than we should use it. So, why don't chemists think extracts do anything? Because there is no evidence to demonstrate that they do. If there was evidence that extracts did something in the formula, even at high levels, then these things would be used at a high level in formulas. The fact that there is no evidence of functionality is the reason they aren't used. Evaluating Evidence of Extract Effectiveness Now if you want to prove that an extract has an effect you have to do some testing. This is where things get tricky. In the cosmetic area we have a limited amount of reliable testing however, we do have some. We can measure for moisturization, anti inflammatory response, and some other things. But any claim that can be made about an ingredient should be disbelieved until there is some evidence that it is true. I think this is where non-scientists and scientists diverge. Non-scientists begin with a conclusion (XX extract has some positive effect) whereas scientists begin with not knowing (XX extract might have some positive effect). If you start an investigation with a belief that something works you are going to collect data that...

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Contact information: Bill Basinski 214-463-9870 billbasinski@hotmail. com http://www. basinskipersonalcare. com/ More information about Bill. Born in Heidelberg, Germany to a US Army Artillery Captain and his American wife, raised in Wiesbaden. Attended the American College in Paris, AA in Philosophy and Literature, the U. of Paris, Sorbonne, and the U. of Heidelberg. Left academia to write a novel, worked as a German teacher for the US Army, then moved to Cape Cod to become production manager, partner and benchtop chemist at Margit's Natural Cosmetics, making 20 products sold in health food stores. Co-founded CBI Laboratories in Dallas in 1982, solid it in 1994, worked for Coats Aloe for 5 years, bought back CBI in 2004, left it to found Basinski Personal Care Consulting with wife Ada in 2011. BACKGROUND Came to the US in October 1997 with $500 in my pocket, guitar, typewriter and a knapsack of clean clothes. 15 minutes later, had $50 in my pocket and was partner of Margit's Natural Cosmetics. Partner Paul Cain had met Margit while studying in Heidelberg. Her hobby was makeing natural skin care products for friends and family. They took a look at natural cosmetics in health food stores, which were just coming into being, and were shocked at the artificial ingredients used. So they made a line of their own and sold these handcrafted products in health food stores for 5 years. I duplicated a mineral make-up popular at the time, Incian Earth, which was an illegal cosmetic made with mined hematites from California. I used legal iron oxides, and that led us to found CBI Laboratories in Dallas in 1992, first making a line of mineral make-up and complementary products for a single customer, then evolving into a private label manufacturer. Since we were fluent in French and German, and my partner in Italian, the European-trained aestheticans liked us, and we started making spa and salon products using cold-pressed vegetable oils, herbal extracts, essential oils and natural colorants, while the 20 other labs in town were hustling Aloe Vera products and claiming to have the best Aloe available. We blew them out of the water, and soon they were duplicating our products. The European manufacturers loved us because we used their products and spoke their language, and knew where their plants were located back in the Old Country. And we put new ingredients into the commercial pipeline before the big boys were finished spilling coffee on their technical data sheets. In 1994 we were approached by Thermo Electron (now Thermo Fisher). A new laser division, Thermolase, bought us lock stock and barrel, and after building a business out of almost nothing, we breathed a sigh of relief. American Dream: mission accomplished. CURRENT PROJECTS: But life goes on. And on. So now we're working on projects with Dermatologists, helping local manufacturers get started in business, or existing ones get into skin care/personal care, going to the dogs with several line of pet products, doing industrial products for the leather care industry,...

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More than 2,800 visitors attended the second annual in-cosmetics Brazil exhibition last week. With 30 percent more industry professionals joining the show this year, the event has cemented its position as the cosmetics and personal care ingredients show to attend in the Latin America region. From 30 September - 1 October, at the Blue Pavilion in São Paulo’s Expo Center Norte, the event welcomed international visitors from countries including Argentina, Colombia, Chile, Peru, Venezuela and the USA. Impressively, this year’s event saw a 40 percent increase in foreign visitors, compared to the 2014 event. Daniel Zanetti, in-cosmetics Brazil Exhibition Manager, said: “We are delighted with the outcome of in-cosmetics Brazil 2015, especially given that 46 percent of our visitors were cosmetics manufacturers, demonstrating the very high calibre of this year’s visitors. By the end of the second day we had more space reserved for next year’s exhibition than the total floor space for in-cosmetics Brazil 2015, which shows we’re on the right track. ” The show also featured a new award, the ITEHPEC (Institute of Technology and Studies for Cosmetics, Toiletries, and Fragrances) Innovation Award, which recognised manufacturers of ingredients that contribute to increasing the competitiveness of the Brazilian cosmetics, toiletries and fragrance industry, through the implementation of innovative projects. ITEHPEC, the innovation and technology arm of ABIHPEC (Brazilian Association of Cosmetics, Toiletries and Perfumery Industry), announced the award at the event and the winners were revealed by João Carlos Basilio, President of ABIHPEC, at a ceremony attended by over 500 people. BASF took first place, with Chemyunion and Induchem coming second and third respectively. Speaking following the award win, Sergio Carlos Gonçalves, Director of Marketing and International Business at Chemyunion, said: “We really enjoyed in-cosmetics Brazil 2015. The event was very good, even better than last year. Our sales team felt that there were many potential business opportunities. We also feel very honoured to receive second place in ITEHPEC’s Innovation award, for our Emulfeel SSC Plus ingredient. We know the institution has very strict criteria, focused on innovation, so we’re pleased to have been recognised and rewarded. ” This year’s in-cosmetics Brazil included visitors from a number of high profile companies including Avon, Beiersdorf, Colgate-Palmolive, Elizabeth Arden, Johnson & Johnson, Lush Cosmetics, The Body Shop Brazil and Unilever. “We can see clearly how the exhibition has evolved since last year, both in the volume of visitors and the number of companies participating in the event. Having the exhibition establish itself in Brazil makes for a great showcase, and means we don’t always need to travel to other events in Europe or Asia,” commented Gustavo Dieamant, a specialist in Research and Development for the Boticário Group. In addition to the great business opportunities available to visitors and exhibitors alike, one of the highlights of the event was the unique free-to-attend Educational Programme. This year it featured more than 40 hours of seminars, including workshops coordinated by ITEHPEC, Innovation Seminars and Marketing Trends presentations. Cristina Unten, Marketing Manager at Sarfam, added:...

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On the forum there was a question about a shampoo formula and how to make it more conditioning. The question is a good one because it helps illustrate a point that many formulators miss. When you are creating a formula, start with a simple system. The formula listed in the discussion was a reasonable one and contained all the proper ingredients you need for a good conditioning shampoo including Detergent system Conditioning ingredients Adjustment ingredients Pearling agents Preservatives Fragrance Solvent The formula also contained 14 ingredients (with no claims ingredients) which makes it rather complicated. Stripped down to bare essentials you should be able to make a conditioning shampoo with 8 or 9 ingredients. And this is where you should start. Create a base formula When creating a shampoo, body wash or any other cleansing formula you should begin with a simple formula. In this particular case you can create a formula using the solvent, detergent system, adjustment ingredients, preservative and fragrance. You shouldn't include any conditioning ingredients when trying to create a conditioning shampoo. Add new ingredients one at a time This will give you a base formula to which you can add conditioning ingredients to determine if your formula is being made more conditioning. The base formula gives you the baseline of everything. Then when you want to add a feature (say conditioning) you can add one conditioning ingredient to see if it has any effect versus the base formula. You can do a triangle test to determine if there is a noticeable difference. If there is, great! That is your new baseline. If there isn't, that's great too. You know you haven't used enough of the ingredient or that it doesn't do anything. Once you get your new baseline you can add the next conditioning ingredient. And every time you add a new ingredient you should do a triangle test to see if you can tell a difference. If adding a new conditioner makes no noticeable difference, don't use it. Formulating does not have to be complicated. By using a system of adding a few ingredients and testing their effect you can more quickly come to an optimized, effective formula.

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A few weeks ago I was giving a talk at a Society of Cosmetic Chemists meeting and one of the formulators in the audience asked me this question, "Will cosmetic chemists become obsolete? " In further conversation he wondered whether this would happen due to the creation of computer programs that could automate the formulation process. He pondered whether going into cosmetic science was really a good idea or whether science minded students should turn their attentions to industries that had more potential. I thought about this. He made some good points. But upon further reflection I don't think formulators will become obsolete any time in the near future. Here are 5 reasons. Technology isn't advanced enough yet While computer programming has made some advancements and formulation software is helpful, there isn't yet a computer that can reliably create formulations. I'm not aware of any computer that has been created to specifically replace the formulation chemist. I imagine that it could happen as it would be relatively easy to program a machine to create iterations of formulations, but this could only be done in a "dumb" way. For example, you could give a computer a list of all surfactants, cosmetic thickeners, adjustment agents and everything else that goes into a formula and it could spit out any number of reasonable formulas to make. But it wouldn't be able to tell whether the formula would be effective. It wouldn't be able to predict stability. And it wouldn't be able to make it. This might happen in the future but I don't see it happening any time soon. Formulation technology isn't advanced enough Even after we have a computer program that can come up with formulations, I don't think we will be replacing cosmetic chemists any time soon. The main problem is that coming up with potential formulas is not the last step. You need a way to evaluate the formulas. Most importantly, you need a way to determine whether the formula is appealing to people. There aren't good ways to do this at the moment. Very few methods exist that connect formulation performance with consumer perception and desire. And science is not making much progress in this area. Until we have that connection, you'll need cosmetic formulators to do it. People are still needed for innovation While computers are good at repetitive and iterative processes, they are not yet good at innovating. Computer programs can't be made to generate reasonably good ideas or have flashes of inspiration. Computers aren't yet able to see the potential in a mistake like when I accidentally discovered a standard preservative was good at keeping artificial hair color in the hair. Until computers get more creative and better at making non-obvious logical connections creative cosmetic chemists will still be needed to make cosmetic products of the future. Human labor is still less expensive The cosmetic industry is relatively large but not nearly as large as the pharmaceutical industry. That means there isn't as much money invested...

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In today's episode we have an interview with Meyer Rosen, the editor and chief of the new edition of Harry's Cosmeticology. This book is one of the best resources of cosmetic information that you can find. Interview: Meyer Rosen - Meyer Rosen is the president of Interactive Consulting Inc which provides technology-based management and technical support to help facilitate breakthroughs in market, product and process development. He is also the Editor-in-Chief of Harry’s Cosmetology an industry standard text book which features over 150 authors and more than 2600 pages. We’ve brought him on to talk to us more about the recent release of the Ninth Edition of Harry’s Cosmeticology. Show Links: Harry's Cosmeticology Connect with Meyer Rosen Upcoming events: Perry will be speaking at the Southwest SCC meeting on September 24, 2015. Information here.

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Most people who work in the cosmetic industry for large to medium sized companies specialize in one type of cosmetic product. They are limited to hair products or skin products and rarely is there an overlap. Formulators at contract manufacturer or consultants have much more opportunity to work on the different types of cosmetic products, but even they are limited by the projects that come to them. If you want to be a complete cosmetic chemist and maximize your career flexibility, you should learn about the products in all cosmetic categories and the basics of how to create those formulas. The first step to that is to know the products in each of the categories. Cosmetic product categories While there are thousands of cosmetic products on the market, they can all be sorted into 5 distinct categories. Skin care products These are products designed to improve the appearance and feel of skin. The skin care market makes up about 30% of all cosmetics sold which is the largest share of any category. Skin care products can be classified further by how they work and what they do. First, there are products that are left behind on the skin. These include moisturizing products designed to improve the look and feel of skin. There are also anti-aging products that promise to get rid of the sign of aging skin (e. g. wrinkles). There are sunless tanners which change the color of skin. And there are over-the-counter drug products that protect from the sun, treat skin medical conditions, treat acne, and really reduce wrinkles. The other types of skin products are those designed to remove things from skin. This include cleansers like body washes, hand soaps, facial washes, toners, bubble baths and more. It also includes scrubs, masks, and exfoliation products. You could also add shaving creams and depilatories to this group since they are designed to remove hair from the skin. Hair care products Products for the hair are the second most popular type of cosmetic making up approximately 25% of sales. Like the skin care category, hair products can be further classified by how they work and what they do. The most frequently purchased hair products are those designed to remove things from the hair. These are liquid shampoos which clean hair but there are also powdered and aerosol shampoos. They remove dirt, oil and other things from hair. There are specialty shampoos which qualify as over-the-counter drugs and include anti-dandruff shampoos, anti-lice products, and hair restoration shampoos. Hair conditioners are another type of product designed to be rinsed off but they also leave material behind to improve the look and feel of hair. There are also intensive conditioners, protein packs, hot oil treatments, and a wide variety of other specialty products that are supposed to improve the hair look and feel. A third type of hair product are those meant to be left in the hair. These products can help change the feel of hair but are primarily meant to...

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Hey everyone, I'll be giving a few talks coming up in September. Here's information about the meeting in Connecticut. Website to register: http://www. ctscc. org/

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We’ve previously discussed cosmetic raw materials on this website and have even come up with a classification system which demonstrates that there are only 3 types of cosmetic raw materials including Functional, Aesthetic and Claims. In this post we’ll focus on the functional ingredients and review some of the different types used in cosmetic formulating. Functional ingredients are those whose main purpose in the formula is to deliver a benefit to a consumer. They may have some secondary effect of improving the feel of the product when it’s applied or stabilizing the formula but the primary reason they are added is for the effect they have on skin or hair. There are basically 7 types of functional ingredients. Cleansers - These are ingredients that help remove dirt and oil from the skin, hair or nail surfaces. By removing things from these surfaces you can make them look better. The most common are surfactants but also things like exfoliants and solvents can also clean a surface. Conditioners - These ingredients actually change the way the skin or hair feels. They typically need to be left on the surface to have a significant effect. The most common type of conditioning ingredients are cationic surfactants, occlusive agents, humectants, and emollients. Colors - These ingredients are used to impart a color to the skin or hair surface. Colorants are the most highly regulated of all ingredients and any colorant you use must be approved by the FDA for such purposes. Fragrances - These ingredients affect the way that a product smells and can change the odor of any surface they are applied to. They make up the functional ingredients in products like colognes and perfumes. It should be noted that both Colors and Fragrances are frequently used as aesthetic ingredients as they can change the color and odor of your formulation. Film formers - These raw materials are used to change the shape of hair and help create an even surface in skin products like sunscreens. They are polymers. Reactives - While most cosmetics do not involve chemical reactions there are some that do. These include ingredients used for changing the shape of hair, color the skin, and removing hair (as in depilatories). Drug active - This last class of functional ingredients are technically not cosmetic products. If your product contains a drug active then it is a drug and not a cosmetic. However, numerous products marketed as cosmetics use drug actives so it makes sense to include them in this classification system. Drug actives include ingredients that are sunscreens, antiperspirants, antidandruff, antibacterials, anti cavities, skin lightening, anti acne and hair growth. Of the thousands of ingredients used in cosmetics only a small percentage provide an actual functional benefit to the formula. It is a good habit to look at LOIs and see if you can pick out the ingredients that are functional and the ones that fall into different categories.

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Frequently we're contacted by people who are in school or another industry and want to break into the cosmetic industry as a formulator. They want to know if there are internships, jobs or experiences that are important for getting a job. So, I thought I'd list what I think are the best things you can do to improve your chances of getting a job in the cosmetic industry. It comes down to three things... Education Perhaps the most important thing you can do to improve your chances of getting a job in the cosmetic industry is to improve your knowledge of the industry. Getting a bachelors degree in Chemistry is most helpful but a Biology or Chemical Engineering degree can work too. You need the degree. Without it, most formulation jobs will be off limits to you. Incidentally, getting a masters degree only helps a little. But a bachelors degree isn't enough. You also should learn about the cosmetic industry. Find out what the industry is about as well as the companies, the brands, and the products. If you really want to get a leg up on people competing for those jobs go through our Practical Cosmetic Formulation course. After you complete this course you will know more than almost any other candidate for the formulation job you might apply. Networking Being well educated is helpful but it's not enough to get you that job. The number one thing you can do to improve your chances of getting a job in the cosmetic industry is to meet and connect with people in the industry. Now is the time to start building your network of people you know. In fact, 80% of jobs are gotten through networking! So if you are looking to become a cosmetic chemist the best thing you can do is to go meet other cosmetic chemists. This can be done through the Society of Cosmetic Chemists. Attend meetings. Begin relationships with other formulators. Learn from them what the job is all about. Ask questions and have a conversation. Cosmetic chemists are a friendly bunch. However, don't just take, take, take. Remember that people aren't necessarily interested in helping you. First, figure out some benefit the person will get by helping you and figure out some way you can help them. Learn how to network Personality The final thing you can do is to work on yourself. Critically evaluate yourself and determine if you have the interpersonal skills needed to get what you want. One of my favorite books on the subject is the classic How to Win Friends and Influence People. The basic theme of that book is to think about what other people want before you ask for what you want. Also, read up on how to be the best interviewer that you can. There are lots of blogs with excellent advice. Finally, if you are willing to relocate you improve your chances of getting a job in the cosmetic industry. Most of the jobs are...

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The 2015 in-cosmetics Brasil fair set to feature many novelties and innovative educational content in-cosmetics, Brasil 30 September -1 October, Expo Center Norte, Säo Paulo, Brasil The second edition of the in-cosmetics Brasil fair has many new things to offer visitors plus enhanced educational content. In addition to the well-known workshops and Innovation Seminars, aimed at Research and Development (R&D) professionals, the event will launch Marketing Trends, seminars on Market Trends for Toiletries, Fragrance and Cosmetics (HPPC) industry marketing professionals. This year, in-cosmetics Brasil, an event exclusively designed to showcase raw materials for the HPPC sector, has a wide range of new offerings for the Latin-American R&D professionals and marketing professionals visiting the fair. The event has a strong international component, with 65% of the exhibitors non-Brazilian, from over 20 countries. The work of the in-cosmetics Road Shows team, in countries such as Colombia, Mexico, Chile and Argentina, means the fair’s organisers are expecting to play host to 13% of international visitors. in-cosmetics Brasil takes place 30 September - 01 October 2015 in the Blue Pavilion of Sao Paulo’s Expo Center Norte. Visitors will have the chance to get to know a variety of innovatory raw materials. In addition, the Innovation Zone provides contact with the most recent ingredients and formulations launched over the last six months in the world market. This year’s fair has a larger Innovation Zone: twice the size of last year’s. One new item this year is the Formulation Display, an area within the Innovation Zone showcasing raw materials and a formulations. In this area, visitors are able to appreciate the ingredients, see and feel how they function as part of the finished product, trying out the final result. Another novel element is theFragrance Trail, a trail created by fragrance companies so visitors wishing to know more about this theme can follow the signage to each one on the map. In addition to the fair’s novelties, in-cosmetics Brasil 2015 Educational programme is 50% larger than last year’s and this edition has over 45 hours of quality technical content, split into three areas, marketing trends, workshops and innovation seminars: Marketing Trends are free seminars on the subject aimed at HPPC-industry marketing professionals. Among the lectures are: “The new beauty consumer: Trends in Brazil and the rest of the world,” given by Vivienne Rudd of Mintel; “Trends and Novelties in hair treatment in Brazil”, given by Marcela Viana of Euromonitor, and “Special active ingredients for personal care: An analysis of the world market and opportunities in the US, Europe and China”, given by Elaine Gerchon of Kline. The ITEHPEC (Institute of Technology and Studies of Toiletries, Fragrance and Cosmetics)Workshops are aimed at research and development professionals. Some stand-out themes of these workshops are: “Managing innovation in the HPPC industry. The meeting point! ”, a lecture given by Carlos Eduardo de Oliveira Praes of Grupo Boticário; “Neurosciences applied to cosmetics development”, a lecture given by Marcelo Peruzzo, of FGV and “Update to the ISO organics norm”, a lecture given...

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Emulsifiers are great for keeping mixtures of oil and water together but they do have a number of downsides that has prompted researchers to look for alternatives. Some of the problems include skin irritation, questionable stability, cost, environmental problems, regulatory issues and difficulties in production. There are a few options you can try to remove your emulsifier from your formula. These technologies are relatively new and haven't taken over the industry but this may represent the future of emulsification in cosmetics. Polymeric emulsions - The basic idea in a polymeric emulsion is that the polymer is able to tie up a number of different particles so an emulsion can be created. But since polymers are such large molecules they are not able to penetrate the skin and cause any of the problems typically associated with emulsifiers. Hydroxypropyl Methylcellulose or Acrylic Acid polymers like Carbomer can be used to create these emulsions. I expect polymeric emulsions will eventually take over in the cosmetic industry since they are easy to use, highly stable, and can be done via cold processing. Acoustic emulsification - If you don't want to use a chemical method for creating an emulsion you might try a physical method. Acoustic emulsification is a method by which you mix water and oil then use ultrasound to break up the immiscible particles into particles that are so small that they stay suspended in the solution. Thus you have a stable mixture of oil and water without an emulsifier. Shake before use - Of course, you can also make a formulation that is a mixture of water and oil but requires the user to shake the product before using it. Mechanical mixing like this can lead to short term stability which may be just long enough for your purposes. This is a rather crude method of formulating but it will work in some cases. The oil and water phases just have to have some level of compatibility. You can get this by using an oil that has a high HLB. Have you used any of these methods? Leave a comment below and tell us about it.

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document. createElement('audio'); https://media. chemistscorner. com/uploads/CC-episode-046. mp3 Interview starts at 6:00 Details: Kathleen Norris is Director of eMarketing and Analytics for the Formulator Sample Shop, a supplier of specialty ingredients for the cosmetic, personal care and toiletry industries. She previously served as the Marketing Manager of North America at Active Concepts where she helped develop and lead the implementation of marketing strategies to support this territory as well as coordinate marketing and sales promotions. Through extensive travel with the North American Sales Team and Distributors (both in the US and Canada), Norris brings with her knowledge of industry trends and the ability to help analyze market information enabling customers to make effective product choices to build their companies. Norris began her career with Active Concepts in 2011 on the technical marketing team. She holds a degree from the University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill and has been active in the Society of Cosmetic Chemists. Contact Kathleen : LinkedIn Formulator Sample Shop website Cosmetic science - Three types of cosmetic raw materials If you go through the INCI dictionary which is the ingredient dictionary listing all the ingredients used in cosmetic products, you will find that there are over 15,000 possible things to choose from. This seems like an amazing array of compounds and it is. To learn every ingredient would be pretty difficult. Fortunately, there is a lot of overlap in how these ingredients are used in cosmetics. I used to be a biology major and one of the things I liked best about that subject was the area of Cladistics (or taxonomy if you like). Cladistics is the study of grouping similar species together. So lizards and snakes are grouped together as are cows and people. Anyway, I thought there should be a similar classification system for cosmetic raw materials so I put one together. When you really look at all the cosmetic raw materials and why they are used in formulations, they can be grouped into 3 main categories. Really all of the ingredients used in cosmetics can be put into one of these three categories: Functional Aesthetic Modifier Claims There is a little overlap and of course these categories can be divided up further but as a chemistry student or formulator, it’s helpful to know these main categories. We can go a bit deeper in future posts but let me explain the main categories. Functional Functional cosmetic ingredients are ones which actually have an effect on the body that the formulator wishes. You cannot make a useful cosmetic product without including at least one functional ingredient. However, you could make an entire cosmetic using just one functional ingredient. Vaseline has built a huge brand on a single functional ingredient cosmetic (Petrolatum). Functional ingredients include cleansers, conditioning agents, colorants, fragrances, reactive ingredients, film formers, and drug actives. Every cosmetic you’ve ever used or made has at least one functional ingredient. Incidentally, functional ingredients are the ones that cosmetic chemists most want new raw material suppliers to make. The...

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The EWG gets a lot of criticism for flaws in their database, but I have to give them credit where credit is due. They have fixed at least one flaw that I pointed out in a previous blog post 3 reasons why the (EWG is a dubious source). They used to have a listing for a fictional compound POLYPARABEN. Fortunately, they removed it. But they still list Polyparaben as a synonym for Propylparaben but that is a minor mistake. I find it encouraging that they have fixed anything. Profit over Safety I also criticized them for profiting off of what they consider "dangerous" products. And they still do that. One of the ways the EWG makes money is by participating in affiliate programs, specifically the Amazon Affiliate program and the Google affiliate program. This is a good deal for websites because if a consumer goes to Amazon and makes a purchase the website owner gets a small % of the sale (somewhere between 2 and 4%). We participate in an Amazon Affiliate program on this site. Unfortunately, the EWG seems more concerned about their Amazon Affiliate sales than they do about consumer safety. After all, why would they put an affiliate link to a product they rate as the worst of the worst? Here is the Roc Retinol Moisturizer with a rating of 9. A 9 rating is one of the most dangerous product that can be found in the Skin Deep Database (according to them). But if you click on the picture they'll be happy to have you buy the product through their affiliate program. If a product was this dangerous how could the EWG possibly encourage people to buy it? Safety Ratings Based on Nothing One of the "improvements" recently added to the Skin Deep Database was an additional rating of the quality of data supporting the safety rating. This is understandable since ratings based on single studies are much weaker than ratings based on lots of studies. However, this does not seem to affect the way they rate ingredients. For example, how can an ingredient like HYDROGENATED PALM GLYCERIDES get a one rating? A one rating is the most safe you can score so they give it a one. They admit that this rating is based on no data. What is it based on? I have no idea. Maybe they think Palm Glycerides sounds natural so it gets a one rating with no data, but then how would you explain the one rating based on no data of HYDROXYETHYL ACRYLATE/ SODIUM ACRYLOYLDIMETHYL TAURATE COPOLYMER? There is certainly nothing natural about an acrylic polymer. You could say that one rating is the starting point so any ingredient that has a zero data will get a one rating. This seems rather silly but it would be logical. But I don't think the assumption that an ingredient is completely safe without any supporting data is a reasonable one. It goes completely against the "Precautionary Principle" that the site is supposed...

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To be a complete cosmetic chemist you need to have a wide range of knowledge and skills not taught in college. Here are the 5 main areas you need to develop to excel in a cosmetic science career. Cosmetic science knowledge - Most of what you learned in college about chemistry was focused on topics that have limited application to the job of being a cosmetic chemist. You learned more about the construction of molecules and less about their application. As a formulator you'll have to learn what the different available ingredients do and how to use them. Considering that there are over 15,000 raw materials listed in the INCI dictionary, this can take a considerable amount of time. Here are the main areas of focus. Functional ingredients - These are the things that make cosmetics work. Aesthetic ingredients - These are the things that make functional ingredients look, feel, and smell better Claims ingredients - These are the ingredients that support the story and sell your products. Skin, hair and nail biology - Knowledge of this helps you make products to solve consumer problems. Consumer problems - These are the problems you design cosmetics to solve. Controversial topics - It's good to know what ingredients are controversial and the truth behind scare stories on the Internet & in popular culture. Formulating knowledge - Knowing the ingredients is important but knowing how to put them together into a finished form that consumers will like is another. That's why you need to develop a good understanding of cosmetic formulation. Formulation forms - There are only a limited number of product formulation types in the cosmetic industry including things like solutions, emulsions, gels, sticks, pressed powders and more. Ingredient insights - You need to learn which ingredients are compatible and which ones aren't. Lab equipment - It's important to be familiar with all the various lab devices you need while formulating and testing prototypes. Processing equipment - Formulators are involved with scaling up from a beaker to a 3000 gallon tank so you need to be familiar with the equipment needed to do that. Raw material companies - You need to know where to get raw materials and lab supplier to make your prototypes. Product testing methods - There are hundreds of standard industry tests and thousands more you could make up yourself. Innovation - You need to develop skills to invent novel products. Cosmetic Business - Being a good scientist is only one aspect of excelling in a cosmetic science career. You also need to know about the cosmetic industry and how your company (or product) fits in with the rest of the industry. This will impact the way you create products and spur innovation. Cosmetic industry players - Learn about the different types of companies in the industry, who they are, where they are located, and how they influence the industry. For cosmetics P&G, Unilever, and L'Oreal are the biggest. Cosmetic brands - Leading brands set the tone for product...

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Join the Cosmetic Preservative Webinar Webinar begins July 15, 2015! What is it? We're hosting for a limited time a webinar by cosmetic preservative expert Dene Godfrey. In this talk he covers all aspects of the art and science of preserving cosmetic products. Who is this for? This webinar is for anyone who formulates cosmetic products whether you do it for a corporation, your small business, or even home formulators that want to ensure their products are safe to use. How does it work? The webinar opens up on JULY 15th, 2015. At that time, you will be able to view the hour plus long video as often as you like and download the slides until the webinar closes on July 22nd, 2015. You will also be able to ask any preservative related question to Dene and get an answer directly from him. It will be like hiring a cosmetic preservative expert for a limited amount of time. Space and time are limited Dene only has so much time to answer questions so we have to limit the number of people who can join and also limit the amount of time that you can ask him questions. So join today before it sells out. Join the Cosmetic Preservative Webinar Webinar begins July 15, 2015!

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Chemists Corner was started a number of years ago and my initial vision was for it to be a website for people who have degrees in chemistry and want to get a job in industry. It is primarily focused on cosmetic chemistry, but the original idea was really for different kinds of sectors of chemists in industry. That is why we didn't call it Cosmetic Chemists Corner. I thought it could be a hub for people looking for career advice about being an industrial chemist. We would cover career topics that weren't discussed in college. These would be applicable to all kinds of different chemists. Then we would have a section on cosmetic chemistry which would focus on the cosmetic industry. This would have sections on formulating, equipment, companies, groups, and that sort of thing. Then there would be other industries covered like paints & coatings, food, household products, automotive, pharmaceutical, and any other industry which would hire chemists. Of course, that would be much more than I could take on alone so I would need experts in those other areas. I never got around to finding other experts and the reality is that cosmetic chemistry has kept me so busy that I have just focused on it. Who is the Chemists Corner audience? Well, there are four main types of people who visit Chemists Corner. 1. Cosmetic Chemists in the industry 2. DIY home formulators 3. Entrepreneurs who want to start their own line 4. People in college who want to get into the cosmetic industry What they get out of Chemists Corner Each group has slightly different needs and this is my guess at what they would want from the website. Cosmetic chemists - This is a website will make you a better, more successful cosmetic chemist. It provides continuing education, training, reviews, industry updates, and career advice. It also provides a way for you to get formulation questions solved and connect with other cosmetic chemists around the world. DIY Home Formulators - This is a website that will provide you information you need to be able to make professional grade, functional cosmetics in a home lab. It provides you background education about cosmetic science, equipment you need, safe practices, and basic formulations Entrepreneurs - This website will provide you information you need to create and market your own cosmetic product line. We cover product and marketing ideas, regulations, product development, consumer research, financing and other topics that an entrepreneur would need to know. College students - This website will help you get a job in the cosmetic industry. We give career advice, educate about cosmetic science, about the industry, networking and basic information to make you an ideal candidate when looking for a cosmetic industry job. There are types of people who would find this website helpful but they are not the main focus. These include... Cosmetic ingredient sales people - This website will let you know the problems that cosmetic chemists face and give you a...

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I recently read an article which suggested that many jobs are at risk of being taken over by robots. Fortunately, chemists only have about a 10% chance of being replaced in the next 20 years. But then I saw this article about how P&G was using supercomputers to do their formulation work and started thinking that maybe cosmetic formulators are not so secure in their jobs. Will computers take over formulation jobs? Computers have already had a huge impact on formulating. When I first started I had to hand write out all my formulas in a lab notebook which took a ton of time. It really reduced the number of prototypes I could make in a day. It also was prone to error-making in transcription and in calculating raw materials. When I was able to use a computer for this work (using this formulation spreadsheet) life got so much easier. Instead of only being able to make 1 or 2 prototypes in a day I could make up to 8. And the computer also made it much easier to generate reports about my work. But this kind of computer assistance didn't help much in coming up with the actual formulation. Plus, the computer still needed me to make the batch. So, computers can help with formulations but I don't think a computer will be taking over the formulation job any time soon. P&G is using them to come up with formulations so new software and faster running computers will definitely have an impact on future formulators. Computer modules may be able to give a better prediction about how a raw material will impact the stability of a formula. I can envision a day when stability testing is a thing of the past. The computer will be able to predict with a high degree of accuracy whether a formula will be stable or not. This will be the same with safety testing and maybe even (in the far future) whether a consumer will like the formula better or not. Computers will have an impact in the future but not the near future. Formulators do not have to worry about being replaced just yet. What can you do However, that does not mean you can ignore the coming change. You should be prepared to change the way you formulate. You will have to start getting comfortable with using computer models for formulation work. You'll also have to get used to computer apps and software being used to help guide your prototype development. In the future you will not be able to "wing it" and mix things together based on your hunch that they should work. So, go learn all you can about cosmetic raw materials (taking our cosmetic science course is a good start). And keep up with all the software and apps that will one day be heavily impacting the way you formulate. Do not ignore these things even if you don't see an immediate application. The future is coming and...

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One of the more frequent questions we get from people here on chemists corner is about keeping your ideas safe and secret. People worry about their idea getting stolen. Here is an email exchange in which I explain my views on whether you can keep your cosmetic idea secret. How do I protect my cosmetic idea? Hello - I recently was introduced to your article " Why You Do Not Need to patent cosmetic formula". It was a very useful tool since my mentor and I were discussing the patent expenses to add inside the business plan. I would like to ask, since patent is not necessary as a cosmetic entrepreneur , would you recommend another form of safety and confidentiality between both the parties ? Protecting cosmetic ideas In the cosmetic industry lots of people like to sign NDAs (non-disclosure agreements). I personally don't think they are worth much. If someone wants to steal your idea as far as cosmetics goes, it would be pretty easy to do whether you had an NDA or not. To protect a cosmetic idea my strategy would be twofold. 1. Trust: Work only with people you trust. Fortunately, there are very few people in the world who want to steal your idea. The cosmetic contract manufacturers are in the business of selling production not in the business of selling cosmetics. It makes no economic sense for them to steal your idea. 2. Create something they can't steal. Create a brand that no one can take. A cosmetic line is all about the brand. The technology has to be good but the marketing story and branding is much more important. These things you can get a trademark on so it is much more difficult to directly steal. Technology in the cosmetic industry hasn't really changed much in the last 30 years and the reality is that nearly every idea that can work has been tried. Success in cosmetics depends on marketing. Work on your story. That is something that is much more difficult to steal. And it's also the most important that will determine whether your cosmetic line is successful or not. Looking for more tips on how to start a cosmetic line? Get our free start a cosmetic line report.

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Interview starts at 5:00 - Dene Godfrey Dene Godfrey is the owner of Independent Preservation Advice Limited. He has been involved with the preservation of cosmetics since 1981 and has worked for such companies as Azelis, MGS MicroPure Ltd and Nipa Laboratories. He is also heavily involved in the Society of Cosmetic Scientists and is a regular contributor to the website Personal Care Truth. Contact Information Website: www. ipaltd. co. uk LinkedIn profile Cosmetic Science question Why you put preservatives in cosmetics With all the bad press about chemicals used to preserve cosmetics you might wonder why companies don’t just stop using preservatives. Well, the reason is that cosmetics that contain preservatives are safer than ones that don’t contain preservatives. This is because disease-causing microorganisms can multiply at exponential rates in cosmetics if there are no chemicals in there to stop them. And if the consumer is putting a dollop of microbe laden skin lotion on their body, they are bound to contract a disease. It is just not smart to use unpreserved cosmetics. The other reason to include preservatives is that when microbes grow in your cosmetic product they can produce foul smelling odors and strange colors. Consumers just aesthetically do not want to use bacterial contaminated products. It’s a bit like the same reason people don’t want to eat moldy bread. What do preservatives do Cosmetic formulas have all the key factors needed for microbial growth including water, nutrients, and energy. At a suitable pH and temperature, it will be like a microbial cocktail party. Preservatives stop growth by killing cells and spores (usually by disrupting cell membranes) or by making the system hostile to growth. See this article for more about cosmetic preservatives. Why you need multiple preservatives So that brings us to the question that started it all, why use multiple cosmetic preservatives? Basically it’s because some single preservatives do not kill a big enough range of microorganisms. As a cosmetic formulator you need to ensure that your preservative system will kill any bacterial, mold, or fungi that the formula might encounter. Since you don’t know what will be encountered you have to plan for every possibility (or at least as many as you can). There are some preservatives that are able to kill a wide range of microbes (e. g. Alcohol, Parabens, Formaldehyde donors). That is why these ingredients are so popular with formulators. Other ingredients like Sodium Benzoate or Potassium Sorbate are only effective against certain types of microbes. They are more active against yeasts and molds but have a lower activity against bacteria. One way to compensate for the ineffectiveness of one compound is to include another compound that has the ability to kill other organisms. By combining preservatives, you increase the spectrum of microbes that your formula can withstand. Of course, if you use parabens and formaldehyde donors you could be more confident in the effectiveness of your preservative system. However, for marketing reasons these compounds must be avoided. It makes your...

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On a few occasions we've gotten a question that goes something like this... . "What is the best preservative to use? " or "What is the best ingredient I can use for moisturizing? " A question like this is incredibly difficult because the answer depends on so many different factors about what you consider important. To illustrate, let's look a little more deeply at the question of preservatives. What is the best preservative to use? Preservatives are added to cosmetic formulas to prevent microbial contamination. They are hugely important and nearly every cosmetic that is sold should have some kind of preservative. But the best one to use will depend on a number of factors including... Effectiveness Formula type Manufacturing conditions Raw material sources Cost considerations Marketing considerations Effectiveness Probably the most important consideration when you're looking for the "best" ingredient. This is the one that will best give you the effect for which you are looking. In the area of preservatives there are many ingredients that will kill microbes. Some work better than others and combinations typically work better than any single ingredient. In my opinion as far as efficacy goes the best preservatives are Parabens and Formaldehyde donors. Methylisothiazolinone blends are also quite effective. Certainly, other ingredients work but they aren't as broadly effective as these. However, since other ingredients can work, effectiveness is not the only factor to consider when choosing the "best" ingredient. Formulation While ingredients can be effective alone that doesn't mean they will be effective in your particular formulation. Some ingredients are known to deactivate preservatives and some preservatives won't work at certain pH levels. Also, the oil content in your formula or the structure of your emulsion can all have an impact on whether the ingredient is effective. Since you generally can't know whether something will be effective just by looking at the formula on paper you have to test preservatives in your formulas. And it makes sense to try different options. Without giving information about the exact components of the formula, you can't answer the question of which ingredient will work best. Manufacturing conditions The preservative system that you use will often depend on the manufacturing conditions under which you create your products. Some plants are just cleaner than other plants and some facilities have tougher resident microbes than others. I know one hair care manufacturer had to put Kathon in all their formulas because their manufacturing lines had a biofilm which was resistant to everything except Kathon. The "best" preservative in their case was that one because it was the only thing they knew would work. Raw Material Sources This is similar to the manufacturing conditions but the quality of the raw materials that you are starting with will impact the decision of which is the "best" preservative to use. If you are using ingredients from natural sources which haven't been decontaminated from natural microbial residents you'll have to use a stronger preservative. If you use clean raw materials you might...

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On the Internet, big cosmetic corporations frequently get labeled as evil and there is the implication that they are trying to harm their consumers. Small companies don’t seem to experience that kind of scrutiny which is baffling to me because they are much more likely to make labeling errors, make misleading claims, and produce unsafe products. That’s not to suggest big companies are immune from these mistakes but if given the choice to buy a product from a big company or a small company, I suggest people stick with big companies. A big company just has so much more to lose than a small company. Here is a report from the FDA which illustrates why I think big companies are more trustworthy when it comes to the safety of cosmetics. According to this report Johnson & Johnson (a big corporation) issued a recall of their Clean & Clear Morning Burst Hydrating Gel Moisturizer. This affected about 8500 units. Apparently, the product was mislabeled because during manufacturing someone used a combination of raw materials 1,3 Butylene Glycol and Dimethicone rather than Dimethicone alone. I’m sure this kind of mistake happens on occasion at every cosmetic manufacturing facility both big and small, but it is only a big company that would do anything about it. Why? Because there is no way the FDA would be able to catch this kind of error. It is essentially invisible. In fact, the only way that the FDA learned of the error was because J&J reported it themselves. The amount of money that this will cost J&J might approach $1 million. To a big corporation, this isn’t much but to a small company this would ruin them. Does anyone believe a small cosmetic company would report an invisible mistake to the FDA and initiate a product recall that could destroy their company? I don’t think so. When it comes to product safety, consumers should trust the big guys. This is not to suggest that the big companies are perfect but all things being equal, they are just a safer bet.

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Interview: Dr Satish Nayak interview starts at : 14:10 Satish Nayak is the Director of Research and Development for Kemin Personal Care. He joined Kemin in 2008 as a Scientist for Kemin Industries Discovery Research group where he was the project manager for Chemistry and Biochemistry projects. Currently in his position, Satish is responsible for innovation, quality control and customer laboratory support for personal care ingredients. Prior to coming to Kemin, Satish worked as a Post-Doctoral Assistant at the University of Chicago, where his research was focused on developing biological models to understand the effect of proteins, particularly enzymes on cell surfaces. He holds a Bachelor of Science in Chemistry from Ramnarain Ruia College in Mumbai, India and he received a Master of Science in Analytical Chemistry from the University of Mumbai in India. Satish also obtained his Doctorate of Philosophy in Chemistry (Polymer) from the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta, Georgia. Contact Dr Nayak at Kemin. Cosmetic Science news Papains cause reactions Here’s an interesting story about a natural enzyme that may be causing some strong allergic skin reactions when it’s included in cosmetics. Papain is an enzyme ingredient used in industrial production because it is great at degrading proteins. But when it comes in contact with human skin it can cause a strong allergic reaction. According to researchers the way that this reaction happens is that papain induces a breakdown of the cellular connection within the skin. This causes a loss of the barrier function and inflammatory cells infiltrate the skin. After about two weeks of being exposed to papain, researchers found relevant anti bodies in work done on mice. They also developed an allergic sensitization to papain. Anyway, you may be tempted to include the ingredient in a formula as a natural exfoliant but it’s not advisable. Your consumers just may have a reaction that you didn’t intend. ———————— Color changing makeup There isn’t a lot of innovation going on in the cosmetic industry, at least in terms of technology. The reality is that the products out there work pretty well and it is hard to make them better. Until someone figures out a radically different way to address problems people use cosmetics to solve, formulations will only get incrementally better. That’s why I like to see products like the ones outlined in this story about color changing products. This may be a little gimmicky but color changing products provide a novel angle on products that can otherwise be dull. Here are six different products that change color when they are applied. Perhaps you could think of some way to make your formulations stand out by adopting a similar strategy. Alright, let’s look at the products. Smash box has a product they call O-Glow. You put the product on your skin and it changes to a red color that is supposed to match the color of your skin. They say it works because of the chemistry of your skin but it is really just a pH...

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Here is some surprising research that suggests a new angle to explore in the formulating of skin care and sunscreens. Contributing authors - Meaghan Lee-Erlandsen and Dr. Nora Khaldi of Nuritas Guest post We at Nuritas have always thought that sun damage occurred during sun exposure and ended immediately after returning indoors. To our surprise, recent research published in Science and conducted by Prof. Douglas E. Brash, Clinical Professor of Therapeutic Radiology and Dermatology at Yale School of Medicine, and co-authors, shows that most sun damage occurs hours after exposure, even in the dark! As many of us know, too much sun exposes the body to high amounts of ultraviolet radiation (UV) which damages the DNA in melanocytes, the cells that make melanin (melanin is what gives your skin its color). What we didn’t know is that most of this damage happens hours after sun exposure. This DNA damage is a major cause of skin cancer and in sunny places such as Australia it accounts for 80% of all newly diagnosed cancers1. Indeed, two in every three Australians will be diagnosed with skin cancer by the age of 72. This of course is not limited to warm countries as one may unfortunately underestimate the effects of UV on the skin in areas where clouds are a common feature (UV light can go through clouds) or in colder regions with sunny skies. Indeed, one in every three cancers diagnosed globally is a skin cancer. We wanted to understand a little more of Prof. Brash’s recent finding and thus asked him to provide us with a layman’s summary of this work as well as tell us if he forecasts any possible solutions. Prof. Brash explains “My co-authors and I found that the ultraviolet radiation interacts with melanin to cause cyclobutane dimers for hours after the UV exposure ends. A cyclobutane dimer occurs when two adjacent ‘letters’ in DNA attach to each other and bend the DNA, preventing the information inside the DNA from being read correctly which is the start of DNA damage. We found that nearly half of the DNA damage associated with the cyclobutane dimers occurs after sun exposure. ” More precisely he explains that what was ultimately happening during this process was that the UV rays activated two enzymes that combined to excite an electron in the melanin, the energy generated from this excitation (known as chemiexcitation) was then transferred to the DNA, thus creating the same DNA damage that sunlight had caused hours before. This type of excitation of electrons has only been previously seen in smaller marine animals and bacteria. So is this a dead end, or could there possibly be some solutions? Prof. Brash thinks that this is not all bad news. The slow pace of these events provides an opportunity for products and creams that may be able to intervene in this process and eventually block this chemical reaction from happening. At Nuritas, we find this groundbreaking research incredibly important as further information and understanding...

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This post was written by Jane Barber The Natural & Organic Products Europe Show in London (19-20 April 2015) was packed with independent retailers, buyers, distributors, wholesalers, importers, exporters and, a couple of cosmetic chemists! The Show was divided into sections - food and drink, beauty and spa, health and living. Over 200 natural beauty, personal care and cosmetic companies showcased more than 300 new products and Natural Health Magazine hosted the annual Natural Health Magazine Beauty Awards. Both New Zealand based Antipodes and Jane Iredale, a primarily mineral makeup brand picked up 7 awards. I was surprised to see so many new start-ups exhibiting, all with some pretty impressive packaging and branding. Buzzwords being "wild crafted", "non-GMO", "cruelty free", "gluten-free" and "vegan". The natural and organic market is going strong, with the products available expanding exponentially. Those who wish to jump on the bandwagon will face some very tough competition. Looking at the products displayed, there seemed to be a fair number of anhydrous balms with an emphasis on unique botanicals and some delectable essential oil blends. But there were not as many hair care products as I would have expected. All in all it was a fun, worthwhile and inspiring event. Afterwards I wandered over to the food section, who knew there were so many varieties of chocolates, nuts and juices on offer. Learn more about Jane at her website Making Skin Care

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I recently received an email asking me about why a company would include alcohol (denatured) in their skin care formulas. They were under the impression that alcohol caused skin irritation. They are not the only ones as the folks at Paula's Choice list alcohol as a skin irritant. I had heard this same claim over the years but I've also heard the opposite, alcohol does not cause irritation. So I looked into it further. Alcohol less irritating than surfactants In 2007, there was research published in the British Journal of Dermatology which looked at the questions "How irritant is alcohol? " In the study they did patch testing with anywhere from 60-100% alcohol and compared it to both a positive control (SLS) and a negative control (water). Their conclusion - Alcohol did not cause skin irritation. Alcohol-based hand rubs cause less skin irritation than hand washing and are therefore preferred for hand hygiene from the dermatological point of view. An alcohol-based hand rub may even decrease rather than increase skin irritation after a hand wash due to a mechanical partial elimination of the detergent. This was a small study (only 15 people) but if there was a positive result you could have much more confidence that alcohol was an irritant. Then I found this chapter in the book Infection Control Updates entitled "Skin Irritation Caused by Alcohol Based Hand Rubs. " This is really an excellent reference resource as it goes through the biology of skin and the causes of irritation. But when they looked at alcohol specifically couldn't find any support for the notion that alcohol caused skin irritation. The Lancet even recommends using alcohol hand sanitizers. So, based on the evidence that I could find you should have no problem including denatured alcohol in your topical skin care formulation (at least in regards to skin irritation).

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Interview: Robert Tisserand starts at 2:00 Robert is an international speaker, educator and industry consultant who has helped to bring widespread professional and public recognition to aromatherapy. In the past few years, he has inspired live audiences on 4 continents, including, in 2014, Prague, San Paulo and Beijing. He tracks all the published research on essential oils, and has 40 years of experience in aromatherapy product development. His 1977 text, The Art of Aromatherapy, has been translated into 11 languages, and his co-authored book Essential Oil Safety is regarded by aromatherapists as the industry standard for safety guidelines. Join the Essential Oil Course! Cosmetic Science News Avoid Papain in your formulations. It causes skin allergies. Announcements Learn more about the essential oil course AOCS annual meeting

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I spoke at the Twin Cities Holistic Seminar last month and then attended their companion trade show. That's where a number of cosmetic industry raw material suppliers were showing off their latest "all-natural" cosmetic ingredients, or at least ingredients that could be incorporated into natural cosmetics. In going through the literature I collected I was struck by all the "natural" claims being made and thought it would be useful to record them here in case any of you are working on an all natural line and need some marketing claims. Common natural cosmetic marketing claims Naturally sourced Non-GMO Not ethoxylated Boron free - I didn't even realize boron was a negative thing in the natural world. Not animal tested Preservative free High bio-based content Sourced from renewable plants Allergen free Vegetable based Sustainable PEG-free Ecocert, COSMOS, NPA certified Created from natural ingredients Sulfate free surfactants I'm sure there are more so feel free to post some in the comments. I'll try to expand this list over time. Interested in natural formulating? See our free natural formulating video series on the subject.

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There are a number of reasons why you might want to find a replacement for a raw material you currently using. It could be because the supplier can't get you the ingredient, you can save money on your formula, the product is no longer stable, or for marketing reasons you want to change. This is probably the motivation for this forum member who wants to find a natural alternative to petrolatum. If you're going to switch out a raw material you can do it in the most efficient way by following these 5 steps. 1. Understand what the ingredient does in the formula If you inherit a formula as most formulators do, there are probably ingredients included for which you are not sure the function. You need to figure this out before you switch for something new. Also, you may think you know the function of the ingredient but it could have multiple functions in your formula. To best figure out the importance of an ingredient for which you want to find a replacement, do a cosmetic knockout experiment, comparing your full formula versus the formula without the target ingredient. This will give you an idea of the performance impact of the ingredient plus the aesthetic impact on the formula. 2. Find potential replacements Once you know the full impact of the ingredient on your formula you can find potential replacements. The easiest thing to do is to ask your suppliers for their suggested replacements. Certainly, you should get samples of those ingredients. But a single ingredient replacement might not work. You may have to find multiple materials to replace all the functionality of a single ingredient. For example, Guar Hydroxypropyl Trimonium Chloride has both a conditioning effect and some thickening effect. Instead of finding a single ingredient to replace it you could find a new thickener (e. g. Hydroxyethylcellulose) plus a conditioning ingredient (e. g. Polyquaternium 7). Sometimes it's not a simple replacement. 3. Create prototypes Once you get your potential ingredients start making your prototypes. Ideally, you can make multiple formulas at the same time using the same ingredients. When you compare replacements you should keep as much the same as possible. Also, be sure to create a control sample so you know how your new formula compares to your current formula. Take special note of any manufacturing changes you have to make to incorporate the new ingredient. This will be important when you write the manufacturing instructions later. 4. Test prototype functionality After you've made the prototypes you'll want to test them to see if they function the way you want them to. See how they compare to your control formula. Of course, you only need to test the formulas that hold together properly. If they separate or don't look right either try again or reject that replacement alternative. The specific tests you run will depend on the type of formula you are making. Foam tests for cleansing products, moisturizing tests for moisturizing products, etc. For all...

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When I was in high school I learned about cloning and thought it would be a great idea to clone myself. I wasn't particularly serious about it however, it was the basis for my choice to study Biology in college. Clearly, I could have used the services of a better career counselor. Anyway, Biology was a fine enough subject to study. There is lots of interesting stuff to learn and it was not particularly hard. Chemistry was much more difficult. I switched to Chemistry in my second senior year because I had a Chemistry minor and there were more jobs for people with chemistry degrees than biology degrees. I'm glad I had my background in Biology though because these days concepts from biochemistry are making there way into cosmetic chemistry. In fact, many of the new, most interesting cosmetic technologies are taking advantage of research done in biochemistry. As a formulator for skin and hair products, it will be helpful for you to know the meaning of some of these terms so you can both take advantage of new technologies and not be snowed over by the marketing material of your raw material suppliers. Epigenetics - This is the study of changes in biology that are not the result of genetic differences. It refers to changes in the transcription of DNA to proteins. It turns out that genes alone are not the whole explanation for why some proteins are expressed and others aren't. This has huge implications for cosmetics as there may be ingredients that can have an influence on the expression of genes. Look for lots of advance cosmetic technology coming out of this research in the future. See the wikipedia post on epigenetics for more Proteomics - This is the study of proteins, their structure and their function. Lots of research is going on to find proteins that can halt the aging process. This has the potential to lead to some breakthroughs in topical cosmetic products. It's worth checking out the wikipedia entry on proteomics. Amino Acids - The basic building blocks of life. These compounds which contain an Amine group and a Carboxylic acid group are strung together to make proteins and everything else in the body. There are 20 of these that occur naturally and are the basis for all life on Earth. Cosmetic marketers have used amino acids for years as a claims ingredient. There is scant evidence that they do much more than moisturizing when put on the skin or hair. Peptides - Any sequence of amino acids made up of less than 50 amino acids strung together. They could be a useful anti-aging technology but mostly it's just hype. We did a whole post on cosmetic peptides. Proteins - The chemicals the make life work. They are long chain polymers made up of amino acid building blocks. They can take on numerous structures depending on the way they fold. I really believe the future of all cool new raw materials will be based...

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When the INCI Dictionary was first published there were about 2000 cosmetic ingredients listed. The latest edition has over 14,000 ingredients. Hundreds of new raw materials are added to the INCI dictionary every year, so cosmetic chemists always have something new to try. This is fortunate because there are a number of ingredients listed in the dictionary that most cosmetic chemists wouldn't use any more. One of the most common type of these "abandoned ingredients" are those derived from animals. A large segment of consumers just do not want ingredients that were once part of an animal. And cosmetic manufacturers have responded by avoiding all animal derived ingredients. Avoiding Animal Based Cosmetic Ingredients But how do you know what cosmetic ingredients are derived from animals? As a formulator this is information you should get from your ingredient supplier. Just ask them whether the ingredient is derived from animals or not. And if you are working on a natural based brand that avoids animal ingredients as part of its marketing story, you should get something in writing from the supplier. Of course, not every cosmetic ingredient can be derived from animals so it's useful to know which ones may or may not be animal derived. Unfortunately, there is no readily available list of animal derived ingredients for people to search. At least, I thought that was the case. But indeed there is! It's right here. Animal Derived Cosmetic Ingredient Database The US government commissioned a company to create a list of all the cosmetic ingredients that might be animal derived and could potentially spread disease. They were worried about Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE) the so called "mad cow" disease. The database contacts records of 273 ingredients that could potentially be derived from animals. If you have software that can read a database, then you can see it. But to make things easier for formulators, we've converted the list into a spreadsheet. You can get that spreadsheet of potentially animal derived ingredients here... Spreadsheet of Animal Derived cosmetic ingredients Now, some of the ingredients on the list may or may not be animal derived. For example, Glycerin can be an animal derived ingredient or plant derived. You'll have to check with your supplier to be certain.

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There are a number of types of ingredients offered to formulators as "active ingredients. " You can find molecules claimed to boost collagen production, turn off melanocytes, and even grow hair. In reality, if these ingredients actually worked as they were marketed your cosmetic would be a drug (at least in the USA) and would technically be illegal to sell. However, if you word your claims properly you can incorporate some of these 'active ingredients' in a proper way and your marketers can use them to compel consumers to buy. One of the most popular of these "active ingredients" are peptides. In this post we'll look at peptides a little more in-depth. Cosmetic peptides If you've taken any biology or biochemistry you've heard the word peptide. Most cosmetic consumers have also heard the word peptide as they've been included in marketing stories for decades. The term peptide is the generic name given to a short string of amino acids. Recall that amino acids are the basic monomers used to create all proteins. Peptides are different from proteins in that they are much shorter and don't have the same type of secondary folding structures. As a rule of thumb, if there are 50 or fewer amino acids hooked together the chain is called peptide. If there are more than 50 it’s called a protein. Proteins can be VERY large and are organized in such a way that they have biological properties (for example proteins are components of hair and skin. ) Some peptides occur naturally in your body and others are made synthetically to mimic the function of natural peptides. Why are peptides used? Peptides are used in cosmetics for a variety of reasons depending on the type of peptide used. We'll dive deeper into the different types but the primary reasons for including peptides in formulas include anti-aging effects, anti-irritation effects, and marketing. The most effective of these reasons is the marketing story that the peptides allow you to tell. But there is at least some evidence that peptides in cosmetics have some effect. Types of peptides There are four types of peptides including signal peptides, carrier peptides, neurotransmitter inhibitor peptides, and enzyme inhibitor peptides. Neurotransmitter inhibitors These peptides are added to cosmetics to reduce wrinkles because they inhibit acetylcholine release by a variety of chemical interactions. The most extreme neurotransmitter include the poison Curare and the Botulism toxin (Botox). Less invasive versions have been developed for use on skin and the hypothesis is that they relax the muscles of facial expression so they don’t contract as much which causes wrinkles to relax. These neurotransmitter inhibitor peptides have been shown to reduce certain types of wrinkles by approximately 30% (in in vivo studies. ) Signal peptides These peptides are added to skin cosmetics because they can stimulate skin fibroblasts to produce more collagen, elastin, and other proteins in the matrix of the dermis. Boosting these structure proteins makes skin look firmer and fuller. GHK is an example of a signal...

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This cosmetic industry's premier event, taking place April 27-29 in New Jersey, is designed to be your #1 information source positioned to not only address where your organization stands on compliance, but how you are continuing to look at the scope of regulatory affairs that span across the globe. We listened carefully to your feedback, and have been busy the last few months developing an agenda that will give you powerful examples of how industry stakeholders of personal care and cosmetic companies around the world have improved existing frameworks for compliance, and are continuing to explore new strategies that will safeguard against market volatility and risk. For more information click here Topic Highlights for 2015 Include: * Packaging and Labelling for the Cosmetics Industry; Latest Trends and Innovations that Correlate with your Organization's Compliance Initiatives * Latest list of Exempt Chemical Substances and their Alternatives in 2015 * Production of a Cosmetic Product Safety Report and Clarification of Global Guidelines Good Manufacturing Practices and Alternatives to Animal Testing on the Global Scale: Upholding Your Company's Compliance Initiative * Improving the Safety of Cosmetics: Update to Cosmetic Regulation (EC) No. 1223/2009 * Monitoring Compliance and Product Information - Standards for Market Entry, Approval, and Post-market Surveillance Don? t miss out on the highly interactive workshops, case studies, keynotes and panel discussions that are designed to foster a continuous development atmosphere for the cosmetic and personal care industry. Download Today at www. CosmeticsCompliance. com Featured Speakers Include: * Patricia Hansen, Deputy Director, Office of Cosmetics and Colors, U. S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) * Pam Busiek, President, ICMAD (Independent Cosmetics Manufacturers Association) * Paola Becvar, Senior Regulatory Specialist; Latin America, Energizer Personal Care * Victoria Tu, Senior Director, Global Product Safety, Regulatory, & Microbiology Revlon * Irena Peric, Project Manager, Global Regulatory Affairs, Young Living Essentials * Laurie Welsh, Director, Coty Testing Institute and Fragrance Science, COTY * Vasanti Raman, Senior Manager, Regulatory Affairs, MURAD * Suzanne Roberta, Co-Founder and Managing Partner, Adesse Global Cosmetics * Laurie Pan, Senior Director, Product Safety, Regulatory Affairs, Sally Beauty Company ... and many more! Exclusive Complimentary Content Global Regulatory Compliance within Product Lifecycle Speaker Presentation Pilar Duque, Director, Regulatory Affairs, Mary Kay, discusses key questions, recommendations and product registration timings. Past Attendee Snapshot Last year? s inaugural Cosmetic Compliance Summit was a major success. The event brought together industry players from leading cosmetics companies for three days of workshops, panel discussions, case studies and networking. We hope that our impressive attendee list excites you about attending the 2015 Summit, April 27-29 in NYC. Download Now at www. CosmeticsCompliance. com | Request Via Email at enquiryiqpc@iqpc. com Cosmetic Compliance News Update Angela Diesch, a Shareholder with the law firm Kronick Moskovitz Tiedemann & Girard, discusses four recent cosmetic compliance news items. Download Now at www. CosmeticsCompliance. com | Request Via Email at enquiryiqpc@iqpc. com Register by February 13th with discount Code: CC_CHEM2015 for rates as low as $1,499! Website: www. CosmeticsCompliance. com Email: Send your...

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Interview: Valerie Patton - Starts at 2:00 Valerie began her cosmetic chemistry career in men's grooming before transitioning to hair care, her true passion. She has expertise in formulating various hair care applications, and is currently working on the latest research in hair color and oxidative hair color chemistry with top industry experts. Valerie is also responsible for current line item maintenance and loves her job troubleshooting formulation issues as a "cosmetics detective. " She is a formulation Chemist at John Paul Mitchell Systems. She is also currently Chair Elect of the Southern California Chapter of the Society of Cosmetic Chemists. Follow Valerie on Twitter Connect with Valerie Patton on LinkedIn Text of the show Questions to ask when Getting Raw Materials What application(s) is this ingredient for? What have studies shown? What are recommended use levels of this ingredient? What pH range is it stable at? What is it soluble in? Are there any incompatibilities to be aware of? Cosmetic Science News There’s one more topic I wanted to talk about. Have you seen all these beauty bloggers who have started their own lines? The most famous beauty blogger turned cosmetic brand is Michelle Phan who made a splash last year or the year before by launch a brand with L’Oreal. Well there are others including Emily Weiss who has a line of moisturizers and lip balms, Cara Brook who has a makeup line, Elizabeth Dehn who has a line of Organic beauty products, and a surprising entry... a guy, Eric Bandholz who has a brand called Beardbrand. He’s got a red beard and a good following so I guess that makes sense. I’ll be curious to see how these brands do. I mean if you can get a following on the Internet you should be able to get enough consumers to buy your stuff. I’m often asked why we at the Beauty Brains haven’t launched a product line or even why more cosmetic chemists don’t launch their lines. Have you ever thought of it? Yeah, it seems like almost every cosmetic chemist has. It just makes sense. But there are a number of reasons why a cosmetic chemist might not want to launch their own line. Announcements First, you can still join our Natural Formulating course. This is a course that teaches you how to create cosmetics that can be sold as 'natural' cosmetics. If you are serious about following a natural product marketing spin, this is the class you need. It's filling up fast and if you're listening to this show in the future it might be closed to new students. To find out more information go to Chemists Corner. com/natural And finally, I'll also be giving a one day seminar on Cosmetic Product Development on April 13th in New York at the SCC headquarters. Go to scconline. org for more information. As always, feel free to post questions or comments in our cosmetic science forum. We are up over 1000 discussions and it's still free to...

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Aloe Vera. Aloe Vera Gel. Aloe Vera Juice. Aloe Barbadensis (Aloe) Leaf Juice. There are even more names here for this nearly ubiquitous ingredient found in both skin and hair care formulations. Many people swear by it claiming all kinds of benefits for aloe including things like being good for burns, wound healing and even hair growth! But as a formulator you have to wonder, does aloe vera really do anything when delivered from a topical cosmetic formula? Warranted Skepticism Before I got into the cosmetic industry I had the impression that aloe was something you should use on burns because it can make the injury feel better and help with healing. In fact, my mother used to keep an aloe plant for this reason and the idea was drummed into my head for years. But when I got into the cosmetic industry and learned about claims ingredients I began to get a bit skeptical. Especially when I learned that we were putting Aloe in our shampoos at a level of 0. 1% of a 1% solution. Therefore, the actual amount of aloe in that shampoo was 0. 001%. With the rest of the formula SLS and Lauramide DEA it didn't seem reasonable that the Aloe was doing much of anything (except getting people to buy the product). Of course, just because the Aloe wasn't doing anything in a hair care product when used at really low levels that doesn't necessarily mean it doesn't do anything in a product when used at a higher level or when used in a leave-on formula like a skin lotion. So, I was still left with the question, does Aloe Vera do anything when delivered from a topical cosmetic product? Go with your gut My gut feeling has been that it doesn't. I generally discount claims about any folkloric ingredient as they are almost overwhelmingly non-scientific and non-verified. Just because an ingredient has been used for some purpose for thousands of years doesn't mean that it actually has the claimed effect. Which also means that just because my mother put Aloe on my burns when I was a kid doesn't mean that it was having much of an effect beyond a placebo, psychological one. But despite my skepticism I've remained curious. Aloe Vera research It turns out I'm not the only one. Researchers have been investigating the effectiveness of aloe for years. Here is an article I stumbled on published in the British Journal of General Practice (medicine) which does a systematic review of all the clinical trial research done on aloe vera. And here is what they found... Ten clinically controlled research studies were found in published literature. They ignored all the studies that were not controlled which is what you would want to do if you are looking at what science has to say about a subject. There were only a set number of claims they could find data about. 1. Wound healing - It was unclear whether wound healing was promoted...

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While perusing the Twin Cities Holistic Cosmetic show last week I noticed lots of different types of cosmetic raw materials targeted towards the "natural" cosmetic formulating market. And it occurred to me that not everyone means the same thing when they talk about the idea of natural formulating. In our Natural Cosmetic Formulating course we spend a good amount of the first module talking about what is considered "natural". It comes down to this, there are really 3 levels of natural cosmetic formulating. Greenwashing Formulating to a standard Formulating from nature Level 3 - Greenwashing Cosmetics Of these three options, the one that is the most prevalent in the cosmetic industry is the formulation strategy of greenwashing. Greenwashing is the method in which you take a standard cosmetic formula, use standard ingredients, but dress up the final product in a green & natural outfit. You give it a natural name (maybe even the word 'natural'), you make it look & smell natural, you add some natural extracts, you write about those prominently on your packaging and in advertising, and finally, you put it in a package that evokes the idea of naturalness. This type of formulating has been going on for years and it continues to be successfully used in the market. From a manufacturers standpoint, the benefits of greenwashing are many. The formulas are less expensive, they work better, they are easier to make and consumers purchase them. A common greenwashing brand is Aveeno who's tagline "Active Naturals" seems a bit disingenuous when you discover their products are loaded with standard skin care technologies. They advertise Soy, Seaweed and Shiitake, but we know that the Petrolatum, Mineral Oil and Dimethicone in their formulas are what really make them work. Right now, Aveeno is over a $100 million a year brand which makes it the second largest brand in the "natural" cosmetic market. Burts Bees is the largest in case you were wondering. Level 2 - Formulating to a standard While there is nothing wrong with greenwashing, some consumers and groups find it unsettling. For this reason a number of organizations have put together their own standards of what they consider to be natural. This includes groups like the National Sanitation Foundation, the Natural Products Association, Ecocert, The Soil Association, NaTrue, Whole Foods, and more. I bet there are over 100 organizations around the world who have compiled some natural standards for creating cosmetic products. The basic notion of this type of formulating is that the standard creating group goes through cosmetic ingredient data and decides which ingredients are natural and which ones aren't. Essentially, they take the 15,000+ ingredients listed in the INCI dictionary that are available for cosmetic formulators and reduce it to a couple thousand ingredients. Think of it as taking a box of 64 crayons, reducing it to 20 then asking you to make the best picture you possibly can. Sure, you can still make a nice picture but will it be as nice as the...

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Interview: Mark Broussard - Starts at 10:00 Mark Broussard is a cosmetic formulator and entrepreneur who has a BS degree in Microbiology & Immunology, a Masters in Organic Chemistry and an MBA from University of Texas - Austin. He has worked in Corporate Development and Venture Capital focused on private equity investments, mergers & acquisitions in the environmental and life sciences fields focusing on biotechnology and healthcare. In 2010, Mark founded Desert In Bloom, a medical spa focusing on esthetics treatments with an emphasis on acne-prone skin conditions. Text of the show Cosmetic Science News I've got two stories to talk about this week. Both are related to cosmetics but involve ingestible products. The first story I wanted to talk about was this one I saw in Cosmetics Design about the drinkable beauty market. According to market analysts the nutricosmetics market will reach $7. 4 billion in worldwide says. That’s a lot! To give you an idea of comparison the natural cosmetic market is about $30 billion. The total cosmetic market is about $450 billion. But they say the nutricosmetics, or ingestible cosmetics as I like to say is the strongest growing segment. It also represents the intersection between the cosmetic industry and the beverage industry. I think cosmetic companies are in a better spot to take advantage of this trend but companies like Coke and Pepsi might also try their hand at these types of products. After all, it will likely be food scientists formulating these products. This is a good reason for cosmetic scientists to brush up on their food product formulating. The ingredients are a bit different. They say that there is a bunch of research that documents the links between beauty, health and supplements but the reality is there isn’t much good research. In fact, there is scant evidence that any supplement can be taken to specifically improve your skin condition. I guess it doesn’t matter much though because we live in a world where people want to believe. People want to believe that taking vitamins or other supplements will improve their health and now apparently, their appearance too. It’s also an area that is much less regulated than cosmetics so these companies can make much stronger claims without as much data to back up what they are saying. And consumers keep buying... sigh. Anyway, as a formulator I would suggest you start looking into how to create these types of products. It might make sense to attend a seminar on making food supplements. Maybe I’ll find an expert and collaborate to create one here on Chemists Corner. ———— The second story is about aging and some recent findings that could actually change the entire landscape of the cosmetic industry. Don't worry, people will still need cosmetics for the foreseeable future but the antiaging market might not be as hot. According to this story scientists at the Scripps Research Institute have discovered a new class of drugs called Senolytics. These are compounds that target old cells...

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While there are hundreds of types of cosmetics and thousands of cosmetic brands, there are really only 5 things that cosmetics do. If you want to be a well-rounded cosmetic formulator you should be familiar with how to make at least one formula in each category. Cleaning Getting rid of dirt and oil from the surface of skin and hair is the purpose of a large segment of cosmetic products. This includes products like shampoos, body washes, cleansing bars, facial cleansers and more. The key raw material responsible for making most of these products work are surfactants. If you want to get good at formulating cleansing products, you've got to learn surfactant science. Conditioning Where cleaning cosmetics leave off, conditioning cosmetics begin. Removing dirt solves some problems but even in their natural states hair and skin may not look or feel the way people want. For this reason conditioning or moisturizing products are needed. These include products like conditioners, skin lotions & creams, moisturizers, gels and more. There are a wide range of ingredients that can condition such as occlusives, humectants, emollients, surfactants, and polymers. And they work in slightly different ways. To get good at creating conditioners you have to not only know these ingredients but you also need to know what properties make a surface feel conditioned or moisturized. Coloring Since cosmetics are used to enhance or change the appearance of skin, hair and nails one of the most obvious ways to do that is by changing the color. Cosmetics that change the color include hair coloring, sunless tanners, lipstick, blush, eyeshadow, nail polish, and pretty much any other color cosmetic. The ingredients that make most of these products work are highly regulated in the cosmetic industry and include dyes and pigments made from minerals, synthetic organic molecules, or other natural colorants. For hair colors bleach is used to make the color lighter while polymeric dyes are used for other colors. Color cosmetics are a specialized area of formulating and require special equipment to make more sophisticated formulations. If you were looking to start your own line, making color cosmetics is one of the most difficult places to start. Change the shape Another way that cosmetics can change the appearance is by changing the shape of the surface on which they are applied. This function is mostly limited to hair products like styling products, relaxers, and perms. There isn't a lot you can do to change the shape of skin using cosmetics although some might argue skin tightening products do that. In any event, the key raw materials that help cosmetics change the shape of the surfaces include polymers, resins, oils, and waxes. Change the odor Although looking good is an important function of cosmetics, making people smell good is another thing that cosmetics can do. Cleaning products will remove odors but cosmetics like deodorants, perfumes, and fragranced cosmetics can change the way a person smells. The main ingredients that have this effect include things like synthetic odor...

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At some point in your cosmetic chemistry career, if you haven’t already, you’ll be introduced to new ingredients. The supplier will probably furnish you with a few studies that have been run on why said ingredient should be in your formulating arsenal, along with other key benefits of the material over competitors. You can read more about How to Evaluate Cosmetic Raw Material Marketing here. There seems to be an endless supply of materials at my fingertips, and my cabinet space is limited, so I like to ask a few questions about the material to see if it’s something I’m interested in ordering a sample of. Here are examples of some of the questions I ask: What application(s) is this ingredient for? Finding out what type of material it is can help you figure out if you have a use for it. Is it a surfactant, emulsifier, active ingredient, etc. ? What have studies shown? Suppliers are in the business of selling ingredients and are not going to show negative data collected. Just be careful that the data you get may be biased. What are recommended use levels of this ingredient? This is a practical inquiry for a variety of reasons. It will it help you determine if the use level and cost are within the confines of your budget. If a study was performed at a 5% use level, it may or may not be feasible to use it at that level. Again, suppliers are in the business to sell ingredients; be wary of exceptionally high use levels (you’ll want to make a prototype when you get an ingredient sample with the highest recommended use level; if it doesn’t work well at that level, you know it won’t work at a reasonable level! ). What pH range is it stable at? If you formulate products that typically have a high pH, an ingredient optimal at a low pH will not work in your formulation, vice versa. What is it soluble in? You need to know if the ingredient type is compatible with the solubility of your system. Are there any incompatibilities to be aware of? This may save you a headache in the long run, if, for example you’re making a shampoo and an ingredient is incompatible with anionics. You can always ask they supplier for more in-depth information. Use this guide to working with vendors if you need assistance, and remember – treat your vendors with kindness. Only order a sample if you intend to use it. Valerie Patton is currently a cosmetic chemist specializing in hair care and hair color in Southern California. She is the Chair Elect of the California Chapter of the Society of Cosmetic Chemists. You can follow her on Twitter as @thelahobo.

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This is a pretty good summary of how skin moisturizers work on dry skin. https://www. youtube. com/watch? v=QdNPiW4ZULk

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In the cosmetic industry beauty bloggers seem to be gaining in their influence and big brands are beginning to take them more seriously. This is good for beauty bloggers and the brands they like but it can also have an effect on how you formulate. Here are 2 ways beauty bloggers may impact formulators. They make you avoid ingredients Beauty bloggers are easily manipulated by the media and fear mongering groups. They usually have no background in science and aren’t sufficiently skeptical of things that motivated groups tell them. They think sites like Livestrong. com and the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics are legitimate sources for ingredient information. They believe erroneous information about the safety (or lack thereof) of cosmetic ingredients. This in-turn can prompt your marketing people to ask you to avoid certain perfectly functional & safe ingredients. They make you add nonfunctional ingredients Just as beauty bloggers can be duped by purveyors of cosmetic safety misinformation, they can also be duped by marketers, friends or traditional information about ingredients. They might extol the virtues of an ingredient like Wheat Germ Oil while knowing very little about whether it works. They don’t know that just because an ingredient is listed on the product label doesn’t mean there is enough in the product to make it work. In the case of an ingredient like Wheat Germ oil, using a high level is unlikely. Beauty bloggers also don’t understand that health benefits in food do not translate into health benefits from cosmetics. It is completely untrue that whatever you put on your skin gets into your body. It (mostly) doesn’t. You can’t improve your health by applying an ingredient on your skin. For the most part I’m a fan of beauty bloggers (and I’m also one myself at The Beauty Brains). As a formulator you need to realize they can have an impact on your formulation. This is a good reason for you to follow a few of the more popular beauty blogs. Who knows, some day you might be working for one of these bloggers. That’s how Michele Phan started.

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This is a post by Nitesh Rajput A product is considered to be a conditioner if it improves the quality of the surface to which it is applied, particularly if this improvement involves the correction or prevention of certain aspects associated with surface damage. Conditioning of the hair and skin must be a continuous process, as both substrates are in a constant cycle of shedding and renewal. The main difference between hair and skin is that skin is basically a living organ that replaces its outermost layer on a frequent basis. Hair, in contrast, is basically dead material derived from a few live cells deep within the skin surface. Modern conditioners Modern conditioners are designed to provide one or more of the following functions: • provide ease of wet and dry combing • smooth, seal and realign damaged areas of the hair shaft • minimize porosity • impart sheen and a silken feel to the hair • provide some protection against thermal and mechanical damage • moisturize • add volume and body • eliminate static electricity So what is a cationic polymer? A polymer is "Any of numerous natural and synthetic compounds of usually high molecular weight consisting of up to millions of repeated linked units, each a relatively light and simple molecule. " So a cationic polymer is a positively charged or cationic polymer that we use in hair and body care products to increase conditioning and film forming. Because it's cationic, it will be substantive and adsorb to our hair our skin to increase lubricity and moisturizing. In hair care products, cationic polymers will help our cuticle scales resist uplift when stressed, which keeps our hair in better condition. What is Polyquaternium? Polyquaternium is the International Nomenclature for Cosmetic Ingredients designation for several polycationic polymersthat are used in the personal care industry. Polyquaternium is a neologism used to emphasize the presence of quaternary ammonium centers in the polymer. INCI has approved at least 37 different polymers under the polyquaternium designation. Different polymers are distinguished by the numerical value that follows the word "polyquaternium". Polyquaternium-5, polyquaternium-7, and polyquaternium-47 are three examples, each a chemically different type of polymer. The numbers are assigned in the order in which they are registered rather than because of their chemical structure. Polyquaternium-4: Provides excellent combability, holding, gloss and antistat properties. This cellulosic polymer substantive to skin and hair and exhibits outstanding properties in hair care products. It is a tan powder that is water-soluble. (suggested use: 0. 5 to 1%) Polyquaternium-7 : Leaves hair feeling soft. It is a thick viscous liquid with low odor. (suggested use: 2 to 5%) Polyquaternium-10: This is a cationic, water-soluble substantive conditioner for hair care. It provides film formation on hair and moisturization. It is non-irritating and compatible with a wide range of surfactants. It enables the formulation of clear products. (suggested use:0. 25-0. 5%) Polyquaternium-44: This is a very efficient, multinational polymer for use in a variety of cleansing products to improve the wet combability of...

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Although you can find lots of great formulating advice here on Chemists Corner and on our cosmetic formulating forum, there are numerous other places you can find excellent cosmetic formulation information. One of my favorite places to find hidden gems is Google. Using Google I have found numerous free copies of books that might cost you hundreds of dollars on Amazon or other book stores. You just have to know how to search. Look for the PDFs Often website owners will put up PDF versions of books or articles they've scanned. These files are a treasure trove of useful information but they won't show up in a typical Google search. But if you add ". pdf" to the search you just might find something really great. Here's an example. Doing a Google search of the phrase "cosmetic formulating . pdf" results in a great find! The Handbook of Cosmetic Formulating! If you have a scribd account you can download it but even if you can't you can still read it for free online. This book costs hundreds of dollars. Of course, I encourage you to purchase the book if you can afford it but until then read away. Instead of search for . pdf try "cosmetic formulating ebook" and you'll stumble on Cosmetic Formulation of Skin Care Products. Again this is a scribd file and you need to join to download it but you can read it online for free. There are numerous more examples but you get the idea. If you're looking for a formulation book, resource or even some advice, don't forget to check your local search engine. Remember the authors As I mentioned while you can find lots of information for free online remember that the authors of these works often rely on the income generated from them to survive. I know you could probably find copies of my book online in this way. Downloading it hurts me to some extent but I believe the point of a book is to get as many people as possible to read it so if a certain amount of people who weren't going to buy it anyway get it for free, that's just how life goes. I would appreciate it if you alerted me to any books you find though so others can share in the information.

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There are a few standardization organizations that you’ll come across in the personal care industry; two that you may see are referred to as ISO and GHS. ISO stands for International Organization for Standardization, while GHS is an acronym standing for the Globally Harmonized System . They are both logical systems that define the physical and environmental hazards of chemicals, along with relative protective measures. Essentially, they establish an agreed upon way that chemical hazards are communicated globally to ensure the safe use of chemicals. Overview of SDS One of the ways this is done is through a Safety Data Sheet (SDS), formerly known as the Material Safety Data Sheet (MSDS). On an SDS you can find useful information such as toxicity, flammability, and transportation restrictions for a certain product. The format of an SDS is generally the same across all of the organizations. General Structure of an SDS There are generally 16 sections to an SDS. It may have words or hazard symbols, and the sections are not limited to: Identification of the chemical & supplier contact information Hazards identification Composition of ingredients (chemical identity, CAS number) First aid measures upon exposure Firefighting information Accidental release measures Handling and storage Exposure controls and personal protective equipment Physical and chemical properties Stability and reactivity Toxicological information Ecological information Disposal considerations Transport information Regulatory information Additional information, like SDS revisions SDS’s aren’t just for ingredients It’s not only ingredients that need a safety data sheet; even finished goods have an SDS. If you work for a brand that sells products, you might have to write an SDS as well. What parts does a cosmetic chemist use? As a cosmetic chemist, you’ll be working with ingredients that have an SDS. It is good to familiarize yourself with the SDS content of each ingredient you use as it contains valuable information like chemical properties, storage information, disposal information, and what to do if you’ve suffered from exposure. An SDS should arrive with a sample that you’ve requested from a supplier, but in the event it doesn’t, they’re readily available on chemical supply sites like UL Prospector or you can contact your account representative. You can read more about SDS content and how different standardization organizations organize them here. Valerie Patton is currently a cosmetic chemist specializing in hair care and hair color in Southern California. She is the Chair Elect of the California Chapter of the Society of Cosmetic Chemists. You can follow her on Twitter as @thelahobo.

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I read this heartfelt article in the Edmonton Journal encouraging the Canadian government to ban animal testing of cosmetics. It’s a laudable goal and something that I think will eventually happen but I don’t think this editor realizes how small an impact such a ban will have. She also gets a few things wrong which I’ll try to correct. Should we ban cosmetic animal testing The author made a number of points which she didn't get quite right. "It’s astonishing, really, when you consider that many of these animal tests were first developed in the 1930s and 1940s. Just think how much science has evolved and improved since then. " In the area of animal testing of cosmetics, the technology hasn’t evolved or improved much since the 30s or 40s. The main difference is that fewer animals are used but these are essentially the same tests which correlate the same way to human safety. No one has come up with new animal tests because there is no money in it. All the new research in this area is being spent on developing alternatives to animal testing. There have been some validated tests but work remains to be done. “They are also being surpassed by state-of-the-art non-animal tests that are better able to predict how consumers like you or me will react to a product in the real world. “ Well, not exactly. Yes, some tests have been developed to replace animal testing, but not everything. For example, there is nothing to replace inhalation testing of aerosols. The author might find this link to the EU validated animal testing alternatives helpful. “So by removing animal tests from the equation, we would actually improve consumer safety” No, we wouldn’t. “No company needs to test on animals to produce safe, new cosmetics... ” This is true unless a company wants to make actual “new cosmetics. ” Anything that would be something new and have new benefits would require new ingredients which would have to be safety tested on animals. “... any Canadian cosmetic containing ingredients newly tested on animals is banned from sale in the European Union... ” Again, this isn’t exactly true. A cosmetic company can use ingredients that are tested on animals if the testing was done for the pharmaceutical industry. A raw material company can simply say that it was evaluating the ingredient for a pharma application and that data can be used for getting approval for use in cosmetics. “Opinion polls show that the vast majority of us Canadian citizens want an end to cosmetics cruelty. “ This depends on how you word the question. Who would say yes to ending animal testing if it meant their cosmetics weren’t going to be as safe? Should cosmetic animal testing be banned? I don’t disagree with the author and hope some day animal testing will be a thing of the past for the cosmetic industry. It would be great if it were a thing of the past for all industries. But...

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There's a trend in the beauty industry called "beauty from within. " This is a growing segment (representing about $5 billion in annual sales worldwide) which refers to beauty products that are designed to be ingested. The idea is that you can improve your skin and hair by simply drinking a beverage or taking some kind of supplement. Unfortunately, recent studies have shown that the products touted to improve your beauty from within don't provide much benefit. So with this evidence you might think that the beauty from within trend is dead. And you'd be wrong. There are a number of reasons that companies will still launch and market these types of products. 1. People believe they work. It doesn't really matter what the science shows, if you can convince a consumer that a product works, they'll buy it. They might be able to dismiss the science as being applicable to other people but not to themselves. Sometimes consumers are their worst enemy. 2. They are easy to formulate. Most of these products don't require complicated emulsion system. Instead they are simple solutions of water, color and flavor. Sure you have to figure out some way of getting the appropriate vitamin or extract in there but this isn't very difficult. 3. Claims are nearly limitless. The supplement industry in the US is practically unregulated and as long as you don't make any direct health claims, you can say whatever you want about your product. This plays well with cosmetic claims because they are all about appearance and not about curing a disease. The skills required to make these types of products are more akin to food science than to cosmetic science so in the future you just might find yourself in the position of having to learn food chemistry. I suppose this isn't all bad because it is fun to branch out. It's just unfortunate that when you look at the science of these products, they are mostly BS. Incidentally, it would be cool if someone could create a beauty from within product that actually worked. Of course, if it did I think that would qualify as a drug.

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There are a wide variety of water types that you can use when formulating cosmetics. Distilled, deionized, purified or tap water are all options for cosmetic formulators. Here is the difference between all of them. Tap water When you get the water right from the drinking fountain or city water supply, it's filled with a small amount of metal and mineral ions. Often this will not have any effect on your cosmetic formula but it can especially if you are using any soap based ingredient. Since you can't control the level of ions in a formula it's best to formulate with something that is a little better purified than tap water. Distilled water This is the oldest form of purifying water. In this process water is boiled in a still. The vapor is collected in a condenser and cooled to reform the water. Theoretically, it removes all traces of contaminants except those that boil at a temperature lower than water such as some alcohols. It also will absorb Carbon Dioxide from the air so the pH will typically be lower (pH 4. 5 - 5. 0). Deionized water This is water in which the non-water related ions have been removed. Tap water is usually filled with ions from the soil including sodium, calcium & magnesium plus metal ions from the pipes such as iron and copper. It is deionized by sending it through an ion exchange column which is a tube that contains a resin which will selectively bind with ions in water. Ionized water goes in and deionized water comes out. This process doesn't remove organic contaminants, viruses or bacteria. Demineralized water This water is sent through an ion exchange process. It's pretty much the same thing as deionized water. There really is no difference when it comes to formulating cosmetics. Ultra Pure water When you want just pure H2O this is what you want. The water is first demineralized then it is sent through an electrodeionization process. This is great for electronics and pharmaceuticals. It's probably over-kill for cosmetics. There you have it, all the different water you might use when making cosmetic formulas. It's important to note that whatever water you use if you are making a cosmetic the only proper way to list it is on the ingredient list is WATER.

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Environmental rules are often strange. Here is a story where L'Oreal was fined over $160,000 for selling a product that contained 55% volatile organic compounds (VOC). According to California law companies are restricted in the amount of VOC that they can have in their formulas. Problem of VOC claims While the folks at L'Oreal thought they were complying with the law they weren't. It wasn't because of their formula, but because of what they claimed about their formula. The products were sprayable starch and according to regulations they can only have 6% VOC content, not the 55% VOC content which is the regulations for hair styling sprays. Since they didn't list anywhere on their packaging the claim “finish, maintain or hold previously styled hair” they are subject to the 6% level. Oops. Cosmetic VOC level limits This is something that many people don't realize. Even products that are not sprays are subject to VOC limits according to the California regulations. So if you have the idea of using alcohol (ethanol) as your primary preservative, you may be in violation of VOC rules. Here are VOC limits for some common products. You can find more limits here. Astringent / toner = 35% VOC Nail polish remover = 1% VOC Insect Repellant = 65% VOC Temporary hair color = 55% VOC Shaving cream = 5% VOC Shaving gel = 4% VOC Fragrance (less than 20% fragrance) = 75% VOC Fragrance (more than 20% fragrance) = 65% VOC Hair styling product = 6% VOC Hair finishing spray = 55% VOC Hair shine spray = 55% VOC Hair Mousse = 6% VOC General purpose cleaners (body wash, shampoo, etc) = 0. 5% VOC As you can see it can get a bit complicated. If you have questions about it this is one of those things that are best to consult an expert in the regulatory matters of California.

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Interview: Dennis Abbeduto has nearly 20 years surfactant and formulation chemistry experience and currently works for Colonial Chemical, Inc in Southeast Tennessee as a Senior R&D Chemist. Prior to this he worked for Alberto-Culver Co in Chicago, Illinois on skin care technology and as a formulation chemist for the St. Ives brand. Dennis also worked for McIntyre Group, Ltd in University Park, Illinois as an R&D synthesis and applications chemist. He has a BS in chemistry from Governors State University in University Park. Dennis has been an SCC member since 1997, serving as Midwest Chapter Secretary and Chair, and received a chapter Young Scientist Award in 2004. Dennis lives in Chattanooga, Tennessee with his wife, son, and three cats. Contact: Colonial Chemicals Technologies discussed: Suganate Polysugamulse Polysugaglycinate Natural Cosmetics Top Natural cosmetic brands Burt’s Bees (Clorox) Aveda (Estee Lauder) Aveeno (Johnson & Johnson) The Body Shop (L’Oreal) Nu Skin Hain Celestial Group Dr. Perricone, MD Cosm Bare Essentials Jurlique Tom’s of Maine (Colgate-Palmolive) Dr Bronner’s Yes to Carrots Avon Weleda Aubrey Organics Should you get your products certified? Here are reasons why you might get certified 1. It appeals to consumers 2. It sets you apart from your competitors 3. It sets clear formulation guidelines 4. It may become a government regulation Here are reasons not to get certified 1. Consumers don't know what it means 2. It costs money 3. It restricts your formulations 4. You give up control of your product development Announcements We're launching a new Natural Formulating course. See this link for some free videos and details about the course. Natural Cosmetic Formulation course Join the Natural formulating course I'll be giving a talk this Tuesday in the Chicago area. You can see more details here.

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Here's a technology I had never heard about, dry water. It sounds fascinating and could result in the creation of truly surfactant free cosmetic products. What is dry water? Dry water is essentially a water/air emulsion in which a dry, hydrophobic powder is used to coat droplets of water. It was first patented in 1968 then re-discovered in 2001 in the form of liquid marbles. The technology seems pretty cool. Take a look at this video for a demonstration. There is a powder covering the top of the water so when the experimenter pokes their finger through the surface, it doesn't get wet. https://www. youtube. com/watch? v=wt1TfPuTzq0 While it seems pretty cool, I'm still trying to figure out how this could be used in a cosmetic product. Perhaps you could coat aqueous solutions of humectants or maybe even a liquid marble of emulsion particles. I wonder if that would work. Anyway, it seems like pretty interesting technology. It's definitely a technology I haven't seen extensively applied to cosmetics. This could be an innovative avenue for a crafty formulator to follow.

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Recently we received a request from someone who wanted to make their own face paint for children. Specifically, they wanted to know how to make homemade face paints using natural ingredients that would be safe for skin. They also said they wanted to use plant derived pigments. This sounds like a fun project, but I'm concerned about the focus on "natural ingredients. " As we frequently say, just because something is natural doesn't mean that it is safe. Cosmetic Colorants The part of this request that is worth discussing is the request about colorants. In truth, you would be hard pressed to find any safer ingredient in cosmetics than the colorants. On some level, it was colorants (specifically dangerous ones) that lead to the development of the FDA. While there aren't a lot of ingredient restrictions in the US for cosmetics, colorants and any other material put in the product to impart color, are the most strictly regulated of all cosmetic ingredients. Here is a listing of important documents regarding the colors that can and cannot be used in cosmetics in the US. Basic Requirements of colorants Coloring your cosmetic product is not as simple as finding some plant or flower that has a pretty color, distilling that color and using it in your formula. You specifically CANNOT do this. Some of the approved colorants are plant derived but many are not. Here are some basic facts about regulated colors in cosmetics. All colors used in your formula must be approved by the FDA. If it's not on the approved list (no matter where it comes from) it can't be used. Nearly all colors must also be certified by the FDA. For most colorants every batch of the color has to be inspected and approved by the FDA. You can't just make your own colors in the kitchen. All colors must meet specifications before being used. Colors are restricted in the ways and amounts in which they can be used. Making edible color cosmetics So if you wanted to make face paints that contained only colors that were edible you would limit yourself to food approved colorants. Here is a list of food colorants. There are some that are exempt from the certification requirements. These would include things like Caramel, Annatto extract, Dehydrated beets, Fruit juice, Carrot oil, and more. There are also food colorings that are allowed which require certification. These are things like FD&C Blue 1, Blue 2, Green 3, Red 3, Yellow 5 and a few others. Basically, if you want to make a safe face paint that is edible stick to approved food colorings. If you want it to be plant derived, stick to the food colorants that do not require certification. I've always found it baffling that stories about Lead in Lipstick get so much traction and hype in the media. NGOs use these type of stories to push for greater regulation. But the reality is that colorants are the most highly regulated ingredients in...

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While surfing the Internet looking for information about cosmetics you can't help but stumble onto negative information about the "toxic" chemicals evil corporations put into their products. We once posted a list of the most vilified cosmetic chemicals which included... 1. Parabens 2. Diazolidiny Urea 3. Diethanolamine 4. Sodium Lauryl Sulfate 5. Petrolatum 6. Mineral Oil 7. Propylene Glycol 8. Triclosan 9. Fragrance 10. Color pigments 11. PEG — Polyethylene Glycol 12. Talc A couple more ingredients that should be added to this list are 13. BPA 14. Phthalates Evidence of danger The thing that I find frustrating about the information shared about these ingredients is that it is incredibly biased and often just wrong. Or the purveyors of this BS jump to conclusions about preliminary studies then ignore any kind of follow-up by researchers. Parabens are an excellent example. According to the fearmongering groups, parabens are dangerous chemicals that shouldn't be used in cosmetics. But when a group of independent scientists (actual toxicologists) hired by the EU governments went through all the safety data and determined that parabens are safe as used in cosmetics, did the fearmongering group go back and revise it's stance? No. They don't care about science. They exist to scare people,harass cosmetic companies, and generate money through donations. They have no interest in actually educating people about products & product safety. They don't care that a group like the European Food Safety Authority has looked at the safety data of BPA and determined that BPA does not pose a risk in cosmetics. You will still see the fearmongers shouting about irrelevant hazards. And lazy, clueless reporters will take up the torch and continue to pass misinformation. These reporters lack the integrity to throughly investigate the topics they write about. Making things less safe Worse is that these groups are prompting companies to find alternatives that are actually making products less safe. The folks at Badger Sunscreen are adamant about avoiding parabens and surprise, surprise, they sold low quality product that was dangerously contaminated. Worse yet, it was a children's product. There should have been a much bigger fine for a company that would release under-preserved product. And all those BPA replacements? Yeah they are less safe too. Watchdog groups done right While I criticize these groups I do believe that they can provide a service to consumers and to the cosmetic industry. It is perfectly legitimate to have a listing of chemicals of concern. However, that should just be a starting point. If there is evidence that the ingredients on your list are actually not harmful (as has been proven for most of the vilified ingredients) then they should acknowledge that and stop spreading misinformation. I would love to see a world where we have science-based groups that are looking out for the safety of consumers. Unfortunately, there aren't any at the moment. So, when should a cosmetic chemical considered safe? When the best science available says it is. And it should be toxicologists who...

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Here's a nice video I found on Youtube that explains the chemistry of surfactants in a solution. It's a nice way to spend 5 minutes on a snowy Sunday. https://www. youtube. com/watch? v=y3AdOsRAipU

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Crude oil is pretty amazing stuff. It's a mixture of a variety of hydrocarbon molecules and can be used to create any number of organic molecules. In that sentence the term "organic" refers to organic chemistry as in containing Hydrogen and Carbon atoms. These hydrocarbon molecules have anywhere from 5 to 40 Carbon atoms and come in all different types of structure. While crude oil is a fascinating material there are a number of problems with using it. First, there is a limited supply. Once we've used it all up, there won't be any left. And there is already a notion that we have hit the peak level and there is less in the ground than we have used. Some estimate that by 2040 we will only be able to produce 20% of what we produce now. That will not be good news for anyone. That's why it's important for industries like the cosmetic industry to start reducing our reliance on petroleum based ingredients. Eventually, they'll be gone. Fortunately, most of the ingredients used in the cosmetic industry can be produced from renewable plant sources. Pretty much anything that can be made with hydrocarbon chains from C8 to C22 can be made using plant sources. The way you typically make a surfactant is you start with an oil with a known distribution of straight chain hydrocarbons (like crude oil or a plant oil), chemically react it with the appropriate reactants and make your surfactant. So, Sodium Lauryl Sulfate can be made by blending petroleum based C12 fatty acids or it can be made using Coconut derived C12 fatty acids. Cetyl alcohol could be made from petroleum or from Palm oil. Here is a list of some natural materials that can be made into surfactants 1. Soybean oil - In fact, here's a new soybean oil based surfactant. 2. Coconut oil 3. Palm oil 4. Sunflower oil 5. Meadowfoam Seed oil 6. Corn oil 7. Castor oil 8. Hemp oil 9. Sugar Of course there are lots more sources but this is a good start.

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Right now there are a bunch of cosmetic brand that claim to use stem cells to provide benefits. For example, there is the Swiss Botany brand with their apple stem cells or the Peter Thomas Roth rose stem cell product. The stem cells in these products have virtually no effect. You can bet that if you left the stem cells out of those formulas no one would be able to tell the difference. It is pure marketing hype and nothing more. But stem cell technology does have some promise. Here is an excellent piece of research that shows scientists have grown human hair from stem cells. It's pretty cool. They took human pluripotent stem cells and were able to coax them into converting into human hair follicles. This was all done in a lab and on human cell cultures but it represent the first time it was ever achieved. Apparently growing dermal stem cells outside of the body makes them quickly lose their hair producing properties. There are two important things to note here which separates this research from the stem cell nonsense that is put into cosmetic products. 1. They use human stem cells. It baffles me that companies use apple or rose stem cells and expect that they will do anything on human skin. 2. Their results are modest. They make no claims that they've cured baldness or any other condition people would love to solve. Researchers are almost always (as they should be) reserved about the meaning of any experiment. This could just be a fluke that they can't repeat. This is a very promising result though and it will be interesting to see where this technology goes. Animal and then human trials are probably the next thing required. But it won't be as simple as just rinsing your head in a stream of human stem cells or topically applying some stem cell cream. They have to actually do a tissue transplant to get it to work. Stem cell technology is promising and I believe in the future there really will be some amazing things done with it. Just don't believe the hype of stem cell containing creams that you see for sale now. The stem cells aren't doing anything.

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One of the fun aspects of what I do for a living is that I occasionally get invited to be a guest on TV shows. Recently, I recorded a spot on the Dr Oz show which is filmed in New York. You can see the video clip here. Cosmetic Chemist TV Appearance You might be curious about the whole process so I thought I would explain what happens. Getting invited The first time I was invited on the show, it was arranged by my book publisher, Harlequin. We had just published our book "Can You Get Hooked on Lip Balm" and they sent me on a media tour. In addition to the Dr Oz show I was also on a number of local news programs and on the Rachel Ray show. Before doing all these tv appearances they also sent me through a day of media training which was very helpful. If you want to appear on TV or in the media, I would suggest you do some type of media training. Since the first appearance went well the Dr Oz show invited me out a few more times. This latest time is the 4th time I've been on the show. Now they contact me directly and usually it's whenever they have some type of new story angle that involves cosmetic product mythbusting. If I was a bit more ambitious I suppose I could pitch stories to them but I don't look at TV appearances as anything but fun opportunities. That's probably a mistake by me but oh well. Preparing for the segment When the producers contact you, it's usually through email. They first want to see if you are available. Then they talk to you on the phone about the segment and what they want to cover. You have some input here but a lot of times they have specific things they want to talk about. In the segment above I can't remember but I think I suggested the body wash micro beads piece. They had ideas about the sunscreen and argan oil. Of course, I helped flesh out the ideas with the basic facts and that eventually got turned into the segment we recorded. I don't get paid to be on the show but they do cover any traveling expenses. For this segment I just happened to be in New York so they covered my car ride to and from the studio. It's a pretty nice studio by the way. They used to film across the hall from the Jimmy Fallon show but they have since moved uptown. The day of taping They don't tell you what to wear although they did ask me to bring my lab coat. I've gotten a lot of use out of that lab coat outside of the lab. I try to wear a collared, solid color shirt, staying away from stripes, and some black pants, business casual. They fix your hair up a bit and put on some makeup to smooth your...

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Contrary to what you read on the Internet, the cosmetics industry in the US is regulated. It is regulated by the FDA and they do a fairly decent job of it given their limited resources. Cosmetics are some of the most safe consumer products you can buy. One of the biggest mistakes companies make is that they "accidentally" turn their cosmetic products into drugs. When this happens the FDA will contact you and if you don't change your ways, they will impound or confiscate your products. Here is how you can turn your cosmetic into a drug and how to avoid doing that. Use a drug active In the US, an ingredient that interacts with living tissue and causes the cells to behave in a way that they normally wouldn't is considered a drug. The FDA lists a number of drug actives and these can not normally be used in cosmetic products. So if you include an anti-dandruff ingredient or a glaucoma drug active in your formula you are selling a misbranded drug. Even if you don't make claims that the drug is doing anything for people you are still inappropriately selling a drug. You might be able to hide from the FDA for a little while like this company did but eventually they will find you, warn you, confiscate your product and likely shut down your production. Don't secretly use drug actives in your cosmetics! Make a drug claim Most cosmetic companies don't use drug actives, but they make the more common mistake of making drug claims which turn their cosmetic into a misbranded drug. Raw material suppliers will often come to you with claims about ingredients that can stimulate collagen production, boost hair growth, or do some other magical transformation to the body. Your suppliers can say these things but you can't. At least you can't do it in a direct way. Any claim that suggests your product is interacting or interfering with normal body metabolism is a drug claim and the FDA can send you a warning letter and potential shut you down. Here is a recent example. The company Cell Vitals was warned by the FDA for making drug claims about their cosmetic product. Here are some of their offenses. The company claimed that their stem cell facial moisturizer contained Camellia Sinesis Extract which is "anti-bacterial and ... anti-cancer. ” They also said that their product contains "Argireline® ... keeps down the release of a neural signal protein (catecholamine) and thus, prevents the muscle contraction involved in facial expressions. ” Those are not cosmetic claims! And they will get you in trouble with the FDA if you make them. Note the FDA has people that scour the Internet specifically looking for companies that are making illegal drug claims. Being small is no guarantee that you can get away with it. Avoiding problems To avoid the problem of turning your cosmetic into a drug follow these tips. 1. Don't claim that your product will treat a disease....

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We're in the process of launching a new course about formulating natural cosmetic products. You can see our latest video here. Formulating natural cosmetic products In the process of putting together this course I've been looking at the different ways that cosmetic companies market their products as natural. While it seems that almost everyone has some kind of SKU or advertising targeting natural there are a number of brands that really focus solely on a natural positioning. Here are the top 15 natural brands as of 2013. Interestingly, it is big companies that dominate. However, there is a big hole for companies like P&G and Unilever as they don't have any top brands... yet. Burt's Bees (Clorox) Aveda (Estee Lauder) Aveeno (Johnson & Johnson) The Body Shop (L'Oreal) Nu Skin Hain Celestial Group Dr. Perricone, MD Cosm Bare Essentials Jurlique Tom's of Maine (Colgate-Palmolive) Dr Bronner's Yes to Carrots Avon Weleda Aubrey Organics Incidentally, if you are interested in natural formulating be sure to get our free formulating natural cosmetics report.

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I once made a shampoo formula that I kept for about 17 years. It was my first batch of anything and for some reason I just never disposed of it. It stayed stable for about 7 years before it striated into three layers. I suspect if it were a clear shampoo that would not have happened. Anyway, 17 years seems pretty impressive but not nearly as impressive as this cream which is just about 2000 years old. The formula contained animal fat, starch and tin dioxide. Even more interesting, the scientists who analyzed it made a copy of the formula. Perhaps the 2000 year old sample wasn't completely stable (no one said whether they tried it or not) but it doesn't look separated in the picture. That's an impressive feat by an ancient cosmetic chemist.

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Euromonitor is a market research company who covers the beauty market. They put together a white paper suggesting some trends that will be popular in 2015. Here is the list. You can get the full report here. 1. Buying convenience - Consumers are finding it easier to buy products online or through their phones. Beauty brands need to have online distribution to be successful. 2. Brand activism - More brands are tying in some social good with purchases of their products. This might be a good way to grow a new beauty brand. Find a cause that people will care about. 3. Vloggers and Bloggers - They are going to have an even bigger impact on what people buy in the coming year. 4. Sharing consumers - I'm not sure how this will play out with cosmetics but perhaps a company can buy in bulk and sell to groups. 5. Malls build communities - While online purchasing is going to increase shopping centers and malls are gearing more towards being a place for people to gather. Big brands can't ignore retail opportunities. 6. Millenial purchasers - There are 2. 6 billion of them and they're going to start buying. Better have some cosmetics for them to purchase. 7. Consumers demand privacy - Not sure how this will affect cosmetics. 8. World shopping - With online purchases people can buy cosmetics from around the world. All brands will be global and might have to adapt to local regulations. 9. Virtual reality - This is going to grow in 2015. Perhaps people will be able to virtually design their own cosmetics and have finished product sent to them. 10. Focus on well-being - Consumers will be more focused on their health and monitoring it, especially using mobile apps. This should be good news for brands positioned as healthy.

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People apply color cosmetics hoping to improve the way they look. But according to this research published in the The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, most people don't know what they are doing and are applying too much. Cosmetic evaluation method In the study 44 women participated as models. They were first photographed with their hair back wearing no makeup or facial jewelry. They were then given a tray of popular color cosmetics and told to apply makeup such that they were going out somewhere fancy for the night. After this, their pictures were taken again. A range of photos were created using the "no make-up" and "with make-up" as the high and low points of the scale. 22 male and 22 female participants were then stationed at a computer and asked to optimize the attractiveness of the given faces. Results Researcher found that both men and women preferred the look of women with less makeup than applied. Women liked the appearance of slightly more makeup than men. While this is an interesting study, I don't think looking at pictures is a good way to evaluate the attractiveness of someone. How many people do you know who look great in real life but don't take good pictures? I think most people are more attractive in real life. Anyway, what this research suggests is that people who put on a lot of makeup can probably put on less. It also shows that some makeup definitely helps everyone look better and that is something of which we cosmetic chemists can be proud.

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A question was posed to us recently about creating consistent cosmetic products and formulations. Basically, the reader wanted to know how you do it. The answer is probably the same whether you are making cosmetics, cars, or computers... Consistency. Use consistent raw materials When you make a formula you need to use the same ingredients every time you make a batch. Ideally, you would use ingredients that are even from the same batch of raw material produced by your supplier. However, this isn't possible because you will eventually run out of that lot. What you should keep consistent is who you get the raw material from (supplier) and the specifications of the cosmetic raw material that you get. If you have a consistent supplier and specification for a raw material you are well on your way to producing a consistent product. Consistent ingredient levels Using the right ingredients is important but equally important is using the right levels of these ingredients. When you weigh out the amount of raw material you're going to use to make the formula you have to be consistent in how much you use. This can be challenging as some raw materials tend to stick to the side of weighing containers and sometimes you just pour too much onto the scale. One of the most common reasons for a batch not turning out the way you expect is because of inconsistent weighing. Ideally, you will have no more than a 5% error in your ingredient weighing. Consistent procedures How you make a batch is almost as important as which ingredients you use. To have a consistent, high quality product you need to combine the ingredients in the same way every time. You should keep track of the mixing speeds, the equipment, and the time for making the batch. These should be the same every time you make a new batch. Also, the temperature should be consistent too as should when you add ingredients. To get the best chance of making a repeatable product you should make the product the same way every time. Consistent filling Another thing to consider is after the batch is made. You need to be consistent in the way that you fill the product into containers. You can effect the viscosity if you send the product through a small nozzle or you try to fill it too quickly. The method of filling can definitely affect the final product. Cosmetic product testing Finally, you need to do some consistent testing to ensure that your batches are indeed consistent from batch to batch. This would be things like viscosity and pH measurements plus color, odor, and appearance evaluations. Do the testing at the same temperature using the same equipment. Creating a high quality cosmetic product is not difficult but it can be made much simpler if you do one thing... be consistent.

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A fun activity for any cosmetic chemist is to look at a list of ingredients (LOI) and try to determine where is the 1% line. If you don't know the 1% line refers to the place in the LOI which indicates where the concentration of ingredients is less than 1%. According to cosmetic labeling rules everything in the formula that is used in a concentration higher than 1% is required to be listed in order of concentration. At 1% or below, you can list it in any order. So, if you can figure out where the 1% line is a formulator can get a pretty good idea of the concentration of the main ingredients in the formula. Let's look at an example. Here is a color-enhancing hair conditioner. Water, Cetearyl alcohol, Glycerin, Behentrimonium chloride, Cetyl esters, Isopropyl myristate, Quaternium-80, Polysorbate 20, Fragrance, Methylparaben, Polyquaternium-37, Mineral oil, Benzophenone-3, Ethylhexyl methoxycinnamate Finding the 1% line In doing this exercise you want to start with the last ingredient and work your way up the list to figure out where the 1% line might be. Once you figure this out you can guess at what the formula concentration of the other ingredients might be. It also helps to know what most of the ingredients do and some of their approximate use levels. Since I know that Methylparaben is a preservative, there's no reason it would ever be used as high as 1%. So, we can figure that everything after that ingredient is also used at a level of less than 1%. That brings us to our first principle... Preservatives are almost never used at a level of 1% Other ingredients like colors (except for color cosmetics) and fragrances are rarely used above 1%. So in this list, fragrance is also probably under 1%. That brings us to Polysorbate 20. This ingredient is used as a solubilizer typically for fragrance so it is like that it is not used at a 1% level either. Usually a 1:1 ratio of fragrance to solubilizer is used. Ignoring everything we've looked at thus far we are down to the following ingredients... Water, Cetearyl alcohol, Glycerin, Behentrimonium chloride, Cetyl esters, Isopropyl myristate, Quaternium-80 Educated guess at the formula Now that we've narrowed down the number of ingredients we can guess at what a reasonable percentage might be for the remaining ingredients. I know that conditioners are mostly water so this formula contains at least 90% water. If we figure that the last ingredients, Quaternium-80, is used at just about 1% we can start to fill in reasonable guesses for the other ingredients. Here is a reasonable starting formula. Water - 90% Cetearyl Alcohol - 4. 5% Glycerin - 1. 5% Behentrimonium Chloride - 1% Cetyl Esters - 1% Isopropyl Myristate - 1% Quaternium-80 - 1% Remember the total formula should equal 100%. This would just be a guess and I know it is not exactly the formula because we've left out all the other ingredients that are less than...

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When you create a formula in the lab it's rather easy to create batches that are consistently the same in terms of their physical and chemical characteristics. This is because you use sensitive balances, you work with smaller amount and you are not typically under pressure to get something made on a specific schedule. These same conditions are not true of production and for these reasons (and others) you need to set specifications for your finished formulas. What are cosmetic specifications? Specifications are a range of values assigned to a formula which dictate the physical and chemical characteristics of any batch that are acceptable for a quality product. If some characteristic of a batch is found to be outside of the specifications the batch is either adjusted or discarded before it can be sold. In this way, specification ensure that every consumer will have a consistent experience every time they use the product. Who sets specifications? The specifications are initially set by the product development team. Traditionally, R&D takes the leading role in this process but they also get input from the marketing and market research departments for factors that will affect consumers. As the lead product formulator, you are ultimately responsible for setting specifications. What characteristics? The product specifications for any cosmetic formula will vary depending on the type of product it is, but there are some commonalities. For example, all products should have an appearance specification. When the batch is done it should be checked for color, clarity, or any other unique appearance that the formula is supposed to have. If your product is a blue body wash but the final batch appears green, it would fail the specification test. Another common specification (or spec) would be odor. Product batches should always be checked against an odor standard to ensure it has the proper odor. Other key characteristics that get listed in the specifications would include pH - A range should be set for every aqueous based formula Viscosity - A range should be set for any liquid formula. Also, the test should be done using a standard spindle and speed. Of course there can be other specifications that are measured including product performance tests, penetration tests, moisture % tests, and more. Ideally, you'll set specifications for the least amount of testing required to ensure that the product is consistent. Production people are under a time crunch and often don't want to wait for intensive testing before releasing the final batch. Who tests the product? Normally, the specification testing is done by the Quality Control group at your company. In this way there is an independent verification of the quality of the final product. The production group is under pressure to release as many batches as they can so if they were responsible for the testing, they might pass batches which are borderline. What happens when a product is out of spec? Since there are numerous reasons a product could have characteristics outside of specifications there are numerous...

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There was an interesting discussion on LinkedIn about whether Magnesium Laureth Sulfate was more gentle than Sodium Laureth Sulfate. It's a pretty good question and I'm not really sure about the answer. Here is what my experience has been. Sodium and Ammonium When I formulated at Alberto Culver we used SLS and SLES in our shampoos. At the time about half of all the top selling shampoos used SLS/SLES. The other half used ALS/ALES (ammonium lauryl sulfate / ammonium laureth sulfate). This included brands like Suave, Finesse, and Salon Selectives. What it really boiled down to was that P&G, who had many of the top shampoos, used SLS/SLES and Helene Curtis, who eventually became Unilever and had many other top shampoos, used ALS/ALES. Since I worked on the VO5 brand we typically compared our performance to Suave which was similarly positioned. This was convenient because they used ALS/ALES and we used SLS/SLES. In all the testing I did there wasn't much difference in performance. We were not able to demonstrate any customer preference of the shampoos in home use tests and we couldn't find any foaming or combing differences in lab tests. As far as my testing went, I couldn't tell a difference between the counterion used in the surfactant. So, at least in my experience, there really is no noticeable performance difference between an ammonium based surfactant and a sodium based one. As far as irritation goes, the CIR concluded that while both have the potential to be irritating to skin, they can be formulated to be non-irritating. I would be curious if anyone could direct me to research that shows differently. Other counterions In the discussion the original question was about Magnesium Laureth Sulfate. This isn't an ingredient I've ever used. It was commonly believed by responders in the thread that MLES is less irritating to the skin than SLES. However, according to this research ( Paye, Zocchi, Broze XXVII Jornadas Anuales CED Barcelona, Spain, June 1998, pagg. 449-456) there is no difference in skin irritation when tested in-vivo on human subjects. So, I can't think of any good reason to choose one of these types of surfactants over the other except when it comes to questions of supply and pricing. The reason we used SLS/SLES was not because it was superior to ALS/ALES. It was only because we were able to get a better price break on the sodium surfactant. I suspect that the reason Helene Curtis used ALS was because they got a better price on the ammonium surfactant. Sometimes that is all it takes to choose one raw material over another.

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On the weekend I like to look through Youtube and find cool chemistry videos. Here's one from a series called Chemistry Life Hacks which gives you tips on how to improve aspects of your life using chemistry! https://www. youtube. com/watch? v=QUE2O1276P8

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Somewhere along the line surfactants which contain the name “sulfate” got a bad name. It’s difficult to say exactly how this negative reputation was developed but I suspect it was the result of a clever salon shampoo marketer who was looking for a way to make their higher priced brands stand out from the more popular store brands. Since they couldn’t compete in terms of formulation performance or advertising, highlighting the negative aspects of the competition was a logical strategy. Nothing moves alternative products like fear of conventional ones. Anyway, this idea was spread to salon stylists (who get commissions from the sale of salon brands) which then spread to consumers. Now, it’s pretty firmly established in a high percentage of people’s minds that sulfate containing surfactants are harsh, more color stripping and bad for your hair. There’s little evidence for this but it persists. So, cosmetic formulators have to learn how to formulate sulfate free. The challenge of formulating sulfate free The reason we traditionally use sulfate surfactants is because they are effective, inexpensive, easy to formulate and easy to thicken. Sulfate free alternatives lack many of these characteristics. Realize that you are going to have a greater challenge to make formulas that foam the same way, clean, and meet cost goals. It’s likely that you’ll need an additional thickening system as salt doesn’t thicken many of these alternative surfactants. Options for sulfate free There are a number of options for making a sulfate free shampoo. Here are some strategies various companies have used. 1. Sodium Lauryl Sulfate free - since SLS is the big objection one simple solution is to use Magnesium Laurel Sulfate and then advertise your product as Sodium Lauryl free. This is technically true and might be appealing to some consumers. However, it still contains the term ‘sulfate’ so this won’t be effective for most people. 2. Sodium something else - Some alternatives to SLS include Sodium Lauryl Sarcosinate Sodium Cocoyl Glycinate Sodium Cocoyl Glutamate Sodium Lauryl Methyl Isethionate Sodium Lauroyl Taurate Sodium Lauroamphoacetate 3. Try a non-sodium name - If you want to get rid of the sodium from your label completely, there are some other options. Decyl Glycoside Lauryl Glucoside Coco Glucosides PEG 40 Glyceryl Cocoate Potassium Laureth Phosphate 4. Alternative detergent systems - One other option is to offer a dry shampoo based on starch. You can easily call these formulas sulfate free. While science may not agree with the notion that sulfates are inherently bad for people’s hair, you have to make products that both your marketing department and ultimately, your consumer wants. Sometimes this means ditching the traditional surfactants for other options. To be a complete cosmetic chemist you need to know these options.

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There was an excellent write-up of a debate between two cosmetic industry experts about the value of having your products certified by one of the natural standards companies. Beauty blogger and cosmetic chemist Colin Sanders squared off with Amarjit Sahota the director of Organic Monitor about the topic of organic certification. If you are marketing in the natural or organic space it's worth reading to see what those gentlemen think. The basic arguments were that Colin thought the standards are just a marketing exercise and don't really help sell products while Amarjit thought certification gives a legitimacy to brands that they can't get otherwise. Here is my perspective on the topic. I'll look at both the pros and cons of cosmetic organic certification. Why you should get certified It appeals to consumers - There is a significant segment of the population that will see certification as a good reason to specifically buy a product. If you are marketing to those consumers your certification will definitely help you sell more product. It's a way to stand out among competition - Right now few of your competitors are getting certified. If you do, you'll have that point of differentiation in your marketing material which can help sell more product. Of course, this will be short lived because if you do start doing well your competition can just get certified and take that advantage away from you. It gives you clear guidelines - One of the most challenging things about green formulating is knowing what ingredients are ok to use and which ones aren't. Following a certification program lets you know exactly what you can and cannot use. It may be adopted by government agencies - While these standards are not accepted by governments around the world there is definitely a push to get them adopted. If you already are certified you'll be ahead of your competition if (or when) this type of certification becomes mandatory. Why you shouldn't get certified Consumers don't know what it means - If your consumer doesn't know what the certification symbol means it's not going to do much for your sales. At the moment these certification groups have not done enough marketing to make consumers away they exist. It costs money - This type of certification is not free and can represent a significant cost, especially if you are a small brand. If you have to decide between spending money on certification or spending it on other marketing, you'll be better off going with other marketing. It restricts your formulating - For the cosmetic formulator this is the biggest problem. These certification programs tell you exactly what compounds you can and cannot use. They will be the ones who dictate your formulations and your ability to create new products. This will make it much harder to create products that perform as well or better than your competition. You give up control of your formulas - Ultimately, when you follow a certification program you give up control of...

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It's a common misconception that cosmetic companies lie to sell products. This is generally not true. In fact, in the US it is illegal to lie in advertising to sell products, even cosmetics. So you might wonder how cosmetic companies get away with selling products that don't deliver. For that they have to be creative with their claims. As a cosmetic chemist you will often be called upon to help support claims (especially numerical ones) but some impactful claims are meaningless and don't require much technical expertise. Here are some of those. Hypoallergenic To the consumer this claim means that the product won't cause any allergic reactions. It connotes gentleness and safety. Of course, that's not what it legally means. According to the FDA, hypoallergenic means "whatever a particular company wants it to mean. Manufacturers of cosmetics labeled as hypoallergenic are not required to submit substantiation of their hypoallergenicity claims to FDA. " Dermatologist tested, Clinically tested Claims like this seem like they mean that there was some extra special testing done and that a dermatologist somehow endorses the product. But what it really means is that the company sent their product out to an independent lab and had them do some type of testing. The exact testing could be Kligman moisturization protocol or could be a stability test. You can't really know so it doesn't mean anything. And to validate the claim "dermatologist tested", you simply have to have a dermatologist involved somewhere along the way. It could be as simple as a signature after reviewing the results of the study. Doctor brand (or celebrity) Speaking of doctors here's another cosmetic claim that doesn't mean much. Just because there is a doctor or celebrity in the name of the brand or endorsing the product there is no guarantee that the product will be any extra special or of a higher quality. Dr brands are typically made by contract manufacturers who don't have nearly the R&D budget of big companies. This claim does not guarantee a superior product. "With" Advanced technology or some ingredient Consumers are led to believe that since a formula contains an ingredient that must be why the product works better. Of course, this isn't true. If you read the claims closely you'll see that the way they are written the claim actually says that the product has the function. "With" just refers to the fact that an ingredient is in the formula. You can put a drop of Superoxidedismutase in your formula but that doesn't guarantee that it's going to do anything. "Helps... " When consumers read a claim like "Helps delay the natural signs of aging" they can imagine the product will pretty much do whatever they want. They come up with what they think are signs of aging and they come up with what they believe "helps" means. But the reality is that the world "helps" can mean pretty much anything and the cosmetic manufacturer can easily satisfy the validity of the claim. When...

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When you start out as a cosmetic formulator you will not be asked to come up with your own formulas. There may be some exceptions at small companies or contract manufacturers but at companies that have established brands and products new cosmetic chemists don't get to be terribly creative. Instead, you will be working with base formulas. Cosmetic base formulas Base formulas are in-house or stock formulas that your company owns. Typically, they are recipes which have been developed over a number of years and have a lot of testing behind them. They also have a proven track record in the market and are easy for the production people to make. New chemists are assigned base formulas primarily because they are a great way to learn formulating without being too risky. Also, there are a lot of financial incentives to using base formulas How are base formulas used? In every cosmetic laboratory there is a list of all the formulas you create for producing products. What you will notice about these formulas is that while there may be hundred of variants there are often only a couple of dozen "different" formulas. To see the base formula in action, let's take a look at how a company like Suave uses base formulas. Suave has a line of products called Suave Naturals. In this line they have a number of different varieties (or SKUs) such as Coconut, Sun-Ripened Strawberry, Wild Cherry, and more. Here is their Coconut Shampoo with the following ingredient list. Water (Aqua), Sodium Laureth Sulfate, Cocamide Mea, Ammonium Chloride, Glycol Distearate, Fragrance (Parfum), Ammonium Lauryl Sulfate, Hydroxypropyl Methylcellulose, Tetrasodium Edta, Dmdm Hydantoin, Citric Acid, Ammonium Xylenesulfonate, Propylene Glycol, Tocopheryl Acetate , Isopropyl Palmitate, Methylchloroisothiazolinone, Methylisothiazolinone, Silk Amino Acids, Honey, Ppg-9, Urtica Diocia (Nettle) Extract, Rosmarinus Offic It's a pretty standard formula with featuring Sodium Laureth Sulfate, Ammonium Lauryl Sulfate, Cocamide MEA and thickened with Hysroxypropyl Methylcellulose. Now take a look at another Suave Natural formula Waterfall Mist. Water (Aqua), Sodium Laureth Sulfate, Cocamide Mea, Ammonium Chloride, Fragrance (Parfum), Hydroxypropyl Methylcellulose, Tetrasodium Edta, Dmdm Hydantoin, Citric Acid, Tocopheryl Acetate , Methylchloroisothiazolinone, Methylisothiazolinone, Ppg-9, Spirulina Maxima Extract, Mentha Aquatica Leaf Extract, Nymphaea Alba Flower Extract, Blue 1 (Ci 42090), Red 33 (Ci 17200). See the similarities? They have the same detergent system, same thickener, same preservative and same adjusting ingredients. So their base formula is... Water (Aqua), Sodium Laureth Sulfate, Cocamide Mea, Ammonium Chloride, Fragrance (Parfum), Hydroxypropyl Methylcellulose, Tetrasodium Edta, Dmdm Hydantoin, Citric Acid, Methylchloroisothiazolinone, Methylisothiazolinone So every time they want to launch a new SKU of the Suave Naturals formula, they start with the base formula and add a new fragrance, color, and feature ingredients. As a formulator, you spend a lot of time adapting this base formula to the new marketing concept. Benefits of creating a base formula While working with a base formula can be a dull exercise from the standpoint of a creative cosmetic formulator, there are a number of benefits to using them. 1. Speeds up...

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This is pretty cool. Did you know what happens to a soap bar when you put it in the microwave for about 2 minutes? It loses all its air. https://www. youtube. com/watch? v=z1hzatoE1tg

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Here's some good weekend reading about cosmetic science. They cover some good information but unfortunately, the non-science based EWG gets referenced at the end. It's a bit of an embarrassment for an organization like the Australian Academy of Science. There was a discussion where the Skin Deep database was referenced as a source for raw material information on our cosmetic science forum. I'm glad to see that most of the cosmetic scientists there aren't fooled by the misinformation on the EWG site. Sadly, people outside the cosmetic industry (including other scientists) don't realize the flaws.

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Did you know that there are only 3 main categories of cosmetic raw materials? Really all of the ingredients used in cosmetics can be put into one of these three categories: Functional Aesthetic Modifier Claims There is a little overlap and of course these categories can be divided up further but as a chemistry student or formulator, it's helpful to know these main categories. The idea to look at cosmetic ingredients like this was inspired by the work biologists do in cladistics - the practice of grouping organisms based on similar characteristics. I present you with our version of cosmetic ingredient cladistics. (click to enlarge) We can go a bit deeper in future posts but let me explain the main categories. Functional Functional cosmetic ingredients are ones which actually have an effect on the body that the formulator wishes. You cannot make a useful cosmetic product without including at least one functional ingredient. However, you could make an entire cosmetic using just one functional ingredient. Vaseline has built a huge brand on a single functional ingredient cosmetic (Petrolatum). Functional ingredients include cleansers, conditioning agents, colorants, fragrances, reactive ingredients, film formers, and drug actives. Every cosmetic you've ever used or made has at least one functional ingredient. Incidentally, functional ingredients are the ones that cosmetic chemists most want new raw material suppliers to make. The number of significantly different functional ingredients has not increased in many years. I suppose because it's hard to create a really new functional ingredient. Aesthetic modifiers The most common and abundant type of cosmetic raw material is aesthetic modifiers. These are ingredients which help to make delivery of the functional ingredients more acceptable. They are the compounds that help the ingredients spread, dilute the ingredients, make them more stable, and improve the look and feel of the overall product. The sub-category of aesthetic modifiers includes solvents, cosmetic thickeners and stabilizers, preservatives, fragrances, pH adjusters, plasticizers, fillers, appearance modifiers, anti-oxidants, anti-irritants, and delivery systems. When you look at the ingredient list of most cosmetics, most of the ingredients are aesthetic modifiers. Since these ingredients don't have any functional benefit formulators try to minimize the amount of aesthetic modifiers used. This helps keep costs down and simplifies production. However, these ingredients do play a crucial role in the creation & experience of using a personal care product so it's important for a formulator to have a thorough knowledge of them. Claims ingredients While people use cosmetics to improve the way their skin and hair looks and feels, this isn't the primary reason that they buy cosmetics. Consumers buy cosmetics because they like the story that the product tells. They like the packaging or the way that the product looks and smells. And to help support the marketing story and the claims made about the product, formulators have to include claims ingredients. Claims ingredients (sometimes called fairy dust) are ingredients added to a formula at a low level for the primary purpose of getting to put the ingredient name...

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It's a requirement in the United States and around most places in the world that cosmetic products have their ingredients listed on their label. We've previously written about cosmetic product labeling and if you are curious about the rules, I'd encourage you to go check that post out. While cosmetic ingredient lists are useful for consumers to figure out if a product contains an ingredient that they are allergic to, sensitive to or otherwise find objectionable, they are also helpful for savvy cosmetic chemists who want to duplicate a competitive product. They're also helpful for seeing what type of feature ingredients are hot in the cosmetic market. So it is beneficial for you as a cosmetic chemist to find the list of ingredients of your competitors or other products that you may want to copy. In the old days we used to have to go to stores and either purchase the products or write down the ingredient lists at the store. Or you could do as I did and use the list as a challenging memory exercise. But these days there are lots of sources for ingredient lists online. If you are tasked with working on a project that requires you to make a product superior to your competition, here are some great sources for finding ingredient lists. Cosmetic Ingredient List sources Drugstore. com - This one is my favorite. Not only can you find the ingredient lists, you can also get claims and a picture of the product. Excellent for standard store brand products. Ulta. com - Another excellent source for ingredient lists. You get more premium beauty products here than at the previous website. Beauty. com - I bet they paid big money for that domain name! Anyway, this website is a partner to drugstore. com but they have more upscale brands. It's very nicely laid out and ingredient lists are easy to find. BeautyBar. com - This one is a lot like the first but they have different and more higher end brands. Beautysage. com - Here's one when you're looking for smaller obscure brands. If you are looking for some inspiration in the natural cosmetics realm this is a good place to go. Benefit - It's all their products but they do list the ingredients. Unfortunately, they are not in an easy to cut-and-paste format. But if you're looking for these products they have them here. Boots - If you're looking for UK and EU brands, you might find the LOI over at Boots. Sephora - If they sell it here you can find the ingredient list. Good for higher end products. Amazon. com - They don't have ingredient lists for all the products they sell but they do have some. If you're having a tough time finding an ingredient list, do a search on Amazon. eBay. com - Here's a little gem that is mostly overlooked. eBay has people from around the world selling beauty products. If there is a brand in a country outside...

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Most people working as formulators in the cosmetic industry have a solid background in chemistry. It’s not a requirement that you have a degree in chemistry and there are many formulators with degrees in biology, physics, biochemistry, or chemical engineering. I even knew a formulator with a degree in anthropology. But a chemistry degree is what most people have. This means that most formulators didn’t get any more than the minimum requirement of study in biology. In reality, most people who studied biology didn’t really go into depth on the most important topics of biology for formulators including hair, skin, and nails. This is unfortunate because knowing the basic biology of these systems can help you create better cosmetic formulas. However, you don’t have to know every detail about hair and skin biology to be a good formulator. But there are some basic facts that every formulator should know. In this post we’ll focus on hair. In a future post we’ll focus on skin. 1. Hair is dead - You can’t make hair more healthy because it is just a dead fiber. There are no nerves, no blood supply and no living cells in a hair fiber. Once hair leaves the inside of your skin, it’s dead tissue. It’s no more alive than a shoe lace. 2. Hair is composed of mostly keratin - Hair is protein and made up of mostly amino acids. The structure of hair is what makes it have different properties than skin, nails and horns which are also made up of keratin. 3. Hair color is the result of melanin - There are cells in the follicle that create melanin pigments which are injected into the growing hair fiber. These melanin pigments are responsible for all the natural hair colors observed. Pheomelanin produces red and blonde hair colors while eumelanin produces brown and black colors. 4. Gray hair is the absence of color - While the various melanin molecules create the hair color, gray hair is what results when no melanin is injected into the fiber. Gray hair is really just uncolored hair. 5. The shape of a hair fiber depends on the shape its follicle. Hair gets pushed out of the head through a tiny hole. The more circular the hole, the straighter the fiber. The more elliptical the hole, the more curly the hair. 6. Hair has 3 main structures - Cuticle, Cortex, and Medulla. The cuticle is the out layer of the hair and takes the shape of shingles on a roof. It is responsible for hair shine, smoothness, and ease of combing. Hair products mainly interact with this layer. The cortex is the inner structure of the hair which is responsible for the fiber strength and flexibility. The medulla is the inner core of the hair fiber which is often just empty space. It’s not known what it does. 7. There are 3 stages of hair growth - Anagen, Catagen & Telogen. The growth phase is the Anagen phase in which...

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Here's a pretty good article which outlines the different methods for thickening cosmetic formulas. Cosmetic product thickening In the future we'll do a more in-depth thickening article but that will provide some good light reading for you today.

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One of my favorite times of year is the beginning. This is when I get to reset everything and come up with a new list of goals. I have a whole process where I spend a bunch of hours brainstorming different ideas in 5 main categories including health, relationships, personal growth, impact on the world and business. Chemists Corner falls in the business categories of goals. So, this post is about all the goals I have for 2015 as it pertains to Chemists Corner. This will give you an idea of what's to come and also help keep me motivated to get it all done. Primary projects There are four primary projects that we will be getting done this year. These include (with target dates to accomplish) 1. Launching a Formulating Natural Cosmetics course (First quarter) 2. Re-launching our Practical Cosmetic Formulating course (Second quarter) 3. Re-launching our Cosmetic Launch Coach course (Third quarter) 4. Publishing a Practical Cosmetic Formulating book (Fourth quarter) So, look for some new emails, blog posts, and videos specifically related to those courses. They are going to keep me busy but I'm looking forward to creating these courses. Chemists Corner website Late in 2013 I lost all the information from my websites. Fortunately, I had a backup of most of chemists corner but I did lose my entire forum and the formatting of the website. I have never quite gotten the website design back to where I wanted. So this year we're going to focus on redesigning the website to make it more useful. We've got nearly 1000 posts written and yet there is no easy way to find them. I'm going to create an article page which nicely sorts articles by topics. This will also give me a good idea of what topics still need to be written about. Last year I wasn't so great about publishing as consistently to the blog. This year, I'm going to change that. We're going back to the daily publishing (maybe take weekends off). I'm also going to revamp the Chemists Corner podcast a bit to ensure that I record that on a more timely basis. The biggest challenge with doing the podcast is getting someone to interview. If I tweak the format a bit, I think it will be easier to commit to getting a new episode out every week. So this year we should have 50 new episodes of the Chemists Corner podcast. I also want to get back to doing some of the video work that we've done on occasion. The biggest challenge with video is that it takes a lot of time to do. However, I'm going to commit to doing at least one new video a month so a total of 12. I'm not sure how they will turn out but I'll have fun trying. Cosmetic Science January is always a time for renewal and the subject of cosmetic science still fascinates me. There is much to write about and hopefully, I'll be...

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This seems like it would be a violation of the second law of thermodynamics but if you look at the system as a whole, the entropy of the universe continues to increase. Pretty cool example of Laminar Flow though. https://www. youtube. com/watch? v=p08_KlTKP50 Laminar flow is a phenomena in which layers of a liquid flow parallel but do not experience any lateral mixing. When you're making a cosmetic formula laminar flow is not a positive thing. You need lots of turbulent mixing to ensure that you create a homogenous mixture.

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This year we look back on some of the more interesting stories in the cosmetic industry. Thanks to cosmetics design for continuing to publish all the relevant press releases. They really are an excellent source of cosmetic news. Top cosmetic science news stories of 2014 1. Will EU allergy ban radically change the fragrance industry? This could be huge, but probably won't be. I'm sure the French industry group will get it worked out. 2. Sunscreen bill signed in the US. It's about time! Now let's see if anyone comes out with some new sunscreen actives. 3. Bioprinted skin developed for cosmetic testing. The end of most animal testing may be right around the corner. And it could also be used in developing new cosmetic products. 4. FDA cracking down on improper cosmetic claims. Much more than previous years, the FDA has been cracking down on companies making exaggerated claims. 5. Anti-pollution products dominate in Asia. Anti-pollution could be the next big trend in the US in 2015 6. Gluten free increasingly important to consumers. I knew gluten free cosmetics would be a viable marketing idea. I just felt it was unethical to pursue as there is no real need for these products. However, not everyone agrees with me and lots of people launched gluten free stuff in 2014. 7. New technology introduced to treat skin - Bacteria. Bacteria was big in 2014. We'll see how much of an impact it has in 2015. 8. Algae could be the basis for cosmetic raw materials in the future. My biggest complaint about natural cosmetic raw materials is that they are taking away farm land that could be used for food. Well, algae could be the solution to this problem. 9. 3D printing technology will change the cosmetic industry. There was some cool 3D printing for packaging and makeup this year. In the coming years it could have a big impact on the cosmetic industry. 10. Social media playing a bigger part in building beauty brands than ever before. From Vloggers to Pinterest to Instagram, social media has had a huge influence on the growth of beuaty brands. Now if only I could figure out a way to get someone to sponsor all the work I do in social media. Are there any stories that you think were significant in 2014? Leave a comment below.

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According to Lucky Magazine these were the big beauty trends in 2014 (in no particular order). How many of them do you remember? 1. Beauty products from Korea. We have them to thank for the alphabet lotion craze! 2. Rainbow hair colors. Blue and green even. 3. The rise of DIY beauty. And all the misinformed nonsense that goes with it. 4. The wavy long bob haircut. Long short hair is in apparently. 5. Geometric nail art. Lots of innovation in nail products this year. 6. Flash tattoos. All the benefits of a tattoo with none of the pain. 7. Big eye brows. Statement eye brows were all the rage. 8. Throwback brands making a comeback Maybe there’s a chance for VO5! 9. Complicated braids The hair style that never goes away. What beauty trends did you see this year?

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I saw this interesting article examining how the media sensationalizes scientific findings and gets things wrong. The article covers the story of researcher Chris Adigun who made a presentation that got misinterpreted as saying gel manicures are a cancer risk. Her talk actually said the risk was incredibly low. But her experience got me thinking about the chemical scaremongering groups like the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics, the EWG, and the David Suzuki Foundation and why they misinterpret science to suit their needs. Here is what I came up with and how that impacts the job of a cosmetic formulator. Learning the truth is too hard One of the main reasons these groups do what they do is because science is difficult and filled nuances that people who do not have scientific backgrounds don’t understand. The people that go into journalism or work at these types of groups haven’t spent the time studying science. They don’t understand basic concepts of epidemiology or risk analysis. These topics are hard for scientists to understand so it’s no wonder that non-scientists don’t. It’s much easier to learn some nugget that sounds shocking (e. g. gel manicures are a cancer risk) and then collect all the information you can to make the story sound even scarier. It’s simple to learn that there is lead in lipstick then incorrectly tell everyone that there is “no acceptable amount of lead exposure. ” It’s much more difficult to learn the full truth that the lead is chemically bound up in molecules that are indigestible by our bodies or that the level of lead in lipstick is so low it is inconsequential. No, the full truth isn’t nearly as shocking as the scary soundbite and that’s what fear mongering groups depend on. They can’t change their positions Another reason scare mongering groups misinterpret science is because once they set their position on a topic, they are unable to change their mind. The Campaign for Safe Cosmetics declared that lead in lipstick is dangerous. There is no information that they can accept to change their minds. The group of independent scientists in the EU who evaluate the safety of cosmetic ingredients reviewed all the safety information about parabens and have declared them safe to use. But this scientific review matters none to the CFSC as they still list parabens as an ingredient of concern. More scientific discovery does not matter to fear mongering groups. It doesn’t matter much to journalists either. Headlines like “Baby Shampoo Contains Toxic Chemicals” is much more compelling than one like “Baby Shampoo is Perfectly Safe. ” And if there is later science that verifies the safety of an ingredient you will not hear about that in mainstream media. They’re done with that story and quickly move on to some other scary “fact. ” There’s no money in telling the truth. Financial incentive Speaking of money, here is the main reason that these scaremongering groups continue to distort science, money. Groups like the CFSC and the...

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In a recent discussion on our cosmetic science forum about functional cosmetic ingredients a commenter complained that my positions were too demoralizing. I suspect my skepticism about the effectiveness of certain ingredients came off a bit too harsh, but also my message was misunderstood. In this post I'll try to clarify my meaning. In reading through the entire discussion I'm struck by the lack of skepticism that many of the scientists and formulators display. Although we are people like everyone else, I would think our training should make us less prone to non-skeptical positions. And though skeptical thinking is not how humans naturally evaluate the world there are excellent reasons why scientists can benefit from being most skeptical. What is skeptical thinking First, we should cover what is meant by skeptical thinking. Skepticism just means following a specific logical process when evaluating the validity of claims. It involves keeping an open mind and questioning whether a claim is supported by empirical research and has demonstrable reproducibility. The scientific method is a critical tool in the evaluation of these claims. It is extremely difficult to evaluate everything in life skeptically, but it is crucial if you want to avoid following fallacious beliefs. And when you are formulating, striving to create the best products possible you will only be able to do this by critically examining all your beliefs about the functionality of any ingredient. How can formulators benefit? While the benefits of removing from your mind unsupported or erroneous beliefs seem obvious, not everyone would agree. There are some things that we want to believe or our gut tells us is true even if we can't prove it. This is the philosophy of people who are staunch supporters of the precautionary principle. For them, you just need a gut feeling that an ingredient is bad to ban it. As a skeptic I find this philosophy mistaken and irrational. But even if you support that kind of philosophy there are still other reasons for a formulator to be skeptical. Make Functional formulas One of the primary benefits of being skeptical is that you will be more likely to make formulas that work. You will not waste your time chasing after technologies that have no chance of working. Having a skeptical mindset when creating your formulas will force you to review your formulations with a critical eye. You will not fall in love with your ideas or technologies and exaggerate positive results while ignoring negative results. Find real innovations There is so much opportunity in cosmetic formulation to create products that out perform the ones that are on the market. However, you will not find real innovations if you spend all your time chasing after technologies you like and ignoring ones that you don't. Petrolatum is currently the best skin moisturizer from a functional standpoint. Any innovation that you are pursuing has to outperform petrolatum on a blinded basis. If it doesn't, move on and look for the next innovation. Being skeptical allows...

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Chemists Corner is a podcast about cosmetic science and formulating. Interview Tony Abboud currently does Technical Sales and Special Projects at Botaneco. Tony graduated with a Bachelors of Science and Masters of Biomedical Technology, both from the University of Calgary, and joined Botaneco at the company's inception in 2007. Tony is responsible for working with key strategic accounts and provides guidance for the company's customer projects. Todd Zielke is the Director of Sales and Marketing at Botanic. He has over 18 years experience in sales, marketing and business development in the health care sector. He spent 14 years at J&J. Contact information: Website : Botaneco website Technology explanation http://www. youtube. com/watch? v=Cvw8vHT2qSA Cosmetic Science Stories Is bacteria the next big cosmetic ingredient? Natural cosmetics hit $30 billion Cosmetic Formulating Tips Here’s an interesting trend that will affect cosmetic chemists and formulators in the future. More and more, natural ingredients are replacing standard cosmetic raw materials. What will this mean? Cosmetic reformulation Cosmetic chemists will no doubt have to reformulate almost all the products that they have. Anything that contains a petroleum derivative will have to be re-worked to contain only plant and sustainable ingredients. This might seem like a lot of trouble but it is good news for formulators because it gives you some new opportunities to create new formulations. One of the most frustrating aspects of being a cosmetic chemist is that you make very few changes to formulas. In truth, a company doesn’t want to stray too far from their existing formulations because using new raw materials requires more warehouse storage, raw material ingredient costs will increase because you are not buying in bulk as much and the stability and performance is less well known. There are forces that work against creating truly new and innovative formulations. Good for raw material suppliers Raw material suppliers will also like this trend because they can more easily get chemists to start using new raw materials. One of the biggest challenges raw material suppliers face is that chemists do not like to use new raw materials. The reason is that they are unproven and almost always more expensive. Now, raw material companies will be able to sell new raw materials that are more profitable. On the other hand, there are some problems with this new trend. Not all positive The biggest problem is that substitution of raw materials with new ones will not likely lead to improved products. In fact, it will probably lead to products that don’t work as well. It used to be that a cosmetic chemist would switch out a raw material for some performance reason. They discover that some raw material works better than their current so they make the switch. But with this trend, cosmetic chemists are switching out raw materials for a non-performance based reason. Naturally, performance will likely suffer. But perhaps the worst aspect of this trend is that consumers will have to pay more money for formulations that do not work as well....

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On a number of occasions we get asked questions about formulating cosmetics and the best cosmetic preservatives. When there are enough questions on a theme we turn it into a blog post. So here you are, some common questions asked about natural preservatives answered. What are some examples of preservatives commonly found in “natural” products? The type of preservative that you normally find in cosmetic products include ingredients with the name “paraben” in them (e. g. methylparaben, propylparaben, or butylparaben), some type of formaldehyde donor molecule (DMDM Hydantoin, Imidazolidinyl Urea or Quaternium-15), or an organic molecule like Methylisothiazolinone. These are all very effective at stopping microbes from growing in your formula and protecting the consumer. Here is a list of the most common cosmetic preservatives. However, none of these ingredients are acceptable according to the majority of the cosmetic natural and organic standards. It’s worth pointing out that none of these standards are mandated by the government and you could market a natural product using these preservatives. It’s just that some consumers or consumer watchdog groups might call you out on it. If you want to produce a safe, natural cosmetic products you MUST use a preservative. Now, you may be able to get away without using a preservative if there is no free water in your formula (natural juices are mostly water) but these instances are less common. For the most part whenever you make a cosmetic, natural or not, use a preservative. The type of preservative formulators use for “natural” cosmetics include some of the following. Alcohol Benzoic acid Boraxitrus seed extracts Citric Acid Copper salts Essential Oils Phenoxyethanol Fragrance oils Glycerin Hinokitiol Honey Japanese Honeysuckle extracts Lactic Acid Melaleucol (Tea Tree) oil Perillic acid Potassium Sorbate Salicylic acid Salt Silver Chloride Sodium Gluconate Sodium benzoate Sorbic acid Sugar Usnic acid Wasabi extract Zinc Salts For professional formulas the most common are Sodium Benzoate, Phenoxyethanol, or Sorbic Acid. However, these don’t work for every application. Figuring out a natural cosmetic preservative is highly dependent on your particular ingredients. ————— How long will a product preserved with natural cosmetic preservatives last? This is really dependent on the level of testing that the company who made the product requires. A large, reputable company insists that their products have a shelf life of at least one year. This should be the standard for everyone but some smaller companies are happy with products that last 6 months. The length of time it lasts also depends on where the consumer stores it and how they use the product. ———— How do these preservatives work? Standard preservatives work in a variety of ways but typically it is by disrupting the cell walls of microbes. Natural preservatives do this to a lesser extent, but they also help to bind water molecules. For example, honey or sugar are able to bind up water molecules so no microbe is able to use that water to fuel growth. Honey is so effective at keeping water bound to it...

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Many cosmetic entrepreneurs are interested in producing all natural and organic cosmetics. We frequently get emails here on Chemists Corner that say something like “I want to make a natural and organic line of cosmetics that is chemical free. ” Ignoring the fact that nothing is chemical free, the request is still difficult to answer because the terms “natural” and “organic” don’t have any standard technical meaning. If you want to make a natural cosmetic you have to know what the term natural means to your consumers. We’ve had an interesting discussion about this on our cosmetic science forum. The question is what does “natural” mean? My contention is that from the standpoint of a formulator, natural can mean whatever you want. It is up to you to tell your consumers what natural means. And if they like your story or brand they will believe you. Consumers don’t know Consumers are definitely confused about what things mean in this natural market. They look for ingredients that aren’t harmful, ones that don’t include allergies and many avoid fragrance. But who decides what ingredients are harmful? Parabens aren’t harmful but there are many natural organizations that tell people they can’t use them. For example, as in the Whole Foods Premium list. Natural cosmetics If you want to follow the Whole Foods natural list or Ecocert standards or any of the other natural standard, you can do this. But you can also create your own definition of what is natural. Arguably, petroleum is natural as is coal or natural gas. Coal is even plant derived technically. The important thing is whether your consumers believe that you are producing a natural cosmetic. To convince consumers you are natural when you are not following someone else’s standards takes good marketing. But it can be done. The big brands like Aveeno are able to do it. Incidentally, if you are interested in more information about formulating natural products, be sure to get our free natural product formulating report.

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Chemists Corner is a podcast about cosmetic science and formulating. Today's interview: Irina Tudor Irina Tudor is the founder and owner of Irina Tudor Consultancy. She has a Masters of of Science degree in Behavioral Science and has studied cosmetics through the SCS distance learning program. She is a researcher focusing on the science of odor and smell and is available to help solve fragrance problems. Contact information: Websites - www. irinatudor. nl www. somethingsmelly. com Twitter: SomethingSmelly LinkedIn Cosmetic Science Stories Anti-Pollution is a new trend in cosmetics. Ban on Animal testing for cosmetics in US. First scented message sent over the Internet Not tested on animal claim banned in Europe Cosmetic Formulating Tips This question was asked on the cosmetic science forum and I thought would make for a good discussion. How do you go about switching ingredient vendors? We want to switch vendors because of lower prices and lower minimums. Can you just switch one ingredient out for another? Why switch cosmetic ingredient sources Before I answer, it is a good idea to think about why you would want to have an alternate source for a raw material. There are a number of reasons. 1. Price - You can get the raw material for lower cost. An excellent reason to switch suppliers. 2. Lower minimums - You can buy less of the ingredient. This is particularly important for small businesses. 3. Insurance - If you have a single source, you are at the mercy of your supplier. You should have other sources just in case something goes wrong. 4. Reliability - You need to have a supplier who will be able to reliably fill your orders. Changing cosmetic raw materials sources Unfortunately, changing from one source to another isn't as simple as just buying from a new source. The main problem is that ingredients that have the same name, don't necessarily have the same composition. INCI names cover a wide range of mixed materials. For example, Cetyl Alcohol from one supplier can have a higher % of C16 material than the Cetyl Alcohol from another supplier. Another problem is that suppliers often make raw materials in a different way which can lead to different residual materials in the finished product. Residual materials are frequently hidden in a raw material but can wreck havoc on certain ingredients in your formula. The result will be a color change, viscosity change, or formula destabilization. The bottom line is that you can't just switch raw materials from one source to another without proper testing. So how do you go about approving a different supplier? To approve a new supplier there are a number of things you need to do. First, you need to make sure the specification (or specs) for the ingredient match. To do this, you can look at the certificate of analysis (C of A) that the new supplier provides with samples. Compare this document to your current specification sheet and note where there are differences. Then you can...

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The cosmetic industry is mostly run by the marketing group. They are primarily the ones responsible for developing new product ideas, testing them with consumers, coming up with ad copy and deciding on what the product looks like. Unfortunately, this relegates the people who actually make the product (cosmetic chemists) to workers executing a plan. I understand how this happens as the first purchase of any product is a result of the marketing much more than a result of the functionality of the product. However, I don't think things in the cosmetic industry should be like this. I believe that cosmetic chemists should take the lead in coming up with new product ideas. You should be responsible for developing the best ideas your company has to offer. Become an Inventor There are a number of reasons that this doesn't happen more. The primary reason is that in college scientists are not taught to think about the world in terms of practical products. We spend our time researching esoteric questions that have little practical value. We focus on a fraction of a problem and give only a cursory thought to the application of technology. In colleges and universities, this is great. In industry, it's not. While working in an industry you have to become an inventor. Coming up with new product ideas can be challenging for most people. The way that most cosmetic industry marketers (and all marketers probably) come up with ideas is that they look around and see what the competition is doing. They see that Moroccan Oil products are selling well, so they look to develop a Moroccan Oil product. When "natural" products started to gain a significant market share everyone wanted to start selling all-natural cosmetics. This me-too approach can be effective but it's not something that scientists are uniquely qualified to do. Anyone can come up with a me-too new product idea. The scientists of the cosmetic industry have to be different. Science to get new products As a scientists you are in a unique position to find new product ideas in places that most marketing people would not look... scientific journals. You should be constantly monitoring science journals to find inspiration for ideas that may lead to the next new product idea. It doesn't have to be a "breakthrough" technology, just a different one. Your company thirsts for different ideas. They want ideas that are different from their competition. As I said, most ideas are just copies of what someone else is doing. Here is an excellent example of how a technological discovery lead to the development of a new product idea. In this article it was reported that Japanese researchers discovered that Wasabi has the potential to reduce the chances of getting tooth decay. This was first reported in 2000, fourteen years ago. Why has it taken so long to get turned into a product? I have no idea but it could be that the marketing group didn't know about it. The science group...

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On Saturday we had a “tweet-up” with a group of cosmetic chemists. A “tweet-up” is just an agreed upon time in which users who are on Twitter virtually gather and discuss a topic. Most of the people in the group had never done one before (I had not) and it was interesting. The topic of the day was Natural Cosmetics. If you want to see the discussion do a search for #CosChemChat on Twitter. Since Twitter has a tendency to make it difficult to find old Tweets I thought it would be helpful to collect all the relevant discussions and do a summary here. Cosmetic Chemists who tweet Here is a list of all the cosmetic chemists who participated in this tweet-up. Be sure to follow everyone. thelahobo - Moderator kellydobos VannCosmetics chemistscorner beautyscientist chemie_lilyxren easttowestsc teppohudson MDM_Florence DeannaUtroske samfarmer_co EfcLatfar cosmethics Durant_Scholz MarkACTS Natural Cosmetic Chat Topics There were a wide range of issues related to natural cosmetics that were discussed. The first thing that was about the impact of natural cosmetic marketing on traditional cosmetics. There seemed to be agreement that there was some impact on formulating, but it is still a minor part of formulating. Also mentioned in the thread was the difficulties of formulating and whether consumers even want natural products that might not perform as well. Impact of Natural trend on formulas A few of the formulators suggested that the impact of natural on formulating included... 1. Naturals made formulas more expensive 2. Naturals made formulas potentially less stable (oxidation) 3. Naturals were harder to work with, required more formulation time without benefit. 4. They also don’t work as well. Inconsistent batches 5. Consumers are the losers in this natural trend. 6. It’s good job security for formulators Cosmetic Greenwashing The topic of natural marketing and greenwashing was discussed. Highlights from this topic... 1. If consumers want natural, marketing groups will respond. 2. Marketers want to incorporate natural ingredients until they hear the price. 3. Cosmetic lines highlight natural ingredients to get around making a 100% natural formula 4. The desire for natural ingredients comes from the mistaken notion that synthetic ingredients are bad. 5. The term ‘natural’ is not defined. 6. Greenwashing may be exactly what consumers want. 7. Greenwashing is the perfect balance of giving consumers a feeling of natural while delivering a functional product. There was also some disagreement about the effectiveness of natural formulas. While many of the group believed the notion that natural formulas do not work as well, at least one participant questioned that belief. “The German pharma industry is largely natural based” “If Pharma can prove that naturals work I question the idea that all naturals are ineffective” Although, no one claimed that naturals were ineffective. “Naturals do work. Chemists use anything that works. If naturals work better, we use naturals” First Cosmetic Chat Tweetup Well, that about sums it up. It was interesting to participate in the discussion. For me it was challenging to keep up with...

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There have been a few stories in the news recently about product recalls due to bacterial or microbial contamination of cosmetic products. This one about baby wipes that have been recalled is an example of a public recall. But according to this story there have been 7 major cosmetic recalls this year. This is unacceptable! The cosmetic formulators involved in creating these products should be embarrassed. They put the public in serious risk and they give the cosmetic industry as a whole a bad name. Someone deserves to be reprimanded or even fired for this. The companies should be severely fined. Risking the health of your consumers is just not right! Why incidences of contamination are increasing There are a number of factors resulting in more contamination of cosmetics, but the primary reason is because cosmetic formulators are moving away from using proven, safe preservatives like Parabens, Formaldehyde-donors, and Isothiazolones. They are turning to alternative cosmetic preservatives which might look better on a label, but are not nearly as effective at protecting consumers. Ultimately, the reason formulators are doing this is because their companies are selling products to uniformed or misinformed consumers. Thanks to fearmongering groups like the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics and the EWG, misinformation about the safety of cosmetics is broadcasted throughout the Internet. Add to that the naturalistic fallacy and marketers who either naively or unscrupulously take advantage of misinformed consumers and you have the situation we're in now. People with no toxicologic or scientific background are telling cosmetic formulators what types of preservatives they can or cannot use. And formulators (who typically have limited control in these situations) are using unproven, potentially less safe, and less effective alternative preservatives. This is wrong. Alternative preservation is hard If you are a cosmetic entrepreneur or work for a small company in which you have a lot of influence on what chemicals are used in a formula, use proven cosmetic preservatives. Use parabens, formaldehyde-donors or other compounds that have been safely and effectively used for years. The reality is that using alternatives is not impossible but it is really hard. It is more expensive, takes more research time, requires more testing, and needs to be done in clean manufacturing facilities. You can't just drop an alternative preservative into a formula at 0. 2% and feel confident it will be effective. Big companies may be able to shoulder this additional money, R&D and testing, but small companies cannot. And there is no good reason for avoiding standard preservatives anyway! Safety first I once had a twitter discussion dispute with @BadgerBalmUSA after it was revealed that they had to recall a children's sunscreen product due to microbial contamination. Shockingly, they minimized the seriousness of the contamination My understanding of the toxicologist's report is that the "organisms" found in the failed products are also commonly found in the environment and on our skin. They are unlikely to cause problems except for in immune-compromised persons or for persons with severely damaged skin. They...

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Here is an interesting take on the cosmetic industry written by Zen Liu, a scientist but not a formulator or cosmetic chemist. She is looking at the question of why cosmetic marketers can get away with perpetuating pseudoscience. For the most part, she gets it right. People who sell cosmeceuticals do rely on tricky marketing phrases or some blatant lies to convince consumers to buy their products. For some products it's actually even worse than she imagines. While companies are not allowed to outright lie on their packaging or in their advertising, there is no one policing the salesperson in the department store or the salon stylist. They can pretty much say anything they want about a product. I'm not suggesting that they lie on purpose but it's easy to see how they could be spreading misinformation. Yes, the cosmetic industry sells products that promise (or at least imply) to make you look younger. And some of these products cost a lot of money! Not quite right There are some things in the article that I don't think she got quite right or at least didn't correctly emphasize. - While the FDA does distinguish between cosmetics and drugs based on intended use, it is not legal for a company to put an active drug in their formula and make lesser claims about the effectiveness of the product. Sometimes ingredients matter. Admittedly, this is a grey area. - The FTC has not ignored the cosmetics industry but it has limited funds and should be going after products that are actually dangerous if used like dietary supplements. - L'Oreal's research budget is not for just anti-aging products but for all their products. So, even less money is spent on research for anti-aging products than reported. Protecting Consumers What the author doesn't give is a solution to the problem. Reading between the lines it seems like she is suggesting better regulation. I don't really think that is a reasonable solution. First, the FDA has limited funds and the chances of them getting a significant amount more is pretty small. Therefore, even if there were more strict regulations, there would not be enough money to police them. Second, the money that the FDA does have should be focused on preventing actual health problems. Spoiled food, drugs and dietary supplements represent a real threat to human health. Overpriced anti-aging creams do not. While more regulation is not the solution there is one. Make consumers smarter. We need to do a better job of educating consumers to help them avoid making dumb choices. No one should be spending hundreds of dollars on an anti-aging skin cream with the expectation that it will work better than a less expensive moisturizer. Articles like these are a good addition to the conversation. Our blog The Beauty Brains has similarly been dedicated to looking at products and telling people whether they are worth the money. People need to take responsibility for the choices they make. The FDA needs to ensure...

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As a cosmetic formulator I’m often annoyed by chemical fear mongering of NGOs and other non-scientists who claim that cosmetics represent a significant health concern. The reality is that there is no evidence that parabens or formaldehyde-releasing preservatives cause any harm. There is no evidence that mineral oil or petrolatum or sodium lauryl sulfate or any of the other most vilified cosmetic ingredients cause actual problems. And yet there are entire groups who’s sole existence is to unnecessarily frighten people about products that are tested and safe. ` Usually, I think they are just misguided but on my more cynical days I believe it to be a plot by Big Natural Cosmetics to dupe unsuspecting consumers into spending much more for their cosmetic products than they have to. While the NGOs and their cosmetic chemical fearmongering annoys me there is something I find really strange. There does not appear to be an equivalent group who campaigns against a real danger in the US... dietary supplements. Wild wild west of dietary supplements While the cosmetic industry is regulated by the FDA, in the US the dietary supplement industry is essentially unregulated. They used to be, but in 1994 Congress passed the DSHEA which severely limits the power of the FDA to regulate dietary supplements. They have some recall ability and power to regulate medical claims but for the most part if you want to sell a dietary supplement in the US you can pretty much sell anything you want. It really is a travesty and represents a significant health concern for consumers. There are lots of stories about the dangers of these products. This recent study demonstrated that about two thirds of the FDA recalled dietary supplements were still on the store shelves and contained banned drugs! That’s right even after an FDA recall for banned drugs in dietary supplements, consumers could still find them on store shelves. These products are things you ingest. They get into your body where they can do actual damage. They are not simply put on the surface of your skin but rather right into your bloodstream. And the products are not required to be proven safe before being sold. As long as the manufacturer says they are safe, they can be sold. No proof required. In fact, nothing is required by the FDA unless there is some demonstrable health problem. And even after an FDA recall not much happens. Something to be concerned about This is a serious risk to consumers. It’s a real danger that people should be concerned about. And yet there is silence. NGOs like the EWG have nothing to say about it. Why can’t the Food Babe redirect her efforts to something that actually harms people? Fear mongerers like Mercola will scream about the “dangers” of cosmetics and then sell unregulated dietary supplements that could be filled with actually dangerous, illegal drugs. It makes no sense to me. The DSHEA has to go and the dietary supplement industry in the US...

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Are nanoparticles the cosmetic delivery system of the future? They may be if this research can ever be completed and commercialized. According to scientists at the University of Southampton, they have identified a number of key characteristics that can enhance the penetration of nanoparticles through skin. In their research, they were able to demonstrate that gold nanoparticles could be made to penetrate deeper by changing the shape and surface charge. It turns out positively charged, nanorod shaped particles penetrated skin into the dermis. Cosmetic chemist implications For cosmetic chemists I see two applications of this research. 1. A method of creating nanoparticle delivery systems for cosmeceutical type ingredients. 2. A method for creating nanoparticles of sunscreen that will not penetrate the skin. They’ve demonstrated the factors that affect penetration so we could (theoretically) control the shape to inhibit penetration. Nanoparticles could indeed be the way of the future for cosmetic formulating. However, there could be some significant marketing hurdles if the technology becomes something of which people are afraid. Right now public opinion shows a 3 to 1 ratio of people who see benefits versus people who see negative risks. It remains to be seen where the large minority (44%) of people who are unsure about the risks of nanotechnology end up. If groups like the EWG are able to shape public opinion, it’s not promising.

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Entrepreneurs make me smile. They have such earnestness, optimism, and creativity. I encourage entrepreneurs whenever I can even when I think the idea is dumb. This is because I have no magic crystal to tell me what will be successful and what won’t. I thought fat free potato chips would revolutionize the chip industry and that iPads would be Apple’s first big flop. Make your own deodorant While I encourage cosmetic entrepreneurs, I also want to discourage misleading cosmetic marketing. This make your own deodorant kit is an example of bad cosmetic marketing. Let me tell you why. First, here is what is written about the product. Good Natured Cut the chemicals out of the equation and bring DIY to your daily routine with this aromatic deodorant kit. 100% natural, vegan, and cruelty free, this kit includes all the ingredients and components you'll need to create three full-sized deodorant sticks in a lavender or amber scent. Just use your double boiler to combine ingredients, then enjoy the natural benefits of coconut oil, aloe leaf extracts, arrowroot powder, and more. Handmade in the USA. Right away the marketing goes bad when they tell the potential consumer to “cut the chemical out of the equation... ” Chemical nonsense The first line of your story should help build the primary point of differentiation of your product. While the main thing that makes this product novel is that you make your own deodorant at home, they focus on the fictitious benefit of allowing consumers to avoid chemicals. The product is MADE OF CHEMICALS! Consumers aren’t cutting out chemicals. They are just using different chemicals. And in reality, they are using most of the same chemicals that are currently found in some deodorants. Their primary benefit is no benefit at all. But telling people to cut chemicals implies that there is something inherently scary about chemicals. There shouldn’t be since everything is a chemical. Incidentally, it is interesting to see that they have a note saying that the product contains nut/tree nut oils and that people should spot test to determine whether it will irritate skin. Shouldn’t this be something that people would be afraid of? Selling products with fear = cosmetic marketing fail The claim that the product is 100% natural doesn’t mean much. Certainly, the plastic container isn’t 100% natural by anyone’s standards. And the ingredients have to be processed from whatever plant they come from and that process isn’t natural. Exaggerating origin claims = dubious cosmetic marketing The rest of the claims are fine enough although I’m not sure what all the dead insects and rodents would have to say about whether the plant based ingredients were obtained in a “cruelty free” kind of way. Why doesn’t anyone ever consider these animal deaths when calling their plant-based ingredient products cruelty free? Pricing The last thing to point out is the price. $24. 95 for a kit to make 3 deodorant sticks. That’s about $8 per stick. Wow! Although as a cosmetic entrepreneur...

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I read this article about French lavender farmers who are outraged by EU regulations that will require manufacturers who use lavender oil to put a warning label on their product. Some of them are even threatening to switch to a different crop. This seems like a strange reaction to me as it makes complete sense to me that an ingredient which is known to cause allergic reactions in some consumers should be labeled. Perhaps it shouldn’t require a big warning label but if you’re not going to require a warning label for an ingredient known to cause reactions on skin you certainly shouldn’t require a warning label for an ingredient that merely has the potential for causing problems. French Defense According to the lavender growers they shouldn’t be required to comply with these regulations because their ingredient “... is not a chemical and allergies only tend to produce rashes. ” The argument that they are not selling chemicals is wrong. Lavender oil is a mixture of chemicals and some component of those chemicals causes allergic reactions in a large number of people. Just because something is natural does not mean it is not a chemical. And the defense that “... allergies only tend to produce rashes” hardly seems like a defense at all. Even if they did only produce rashes wouldn’t a consumer want to know that? Isn’t the entire purpose of these warning labels is to let consumers know that they may expect some negative reaction to using a product? In the case of a rash that is an immediate effect that I think most consumers would want to avoid. When a product is labeled as “potential carcinogen” there typically is no immediate effect. In truth, there is probably no noticeable effect at all. When things are labeled with warnings like “potential carcinogen” that doesn’t mean there is proof that using the product with the ingredient in it will cause cancer. If anyone could prove that using an ingredient in a cosmetic would cause cancer no one would be able to use that ingredient. It’s just very difficult to prove a definitive connection between an ingredient and cancer. Cosmetic labels that make sense Labeling products that may cause allergic reactions in people is exactly the type of labeling that should be done. When there is a clear effect consumers have a right to know. Now, I don’t necessarily agree that there should be some additional warning label as long as you list the ingredient on your LOI, but this should be true of any cosmetic ingredient. If it is legal to use the ingredient in producing a cosmetic, you shouldn’t have to warn people that you are using it. If you have to have a warning that the product is somehow dangerous it shouldn’t be allowed in the formula in the first place.

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According to the Kline Group, the world wide sales of natural cosmetics is about $30 billion. This is roughly 7 or 8 percent of the total global market which is estimated to be about $430 billion annually. I’m actually surprised the natural cosmetic market isn’t bigger. I would have figured it was about 15% or the market but it’s not. I suppose it really depends on how you define a naturals market. Since anyone can call themselves natural it is hard to distinguish between “real” natural products and “greenwashed” natural products. Of course, there aren’t true lines for the industry and on some level all cosmetics that are processed in any way can be considered greenwashed natural products. At least until someone grows a shampoo tree. Natural Cosmetic Formulation This market doesn’t seem to be going away and as a cosmetic formulator you need to be aware of what is considered a natural cosmetic and what isn’t. This is not an easy answer because it depends on different things and who you ask. Ultimately, the important definition of what is a natural cosmetic is your consumer. If your consumers think that parabens do not belong in natural cosmetics (despite the fact that you can find naturally occurring parabens) then you should probably avoid formulating with them. At the end of the day however, consumers want products that work. This trumps whatever is in the bottle. You can make a nice natural cosmetic avoiding all hint of synthetics but if the product doesn’t deliver benefits that the consumer wants, you’re going to have a hard time keeping up sales. We’re working on a new online course which will teach you how to make natural cosmetic formulas. It won’t be ready until January but in the meantime, you can click on the following link to sign up to get a free copy of our Natural Cosmetic Formulating report.

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California is one of the world leaders in their propensity to regulate cosmetics. They started with their own VOC regulations and also put together Prop 65 which requires manufacturers to disclose and put a warning label on any product that contains a compound on the Prop 65 list. So, it’s not surprising that the Golden State is the site for the 5th Annual Safer Consumer Products Summit. It’s being held at the end of October and you can find out more information about it here. Anyway, in this report about the event they discuss the idea of featuring discussions about making cosmetics more safe. Which makes me wonder... How do you make a safe product more safe? Removing potentially harmful ingredients Does the strategy of removing ingredients that are thought to be harmful work? I don’t know. It could, or maybe not. When you remove an ingredient you replace it with something else. What is the safety profile of the new ingredient? Typically, these new ingredients have much less testing history behind them and are arguably more dangerous. I know there are more instances of product contamination because companies like Badger Sunscreen are avoiding proven preservatives like parabens and formaldehyde donors. Apparently, marketing positions trump product safety. It would be great if we could step back and create some measurable way to determine the safety of cosmetics. If there was a way to quantify safety then you really could make products more safe. But I’ve never seen anyone attempt to quantify the danger of cosmetics. And if you make regulatory changes but there is no way to measure their effect, have you really done anything to improve the safety of cosmetic products? With things like cars it is easy. You can measure number of deaths in car crashes. Then anything you can do to reduce that number increases the safety of cars. What similar thing could be done with cosmetics? I have no idea. I wonder if they will discuss this at the 5th Annual Safer Consumer Products Summit. Probably not, but it would be interesting.

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Here’s a novel idea in cosmetic ingredients... bacteria. According to this report, scientists have found that they could improve the condition of skin by topically applying a bacteria that could metabolize ammonia. In the study they took an ammonia-oxidizing bacteria (Nitrosomonas eutropha) commonly found in soil and created a suspension for application to skin. They created a placebo suspension then got two groups of people to apply either product to their face and scalp for 3 weeks. The test group reported an improvement in their skin condition while the control group didn’t. Study critique While this is a pretty interesting approach and suggests that more research is worthwhile, I’m a bit skeptical of results or even the approach. First, it doesn’t seem like there were any statistically significant improvements. Next, the results were all self-reported. Why wasn’t a dermatologist involved in evaluating the participants? Perhaps that would be the next step. Anyway, this is an innovative approach to solving cosmetic problems. Could you get rid of acne by applying “good” microbes to kill off the “bad” microbes? What other problems could be solved by the application of “good” microbes? Perhaps a living deodorant? Or a mouthwash with microbes that kill off the plaque causing bacteria? Lot’s of possibilities. On the other hand, this would be a significant formulation challenge. How would you keep the microbial culture alive? And how would you prevent contamination by “bad” microbes? The preservatives we use today kill microbes indiscriminately. Something to think about (along with other ideas for good microbes in cosmetics).

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Most big beauty brands have been slow to adopt social media but their presence is starting to make itself known. This article in Happi lists the winners of the second annual consumer choice awards for online beauty sites. Since most of the readers of this website either work for a cosmetic brand or want to have their own, it is useful to review some of these sites and see what they are doing right. And perhaps you might want to start adopting some of their techniques. OPI Twitter Twitter is a simple way to communicate with your followers in 140 character messages. It's incredibly helpful to include links which direct people to web pages you want them to see. The Twitter page for OPI was the winner this year. Here are some things notable about their page. 1. Have a graphic at the top that portrays brand image. 2. Follow / Following ratio 586 : 190,000 3. Posts about once a day 4. Posts a lot of pictures Ulta Beauty Facebook Facebook is the social media site that over a billion people are on. So are a lot of beauty brands. The winner in this category was Ulta Beauty which is a store more than a beauty brand. Anyway, they've got over a million followers so they must be doing something right. Here are a few notable features of their pages. 1. Have a header picture with a celebrity 2. Posts once or twice a day 3. Respond to at least some comments 4. Post short videos 5. Followers = 1,476,339 OPI Products on Pinterest Are you Pinterest? Do you even know what it is? Well, think of it as a linking page which has lots of pictures. People can "pin" web pages that they find interesting. It's very visual. And if you find someone who pins lots of things you find interesting, you can follow them. In OPI's case they've got >45,000 people who follow them. Pretty good but still behind their Twitter and Instagram accounts. Here is the things interesting about their Pinterest page. 1. 59 boards of different things 2. 1419 pins 3. 45,942 followers 4. Lots of pictures of nails and celebrities OPI Instagram Instagram is all about pictures. You post a picture and your followers see it and can comment on it (or like it). Well, OPI wins this category too because they've got nearly 300,000 followers. People really like pictures of nails and nail polish. Perhaps that because nail polish is the most artistic of all cosmetics. Each nail is like a canvas. Anyway, here are some of the things OPI is doing to excel on their Instagram account. 1. 294,626 followers - following 235 2. Their hashtag #StayPolished 3. Post about once a day 4. Over 7000 likes on a single post Hopefully, this list will inspire you to get started with your own social media accounts and that you'll adopt some of these strategies. It's getting hard to stand out on the...

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What could be more fun on a cold Saturday afternoon than going through the latest issue if the Journal of the Society of Cosmetic Chemists? Well, if you haven't had time to do it fret not. Here is a quick summary of the stories you'll find in the July/August issue. There were 5 main articles. 1. Antioxidant activity in mung bean sprouts. Yes, mung bean sprouts have antioxidant properties & yes they are safe for use in cosmetics. Will they have a noticeable effect? Who knows. 2. Internal structure changes of eyelash induced by eye makeup. They evaluated eyelash samples from 36 women using scanning X-ray microscopic tomography. They found that women who used mascara had more damage (cracked cuticles & more porous cortex). There was not a correlation with the use of an eyelash curler. They hypothesize that damage is actually caused when people try to remove the mascara. Interesting study but the sample size was small & they relied on self reported usage data. I would be curious what a more controlled study would show. 3. Development of a new resistant liposome. By coating a liposome with a hydrophobized polysaccharide the authors were able to show that the structures stayed more stable in the presence of surfactants. The implications are that you can use liposomes to deliver ingredients to the skin in a surfactant containing formula. 4. Assessment of cadmium, lead and nickel levels in hair care products. Yes, they found these metals as trace contaminants in a large percentage of hair products found in Turkey. They were within limits of safety according to Canadian and German limits but Turkish standards prohibit any level of these materials. 5. Nanoemulsion of limonene in water system prepared by ultrasonic emulsification. The researchers were able to create a nano emulsion of limonene using water and a surfactant blend of sorbitane trioleate and polyoxyethylene oleyl ether. This may be useful for creating longer lasting fragrance. There you have it. If you want more information about the stories feel free to check out the Journal of the SCC. It's free to members!

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During your career you will likely be encouraged to give a presentation in front of either a group of co-workers, the public, or fellow scientists. It's a great chance to demonstrate your expertise and develop your reputation as a scientist. It's also helpful if you're in sales. I've done a number of presentations and there are a few things that would have helped me immensely with some talks if I knew them. These tips have been developed over time only because I have made the mistakes the tips are designed to prevent. Follow them and you will be on your way to giving the best presentation you can. 1. Slides should assist you not distract the audience. If you start a slide by saying "I know this slide is an eye sore" or "I know you can't read this... " Then it shouldn't be a presentation slide. Slides like this are totally distracting and frustrating to the audience. If there is a point you are trying to make with the slide, make a slide that spells out the point. If it's a graph of data, the text should spell out the conclusion. Don't make your audience struggle to read your slides. 2. Have a clear structure. Otherwise you'll confuse people or worse, bore them. Starting with an Agenda or Objective slide will help prepare the audience to best receive your message. That way they can anticipate what you will be talking about and when you will be done. This is very useful to the vast majority of your audience. Telling them how many slides you have or how many minutes you will be talking is also a good idea. You don't want to bore people. 3. Be aware of time. Hit breaks & finish on time! It doesn't matter how great your topic is or how entertaining you are, if there are breaks scheduled the audience will start looking at their watches & start wishing you were finished. Don't ever go long unless the audience says they want you to. 4. Engage the audience with activities Getting the audience to participate in the talk by posing a question or getting them to do some activity will better keep them engaged & make your talk more interesting. It's hard to pay attention for more than half an hour. An audience participation break will make it easier for your audience to continue giving you their attention. 5. Be prepared for technological problems. If you're giving a talk anticipate all sorts of technological problems. You should have a plan in the event that the computer doesn't work or your slides don't show. What would you do? Bring your own computer! Have your slides on a thumb drive. Bring connection cables for the projector especially if you use an Apple computer. It's also a good idea to have speakers & don't rely on accessing the Internet. Even if a place tells you they have WIFI don't count on it. 6. When people ask questions,...

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I saw this infographic titled “how to excel as a formulator” which lists 9 things you need to achieve that goal. The 9 tips from George Deckner are great but they could use some expansion. Unfortunately, the article on which the infographic was based does little to expand on the advice. So, I thought I’d do that here. 9 steps to becoming an excellent cosmetic formulator 1. Be an innovator not an inventor - An inventor makes a new product and hopes the benefits are so obvious it sells itself. Sometimes they do, but usually they don’t. An innovator takes an existing product and makes it better. Since most cosmetic formulation types have already been invented, to be a great formulator you need to focus on innovation. 2. Partner with suppliers - It used to be that formulators tried to keep their projects a secret but this doesn’t make much sense these days. You can get much more accomplished if you outsource as much of your research as you can. Getting suppliers to assist your lab work will help you screen more materials and develop better products faster. Don’t worry about secrecy. The formula does not sell the product! Your idea is not unique and the thing that will make it successful is your marketing efforts. Great formulations are important but there are lots of excellent formulas that never achieved market success. 3. Develop raw material expertise - Being a cosmetic formulator is like being a cook, you just use different ingredients. To become a great formulator you need to know all the ingredients at your disposal. You should make it a point to create & test samples of any new raw material you encounter, even if it is not obvious when you would use it. 4. Kill bad prototypes quickly - Don’t waste time on technologies that don’t have great promise. Whenever you get a new raw material test it at the highest concentration level suggested. If you can’t see a performance difference at the highest use level, don’t bother testing it at lower levels. 5. Manage risk? I’m not really sure what this means but I suppose the advice could be that you should test things before launching. Ensure that your products are safe and effective before committing to a launch date. 6. Sell your ideas - As a scientist and formulator you probably didn’t get any sales training. However, in the business world people don’t really care which surfactant you used or about the clever emulsion technology you developed. They want to know the benefits of your technology and why they or anyone else should want to use it. Learn to tell stories that inspire people to get behind your ideas. And try not to get discouraged. The ideas from R&D people are often ignored in the cosmetic industry. 7. Benchmark your formulas - Excellent idea. There is no reason you shouldn’t be able to create a formula that works as well as the best performing cosmetic...

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I was at the Lake Erie SCC meeting the other night and the talk was given by Dr Joe Schwarcz regarding cosmetics, chemicals and the public perception of product safety. He made some great points about a number of hot button issues including lead in lipstick, parabens, pthlates, and more. The basic message is that NGO groups like the EWG have it wrong and the best science supports the notion that modern cosmetics are safe to use. One of Dr Schwarcz's main messages was that the public is being misinformed by fear mongering groups and it is up to scientists to set the record straight. Unfortunately, he provided little information about how to do that. I've given this a lot of thought however and put together what I believe scientists can do to combat the unscientific nonsense that is pushed daily by misinformed groups. Why is this a problem But before we cover what to do, it's helpful to discuss why this is a problem cosmetic chemists should care about. First, miseducated consumers will influence market research which could make your marketing folks demand you avoid disparaged ingredients. You may lose control over which ingredients you can use but you won't lose the responsibility for the results of those decisions. There is no upside for the formulator who is restricted in their ingredient choice for no scientific reason. Next, your company may lose sales & may be targeted for negative publicity for no good reason. J&J was compelled to reformulate perfectly fine formulations due to unfounded claims by consumer groups. You will likely find that reformulating functional products takes away resources that should go into creating innovative new products. This kind of fear mongering inhibits cosmetic innovation. Finally, as a formulator you should be educated about the safety of ingredients you use in your formulations. You should be the expert that people turn to when they have questions about cosmetics. What can you do? The reasons that so much misinformation gets out in the public and takes hold is because groups that spout this nonsense are learned in the ways of PR, the media finds scare stories more interesting, and there are not a lot of scientists offsetting lies with the truth. The way that you can do your part to start combating these lies about cosmetic and chemical safety is by publishing your own content which tells the truth. Participate in scientific activism. Here are 10 things you can do. Scientific activism 1. Learn what's true - In starting a blog or answering questions about these topics you should be well versed on what is true. How many of you know about the safety profile of parabens? What would you tell people about the levels of lead in lipstick? As a formulator, you should have ready, science based answers to these questions. The way to learn what science has to say is to do some research in reliable, science-based sources. The FDA Cosmetics site is a great place to...

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If you sell or product cosmetic products around the world you are going to have to keep up with the various local governmental regulations. And what better way to learn those than to attend a three day summit? Learn more about the Cosmetic Compliance Summit It is going to be held in New Jersey on September 15 - 17, 2014. Here are the main things you will learn by attending this conference. • Understanding the need for Good Manufacturing Practices in order for successful trade operations • How cosmetics companies ensure safety without using animal tests; What are the alternatives? • Approaching the new and improved Product Information File; Understanding what new information needs to be added • Understanding the New Requirements of the Cosmetic Product Safety Report • How are your product claims being backed up by clinical and proved trials? • Legal and business strategies for Global Cosmetics Regulatory Compliance: US, Latin and Central America • Identifying who is designated as being the “Responsible Person” for your brand You don't want to miss this important industry event especially if you want to produce and sell cosmetics in a compliant way.

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Article by -Nitesh Rajput - Cosmetic scientist Sunscreen, also commonly known as sunblock, sun screen, suntan lotion, sunburn cream, sun cream or block out, is a lotion, spray, gel or other topical product that absorbs or reflects some of the sun's ultraviolet (UV) radiation on the skin exposed to sunlight and thus helps protect against sunburn. Depending on the mode of action sunscreens can be classified into physical sunscreens (i. e. , those that reflect the sunlight) or organic sunscreens (i. e. , those that absorb the UV light) What is SPF SPF, also known as sun protection factor, is determined by how long you expose yourself to the sun before you start to burn, but in reality it is mainly a measure of UV A-B protection. How to measure SPF The SPF can be measured by applying sunscreen to the skin of a volunteer and measuring how long it takes before sunburn occurs when exposed to an artificial sunlight source. In the US, such an in vivo test is required by the FDA. It can also be measured in vitro with the help of a specially designed spectrometer. In this case, the actual transmittance of the sunscreen is measured, along with the degradation of the product due to being exposed to sunlight. The transmittance of the sunscreen must be measured over all wavelengths in the UV-B range (290–320 nm), along with a table of how effective various wavelengths are in causing sunburn (the erythemal action spectrum) and the actual intensity spectrum of sunlight. Such in vitro measurements agree very well with in vivo measurements. Numerous methods have been devised for evaluation of UVA and UVB protection. The most reliable spectrophotochemical methods eliminate the subjective nature of grading erythema. SPF math Mathematically, the SPF is calculated from measured data as where E(\lambda) is the solar irradiance spectrum, A(\lambda) the erythemal action spectrum, and \mathrm{MPF}(\lambda) the monochromatic protection factor, all functions of the wavelength \lambda. The MPF is roughly the inverse of the transmittance at a given wavelength. The MPF is roughly the inverse of the transmittance at a given wavelength. The above means that the SPF is not simply the inverse of the transmittance in the UV-B region. If that were true, then applying two layers of SPF 5 sunscreen would be equivalent to SPF 25 (5 times 5). The actual combined SPF is always lower than the square of the single-layer SPF. Difference b/w Sunscreen and Sunblock Both sunblock and sunscreen will protect your skin from UVA and UVB light (aging rays and burning rays), they use different chemicals and those chemicals work in different ways, which is why different terms are used. Sunblock works like a mirrored shield. It contains minute particles of reflective material. They reflect the sun’s rays away from your skin blocking the damaging rays from ever reaching at all. The ingredients included in sunblocks include Titanium dioxide and zinc oxide. (This includes Powder Sunscreen and Mineral Makeup. ) A sunscreen works in a way...

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Here’s a story suggesting that scientific skin care is a great opportunity for cosmetic brands as it is poised for future growth. The article then goes on to say that "scientific skin care" “... scientific skin care draws on ‘alternative’ (also known as ‘natural’) medical traditions... from around the world” They then go on to say that “in alternative medicine the natural and the scientific are not mutually exclusive concepts... ” This is completely baffling to me. Calling alternative medicine scientific is ludicrous. Alternative medicine is specifically treatments that have not been proven to work! If these were proven to work they wouldn't be called 'alternative medicine' they would just be called 'medicine'. Scientific Skin Care The market research firm that put together this report may be correct that skin care companies can benefit from adopting ingredients and techniques popular in alternative medicine, but they shouldn't confuse popular with scientific. This is the cosmetic industry and people are not necessarily interested in buying the best scientific skin care. They want the best story. This is why people spend hundreds of dollars on skin lotions that contain gold particles or caviar, or even superoxide dismutase. There is nothing scientific about these ingredients, or at least they haven't been proven to be effective from topically applied treatments. And just because they sound scientific and people buy them doesn't mean they are. You know what is scientific skin care? Moisturizers like Petrolatum, Mineral Oil or Dimethicone. Humectants like Glycerin or Propylene Glycol. These are the things that make skin moisturizers work. Not gold or caviar or ancient herbs or acupuncture. Petrolatum might not be pretty but it is science. Alternative medicine is not. As a formulator you should never lose sight of what is actually working. And don’t fall in love with any specific ingredient. “The first principle (of science) is that you must not fool yourself and you are the easiest person to fool”

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One of the best books on marketing by Seth Godin is his book The Purple Cow. It's an easy read and I recommend it to anyone who is interested in launching their own cosmetic line. It's also great for cosmetic chemists who just want to get a better understanding on how you might help improve the marketing of your own formulas. Being different The basic thesis of The Purple Cow is that to succeed in business, you have to stand out. And figuring out how to make your brand, your product or even yourself stand out from the crowd is the way to success. In the cosmetic business, standing out can be difficult. There are thousands of brands and tens of thousands of products. Just getting your product in a store to compete with others is going to be tough. Worse, consumers are not very good at picking up actual product performance differences. So, even if your formulas work better than someone else's, you'll have a hard time getting consumers to understand it. How big brands stand out The big mass market companies are always looking for ways to differentiate themselves from their competition. Their biggest weapon is money spent on advertising. This allows them to "tell their story" to hundreds of millions of people. The simple exposure of their story to this many people is going to result in sales. It's no coincidence that the biggest selling cosmetic brands also spend the most on advertising. Some big brands that don't compete with advertising try a different tact. They compete on price. White Rain, VO5 and Suave all shoot for the least expensive products they can create while still getting a decent profit. The profit margin isn't great but when you are selling 100 million bottles a year, you can still make a lot of money. How small brands can stand out For the most part, small brands and independent cosmetic makers can not copy the tactics of big brands. They will not be able to out spend big companies in advertising and also can't win a price competition. However, there are still a number of ways that a small cosmetic product / brand can stand out. 1. Unique story. The best way to create a stand out brand is to come up with a unique story. Burts Bees did an excellent job of this and built their brand so large that it got bought for a huge amount by a large company. It should be noted that Burts Bees didn't simply go for an "all natural, organic, chemical free" marketing position. They had a compelling origin story, a likeable character, some savvy marketing, and fortuitous timing. Beeswax lip balm wasn't unique at the time but Burts Bees made it unique. Here's a company that is trying to stand out. They've created a line of nail polish inspired by things like menstrual blood, bruises and famous painters. The kicker is that they sell the polish for $80 a bottle and...

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Sometimes it seems innovation in cosmetic formulation is nonexistent. Most of the new products that are launched every year are simply minor adjustments on current technology. In my view there has been little real innovation in cosmetic formulation in quite some time. And the things that are innovative (e. g. powdered shampoo or beauty patch products) don’t usually becomes big market successes. Rather, the biggest successes are the brands who have the most innovative marketing stories and positioning like Urban Decay which didn’t exist until 1996 and was sold to L’Oreal for ~$150 million a couple years ago. The kicker is that there is nothing innovative about their cosmetic formulas at all. They are high quality products but not anything that a reasonably competent cosmetic chemist couldn’t make. That’s why I’m pleased to read stories about truly innovative technologies being developed in cosmetic formulas. This story about a nail polish being designed to detect a date rape drug is a good example. According to the report some undergraduate students at North Carolina State University are trying to produce a nail polish that will reveal the presence of date rape drugs in drinks. They were no doubt influenced by the Drinksafe technology which is a coaster that can detect whether your drink is spiked with a drug or not. Nail designed innovation? Now, I don’t know if these students will really be able to create a nail polish that replicates the effect of this color changing coaster. It’s not even clear that the coaster is effective. But the idea is interesting and if they could do it, it would definitely be an innovative new product. Depending how they do it, this could be a stand alone nail polish or a raw material that is put into all nail polishes. I doubt this will be available any time soon and it is unlikely that these students will be the ones who bring it to market. It’s more likely they will have to partner with someone who knows something about formulating nail polish, but time will tell. It’s an excellent idea even if it is a small niche product at the moment. Cosmetic product innovation So there is still room for innovation in cosmetic formulating. This nail polish is designed to have a multi-purpose effect and this is one way that you can come up with new cosmetic formula innovations. Think of your cosmetic product and add a second feature. Here are some examples off the top of my head. Nail polish that generates electricity - paint on solar panels? Makeup with ID tag chemical for identification Scratch & sniff nail polish - releases a different scent for a pick-me-up when you’re tired Nail polish water purifier - great for camping! These may not be great ideas but they would be innovative if created. Feel free to take the ideas and do whatever you like with them. Now, what are your cosmetic formula innovative ideas?

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In college, most chemistry classes were focused on creating chemical reactions. We were constantly challenged to figure out what reaction would happen when you mix chemicals together. Cosmetic science is not usually reactive So, you might find it surprising that cosmetic scientists usually do the opposite. We mix chemicals together and hope that nothing happens. In a cosmetic formula, chemical reactions are bad. They are a sign of instability and we do everything we can to prevent them. This drive to make nonreactive systems might lead you to wonder whether all those chemical reactions you memorized in Organic Chemistry were a waste of time. And if you work as a cosmetic formulator, you might wonder, "Are there any chemical reactions in cosmetic science? " Yes, there is! Reactive cosmetic products While most of the chemical reactions in our industry occur at the raw material suppliers labs, there are some cosmetic products specifically designed to chemically react. Here's a list of the most common. Permanent Waves These products are designed to permanently change the shape of hair. People with straight hair often use permanent waves to get a little curl in their hair. A permanent wave formula has a reducing agent like thioglycolic acid that reacts with the di-sulfur bonds in the cystine amino acids breaking down the hair structure. Hair is first shaped into curlers, then the product is put on hair. It begins reducing hair and is rinsed with water to stop the reaction. A neutralizing chemical like hydrogen peroxide, is added which reforms the di-sulfur bonds into the new configuration. Hair Relaxers These products do the opposite of permanent waves. They make curly hair permanently straight. The method is similar you chemically break down hair, reshape it, then reform the protein bonds in the new configuration. Sometimes ammonium thioglycolate is used but most often it is sodium hydroxide or lithium hydroxide. The compounds break down the di-sulfur bonds in hair and the neutralizing step stops the reaction. This is the most damaging chemical treatment for hair. Hair Bleach Hair bleaching is a process used to turn brunettes into blonds. You didn't really think that there were that many blonds in the world did you? Hair bleach is a chemical reaction between melanin (the material in hair that gives it color) and hydrogen peroxide. Hair Colors Hair coloring is a slightly more complicated version of hair bleach. It uses hydrogen peroxide to break down hair's natural color, then the peroxide also oxidizes a polymeric reaction with dye monomers. When the dye polymerizes inside the hair, it creates a color molecule that is too big to easily come back out. Skin Darkening These products are designed to give fair-skinned people a tanned look. They work by using an ingredient called dihydroxyacetone or DHA. It reacts with the proteins in the stratum corneum via the Maillard reaction to produce the brown (although sometimes orange) color. All the steps haven't been worked out, but basically when DHA is exposed to skin protein,...

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Here is a story that caught my interest about the ingredients in sunscreens harming ocean life. It turns out that the active ingredients in mineral sunblocks, Titanium Dioxide (TiO2) and Zinc Oxide (ZnO), undergo a chemical reaction that produces hydrogen peroxide. The way it works is that when a photon hits the molecule it is converted to heat and a free electron. The free electron reacts with Oxygen to produce an oxygen radical which reacts with free hydrogen which then combines with another to form hydrogen peroxide. Anyway, this increased level of hydrogen peroxide in the ocean water can kill off some of the marine phytoplankton. This is a significant food source for larger sea creatures so when phytoplankton is reduced it has devastating effects on other animals. Unintended Consequences This just makes me think of the advice that is given by organizations like the Environmental Working Group (EWG). They do an annual recommendation for sunscreens and always choose TiO2 and ZnO based products as the “safest” choice for consumers. There is no good evidence that organic sunscreen ingredients like Oxybenzone or Octinoxate are dangerous for people but that doesn’t stop the EWG from suggesting they are. As this story about the effect of TiO2 on aquatic life demonstrates, there may be unintended consequences to what you think is good advice. If you care about the environment it is probably better for you to use sunscreens based on different UV filters that don’t include mineral sunscreens.

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In any big company there will be a group known as Marketing Research which every cosmetic formulator will have to interact with eventually. In this post, we'll go through the most basic information about what the group tries to accomplish, how it will effect you and how you can use them to become a better cosmetic chemist. What is Market Research If you spent all your time in science classes you may never have had the chance to learn about market research. Essentially, it is the process by which companies find out useful information about their consumers, potential customers, and the marketplace. It is done using standard questionnaires, home use tests, or moderated focus groups. Focus group — During the early phases of a new project, the market research group will organize focus groups of expected customers. These are round table discussions where a moderator talks to the customers and finds out what they think. In the meantime, you, your marketing group, and anyone else from the company who might be interested sit behind a two-way mirror, observing and taking notes about what is being said. Ideally, you'll get a good sense about what people like, don't like, and want. Often these groups are convened after the consumer has tried one of your prototypes so this discussion can help you see exactly what is working and not. Focus groups can be extremely useful for finding new product ideas and helpful for figuring out what is good and bad about your formula. However, they can also be misleading as they represent only a small fraction of your customer base. Don't put too much stock in the impressions you get from focus groups. Home use test — These are formal tests where you create prototypes, send them home with consumers, and get feedback after they have used them for a few weeks. Home use tests can give you an excellent idea about how your new formula stacks up against competition or previous prototypes. Of all the types of market research you might encounter, home use tests are the most useful to cosmetic chemists. But be cautious when analyzing the data generated from home use tests. The more detailed the question, the less accurate the answers. People often do not know why they like a formula or not and they are easily swayed by the halo effect. The most significant question asked in a home use test is whether or not the consumer liked the product. All other detailed questions should be taken less serious. For example, if your home use test demonstrates that your product doesn't foam enough, be sure to see whether they liked the fragrance. Often if people don't like the fragrance, they find other things wrong. It's also important to run a control when doing a home use test but unfortunately, this costs extra money that companies don't always want to spend. Why use market research? There are a wide variety of reasons that a cosmetic chemist would want...

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Allured has a new book out about Sustainable Cosmetic Product Development. If you are interested in formulating for the Natural, Organic or Green market, this is an extremely useful book. Cosmetic book summary The first chapter looks at the development of the Green market and gives a great overview of the history of how the market has evolved. The second chapter is a bit more useful for formulators as it goes through the worldwide standards for Green, Natural and Organic products. This gives you great direction on how to formulate for specific places in the world. The next chapter gives an excellent overview of what it means to formulate with green ingredients. The next four chapters are probably the most useful ones in the book. They go through exactly how a formulator can use green principles to create hair products, skin products, color cosmetics, and fragrances. The final three chapters are related more to the work that goes on after formulating including one on green packaging, global sourcing of ingredients, and a final chapter on the environmental impact of cosmetics. Book review If you are asked by your marketing folks to make your formulas more "natural" or "green", this book is an excellent resource. It gives you a solid background of the different definitions of green cosmetics and talks about all the certification programs around the world. Then it tells you exactly which ingredients can be used as substitutes for traditional, synthetic compounds. This compilation of ingredients with specific applications is a great resource. My only complaints about the book is that there was a little too much focus on history in the hair chapter and the Index could be more thorough. Final comments Overall, if you are going to be doing any natural formulating (and almost every cosmetic chemist will) this book is an invaluable resource.

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Here's an interesting trend that will affect cosmetic chemists and formulators in the future. More and more, natural ingredients are replacing standard cosmetic raw materials. What will this mean? Cosmetic reformulation Cosmetic chemists will no doubt have to reformulate almost all the products that they have. Anything that contains a petroleum derivative will have to be re-worked to contain only plant and sustainable ingredients. This might seem like a lot of trouble but it is good news for formulators because it gives you some new opportunities to create new formulations. One of the most frustrating aspects of being a cosmetic chemist is that you make very few changes to formulas. In truth, a company doesn't want to stray too far from their existing formulations because using new raw materials requires more warehouse storage, raw material ingredient costs will increase because you are not buying in bulk as much and the stability and performance is less well known. There are forces that work against creating truly new and innovative formulations. Good for raw material suppliers Raw material suppliers will also like this trend because they can more easily get chemists to start using new raw materials. One of the biggest challenges raw material suppliers face is that chemists do not like to use new raw materials. The reason is that they are unproven and almost always more expensive. Now, raw material companies will be able to sell new raw materials that are more profitable. On the other hand, there are some problems with this new trend. Not all positive The biggest problem is that substitution of raw materials with new ones will not likely lead to improved products. In fact, it will probably lead to products that don't work as well. It used to be that a cosmetic chemist would switch out a raw material for some performance reason. They discover that some raw material works better than their current so they make the switch. But with this trend, cosmetic chemists are switching out raw materials for a non-performance based reason. Naturally, performance will likely suffer. But perhaps the worst aspect of this trend is that consumers will have to pay more money for formulations that do not work as well. They are the losers in this trend. Although, one could argue that consumers are not paying enough for their cosmetics right now. They are not covering the cost that cosmetic use has on the environment and they should. So, perhaps the fact that consumers pay more for better sustainable products is overall a good thing. I'm just not sure consumers will agree with it. Do you?

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There are some aspects of cosmetic chemistry that are easy but there are others that can be a but difficult. This list refers to the latter. 1. Generating new product ideas. There's a reason that cosmetics haven't changed much in the last 30 years. It's very difficult to come up with something new and original. The cosmetic chemist who can do this will be in excellent shape to advance her career. Try some of the innovation exercises that we suggest. 2. Solving stability problems. Sometimes it's not obvious why a formula isn't stable. When this happens it's tough to fix. But a knockout experiment can be very helpful. 3. Politicking. In a corporation your success is highly dependent on your ability to interact with other people. Your knowledge of science is just not as important, unfortunately. Learn some interpersonal skills to get better at this aspect of your career. Cosmetic chemistry is not necessarily a difficult career but there are certainly some challenges. If you can excel at the hardest things you will be well on your way to a successful cosmetic chemist career.

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Here on Chemists Corner we get a number of requests from people who are looking for jobs. In fact, we've written a number of articles about this which you can read about on our cosmetic chemist careers page. But these articles are more general and it seems there is a need for more specificity telling you exactly where to apply for a job. Of course there are a number of online sources which you can scour through. Here are 5 cosmetic job sources. Society of Cosmetic Chemist job posts One source which you may not be aware of is the job pages on the various SCC chapter websites. In know the Midwest SCC has listings because I'm the one who usually posts them. So, to make it easy for you I'm going to list all of the chapter job pages here and you can click on whichever one is in an area where you are interested to work. I should mention that sometimes the jobs listed on a chapter page refer to jobs elsewhere in the country so if you're looking, be sure to go through all the chapter pages. Here they are. Good luck! California Chapter Carolina Chapter Connecticut Chapter Florida Chapter Intermountain West Chapter Lake Erie Chapter Long Island Chapter Michigan Chapter Mid-Atlantic Chapter Midwest Chapter New England Chapter New York Chapter Ohio Valley Chapter Ontario Chapter Quebec Chapter Southeast Chapter Southwest Chapter St. Louis Chapter Twin Cities Chapter If you know of any job opportunity sources that we missed be sure to list them in the comments below.

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Hello and welcome to Chemists Corner. I'm your host Perry Romanowski and this is a podcast about the wonderful world of cosmetic chemistry and cosmetic product formulation. On this show we talk about topics that would be of interest to anyone who works as a cosmetic formulator or wants to start a career as a cosmetic scientist. It will also be of interest to someone who might want to start their own product line. On today's show we have an interview with a cosmetic industry consultant Ginger King who has branched off on her own and makes a living as an independent cosmetic formulator. But first, let's talk about an aspect of cosmetic formulating that you may not have considered. What is the Halo Effect? The Halo Effect is a psychological phenomena in which people come to erroneous conclusions about product features based on non-related factors. For example, if a consumer likes the way a product smells, they might rate something like foam quality higher than if they didn’t like how it smells. It doesn’t matter that the fragrance has no measurable impact on foam quality. To demonstrate the Halo Effect for yourself, make a batch of body wash and split it into two separate batches. To one add a nice smelling fragrance. To the other add a foul smelling fragrance. Give the products to a panelist and ask them which one is better. Then ask them to rate the foam quality on a scale of 1 to 10. Invariably, the product with the more preferred fragrance will score higher in foam quality. Factors that impact Halo Effect We’ve mentioned fragrance as a significant factor in the Halo Effect, but there are others. These include... a. Color — If people like the color of the formula, they’ll rate other factors higher b. Clarity — A pearlized or translucent formula will perform different than a clear one. c. Packaging — If two products are identical except for packaging, the one in the better package will be rated higher. d. Story — If you present a story about the formula and people like it, they will be more inclined to like the performance. Unfortunately, these factors rarely have an actual impact on how well the overall formula performs. This means, as a cosmetic formulator, you could be wasting your time improving formulas if you don’t consider the Halo Effect factors. It should also be pointed out that the Halo Effect is not limited to consumers. You can be fooled by the Halo Effect too. For example, you may add a new technology to your formula and you want so badly for it to make an improvement that you might notice one that is not there. As Richard Feynman said about science The first principle is that you must not fool yourself and you are the easiest person to fool How to deal with the Halo Effect The Halo Effect does not mean that you should stop trying to improve your formulas. What...

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This article about the upcoming ban of Johnson & Johnson baby shampoo has me concerned. We cosmetic chemists are being attacked and told by people who have no background in or understanding of toxicology or chemistry what chemicals we should be allowed to use. We have to stand up against this nonsense. Safer baby shampoo The notion that J&J can make a "safer" baby shampoo is just wrong. Removing Quaternium-15 and replacing it with some other preservative will do nothing to make the product safer. The fact that J&J makes a Quaternium-15 free version around the world is not surprising. Some countries around the world ban formaldehyde donors from their formulations. This ban is not the result of any scientific study but rather an arbitrary reaction by the government to public (non-scientifically based) desire. J&J is simply creating a formulation for the marketplace. Those formulas are likely to be more expensive and also contain some chemicals that these groups would find objectionable. Reducing the level of 1,4 Dioxane is not going to make the product safer either. How would J&J prove the product is safer even if they had 0 detectable level of 1,4 Dioxane? They couldn't do it because there is no test to demonstrate that their current levels are unsafe. Incidentally, J&J doesn't actually add any 1,4, Dioxane to their shampoos. It is a by-product of the chemical reaction that produces their primary surfactant. Reformulate? Why doesn't J&J just reformulate? Simple. 1. Any reformulated product will cost more money that consumers don't want to pay. 2. The reformulated product will not be safer. The better question is, why would they reformulate? This is the kind of story that is a problem all cosmetic formulators should be concerned about. Sure, if you're not using formaldehyde donors or parabens or ethoxylated surfactants, you're safe... for now. But what are you going to do when these groups turn their focus on something that you think is perfectly safe to use. Do you know that Sodium Hydroxide can burn away your skin down to the bone? What will you do when Sodium Hydroxide is chemical non grata? If you accept non-science and fear to decide whether a chemical is safe, your formulation efforts are doomed to be controlled by the whims of irrationality. If there was scientific proof that these chemicals shouldn't be used then I'd be in complete agreement that they should be removed. But there isn't proof and J&J should not be compelled to do anything.

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This article was written by Vitaly Solomonov In this article, we take a short trip deep in our skin in order to understand clearly how the skin works and protects the inner environment of our body. Understanding the skin structure and the epidermal structure in particular answers the questions what the skin really needs and why. Human Skin and cosmetics The human skin is a unique protective tool and very strong border between our body and external world. We know almost everything about its structure, but rarely realize the real functionality of its parts and layers in terms of Cosmetic Science. The common skin schemes tell almost nothing, but showing us the layers and vital parts of the skin. All three main layers of the skin have different anatomy, but created in order to perform one important task – together, they protect us from severe impact of external world. Well, let’s see... The Hypodermis This is the deepest layer and built almost completely with lipid cells. When we are on a diet, we are fighting with this layer. The Hypodermis is a depot of very nutritive substances and energy. Every spare minute our organism is trying to hold over the excessive fat in the Hypodermis in order to be ready in times of famine. During starvation or shortage of nutrients, the fat from the Hypodermis decomposes chemically into water and energy. I won’t go into this layer in detail since we will discover more interesting things within the upper skin structures for cosmetic chemists. The Dermis It’s the heart of the skin and it’s a vivid part that impacts all skin functions. If we look at it closely, we find it has a gel structure. This gel almost completely built with two types of proteins – Collagen and Elastin. The fibers of those proteins intertwine like bedsprings in matrasses. With the certain amount of water, the protein fibers form the gel. The dermal water is coming from the blood stream constantly and constantly the blood stream picks up the waste of skin and brings them to the liver. However, the skin tries to retain the water, since it’s the most important ingredient for all it’s functions. Natural Moisturizing Factor Hyaluronic acid, urea, Lactic acid and some other substances help the main proteins to keep water in the Dermis. The mix of such hygroscopic molecules that able to keep a lot of water is called The Natural Moisturizing Factor of the skin (NMF). The general rule for cosmetologists and cosmetic chemists: More water – the better skin condition. While the NMF determines the amount of water in the skin, another factors defines water loss. The rate of water loss is the most important factor for the skin and it could be measured with the special instruments during experiments or testing the new cosmetic products. The human skin loses the water when it damaged or inflamed or aged. Unfortunately, the skin loses ability to keep the water during aging. The main role...

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It's not quite cosmetic chemistry but I always found the chemistry of fireworks interesting. It's a bit like formulating but instead of making creams, liquids and gels, you make a firework that explodes. Here's what is going on. https://www. youtube. com/watch? v=nPHegSulI_M

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Last weekend I had the opportunity to speak at the Face and Body show in San Jose. It was a great show and I was happy to have such an attentive audience. The attendees were primarily estheticians from California. I spoke about cosmetic science which is an area they hear about from marketing people but almost never from cosmetic scientists who create the products. They seemed happy to hear what I had to say. In my hour-long talk, one of the things covered was an answer to the question "what works? ". People are innundated with marketing messages, studies in the news, and all kinds of anecdotal information about treatments for various conditions. Unfortunately, very little has been proven to work. Here is a list of things that have been "proven" beyond anecdotes to work. If it's not on this list, it doesn't mean it doesn't work. It just means I haven't found any positive evidence that is compelling. Cosmetic skin treatments that work 1. DHA - Makes skin darker. No doubt about this one. Put some DHA on your skin and it will stain it an orangish color. Cosmetic chemists have improved the technology to the point that skin looks more brown. Of course, they're still working on the slight odor problem that the compound on your skin causes. 2. Hydroquinone - Makes skin lighter If you want lightened skin, hydroquinone works. In fact, it's an OTC drug in the US. In the EU they have banned it due to worries that it might cause cancer. Other compounds like high levels of vitamin C, Alpha hydroxy acids, kojic acid, and tretinoin hold some promise but their effect pales in comparison to hydroquinone. 3. Depilatories - Gets rid of hair These work. They contain calcium thioglycolate which is a strong base that will dissolve hair. If you leave it on your skin it can dissolve skin too so you have to be careful. But for hair removal, this cosmetic works even better than shaving. Unfortunately, it can cause skin irritation and has a foul odor but it does work. 4. Sunscreens - Block UV light There is a reason that these things are over the counter drugs (OTC). It's because there is scientifically verified evidence that they can prevent sunlight from causing sun burns, tans, and skin cancer. They work. 5. Retinoic acid - Makes wrinkles go away Anti-aging cosmetics are full of fluffery and chemicals that are supposed to give you the skin of a teenager without the acne. They promise to make your wrinkles disappear with things like peptides, vitamins, minerals, enzymes, polyphenols, flavinoids, etc. The number of new materials is mind boggling. Unfortunately, almost none of them have actually been proven to work when delivered from a topical cosmetic formulation. You know what does work? Retinoic acid. In fact, it works so well that it is approved as a prescription drug by the FDA for treatment against... wrinkles! This is the class of the anti-aging actives. Everything...

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You work hard as a cosmetic formulator. You research the ingredients, you optimize the levels, and you do it in an affordable way. Then you evaluate the performance and adjust the formula so it will work perfectly for your intended consumer. But then your company puts the formula in an uninteresting package or creates a dull story and no one buys it. This happens all too often in the world of cosmetic formulating. You should never let the marketplace performance of a product be an indication of how good or bad your formula is. Lots of really great formulas are never tried and lots of lousy ones are bought over and over again. Consumers buy on emotion It turns out there is a good reason that the performance of the formula doesn't always predict the sales of the product. According to research done out of the University of the Basque Country, people primarily buy cosmetic products for emotional reasons. The study showed that both the utility and emotional effect of a product had an impact on consumer satisfaction, but it showed that the emotional piece was just much greater. Meaning: The marketing, story, image, and packaging have more impact than how well the product works. Some other interesting things from the study... 1. For cosmetic advertising to work consumers must be made to first feel negative about their appearance. 2. Very attractive models make people feel inferior. 3. Emotions are used to make purchasing decisions which are justified rationally. Cosmetic Chemist implication So, does this mean you can just make any old product as long as you put it in a excellent package and give it a great story? No. The performance of the product still has some impact on whether people like it or not. But what it does mean is that you shouldn't feel too bad when your product bombs even if you have testing that shows that it should not. People buy and like your product for reasons other than how well it works.

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Previously, we talked about how sustainability will effect the formulating efforts of cosmetic chemists. In this article, we'll discuss some of the different formulation strategies you might use to implement the sustainability principles. Cosmetic Green Washing Since there are no set standards, one of the easiest ways to appeal to consumers who care about sustainability is to practice green washing. This involves adding non-functional ingredients with natural sounding names to your formula that look good to nave consumers and can support a natural story told by your marketing group. For some consumers just adding words like 'Natural' or 'Organic' on your label is enough to convince them your product appeals to their sustainability notions. Companies can even make aerosol products sound sustainable with the right green washing story. Many companies take this route because it is the least expensive and relatively effective on consumers. Minimalist formulation. While the green washing technique can be effective, as a scientist and formulator you'll likely find the strategy less-than satisfying. A better approach is to incorporate the principles of sustainability into your formulation efforts. To do this I recommend a minimalist formulation approach. The guiding philosophy of minimalist formulating is that less is better. This means while formulating you should strive to use +fewer ingredients +lower levels So instead of ending up with an ingredient list that has two dozen ingredients you should try to get one that has less than a dozen. Using fewer ingredients in your formulas has the benefit of reducing inventory storage, reducing transportation energy, and reducing formula costs. It also may reduce the overall chemical exposure of consumers to potentially sensitizing ingredients making them safer for more people. Formula optimization. The key to implementing a minimalist approach is to optimize your formulas. You should be constantly scrutinizing which ingredients you put in your formulas and finding exactly how much you need. This means testing them out at different levels until you find the best performance at the lowest level. Knockout formulas. One of the simplest ways to begin optimizing is to conduct a knock-out experiment. In biochemistry there is the notion of knock-out mice where they remove a gene and see how it affects the animal as inspiration for the name of this experiment. In a knockout formulation experiment you make a series of batches in which you completely leave out one ingredient then test to see how it effects the formula. Many of these batches will be completely worthless but some of them will perform just as well without the ingredient. And if the formula works without an ingredient, there is no good reason to leave the ingredient in the formula. One of the problems with knockout experiments is that it doesn't do much good showing you synergistic effects of raw materials. A more sophisticated version of this experiment is to run a formula through a DOE. DOE also involves creating a series of batches and adjusting the levels of ingredients to determine the effects on the formula....

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I recently got a request from a website to write an article about the dangers of parabens. At first, I declined because I do not believe that parabens are dangerous to use as cosmetic preservatives. When the website owner told me it would be fine to write about parabens in any way that I wanted, I changed my mind and wrote the following article. Are chemists trying to kill you? While interesting, this article is not about parabens but rather about toxicology and why cosmetic chemists need to learn a little bit about it. Toxicology First, you need to know that toxicology has traditionally been considered the study of poisons. A more modern definition is the study of adverse effects of chemicals on living organisms. Basically, toxicologists are the scientists who determine whether those cosmetic raw materials are safe to use or not. Cosmetic chemist and toxicology If you got your degree in chemistry or chemical engineering, it is unlikely that you took any courses in toxicology. It may have been covered briefly in some biology course but you probably don't know much more about toxicology than your consumers. This should not be. Perhaps the most important reason for you to know something about toxicology is that people will frequently ask you why you are using some specific raw material. They may have read some rumor on the Internet that a raw material is dangerous or their hairdresser may have told them that chemicals are killing them. You should know whether these things are true or not. You should be the expert on the subject among your peers and at your company. If you work for a small to medium sized company, no one else will be trained in it. The other reason to know something about toxicology is that you should not formulate with ingredients you don't know to be safe. And how would you know whether something is safe to use or not? Sure, the supplier will give you safety testing but you need to know what it means. The responsibility for product safety ultimately lies with the cosmetic chemist. Where to learn about toxicology There are lots of sources for learning toxicology but one of the best that I've seen is this one put out by the National Institute of Health. It is the

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This will happen to you at some point in your career as a cosmetic chemist. You'll either get a call from the QA people telling you a batch is "out of spec" or the huge batch you made for a consumer test is not right. Now, you have to figure out how to fix it. How you do this depends on the type of formula but in this post we are going to focus on things you can do to save body wash and shampoo systems. We'll cover other types of formulas in the future. Note: sometimes a batch is just too far out of spec that you have to just dispose of it. Common problems and possible solutions 1. Problem: pH is too high. This can be solved by adding some type of acid to reduce the pH. Typically, something like Citric Acid or Lactic Acid works best. 2. Problem: pH is too low. This common problem can usually be solved by adding a base like Sodium Hydroxide to increase the pH. Note - You should always fix pH problems BEFORE trying to fix a viscosity problem! Sometimes fixing the pH problem will solve the viscosity problem. 3. Problem: Viscosity is too thin. This is the most common problem you'll have. The easiest way to fix most formulas is to put additional salt into the formula. As we've written about previously, salt will affect viscosity. Don't add too much however, as that can push the solution to the other side of the salt curve and make it permanently thin. Another remedy is to add some additional secondary surfactant like Cocamidopropyl Betaine. This may change the micelle structure enough to make the batch thicker. 4. Problem: Viscosity is too thick. This is another common problem for body washes and shampoos. Unfortunately, it's a little tougher to fix. While salt addition could make it thinner, that is too difficult to control so it is not recommended. Better is to put in additional nonionic surfactant or a lipophilic ingredient. Diluting with water is another possibility but that will dilute all the ingredients in the formula and could lead to a lower quality product. One other option is to make a completely new batch but withhold the salt. Then blend the new batch with the old in the correct ratio to get the right viscosity. 5. Problem: Color is wrong. This can happen for a number of reasons but often it is because the surfactant you are using is more yellow than normal. One solution is to add additional color to the batch. You can take a small sample of the batch and mix in the appropriate amount of color until it matches a standard. Then calculate the amount that should be added to the full batch and make the adjustment. If the color is completely off you can either discard the batch, get marketing to approve it, or blend off the batch in such small increments that it doesn't spoil the color...

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In the United States cosmetic companies are not prevented from making almost any claim they want. However, there is a significant rule they must follow. "You can not make false claims" While small cosmetic companies might inadvertently (or purposely) make false claims, big cosmetic companies are not so cavalier. No doubt their legal departments scrutinize anything they might put on their product labels. This means when you're looking at the labels of a product produced by a big cosmetic manufacturer, you can have faith that there is some evidence they have to back up their claims. Figuring out what that evidence might be can be extremely helpful for a cosmetic chemist. It will help in product development, product testing, and in your own formulation efforts. But how do you figure it out? Figuring out claims The first step in figuring out how product claims are supported is to figure out what claims are being made. This takes some practice and some thoughtful reading. Let's look at an example. Pantene Shampoo + Conditioner I like Drugstore. com because they list claims and ingredients in a handy text-friendly form. Here is what is listed for the Pantene product. --------------- Pantene's unique shampoo & conditioner system with weightless moisturizers replenishes hair from root to tip to help prevent split ends from forming. Pantene Dry to Moisturized Conditioner helps repair damage, revealing your light, bouncy, revitalized hair. Moisturizing conditioner strengthens hair against damage and breakage Helps Protect against damage and split ends Gentle enough for color-treated or permed hair ---------------- Step 1 - List of cosmetic claims Now, let's list all the claims they are making. 1. Pantene's unique shampoo & conditioner system 2... . with weightless moisturzers... 3. (system) "... replenishes hair from root to tip... " 4. "... help prevent split ends from forming" 5. (Pantene) "... helps repair damage... " 6. "... revealing your light, bouncy, revitalized hair. " 7. "Moisturizing conditioner strengthens hair against damage & breakage" 8. Helps protect against damage and split ends 9. Gentle enough for color-treated or permed hair Step 2 - Logical Evaluation A few of these claims can simply be supported with logic. 1. As long as the exact shampoo & conditioner formulas are not used in some other line, they are unique. Thus, the claim is validated. 2. This claim is a little questionable as the term "weightless" implies they have no mass. However, the company could support this by weighing hair before use, then after use and as long as there is no significant difference, the claim is verified. 3. "Replenish" is practically a meaningless word so the company has lots of leway in defining it. As long as they can prove something is left behind (e. g. silicone, cationic polymer) then they could support this claim. 4. Preventing split ends can be supported by counting the number of split ends caused by combing (robotic comb). They can compare it to treated versus untreated hair. If there are less split ends on...

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I saw a science article that indicated in a mouse study that a compound in apple peals (ursolic acid) was good for helping build muscles. After I "tweeted" this fact, one of my followers responded that Uroslic Acid was also good for skin care. She even included a link to research published in the Archives of Dermatological Research. According to the abstract skin wrinkling and xerosis associated with aging is a result of a reduction in collagen and ceramide content. In their study, they found Uroslic Acid was able to increase both ceramide and collagen production. So, it logically follows that this might make a good topical skin application. In fact, a raw material marketing department would seize on this research and start selling the promises right away. Unfortunately, they would be jumping the gun. There are two things that strike me about this study and raise red flags about the viability of this raw material. First, the study was done on cultured normal human dermal fibroblasts, or more simply, cultured human skin. This is decidedly different than actual human skin. Sure the cells might be the same but the structure of the thing is completely different. Just because a raw material is shown to do something in the lab doesn't mean that it will work on a real person or when delivered from a real cosmetic. Just because a raw material is shown to do something in the lab doesn't mean that it will work on a real person or when delivered from a real cosmetic. The second thing is that the study was published in 2002. That was over 9 years ago! If Ursolic Acid had the ability to increase ceramide and collagen production in skin, why hasn't any more work been done to demonstrate an effect when applied topically to human skin? To be fair, I did read that Ursolic Acid is currently going through clinical trials to see whether it works as an antiwrinkle ingredient. No results are published yet. However, it seems to me that it would be a remarkably simple test for some cosmetic company to have already done. This would suggest to me that someone has already done it and were not able to get any results that were worth publishing or even launching a product around. This view may be a bit skeptical but "extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence. " How do you know? This brings us to the question of how a cosmetic chemist can know whether the raw material that your supplier is bringing you really does the things it claims. Here are a few suggestions. 1. Be skeptical but open minded. It's hard to make something new. That is why there are so few new things. The raw material you are being presented probably doesn't work as claimed. It is an easy matter to give only the evidence that supports your case when you are trying to sell something. Of course, you don't want to filter out too much....

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According to the FDA statute first written in 1938, cosmetics are products used for beautification and enhancement of the appearance of skin or hair. By law they must not affect the structure and function of skin. Products that do are considered drugs in the United States and fall under much more stringent regulations. With a multi-year and hundreds of millions of dollars registration process, it's no wonder cosmetic companies avoid saying that their products have an affect on the structure and function of skin. But is this true? Not according to the famous dermatologist Albert Kligman. He stated in an article published in C&T in 1993 that The truth is that all topical substances, whether as simple as water or as complex as multi-ingredient moisturizers, inevitably will affect the structure and function of skin. No topical is completely inert. Recently I had been investigating a claim that the level of skin cell growth is affected by the amount of moisture in the outer layers of the skin. If this were true, any moisturizer should be legally considered a drug under US law. Indeed, I discovered that this was the case. This means that ANY skin product you make is actually a drug. Technically, there are no cosmetics. At least skin products. I suppose you could apply a hair product that does not interact with skin. So what can the cosmetic industry do about it? I don't know. It seems better regulations need to be written to encompass the science that has been discovered science the original Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act was written some 80+ years ago. Companies need better guidelines to reflect the range of biological impact that various compounds can have on the body. As it stands, all cosmetic companies are at risk of having their US skin products recalled as illegal drugs. This won't likely happen but it could. Unfortunately, I doubt anything will be done about this situation in the near future. After all, this is an agency that has taken over 30 years to publish a sunscreen monograph. The FDA is underfunded and really has better things to do with their resources. Fortunately cosmetics have been safely produced and used for years so there isn't much impetus to change things. What do you think the difference is between a cosmetic and a drug? Leave your comments below.

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One of the requirements of most cosmetic products is that they have an appealing rheology. This means that you as a cosmetic formulator you are going to understand cosmetic thickeners in order to control the viscosity (or thickness) of your products. There are a number of ingredients that are used for this purpose. Each kind has applications to different formulation types. Here is a basic introduction. Lipid Thickeners Lipid thickeners are primarily composed of lipophillic materials. They work by imparting their natural thickness to the formula. Typically, these materials are solids at room temperature but are liquified via heat and incorporated into emulsions. They are used most often in creams and lotions. Some common types include Cetyl Alcohol, Stearyl Alcohol, Carnauba Wax, and Stearic acid. Naturally derived thickeners Various thickeners are found in nature or are derivatives of natural thickeners. These ingredients are polymers that work by absorbing water to swell up and increase viscosity. Cellulose derivatives like Hydroxyethylcellulose are frequently used in liquid cleansing products such as shampoo or body wash. Guar gum is another example of a naturally derived thickener. Others include Locust Bean Gum, Xanthan Gum, and Gelatin. These thickeners can be used in any formula that contains a high level of water. Unfortunately, they can be inconsistent, cause clear formulas to become cloudy, and feel sticky on skin. Mineral thickeners Mineral thickeners are naturally occurring, mined ingredients that can absorb water or oils and boost viscosity. They give a different kind of viscosity than the natural gums. Materials include Silica, Bentonite, and Magnesium Aluminum Silicate. These thickeners can be used to thicken oils as well as water based formulations. Synthetic thickeners Perhaps the most versatile of all thickeners are the synthetic molecules. Carbomer is the most common example. It is a water-swellable acrylic acid polymer that can be used to form crystal clear gels. They have a desirable feel which makes them superior to other thickening agents that leave a sticky feel. Carbomer thickeners also have the ability to suspend materials in solution so you can have low viscosity formulas with large particles suspended. These thickeners also help to stabilize emulsions and are frequently used in lotion and cream products. Ionic thickening I would be remiss if I didn't mention one of the most common thickeners for surfactant solutions. Simply adding Salt (NaCl) you can get an anionic surfactant solution to become thicker. In fact, salt is frequently used as an adjusting agent during production. In a future article, we'll discuss the salt curve and what it means for rheology. Interested in learning more about cosmetic ingredients and thickeners? Sign up for our free report.

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It seems every year one of the big cosmetic raw material companies introduce a new ingredient that will “revolutionize” the cosmetic industry. But in the last 20 years, I can't name a single ingredient that actually has changed things significantly. In fact, with only a few exceptions, cosmetics and personal care products haven't changed much in the last 20 years at all. This got me wondering... why? Here are 5 reasons 1 - Wrong focus Cosmetic raw material companies focus on solving the problems of cosmetic chemists. They don't focus on solving the problems of consumers. There is a disconnect here. Consumers do not care about new emulsifiers, new thickening systems, or new delivery systems. They care about the end results. If you don't change the end performance of the product, you haven't really made a new product that a consumer will care about. This reminds me of the same problem amateur magicians face. Good magicians know innumerable ways to have someone pick a card, make it disappear and make it reappear somewhere else. But while the way they do it might be different to the person being entertained it is exactly the same trick. People don't care how the trick is done. They just like the trick. Similarly, people don't care how their cosmetics are made, they just care about how the product performs. 2 - Money Raw material suppliers do not like to speculate. No business really does. They only want to make raw materials that are going to sell and for the biggest companies, they want materials that are going to sell in really big quantities. This means they do not look at the most novel ingredients. They look at things that are already selling and try to make minor improvements on them. It's a good strategy but one with little chance of leading to breakthrough ingredients. 3 - Resistance to change This is related to money. Since it costs lots of money to build chemical factories, companies are more inclined to produce materials similar to what they already have. They do not want to invest in new reactors or safety measures if they don't have to. So, unless someone can prove that an ingredient is going to work and going to get widespread acceptance, chemical companies will not invest the money required to make the new ingredient. It's easier to just take the equipment they already have and make only ingredients that work with their current equipment. 4 - Regulatory problems Perhaps one of the biggest impediments to the creation of new, novel cosmetic ingredients is the regulatory climate. It costs lots of money (>$100,000) to do all the testing required to register a new raw material. Gone are the days when a chemist could synthesize a material in the lab, test it out on hair tresses, and launch to the waiting cosmetic chemists. Now, companies have to register, do certification testing, safety testing, have market research data, and be able to provide claims support to...

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The other day I stumbled on this story about a group of scientists questioning the need for people to take Vitamin D supplements. These independent researchers from the Institute of Medicine's Food and Nutrition Board (FNB) reviewed over 1000 publications and determined that there is no evidence that people should take Vitamin D supplements. Skeptical Scientist Being a skeptic of most vitamin supplements, it was easy for me to accept their conclusions. After I tweeted the story, one of our followers shot back... "Please go to the Vitamin D Council website and do more research. Vitamin D supplementation is needed by most Americans. " But although I am a skeptic, I'm always interested to see information that would change my mind. You see I hold no beliefs that couldn't be changed with enough evidence. So I went to the Vitamin D Council website and looked at what they had to say. They put out a press release that essentially concluded the FNB was wrong and that ... "Today, the FNB has failed millions of pregnant women whose as yet unborn babies will pay the price. " Who do you believe? That leaves us with a choice. Do we believe the independent science board or the Vitamin D council who states on their About Page that they are "... a group of concerned citizens and scientists who believe many humans are needlessly suffering and dying from Vitamin D Deficiency"? I have to say, the FNB seems the more reasonable choice to me. Independent scientists should always be trusted over biased groups. Just consider this. Could a group that is dedicated to the belief that Vitamin D deficiency is causing problems ever accept research that concludes otherwise? I don't think so. On being a scientist So what does this have to do with being a cosmetic chemist? There are a few lessons you can take. Never start with a belief When you begin with a conclusion, it is nearly impossible to accept evidence that conflicts with your belief. Creating hypotheses and guesses about what is true is a key activity to be a good scientist. However, even more important is to find out what is actually true. Making good guesses is not the mark of a good scientists. Discovering truth is. Always question your own beliefs You're going to create formulas and if you're passionate about them, you might even love them. But remember that you are not the customer. Just because something appeals to you does not mean that it will automatically appeal to someone else. Test your formulas on a blinded basis against other formulas with consumers or panelists. When it comes to matters of taste, you must trust what those panelists tell you over your own opinions. Be skeptical of research from non-independent groups No doubt your suppliers will come to you with studies that show how their new raw materials performs great. It makes sense. They want to sell their product. However, you want the best product so...

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If you want to be a cosmetic chemist and make cosmetic products, there is certain essential equipment that you'll need to get. Here is a list of the basic equipment for setting up a cosmetic lab. Basic cosmetic Lab equipment 1. Weighing equipment. To make proper measurements of the raw materials, you'll need a good balance. Be sure to get one that can measure up to at least 500g. Other weighing equipment that helps includes disposable pipettes (for measuring liquids) and weigh boats (for measuring solids). 2. Containers. The most common container you'll use to make a cosmetic formula is a beaker. You'll need a variety of sizes because you'll be making different sized batches. Be sure to have a number of 500mL, 800mL, 1000mL, 1500ml and 2000mL beakers. You really want 400g to be the minimum size batch you make. 3. Mixers. In college, you most frequently used a magnetic stirrer to mix your creations. These are rarely used in a cosmetic lab. For mixing, you'll want an industrial type mixer, something like the Lightnin mixer. It is like a single blade hand mixer with a variable speed control. Quite handy. 4. Controlling Temperature. Most cosmetic formulas require heating and cooling so a good hot plate is a must. Sometimes you can air cool batches but for things like emulsions, you'll want to have a water bath for cooling it down quickly. This could simply be a tub you fill with cold water and ice. 5. Testing equipment. After you've finished a cosmetic formulation, you'll need to test it to ensure that it meets specifications. For this, you'll want to have a pH meter and a viscometer (for measuring rheology). Of course no cosmetic lab would be complete without a good stock of cosmetic raw materials. Which of these you have will depend on the type of formulas you make. Everyone will want to have a supply of deionized water. Most will also want to have a stock of common preservatives, acids, bases, and dye solutions. Fortunately, if you work for a company they'll have this stuff for you. They'll also have more specific equipment for the types of formulas you'll mostly be working on. However, if you are setting up your own lab or helping your company get into the field of cosmetic science, be sure to stock your lab with the proper equipment. What equipment do you use for cosmetic formulations? Leave your comment below.

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As the month of May is officially known as Skin Cancer Awareness month, I thought it fitting to share some interesting facts about Skin Cancer, but also some interesting facts from an ingredient standpoint and why Americans are not receiving all their options when it comes to prevention... Did You Know? Skin cancer is the most common form of cancer in the United States. According to the Skin Cancer Foundation, more than 3. 5 million skin cancers, including 75,000 new cases of invasive melanoma, are diagnosed in the United States annually. Did You Know the Risk of Skin Cancer in the United States? Each year there are more new cases of skin cancer than the combined incidence of breast, prostate, lung and colon cancers. From 1970 to 2009, the incidence of melanoma increased by 800 percent among young women and 400 percent among young men. Over the past three decades, more people have had skin cancer than all other cancers combined. One person dies every hour from melanoma, totaling nearly 10,000 deaths in 2013. One in five Americans will develop skin cancer in the course of a lifetime. Just one bad burn in childhood increases the risk of developing melanoma later in life. Melanoma is the number one cancer killer of women in their twenties. Skin cancer is most deadly for African Americans, Asians and Latinos. Did You Know the Financial Cost of Skin Cancer in the United States? The estimated total direct cost associated with the treatment of melanoma in 2010 was $2. 36 billion in the United States. The emotional and physical costs are impossible to calculate. A 2012 study by the Center for Disease Control (CDC) concluded that "Given the substantial costs of treating melanoma, public health strategies should include efforts to enhance both primary prevention (reduction of ultraviolet light exposure) and secondary prevention (earlier detection) of melanoma. " No New Sunscreen Ingredients Have Been Approved in the United States in Over a Decade The last time the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved a new sunscreen ingredient was in the 1990s. Outside of the United States, the next sunscreens that offer UVA and UVB protection have been approved for use. Since 2002, there have been eight pending sunscreen ingredient applications that are still waiting approval from the FDA. The American people need access to safe and effective broad-spectrum, photo-stable UV screens to protect themselves against the harmful effects of the sun. There has been movement on this issue by a group called the Public Access to SunScreens Coalition (PASS) who has worked with Legislators and the FDA on the Sunscreen Innovation Act. The Bill can be viewed here. What can you do for Skin Cancer Awareness Month? 1. Encourage your member of Congress and Senators to support the legislation by becoming a cosponsor of H. R. 4250 or S. 2141. 2. Participate in L’Oreal’s Thunderclap on May 20th 3. Share these important facts and information with your friends and family Sources: http://www. skincancer. org/skin-cancer-information http://cancer. about....

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As a cosmetic chemist you are going to have to deal with suppliers and vendors to get anything done. Here is an explanation of the relationship and a list of things that a supplier can do to make you more effective. Cosmetic Industry Suppliers Industry suppliers, or vendors, are companies that provide cosmetic chemists with raw materials, packaging, test equipment, and testing services. They want to help formulators with all aspects of product developing efforts. By selling stuff that helps you make money, they can make money. For smaller accounts, big suppliers rely on distributors as a middleman. As a cosmetic chemist, you are the customer and the supplier is the sales person. When you first enter the industry, the ways a supplier can help you might not be obvious. Here is how the vendor relationship works and how you can maximize them as a resource. Chemical sales call When you begin your job, you'll quickly be introduced to all kinds of sales people representing suppliers. If they sense that you have any responsibility or influence about what goes in a formula, they will set up a meeting (sales call) with you. This gives them time to talk about some of their products, find out what problems you need solved, and get to personally know you. Ultimately, they want you to use their ingredient in your formula. Most often these meetings happen right at your place of business and they can last anywhere from 15 minutes to an hour. Sometimes the meetings might even happen over lunch and (depending on the rules of your company) the supplier will buy your food. You can get some useful information from sales calls but they can also be an incredible waste of time. It is common courtesy to accept meetings, but don't let them take up all your time. You are a formulator and although sales calls are helpful for research, they usually aren't directly productive. What can suppliers do for you? There are a number of areas in which a supplier can help you. Here is a short list. Provide learning opportunities — In the cosmetic industry there are dozens of classes of materials to learn about and thousands of individual ingredients. Suppliers can give you most of the basic background you'll need to get started. Sometimes they will even host poster sessions and seminars which can quickly get you up to speed on ingredient types and uses. Get starting formulas — When you are first creating a formula and you need a place to start, most vendors can supply you with a starting formula. These are formulas that their technical services group has put together and they are basically functional. Of course, you'll have to make significant modifications because the formulas will be packed with high levels of the vendor's ingredient. Getting raw material samples — If you are interested in making a new formula you will need some raw materials to start. Often your company may not have a supply...

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Here is a short cosmetic science tutorial video we made that shows you exactly how to go about figuring out the costs of a cosmetic formulation. If you find it helpful, you can use the following spreadsheet to do your costing. Cosmetic Formula Costing Spreadsheet http://www. youtube. com/watch? v=k5NvK6IbDcY

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Getting a degree in chemistry will teach you a lot about science but not much about having a chemist job. We’ve previously talked about what you can do to start a cosmetic chemist career, but you might be wondering what your experience will be like. Types of companies that hire cosmetic chemists There are a wide range of companies that hire cosmetic chemists including finished goods manufacturers, contract manufacturers, testing houses, raw material suppliers, etc. Among all these companies you will find both big corporations (>$5 billion in yearly revenue), small companies (

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In the United States (and most other places around the world), beauty product manufacturers are required to list the ingredients used to make their products in a specific way. The current guidelines can be found on the FDA website here — FDA Cosmetic Labeling. Since it isn’t a terribly interesting read, we’ll try to summarize the key points here. We’ll also explain to you how ingredient listings can be useful to cosmetic formulators. Cosmetic Ingredient names We previously wrote about how cosmetic ingredients get their names so go read that for more details. Basically, the names come from the INCI Dictionary. These are the names that are supposed to be used by everyone although some manufacturers might take liberty with their labels and include inappropriate terms (e. g. ‘purified’ water) Order of listing In this post on how to label cosmetics, we gave an explanation of the rules in which ingredients are supposed to be listed. Essentially, things in concentration above 1% are supposed to be listed in order of concentration and things at 1% or lower can be listed in any order. Colors are supposed to be listed at the end. Where to find cosmetic ingredient names When you are working with a raw material, the supplier will have the INCI name listed in the specification sheet. Often, raw materials are made up of multiple compounds so there will be a listing of multiple INCI names. To create the correct ingredient list, you have to know the % of each compound in the raw material. This can get complicated and we’ll save the topic for another time. Sometimes the INCI names are pending (if it’s a new material) but you should generally avoid working with raw materials that don’t already have an INCI designation. If you are searching for a raw material, a nice, free way to find them is via the INCI directory. This excellent resource was created by Specialchem4cosmetics. com and is really helpful. Where to find ingredient lists Now that you know how to decipher raw material lists, you need to get some so you can start using them. Of course, an obvious place to get ingredient lists is to go to the store and get products. They should be listed there right on the back of any personal care and cosmetic product. But going to the store can be inconvenient and you can often get ingredient lists just by searching the Internet. Two excellent sources of cosmetic ingredient lists is Drugstore. com and Ulta. com. The best thing about these sources is that they also include the cosmetic claims which can also be helpful. How to use ingredient lists Alright, now you have an ingredient list and understand what it means, you might be wondering, so what? Good question. Here are a few things that I’ve used ingredient lists for as a cosmetic chemist. 1. For copying competitor’s formulas — Copying (or knocking off) a competitive formula is a great exercise for any new cosmetic...

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Innovation from the cosmetic raw material companies always makes me smile. I remember when one particularly “innovative” company would come in for a visit and always show these incredible compounds with mind blowing claims. While I always admired their attempts there was a fundamental thing they did that I found troubling; they would blur the line between cosmetic claims and drug claims. I still frequently see this with the way both cosmetics and cosmetic raw materials are marketed. So, I thought it would be helpful to go through what is a cosmetic. What is a cosmetic? Let me first apologize to our International readers. This article will focus mainly on the US market. However, many of the same principles apply. According to the FDA a cosmetic is... “articles intended to be rubbed, poured, sprinkled, or sprayed on, introduced into, or otherwise applied to the human body... for cleansing, beautifying, promoting attractiveness, or altering the appearance" And to distinguish cosmetics from drugs, the FDA further defines a drug as... "articles intended for use in the diagnosis, cure, mitigation, treatment, or prevention of disease" and "articles (other than food) intended to affect the structure or any function of the body of man or other animals" . What does this mean? The key piece to consider is the part in the definition where it states “... articles intended to affect the structure or any function of the body of man... ” So, when companies make claims like... Ingredient will stimulate collagen production Ingredient will inhibit the enzyme tyrosinase Ingredient will prevent premature gray hair ... they are making DRUG claims, not COSMETIC claims. If you use these ingredients in your formulation with the intent that they are going to have the effects claimed, you are no longer making a cosmetic. You are formulating a drug that is regulated differently than cosmetics. (Mostly, it requires more testing and validation). What is not a cosmetic? So to simplify the difference between cosmetics and drugs think of it this way. A cosmetic is a product that is designed to clean or alter the appearance of the skin and hair without affecting metabolic processes. Body wash, skin moisturizers, make-up, etc. are all cosmetics as long as they are not intended to ‘stimulate collagen production’ or otherwise interfere with natural body processes. When is a cosmetic a drug? There are some products that are both cosmetics and drugs. This would include products like anti-dandruff shampoos, toothpaste, antiperspirants, sunscreens and anti-acne treatments. These products have to comply with the rules governing both cosmetics and drugs. Innovation in the cosmetic field is difficult because cosmetic chemists are restricted in what type of effect they can have on the body. If you have created a formula that affects the normal functioning of the body’s cells, then you are no longer formulating a cosmetic, it’s a drug. Until they change the rules, things called cosmecuticals are just marketing fluff.

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As a cosmetic chemist, you should always keep an eye on products and try to figure out what other people in the industry are doing. One of the best ways to do this is to review their product claims, then guess how they support what they're saying. In this entry I'll show you an exercise that will help improve your skills in this area. Step 1 - Obtain the product claims One of my favorite websites to go to for cosmetic products is Drugstore. com. They have a great selection but best of all, they have a listing of what is written on the bottle including ingredient lists. This is a huge benefit for a cosmetic chemist! For this example, let's look at Fructis Triple Nutrition Fortifying Shampoo. We could've picked any but Fructis has lots of claims. Here is the text of their claims. For Dry to Over-Dried or Damaged Hair * 3 Nutritive Fruit Oils - Olive, Avocado & Shea * Fortifies & infuses with nutrients for silky hair, full of life. Is your hair dry, over-dried or damaged? Feel unhealthy to the touch? It needs nourishment without being weighed down. Fructis Triple Nutrition The 3 nutritive fruit oils penetrate to nourish every strand to the core. 3 Fruit Oils For Triple Nutrition: 1. Olive Oil - Nourishes the inner core 2. Avocado Oil - Nourishes and softens the middle layer 3. Shea Oil - Nourishes and smoothes the surface. Results: Triple nutrition for dry, over-dried or damaged hair. Hair is silky, radiant and full of life. Create and control any style you want with Garnier Fructis Style. Questions? 1-800-4Garnier (1-800-442-7643) or visit garnier. com. INGREDIENTS: Water (Aqua), Sodium Laureth Sulfate, Coco Betaine, Glycerin, Sodium Chloride, Amodimethicone, Cocamide MIPA, Laureth 5 Carboxylic Acid, Polyquaternium 10, Pyrus Malus Extract (Apple Fruit), PPG 5 Ceteth 20, Parfum (Fragrance), Sodium Benzoate, PEG 55 Propylene Glycol Oleate, Propylene Glycol, PEG 60 Hydrogenated Castor Oil, Salicylic Acid, Niacinamide, Pyridoxine HCI, Olea Europaea Oil (Olive Fruit Oil), Citric Acid, Saccharum Officinarum Extract (Sugar Cane Extract), Benzyl Alcohol, Persea Gratissima Oil (Avocado Oil), Linalool, Methylcocoate, Butyrospermum Parkii Butter (Shea Butter), Ribes Nigrum Oil (Black Currant Seed Oil), Butylphenyl Methylpropional, Sodium Cocoate, Sodium Hydroxide, Citrus Medica Limonum Peel Extract (Lemon Peel Extract), Camellia Sinensis Extract (Camellia Sinensis Leaf Extract), CI 19140 (Yellow 5), CI 14700 (Red 4) Step 2 - Filter out the claims While anything written on the bottle is technically a claim, some of the statements require more support from a cosmetic chemist than others. Your next step is to read through the text and figure out which claims required testing. Here is a listing. 3 Nutritive Fruit Oils Fortifies and infuses with nutrients for silky hair, full of life ... nutritive fruit oils penetrate to nourish every strand to the core Olive oil nourishes the inner core Avocado oil nourishes and softens the middle layer Shea oil nourishes and smooths the surface Hair is silky, radiant and full of life Step 3 -...

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Congratulations! ! You spent your days in college making it through some of the toughest courses the place had to offer like Physical Chemistry, Advanced Inorganic Chemistry, and even Advanced Calculus. And you passed them all! Clearly, you were one of the brightest students in the university. Do you think the business world will reward you accordingly? Sadly, it doesn't exactly work that way at least in the cosmetic industry. In fact, while cosmetic chemists make a relatively good salary, the big money in this industry is given to people with business degrees working in Marketing, Sales, and Market Research. If you are like most science majors who know very little about these topics, you'll be at a significant disadvantage. Free Online Business Courses But fret not! You don't need to take out thousands of dollars in student loans & spend the next 4 years taking evening classes. Thanks to some generous, forward-thinking universities, you can learn all you need to know for FREE. Here is an article that lists 12 Universities offering Free Online Business Courses. And these are not sketchy, unknown, fly-by-night colleges. These are top notch universities like MIT, University of California, University of Notre Dame, Carnegie Mellon University, etc. You can get many of the same courses that students paying huge dollars are getting. You just need some self-motivation. So, if you want to get a leg up on your cosmetic chemistry career, send yourself through some of these business courses for free. It may make you smarter but will definitely help you communicate with the Marketing people that are most likely running your cosmetic company. Who knows? It might give you just the kick you need to start your own cosmetic company. If you're bright enough to make it through college and earn a science degree, you're smart enough to create & run your own successful business. The world needs more scientist entrepreneurs.

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I saw this article in the NYT about a cosmetic brand who is advertising themselves as "carcinogen free". According to the founder of Bio-Spectra, their line of body care products called Attitude is made without any carcinogens. Of course, he acknowledges that there is no way of knowing that some of the ingredients they use won't be considered carcinogens in the future. Advertising like this really bugs me for a few reasons. 1. Not safer The biggest problem with the way this product is advertised is that they make the implicit claim that traditional cosmetic products are less safe than their products. This is nonsense. If a person used Attitude products for their entire life they would not be measurably safer than someone who used products from P&G, Unilever or L'Oreal. It's just not true. 2. They don't know Another problem is that while they claim to be carcinogen free, they do not know whether that is true or not. How thorough do they analyze the ingredients they use? Do they remove all the lead from the water that they use? Not likely. So they're claim is based on ignorance. This is just wrong. 3. They are not better Finally, their products do not offer consumers something better. If the only thing that sets your product apart is the fact that you don't use surfactants that may contain residual levels of 1,4 Dioxane, you don't have a product that consumers need. Personally, I would like to see this company redo their marketing and actually create products that give some useful benefit to consumers. Making is carcinogen free without knowing whether the claim is true or not is just awful.

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As a cosmetic chemist, you'll find patents to be an extremely useful source of information. In them you will find starting formulations, novel test methods, and even the historical development of cosmetic science. But reviewing them can be tedious so learning how to read them productively is important. Where to find US Patents While there are lots of places to find the full-text of patents online, the best place is the United States Patent and Trademark Office. This website contains a wealth of free information. The only other site worth considering is the Google Patents site. It has the same information as the USPTO site but has the added advantage of using the Google search engine. Sometimes this is more helpful. Main sections of patents On the front page of a patent, the most useful information includes 1. The patent number (top right corner) 2. The date of the patent (top right corner) 3. The inventors / assignee 4. The Title of the invention 5. The Abstract of the invention Inside the patent, you'll find the following key sections. Images - If it is a device of design patent, illustrations of the invention will be included before the text. For cosmetic formula patents, these are not usually included. Field of Invention - This section is usually just a rewording of the abstract. Background of Invention - Provides a history of the development of the technology and sets up the problems that the patent is trying to solve. It will site other patents which helped inspire the invention. This is an excellent source for learning about the historical development of these kinds of formulas and for finding other relevant patents. Summary of Invention - Here you'll find the basic idea behind the patent. After reading this section, you should have a good idea about what are the key elements that make the patent unique. It will also help set up the next section. Detailed Description - This is the most tedious part of the patent because it includes as much information as the lawyers can pack into it. It's written in a way that is easy to get lost. Superfluous details are included just to ensure that the company covers as many possible angles as they can. You'll find ranges of weight percentages both preferred and "most preferred". But you'll also find details that may be useful in later development. This is the longest section of most patents but you can skim most of it upon your initial read through Formula Examples - At the end of the description section, you'll find formula examples which will include a range of compositions & weight percents. Right after this section, you'll also find a 'Method of Preparation' which tells you generally how to put the formula together. Here is where you find your starting formulas Test methods - In some patents, you'll find test procedures that the inventor followed to prove that the invention is novel. This isn't in all patents but keep...

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The other day someone asked me for some tips on how to find a cosmetic science job in the cosmetic industry with personal care companies like Alberto Culver, P&G, L’Oreal or other big companies. Of course, you should go through and do the standard things like tailor your resume to specific jobs, apply through HR departments, etc. But if you want to stand out among the crowd or even discover un-posted job opportunities, you’re going to need to “know” someone on the inside. There are three ways you can get an inside track on jobs in cosmetic companies. Job Hunting Tips 1. Deal directly with R&D people. Ideally, you would get to meet the managers in the R&D departments, but if you strike up a friendship with someone from the company, they can give you information on the jobs that might be available. The best way to meet people at companies is to attend SCC meetings or find people on LinkedIn. Remember relationships are a two way street. Don’t just request help from someone without first figuring out a way you can help them. 2. Work for a lab temp agency. Most big cosmetic companies work with temp agencies so if you can get a temporary job assignment, you will get the inside track on available permanent jobs. In fact, while I was there, at least 30% of people hired at AC in R&D started out as temporary workers. 3. Meet cosmetic industry raw material sales people. If you go to a trade show (like the Teamworks event coming up in Chicago) you'll get to meet all of the suppliers in the cosmetic industry. Typically, the salespeople are the ones who man these booths. Sales people visit lots of companies and often know of job opportunities. Finding a job is almost always about who you know, not what you know. The more people you meet at a company, the greater your chances of landing a job with that company. Resume help And if you’re looking for tips on putting together a good resume, you might find this ebook helpful.

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My first experience with cosmetic labeling came in college when I turned over the bottle of a shampoo and looked at the ingredient list. It was right around the time when I was learning how to name chemicals and I was confused why I couldn’t recognize almost any of the ingredients. It turns out that the cosmetic industry doesn’t follow the IUPAC system which is what they teach you in college. It follows the system set up by the Personal Care Products Council (PCPC) as described in the INCI Dictionary. See our previous post on cosmetic labeling and the naming conventions in it. But the ingredients names in your formula are only part of the labeling process. You also have to follow the labeling rules laid out by the FDA that affect ingredient order, placement on the label, text size, language and more. Here are the relevant facts. Cosmetic ingredient list In the United States, it is a requirement that all cosmetics be labeled with their ingredients. The LOI (list of ingredients) is supposed to be printed on the container and needs to follow some rules when listing ingredients. Ingredients above 1% need to be listed in order of concentration Ingredients 1% or below can be listed in any order Exception: Color ingredients are listed at the end The names of the ingredients must be those found in the INCI (International Nomenclature of Cosmetic Ingredients) Dictionary. Where does the list go? Once you have the list, you’ll have to put it on the package in the proper position. The FDA requires that it be put on the principle display panel which in most cases just means somewhere on the primary package where people can read it. See this for details. What kind of font? To ensure that the ingredient list is readable, the FDA requires that the font size be no smaller than 1/16th of an inch unless your packaging is really small in which case you can make the font 1/32nd of an inch. What language? Products sold in the United States must be written in English. What else do you include? Other information you need to list includes Name of the product (e. g shampoo, lipstick, eyeshadow) Name of manufacturer or distributor Address of manufacturer including city and zip code Net contents in container Warning statements if required For more details about what and how you specifically need to list information on your labels in the United States, see this section on the FDA website.

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Working in corporate America you will quickly learn that your success is not completely based on your scientific abilities. In fact, if you really want to advance in your career you're going to have to learn how to impress your boss. In this article on ItStartsWith. Us they list 12 good ideas for impressing your boss. Here are a few that I thought were pretty good advice. Care about other people - Being selfish at work won't help your career. Always be honest - Even if it's going to make you look bad. Ask for help - Never be afraid to admit you can't do everything yourself. Plan to wing it - Things rarely go as planned so be adaptable Help others - If you help someone else achieve their goals, they'll be more inclined to help you. Stop following the rules - Sometimes you need to break the rules (but follow them too) Give more than people expect - Most people just get by. Give more & you'll benefit Of course, you should still dazzle them with your cosmetic chemistry prowess.

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I'm sure Perry has already told you this but as a cosmetic scientist it's important for you to know your consumer. One way to understand the wants and needs of consumers is to tap into questions they have about beauty products. I'm the editor in chief for the Beauty Brains which is sort of a sister site to Chemists Corner. Perry and I answer questions about how products work and we even bust a few beauty myths. We also have a forum where our members can interact with each other. It's a great place to observe people "in their natural habitat" discussing their beauty likes and dislikes. If you like, you can join so you could do your own mini-consumer research by asking them directly what they think of products you've formulated or what new products they'd like to see. Here's the link to sign up. The Beauty Brains Forum

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"What does a formulation scientist do every day? " This was a question I received in an email from someone who was doing some research about different chemist careers. And if this person wanted to know about it, it makes sense that some of you might be wondering the same thing. So, here it is, 75 things that a formulation scientist or cosmetic chemist might do on any given work day, conveniently presented in four categories. Cosmetic product development Create formulas Gather raw materials Get equipment for making batches Make batches Restock lab supplies Keep notes in notebook Write experimental results in notebook Clean glassware and lab Research formulation topics Generate new product ideas Create prototypes Create dye solutions for color matching Make samples for marketing Supervise / make batches for home use tests Supervise first production batches Solve stability problems Generate test ideas to substantiate claims Figure out ways to make formulas less expensive Attend focus groups Participate in brainstorming meetings Review product label copy Assist in writing product concepts Present new technologies to non-scientists Cosmetic product testing Take pH readings Take viscosity readings Fill and label glass and plastic bottles Wash & comb hair tresses Color matching Bleach and color hair tresses Conduct foam tests Run stability tests Conduct skin moisturization tests Run project specific, customized tests Try formula prototypes View samples under a microscope Observe salon tests Conduct odor tests Participate in product panel testing Get samples for testing Evaluate competitive products Personal Training Read trade journals Read Chemists Corner and other useful blogs in your RSS reader Attend meetings with suppliers Go to SCC meetings Go to industry trade shows Take continuing education courses Attend conferences Review latest patents Listen to podcasts like the Chemists Corner podcast Read industry text books Take online training courses Pursue an advanced degree in cosmetic science Business stuff Respond to emails Create presentations Attend corporate meetings Attend project planning meetings Respond to phone calls Do desk side interviews with beauty editors Conduct training sessions for non-scientists Write business travel reports Fill out expense reports Write monthly reports Go to office celebrations Engage in “water-cooler” chat with co-workers Write memos Sign and review contracts Give instruction to people who report to you Meet with your boss to update them on your progress Interview candidates Entertain kids during Bring Your Kid to Work week Keep track of project progress Engage in debates with regulatory & legal departments Write patent applications Write employee reviews Whew! My brain is fried and I might be able to go on, but I think I covered practically everything I did as a cosmetic chemist. Is there anything we missed? Leave a comment below

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As a cosmetic chemist, you will be often visited by chemical sales people and presented "new" raw materials to put in your formulas. Or you may be asked by your marketing people about ingredients and which cosmetic ingredients are better than others. Unfortunately, it's not an easy question to answer. Read on to see why. What are better cosmetic ingredients? Although this might sound like a simple question, it really isn’t. That’s because the answer is highly dependent on what you mean by the phrase “better than. ” And this is true of ANY raw material or beauty product for which you might have this question. What makes one cosmetic ingredient better than another? It all depends on which of the following factors are most important to you. Ingredient Performance This is related to how well a product does what it says it will do and how it compares to what you are already using. If a new emulsifier makes makes the product more stable then from a performance standpoint, it is better. If a surfactant improves your foam, or a moisturizing agent improves moisture scores, then these ingredients are better. The nice thing about a performance standard is that you can run a test, make a measurement and determine which is better. Unfortunately, there are other less obvious factors to consider when figuring out which is the "better" cosmetic ingredient. Price Another important characteristic in determining whether something is better is price. The assumption is that if one product performs the same as another product but is less expensive, then it is better. Of course, this is simplistic and the list price of a raw material doesn't take into consideration other factors that can affect the cost impact to your company. For example, your purchasing department might have a contract with a supplier where you get price breaks based on volumes. If you change to a cheaper ingredient, this could raise the price of other ingredients. But sometimes the performance doesn't have to match exactly either. If you can get away with using a less expensive ingredient and still have most of the performance, sometimes it's worth it. Production Desires While there are some ingredients that are easy enough to work with in the lab, they can often be nearly impossible to work with in production. I'm thinking of things like powders and highly viscous ingredients. When formulating and thinking about what is the "best" cosmetic raw material, consider also what your production people will think is the best. Generally, if it's easier to work with in production, it's a better ingredient. Personal preference I have to admit that there were ingredients that I liked working with. Often this was because I had success with the ingredient in the past. Or maybe I just liked to have a "signature" ingredient in all my formulas. Some cosmetic chemists just prefer to avoid using single sourced ingredients or animal derived products or other arbitrary choices. If you as the formulator think...

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In college, science majors spend their time learning complicated subjects like Calculus, Physics and Chemistry. Figuring out stuff like differential equations and bond angles of electron orbitals there isn't much time or brain power left to learn the more mundane things taught in business classes. But when you get out of school, business subjects are important and you've got to take time to learn them. To be the most well-rounded and effective cosmetic chemist, you need to know about the markets for which you'll be creating products. In this post, we'll review the overall cosmetic industry to give you a basic understanding of where the money is and what products make the most. Worldwide Cosmetic Market If you look at the entire worldwide cosmetic industry, sales reach about $170 Billion dollars a year. It's distributed pretty uniformly around the world with ~$40 billion in the Americas, ~$60 billion in Europe, ~$60 billion in Australia & Asia, and another $10 billion in Africa. The Western world spends a bit more per person but India and Asia are quickly catching up. 5 Primary Cosmetic Segments So now that you know where all the money is spent, it's helpful to know what people are spending their money on. The cosmetic industry (aka beauty industry or personal care industry) can be broken down into 5 segments. Sales are distributed roughly by the %'s given. 1. Hair Care - 20% 2. Skin Care - 27% 3. Fragrance - 10% 4. Make-up - 20% 5. Other - 23% Market researchers like to break these up into even more segments but these 5 cover everything. Hair Care Market About 20% of all cosmetic products sold are for the hair. Shampoos make up the vast majority of this market since almost everyone uses shampoo. Other significant market segments include conditioners, styling products, hair color, and relaxers. Currently, the biggest players in this category are Procter & Gamble (Pantene) and L'Oreal. Skin Care Market The range of products that are offered for the skin care market are much more diverse than the hair care market. Skin care makes up about 27% of the total cosmetic industry and includes skin moisturizers, cleansers, facial products, anti-acne, and anti-aging products. Of all the cosmetics, skin care products can be some of the most expensive with 2 ounces of product routinely selling for >$200. Women do not mind spending big bucks to keep their skin looking young. The biggest companies in this market include Procter & Gamble (Olay) and Unilever (Vaseline). Make-up Market The color cosmetic market represents about 15% of the cosmetic industry and includes anything from lipstick to nail polish. Included are things like blush, eyeshadow, foundation, etc. The array of products is vast and the number of color variations are practically infinite. You can spend a lot of time as a cosmetic chemist working on new shades of familiar products. The market is highly segmented so there isn't really one dominant player. Maybelline an Clinique are just a couple of...

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Tomorrow is the Midwest SCC trade show featuring raw material suppliers from around the world. Here you will find companies with displays on new ingredients, packaging technology, contract manufacturers, and many others. While it may seem obvious to people in the industry why they should attend a trade show, if you’re new to the industry (or have never gone) you probably don’t know what you can get out of going. So, we put together a list of direct benefits you can get from going to a cosmetic industry trade show. 1. Learn about new raw materials If you work for a big company, most suppliers will send sales people to call on you and let you know about all their new offerings. However, if your company is small, suppliers often won’t set up meetings with you. Going to trade shows is a great way to see all the new raw materials companies have launched. 2. Get new ideas Be sure to carry with you a notepad and pen while at trade shows. As you walk past booths jot down ideas that occur to you. You can easily generate over 50 new ideas using the inspiration of the company displays. It can be anything from a new product idea, a cost saving idea, or even just a cool package that you saw. Write them down so you don’t forget. 3. Connect with people at other companies Another must-have at a trade show is a good supply of business cards. You can expect to meet dozens of people who will be helpful in your career both in trying to complete projects and in finding potential new employment. 4. See what the competition is doing If you work at a chemical company a trade show gives you an excellent opportunity to see what your competitors are doing. You can see the trends that they follow and the niche they are trying to carve. This could help you determine if they are doing something that could also help you and your company. 5. Technical learning Often a trade show will have an education program that goes along with it. These programs are often free or covered in the cost of the show registration fee. If the topics are of interest, they can be a great way to quickly learn about a given subject. Also, the trade show itself is a great resource for learning about chemicals used throughout the industry, not just the ones used in your formulas. 6. Observe new trends Suppliers often work with marketing research companies to identify trends in the market. Many times they will discover things that your company doesn’t see because they look at it from another standpoint. Fragrance and extract companies are a great source for new trend and new product ideas. 7. Free stuff We would be remiss if we didn’t mention that trade shows are also a great place to get samples, pens, notepads, and other advertising specialties. I personally love the small candy bars...

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This recent article about scientists discovering bacteria living in hairspray provides a good example of why cosmetic products need to be preserved. Microbes can grow almost anywhere! And these tiny organisms bring with them some distasteful product changes or even disease. As a cosmetic chemist it’s up to you to formulate properly and keep these invaders at bay. You typically do that by adding preservatives to your formulas. Unfortunately, you’ll have to know more than just the science as preservatives are some of the most highly regulated and restricted ingredients you will use. Why you need cosmetic preservatives There are two primary reasons you need preservatives. 1. To stop microbes from spoiling your products. 2. To stop microbes from causing disease. The microbes that can infect your formulas primarily include bacteria, mold, and yeast. In small quantities they don’t represent much of a problem but when they multiply, look out. Bacteria like Pseudomonas can cause all kinds of health problems including skin and eye infections, toxic shock, strep throat, and even food poisoning. Yeast like Candida albicans can cause thrush. And many other bacteria can cause your products to smell awful, change color or otherwise break down. (This is what stability testing is for). The following is a list of common preservatives used in cosmetic and personal care products. As a future (or current) formulator, you will undoubtedly be using many of them. Parabens Parabens are the most commonly used preservatives. They are derivatives of p-hydroxybenzoic acid and go by names like Methylparaben, Propylparaben, and Butylparaben. They are typically supplied as powders and can sometimes be difficult to incorporate into a system due to the water solubility limitations. They are effective against a broad spectrum of bacteria and fungi. They do have pH limitations and are not effective against all microbes so you usually will need an additional preservative. Formaldehyde donors Formaldehyde derivatives are the next most common preservative. These compounds interfere with membrane proteins which kills microbes. They are effective against bacteria, fungi, and mold. Bad press and real safety concerns have led cosmetic chemists to stop using formaldehyde. Instead ingredients that dissociate into formaldehyde when put in a water solution are used. These are compounds like DMDM Hydantoin, Imidazolidinyl Urea, and Gluteraldehyde. They are most often used in surfactant systems. Phenol derivatives Phenol derivatives have been used in cosmetics for many years and can be effective against a range of microbes. Unfortunately, they are not as effective as the previous ingredients so their use is limited. The most common examples is Phenoxyethanol. Quats Compounds that contain nitrogen and have a positive charge when placed in solution are called quaternary compounds (or quats). Many of them demonstrate an ability to kill microbes. This include ingredients like Benzalkonium Chlroide, Methylbenzethonium chloride, and Benzethonium chloride. Their cationic nature makes them less compatible with anionic surfactants which limits their application & use. Alcohol Ethanol is a great preservative but you need to use it in high levels and it faces significant environmental...

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While there are literally thousands of different types of cosmetic products, there are actually only 10 different types of cosmetic formulas. Here is a brief overview of those types including what they are, how they’re made and when you might use them. As a formulating chemist, you should make it a point to learn to make each type (even if your company currently doesn’t make these particular products). 10 Cosmetic Product Forms The basic categories for cosmetic formulas include 1. Solutions 2. Creams / Emulsions 3. Lotions 4. Ointments / Pastes 5. Suspensions 6. Tablets 7. Powders 8. Gels 9. Sticks 10. Aerosols Solution Cosmetics These are the simplest type of cosmetic formulas and are used for a wide range of products such as shampoos, body wash, hand cleansers, colognes, etc. They are homogeneous mixtures of soluble ingredients. To make them you simply fill your container with the main diluent (usually water) then mix the rest of the ingredients into it. Sometimes warming the system slightly will increase the speed at which you can make them. Creams / Emulsions The majority of cosmetics use raw materials that are not compatible so a cream or emulsion is used. Emulsions are pseudo stable mixtures of immiscible liquids dispersed in another liquid. They are used for products like hand moisturizers, make up, hair conditioners, sunscreens, etc. To create them you need three formula components including an oil phase, aqueous phase, and an emulsifier. The formulas are made by heating up the oil and water phases separately, mixing them together (along with the emulsifier) when they are hot, and cooling them down with thorough mixing. The result is a cream with tiny particles of dispersed in the diluent phase. See our article on emulsion HLB for more information on creating emulsions. Lotions Creams are not always appropriate for some applications because they can be too heavy or greasy. In these cases, the lotion form is used. Lotions are essentially thin creams. They are used for facial moisturizers, leave-in hair conditioners, and moisturizing cleansers. Since these are emulsions, you make them the same way you would a cream. They are generally easier because you do not have to worry about the emulsion getting thick enough as it cools down. Suspensions Suspensions are another product form for delivering incompatible ingredients. Unlike creams, they are typically clear products with visible particles like gelatin beads or inorganic minerals (e. g titanium dioxide) suspended throughout. They are used for sunscreens, hand washes or shampoos. To create them you need to include a polymer or clay that gives the formula some internal suspending structure. Ingredients like carbomer or bentonite clays are useful. Ointments / Pastes These are super thick products used for things like hairdressing and medicated skin products. Usually, they are anhydrous (contain no water) and are sticky & greasy. Some common ingredients used to create pastes include petrolatum, lanolin, or dimethicone. Making them is a simple matter of heating up the raw materials and rapidly mixing them until...

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I found a couple of interesting articles that explain the absolute basic compounds used in modern day cosmetics. Neither of these are particularly thorough, but if you want a quick understanding of the chemistry and science of cosmetics, both of these articles do a good job. For people just coming into this industry the following articles will be helpful background information for some of the more in-depth topics we will talk about here in the future. For cosmetic scientists working in the cosmetic industry, you can use these to brush up on your basics and also as a way to explain the chemistry to people in your marketing department & other groups outside R&D. 1. Chemistry of cosmetics. - A piece written by the Australian Academy of Science. Short but hits the primary raw materials and provides links to pages with some demonstrations. 2. Cosmetic Chemistry explained - From the title Chemistry explained. The author gives a little more information than the first reference. Should be particularly useful for background information to share outside R&D. Neither of these resources should be considered "high science" but if you need a quick introduction to the primary compounds used in cosmetics, they're useful. Do you have a favorite source for background information about cosmetic science? Leave a comment below and let us know.

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The way chemistry majors typically begin their chemist careers goes something like this. In their senior year of college they start looking through the newspapers for any company looking to hire chemists. Next, they put together a resume, send in a bunch of applications and hopefully get hired. If they happen to apply to a company in the cosmetic industry, then they become cosmetic chemists. Unfortunately, this method of not knowing what industry you will end up in leaves you ill-prepared for a job in cosmetic chemistry. Most of the stuff you learned in college will not be applicable to your job. To help bridge the gap, here are the top 10 science topics you should know about when entering the cosmetic industry. Study up before your first interview! Surfactants It is amazing how little time is devoted to surfactants in college when you consider the importance they play in so many industries. What are they? Surfactant is a shorter way to say “surface active agent”. These are molecules that have the property of reducing surface tension, thereby allowing oil and water to form stable (temporarily) mixtures. Examples — Sodium Lauryl Sulfate, Cocamidopropyl Betaine, Glycol Distearate, Ammonium Laureth Sulfate, Polysorbate 80 Why are they used? Surfactants are used for various purposes in cosmetic formulas including * Detergents - for cleansing * Wetting agents — for helping formulas spread more easily * Foaming agents — to produce consumer friendly suds * Emulsifiers — to create stable mixtures of oil and water * Conditioning agents — to improve the surfaces of hair and skin * Solubilizers - to help mix fragrances into water-based formulas * Preservatives - to keep cosmetics microbe-free * Special Effects — to improve the look of certain formulas Where can you learn more? We’ll write more about surfactants in the future but for a quick primer on the subject, see this book on surfactants on Google. For a more general discussion of surfactants, start with the Wikipedia surfactant page. Emulsions This topic is related to surfactants and covered even less in college. Yet emulsions are one of the most important types of mixtures / product forms you will encounter in the cosmetic industry. What are they? An emulsion is a fine dispersion of one insoluble liquid in another. In the cosmetic industry, the most common emulsions are ones in which oil is dispersed in water. To create emulsions, typically a surfactant is also used. Why are they used? Emulsions are delivery systems for beneficial cosmetic ingredients. These ingredients are often incompatible with water and have undesirable aesthetic characteristics by themselves. The ingredients are mixed with water to create creams or lotions. Where can you learn more? Look for upcoming articles on Chemists Corner about emulsions, but until then, you can see this on Google for more information. For a more general discussion of emulsions, see this emulsion entry. Fatty Acids While much college time was devoted to learning about acid-base reactions and equilibrium constants, very little time was...

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As a cosmetic chemist you will undoubtedly be asked to make products that require you to combine materials that aren’t easily compatible. Fortunately, there is a system that can help you get started. Cosmetic Emulsions Emulsions are one of the most common forms of cosmetic products. You find them in skin lotions, make-up, and even hair products. By definition an emulsion is a dispersion of two or more immiscible materials, where one phase, also know as the internal phase, is dispersed in the continuous or external phase. Cosmetic emulsions are classified as oil in water (O/W), water in oil (W/O) and water in silicone (W/Si). Multiple emulsions such as oil in water in oil (W/O/W) are also possible. Oil in water emulsions are the most common due to preferable cost and light skin feel. In order to create an oil in water emulsion (one that remains stable for a long enough time), work must be done to overcome the interfacial tension between the two phases. This can be achieved by mixing; however mixing even at very high rates is not enough to provide long term stability. An emulsifier or combination of emulsifiers is needed to stabilize droplets of the dispersed phase. For example, simple oil in vinegar salad dressings will separate rapidly without the use of an emulsifier like mustard. Using Surfactants In this industry, we use surfactants to create emulsions. Surfactants are molecules that have a hydrophobic (oil soluble) and an effective hydrophilic (water soluble) portion. They act as emulsifiers by significantly lowering the interfacial tension and decreasing the coalescence of dispersed droplets. HLB Formulating Figuring out what surfactant to use for any specific formula will be a challenge you face as a cosmetic chemist. There is a great deal of research on surfactants and their behavior. But studying the thermodynamic equations and phase diagrams associated with surfactants can be a daunting task, not to mention the number of surfactants available to the formulator is vast. Luckily for us, William C. Griffin developed a way to streamline the selection of surfactants by utilizing the ratio of the hydrophobic to the hydrophilic portion of the molecule. This method is referred to as the HLB (Hydrophile Lipophile Balance) method. Griffin first presented this method at meeting of the Chicago Chapter of the Society of Cosmetic Chemists in 1949 and it is still widely used today. He published the method shortly there after. 1 (A bit of trivia for you, the Chicago Chapter was the first chapter formed in Society of Cosmetic Chemists) The HLB method applies to nonionic (uncharged) surfactants but attempts have been made to broaden the concepts to other surfactant types including silicone surfactants. And using the HLB system to create emulsions is quite simple. All you have to do is calculate the HLB number of your surfactant, then the Required HLB for the oil phase and match the two numbers. Determining the HLB of a surfactant A typical nonionic emulsifier (e. g. Laureth-4) contains an ethylene oxide groups...

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https://www. youtube. com/watch? v=mCP0f_MqNTk I'm experimenting with a whole new type of video recording. What do you think? If you're interested in the program that was discussed in the video, just sign up for our early notification list here.

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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 learning the IUPAC system for naming chemicals. That’s why I found ingredient lists on shampoos & conditioners baffling. I didn’t know what most of the chemicals were. They were similar to IUPAC terms, but not quite. It turns out that the cosmetic industry doesn’t use the IUPAC naming system. Instead, they follow their own system as laid out in the International Nomenclature of Cosmetic Ingredients (INCI) dictionary. This volume is produced by the main cosmetic industry trade group called the Personal Care Products Council (PCPC, formerly the CTFA but we’ll save that for another time). List of Ingredients The first thing to know about cosmetic ingredients is the ingredient list. In the United States, every personal care and cosmetic product is supposed to have their ingredients listed. In the business, we called it the LOI (list of ingredients). Any ingredient above 1% is required to be listed in order of concentration (by weight). At 1% or below, the ingredients can be listed in any order. Typically, preservatives and dyes are listed at the end. In a future post, we'll show how this labeling requirement can help you formulate new products. Any ingredient above 1% is required to be listed in order of concentration (by weight). To be proper, companies are supposed to follow the naming conventions as laid out in the INCI. Cosmetic Ingredient Naming Conventions While many chemical names in the INCI seem arbitrary, there are some standard rules. The following will help you make heads or tails out of the ingredients on most LOIs. We can’t list all the conventions here, but we’ll point out the major ones and give examples. Common Names When they first came up with the INCI (originally called the CTFA Cosmetic Ingredient Dictionary) in 1973, many cosmetic ingredients already had names. These common names were incorporated into the dictionary even though they didn't follow any specific naming rules. Therefore, we use Glycerin instead of the more accurate Glycerol and Menthol instead of (1R, 2S, 5R)-2-isopropyl-5-methylcyclohexanol. Common names are also used for various natural ingredients like Lanolin and Beeswax. Stem Names Probably the most important thing to learn about naming cosmetic ingredients is to memorize this list of hydrocarbon stem names. It’s a bit different than the IUPAC. So, if you have a 16-carbon alcohol, you call it Cetyl Alcohol instead of Hexadecanol. For an 18-carbon acid, you would use Stearic Acid instead of Ocatdecanoic acid. Mixtures You’ll run into names like Cocamidopropyl Betaine that don’t match any of the stem names. This is because the raw material uses coconut oil as a starting raw material. In these cases, you use an abbreviation of that starting material. Other ones you might see include Palm Kernel oil, Soybean oil and Sunflower oil. In a future post, we’ll show the fatty acid distribution of these materials. Derivatives The INCI tries to...

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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 knock-out experiments. These type of experiments can help you learn a number of things such as, 1. The function raw materials 2. The performance effect of raw materials 3. The formula effect of raw materials It can also potentially lead to the discovery of a new formulation and cost savings ideas. Formulation Chemist Knockout Experiment The term knockout experiment was taken from the field of genetic engineering. In it, scientists create organisms in which they remove or “knock out” a specific gene. Then they see what effects the removal of a certain gene has on the organism. In the cosmetic chemist’s version of a knockout experiment, you take a known formula and “knock out” a specific raw material. You then see what effect the absence of that raw material has on the final product. It’s a simple yet powerful study that can quickly get you familiar with any formula. What will a cosmetic knockout experiment teach you? When you first start your cosmetic formulating job, you will often start new projects with a formula that your company had previously developed. I remember the first formula I ever made (a shampoo) was originally developed by the guy whose notebook I inherited. My boss asked me to make samples to give to our Marketing group for evaluation. I had no clue about why any of the raw materials were used, what they did, or even how hard they were to work with. You will undoubtedly be in the same position if you are just starting in this industry. Even if you’ve been around for a long time, it’s impossible to know the effect of raw materials in any formula you haven’t personally made (or observed being made). Knockout experiments can rapidly tell you when making a batch exactly which ingredients have the most effect, which ones can be removed and which ones interact. When you’re done making the formulas, you can learn what raw materials have the most impact on the final specifications and the product performance. The amount of information you can learn from a single knockout study makes it well worth doing on every new formula you are asked to work on. How to conduct a cosmetic knockout experiment Running a knockout experiment is fairly easy. All you have to do is take your initial formula and make a series of batches in which you remove one ingredient. If it’s a water-based formula, you simply add water to replace the missing mass. Here is an example batch sheet for conducting a knockout experiment on a shampoo formula. (Click to enlarge) As you can see, each subsequent formula has a line where the value of one ingredient is supposed to be. In this formula there are 8 unique ingredients which means you will need to make 8 different batches. The first batch is the control batch...

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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 they don't have direct experience with a product. Perhaps it's understandable if you are not in the target market for your product, but anyone can safely use most any product and the information you'll learn from the experience will be invaluable. Here are 5 reasons cosmetic chemists should be trying every cosmetic formula they work on. 1 - Learn the most important characteristics When I first started working on the cosmetic industry, I was making hair care products. While I always used shampoo, I rarely used conditioner. It seemed like a waste of time. But when I was given the task to make a new hair conditioner formula, I needed to figure out the most important characteristics. Reading about slip, spreadability, and hair conditioning properties didn't make sense until I tried the product. After using it a few times, I figured out what these terms meant and why they were important. This gave me a basis for evaluating new formulas allowing me to know when I made something better. If you don't try a formula, you can't make it better 2 - Build your powers of observation Many of the formulas you will work on are ones you've tried all your life. But most of the time you use them without thinking. Your mind has become dulled to the experience. When you try a product thoughtfully, you can build your powers of observation and discover all sorts of details you never noticed. For example, you might start to notice the ease at which your hands slide while applying a lotion, or the length of time it takes to "work into the skin". You might notice the bubble density of your body wash or shampoo. In short, using a product frequently and mindfully can make you an excellent evaluator. You can't make formulas better if you don't know what to change 3 - Figure out formula problems Sometimes your Market Research data will come back suggesting there is a problem with your formula. This will be surprising to you because companies do not like to field consumer tests with formulas they know will exhibit problems. Even if all your lab testing shows your formula is good, there may be some subtle things you miss if you don’t try it. For instance, the product might sting or cause another unpleasant sensation during use. There might be a foul odor which you only smell when it’s exposed to skin, hair, or moisture. You might feel tiny particles that interfere with the experience. Trying a product identifies unseen problems 4 - Learn the effects of raw materials A great benefit to trying your formulas is that you learn quickly how different raw materials change the experience. You can read all you want about a raw material but until you actually experience it from a formula, your knowledge isn’t useful....

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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 page turning titles like “Dermatological aspects of a successful introduction and continuation of alcohol-based hand rubs for hygienic hand disinfection” or “Deposition of 18-MEA onto alkaline-color-treated weathered hair to form a persistent hydrophobicity” keeping up can be challenging. Fret not! We here at Chemists Corner have put together the following tips that will make it much easier for you to figure out what you don’t need to read and how to get the most out of everything you do read. Don’t do this The worst possible thing you can do is to read an article from the title to the conclusion straight through. It will take a lot of time & brainpower to understand and you may not learn anything useful. As a formulation chemist, your time is valuable. Don’t waste it on unproductive reading. Take notes To help you remember new ideas or other insights you get while reading, be sure to have a paper and pen ready to take notes while reading. If you’re able, just write right on the article. You can write questions to yourself and see if they are answered while you’re reading. The combination of reading and note-taking will make the study of the article much more effective. Why are you reading it? The first thing you want to figure out is why you would read a particular article anyway. Scan the title to get a rough idea of what the article is about. Then ask yourself “Why would I read this? ” If you are a cosmetic chemist who specializes in hair products do you really need to read an in-depth article about antiperspirant efficacy? There may be a good reason (finding inspiration for new ways to test your hair product) but it is probably of academic interest only. You should focus on articles that will teach you things applicable to your job. Before reading any article always ask yourself What do I hope to learn by reading this article? Review the Authors You’ll notice that some authors are quoted time and again in literature. For example, in the Journal of Cosmetic Science, Clarence Robbins and Yash Kamath are some of the most respected and often cited researchers in the subject of hair. Articles written by them are worth your time. However, supplier sponsored articles may not be scientifically robust enough for you to get much out of them. They might be excessively biased which should cause you to question the results. Figure out what the title means Once you know what kind of bias the authors might bring, it’s time to start dissecting the headline. This is often challenging, but given enough thought you can do it. Take this example... “Dermatological aspects of a successful introduction and continuation of alcohol-based hand rubs for hygienic hand disinfection” If you pick out a few keywords you can get the...

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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 to worry about the grade you would get. It wasn’t fun. So, when I was given a black, 100-page plus lab notebook on the first day of my new job as a cosmetic chemist, I was less than pleased. I thought it would be like being back in college. Fortunately, I was wrong. Benefits of a lab notebook I learned to love my notebook and looked forward to keeping track of my work. It became my “diary” of scientific thoughts and ideas; a personal tome of my development as a cosmetic chemist. It also helped me when it came time to file patents, solve production problems and prove to my boss that I actually did do some work. What changed it from drudgery to joy? Follow a system I started following a system. It was a lot like the one learned in college, but it doesn’t require you turning it in for a grade. But you do want to be thorough in the possible event that the notebook gets used in a court case. (This really happens! ) Here are some of the key parts of a system you can follow to make keeping a lab notebook a breeze. What to write in your lab notebook To be complete, there are 7 different sections you should include when writing up any experiment you run. Depending on your own style, you’ll write more or less in some of these areas. Some sections are optional. Two things before you start Use a black ink pen to write in your notebook! Never use white out! Background Whenever you are starting a project or experiment you should write down why you are doing it. Often this can be as simple as stating “Marketing wants me to develop a new skin lotion that performs better than some competitor’s formula. ” Some see this section as optional, but I think it is a key component of a well kept notebook. The Background section helps make sense of all your experiments. This section also helps remind you of why you did something months later, and helps ensure that you know why you are conducting an experiment before you do it. Always know why you are doing any particular experiment! Objective This section is narrower than the Background section. It states specifically why you are running this particular experiment and what you hope to learn or do. For example you can write “The objective is to create batches of a particular formula for evaluation in a home use test. ” This section is a critical one and should be included for all experiments. Hypothesis Just like in college, the Hypothesis states what you believe and what you hope to confirm or disprove in the experiment. This section won’t apply to many of the things that you do so you can look at it...

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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 you just how to do that, but in the meantime it would be helpful if you knew exactly the type of testing you have to do prior to selling your product. Note this information applies to US cosmetic products. Other countries may follow slightly different rules. There are four types of testing you must do before selling your own product. These include micro-testing, stability testing, safety testing and performance testing. Microbial Testing This could really be put under safety testing but it is so important that it deserves its own category. Whenever you create a new formula you need to ensure that the preservative system you are using is adequate for preventing dangerous microbial growth. There are two primary types of testing you need to do. Micro Challenge Testing — This is a test in which you purposely introduce microbes into your batches, then watch the samples over time to see whether your preservative system is good enough to kill off the microbes. If it's not, you need to improve your preservation system. Contamination test — This is a test you need to do on every batch of product you sell! It is a simple matter of taking a sample and testing to see whether it is contaminated or not. If it's not, then proceed with packaging & distribution. If it is, don't sell it! Stability Testing Cosmetic stability testing is a study run to determine whether your product will last on store shelves and on your consumers bathroom counter. Stability testing is an important quality test that you need to run in order to sell your products in the US. It is also useful to ensure that when people do buy your product they won't be dissatisfied with a foul odor, ugly color, or separated formula. Safety Testing You can't sell a product that is not safe. If you do, you open yourself up to litigation which could pretty much ruin any fledgeling cosmetic manufacturer. Safety testing includes things like patch testing, eye irritation tests, and a host of other procedures that ensure consumers will not become serious ill after using your product. The amount of safety testing done depends on the type of product you are going to sell and how different the raw materials are. If you are making something that uses standard cosmetic raw materials, less testing would be needed than if you are using raw materials that are new to the cosmetic industry. Performance testing The type of performance testing or claims testing that you need to do depends on the specific advertising claims you're going to be making for your product. In the US you are bound by the rules of the FTC which state that you cannot promote false advertising. This means if you say your product is going to clean hair, you have to demonstrate that it...

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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 in the game. Sure, good players will win in the long run but during any given game, the lucky person wins. What does this have to do with cosmetic formulating? Well, to succeed in business you can develop all the skills you can (and you should work hard at it) but you are still going to need to be lucky. And while you can't magically make luck appear, there are some things you can do to improve your chances. Here are a dozen ways you can improve your chances of getting lucky and coming up with the idea or suggestion that leads to business success. A dozen ways to get lucky in business 1. Come up with a lot of ideas. The best way to ensure that you come up with a lucky idea is to come up with a ton of ideas. The more you have, the better your chances that one will hit it big. 2. Do something with your ideas. Ideas in a notebook or in your head are worthless. Do some work to move your idea forward. 3. Ready, fire, aim. Don't worry about making the perfect execution of your idea. Once you get an idea, create a crude prototype and show it off. You can fix it later. 4. Read old stuff. Everyone is reading the latest stuff but there are some great ideas that are sitting in old books forgotten. Dig up old reading material and see if it inspires some "new" unique idea. 5. Make friends with odd people. When you surround yourself with people who are just like you (and who doesn't) you end up hearing ideas that are just like the ones that you would come up with. Make friends and interact with people who are vastly different than you. This will help you develop or discover ideas that you never would have had on your own. 6. Take up odd, useless hobbies. You should have some hobby that is completely different than your job. This opens up a whole new avenue of thought for you and could lead to cross-over ideas. I've got a few odd hobbies, for example I take pictures of the number 44 whenever I see it. And of course, I'm a joggler. 7. Fail a lot. If you're not creating a lot of formulas that are failing, you're not being innovative enough. 8. "Borrow" ideas from anyone. In truth, the ancients came up with almost any idea that is worth doing. Everything else is just derivative. That doesn't mean derivative ideas can't be innovative and impressive. Don't be afraid to get ideas from people who are younger than you or those that don't know as much as you. 9. Ask for ideas. Sure you might be a prolific idea generator but you can create even more, unique ideas if you ask...

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Every industry has acronyms which are supposed to make communication easier. Unfortunately, for an industry newcomer, it seems like a foreign language. The following of cosmetic industry acronyms should help you decipher the cosmetic jargon. All the acronyms we could imagine are listed with their meanings. If you can think of any we missed, please leave a comment and we'll add it to the list. ACD Allergic contact dermatitis ACGIH American Conference of Governmental Industrial Hygienists ACS American Chemical Society AHA Alpha hydroxy acid ALES Ammonium Laureth Sulfate ALS Ammonium Lauryl Sulfate AMP Aminomethyl propanol APD Antiperspirant Deordorant ASTM American Standards of Testing Materials BHA Butylhydroxyanisole BHT Butylhydroxytoluene BOGO Buy One Get One CAS Chemical Abstract Service CD Cyclodextrin CERCLA Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act CFC Chloroflurocarbon CFR Code of Federal Regulation CI Color Index CIR Cosmetic Ingredient Review CMC Critical micelle concentration COLIPA European Cosmetic, Toiletry and Perfumery Association CTFA Cosmetics Toiletries & Fragrance Association CTPA Cosmetic Toiletries and Perfume Association DBMSA Dibenzaldehyde monosorbitol acetate DEA Diethanolamine DHA Dihydoxy acetone DME Dimethyl ether DMSO Dimethyl sulfoxide DOT Department of Transportation DOT Department of Transportation EDTA Ethylene Diamine Tetraacetic Acid EU European Union EWG Environmental Working Group FCAT Forearm controlled application technique FCC Food Chemicals Codex FD&C Food, Drug & Cosmetic FDA Food & Drug Administration FPLA Fair Packaging and Labeling Act FTC Federal Trade Commision FTIR Fourrier Transfer Infra Red GC Gas chromatograph GMP Good Manufacturing Procedures HDPE High Density poly ethylene HEC Hydroxyethyl Cellulose HLB Hydrophobe/Lipophobe Balance HMS Homosalate HPLC High Performance Liquid Chromatography HPMC Hydroxypropyl Methylcellulouse HUT Home Use Test ICD Irritant contact dermatitis ICMAD Independent Cosmetic Manufacturers and Distributors IFSCC International Federation of Societies of Cosmetic Chemists INCI International Nomenclature of Cosmetic Ingredients IR Infrared IUPAC International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry JCIA Japanese Cosmetic Industry Association LD-50 Lethal Dose 50% LDH Lactate Dehydrogenase LDPE Low density poly ethylene MA Maleic anhydride. MEA Methylethylamine MED Minimal erythemal dose MHW Ministry of Health and Welfare MSDS Material Safety Data Sheet NAD National Advertising Division NDA New Drug Application NF National Formulary NFPA National Fire Protection Association NIH National Institute of Health NMF Natural Moisturizing Factor NMR Nuclear Magnetic Resonance OH Hydroxyl Group OSHA Occupational Safety and Health Administration OTC Over The Counter (drug) OW Oil in water (emulsion) PABA Para amino benzoic acid PCA Pyrollidone carboxylic acid PCD Product category designation PCPC Personal Care Products Councle PEG Polyethylene Glycol PEL Permissible Exposure Limit PET Polyethylene Teraphthalate PG Propylene Glycol PIT Phase inversion temperature PPG Polypropylene Glycol PVC Polyvinyl Chloride PVM Polyvinyl Methylether PVP Polyvinyl Pyrollidone QA Quality Assurance QC Quality Control REACH Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemical Substances RIPT Repeat Insult Patch Test RTECS Registry of Toxic Effects of Chemical Substances SARA Search and Rescue Aid SCC Society of Cosmetic Chemists SCS Society of Cosmetic Scientists SLES Sodium Laureth Sulfate SLS Sodium Lauryl Sulfate SPF Sun Protection Factor TEA Triethanolamine TLV Threshold Limit Value TSCA Toxic Substances Control Act USP United States...

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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 to see the frequency at which certain compounds are used for cosmetic preservatives in the industry. Here is a list of the frequency of cosmetic preservatives from 2010 sorted from highest to lowest. I'll update it when I find new data. Methylparaben Propylparaben Phenoxyethanol Butylparaben Ethylparaben Isobutylparaben MIT - (Methylisothiazolinone) CMIT / MIT - (Chloromethylisothiazolinone) DMDM Hydantoin Imidazolidinyl Urea The primary replacement for parabens has been Phenoxyethanol. We'll see if that continues to grow in the coming years. Unlikely because it is not nearly as effective as parabens.

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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 in this patent. It was all about the process of how we went through some basic research to determine why colored hair fades and ways to prevent that from happening. It was fun to remember that time. While putting together the research I had to review the chemistry of hair colors. I noticed that we've never really written about that here on Chemists Corner so I figured now would be as good a time as any to do it. Types of hair color Natural hair color is the result of two types of melanin pigments, eumelanin which is responsible for the brown and black colors of hair and pheomelanin which creates the orange or blonde hues. Together, these two molecules are responsible for every hair color on the planet, except for the artificial ones or grey hair which is the absence of any pigment. There are a number of options for synthetic hair color and these are classified by the types of color molecules used and the length of time that they last. They include the following Temporary hair color Semi-permanent / demi-permanent hair color Permanent hair color Bleaching We'll go through each of these and explain how they work. Temporary hair color Temporary hair colors are ones that are meant to be applied and worn for only a short amount of time. They are great for occasions when you just want to try out a new color. They also have many more color options than you can get with most other hair colors. Here's a picture of when I tried a pink colored temporary hair color. The thing about temporary hair colors is that they only coat the surface of the hair (they can't penetrate) so they are easily removed with one or two shampooings. The colorants used are acid or basic dyes. Many of them are the same colorants used for food. Acid dyes are more easily removed because they are less compatible with hair. Basic dyes may be slightly more substantive but they too a readily removed. Semi-permanent hair color Semi-permanent hair colors can penetrate the surface of the hair into the cuticle layer. These products will last for a few more washings than temporary colors but they too will eventually be washed out. The vast majority of dyes used for semipermanent colors include nitrophenylenediamines, nitroaminophenols and aminoanthraquinones. The first two compounds create yellow to violet colors while the last provides violet to blue hues. Semi-permanent hair colors work great for people who just want to experiment with a new color. They also work well for grey hair coverage. One of the challenges for semi-permanent colors is that they do not completely cover the natural hair color so this tends to limit the color pallet that is available for the consumer. That also means hair is not as damaged but it's a...

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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 Jonah Berger was relayed and it struck me as relevant to cosmetic formulators. Figure out how to show people the benefits rather than tell them Cosmetic product benefits The first step to showing people the benefits of your cosmetic formulation is to figure out just what those benefits are. This can be tricky because product benefits are not always obvious. It's much easier to come up with product features and people often mistake the two. Product benefits are the perceived value or advantage that a consumer derives from using your product. Product features are descriptions of the actual product (e. g. color, size, price, etc). When you are trying to market your product or idea, it is always best to focus on the product/idea benefits. So how do you identify the benefits of your product? A typical way is to list all the features of your product then answer the question... So what? Skin lotion example If you are formulating a skin lotion and want to figure out the benefits, first list the features. For example, a skin lotion might have the following features Appealing fragrance Thick lotion Moisturizes skin Lasts for 24 hours White lotion Pump delivery system Then answer the question "so what? " Appealing fragrance - Makes you feel happy when you smell it Thick lotion - Does not make a mess you try to apply it Moisturizes skin - Makes you skin feel better Lasts for 24 hours - You won't have to apply it as frequently White lotion - Will not stain clothes or your skin Pump delivery system - You don't have to think about how much to use When you are marketing your product, always explain the benefits of any feature. But as the speaker's quote who started this post suggests, showing your product benefits is better than just telling what your product benefits are. How do you show a benefit? Showing a product benefit is done in a number of ways which depends on how you are communicating with your consumer. If you are face to face with a consumer you can show the benefit by giving a demonstration of the effect. For example, this commercial gives a great demonstration of the benefit of the product. http://www. youtube. com/watch? v=dzmTtusvjR4 "Softens hands while you do the dishes" - The consumer actually soaks their hand in the dishwashing liquid. If you are face to face with a consumer you can engage the sense of smell, touch, sound, as well as sight. But in most cases you will be communicating via some audio/visual medium like television, magazines, or the Internet. For this you will have to come up with demonstrations to show your benefit. For example, when I was working on a technology to stop hair color from fading, we came up with a demonstration involving three tresses that...

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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 they could make their own line. It seems so easy when you already know how to formulate products. But there is more to creating a successful cosmetic line than simply creating excellent formulations. To create a successful cosmetic product you need to create a cosmetic brand. Cosmetic brand review In this series we'll go through different cosmetic brands and examine different elements that make the brand unique. This will include a look at the packaging, positioning, claims, products and the formulas. Hopefully, this kind of review will inspire you to create your own unique cosmetic brand. And be sure to see our free report if you want to start your own cosmetic line. Incidentally, this kind of exercise is inherently subjective and if someone else did it they might come to different conclusions. Brand overview - Old Spice I picked Old Spice because I recently heard that they were launching a new hair care line so they were top of mind. They also have a pretty specific brand message and target audience so it is easier to do. When I first got into the cosmetic industry, Old Spice was pretty much a dead brand. Launched first in 1937, it was perceived as being something for "old people. " It was the kind of brand my dad would use. There was nothing cool about it at all. We had this same problem when I was working on the VO5 shampoo brand. But the marketing wizzes at P&G made some significant changes around 2008 and they were able to transform the stodgy old brand into a hip, cool brand. They were help a lot by embracing online social media and getting some funny commercials to go viral. Old Spice brand position Old Spice is a brand of personal care products that is targeted to men in age range from 25 - 45. They skew a little older than Axe (another man-focused brand) and have taken a significantly different advertising strategy. Instead of appealing to young men who seem solely interested in attracting women, Old Spice goes for a more aspirational strategy presenting a cool man that other men might want to emulate. This has the added advantage of having advertising that appeals to women who make most of the purchasing decisions in households anyway. Pretty smart move by P&G. One of their tag lines is even directed towards women "The man your man could smell like. " Old Spice brand elements The thing that comes to mind when people hear the words "Old Spice" is the color red. It is a color that has been associated with the brand since it was first introduced. If you are trying to launch your own brand focused on the men's market, choosing red as your color is probably not a good idea. Old Spice pretty much has this color taken,...

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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 refers to the concentration of H+ ions in a solution. Since skin is a solid, it makes no sense that it has a pH. Solids do not have pH's. Skin mantle Although my initial reaction is correct, that's not going to stop people from talking about the skin pH and the importance of making cosmetics that are "pH balanced. " So, if skin does not have a pH what could people be talking about when they say skin pH? It turns out the pH of skin really refers to the pH of the acid mantle on the outer layer of the skin. In fact, the way that the pH of skin is measured is by using a flat pH electrode, which is placed directly on the skin after putting a drop of deionized water on it. The acid mantle is a thin layer coating on skin comprised of sweat and sebum. It has a pH range from 4. 5 - 6. 2 and is helpful in providing a suitable environment for good bacteria to grow while killing other microorganisms. The skin pH is affected by a number of things including your genetic makeup, age, skin moisture, the amount you sweat and the environment. It is also affected by things like the application of cosmetics, detergents, water exposure, and occlusive wrappings (like bandages). Certain skin diseases such as contact dermatitis, acne, and ichthyosis can also have an effect on skin pH. The fact that some skin diseases tend to raise the pH of the skin acid mantle suggests that a suitable treatment for these conditions might be the use of products that have lower pH's (like pH 3. 5 - 4. 5). Skin mantle and cosmetic formulating While you won't be able to completely protect the skin acid mantle when formulating skin cleansing products, it is a good idea to create products that are slightly acidic so you minimize the damage your products are doing. This is why cleansers should be formulated in a range of 4. 0 - 6. 0 and even moisturizing lotions should be formulated on the acidic side.

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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 Lauder in Toronto. http://www. youtube. com/watch? v=hdd39lE9-_g Also, if you are curious about what a cosmetic chemist does, see this list of cosmetic chemist tasks.

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Here's a video I put together some time back. I've finally restored it since the crash. http://www. youtube. com/watch? v=5qJ81qCEI1k

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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 from San Francisco State University researchers men were found to be more attracted to women wearing pheromones in their perfume which resulted in more dates, kisses, cuddles and even sex. Pheromones Pheromones are a type of compound that allows animals to chemically communicate with each other. They are versatile chemicals that help ants figure out how to get home, that let dogs mark their territory and that let mammals know when to mate. The word pheromone comes from the Greek words pherin, to transfer, and hormone, to excite. Pheromones are similar to hormones but instead of working within the body, they work between bodies. How do they work? The chemical communication of pheromones is simple. One animal (or human) releases the pheromone and another senses it. In essence, the behavior of the sensing animal is controlled by the pheromone releaser. In mammals, pheromones are detected by an organ called vomeronasal organ (VMO) which is located somewhere in the head between the nose and mouth. Pheromones are a bit like odor molecules but they have a much different effect. So do pheromones really work? Well, if pheromones really worked it would mean that controlling the behavior of people would be simple. If you wanted someone to fall in love with you, you could simply spray some pheromones whenever they’re around. Fortunately, human behavior is a bit more complicated than that. It is still debated among scientists whether pheromones have an effect or not. These researchers demonstrated that women actually saw an increase in sociosexual activity when wearing perfume that contained pheromones. The impressive part of this research was that it was compared to a placebo control. But one study (of 36 women) isn’t enough to substantiate these incredible claims. Other researchers have looked at all the human pheromone data and the results are inconclusive. Yes, pheromones are real. Yes, they may have some physiological effect. But how much pheromones change behavior is still unclear. On a different day I’d be more skeptical on this one, but what the hell, Happy Valentines Day!

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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 sulfonates and sulfosuccinates as well). Here are the ingredients on their unacceptable list that I’ll discuss. Ammonium Laureth Sulfate Ammonium Lauryl Sulfate Ammonium Xylene Sulfonate C12-14 Olefin Sulfonate Disodium Laureth Sulfosuccinate Disodium Oleamido Sulfosuccinate Myristyl Ether Sulfate Sodium Cetearyl Sulfate Sodium Coco Sulfate Sodium Cocoyl Sulfate Sodium Dodecylbenzene Sulfonate Sodium Lauryl Sulfate Sodium Laureth Sulfate Sodium Myreth Sulfate Sodium Trideceth Sulfate TEA-Lauryl Sulfate Olefin Sulfonate Sodium C14-16 Olefin Sulfonate Dioctyl Sodium Sulfosuccinate Laureth Sulfosuccinate Sulfosuccinates Sulfosuccinates Here are the sulfosuccinates they chose to include on the list: Disodium Laureth Sulfosuccinate Disodium Oleamido Sulfosuccinate Dioctyl Sodium Sulfosuccinate Laureth Sulfosuccinate Based on what we now know about how the list was created, it looks like they had few suppliers using the ingredients in their products, and most likely for a good reason. They tend to hydrolyze over time so products made with them have limited stability. I’m not saying you can’t make a stable product with them, but it’s more difficult. Now let’s get to the problems with the list. A whopping three out of the four products aren’t proper INCI designations. Disodium Oleamido MEA Sulfosuccinate and Disodium Oleamido MIPA Sulfosuccinate and Disodium Oleamido PEG-2 Sulfosuccinate are all proper INCI names. The ones on their list are not. It’s also funny to note that they said Disodium Laureth Sulfosuccinate isn’t a proper INCI, but it is. Maybe they just put the message next to the wrong ingredient. They appear on the list one after the other. Could just be a clerical error. Dioctyl Sodium Sulfosuccinate should be Diethylhexyl Sodium Sulfosuccinate. The INCI designation changed on that product years ago. This could be a little nit-picky, but it should be changed. Laureth Sulfosuccinate apparently doesn’t need a counterion. Again, it is an improper INCI and should be removed from the list. Or they can keep listing all the ways you can screw this one up too. Bottom line with these is if you want to formulate with a sulfosuccinate, then go ahead and use any of the several dozen not on the list, which include things like Disodium Lauryl Sulfosuccinate and Ammonium Laureth Sulfosuccinate. Just changing out the counterion, fatty portion, and ethoxylation you can come up with a whole host of ones to use. Also, there are several amido types available. Sulfonates Here’s the list of sulfonates. Ammonium Xylene Sulfonate C12-14 Olefin Sulfonate Sodium Dodecylbenzene Sulfonate Olefin Sulfonate Sodium C14-16 Olefin Sulfonate They did better than 25% of proper INCI designation here vs. the sulfosuccinates. Only two are incorrect. C12-14 Olefin Sulfonate is missing the counterion, a common problem with the list overall. Olefin Sulfonate is missing the above, plus any indication of the carbon chain lengths. To get around these restrictions, I suppose you could use the proper INCI name that they got wrong in Sodium C12-14 Olefin Sulfonate, or use a different chain like Sodium...

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Last Friday I had the opportunity to speak with a group of high school / college students about the topic of cosmetic chemistry. I like doing talks like this as I don't have to get too technical and I can focus on inspiring people to become cosmetic chemists. It was the kind of talk I wish I had heard when I was in school. In your career, it is likely that you will have the chance to give talks. This doesn't come easy to everyone and I've seen plenty of talks that were uncomfortable for both the audience and the speaker. We've previously written on the topic of giving good scientific presentations so I encourage you to go read those excellent posts. But I recently read this article which had some great tips on giving great presentations. In sum, they include... 1. Be yourself 2. Tell stories 3. Practice 4. Socialize 5. Brevity So, how do these apply to cosmetic chemists? On being yourself As a cosmetic chemist we often specialize in a small area of the subject. Don't pretend you are an expert in all areas. You're audience might expect you to be (and you should have a good general knowledge of things) but if you try to pretend you're an expert, you'll often come off as fake and lose credibility. If someone asks you a question and you don't know, just say you don't know. Be yourself. On telling stories Sometimes people give too much data and statistics during scientific lectures. I know it's important to include this information but you should also put the information in context. Use a story to tell why it is important. For example, when you are explaining an experiment you ran begin with the story of why you were doing it in the first place. I frequently talk about this technology I stumbled on for locking color into hair. It was the result of me trying to find a quicker way to wash hair tresses and involved soaking the hair in large bottles of water. Stories are more relatable than data. They are also more entertaining. On practicing Admittedly, I don't practice my talks very often. But I do try to be familiar with every slide and the general order in which they are going to show up. Practice if you have time but if you don't at the very least be familiar with all your slides. On socializing When you're giving a talk, it is helpful to meet some of the people in the audience before you talk. This will give you someone to talk to during your presentation. It will also make you more likable. On brevity Never run long. Even if you are a great speaker and have an incredibly interesting topic, the moment you start to go long people will begin to look at their watch and lose interest. In the beginning of your talk tell people how long you will speak. Then stick to it! If you...

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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 chemicals in cosmetics and that you should avoid products that contain them. Of course, actual science tells a different story and a review of all the scientific evidence by the independent scientists of the EU's Scientific Committee on Consumer Safety (SCCS) indicates that parabens in cosmetics are harmless. If you want some more in-depth disucssion of the specifics of the safety of parabens in cosmetics, I encourage you to read this excellent series of articles on parabens. However, as a cosmetic formulator, manufacturer, or marketer the science often doesn't matter. It is the perception of an ingredient that matters. Often parabens are avoided simply because people believe that consumers overwhelmingly want to avoid chemicals like parabens. If you confine your information to what you've read on the Internet or saw on social media you certainly could get the impression that everyone believes parabens are dangerous. But is that really what people believe? While I was giving a talk about cosmetics at a college last week I brought up the subject of preservatives and parabens and something interesting happened. No one knew what I was talking about. Not a single person in the 30+ person audience had heard the notion that parabens were dangerous. In fact, no one had heard the term "Parabens" at all. Was this reflective of the general consumer or was this an anomoly? I didn't know but decided to look into it. Afterall, if most consumers are afraid of parabens and will avoid buying products that contain them, it might make sense for people to avoid using them. However, if only a small percentage of consumers have heard of them, is there really any point to avoiding them? From a formulator's standpoint parabens are a superior preservative to most other options. Google Trends One of the things to look at when investigating the popularity of something is to go to Google trends and see what people have been searching for over time. If you look at the term "Parabens" it appears to have seen an increase since 2004 and is currently nearly at a high for Internet interest. Note, this does not indicate what kind of searches people are doing but just that the term parabens was used in the query. But if you compare this to the term "make up" you'll see that there are 16 times as much interest in "make up" than parabens. Back in 2006 there was about 15 times as much interest in "make up" as there was in "parabens" so it doesn't seem to have changed much relative to an interest in makeup. Of course, if you look at the serach term "surfactants" it was tied with parabens back in 2004, but is now 25 times as popular as the search term surfactant. The bottom line is that from the Google data, the term 'paraben' is...

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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. There is such a huge consumer demand and people already spend billions of dollars a year on products that (for most people) do not work. The reality is that it's highly unlikely that any topical baldness treatment will work. The body is just too complicated and the reasons for hair loss is due to hair follicle cells ceasing to work. Any topical treatment would have to penetrate the skin (unlikely) and somehow revive cells that aren't working any more. The cells are most likely permanently turned off so even if you could get the product to the cells, it's unlikely to have much effect. However, this type of technology is more promising. Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania have managed to convert adult cells into epithelia stem cells. If this type of technology could be developed into a full-blown treatment the way it would work is that scientists would take a cell sample from somewhere in your body, grow them up into a full colony, convert them to hair stem cells and transplant them where you want hair. Not a cosmetic for sure, but a potential "cure" for baldness. Interesting.

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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 moment. If you're like most scientists in this industry, a number of your projects will be dull rehashings of previously created formulas. You'll spend lots of time swapping out a fragrance or color or tweaking a surfactant. It's rare that you ever get to make a truly new formulation. But that doesn't mean you shouldn't think of new ideas and try them out. This is what is your primary value as a cosmetic chemist. You don't need a chemistry degree to remove one color and add a different one. However, being a trained scientist will help you identify problems and think up new solutions for them. Always be coming up with ideas and inventing Philosophy on Ideas Here's an example of a new idea which you can feel free to steal or make yourself. I am a firm believer in the idea that no one owns an idea and that if you have a good one it is your obligation to share it with the universe. If someone else is able to make it happen when you couldn't, well, at least the idea became something which helps the rest of the world. It saddens me to think of all the great ideas that people took with them to their graves just because they were afraid someone would steal their idea. No one is going to steal your idea. They are too in love with their own ideas. Skin Cream and Sleep Alright, in the spirit of sharing ideas here's one that I thought about after reading this research done by Estee Lauder regarding skin aging and sleep. Create a overnight skin lotion that helps people sleep better. You could add different aromas which impact sleep. Partnering with the Smell and Taste Institute might help in identifying these odor. You could also make a warming sensation which typically is associated with sleep. Then the rest of the product marketing could all be geared towards encouraging sleep. Point to the skin aging and sleep studies and viola! You've got a niche anti-aging overnight cream. Of course, as with nearly all ideas in the cosmetic world, someone has already thought of it as you can see by the picture in this post. However, just because someone has already done an idea doesn't mean that they've done a good job of it. That just means it's an idea that is good enough to launch. People keep opening new restaurant even though there are thousands already out there right? You need to take the idea and make it your own. Make the execution of the idea special. Do a better job with the idea than the people who have already done it. Ideas don't have to be unique but idea execution does. In truth, I'm not sure I'm buying the sleep / aging skin link. There are just so...

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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 of creating this list for Whole Foods. It was a nice conversation and we were both able to explain our positions about the list. She also explained how the list was created. It has been a while since we spoke, but I’ll try to recall to the best of my ability the key points. I know she’s reading the blog and can also comment if I get anything wrong. I also went the other route and put the question about betaine inconsistencies to their customer service group. I’ll start by posting the canned response from them: Hello, We do allow betaines as part of our Premium Body Care standard, so long as the supplier is able to provide documentation showing that these ingredients are made from a renewable source. In general, the process of crafting Premium Body Care entailed evaluating the personal care ingredients on our shelves one by one, screening them for their source, safety, environmental impact, and efficacy. Premium Body Care is unique to Whole Foods Market, and each ingredient has a rationale for its status. For additional information, please see: Premium Body Care Standards List Creation Basically, the list was created by taking every product in body care and reviewing the LOIs ingredient-by-ingredient. From there, they made a spreadsheet and made a call on every ingredient. It should be noted the person I spoke to was a nutritionist, not a chemist. She did inform me they consulted actual chemists when making the list. They also are under pressure from non-science based watchdog organizations like the Environmental Working Group, and considered their ratings when deciding what would or would not be acceptable. I was forwarded the full list with every reviewed ingredient. The list on their website is just the ones that were labeled “unacceptable”. When I brought up inconsistencies on certain things that I already mentioned in my previous posts here, here & here, the best answer I got was they made a judgment call. Premium Body Care vs Body Care I was also reminded that products can be formulated with the ingredients as long as they meet the lower standard, they just don’t get the “Premium Body Care” designation. I said I know of no formulators making products that don’t conform to the Premium standard. Why would they? INCI Adherence I also brought up that they went out of their way to call out products that were just plain spelled wrong and put them on the list (e. g. Thiotic Acid), yet they are allowing products on the shelf that have ingredients listings with things like “organic coconut oil” and “organic rosemary extract”. Once you say the word organic on a label it no longer conforms to the INCI designation. I didn’t get a good answer for this question. I hope they address this with their suppliers in the future. Honestly...

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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 Modeling to Predict the Effect of Formulation Composition on Conditioning Shampoo Performance" explains how researchers were able to use a mathematical model to optimize shampoo formulations for the deposition of conditioning polymers. Method summary Basically, the researchers created a basic shampoo formulation with water and varying levels of three surfactants, Sodium Lauryl Ether Sulfate (SLES), Sodium lauryl Sulfate (SLS), and Cocamidopropyl betaine. They also included cationic polymers including cassia derivatives, guar, and hydroxyethyl cellulose. Using various prototypes, they were able to demonstrate the effect of different parameters on the deposition of the polymer on hair. They measured polymer deposition using a Direct Red 80 dye colorimetric test. That's a pretty standard test of cationic deposition. Research summary It turned out there were three primary factors that influenced the amount of conditioning. This included Surfactant amount - less surfactant resulted in more deposition Micelle charge - Increase micelle charge lead to more deposition Ionic strength - Higher the ionic strength of the polymer, the more deposition Interesting work. So, if you are formulating a cleansing product and want to have more deposition of your conditioning ingredients, use less surfactant and a higher charged polymer.

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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 burns but I could see how this could be adapted to creating youthful skin for people who are dissatisfied with their wrinkles. Maybe in the future rather than getting face lifts, people will just be getting their own skin stem cells sprayed onto their face. https://www. youtube. com/watch? v=eXO_ApjKPaI It's a very cool technology. The inventor says it's like paint spraying. They take the patients own stem cells and spray it onto the arm. The whole procedure takes only 90 minutes. Amazing. I wonder how long it will take for this to be tested for cosmetic procedures.

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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 an electrical engineering degree from Rutgers and has been allied with the cosmetic industry for over 18 years. Interview begins at 12:18 Valdata Systems website Cosmetic Science News New light bulbs may damage skin. Consumer groups against animal testing. Beauty From Within trend being put to the test Cosmetic Science To become an expert cosmetic chemist, it is not enough to learn the science of cosmetic raw materials and which ones are compatible or not. Indeed, this information is criticial but another part of the cosmetic formulator job is just as important. Evaluating your prototypes. Evaluating cosmetic prototypes We’ve previously written about the importance of trying your own formulations. However, we did not get into the details of what to observe while doing that. Here is a system that you can follow which will help make you a formula evaluation expert. Step 1 – Pick a benchmark It is almost never the case that you will be working on a product that is completely new to the market. There is always a market leader that you should be comparing yourself to. This can be a competitive product or one of your own formulations. You just need to pick some product as a starting point. This is the thing you are trying to beat. If you’re looking for a benchmark, it is always a good idea to look at sales information and see which ones consumers are buying most often. This is a good place to start. Step 2 – Develop your baseline skills In 2005, I believe that I had the most shampooed head in America. That year I was working on a new shampoo formula and a conditioner formula. I washed my hair over 1500 times. Yikes! While I did develop some redness and an itchy scalp, I always developed keen senses to differences between formulations. To be able to tell differences you have to experience the products. Each formulation will be different and you may want to focus on some specific aspect however, there are some general things to start noticing. For hair products the most important characteristics include... 1. Rinse time – how long is takes to be reomved from hair 2. Flash foam – how fast the foam forms 3. Lather feel – does the lather feel creamy or loose 4. Feel in hair – how does the product feel in the hair 5. Spreadability – how easy is it to move through hair 6. After feel – what does hair feel like after using it 7. Dry feel – when hair dries how does it feel 8. Lasting feel – how does hair feel later in the day For skin products... 1. Rub in time – how long it takes to disappear 2. Greasiness – how does it feel on skin 3. Tackiness – does skin feel sticky 4. Overall...

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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 bit annoying because it's completely misleading. There aren't stem cells in the product no matter what this company claims about their skin cream. How can I say that with such confidence? All you have to do is know a little about the science of stem cells and it becomes clear. So let's talk about stem cells. Stem Cells Stem cells are living cells that are undifferentiated. They're a bit like the cells that start every embryo when the sperm and egg cells fuse. They contain all the DNA information to make an entire human being (or plant or other animal depending on the species). When embryos start to grow, most of their cells differentiated into things like skin cells, brain cells, heart cells, and all the other different organs in your body. While the cells in your skin have all the DNA material of the cells in your liver, the DNA code is expressed differently so you end up getting the different organs. Stem cells do not differentiate in this way. They maintain their potential to become any type of organ. They also have an unlimited ability to divide and live. Most differentiated human cells can only divide about 50 generations before they die. They are subject to the Hayflick limit and have a built-in program that kills them off. Scientists theorize this prevents cancer. Anti aging stem cells But Stem cells, are not restricted as such. That's why they are so promising for curing diseases or regrowing organs. Imagine if you could take some of your own skin stem cells and grow new patches of your own skin from them in a lab. You could use that skin to cover scars or other tissue damage. You could even get rid of wrinkles or signs of aging skin. It's this potential that makes them a promising treatment for antiaging products. It's also a misunderstanding of this potential that has duped consumers and inspired marketers to desire stem cells to be put into their skin care formulations. If a stem cell could reverse aging, why wouldn't you do it? I'll tell you why. Because stem cells only work if they are living. And living stem cells are not being put into these skin creams. If they were, they would have to have a special growth medium and be kept at a specific temperature. They would need to be refreshed with food too. Stem cell containing creams are not created as such. At best you have a cream filled with dead stem cells that have no potential to do anything. Plant stem cells Plant stem cells in a skin cream is even more baffling to me. These are stem cells that come from plants and have the potential to grow stems, leaves, fruits, etc. Why would anyone think that a plant stem cell is going to...

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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 the entire series. The first volume was published in 1933. It's fascinating to look at these old formulation books for a number of reasons. It's cool to have an old book from 1933 It's interesting to see the names for the chemicals they used. This was prior to the INCI nomenclature system The types of formulas they list are interesting Just the way they list the formulas is cool. It's like having an old cooking recipe book Old time cosmetic formulas Let's take a look at a formula. Here is one for a Freckles Treatment Alcohol - 4 oz. Stronger Rose Water - 2 oz. Tincture of Benzoin - 15 dr. Directions: Apply every night after scrubbing. I would be interested to make some of these formulas but it will be a challenge. First, I'd have to figure out what all the ingredients are. For example, I have no idea what is "stronger rose water" or "tincture of benzoin". Luckily, there is Google. Stronger Rose Water is a monographed ingredient in the US Pharmacopeia and is a "saturated solution of the odiferous principles of the flowers of Rosa Centifolia. And the Tincture of Benzoin is Benzoin resin in alcohol. That is the power of Google. 15 years ago it would have taken much longer to figure out what those ingredients are. The next step would be to get samples of those raw materials. It turns out there are a number of suppliers of Benzoin. You can also find suppliers for stronger rose water. Does it work? I have no idea how effective the formula would be. I'm guessing not very. If an old formula was effective, it would still be in use today right? Or maybe there is some old forgotten technology that wasn't optimized and this might be worth trying out. Maybe I'll spend some time tracking down ingredients and attempt to make some of these old time cosmetic formulas. It could be fun.

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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 Limit idea. https://www. youtube. com/watch? v=jqCo-McgHLw

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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 degree in chemistry is not required to be an excellent formulator, there are some chemistry concepts that can make your formulating efforts much easier. In this post, we are going to talk about Solubility and how it impacts your formulating efforts. Solubility Definition Definition: The property of a raw material to dissolve in another substance. Typically, when people talk about solubility they mean the tendency for a raw material to dissolve in water. In reality, all materials are soluble in water, they just vary in the amount that can be dissolved. But from a practical standpoint when only a tiny amount of a substance (less than 0. 1 g in 100 mL of water) will dissolve we consider it “insoluble. ” Most oils and silicones are insoluble in water which means that when you mix them, they separate into different layers. Materials that are soluble in water will dissolve to a much greater extent. These include things like salts, sugars, and alcohol. The degree to which something is soluble depends on numerous factors related to the raw material and the characteristics of the system. Why cosmetic formulators need to know Solubility is an important concept to understand because it will allow you to more quickly know which materials can be used together as is and which will need emulsifiers to make them compatible. Basically, if you know the solubility characteristics of a material you will be a faster, better formulator. Factors that affect solubility As we said, there are a number of factors that affect solubility. These include the molecular structure of a raw material, the concentration, the temperature and the pressure. Molecular structure – The molecular bonds within a substance has a big influence on how much of a substance will dissolve in another. The general rule is that “like dissolves like. ” Therefore, since water is a polar molecule other molecules that are polar will readily dissolve. Salt crystals are composed of ionic bonds so they dissolve and sugar is made up of polar bonds so it dissolves. Oils are made up of nonpolar bonds so they don't tend to dissolve in water. Here are some simple rules for cosmetic formulators. 1. Raw materials with sodium, potassium, and ammonium will be soluble 2. Nitrates, chlorates, perchlorates, and acetates will be soluble 3. Chlorides and Bromides will be soluble 4. Most sulfates are soluble 5. Hydroxide materials are insoluble except those containing sodium, calcium & barium 6. Non-polar materials like oils and silicones are insoluble Temperature – As you can imagine, temperature affects the degree to which a material will be soluble. Typically, if you heat a solid or liquid up, it will become more soluble. This is why most formulations are heated. It just makes things go faster. Pressure – This has a big impact on solubility but only for gases. It has...

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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 formula that I used to work on. I've removed all of the superfluous things and stuck to the ingredients that are critical for making the product. VO5 NORMAL SHAMPOO Ingredients: Water, Sodium Lauryl Sulfate, Cocamidopropyl Betaine, Ammonium Chloride, Sodium Laureth Sulfate, Fragrance, DMDM Hydantoin, Citric Acid, Tetrasodium EDTA, Yellow 6 (CI 15985), Sodium Chloride Water The bulk of this (and almost all other shampoos) is water. In fact, it probably makes up 80-90% of the formula. When you make a shampoo you can take the water right from the city water supply. You may have to run it through a deionizer but if your city has decent water, that's where you'll get it. VO5 shampoo was made primarily in Melrose Park, IL so the water used to make it came from Lake Michigan. Source: Lakes, rivers, underground aquifers, & any where else you might get fresh water Sodium Lauryl Sulfate This detergent is what makes the shampoo clean. We've previous talked about surfactant science so I'll focus on where this ingredient comes from. To create Sodium Lauryl Sulfate (SLS) you need to do the following reactions. 1. Lauryl alcohol + sulfuric acid ------> hydrogen lauryl sulfate 2. Hydrogen lauryl sulfate + Sodium carbonate ------> Sodium lauryl sulfate So, to make this detergent you need 3 starting materials including, Lauryl Alcohol, Sulfuric Acid, and Sodium Carbonate. To get Lauryl Alcohol you start with an oil either a petrochemical or Coconut Oil. You distill out the C12 molecules and then run those through a high pressure hydrogrenation reaction to produce the lauryl alcohol. To get Sulfuric Acid you need to start with Sulfur (mined somewhere), burn it to produce Sulfur Dioxide, then oxidize it in the presence of a Vanadium Oxide catalyst to produce Sulfur Trioxide. That material is dissolved in water to get Sulfuric Acid. Sodium Carbonate is directly mined. The United States and Turkey have large deposits of the stuff. Source: Coconuts and mined materials. Cocamidopropyl Betaine This is a secondary surfactant that helps thicken the system, make the foam a bit more creamy, and reduce the irritation potential of the main detergents. To make it you have to start with Coconut oil again. Coconut oil is fractionated to remove the Lauric Acid. This is reacted with Dimethylaminopropylamine which comes from Dimethylamine (obtained from a reaction between Methanol and Ammonia) and Acrylonitrile (produced from a reaction between ammonia and propylene). The result is further reacted with Chloroacetic acid (made from Hydrocholoric acid and Acetic Acid) to make Cocamidopropyl Betaine. Sources: Conconuts, mined materials, fermented materials Ammonium Chloride This is the primary salt which helps to thicken the formula. It is obtained as a byproduct from the creation of Sodium Carbonate. The materials needed include Carbon Dioxde (air), Ammonia (air), Salt (mined) and water. CO2 + 2 NH3 + 2 NaCl + H2O → 2 NH4Cl...

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J&J seems pleased with themselves for capitulating to fear mongering groups and reformulating their iconic J&J Baby Shampoo. We previously wrote about why caving to fear mongering groups is a bad thing so I won't talk about that now. What I wanted to talk about was the formulation process by which J&J changed their formula. Start with a formulation goal According to the NY Times article, J&J had a specific goal in reformulating their product. Remove formaldehyde, reduce 1,4 Dioxane levels and make the changes invisible While this seems like a straightforward goal, we're talking about a formula that has been on the market, unchanged for decades. This has the potential to be as significant as changing the formula for Coca Cola. A mistake could be disastrous for the brand. Undoubtedly, they had to run numerous consumer home use tests to demonstrate that there was no noticeable difference in the new formula versus the old. Keep changes minimal If you look at the ingredient list from the formula they started with to the one they ended up with, there are very few changes. These include Removal of Quaternium-15 (preservative) Addition of Phenoxyethanol, Sodium Benzoate, & Ethylhexylglycerin (preservative) Addition of Glycerin (for feel? ) Addition of Potassium Acrylates Copolymer (for thickening) Swap Yellow 6 for Orange 4 dye Apparently, when they swapped out the Quaternium-15 preservative system with the PSE system, that caused the formula to drop in viscosity. To fix that problem they had to add the Acrylates Copolymer. And fixing that may have caused the product to feel a little different so they added some Glycerin. I'm skeptical the Glycerin would do much but perhaps it could affect the way the product feels in your hand. The dye change was probably the result of a color change caused by the other substitutions. But you can see it wasn't such a simple task to modify the preservative. Test to ensure parity After 2 years of work by 200+ people, they finally came up with a prototype that met the goal and was not noticeable by consumers. To ensure parity they probably followed a three step process. First, match the performance of key characteristics in lab tests (like foaming, viscosity, color match, etc). Second, conduct small 10 - 15 person panel tests to ensure that the formulas look, feel and perform the same. Lastly, conduct a full 200+ person consumer home use test with the best performing prototypes. Of course, this is usually not good enough to convince upper management that a change will be unnoticeable. The final final step is to give samples to the higher ups in a blinded fashion and get their blessing. I don't really agree with the decision that J&J made to cave in to pressure from consumer groups and change their perfectly safe formulas to a slightly different, but perfectly safe formula. However, it did employ the efforts of over 200 people for the last 2 years and that seems like a good thing. Unfortunately,...

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I have personal care products that I haven't opened for a few years. These are mostly hair styling products that I got for free and have never got around to using. It takes me a long time to go through a hair styling product. This experience demonstrates a way that consumers might behave and it suggests that you need to think about it when deciding whether your products are stable enough. Stability testing We have previous written about stability testing of cosmetics. In that article, our advice was that you should shoot for making formulas that last at least a year. And we stand behind that advice. Most cosmetic products can not be expected to remain "fresh" for more than a year. I came across this article that gave expiration dates for cosmetic products. Here is what they suggest. While I'm not sure this is what is necessary, this is what at least some consumers will expect. Less than a year stability Products that are in small packages (like packets) or have a high level of anti-oxidants in them can not be reasonably expected to be stable for very long. According to the guidelines being given to consumers, 3 months to a year is all that should be expected for these products. They say anti-acne products also but that anti-acne products are a monographed OTC which are required to have an expiration date on them. So products are good up to at least the expiration date. The following products need around 6 months of stability Eye products - mascara, eye liner Anti-aging products (with antioxidants) One Year Most products should be stable for a year when you're formulating. Users expect the following products to last about a year. Nail polish Bath oil Sunscreen Anti-dandruff shampoo More than one year While most companies will only guarantee that their products will be stable for a year, consumers expect the following products to last longer. Fortunately, these things are typically used up prior to a year. Hair products - shampoo, conditioner, styling products Shower gel Skin lotion Lipstick Foundation Perfume Shaving cream Bar soap If you're formulating cosmetic products it's helpful to know the expectations of your consumers. Hopefully, this list will help you in your future formulating efforts.

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Cosmetic formulators have long used ingredients from nature to make products. Some of the more common ingredients include Lanolin, Milk, Honey, and Musk. Then there are things like Gelatin, fish scales, ground up insect shells, and even placental protein. However, using animal derived ingredients these days is mostly frowned on. Of course, not all animal based or inspired ingredients are the same. Here are three recent cosmetic ingredients inspired by animals that can be found in cosmetic products. Spider silk protein Using proteins similar to the ones found in spider silk, this company has come up with an ingredient that is supposed to offer a truly “functional” silk protein for your formulation. Not sure how this would perform any different than other silk proteins and no evidence is provided. Sounds like they're just spinning a line to me. Snake venom Capitalizing on the notion that injecting your face with a toxic material like Botox provides beneficial effects, this company has created “syn-ake” a material similar to snake venom. They say that the venom like compound gives anti-aging effects that are better than Botox. Better than Botox? Right. Can anyone say snake in the grass? Bee venom Not to be out done by the snake venom companies, some brands have incorporated bee venom in their cosmetics. The idea is that topically applying bee venom will fool the body into thinking it has been stung. This will cause skin to puff up a little and reduce wrinkles. Sure it will. But you know what they say... beauty is in the eye of the bee-holder. Cosmetic marketers are constantly looking for new stories to sell products that generally work about the same. These ingredients certainly provide clever stories which may prompt people to buy, but whether they make substantial improvements over the anti-aging products that already exist, I find that hard to bee-lieve.

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Well, here's the latest entry into the online cosmetic chemical database world. (California Safe Cosmetic Product Database). This follows sites like the industry supported Cosmetic Ingredient Review database and the junk science based Skin Deep Database. The California Safe Cosmetics act compels companies that make cosmetics to report any cosmetics products that contain ingredients known or suspected to cause cancer, birth defects, or other reproductive harm. This database collects that information and makes it available to the public. The database is just getting started but here is a list of all the chemicals that have been reported thus far. It's not many. And it's also interesting to see how many of the 12 most maligned cosmetic ingredients are not on the list. No parabens, no petrolatum, no propylene glycol, etc. I suppose it is always more difficult to get things declared unsafe if you have to back the claim up with science. Clearly, the website is a work in progress. There are some glitches and some of the ingredients included are baffling. Titanium Dioxide? Aspirin? Coffee? But it is interesting to look at and see what ingredients you might want to avoid in the future.

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Wow. The power of the internet is amazing. It only took four days for Whole Foods to update their list after my first post on this site was published. It looks like we have their attention. The formatting was fixed so it’s actually readable now. (Thanks! ) They also reacted specifically to some of the betaine concerns from my first Whole Foods Ingredient list post. I’d be remiss if I don’t go back to how they addressed my concerns and see if I can force another course correction before getting to a new topic. Betaines part deux Babassuamidopropyl betaine now has a note next to it saying “acceptable if there is documentation to show the source is natural”. I have two problems with that statement. One is if anyone knows another place to get babassu oil other than the Amazon rainforest let me know, because I haven’t read about anyone able to make it synthetically. The second is every other part of the betaine molecule is not really natural. Dimethylaminopropylamine (DMAPA) and sodium monochloroacetate (SMCA) are the things you react with babassu oil to make that betaine. They aren’t “natural”. So what’s their definition? The fatty portion has to be natural? Hardly anything is completely “natural” that is used in body care. Most ingredients they’ve already deemed acceptable are a reaction product of some kind. They also put the above note for the others on the list except for lauryl amidopropyl betaine, decyl glucoside betaine, and wheat germamidopropyl betaine. I’ll get to those later. I have the same issue as the previous paragraph, but I guess it kind of makes sense for oleyl betaine, where it could be animal derived. Now, let’s get back to lauryl amidopropyl betaine. The note next to it says “lauryl amidopropyl betaine is not INCI compliant”. Why not just remove it from the list, as anything going on the shelf should have an INCI listing that is compliant. Oh, never mind I forgot they don’t actually care about INCI compliance as seen by the LOI on this hand soap sold at Whole Foods. This begs the question, why not include every ingredient that could possibly be listed wrong and make their list a billion pages long? Why not add cocoyl amidopropyl betaine to the list? Or cocamida propyl betaine? Those are misuses of the proper INCI term cocamidopropyl betaine as well. And why is coco betaine now OK as long as you prove it’s from a natural source, but you don’t have to prove cocamidopropyl betaine comes from a natural source? It’s still not on their list. They are both derived from coconut oil. The only reasonable move is take coco betaine off the list completely. Logical betaines I can understand the logic in keeping wheat germamidopropyl betaine on the list, even if I disagree with it. They probably don’t want any possible gluten containing products (even though it’s a ridiculous concern when applied topically). They also removed the non-existent chemical decyl glucoside betaine. Big...

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Often, the cosmetic industry is accused of lying to consumers. About half of the time the people making the accusations are wrong. No, the cosmetic industry is not trying to poison people with carcinogens. But cosmetic companies definitely stretch the truth with some of the claims they make about products. Big companies like P&G, L'Oreal and Unilever have all been found to have produced misleading advertising. Little companies, who are not scrutinized nearly as much, often produce much more blatant misleading statements. Cosmetic Claims When it comes down to it all the things you say about your products are your claims. These are just statements about what your product is and what it will do. So, on a shampoo bottle you'll see the word "Shampoo". This is a claim. When you have a bottle of lotion you might see the statement "moisturizes skin. " This is another claim. Technically, for every statement you have on your container (or in advertising) you need to be able to substantiate the claim. The type of substantiation you need depends primarily on the type and strength of the claim you are making. Remember "extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof. " Some claims are naturally misleading and we've previously covered the top 10 misleading cosmetic claims. Substantiating cosmetic claims This story about PZ Cussons' attempt to substantiate their claims was interesting and instructive. Someone complained to the ASA (the advertising standards group in the EU) about some claims that PZ Cussons was making about their shampoo. In their advertising they claimed a variety of things such as... 7927 tingling mint leaves 40 real zingly limes 10 zesty lemons The company was challenged to support those claims. And they did! How do you substantiate claims like that? They did it by providing detailed calculations which supported the exact numbers that they were claiming. The ASA accepted their data and backed off allowing PZ Cussons to continue making the claims. If they didn't have the proper data and hadn't thought of it before selling their product, no doubt the result of this action would have been different. So, when you are making claims for your cosmetic product, just remember that you need to be able to support EVERY claim that you make. It can be a logical rational or (better) some lab study which demonstrates the validity of your statements. Either way, you need to have this done prior to launching your product. You don't want to get caught with products that have unsubstantiated claims on the market. It could kill your entire company.

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On my other blog The Beauty Brains we spend a lot of time answering questions about what beauty products work and which ones aren't backed up by science. It's fun, but the reality is that most of the suggested treatments have barely been scientifically studied and ones that have were done by a company who won't publish their data. It's a bit frustrating. That's why I'm always happy when I find some university types investigating beauty product treatments like this research out of the University of Nottingham Malaysia campus. According to the scientists, they are investigating the beauty effects of a different types of smoothie. https://www. youtube. com/watch? v=PRifs4n2zqc Study design? I watched a video put together by the lead scientist and read the report that went along with it. Essentially, what they are doing is that they have a group of 80 subjects split into 10 groups. There are 7 different smoothie formulas being tested and one control group who gets purified mineral water. The subjects have to drink their sample every day and measurements are taken on their skin to determine if there is some effect. The test is a 6 week test. Sadly, this seems like a nearly worthless test to me. The study doesn't have nearly enough subjects for the number of smoothie formulas they are testing (a group of 30 for each is the minimum) and they aren't choosing the proper controls. I mean, perhaps water is a good control but the subjects who get the water will know that they are drinking water. Maybe if they double blind the study so the people assessing the skin are blinded but even that does not guarantee an unbiased evaluation. Suggestions Not that anyone asked but if they wanted to tighten this study up a bit without having to get a bunch more people, they should cut down on the number of formulas they are going to test and try to control the food and activity that the people will have over the course of the study. It might seem a bit draconian but if you have volunteers, it can be done. The way this study is designed now, there is no way they are going to get any meaningful results. Of course, in the cosmetic industry these kind of studies go on all the time. While this type of study would not pass scientific muster, a positive result would pass the watchdogs at media outlets where products are going to be advertised. If you want to know whether something really works, do a solid, blind-controlled study with the proper number of subjects. But if you want to support advertising you can be a little loser with your requirements. This researchers from this university should have done the former.

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Here's a story about a technological advance by P&G. According to the company, they have developed a spray technology that solves men's "overspray" problem. Their formulators are using some kind of cyclic molecule (probably a cyclodextrin) to hold the fragrance on skin better and allow it to come out when men sweat. Discovering the problem The problem of "overspraying" was identified through consumer research. Specifically, they must have sent out a questionnaire to a few thousand people and found that this was a reported problem. Then they had their cosmetic chemists get to work on fixing it. The fix essentially seems like a slow release of fragrance. Not particularly new but it might be new to this category. Incidentally, a number of consumer problems are found through this type of research. I'm not sure if they ever lead to breakthrough products and I'm skeptical that this technology will be a game changer for P&G but we'll see what happens. The big challenge I see with this technology however, is that they are trying to change consumer behavior. This is very difficult to do. If you are trying to create a new product, you have to see what consumers are doing and make your product fit in with that. Getting consumers to change some behavior is nearly impossible unless you have a lot of time and a huge advertising budget which you can spend to retrain consumers. P&G might be able to do it (probably not) but a little company? No way. If you are trying to start your own cosmetic line don't waste your time with products that require consumers to change their behavior. You'll be doomed from the start.

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As a cosmetic formulator one of the most common decisions you'll have to make is to decide how large a batch you need to make. To best determine this you need to first answer the question of why you are making the formula. Why are you making it? There are a number of reasons you might make a cosmetic batch but the primary ones include prototype development, prototype testing, consumer testing, scale-up and production. Generally, each of these will require a different size batch. New prototype When making a new prototype you may be tempted to make very small batches. This is particularly true when you don't have access to a large quantity of your test raw materials. I've seen people create batches as small as 100g. Don't do this. The smallest batch size you should make is 400g. It fits nicely into a 500g beaker and the quantities of the component raw materials are still large enough that you can accurately measure them. Making smaller batches increases weighing errors. Your first batch of any new formula should always be about this size. More than this is a waste of chemicals and less leads to too many weighing errors. Of course, if you are making a very simple solution formula, you can go as low as 100g as long as the ingredients are not less than 0. 1%. Prototype testing To test a formula, you are going to need larger sized batches. The exact size will depend on the type of testing that you are doing. If it is a simple 10 person panel test, a batch size of 800 - 1000g should be fine enough. But if you are doing a full stability test, you may need to make a few kilograms of your batch. Calculate out exactly how much you need and add 10% more. When you start to make mid sized batches it's always good to have extra in case you need more product than you thought. Consumer test Consumer tests typically require full sized bottles for a number of consumers. The smallest consumer test is approximately 30 people but it's not uncommon for some home use tests to have 100 people or more. This means a batch size of 5 gallons to 50 gallons. For these types of batches you do not need to add the 10% overage factor, 3 - 5% extra is usually enough. Often you can make extra samples and run a concurrent stability test with these types of batches. In fact, you can also use this batch to do your scale-up testing. Scale-up test For some small manufacturers you won't make batches just to test the scale-up of a formulation. Your scale-up batch size is your production batch size. (50 - 300 gallons). But if you work for a big company you will often have to create a scale-up test to see how the formulation will behave when it gets moved to the production sized batches (2000 - 5000 gallons). For these...

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This is a post by cosmetic chemist and formulator Valerie Patton. The world of silicones has grown exponentially since the mid-1970s, and their use in cosmetic formulations has revolutionized the cosmetics industry. In the second edition of his book, "Silicones for Personal Care," Mr. Anthony O'Lenick has left no stone unturned to provide the cosmetic chemist everything they need to know (and more! ) about silicone materials. BOOK LAYOUT The text starts with a brief overview of the history of silicones and how they are made. The manufacturing processes detailed lay a good foundation for basic silicone properties and nomenclature. This chapter, like all ensuing chapters, contained information for corresponding patents, a chapter conclusion, and all references from that chapter. The second chapter further delves into the properties of basic silicone materials and how they are typically incorporated into cosmetic products. This latter section was a little too brief, but a useful overview nonetheless. Chapters 3, 4, and 5 quickly transition the reader into the impacts silicones have on the various parts of a formulation. This section was extremely enjoyable because it additionally provided a nice review of the chemistry of emulsions and surfactants. Moving onward from Chapter 5, chapters are solely dedicated to discuss the overall structure, function, and properties of each type of silicone compound. While the attribute each silicone imparts to a formula isn't obviously stated, Mr. O'Lenick is able to provide a plethora of information to help the reader make a connection. These chapters proved to more of a reference than the previous chapters that were read through in their entirety. The closing chapters of the text go over more general properties of silicones such as refractive index, surface tension, and methods in silicone chemistry. It would have been particularly helpful to have some of this information at the beginning of the book to demystify some of the heavy scientific information presented throughout the chapters. BOTTOM LINE Overall, this book is a highly recommended addition to any formulator's library. In the past, I've solely selected silicones based on what I'd seen used in similar formulations or what I knew about specific raw materials. Not any more! The extensive background information and reference sections in "Silicones for Personal Care" has given me the ability to more smartly broaden my range and choose what's right for my next formula.

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There is a discussion in the cosmetic science forum asking about the stabilization of Vitamin C in a formulation. It is an interesting enough conversation and I encourage you to go read it. One of the points that came up was that Vitamin C doesn't do much in the formula even if you could stabilize it. That prompted one of the people in the discussion to link a number of studies which demonstrated Vitamin C stabilized with Feurric acid could indeed provide UV protection. Demonstrating an effect The studies were also rather interesting and maybe they do show that Vitamin C can provide UV protection. However, one of the primary problems with the studies is a problem with many studies of cosmetic raw materials. They didn't use the right controls. When testing whether Vitamin C could provide UV protection they had an untreated site as a negative control and they had an unexposed site as a positive control. From this they showed that Vitamin C provide some UV protection. Unfortunately, this doesn't help much for a formulator. We don't simply want to know if there is some effect. We really want to know how does the effect compare to the best technology available. In this case, they should have done a control that featured a conventional UV protectant like TiO2 or Zinc Oxide. Why didn't they do this? I suspect if they did, they would have found that the Vitamin C does not provide as much protection as the standard technologies. And that makes sense. If they did provide that much protection they would be included in the monograph for sunscreens. What's a formulator to do? But what if you want to create a Vitamin C based sunscreen? Simple, just create a standard sunscreen and add a drop of Vitamin C. You get all the marketing power of having Vitamin C in your formula but you get the performance of the best technology. It's a win all the way around. So I have to wonder, why would anyone not do it this way?

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I saw that Colin over at Colins Beauty Pages had tweeted that he was watching an old episode of Columbo in which Martin Sheen played an evil cosmetic chemist. That got me thinking about other fictional cosmetic chemists. Here are a couple that I was able to come up with. You have any others? 1. The Joker - Perhaps the most evil cosmetic chemist ever. He specializes in making color cosmetics that contort the face of the wearer creating a huge grin and also killing them. 2. Poison Ivy - It's strange that the Batman comic features a couple of evil cosmetic chemist characters. Poison Ivy is more of an eco terrorist, but her main weapons of choice are pheromone-containing fragrances that control people's minds. You'd have to be quite a cosmetic chemist to pull this off. 3. The Flash - Barry Allen was a chemist who wasn't following proper safety precautions when he got zapped by lightning in the lab and was turned into the Flash. I couldn't find any instance of him making a cosmetic but I'm still searching. 4. Dr Bunsen Honeydew - The famous scientist and inventor from the Muppets is known to have created a hair growing tonic. I know lots of cosmetic chemists are working on that. 5. Peter Parker - You know, Spiderman. He's a polymer chemist who was bright enough to come up with the formula for webbing. He must have made some cosmetic potions over the years in the comics. Any Spiderman geeks out there able to confirm? 6. Simon Drudd - He was a chemist in the Marvel Universe who endeavored to make a youth serum to reverse the aging process. While he was able to create the youth serum he couldn't control the effects and eventually reverted to a child, baby and eventually out of existence. A cautionary tale for all you anti-aging cosmetic chemists out there. 7. Lillian vo Loont - More of an alchemist but she was able to create a formula that could give people perfect skin. Unfortunately, the process turned the wearer into a gold coated statue. Got any more fictional chemists who could vaguely be considered cosmetic chemists? Leave a message in the comments below.

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This is a pretty interesting bit of biology. It also explains why fragrance is such an important part of the cosmetic product experience. https://www. youtube. com/watch? v=snJnO6OpjCs

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We are in the early phases of the development of 3D printing technology but I believe it has the potential to revolutionize the cosmetics industry. This isn't the kind of thing that is going to lead to incremental improvements. No this has the potential to radically alter the way people think about cosmetics. Enter 3D printing of skin 3D printed skin Printed skin has been around for awhile but the problem is that they can only do it in a single color. This is great if your skin happens to match that color but almost no one's does. This new technology is being developed to better match the natural color of a person's skin. So how will this affect cosmetics? Cosmetics of the future 3D printing will soon be affordable to have in your own home. Imagine a world where you can "print" a covering for your own skin that smooths every wrinkle, removes every age spot, and makes you skin look... perfect. Or at least as perfect as you want it to look. I'm not saying this will happen in a year or two. But 5 or 10 years maybe. People may get skin treatments the way that they get their nails polished. You print the skin, paint it on, and you look years younger. The future looks interesting for cosmetics.

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One of the great things about doing this website and participating in the cosmetic science forum is we get contacted by people from all over the world with all sorts of cosmetic science questions. And we are happy to answer pretty much any question that we can. Usually, if we don't know the answer we can send it out to our network of cosmetic chemists and get you an answer. Best of all we do this free of charge! Of course, since we don't charge and it takes time to answer questions, we may not be able to get to every question. But if you want to increase the chances that you'll get your question answered, here are some tips to follow when asking. Formulation Questions - One type of question we get is from people asking to solve some formulation problem. Many of these can have complicated answers and cosmetic consultants get paid big dollars to answer them. We appreciate having material for the blog so that is how we "get paid" for answering. However, when you are asking a formulation question please consider the following. 1. Search the website - The first thing you should try is to search through the Chemists Corner website or our forum to see if the question has been answered already. We've got over 800 blog entries and we may have already answered your question. 2. Share the ingredients - If you are asking about a formulation problem at the very least you should provide a list of ingredients that you are using. Asking something like "can you tell me why my lotion is separating? " is not the kind of question we can answer. You need to give a list of the ingredients. 3. Share the formula - Ideally, you'll give us the ingredient list and the amount of ingredients used in the formula. The more information you can provide, the better. And if you're worried about someone getting your formula, well, that's just the cost of getting your question answered. Don't worry, if someone really wanted to produce your formula they could easily copy it anyway. Career Questions - The next most common question we get is about a career in cosmetic chemistry. 1. We are not hiring - People send us CV and resumes all the time but we are not hiring formulators and we don't usually have knowledge of any specific job. If we do know of a job your best bet is to check in the cosmetic science forum. 2. See our career page for what we've written about the subject - We've written extensively about a career in cosmetic chemistry. See our career page and read through that before asking your question. It may have already been answered. Consulting questions - If you are looking for a cosmetic chemist to help you formulate your product. 1. Tell us exactly the type of product you want to formulate - If you want to create a formula we need...

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The following was submitted in response to the articles we published on the Whole Foods Banned ingredient list. I am writing in response to the December 4, 2013 and December 12, 2013 blog entries, "The Whole Foods Banned Ingredient List is Wholly Flawed," and "The Whole Foods Unacceptable Ingredient List is Wholly Unacceptable. " These posts were based upon some misunderstandings of Whole Foods Market's Premium Body Care standard, and I would like to take this opportunity to clear up some of the misinformation: Clearing up a misunderstanding 1. Purpose of the list. Our Premium Body Care ingredient list was compiled from ingredients found in products in Whole Foods Market stores only. In the process of crafting Premium Body Care, the ingredients on our shelves were evaluated one by one and screened, not only for their source, but the safety, environmental impact, and the efficacy of the ingredients were also examined. Historically, Premium Body Care was launched at a time when there were no other retail standards for natural personal care in the US, and its intent was to educate customers and to distinguish the personal care products products sold at Whole Foods Market from those of other retailers. As a living, dynamic standard, Premium Body Care is unique to Whole Foods Market; ingredient classifications are made specific to our products and to our stores, and each ingredient has a rationale for its status. 2. As found on labels. We made the decision to include ingredients on this list as they are found on labels (not accounting for manufacturers' errors), for the sake of our buyers, given the list is used as a buying guide internally. That said, we identify such ingredients as non-INCI compliant on our internal list and we require that our suppliers list ingredients on label properly in INCI terminology. 3. Betaine clarification. And a clarification regarding betaines: we do allow betaines as part of our Premium Body Care standard, so long as the supplier is able to provide documentation showing that these ingredients are made from a renewable source. This qualifier had always been part of our internal Premium Body Care ingredient list, and now we have also included this information on our public list as well, thanks to your feedback. Keep in mind that the version of the list on our public website is intended for customers, and only includes ingredients designated as unacceptable. I hope that this has cleared up some of the confusion, and going forward, feel free to reach out to us directly. We have put a lot of time and energy into crafting our standards, and we would welcome the opportunity to dialog further if you had any additional questions. Sincerely, Jody Villecco Global Quality Standards Coordinator Whole Foods Market

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Guest author: Deepa Sinha Methylisothiazolinone (MIT) is a commonly used cosmetic preservative in cosmetics and personal care products has been recommended by Cosmetic Europe to discontinue its use on leave-on skin cosmetics and personal care products. This preservative has been declared to cause dangerous adverse reaction to its consumers. The European Society for Contact Dermatitis has showed data that this preservative has caused an increase in the number of allergic reaction. The end of Methylisothiazolinone? With the official press statement by Cosmetic Europe, it would be a challenge for the industry to continue its use in cosmetics and personal care products. This will lead to large number of reformulations for the existing products containing Methylisothiazolinone (MIT) in the market. Not banned Methylisothiazolinone is listed the Cosmetics Regulation of the European Union (Annex V) and is authorized for use at a maximum concentration of 0. 01% (100 ppm). A mixture of Methylchloroisothiazolinone and Methylisothiazolinone is also listed in Annex VI, Part I, and is authorized for use as a 3:1 mixture at a maximum concentration of 0. 0015% (15 ppm). Health Canada permits the use of Methylisothiazolinone/ Methylchloroisothiazolinone, in combination, at concentrations equal to or less than 0. 0015% (15 ppm) in rinse-off products and 0. 00075% (7. 5 ppm) in leave-on products. When used alone, Methylisothiazolinone may be used at concentrations up to 0. 01% (100 ppm). Perils of Alternative Preservatives Ironically, Methylisothiazolinone (MIT) was introduced as safer substitute for parabens, and the way it is understood now, Methylisothiazolinone (MIT) is now featured as never seen any reaction like this on consumers and urging to take immediate action. These episodes of banning a preservative, introducing a ‘safer’ substitute definitely picture a gap in the clinical study and market research and safety assessment. Most of the preservatives are either under opinions, or reviews are still going on. If it had to ban at the end why was it introduced in the first place as a safer substitute? The concerns grow only after bad press, and why not when the chemicals are registered with REACH, ECHA, FDA, EPA etc. Need for standards The whole process of introducing any chemical, ban or uplifting a ban or bad press/media costs a lot on small manufacturing or medium size company. Sadly, this price is ultimately paid by the end users.

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Last weekend I got a chance to be interviewed on Fox and Friends about our new book

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This post will explore acids that are found on Whole Foods’ premium body standards list. For those that didn’t catch last week’s post, the idea behind this series started with this Whole Foods ingredient list post. I’d also like to elaborate a bit further on the purpose of writing these posts. Many formulators are faced with making products “Whole Foods Acceptable”. I hope to provide some good advice on how to get around these restrictions without compromising the quality of your formulations. A good example from the previous article is to simply switch out which oil or fat chain your betaines are made with to get around the restrictions. Acids The following products are unacceptable for whole foods: AHAs alpha hydroxy acids glycolic acid lactic acid salicylic acid Above are the AHAs, and these I’ll classify as “other” acids: kojic acid myristic acid PABA (Para-Aminobenzoic Acid) Para-Aminobenzoic Acid (see PABA) phenylbenzimidazole‐5‐sulfonic acid Thiotic acid Alpha Hydroxy Acids Let’s start with the AHAs. First, is there a need to have a separate entry for the acronym and then spell it out? And who is putting AHA as an ingredient on their label? Perhaps this is an attempt to also thwart marketing companies to put it as marketing language on the front of the bottle. Now, let’s get to the fun part. OK, you are banning all AHAs, but *especially* don’t use the AHAs called out individually. That would really be terrible. It occurs to me that citric acid is an AHA, but not called out specifically as an unacceptable ingredient. Is that OK to use? Looking at their own products on their website I guess so... 365 Foaming Herbal Hand Soap. Yes, I know they are just using it as a pH adjustment, but unacceptable is unacceptable (or is it? ). The moral of the story is, go ahead and continue using citric as your pH adjustment. If anyone gives you grief, show them the link. That’s not the only product they have with citric acid, either. I found ten 365 Everyday branded products launched within the last four years with citric acid. My next trip to Whole Foods I’ll see how many are still on the shelf but guessing it’s more than just a few. Kojic Acid They made several skin lightening ingredients unacceptable along with kojic acid, but they didn’t get good old vitamin C, so go ahead and use that. Myristic Acid There must be something magically horrible about 14 carbon molecules, because they sure made a lot of things with the “myrist” prefix unacceptable. Feel free to use the 12, 16, or 18 carbon varieties instead. They are fine. That would be lauric, palmitic, or stearic acid for the new chemists out there. PABA I don’t know why this needs to be on the list. According to GNPD, there have been exactly zero personal care products with PABA launched in the US since 1996 (as far as their database goes back). The industry formulated away from PABA...

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A friend of mine forwarded me this product link for the Estee Lauder Re-Creation Face Cream set. If you click on that link you will see that they are selling a product "system" which includes a 1. 7 ounce container of face cream and a 0. 5 ounce serum for... $1100 US. Eleven... hundred... dollars! Yikes! ! And how is this cream different than say the $25 Oil of Olay product you can get at Target? Antarctic Absurdity Well, this one has ingredients... From the pristine depths of the Antarctic Ocean comes the inspiration for our exclusively refined, sustainably cultivated Glacial BioExtract™, proven in vitro to help skin boost its natural elastin production. Re-Nutriv Life Re-Newing Molecules™ help repair, recharge, and restore skin's energized, radiant appearance. First of all, the "Antarctic Ocean"? Where on Earth is the Antarctic Ocean? I've heard of Antarctica and the Arctic Ocean but not the "Antarctic Ocean". Some copywriter needs to go back and relearn Geography. But to answer the question, I suspect there really is no measurable performance difference between the Olay product and the Estee Lauder product. There really is no technology that Estee Lauder has access to which would justify the price of their product. Performance is only one factor to consider when pricing a cosmetic product. Costing your cosmetics Whenever someone asks me about pricing and how much they should charge for their products, I always tell them "make it expensive. " If you are a cosmetic entrepreneur or just trying to build your own cosmetic brand you do not want to be competing on price. Here are 5 reasons why you should make your cosmetics more expensive than most that are out there. Big companies will crush you when you compete on price It's pretty simple. A big company has a lot more money than a small company. Therefore, a big company can afford to sell products at a loss for a little while and still stay in business. If you get into a cost battle with a big company, you will lose. It's better not to compete for the people in this world who are already being served by big companies. The low cost brands in all categories are already filled. Don't add another one to the mix. Selling a $1 product is just as much work as a $100 product From the standpoint of a new business, it will take you just as much work to create a product that sells for $100 as it will to make one that sells for $1. And it will cost just as much to take orders, fill orders, store inventory, and market the product. So if you're going to do all the work anyway why don't you just sell the product for a higher profit? Starting a cosmetic line is going to be a lot of work. You should ensure that you get paid for your hard work. Easier to make it exclusive Estee Lauder certainly demonstrates that one way to...

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A blast from the past. First published in 2008. Still relevant now... On Friday afternoon, I walked out of the New York Hilton and waved down a cab. The drive got out of his taxi and I said, “Can I get a ride to LaGuardia? ” “Sure,” he says as he went back to his car to open the trunk. Just then a man and his wife asked if I wanted to share the cab. They were going to the airport too. I momentarily hesitated, then said, “Alright. ” The entire cab ride we discussed the SCC meeting, the posters, the talks, and different ideas for beauty products. It turns out he was a dermatologist from Florida who attends SCC meetings to inspire new ideas. We had a great talk. When we finally got to the airport, I was happy to have shared the cab. It also occurred to me that this one ride illustrated some of best reasons to attend a National SCC meeting. Here are the 5 best. Reasons You Should Attend the National SCC Meeting 1. Best talks about the latest science in our industry. This year’s meeting featured over 35 presentations about skin, hair, testing methods, sustainability, and fundamentals of polymer/surfactant delivery systems. It featured many of the industry’s biggest and best speakers including Dr. Manuel Gamez-Garcia, Dr. Robert Lochead, Dr. Yash Kamath, and Dr. James Gruber. Even the famous dermatologist Dr. Zoe Draelos presented. It was the best line-up seen at any industry meeting in years and attendees learned a ton of new stuff. The Chicago mid-year meeting promises to attract equally impressive speakers, so mark down June 4 & 5 now. As an added bonus, your hotel in Chicago won’t cost nearly as much as in New York. 2. Information about over 100 new raw material product offerings If you’re from a small company you’ll rarely get proper attention from big raw material suppliers, missing out on their latest technologies. And at big companies, you probably don’t take meetings with small raw material suppliers, so you might have missed some unique, little-known technologies. At the National SCC meeting, you can over come both of those problems. In the poster session you can find all types of new and interesting technologies. If you can’t get a new idea here, you just aren’t trying. At the very least, you should be able to get an invite to one of the hospitality suites for drinks and food later. 3. Meet more friendly cosmetic chemists than anywhere on the planet While you may meet a few new people at your local meeting, that’s nothing compared to the number of fellow cosmetic chemists you can meet at a national event. Attendance this year was well over 1100 people and the majority of them are cosmetic scientists. You can find out all sorts of useful information like how things work at other companies, what techniques they use to develop products, and maybe even learn what new approaches to solving problems....

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I had a spider that was living on my front porch this fall. She was a cool creature and made some excellent webs. I've always been a fan of spiders and also a fan of our efforts to create spider silk without the spiders. Well, one cosmetic raw material company wants you to believe that they've done just that. What do you get when a scientist who figures out a cool way to make the building block proteins of spider silk teams up with a marketing consultant? Spidersilk by AMSilk According to this report, AMSilk has just announced that they are now able to supply the cosmetic industry with a novel protein that "is similar" to spider silk protein. Marketing Spin You might be wondering what's the big deal? There have been lots of silk proteins available to cosmetic chemists for a long time. Why is Spidersilk different? The company says that Spidersilk is not like those other silk proteins that are hydrolyzed and have lost all their "silky" benefit. Spidersilk is the first "truly functional silk formulation... " What exactly does that mean? In the press release, they say a bunch of generic things like the ingredient will "add smoothness and moisture management" or that it "leaves a silky feeling. " I don't know. I just don't get it. What exactly is this functionality that they are talking about? If you want to add smoothness or moisturize you use petrolatum in your lotion. If you want a silky feeling, you would use a silicone. Why would anyone use this ingredient? Formulating reality The reality is that if you want to create a finished cosmetic product that has the functionality described and but you want a silk story, you could simply create a standard lotion, add a drop of standard silk protein, and it will sell just as well. No spidersilk technology required. When will raw material companies start coming up with ingredients that actually do have some new functionality? We cosmetic chemists are still waiting. Note: no spiders are harmed in the making of Spidersilk protein.

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I intend these posts to be a multi-part series focusing on different parts of the nebulous Whole Foods banned ingredient list. The list I’ll be referring to is from their Premium Body Care Standards section. They also have banned lists for foods, which will not be addressed. You’ll notice when you visit the page that the document is cut in half so you have to scroll halfway down to read the right side of the page. Spoiler alert, the right side just features the other half of the document title and the word “unacceptable” which would be in the same row as the ingredient on the left. You’re welcome. Unfortunately, that was the least of my concerns about the list and its 400+ ingredients that cannot be used if you want your product in Whole Foods. Betaine maddness The topic for this article is a class of chemicals called betaines, which many cosmetic formulators will find familiar. They are the most common secondary surfactant used in shampoos and body washes, as well as other foaming products. I used to make betaines so they are of particular interest for me. Let’s take a look at the specific products with the word “betaine” in the name on the list. babassuamidopropyl betaine betaine cetyl betaine coco betaine Lauryl Amidopropyl Betaine Lauryl betaine lauryl glucoside betaine oleyl betaine Wheat germamidopropyl betaine I copied these exactly as they appear on their list on purpose to give you a feel for the level of thought and/or effort that went into the creation of their document. Most people will notice they don’t use INCI nomenclature for every ingredient, so there’s a clue about the level of knowledge the person/people had that put it together. I will also make some assumptions about how the list was created which I’ll get into later. Babassuamidopropyl Betaine Let’s go through these from the start. Babassuamidopropyl betaine at first glance seems really random. Only a handful of products even contain that material. According to GNPD, there have never been more than eight launches per year that contain it. Upon further inspection, the major company using it is Aveda. Aveda is “natural” product competition for Whole Foods. If Whole Foods can find a way to make it look like the competition is using something unnatural or unsafe, that *might* give them an advantage. Hopefully, that helps in understanding at least partly how the list was created. Betaine Next on the list is betaine. I don’t know what they mean here. Is this any product of that class of materials, which would eliminate the need for any other products on the list? Or do they mean the simplest form of betaine, which is trimethylglycine? As I will write about in future articles, some of the ingredients on the list seem to be an entire class of products vs. one molecule. A good example of that is “certified colors” that appears on the list. I guess we will assume for now they mean just the...

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As a cosmetic formulator or cosmetic industry entrepreneur, it is helpful to understand the market and where cosmetics are sold around the world. The challenge with market data is that it is difficult to collect and rarely given out for free. Companies like Euromonitor and IRI compile industry sales market data and typically sell them in expensive reports. But if you follow some of the industry magazines or dig up some other sources, you can find information that is relatively up to date. Here is some data about the cosmetic industry from 2012. Size of the cosmetic market Sales in the cosmetic industry were approximately $430 billion (US) dollars in 2012. To give you a sense of the size, the entire world economy is about $48 trillion (US). So while the cosmetic industry is large, it is only a small portion of the entire world economy. However, it is much bigger than industries like professional sports which is only about a $25 billion industry. Who is buying the most? In terms of percentage of sales, Asia-Pacific generates the most and Western Europe generates is in second. A complete list of the distribution of cosmetic sales is as follows. Asia-Pacific - 28% Western Europe - 23% North America - 18% Latin America - 18% Eastern Europe - 6% Middle East / Africa - 5% Australiasia - 2% What cosmetics are people buying? Another important thing to know about the cosmetic industry is how much of everything people are buying. If you are looking to get into the cosmetic industry it is a good idea to go where the money is. And right now, the money is in skin care products. Skin care cosmetics make up about $99 billion in sales. Hair care sales account for about $75 billion. Color cosmetics represent $54 billion and fragrances make up about $43 billion. The rest of the industry sales are made up of miscellaneous personal care products such as oral care and antiperspirant/deodorant. While this overview gives you a sense of what people are buying, how much, and where, it is interesting to note that the distribution of sales is not equal across the world. The sales of skin care products in Japan are much higher than hair care products whereas in Latin America, the sales of hair care products are much higher than skin care. Different populations from around the world want different products. When you are formulating your cosmetics it is important to get local market data when deciding which type of cosmetic would best sell for your area.

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Coming up in December is the National SCC Cosmetic Science Symposium where cosmetic chemists and formulators from around the country and world will gather in New York City to hear presentations, see posters, and have discussions about the latest advancements in cosmetic science. It really promises to be a great event and I will be attending. You can get registration information here. SCC Cosmetic Science Symposium Twitter for a conference One of the things I like to do when in an all-day scientific meeting is to use Twitter to communicate what is going on. This is a great way for you to remember what you've seen, pay attention to the talks, and let people who couldn't attend the event know what's going on. If you follow the right Twitter user and they are tweeting in the best way, it could almost be like you are at the meeting yourself. But Twitter doesn't come with an instruction manual and it's not exactly obvious how you should use Twitter during a scientific talk. So, here are some guidelines to Tweeting a scientific meeting that I've found helpful. Choose a hashtag Before tweeting the meeting you should choose a hash tag. A hashtag is a simple abbreviation preceded by the # sign. You use them so it makes it easy to find all the related tweets on Twitter. That way if multiple people are tweeting a meeting, you can easily search the hashtag to find all the relevant messages. For example at the upcoming SCC meeting, I might choose a hashtag like #nyscc. Or you could choose #sccmeeting or something relevant. The like to make them long enough to be unique (that's why I wouldn't choose #SCC) but short enough to not take up too many characters. It's great if you could communicate to other people you know at the meeting who are tweeting it so you all use the same hashtag. Be sure to include the hashtag in every message (usually at the end). Start with the talk title and presenter's name It's always helpful to start with the presenter's name and the title of their talk. Sometimes the titles get pretty long so if you feel like shortening it or just writing what the talk is about in your own words, that's acceptable. Take pictures of the slides One of the great additions to Twitter is the incorporation of photos in tweets. So, if there is a slide that you think is particularly interesting, feel free to take a picture of it and post as a tweet. Include in the tweet why you think it was interesting. This is a great technique for capturing slides with statistics that are more difficult to type. It's also nice to take a photo of the speaker while they are giving the presentation. This will be useful for other social media outlets, websites, and organization newsletters. Write notes about the presentation content While you're watching the presentation instead of writing notes on paper, write them...

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I first became aware of Johann Wiechers, the author of Memories of a Cosmetically Disturbed Mind, through the pages of the IFSCC magazine. He was the president of the IFSCC at the time and he had an interesting monthly column that treated cosmetic chemists like research scientists. He always had some interesting opinion or challenging puzzle for the reader to work through. I very much enjoyed it. A few years ago when we started the Chemists Corner podcast we had him on as a guest. First, to talk about his articles in C&T magazine and next to talk about his optimization of formula software. You can still listen to those interviews here and here. I even met Johann at InCosmetics back in 2011. Sadly, Johann passed away shortly after we recorded our second interview. Johann’s book, Memories of a Cosmetically Disturbed Mind, was published posthumously in 2013. It is made up of editorials that he had written over the course of a number of years for Cosmetics and Toiletries magazine. The work perfectly reflects Johann’s personality. Book Content The book is organized in 55 “chapters” which are more descriptively considered articles. They cover numerous aspects of the cosmetic industry from cosmetic marketing, testing, raw materials, to the interaction with pop culture. The articles frequently start with some obscure subject which he then brings back around to the cosmetic chemist with the question, “What does this have to do with cosmetic science? ” Each article is engaging, witty, and fun to read. The book also has a habit of sage advice that will be helpful to any cosmetic formulator. Additionally, Johann challenges the cosmetic industry, and cosmetic chemists in particular, to change the way we do things. To be more scientific. This is perfectly summed up in the last few chapters which asks and answers the question “Is Cosmetic Science Really Bad? ” I thoroughly enjoyed this book and I believe most any cosmetic formulator or other person involved in the cosmetic industry will too. It is well worth a read. It may even inspire some of you to get out there and put your opinions and thoughts on paper (or digitally on a blog). While Johann is no longer around to keep pushing the cosmetic industry to improve, this book is a touching tribute to the man that he was. You can get your copy of the book here – Memories of a Cosmetically Disturbed Mind.

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Interview begins at 10:00 Bob Bornfriend is highly experienced in a variety of R&D, Quality, Engineering, & Manufacturing positions. He's had extensive exposure to product, project, and process development in chemical & consumer products industries. During his career he has been a key liaison between R&D and Operations and has advised corporations on internal and external manufacturing sites and process optimization. He has worked on projects around the world including in North America, South America, Europe, Africa, Asia-Pacific, China, and more. His primary product categories include haircare, skincare, and color cosmetics. He is currently the owner and operator of Personal Care Process Engineering, LLC. Website - Personal Care PE. com Beauty Science news Revlon fights back Here's a story which shows that not everyone is overreacting to the NGO scaremongering. While big companies like P&G and J&J have vowed to reformulate (even though they think their current products are perfectly safe) Revlon has fought back against the claims of these scaremongers. According to the story, three NGO groups including the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics, the Breast Cancer Fund, and UltraViolet teamed up for a letter writing campaign urging Revlon to stop selling cosmetics laced with cancer causing chemicals. Revlon's response came from their senior vice president of corporate communications, Christine Taylor, who deemed the campaign as false and misleading. I for one am glad to see a big company finally standing up to these groups that use junk science to scare consumers and manipulate companies. This is a win for critical thinking and science. I wish J&J and P&G would follow suit. You can't give in to these NGOs when their conclusions are not based on evidence but instead fear. ---------- Cockroaches in your protein A lot of people love to formulate natural products. Well, here's a report out of China that says there is an increase in the production of a natural protein source that many consumers might not find too appealing. According to the LA Times, cockroach farms are on the rise in China. Right now there are about 100 of these farms but the numbers keep growing. And what do they do with the cockroaches? They use them as a source of protein for cosmetic products. Specifically, apparently they are used primarily as a bulking agent for other types of protein materials but they are derived from cockroaches nonetheless. So the next time you're mixing your Silk protein into your batch, it just might be filled with amino acids that came from a farm of creepy crawling critters. Now, I wonder if people who produce all-natural cosmetics would go for that material? And could you use cockroach protein and still call your products “cruelty free” or say they don't contain animal products? ------ Win $1 million by making a chemical free product. And finally, speaking of Natural products, I was recently reminded of a challenge that the Royal Society of Chemistry put out in 2010 that is still available to anyone today. If you can achieve the...

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This is a pretty good, short video explaining how skin grows and protects you from the environment (including cosmetic ingredients). http://www. youtube. com/watch? v=r8AYLGJuyvw Happy Halloween!

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Yesterday I had the opportunity to participate in a Google Hangout. It was pretty cool. Essentially a hangout is a video chat with another person (or a group of people). In this segment I talk to Joanne about cosmetics and the cosmetic industry. You might find it interesting. http://www. youtube. com/watch? v=lCyav54eXnE Perhaps in the future I'll do something like this where I interview a cosmetic chemist. Anyone want to try? Incidentally, if you are interested in getting our book click this link. It's ok to have lead in lipstick

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Did you ever see a flaming pumpkin? Well here's a video by my coauthor on the book Beginning Cosmetic Chemistry demonstrating just how to do it. Do you know why you need to add Borax? Nice work Randy! Happy Halloween! !

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This looks like a very interesting program and if you are in the Midwest or Cincinnati area, you should make it a point to attend. I'll be there. ;) The OVSCC presents: “The Personal Care Industry: Past, Present and Future” An event to honor the life and work of Dr. J. Leon Lichtin The American Sign Museum 1330 Monmouth Street, Cincinnati OH 45225 Tuesday, November 19th, 2013 The Ohio Valley chapter invites you to take part in a very special event, where we honor the past and take a peek into the future. This full day symposium and dinner meeting is a fundraiser for the Dr. J. Leon and Beverly Lichtin Cosmetic Sciences Endowment Fund at the University of Cincinnati (UC). Dr. and Mrs. Lichtin will be in attendance at the dinner portion of the meeting to receive the many honors due him. We’ve invited a slate of great speakers, all experts in their given areas, to come to Cincinnati and provide their unique perspectives on the personal care industry. There are three key areas we’ll be focusing on for this symposium: · Chemistry/ Technology · Regulatory/ Safety · Consumer Trends/ Insights 8:30 am to 12:00 pm - The morning session is all about learning from the past so that we are not doomed to repeat it. · Dr. Robert Lochhead, one of the most experienced formulators and innovators in the industry, will talk about the evolution of chemistry and technology · Beth R. Meyers works for the US FDA in the Office of Cosmetics and Colors as a Writer-Editor. She will be presenting a historical overview of the developments in cosmetic regulation. · Rachel Weingarten, the Beauty Historian is a beauty expert and former celebrity makeup artist. She was featured on Love/Lust & Makeup along with Stacy London & Bobbi Brown. Rachel has lectured about the history of cosmetics & fragrance marketing at the Fashion Institute of Technology. The Washington Post calls her “a hotshot beauty consultant,” ABC News refers to her as “a celebrity style maven. ” Rachel is the award winning author of "Hello Gorgeous! Beauty Products in America '40s-'60s. ” She’ll be discussing some of the groundbreaking, dubious and dangerous products and trends of eras past. 1:00 pm to 4:30 pm - The afternoon session will feature talks about the state of the art in the personal care industry. · George Deckner recently retired from Procter & Gamble after 26 years as a member of the company’s Victor Mills Society. His formulation expertise and materials mastery have helped him create numerous proprietary products into the personal care, oral care and health care markets. His talk will focus on the state of the art in formulation and technology. · David C. Steinberg founded a consulting firm (Steinberg & Associates) that provides regulatory guidance to the personal care industry. He is also the founder of the Masters in Cosmetic Sciences degree program at Fairleigh Dickinson University. He will be giving a talk on the current Regulatory environment in...

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This report in Cosmetics Design about the award recently granted to a researcher for his development of a new "cosmetic" ingredient left me feeling a bit puzzled. The award was given to Dr. Iva Doleckova for developing a peptide that could have useful anti-aging effects. This peptide is said to stimulate production of proteins in skin cells which will ultimately improve the barrier function of the epidermis. It sounds interesting although it's unclear how this ingredient is different from all the other peptides that are supposed to regulate some aspect of skin cell growth. Drug or Cosmetic Which brings me to the part that I find puzzling. The award was supposed to be for the most innovative cosmetic ingredient. The truth is that if this ingredient was put into a cosmetic product and shown to work as the researcher says, it would not be a cosmetic. It would be a drug (at least in the United States). Any ingredient that changes the metabolism of your body is a drug. So how is it that a drug active gets the award for the most innovative cosmetic ingredient? There does seem to be a blurring of the lines when it comes to cosmetics and how they are defined, but as the rules stand right now, this ingredient (if it worked in practice) would be a drug. Isn't there a new cosmetic ingredient that could be awarded a prize for innovation? Say one of these new preservatives or delivery systems or something. I don't know. What do you think?

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I was sent an email asking me about what the best set-up was for heating batches. It seemed that this formulator was having a hard time getting her batches to heat up quickly. I told her the setup I typically use includes the following 1. Beaker (for the batch ingredients) 2. Stainless steel short pot filled with water (for the water-bath) 3. Hot plate Then you should also cover the batch with Aluminum foil and plastic wrap. This set-up works well. However, in considering this question it occurred to me that there is a phenomena that most emulsion formulators will experience some time in their formulating career. When you are heating your oil phase, it will get hotter much faster than the water phase. In fact, it can almost seem like it gets hotter twice as fast. The reason? Our good old friend the Hydrogen Bond. The temperature of a system is a reflection of the speed at which the molecules in it are moving. Water molecules tend to stick to each other better than oils stick to each other. That is because of hydrogen bonding between molecules. So, it takes more energy to break the hydrogen bonds and speed up the molecules. In an oil phase, there isn't that extra bonding between the individual molecules so it requires less energy to make the molecules go faster and heat up. And if you want to test this for yourself, try this water oil heat capacity experiment.

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Hyaluronic Acid, the ever acclaimed naturally occurring Biopolymer, with 50% of its bodily existence in the skin is sounding good... REAL good. We have experienced the many notes of Hyaluronic Acid through their varying molecular weights, as they have lulled our skin with protection and moisturization, desquamation stimulation, moisture retention and wrinkle filling. What more could anyone ask or expect of this classic molecule? Well, here it is ladies and gentlemen — a HIGH purity, Green manufactured Hyaluronic Acid Mini topping the Cosmetic Industry BillBoard charts in a sleek sounding 3,000-10,00 Daltons. Talk about a hit record. Cosmetic Scientists join in to sing the sweet tune of the Enzymatically Cleaved compound to their product line-up, for targeted and effective benefits. Those in the know, and more importantly those in the know how, read below to see what “They” say about our Hyaluronic Acid Mini. Who is the target market for Hyaluronic Acid? - Post-menopausal women: The loss of Estrogen in the skin reduces epidermal growth factor expression in keratinocytes and that produces the enzyme hyaluronan synthase for the synthesis of Hyaluronic Acid, thus causing a lack of the essential component of hyaluronic acid in the dermal layer. - Aging population: People wishing to offset aging skin and the onset of fine lines and wrinkles. Skin damaged by internal and external pollutants Why is Hyaluronic Acid so essential to our skin? - The presence of Hyaluronic Acid in the dermal layer of the skin is responsible for the thickness and suppleness of the skin as well as light reflectivity for a healthy glow. - It serves to maintain water balance in the dermis to add support for the skin as a lubricant and shock absorber. - Aids in the healthy development of undifferentiated cells called fibroblasts that will be producers of collagen, elastin, proteins or proteins making up glycosaminoglycans and complex proteins. - Helps create an environment in the skin to help evenly distribute melanin, hemoglobin and collagen as they rise to the epidermis. Hyaluronic Acid in Formulation Skin Moisturization for a youthful appearance is comprised of 2 components: Occlusive Ingredients + Humectant Ingredients (Hyaluronic Acid). Occlussive Ingredients decrease trans-epidermal water loss and humectant ingredients hydrate by attracting water to the skin. Skin lacking in the ability to produce the Hyaluronic Acid required to maintain the water balance in the dermis, needs a humectant such as Hyaluronic Acid. Together, these classes of moisturization ingredients create an environment that would optimize and facilitate barrier repair for healthy skin. What would make Hyaluronic Acid Mini the best choice in Hyaluronic Acid - It is important to have a source of Hyaluronic Acid that can penetrate into the skin for the most effective anti-aging effects of decreasing wrinkles and assisting in the growth of new skin components. - The HA Mini is 3,000-10,000MW through a green, enzymatic process that accurately cleaves the molecule for a more precise size and pure product compared to chemical Hyaluronic Acid Synthesis that yields MW from 250,000MW-2,000,000MW. - >...

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This fall I traveled a lot doing presentations and happily spreading the word about cosmetic science and formulating. The talks have ranged in length from 30 minutes to 6 hours. While I've done a couple of the talks before, there were two that I had to come up with completely from scratch in a short amount of time. This lead me to employ the following system which helps immensely to speed up the process of creating a presentation. Fast and efficient presentation method If you ever have to create a presentation, here's a system you can use to do it quickly and effectively. In fact, I was able to follow this to create a 45 minutes presentation in 3 days. Step 1 - Come up with a topic Typically, when you are asked to do a talk you will already have a topic in mind. This was the case when I created my presentation about Skepticism and the Cosmetic Chemist. I have an interest in skepticism and thought it would make an interesting presentation for an SCC meeting. However, there are also times when you will be asked to speak on a specific topic. When I was the keynote speaker at the Florida SCC Sunscreen Symposium this year, the organizers asked me specifically to speak about Sunscreen Brands and Building and Online Reputation. The bottom line is that you need to have a broad sense of the topic you want to speak about and have a reason for doing the talk. It could be that you like speaking in front of crowds, you like traveling or you have some business goal you're trying to achieve. Step 2 - Create a mind map My next step in creating the presentation is to create a mind map using software like Freemind or just a blank piece of paper and a pencil. In the middle I place the topic I'm going to write about and then I brainstorm different main topics. Then I fill in more topics after that until I get all the ideas for the presentation laid out on a single mind map. Don't worry about editing yourself at this point. Just put down every idea you can think of for the topic. Click the image below for the mind map I use in creating my recent talk at the Florida Sunscreen Symposium. sunscreen symposium 3. Make a handout version of the slides you'll use Now that you have all your ideas down, the next step is to create an outline version of your talk that will be suitable for handing out. This is easily done using the basic Powerpoint (or other presentation software) theme and your mind map. For each major topic you create a slide. Then populate the slides with the information in your mind map. These slides will not be the ones that you use during your presentation. Rather, they will be the ones that you send to the talk organizers as handouts for people to follow while...

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When you look at the back of a cosmetic product label, you will see all of the raw materials included on the list of ingredients (LOI). At least you should. We've previous talked about the rules for cosmetic labeling and how you are supposed to use the concentration to list ingredients in order above the 1% line. But someone posted an interesting question on the SCC Linked In page. Specifically, they wanted to know whether there was some lower limit to meet before you have to list an ingredient. Interesting. Cosmetic Labeling Rules The short answer is No, there is no lower limit. If you know that an ingredient is in your formula then you should list it. This includes all intentionally added ingredients by you, and even the intentionally added ingredients from your raw material supplier. For example, if you are buying a surfactant in which the supplier has put a preservative, you are required to list that preservative on your LOI no matter how minuscule the amount. However, if there is some unintentional ingredient then you don't have to list that. For example, companies do not have to list 1,4 Dioxane or Lead even though the raw material might contain trace levels of these impurities. Impurities do not have to be listed. Intentionally added ingredients do. Cost Savings Which raises an interesting point. Many exotic cosmetic raw materials like natural herbs and extracts are incredibly expensive. However, they also go a long way to help sell your product so companies like to include those ingredients in their LOI. The problem is if they put too much of the ingredient in the formula it could have a negative impact on performance, odor, or just lead to a formula that costs too much. So one of the strategies of cosmetic companies is to put a very small amount of the "feature" ingredient in the formula; say 0. 001%. And when they look for cost savings projects, that level might be cut down to 0. 0001%. The reason you can do this is because the reality is that most of these "feature" ingredients do not have a consumer noticeable effect. When you reduce the level, it's unlikely that anyone will notice except maybe your accounting department.

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I've never thought stem cells in the cosmetic industry were anything but a marketing story. I have been, and remain, highly skeptical of the claims made by raw material suppliers who claim their stem cell derived cosmetic actives have any real noticeable consumer benefit beyond standard miniaturization. As such, I've never thought much of the technology. But I attended a talk today by Sonia Dawson of Sederma about their stem cell technology and I've developed a different outlook. No, I'm not convinced of the specific consumer benefits of these raw materials. However I am convinced that using stem cells to produce plant derived cosmetic ingredients is a great way to create sustainable materials. You can create a consistent raw material that doesn't require nearly as much land, water, or other resources. This overcomes my objection to most plant based cosmetic raw materials... it's not taking away food producing land to make cosmetic ingredients. Is it natural? A question does occur to me however. If you create a raw material using stem cells in a lab, is that still considered a "natural" ingredient? What do you think?

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In an ideal world, cosmetic chemists would spend our time formulating, researching, experimenting and developing new cosmetics that provide better benefits for consumers. Or we might focus on making cosmetics more environmentally friendly and sustainable. Unfortunately, the current political and regulatory environment has made it such that cosmetic chemists now have to spend the bulk of their time reformulating perfectly fine products for no good reason. Companies have begun to react to chemical fearmongering stories put out in the popular press and echoed in social media on the Internet. For proof you just have to look at the recent announcements by P&G and J&J who are both undergoing significant reformulation efforts which do not improve their products. These stories can be generated from anywhere but the biggest source of them is from misguided consumer groups and Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs). Unfortunately, the cosmetic industry is not nearly as skilled or motivated to spread the truth about cosmetics and these non-science based organizations are controlling the conversation while spreading half-truths, misunderstandings, and down-right lies to the general public. We need to stop this! We need to correct the record and get cosmetic chemists back to the job of cosmetic product innovation. The first step to combating these groups is to learn about who they are, what motivates them, and how they spread their message. That will be the focus of this post. In a future post, we'll discuss what we can do to fix the situation. What are NGO's? NGO stands for Non-Governmental Organization. This means they are made up of people who are not associated with the government. They are typically a non-profit organization and in fact, to maintain a non-profit status they must bar people from the government from being part of the organization. Typically, an NGO is put together to affect some kind of social change or agenda. This can be swaying public opinion or getting legislation / new regulations passed. In the US there are about 1. 5 million of these organizations. Fortunately, only a handful of them are focused on the cosmetics industry. NGO's and the cosmetic industry There are a number of NGO's around the world that have an impact on the cosmetic industry. These main ones include the Environmental Working Group, the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics, Greenpeace, and the David Suzuki Foundation. EWG — The Environmental Working Group This is probably the biggest NGO that has an impact on the cosmetic industry. They are well-funded with an operating budget of over $6 million a year. The EWG is based in Washington DC and is a non-profit group dedicated to the mission of protecting human health and the environment. They are an environmental organization that specializes in environmental research and advocacy in the areas of toxic chemicals, agricultural subsidies, public lands, and corporate accountability. They have been around for twenty years and are made up of policy experts, lawyers, PR people, programmers, and a couple of scientists. They claim that their “... mission is to serve...

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This was bound to happen. A mid-sized but growing brand who positions themselves as "natural" and "safer" than conventional products doesn't put a proper preservative in their products and they end up having a microbial contamination problem. The push by some in our industry to remove "toxins" and "scary chemicals" has led to the creation of products that are demonstrably less safe. And in the case of Badger Sunscreens, they are downright dangerous! No one should buy products that do not have a preservative in them. And no one should formulate products that aren't properly preserved. It's really that simple. You should never compromise product safety for your marketing story! Formulating Reality No matter how much a brand wants to believe that preservatives like Parabens and Formaldehyde donors are scary, they are not. They can be safely used in cosmetics. The thing that is scary is the prospect of exposing yourself to microbial contaminated products. Microbes can cause disease, blindness and for compromised immune system individuals... death. And what are you protecting yourself from by avoiding parabens and other proven preservatives? Nothing. There is NO evidence that standard preservatives used in cosmetic products represents a significant risk of anything for consumers. On the contrary, using non-preserved or improperly preserved products is a proven risk. You should not do it! Hopefully, the folks over at Badger stop listening to marketers and start listening to reasonable scientists who know that you need a proper preservative to make safe products. Badger's response One troubling thing to me is Badger's response to this microbial contamination. Rather than admitting that their decision to use an inadequate preservative was wrong, they simply blame it on some contract manufacture issue. There is no talk of re-formulating to ensure that something like this doesn't happen again. Hey Badger, if you're listening, put a proper preservative in your system and you won't have issues like this! You are risking the lives of children and the safety of your consumers. They trust you to do the right thing and that means... USE PRESERVATIVES! !

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I was just alerted to this article that said J&J will be reformulating their sun cream formulation after receiving 150 allergic reaction claims. It turns out that one of the ingredients, Methylisothiazolinone (a preservative) is a skin sensitizer in some segment of the population. In fact, it is so predominant that the EU recently announced it was restricting its use in leave-on cosmetics. J&J is smart to reformulate. But the story made me think of all the other times when a cosmetic chemist might have to reformulate. Here are the most common reasons. 1. Consumer complaints - As J&J found out, consumer complaints are a significant reason for reformulating. If enough consumers don't like your product or they are having a reaction to it, then reformulating is the only reasonable option. 2. Regulatory requirements - Sometimes you can't sell your formula any more because regulations in a country have changed. This is particularly true of preservatives since countries are banning them all the time. 3. Cost savings - Perhaps the most common voluntary reasons for reformulating is that you are trying to reduce the cost of your cosmetic formula. Since most formulas are not optimized, there is almost always ways to reformulate and make them less expensive. 4. Raw material is discontinued - Sometimes you are forced to reformulate because a raw material supplier stops producing a raw material. This can be very annoying and demonstrates why you should always have a second supplier for every raw material that you use. 5. Inconsistent supply - There are often situations where your supplier is unable to get you the raw material you need when you need it. This is especially true if you are a smaller cosmetic company and one of the supplier's bigger customer needs more attention. 6. Acquiring a company - Acquisitions in the cosmetic industry are quite common. In fact, the company I used to work for acquired a couple of companies while I was there. They also got acquired themselves and subsequently shut down. Anyway, whenever you acquire a company you often have different raw material suppliers or your company does things different. To integrate into the new company, you usually have to reformulate all the purchased formulas. 7. Marketing reasons - Another time to reformulate is when your marketing group wants to sell products in a different way. Suppose they want to relaunch and add the phrase "new and improved formula. " You have to change something about the formula to make that happen. There are other marketing reasons such as adding an ingredient consistent throughout the line or claiming your products are all-natural. All will require some reformulation. 8. Production efficiencies - Sometimes your production people find a faster way to do things such as moving from a batch process to an inline, continuous process. Whenever something like this happens you'll have to reformulate to ensure that you can make a product that matches the new process. 9. Stability problems - On occassion your formula...

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Here's an interesting website that purports to give advice for taking care of your skin. I don't think it is put together by a cosmetic chemist but the advice seems reasonable. Certainly more reasonable than most of the beauty blogs out there. Reddit Skin Care Advice One of the things that the website could use is an expert to help verify (or dispute) some of the information that is being communicated. Overall, I'm pretty impressed with the info given. They are a bit hard on St. Ives facial scrub but in general they are giving good advice. Criticisms I have very little to criticize except their recommendation of specific brands / products. While I'm sure the products they recommend are fine there are plenty of other fine products out there. The ones they recommend are from small companies and there is nary a mention of large brands which work just as well or better and are probably less expensive. It is not sexy to recommend mass market products like Dove or Olay but the reality is that they actually work. Cosmetic chemists and the site The general skin care advice site is this one. There are a number of ways you can participate in the site to use it for formulating and to provide your expertise. For example, if you are a skin care formulator, this is an excellent place to do some consumer research and learn what consumers are being told to do. You can then use this information to modify your own formulations or to invent new products. You could also answer questions without bashing ingredients or any skin care brand. And if you are a cosmetic chemist consultant you could use the site to establish yourself as an expert. Try it out and let us know what you think.

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The great thing about the Internet is that you can learn almost anything that you want to know about. Often, you can get the information for free. But the downside to the Internet is that it is so easy to publish that Anyone can write anything about anything Most people have no way of knowing whether something is true or not. This is especially true when it comes to cosmetics and the chemicals that are used in them. Fortunately, there are websites like Snopes and The Beauty Brains to bust the myths behind cosmetics. But I thought it would be amusing to list some of the top 10 myths about beauty products that I could find. Feel free to add your own... Top cosmetic myths and urban legends 1. J&J lost their license to sell cosmetics. - Not really. They do have a manufacturing plant in India that was banned from making cosmetics but J&J is still free to sell cosmetics. 2. Bat guano is used to make mascara - No, it's not. People confuse the colorant guanine (derived from fish scales) 3. Lead in lipstick will cause cancer - No, it won't. This is such a wide-spread myth that the FDA has weighed in with a complete analysis. The amount of lead in lipstick is not harmful. 4. The average woman ingests over 6 pounds of lipstick in a lifetime. No, she doesn't. Do the math, it does not add up. We analyze this thoroughly in our new book "It's OK to have Lead in Lipstick. " 5. Sodium lauryl sulfate in shampoo will cause cancer. No, it won't. It is an irritant and should be limited to rinse-off products, but it will not cause cancer. 6. Novocaine makes baby shampoo tear free. No, it doesn't. The use of mild surfactants and sometimes benzyl alcohol are what makes baby shampoo tear free. 7. Waterproof sunscreen will cause blindness. No, it won't. Cosmetics are safety tested and it is easily demonstrated that waterproof sunscreens don't cause blindness. Imagine how many blind people there would be if it did. 8. Propylene glycol in cosmetics will cause cancer. No, it won't. 9. Cosmetics are not regulated in the US. Yes, they are. The FDA regulates cosmetics. 10. Toothpaste strips mean something about toxicity. No, they don't. Those are simply artifacts of the manufacturing procedure and have nothing to do with what's inside a toothpaste. It's hard to be a cosmetic chemist these days as the Internet makes passing myths and BS so easy and many people in the world lack the critical thinking skills to sniff out the BS from reality. But I do find these things interesting as they are almost always rooted in some fact or idea that people got a bit wrong. If you learn of others, please send them along.

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I just finished reading this article about a survey of people and their feelings about animal testing of cosmetics. Unsurprisingly, a large majority of people oppose the testing of cosmetics on animals. But what this article really demonstrates more than people's opinions is a way in which you can structure your survey so that you get results that you want. Here is what they did. Step 1 - Poison the well They use the classic rhetorical device of giving some information that will outrage or shock just about anyone. "Information from numerous animal protection organizations indicates that millions of rabbits, guinea pigs, and mice are killed every year to test cosmetics. The most common testing involves applying cosmetics to animals' eyes and shaved skin to look for harmful effects. Testing can last days to weeks, at which time the animals are killed. While the information they provide isn't necessarily false it primes the respondent to be more apt to answer in a negative way towards any question about the subject of animal testing. If the people who were responsible for the study really wanted to know what respondents thought, they would not have included this information. Step 2 - Ask leading questions The next step to getting a survey to come out the way you want it to is to ask questions which lead most reasonable people to the answer that you want. You phrase the questions in such a way that it is actually uncomfortable to answer in ways that you don't want them to answer. For example, here are some of their questions... 2. For the next few statements please tell me if you strongly agree, somewhat agree, somewhat disagree or strongly disagree with each. A. Testing cosmetics or personal care products on animals is inhumane or unethical Imagine how the responses would be different if they phrased the question like this... A. Selling untested cosmetics or personal care products is inhumane or unethical Both of these questions are biased and lead the respondent to answer the way you want. A proper survey would avoid leading questions. Step 3 - Publicize the results highlighting what you want The final step is to write a press release or blog post that highlights only what you want to get out of the study. So their headline becomes "New Survey Shows 72 percent of Americans Oppose Testing Cosmetics Products on Animals" instead of "More Than a Third of all Americans Expect Companies to Test Cosmetics on Animals. " Both of these headlines are true based on the data but they have markedly different effects on the reader. What's the point? The biggest issue I have with this survey is that it does not meet the objectives of what the authors were trying to do. They state their objective is to "... gain insight into the public’s current knowledge of and opinions on animal testing for cosmetics–and to find out how many Americans are inclined to purchase cruelty-free cosmetics... " But they...

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For the most part I find Euromonitor to be a credible source of cosmetic market information. They do a good job of collecting sales data, monitoring new products and identifying trends. But I found this article about R&D being the key to success in the cosmetic industry to be a bit off. The person who wrote the report doesn't seem to realize the connection between cosmetic formulations and success in the marketplace. The reality is, there isn't much. This might sound blasphemous coming from a cosmetic formulator, but it is reality. Marketing sells cosmetic products much more than the actual products themselves. And R&D is not the key to cosmetic product success... high quality marketing is. Here are three key reasons why. 1. Consumers are bad judges of what works. The biggest problem that cosmetic formulators face is that consumers are not good at picking out subtle differences in product performance. If you take an identical shampoo formula and simply change the color or fragrance, consumers will report different levels of effectiveness for foaming, viscosity, overall-quality, etc. Even though there is no actual difference in these characteristics, consumers will report differences. Why? Because they are influenced by the Halo Effect. Cosmetic formulators are not able to formulate in a way that overcomes the halo effect. Which means no matter how much better you can make your formula, the success of it will depend on things like fragrance, color, packaging, and marketing story much more than product performance. 2. It's easy to copy a competitor's formula Another reason that R&D is not the key to cosmetic product success is because it is relatively easy to copy your competitor's formula. You can read exactly how to do that in our free ebook we give away in the box on the right column. But basically, you just need to look at the ingredient list, make educated guesses at the cosmetic ingredient levels, and make prototypes until you get it. As we've said before consumers are not a good judge of subtle differences in formulations so you don't even have to make it an exact match to adequately copy a competitor. So if a competitor can copy your formula so easily, putting more effort into perfecting the formula is not going to ensure more success in the marketplace. In reality, you need to make formulas that people like but you don't need to make them any better. Spend your money on marketing because in the long run, that will have a greater return than your formulation R&D. 3. It's difficult to make your product stand out based on performance. Finally, it really is difficult to make your formula stand out based on performance. Consumers already don't notice and your competitor's have access to nearly all the same chemicals that you have. You may be able to select a combination of ingredients that no one has ever thought about but for the most part, cosmetic formulas have been optimized. If you look at the best...

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Here's a news development that could have wider implications for anyone involved in selling natural or organic cosmetics. It seems there was a class action lawsuit against the cosmetic brand Organix. The lawsuit claimed that Organix incorrectly used the terms Organix and organic in their labeling because they did not contain at least 70% organic materials in their manufacture. Rather than go to court, the company settled for some $6. 5 million. The interesting thing about this is that there is no legal requirement in the US that to call yourself organic you need to have 70% organic materials in your formula. By settling the company may be setting a precedent which could prompt other companies to start living up to that standard. There must be something more to the lawsuit that I am missing however as I think if Organix probably could have won the lawsuit if the claim was just against the use of the term "organic" for their particular formulas. Perhaps their lawyers decided that settling was the best move from a financial standpoint. Anyway, it will be interesting to see what impact this has on the organic / natural products of the future. There are still no legal restrictions on using the terms "organic" and "natural" in your advertising for cosmetic products. The FDA has set no legal standards and the USDA (which certifies organic food) does not have any jurisdiction over cosmetics. As long as you are not using their seal, there does not seem to be any restrictions against calling yourself organic. Of course, I'm not a lawyer so if you want to make organic claims and you are worried about the implications of this recent lawsuit, I'd recommend you talk to a lawyer. And if you are interested in formulating natural products, get our free natural formulation guide or join our natural formulation program today.

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Did you know that in the United States it is not permitted by the FDA to just add any old ingredient into your cosmetic for the purposes of changing color? In fact, of all the ingredients in cosmetics colorants are the most highly regulated. This is most likely because historically colorants have also been the most dangerous. Anyway, the only colorants you are allowed to use in the United States are laid out by the FDA and you can find a list of approved cosmetic colorants here. If you are a "natural" formulator there are only a few on the list of approved colorants that you would be allowed to use. They are as follows. Annatto beta-Carotene Caramel Carmine Chlorphyllin Cu complex Guaiazulene Henna Guanine Annatto This is a yellow to orange colorant derived from a shrub that grows in a number of places in the southern hemisphere. It can be used in the US, EU and China. beta-Carotene Another yellow to orange pigment that can be used for cosmetics around the world. It's derived from a fungus and exhibits good stability. Caramel A brown colorant that comes from the burning of sugars like sucrose, dextrose, malt syrup, molasses, etc. It's highly stable and can be used for formulating products around the world. Carmine This is a bright, red colorant which has a bluish shade. It is derived from female conchineal beetles that are collected primarily in Peru. The color can be used in cosmetic products around the world. It was traditionally used to dye textiles. Carmine is also one of the brightest of all natural colorants. Chlorophyl Cu Complex This is a green colorant obtained from alfalfa. To get the final product it is reacted with copper to replace the naturally occurring magnesium found in the molecule. It is approved throughout the world. Guaiazulene This ingredient is a blue colorant that is derived from the chamomile plant. It is legal in the US but is not allowed in products in the EU or China. Henna This is a brown dye derived from the Henna plant. It primarily comes from India. This natural colorant is allowed in the US but not in the EU or China. However, it is specifically prohibited for use in coloring eyelashes and eyebrows due to its known ability to cause irritation. Guanine This colorant is derived from herring fish scales and has a purplish color. It is used in all types of cosmetic products. It is approved for use in the US but not in EU or China. This is primarily because it hasn't been economically feasible to go through the testing to get it approved in these countries. Outside the US While the colors listed are the natural colorants allowed in the US for cosmetics, there are a number of ones approved outside the US so if you are a natural formulator in these markets you might be able to use some of the following. Lycopene - reddish / orange color derived from tomatoes...

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By: Mark Fuller As a Consultant I have the opportunity to work with many start-ups and Entrepreneurs. With the popularity of “Natural” and “Organic” Cosmetics this leads to the bulk of my projects being under these standards. Unfortunately, I have seen some trends which will almost always cause a line to fail. Here are a few lessons that I've learned about natural formulating in the last few years. What are natural cosmetics? “Natural” and “Organic” without further definition are useless terms, much like “new and improved”, “extra strength” and other such marketing terms. Although many clients are becoming more educated my typical client will state in the initial consult that they want their product “Natural. ” When I ask them “what do you mean when you say “Natural? ,” I get a simple response of “you know, Natural. ” If you are going to try and make a product in this market, it is important to know the standards, their requirements and how to comply. Many months ago Perry posted a blog entry that exploring natural cosmetic standards so I will not go into great detail. For the most part you will be formulating under NSF, NPA or USDA Organic standards. Not everything can be natural Are you ready for some heresy? Not every project can or should be “Natural. ” I am sure this will cause some disagreement. For example, I was approached by a client to make a “Natural” Skin Whitening product. Keep in mind that Kojic acid and just about every traditional tyrosine inhibitor is not acceptable under NSF standards. There are numerous botanical extracts, but realistically these are best meant to augment Kojic acid and other actives. The same goes with Anti-aging. In many cases it will be problematic to reach even the 70% Organic threshold in these cases. Organic products “Organic” can be difficult although not impossible. If this is your goal make this clear at the beginning. It will take more work to source the materials. In some cases it will be a challenge to reach the 95% Organic percentage. The costs will be even more than a “Natural” Formulation. More expensive formulas “Natural” and “Organic” cosmetics will cost more to make. The raw materials have a higher documentation standard and extra processing/handling. To truly be a valid product the manufacturer must be registered. These registrations cost money and time to obtain and these costs are passed on to the client. If you are under-funded (as many are) this may not be the sector for you, at least at first. In many cases we will make a traditional product and identify opportunities to transition the product to Natural/Organic later when the company has some business and a following. Importance of documentation Collect and maintain your documentation! This includes MSDS’s, Certificates of Analysis and Organic Certificates. Look closely at your Organic Certificates. They must be registered with the USDA. I have found that in many cases the Organic certificate is only maintained internally by the...

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This is a post by Nitesh Rajput In my previous article I talked about natural cosmetic preservatives. To expand on that topic, here are some key definitions that will be helpful for anyone using natural preservatives to know. Definitions for Cosmetic Preservation ANTIBIOTIC - inhibiting the growth of another organism, used especially of a substance produced by micro-organisms which, in dilute solution, has the capacity to inhibit the growth of, or to destroy, micro-organisms causing infectious diseases. ANTIMICROBIAL - lit. against a microscopic organism, especially a disease causing bacterium. ANTIFUNGAL - lit. against a fungus. ANTISEPTIC - an agent that causes the destruction, or inhibition of growth, of bacteria. BACTERICIDE - a substance that destroys or is capable of destroying bacteria. FUNGICIDE - a means of killing fungi. PRESERVATIVE - a safeguard, a prophylactic, serving to preserve. PROPHYLACTIC - guarding against disease, a preventive of disease. GERMICIDAL - that which kills germs (a rudimentary form of a living thing, whether plant or animal - a micro-organism, especially a malign one). DISINFECTANT - anything which destroys the causes of infection (where an infection can include diseases, pathogenic micro-organisms).

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I was tipped off by one our cosmetic science forum members about a law that was recently passed in the state of Minnesota. According to the law, formaldehyde and formaldehyde donors (like DMDM Hydantoin and Quaternium-18) are banned and it will be illegal to use in products marketed for children. The ban goes into effect August 1, 2014 for manufacturers. Retailers will be able to sell products until August 1, 2015. I wonder if this law will stand. It seems like Minnesota is overstepping their authority and infringing on the authority of the FDA. There may be some lawsuits ahead. Keep an eye on this. In the meantime, start looking for some new preservatives if you are selling anything there.

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This story about University of Kent scientists who have discovered a way to identify the brand of lipstick at a crime scene reminded me of an idea I had a few years back. I'll tell you about it but first, the science. Lipstick and Forensics In their study, scientists figured out a way to use Raman spectroscopy to analyze the composition of a lipstick sample left at the crime scene. In Raman spectroscopy light is shone on the sample and the scattered light is collected. Each type of lipstick has a distinct scattered light signature and this can be used to identify the brand / type. This new technique is particularly useful because it can be done without directly interacting with the sample. Current methods require destruction of the sample for analysis. Forensic Cosmetic Reliability This method of analyzing the sample is interesting but I'm curious how accurate it can be. It seems like they would have to have analyzed every brand of lipstick to be able to identify the brand. Although maybe this kind of thing is just needed to verify that some specific lipstick found at the scene matched that of the victim / suspect or something like that. Interesting. Cosmetics and Forensics As I said the story reminded me of an idea I had a few years back. At that time I gave a talk about cosmetics at a Forensic conference. I told them all about the basics of cosmetics and how they were made. The one thing they wanted to know was how to identify a specific type of cosmetic brand from a sample. I told them there really wasn't a simple way. But there could be a simple way. What if every cosmetic manufacturer was required to put some inexpensive, non-reactive material in their cosmetic formula which would clearly identify who made it? This would make the job of identifying cosmetics simple. You could get government mandates to have every manufacturer comply and you would be able to make a ton of money. Exclusive government contracts. This is a business idea waiting to happen! I wonder what raw material company would be interested in starting this up. hmmmm

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I'm a big fan of the website Reddit. But I just learned they have a section called "Ask a Scientist" where scientists in specific fields answer reader's questions. I scrolled through a few and found a very good discussion on the chemistry of soaps and detergents. Check out the discussion here. Chemistry of soaps and detergents

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As a formulator you should always be on the lookout for new technologies that could support interesting new stories for your products. This story about anti glycation technology used in skin care is a good example. According to the report, a company has found that one of the causes of aging skin is glycation caused by eating sugar. The theory is that if you can stop this glycation from taking place, you can get younger skin. Now, I'm a bit skeptical that the technology would have any additional impact on skin versus just a standard cream alone. Maybe it does and maybe it doesn't. The report certainly doesn't prove it. But the more important thing is that this is a new story and a new angle on anti-aging skin products. This would be the perfect kind of thing to turn into a concept and test with consumers to see if it is a compelling story. Maybe I'll try it.

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This is a post by Nitesh Rajput Cosmetic products become easily contaminated by bacteria and fungi. Containing water, oils, peptides, and carbohydrates, cosmetics are a very good medium for growth of microbes. All these factors contribute to the fact that cosmetic products need preservation to prevent microbial growth, spoiling of the cosmetic product and potential skin infections. Need for cosmetic preservatives The need to control microbial activity is inherent in two major facets of personal care. The first area is that of antimicrobial care where the product helps to retard the growth of topical pathogens, or eliminates them. The second is in the area of preservatives that retard the growth of microbes in personal care product formulations. Cosmetic preservatives have potent antimicrobial properties preventing personal care products effectively from spoiling and prolonging substantially the shelf-life. Some of these agents also have stabilizing effects able to preserve the function of various active ingredients including anti-oxidants (vitamins), emulsifiers and surfactants. Natural Preservatives Among the most effective natural preservatives are essential oils and various herbs such as rosemary, clove, thyme, cinnamon, tea tree and lavender,neem, grape seed etc. which are more organism specific than their synthetic counterparts. This means they may be effective against one organism but not another. They must be carefully blended to create a synergistic effect against a range of organisms. The subject of natural preservatives is one that probably has more academic interest than practical or economic virtue because cosmetic preservatives have to fight a broad range of microbes. However, natural preservatives do give a wonderful marketing angle. Preservative assists The preservative activity can be boosted by operating at as low a pH as possible. Natural acidity could be obtained from one of the many of the alpha hydroxy acids (AHAs) which are obtained from citrus species, where the major components are citric and malic acids. Antioxidants such as natural tocopherol and ascorbic acid will further aid in preservation, as well as reducing the potential rancidity. Why are preservatives necessary? Most cosmetic products contain water and nutrients for microorganisms to grow and flourish. It has been amply demonstrated that inadequately preserved cosmetics can be hazardous to human health. Cosmetics with contaminants are not only unappealing to the eye and smell bad, but they may also be pathogenic resulting in the need for medical attention. Skin infections can result from contaminated body products, especially when applied to cracked dry skin. Cosmetics are often stored in the bathroom where the environment is warm and moist. Our skin carries an abundance of microorganisms in addition to tap water which in turn is not sterile. Often times this water is introduced into products in either accidentally or even on purpose. The most carefully prepared products may become contaminated under these circumstances. What to look for when choosing a Preservative Ideally, when looking for a suitable preservative for cosmetics there are many things to be considered and to look for: 1. What ingredients are you using? Are they oil soluble or water-soluble? 2. What...

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This is a guest post by cosmetic chemist Cindy Yu. Passion. It's one of the driving forces in my life and emphasized through my four years of membership with the Midwest Society of Cosmetic Chemists (MWSCC). The MWSCC fosters an environment that promotes the use of my science degree while fulfilling my artistic endeavors. This unique exposure to understanding the balance of science and artistry became an unexpected passion. This is my personal account of my journey with the Midwest Society of Cosmetic Chemists and how they have greatly influenced and mentored me through my professional career by reinforcing the idea that passion can be your most powerful source for inspiration. Starting out Reflecting back, there were a series of lessons that were beyond just professional, they were more like life lessons, which the MWSCC taught me both directly and indirectly. First, I began my journey with my serendipitous encounter with the personal care industry. My knowledge of this industry was completely nonexistent during my years at the University of Illinois. It was only when I landed an internship with a surfactant company inside their Personal Care R&D department that sparked my exposure to this dynamic field. That summer, learning about the chemical “workhorses” that make up the majority of personal care products was really only scratching the surface, and it ignited my interest in this area. After graduation, I was fortunate enough to begin my professional career working as an Application Specialist in the Personal Care segment of an ingredient supplier company. Not even weeks into my first job, the words “Society of Cosmetic Chemists” and of joining the Midwest Chapter were encouraged. That was my introduction to the organization. Joining the SCC The Midwest Chapter has been my backbone and source of motivation throughout my four years of working in this industry. Not only is the MWSCC encouraging in their overarching dedication to the advancement of this field, but my admiration is largely due to the relationship development and warmth of the individuals that make the society what it is today. Memories of walking through the doors of my first MWSCC meeting takes me back to that feeling of nervousness that surged through my mind, and just as quickly, those feelings vanished when my eyes greeted the friendly, welcoming smiles of its members. It is true that first impressions make an impact but more importantly, the continued positive interactions and conversations with the people were engaging enough to make myself a devoted member. Heart and soul embodies the Midwest and with that said, it is a fitting description of those individuals I had the privilege of crossing paths with. Professional development Through the years, the support of the chapter paved a foundation that has shaped me into the scientist and professional that I am today. The SCC as a whole has encouraged my curiosity and has challenged my approach to conventional problem solving. Organized by members, there have been numerous educational opportunities striving to provide a broader understanding...

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Yesterday I played in the Midwest SCC annual golf outing. It was great fun and I was pleased to have the opportunity to golf with some nice & interesting cosmetic chemists. While golf outings don't seem like they have much to do with cosmetic chemistry, they are quite common in our industry and there are a number of reasons you should participate (even if you don't like golf). Here are just a few. Benefits of participating in a cosmetic industry golf outing 1. Catching up with old friends - When you're in the lab you only get to talk to people in your immediate group and company. But with the way people move around there are plenty of people at different companies that you'll never hear from. A golf outing is a great way to reconnect. 2. Building your network - Golf outings provide an excellent opportunity to meet new people. Typically, there will be over 70 people and a good number of them will be people you don't know. Make it a point to introduce yourself to all of them. 3. Getting to know someone on a deeper level - When you are golfing, you get about 4+ hours of sitting next to someone in a golf cart. Ideally, this will be someone who you don't know very well. Ask questions about their life and the things that are important to them. You can also ask about their company and see if there are things that you might try to get implemented in your own. 4. Find new business opportunities - If you are an entrepreneure or sales person a golf outing is a great opportunity to find out the main problems the people you are there with are having. You can then try to come up with solutions for them. 5. Get formulation problems solved - Use some of the time you spend with your golfing group to ask questions and see if they can help you with any problems you're facing at the moment. You may have to be oblique about your meaning as not to reveal secret company projects but if you are having some specific formulation issue this could be a great time to get ideas on how to fix it. 6. Learn about new career opportunities - Golf outings bring a number of people from different companies together in one place. This is a great chance for you to learn about potential job leads if you are looking. If you are unemployed or just looking for a change, a golf outing is a great opportunity to kickstart your career. 7. Industry gossip - You'll get plenty of industry gossip at a golf outing. While it may seem superfoulous industry gossip can be an important way to connect deeper with other scientists and learn things that can be important to your current or future career. 8. Free food and Prizes - Of course there is the free food and prizes. Who doesn't like that? What...

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I recently received the book Organic Chemistry for Cosmetic Chemists and am pleased to have it on my cosmetic science book shelf. It fills in a number of gaps that I realized peppered my scientific knowledge. If you want to take your confidence in the science of cosmetic chemistry, this book is a must-read. Organic Chemistry and the cosmetic chemist Before going into the formal review of the book, you should know a fact about cosmetic formulating. You do not need to know much about organic chemistry to be a competent formulator. It's much more important to know about the raw materials and the properties that they bring to your formula. Formulating is actually the opposite of the labs you might have done in Organic Chemistry. In Organic Chemistry you mix together ingredients and hope there is some kind of chemical reaction. In Formulating you mix together ingredients and hope there are no reactions! While knowledge of organic chemistry isn't critical to becoming a competent formulator, it is critical to become a good or even great formulator. A good background in organic chemistry will make you better at Creating initial formulas Predicting what ingredients will do Solving stability problems Optimizing formulas Finding cost savings ideas Efficiently creating new formulation If you are serious about a career as a cosmetic chemist, you need to have a solid background in organic chemistry. And this book, Organic Chemistry for Cosmetic Chemists by Anthony O'Lenick and Thomas O'Lenick is the best one on the subject for cosmetic chemists. I've always wanted to have a refresher in organic chemistry as it wasn't one of my better subjects in college, but my old college organic chemistry book was just not specific enough for my job as a cosmetic formulator. That's what makes this book so incredibly useful. Book Layout The book opens with a reviewing of nomenclature of organic compounds. This is pretty standard in most organic chemistry books and the authors do an excellent job of going through the material. After reviewing this chapter you will be in a much better position to understand the raw materials that suppliers bring to you. I also appreciated the quiz provided at the end of the chapter. This is a feature of many of the chapters which adds greatly to the usefulness of the book. The second chapter gives a high level overview of the ways in which the majority of cosmetic compounds are synthesized. It shows you the routes of creation from starting materials such as natural oils, petroleum, and minerals. The chapter gives handy flow charts which show clearly which raw materials are converted into which final cosmetic compounds. It also gives the fatty acid distribution of commonly used natural oils. Chapter 3 is more of a set-up for the rest of the book. It simply describes the strategies of raw material synthesis and explains why knowing this information will be helpful to the cosmetic chemist. It feels short but it does help give context to...

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Sometime in the early 1990's when I first started in the cosmetic industry, I read a news story (I think it was in C&E News) about snail slime and how shiny it was when it dried. This got me thinking that it would make an excellent hair shine ingredient. Unfortunately, the raw material suppliers were skeptical of the idea and didn't have any readily available source of snail slime so the idea just kinda died there. Imagine my surprise and delight to read this story about a new cosmetic ingredient derived from snail slime. It was interesting to learn that there have been companies producing snail-slime based cosmetics since the 1990's. Who knew? The way they are marketing the products sounds like BS what with all the cosmeceutical and skin healing references. But I would be interested to see how well it works in a hair product. Can it really get you the shine equivalent to a silicone? And why would anyone use it anyway? If someone wants to send me a sample, I'd be happy to try it out.

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When you are first getting out of college and looking to start your career in the cosmetic industry, it is helpful to know what type of companies for which you might be able to work. To best understand this you need to know how the cosmetic industry is set up. We'll start with the consumer and work backwards. Finished Goods Distributors Consumers are the ones who will ultimately buy cosmetics so they need some way to get them. Most mass-market cosmetics get to consumers through drug stores, department stores, mass market stores, supermarkets, specialty shops, or even online retailers like Drugstore. com or Amazon. com. While these companies do not usually hire cosmetic chemists, they may hire someone who knows the regulatory environment or a cosmetic chemist consultant who can educate them about their products. The Finished Goods Distributors typically have the most power of any company in the industry because they deal directly with the consumer. In the US, Walmart is the biggest of the big and they can frequently make or break a cosmetic product. Finished Goods Manufacturers These are the companies that create the products that are sold by the Finished Goods Distributors. They can be giant companies like P&G, Unilever, or L'Oreal, or they can be smaller companies like Carmex or Bonne Bell. These companies are also the ones that are most likely to have an R&D department who hires cosmetic chemists for formulators, QA/QC scientists, process engineering, claims scientists and more. While the Finished Goods Manufacturers frequently give in to the demands of the Finished Goods Distributors, they are clearly the second most power companies in the cosmetic industry. Every other company services the Finished Goods Manufacturer in some way. Contract Manufacturers These companies are a lot like the finished goods manufacturers but rather than marketing the finished cosmetic product, they simply make the products for other people to market. They hire the same types of scientists as the Finished Goods Manufacturers, just fewer of them. If you work for one of these companies you tend to work on a wide variety of formulations so you have to be a well-rounded formulator. You also will tend to have a lot of projects to work on at once. Since you get to make purchasing decisions people who work for these companies tend to have more sway in the industry than most. You also tend to work more. And if you are looking to start your own cosmetic line, these are the companies that are best to work with. Suppliers Suppliers are the companies that provide the manufacturers with all the things they need to make the products. Of most prominence are the raw material suppliers. They hire sales people who visit with cosmetic chemists, show off the latest raw materials, and man booths at trade shows. Raw material suppliers also hire technical service chemists who figure out how the company's raw materials can be best incorporated into formulations. They really are a great technical resource for...

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I've always thought a tool like this would be useful for consumers. BASF thinks it is a tool that would be useful for formulators. They do link to formulas to get the look so it's a bit helpful if you're trying to make color cosmetics. Either way, it's amusing to see what you might look like with various products. In my case, it's not exactly pretty. But it is pretty fun. Try it out BASF Virtual Make-over Tool Here is my experiment with the tool. It's a cosmetic chemist makeover

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While it doesn't come up too often when creating cosmetic formulations, it is useful for cosmetic chemists to know the concept of Traube's Rule. At the very least it will help you understand why some of your raw materials contain one surfactant over another and could give you a clue on how to fix potential stability problems. Traube's Rule Traube's Rule is a relationship between hydrocarbon chain length and surfactant activity. It states that for every extra CH2 group in a surfactant molecule, the surface activity approximately triples. So, shorter chain length molecules have less surface activity than higher chain length molecules. In terms of cleansing or emulsification that means you can get away with using a much lower concentration of a longer chain length surfactant. Let's look at the example of Sodium Lauryl Sulfate (C12) and Sodium Cetyl Sulfate (C16). Using Traube's Rule we know that the Sodium Cetyl Sulfate will have 81 times the surface activity of Sodium Lauryl Sulfate at the same concentration. Theoretically, that would be a big cost savings if you switched over your formulas! But alas, it doesn't quite work that way. You see Traube's Rule only applies to dilute aqueous solutions of surfactants. Solutions that are so dilute that the surfactants don't form micelles. That wouldn't apply to most cosmetics. However, this represents the edges of scientific research and it might be interesting to do an experiment to see what the lowest level of surfactant you could use to have a functional, consumer acceptable cleansing product. Maybe Traube's Rule could help. Decreasing surface activity Incidentally, there is a similar but opposite effect if you increase the length of the hydrocarbon chain using ethylene oxide which is hydrophilic. That means molecules with higher numbers of PEG will be more water soluble than ones with lower numbers. References Interested in more detail about this and other surfactant subjects? Check out this link.

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When I first started in the cosmetic formulation business, there was no such thing as formulation software. I did my cosmetic formulations using a lined notebook and a calculator. It was tedious and slow, but it certainly made formulas more memorable. In the later 1990's Lotus 1-2-3 spreadsheets became available and I quickly switched over to using this as my preferred formulation creation method. It had the advantage of being quicker, neater, and more accurate. This gave way to the Microsoft Excel spreadsheet which was a little easier to integrate with the software package our company was using. I optimized my formulation spreadsheet and you can get a free copy here. Cosmetic Formulation Spreadsheet To tell you the truth, this was all I ever needed for doing my formulation work. It works. It's easy to use, it's easy to change, it's easy to read and it's free. Using a spreadsheet like this has a number of advantages. But there are a number of disadvantages such as... 1. Harder to update 2. Harder to search 3. Difficult to see formulation patterns 4. Harder to integrate with company computer systems 5. Harder to optimize formulas For these and other reasons, a number of companies have come out with formulation software meant to make life easier for cosmetic chemists. Do they really? I don't know. Only you can tell by trying the software out. However, to try out the formulation software you have to know which ones there are. So, here is a list of all the cosmetic formulation software packages that I could find. You may want to try them out because a number of them have free trial packages. If you are disappointed with the way you are currently creating and tracking formulas, these might be a good option. Formulation software solutions for cosmetic chemists Creativity Formulation Software This is a popular choice among people who use formulation software products. You have to pay a licensing fee to use it full-time but they do have a fully functional free 30-day trial version. I'm not sure you can learn a lot in 30 days of using it but it may be worth checking out. Whether it's worth paying the fee is another matter. Valdata Systems Here's another popular choice. It allows you to do formulation creation, costing, and maintain a database of raw materials. Best of all you can get a free version of the software for a single user. This one is well worth trying out if your test driving formulation software options. Mar-Kov Recipe Manager This is a complete formulation and cosmetic production software solution. You can create formulas, do formulation costing, and print out batch sheets. There are even collaboration tools for you to work with other cosmetic formulators. Costs range from $9 to $49 a month. You can also get a free 30-day trial of the software. If you can find more benefit from the software than the $120+ a year it will cost, it might be worth...

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Interview begins at 11:30 Priscilla Taylor Priscilla Taylor is a senior developer at ULProspector. She has been in personal care formulation for over 20 years developing products for companies such as Helene Curtis and Unilever. Lori Gery Lori Gery is the vice president of global marketing at Innovadex. Shehas many accomplishments in the areas of brand strategy, consumer insights, innovation and business management. She had previously worked Unilever as brand development manager for brands like Axe and Suave. Click here to visit ULProspector. com. -------------- Other segments - Best cosmetic science books. Best cosmetic science magazines. Announcements Sign up for the formulating cosmetics program. Cosmetic science forum. Follow us on Twitter Like us on Facebook

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We received a new book from Allured called Cosmetics Made Absolutely Simple. It's a basic introduction to the field of cosmetics and is a translation from a Japanese version which was published in 2009. Overall, the information in the book is excellent. The book represents a significant departure from other Allured books in that it is cartoon illustrated and has color throughout. Definitely not the type of book one would expect. Book layout Cosmetics Made Absolutely Simple is presented in 6 sections including sections on the cosmetic industry, the biology of skin and hair, cosmetic technology, cosmetic chemistry and the future of the industry. Each section is broken up into chapters but really they are too short to be considered as such. The format of each "chapter" is two pages. One page has a description of the topic while the other page has an illustration that further describes the text. For an introductory work on the subject it is an interesting and effective way to present the information. The first section covers the cosmetic industry. It includes a definition of cosmetics worldwide, a brief history, and some good, up-to-date worldwide cosmetic market data. The second section goes into surprising detail about skin and skin biology. From the cartoony illustrations you wouldn't expect the type of details that you get but each chapter in this section is packed interesting factoids. While the bulk of the chapter is about skin it also covers hair, nails, and the perception of color. In the third section the chemistry of cosmetics is reviewed. The author covers all the basic technologies such as surfactants, polymers, fragrance but also includes more detailed discussions on foam and water. The choices of what to include and exclude are somewhat unclear but the information provided is interesting. The fourth section focuses on the way that specific cosmetic formulations work. It covers skin moisturization, hair conditioning, color cosmetics, nail products and more. The topics are covered in a very high-level way and no specific formulations are given. However, after reading this section the beginner will have a good overview of how most cosmetics work. The fifth section deals more with product development describing topics such as product stability, testing and safety. While the information is good this section seems less organized than previous ones and it may have been better to combine the fourth and fifth sections. In the final section is titled cosmetics of the future but it is more focused on current technologies. This section would have been better called functional cosmetics as it goes through the product topics that hadn't been covered thus far such as oral products, anti-aging, anti-acne, and more. Only in the final pages is a discussion on cosmetic future to be found. Who is this book for? The book is definitely an introduction to the industry and is a very high-level review of it. However, a lot of detail can be found on many of the topics and I learned a number of things...

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It's difficult to know where the claim or idea comes from but I frequently hear people say that there are "synthetic fillers" in cosmetics. You even get some natural marketing brands who tout the fact that they don't use "cheap synthetics or exotic fillers". Somehow this is supposed to make their products better. Of course, it doesn't make them better. Less might be more in the food world, but not in the cosmetic world. I want to dispel the myth right now... *fillers are not used in creating cosmetics! It makes absolutely no sense. What are fillers? The term filler comes from the food industry. Food fillers are additives that increase the weight/volume of a food with less expensive ingredients. This keeps production costs down. For example, some flour-based fillers are added to meats to increase the bulk. That's how fast food places can make more burgers using less actual meat. But this concept makes no sense for cosmetic formulations. Cosmetic formualtions If we want to reduce the cost of a formula while increasing the weight / volume we add more solvent. And for most cosmetics that means adding more water. However, you can't simply add more and more water to the formula. While fillers in food can be seasoned to reduce the impact, solvents can not be modified to reduce their impact on the final formula performance. And if a cosmetic doesn't perform well people will not continue to buy it! While there are a number of ways to reduce the cost of a cosmetic formula, adding fillers is not one of them. Potential cosmetic fillers There are some ingredients that are like fillers in that they are added to a formula but aren't expected to have any impact on the performance. These are called "claims" ingredients. They are the natural extracts, sciencey sounding materials, and special feature ingredients that are added simply to support the marketing story that the company wants to portray. Although even these ingredients aren't properly called fillers because while they have no impact on the performance, they also have almost no impact on the formula cost. They are used at such low levels that they are hardly noticed in the bottom line. So the next time you hear someone asking about fillers in cosmetic products just tell them no. There are NO fillers in cosmetic products. *After writing this I thought about color cosmetics and indeed fillers are used in these formulations. Powdered cosmetic products do contain fillers. They are used for very good reasons because they improve performance but they also increase the cost of the formula.

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It's been a little while since we've done a dissecting the label so let's do one. Today we will look at the Old Spice Fresh Collection Denali Body Wash. Incidentally, if you have products for which you want us to dissect the label, just send along your ideas. Old Spice Denali Body Wash LOI First, we list the LOI in the order presented. Water, Sodium Laureth Sulfate, Sodium Sulfate, Sodium Lauryl Sulfate, Fragrance, Cocamidopropyl Betaine, Citric Acid, Sodium Benzoate, Disodium EDTA, Methylchloroisothiazolinone, Methylisothiazolinone, Green 3, Yellow 10. The 1% line This is a pretty simple, straightforward formula. It just goes to show you that you don't need a complicated cosmetic formula to make one that sells well. This Old Spice Body Wash is one of the best selling products on Amazon. There really isn't anything special in this formula. The diluent is water, then a few detergents, fragrance, adjustment ingredients, preservative and color. The 1% line is most likely just before Citric Acid or maybe before the Fragrance. This product is highly fragranced however, so the Citric Acid is probably the best guess. What the ingredients do There are so few ingredients that we can list each of them and say what they do. 1. Water - The diluent. Probably makes up about 85% of the formula 2. Sodium Laureth Sulfate, Sodium Sulfate, Sodium Lauryl Sulfate - This is the primary detergent system. The SLES and the SLS are detergents. The sodium sulfate is a reactant that is used to produce both the detergents. I'm not really sure why it is listed on the ingredient list as it is unlikely to exist in that form when in the formulation. However, this could be a result of tankless processing in which the detergents are made as the formulation is created. 3. Fragrance - This is to make it smell better. There is typically a high level in body washes as the product is designed to cover odors. 4. Cocamidopropyl Betaine - A secondary surfactant to reduce irritation and make a creamier foam. 5. Citric Acid - Used to adjust the pH as necessary. 6. Sodium Benzoate, Disodium EDTA - Part of the preservative system. The EDTA softens up the cell membranes and the sodium benzoate kills some of the microbes. 7. Methylchloroisothiazolinone, Methylisothiazolinone - The rest of the preservative system. This ingredient goes by the trade name Kathon. It may be popular in the future as it is paraben and formaldehyde free. However, it is also a known sensitizer to some people and is not even close to be considered natural so maybe not. 8. Green 3, Yellow 10 - This product is all about fragrance and color so they add a good slug of color to make it look the way the story wants it to look. This is about as simple a body wash as you can make. Color, fragrance, detergent, preservative and water. Claims There are very few functional claims in the story of this product. At the...

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Here's an informative video for anyone who is just getting started in the college career and thinks they might be interested in studying cosmetics. Yours truly is doing a couple of guest lectures this fall.

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In the comment section of a past blog post someone asked me why more cosmetic chemists don't have their own line. This is a pretty good question. After all cosmetic chemists are the ones who best know how to make the products. Shouldn't they be the ones who launch them? Perhaps, but here are 9 reasons I could think of why a cosmetic chemist wouldn't start a cosmetic line. Many of these are the same reason that other people with business ideas never get started. They like being in the lab Most everyone who becomes a cosmetic chemist got some kind of science degree. It is an over-generalization, but it's also true that a large percentage of people who get science degrees are introverts who prefer to be away from people. They like to work on their own or in a small group and the thought of leaving the lab is unappealing. To start your own cosmetic line you need to interact with a lot of people and be willing to get out of the lab. They like formulating One of the greatest things about being a cosmetic chemist is that you get to mix chemicals together in various proportions to create formulations that you like to use. You get to weigh out the raw materials, adjust your mixer, control the heat and see all the cool things that go on in a batch while you're making it. It can be incredibly fun. But when you start your own line very little of your time will be spent on formulation. Much more of your time will be spent outside the lab selling your product, writing concepts or advertising copy, or just running the business. When you have your own product line these activities occupy much more of your time than formulating. They are comfortable in their job Most cosmetic chemists have jobs which may not make them rich, but does allow them to live a rather comfortable, low-stress life. It is hard for most people to give up a job with benefits and a guaranteed salary to pursue their dream of launching a cosmetic line. I know many cosmetic chemists who have great ideas but don't want to jeopardize their secure jobs. If you are going to start your own line you are going to have to accept a certain degree of uncertainty. They are afraid to take the risk This applies to most people as well as to cosmetic chemists. Starting your own cosmetic line is a risk both financially and emotionally. Their is a very real chance you might fail. This is reason enough for many cosmetic chemists to keep their day job and not start that cosmetic line they have in their head. Fear of failure is a big deterrent. It's also one you need to overcome if you want to start your own cosmetic line. One way to overcome this fear is to just imagine the worse thing that could happen; then imagine how you would...

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It bothers me to see people waste money on cosmetic products that do not work better than less expensive versions. Furthermore, it troubles me to read some of the marketing nonsense that some companies use to trick consumers into buying their products. The most egregious violators are small companies who imply their products are safer than products of large cosmetic companies. However, big cosmetic companies are not above using tricks and BS to sell their products either. This leaves consumers in a tough spot as they don't know what to believe and they also do not know what products are the best. They want products that work. But they don't want to feel like they are getting ripped off. For that reason, I'm going to share who makes the best products at the best price. From a formulator's perspective it's also important for you to know who makes the best products. That way you know who's formulas you are going to have to out-compete in the marketplace. Big Companies make the Best Cosmetic Products In America there is a natural tendency to mistrust big corporations. There is something uncomfortable about seeing the big guys crush the little guys. It just doesn't "feel" right. We root for the little guy. We want the small companies to win. I feel it too. But this isn't reality. Reality is that big corporations have money. They spend money on manufacturing equipment. They spend money on formulators. They spend money on lab equipment, consumer testing, packaging development, raw materials and everything else. And the truth is, this investment means they are able to come up with formulations that are the most effective and most liked by the most number of consumers. In general, big companies make the best cosmetic products. They also sell them at the best prices. Small companies can make great cosmetic products Of course, just because a big company can spend more money on R&D, testing, packaging, advertising and everything else, that doesn't mean a small company can't make great products. They can. Most of you will be working for smaller companies and you know that you can make formulations that are just as good. In fact, for some groups of consumers products from small companies may actually be better. I'm referring to niche consumers that need products specialized for them. Big corporations don't want to fill the needs of niche consumers because the market is typically too small. If KAO wants to create a hundred million dollars in new sales, it doesn't make sense for them to go after a consumer group that represents only $10 million potential. That is where a small company can make inroads. Small companies can thrive in creating products for niche consumers that are being overlooked by big corporations. This is why it still makes sense for people to start your own cosmetic line. The best cosmetic products In the end, whether a cosmetic works or not is highly dependent on personal preferences. All shampoos clean...

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Here's a fun video for a Friday. How do you wash your hair in space? Here's how.

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The truth about cosmetic science is that there is not much basic research going on. In fact, there are a number of questions that remain unknown primarily because no one has taken the time or spent the money to investigate them. However, that doesn't mean there is no basic research happening, for example there is this story about research conducted on hair by P&G scientists. Copper is bad for hair In their studies, researchers determined that one cause of damaged hair is a build-up of copper in the fibers. This copper comes from tap water and is soaked up by the hair. Once in there, it catalyzes all kinds of chemical reactions that break down hair from the inside and cause damage. And damaged hair is unruly hair. Formulating for damage While conditioners are proven to make hair better, this research suggests you could improve your hair formulations by adding chelating agents like Disodium EDTA. I'm not sure if you will see a measureable effect but this is a great area for further experiment. So, the next time you're creating a hair formulation, crank up the level of EDTA and see if you notice any difference. You might just reduce hair damage.

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In your cosmetic formulating career don't be surprised if something like the following happens. You spend months and months developing a new shampoo formulation. You test & re-test. Formulate and re-formulate. Until finally, you get the perfect formula. The shampoo to end all shampoos. Nothing beats it in lab tests. It wins every trained panel test. By all measures it is great. Then you give it to consumers against a standard control and they notice no difference. Why? The Halo Effect strikes again. Your consumers couldn't notice the specialness of your formula because they were too distracted with the fragrance, color, and packaging. While we've previously written about the Halo Effect, I don't think cosmetic chemists realize just how powerful it can be. As an example, consider this recent report from the BBC about cutlery and its effect on the taste of food. Cutlery affects taste According to their research, white spoons make yogurt taste better than red or blue spoons. And eating cheese with a knife makes it taste more salty than when it's eaten with a fork. Smaller spoons also increased the sweetness of certain foods. Of course, there is no chemical reason why this should be the case. These are all psychological affects and they are extremely important in the world of food. They are also important in the world of formulating cosmetics. If you want to create the best formulation that you can, you need to consider (and test) the color of the formula, the fragrance you're going to use and the packaging. You cannot get hung up on making minor improvements to a formula when some of the biggest impact is going to be on the type of packaging that you use. The moral of the story... test all aspects of your product while in the product development phase. The chemicals in the cosmetic formulation have a limited effect on satisfaction. Color, package, and fragrance and at least (or maybe more) important.

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The skin info at the beginning is fascinating.

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The most frequent type of formulation questions we get here on Chemists Corner are about preservatives. Specifically, people ask about alternatives to parabens. And while we've written about alternative cosmetic preservatives, the desire for these seems misplaced because it is based on the flawed notion that parabens are dangerous. Paraben Danger? The idea that parabens are dangerous got it's biggest boost in 2004 with a study published by Darbre. Essentially, the claim was that parabens were present in human breast tumors and the implication was that there might be some causal effect. There were also some studies suggesting an oestrogenic effect of parabens. These studies were enough for chemical fearmongering groups to call for a ban of parabens. Others called for the implementation of the Precautionary Principle which states that if an ingredient seems like it might be dangerous then it shouldn't be used until it is demonstrated not to be dangerous. Although, it seems the real meaning of the Precautionary Principle is that if an ingredient is suspected of being dangerous it should never be used again. I come to this conclusion because of the recent declarations by the independent EU science-based organization the SCCS. Who is the SCCS? The SCCS stands for the Scientific Committee on Consumer Safety. It is an EU-based group of independent scientists who are responsible for evaluating research done on the safety of ingredients and advising the EU legislative bodies on whether things are safe or not. The most important part of this organization is that they are independent and are not paid for by the cosmetic industry. These are scientists who have no vested interest in the way that the science turns out. If they found that parabens were dangerous, they would say so. It is a common complaint in the US that the CIR, the group that has the same function in the US, is funded by the cosmetic industry. But the SCCS is not industry funded and no conflict exists. What did they find about parabens? The SCCS has published a number of opinions on parabens since 2005. Their most comprehensive study was published in 2011 which determined that Methylparaben and Ethylparaben were safe when used at approved levels (0. 4% individually & 0. 8% combined). Since these are the two most commonly used parabens cosmetic chemists still have good formulation options. They took some more time to look at butylparaben and propylparaben. And the latest SCCS opinion... these are safe when used at the suggested concentrations of 0. 19% or less. So, will people who following the Precautionary Principle now back off and agree that parabens have been proven to be safe? If not, what more information will people need? Precautionary Principle Problems This is the problem I have with the Precautionary Principle. No one ever seems to define the time when an ingredient is deemed "proven safe. " If you have independent scientific experts saying something is safe and you don't accept that, what will critics ever accept?

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In the US, July 4th is a holiday and it's tradition to shoot off fireworks. Ever wonder about the chemistry of these devices? Check out these two videos that explain them. and then the sound

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People often accuse the cosmetic industry of lying. This is rarely the case. And for large cosmetic companies, it is almost never the case, at least in advertising. So how is it that cosmetic companies almost never lie but consumers believe they do? The answer is simple... weasel words. What are weasel words? Weasel words are phrases used in advertising (or press releases) which convey an impression of meaning without actually saying it. When taken literally, the phrase is demonstrably true. However, the impression that the reader gets from the phrase is different than what is actually being said. You see them all the time in news stories and politics. Instead of pro or anti abortion, it is Pro-Life and Pro-Choice. Instead of calling someone who blows up a building a Freedom Fighter, one side might call the Terrorists. Neither phrase is a lie, just a tricky way of conveying a message. Weasel words are frequently used in the cosmetic industry. Cosmetic Weasel Word Examples "Formulated with" - This is a pretty common trick that you will see cosmetic companies do. They will add the qualifier "with" to claims about the formula so it implies that the ingredient is responsible for the product effect but what it really is saying is that the formula is. For example "Formulated with concentrated levels of our unique antioxidant complex and skin-firming pro-retinol complex to boost and maintain skin's elasticity. " Or the more subtle version "XXX moisturizer contains the highest concentration of kinetin and provides ultimate hydration for dry or environmentally compromised skin. " In both cases you get the implication that the ingredient "Kinetin" or the "unique antioxidant complex " is responsible for the benefit but in fact the sentence really says the formula is what makes it work. As a cosmetic chemist you will often have to add ingredients in your formula to support these weasel word claims even though you know the ingredient will not have any effect whether it is in the formula or not. Thus is the reality of cosmetic product marketing. Number claims - Consumers love numbers. Mostly because it gives them an easy way to compare. If 2X is good than 4X must be twice as good. Or if 50% is good, 200% must be stupendous. But the truth is these claims by cosmetic companies are mostly weasel words. They don't mean what consumers think they mean. Take this hair strength example... 5X More Strength and Smoothness. This hair product gives you the impression that it will make your hair stronger but it won't. What it does is reduce the amount of hair breaking that you experience so it seems like your hair is stronger. They tip their hand by the addition of the following clarifier (In brushing/combing tests, compared to an ordinary shampoo) It's a perfectly legal claim that happens to have the effect of making it seem like the product makes hair stronger. Weasel words are a way of life in the cosmetic industry....

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Many of you are formulators who have notions of starting your own cosmetic line. In fact, some of you may have even made formulations in your kitchen and are wondering how to start selling. Before you do that, it is a good idea to see what the FDA has to say about manufacturing procedures. Here is a full report they recently updated on the subject of cosmetic good manufacturing practices. While we encourage you to study the entire document, here are some tips to ensure that you are following appropriate cosmetic manufacturing procedures. Production Rules The first thing to know is that it is illegal in the US to sell misbranded or adulterated cosmetics. This essentially means you have to be able to prove that the cosmetics you sell are safe and labeled properly. To do this you will have to properly test it doing stability testings, safety testing, and microbial challenge testing. See this post we did on the tests needed to sell a cosmetic product. Documentation To prove that you are following GMP when producing your cosmetics you should capture the proper documentation. You should write down in procedure form everything about how you are making your products. Set up a coding system for all your batches and have a way to back track to see when something was made, what specific raw materials were used, how it was filled, initial batch specifications, etc. Not only will this help you prove the safety of your product, it could also help troubleshoot problems if any occur. Keeping records The FDA recommends keeping electronic versions of all your documentation. This is easy enough with computers and handheld smart phones. In fact, if you still want to work with paper just take a photo of the paper after you've finished filling it out. No need to keep paper copies when an electronic one will work just as well. Manufacturing facilities While some people might be making products in their kitchen, it is a much better idea to have a space separated from your living area to create your formulations. Many cosmetic chemist consultants have labs built in their basements or garages. Ultimately, if you are serious about making your own formulas, you will need to have a dedicated facility. Equipment The FDA simply talks about how you should keep equipment clean and calibrated. They don't say what type of equipment you need to have. If you are interested in this, see our post on essential equipment for a cosmetic lab. Raw Materials The FDA recommends having a method for identifying raw materials and a place to appropriately store them. Most raw materials come with a name and a lot number written on them. When I was at Alberto Culver we had a 4-digit code for every raw material. It makes a lot of sense for you to develop your own internal code by which you label all your incoming raw materials. That way if you get an ingredient from multiple suppliers...

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This is a pretty good video showing how hair grows. It also explains how you can lose about 100 hairs a day. I'm not sure I agree with one part where they say hair can be repaired only when it is attached to the follicle but I'll give them a pass on this minor detail. Overall, good job. For a cosmetic chemist it is important to know the basic biology of how hair grows and how skin grows. Enjoy. http://www. youtube. com/watch? v=nQVZwk8TNGE

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Advertising and selling in the cosmetic industry can be tricky. Even the big companies get it wrong sometimes. This report about Unilever's recent body wash ads is a perfect demonstration. Regulating Cosmetic Advertising In the United States cosmetic advertising is regulated. No really, it is. The government body who controls such things is the National Advertising Division (NAD) of the Federal Trade Commission. The NAD is the place where companies can file complaints against other companies they believe are communicating misleading advertising. In the case of this body wash ad Henkle, the owners of Dial Body Wash, objected to the way Unilever portrayed Dove as less harsh than Dial. There were side-by-side demonstrations and even an image of the Dial body wash bottle wrapped in barbed wire. Claims don't wash Well, the NAD agreed that Unilever went too far. They said Dove was making some implied harshness claims that were not supported by specific studies. Unilever tried to support their claims using published literature that generally showed surfactants are more harsh, but that explanation was rejected because they didn't do a study directly comparing their product to Dial. I suspect that this kind of study was done and the results were inconclusive but we can't know for sure. In the end, the NAD asked Unilever to change their ads and stop using the barbed wire image. That's a lesson for anyone who wants to make a direct (or indirect) comparison between your product and a named competitor. Conduct a study that directly compares your products or don't make the claim.

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We try to keep this website focused primarily on education. Specifically, educating cosmetic chemists, formulators, cosmetic marketers and anyone else interested in working in the cosmetic industry. So, I have to admit upfront that this post is more ranting than it is educating. However, this is an issue that should be important to everyone who works in the cosmetic industry. The issue is Chemical Fearmongering and the websites that propagate it. What prompted me to write this was an article I saw published by the folks over at SpecialChem4Cosmetics. com. I often recommend them as a good resource for cosmetic chemists and I am particularly impressed with their INCI Directory. I will continue to recommend them as a resource but the latest article they published titled The Ugly Truth About Beauty Products: What's in Your Cosmetics Could be Killing You is downright ridiculous. While I can overlook the fact that it was written by a personal injury lawyer (why isn't there some requirement that scientists write about scientific questions? ), I cannot over look the distortion of facts, the shoddy research, the terrible advice and the biased chemical fearmongering running throughout the piece. It is an outrage that a resource like SpecialChem4Cosmetics would think for a minute that this article would be worth running. To an audience of Chemists! ! ? What were they thinking? Let's review some of the glaring mistakes in the article. Introduction The first mistaken claim is “... nearly every cosmetic product that’s part of our normal morning routine is hiding numerous health risks, from rashes to fatal illnesses. ” This is wrong. Cosmetics do not represent a significant health risk. While some people may develop rashes to some of the chemicals in cosmetics (almost always from a natural ingredient) most people do not. And certainly there is no proof to support the notion that cosmetics will cause a fatal illness. That is just nonsense! Another thing that is wrong which the people who run SpecialChem4Cosmetics should know is the statement that “... the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act does not authorize the FDA to approve cosmetic ingredients, and manufacturers may use essentially any ingredient they choose. ” The FDA is authorized, and does, approve all the colorants used in cosmetics. Manufacturers are not allowed to simply put any ingredient in the formula if they are using it to color their product. The statement is demonstrably false. The implication that manufacturers are frivolously putting consumers at risk with the chemicals they put in cosmetics is also wrong. It is against the law for anyone to sell products that are unsafe. Food supplements Here is where the author misses a golden opportunity to point out the real lack of regulation in an area that is much more dangerous than cosmetics, food supplements. He starts with the suggestion that “... apparently what we put on our bodies on a daily basis isn't as important as what we put in our bodies. Cosmetics are not as strictly regulated...

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By Bob Wilcox Fluid viscosity is a measure of resistance to deformation. Deformation can be initiated by actions such as stirring or mixing. When applied to liquids it is often referred to as thickness or resistance to flow. Contrasting examples of viscosity are provided by water and molasses just out of the refrigerator. At the highest extreme glass has sometimes been called a liquid because it lacks crystalline structure. But let’s not go there because you folks won’t be mixing glass in your lab, but instead be mixing in glass in your lab. Viscosity is measured in centipoise or pascal units. While the science may be interesting the important point for the cosmetic scientist to deal with is, well, dealing with it. This is especially true when blending ingredients that have higher viscosities or that develop higher viscosities during processing as you add ingredients to the mix. Viscosity and Stirring Tool Options Three examples of lab and pilot plant mixing tools are magnetic stirrers, overhead stirrers and homogenizers. A brief look at these options may help you decide which one — or which ones as the case may be — is best for your operations. Magnetic stirrers The magnetic stirrer is a great mixing tool because it has only one moving part — a motorized rotating magnet in its base that causes a free bar magnet in the beaker or flask to rotate. The maximum stirring speed depends on the make and model. Those available from CAT Scientific have controllable speeds to 1600 rpm and can accommodate flasks to 10 liters in volume. They are also equipped with timers. Hotplate magnetic stirrers can heat your samples. The maximum temperature depends on the model but can reach 500? C (932? F). The great thing about magnetic stirrers is that they can run unattended for hours, allowing researchers to devote attention to other matters. For long-term stirring these units can be fitted with a platinum temperature probe to provide more accurate temperature measurement. When engaged the probe actually takes over the operation of the equipment. It will initiate a shutdown in the event of a malfunction. The weakness of these stirrers is that there is no mechanical connection between the drive magnet and the stirring magnet. Because of this they are not the best choice for highly viscous materials or those that become viscous during the stirring operation. These work best for thin cosmetic formulations. Overhead stirrers Programmable overhead stirrers, in contrast, do provide a mechanical connection between the drive motor and the stirring tools, which are a range of paddles, impellers and blade configurations attached at the bottom of the stirring shaft. The configurations and geometries are designed to perform different types of stirring action. Because of the direct connection they deliver much higher torque than magnetic mixers and are better able to accommodate higher viscosity cosmetic blends. Their ability to do this is specified in their Ncm rating, or Newton centimeters. A higher number usually equates to more power to...

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It is commonly thought that stress causes grey hair but the evidence has been mostly anecdotal. This is unsurprising as many "facts" in the world of beauty are based on anecdotal evidence and are almost always wrong. This grey hair and stress relationship however, may have some basis in science. According to research recently published in the journal Nature Medice, scientist discovered that melanocyte stem cells (the ones that are ultimately responsible for creating color in the hair) migrate away from the hair follicle when the epidermis is damaged or irradiated. This drawing off of melanocytes to the skin leaves the hair without a pigment producing mechanism and results in that hair becoming grey. The scientists at New York University who did the work believe this explains how stress is related to grey hair. Interesting. Now how could a cosmetic chemist use this information? Perhaps this provides a good rational for including sunscreens in your hair formulations. Based on this research, if you can protect the skin from UV damage the melanocytes will not migrate and the hair will not turn grey. At least not as a result of stress. Just a thought. How do you think this information could improve products for treating/preventing grey hair?

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If you work with surfactants and formulas like shampoos or body wash, you may have occasionally noticed when pouring it out the stream will unexpectedly shoot up out of the solution. This is called the Kaye Effect and is demonstrated nicely in the following video. Pretty cool science in cosmetic science.

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Interview begins at 12:25 +B32 Scott Taylor is the President and Regulatory Affairs Consultant at The Regulatory Department, a one-stop international food, supplement, and cosmetic regulatory consulting service. He has significant regulatory experience helping companies understand and follow US and International cosmetic regulations. He studied Entrepreneurship at Brigham Young University, is a member of the Society of Cosmetic Chemists and is fluent in English and German. You can contact Scott in the following ways. Scott Taylor linkedin Website: The Regulatory Department -------------- Other segments - Reasons to attend a cosmetic trade show or conference Cosmetic science - Why raw materials with the same name are not the same. Announcements Sign up for the Start a cosmetic line program. Cosmetic science forum. Follow us on Twitter Like us on Facebook

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Whenever you start a new project it is a great idea that you find an existing formula that will serve as a benchmark for your formulation efforts. Typically, your marketing person will propose a benchmark for you but you should also have your own benchmark that you try to outperform. Here are some guidelines on picking a cosmetic product benchmark and using it to guide formulation. What is benchmarking Before picking a benchmark it's helpful to know what it is. A benchmark is an existing formula that has many of the same characteristics that you want in your future formulation. It doesn't have to be exactly what you are trying to create, but it should give you a target for your formulation to meet or exceed. Factors in picking a benchmark There are a number of things to consider when picking a benchmark but the most important things include. 1. Market Position - While the best selling product is not necessarily the best performing product, you still want to make sure that your new formulation performs as well as the most popular product. No matter what, you should always be sure you compare favorable to the market leader. Use market data to find out which is the market leader. If you don't have access to that, go to your local store and see which of the products they stock the most of. 2. Performance - The best benchmark is the one that performs the best and you should look at the market to find this. To find the best performing benchmark you should get samples of all the competitive products you can find and run them through a series of lab / consumer tests to figure out which is best. When I was working on hair care products, the Pantene formula consistently scored highest on both our lab and consumer tests. It's important to note that these were blinded tests so as to not bias the results. When you are trying to identify the best performing product in your category, always do blinded testing. 3. Aesthetics - For some products, the performance is not equivalent to the aesthetics. For example, a body wash could perform great on a foam test but preform terribly on a consumer evaluation. Therefore, you should also find a benchmark that is aesthetically the strongest product on the market. 4. Cost - While you would like to compare yourself to the best product on the market, sometimes you don't have to. If you are competing in the 99 cent shampoo category, you don't necessarily have to create a formula that beats a $5 a bottle shampoo. The final cost of your own product should be considered when finding a good benchmark. 5. Manufacturing - Sometimes your marketing people will direct you to pick a benchmark that clearly requires some special manufacturing equipment to create. You should shy away from this kind of benchmark unless buying the equipment needed to make it is a possibility. There is...

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Last week was the Mid-Year SCC Scientific Symposium held in St. Louis, Mo. It was an excellent event that featured two days of fascinating talks on microbiology in cosmetics, emerging cosmetic markets, anti-aging technologies, and the science of consumer perception. During the talks a few of us were Tweeting our notes and you can see them by doing a search of the hashtag #sccstlouis Here is a short summary... Tweets about "#sccstlouis" // ! function(d,s,id){var js,fjs=d. getElementsByTagName(s),p=/^http:/. test(d. location)? 'http':'https';if(! d. getElementById(id)){js=d. createElement(s);js. id=id;js. src=p+"://platform. twitter. com/widgets. js";fjs. parentNode. insertBefore(js,fjs);}}(document,"script","twitter-wjs"); // Most of the talks were both informative and entertaining. I thought it was an excellent meeting. There were also a couple of social events in which we got to mingle with the couple hundred cosmetic chemists there. It was great fun. I can't wait for the next one. And if you're interested, you can also see pictures from the event here. While you're there, be sure to Like our Facebook page.

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I did a couple of guest lectures for this program. They are new but they are doing things the right way.

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To tell you the truth, I'm skeptical there is much evidence at all that eating or drinking some specific thing is going to have a noticeable, positive impact on your skin. The body is complicated and there is so much we do not understand. To say that you could eat a certain thing or drink a certain ingredient and it will improve your skin is just a gross oversimplification. Unless you have some real nutrient deficiency , there is little evidence that any supplement will be beneficial to you. In fact, there is lots of evidence that suggests long term vitamin supplements do not help healthy people (for example). But my skepticism and lack of evidence does not mean a good formulating cosmetic chemist can just ignore the whole "beauty from within" trend. Your marketers may well ask you to formulate something for this trend. People are buying it and you are in the business of making products that people buy. If you are going to wade into this pool of ingested beauty products, you should at least focus on ingredients that might have some positive impact (even if it is unproven). Here are some reasonable ingredients to consider. Beauty from within foods / ingredients Green Tea supplements - According to a recent article published in the British Journal of Nutrition, green tea catechins make their way to the skin and have some ability to protect it from UV damage. Of course, the study was was done on 16 subjects. Hardly definitive research. Vitamin A - Supposedly will help diminish the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles. You can get them from dairy products. Vitamin C - It's an antioxidant found in fruits & vegetables and may be able to boost collagen production. Of course, it has to get to your skin cells to work and there is little evidence that it does. Vitamin E - Helps fight sun damage. Berries - Blueberries, blackberries, & strawberries have a high antioxidant content. Theoretically, this could help reduce skin damage from free radicals. Essential Fatty Acids - You can get these from Salmon, walnuts, flax seed and canola oil. They could improve the health of your cell membranes. Selenium - Foods like wheat bread and cereals have this mineral in them and they supposedly are a key part of the system that prevents oxidative damage in skin. Most normal diets will have plenty of selenium in them. But a study in the British Journal of Dermatology (2003) found that oral doses could prevent sunburn. Scientific evidence While there is some scientific evidence that these ingredients could help it is important to realize that the evidence is fairly weak. Mostly small, badly controlled studies or laboratory findings that don't necessarily apply to whole organisms. However, there is enough information about these ingredients, and they are well-known enough for consumers that if you have to develop these types of products, they are a good place to start.

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For everyone in the New York area, I wanted to let you know that I will be giving a one-day course about cosmetic chemistry. It is a two-part session which will include information about the cosmetic industry, cosmetic science, formulating, and product testing in the morning and use of the Internet by cosmetic chemists in the afternoon. You can find more details about the event and registration information at the New York SCC webpage. I would love to see some of you there!

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Many people complain of being sensitive to chemicals or even having allergic reactions. So as a formulator you'll want to avoid using ingredients that might cause a problem in a significant number of people. So what are those ingredients? Fortunately, most of them are not things that you would put in cosmetic formulas (although there are a couple). Here is a list of the top 10 allergens as compiled by the International Academy of Cosmetic Dermatology. 1. Nickel sulfate - Not used in cosmetics 2. Neomycin Sulfate - This is an antibiotic used in creams. Not a concern in cosmetics. 3. Balsam of Peru - Natural is not always safer and this natural ingredient is proof. Avoid using it in your cosmetic formulas. 4. Fragrance ingredients - These are used in cosmetics. There is a list of 26 allergens that most commonly cause problems. It's hard to formulate without them but it can be done. 5. Thiomerosal - Preservative not used in cosmetics 6. Sodium gold thiosulfate - not used in cosmetics 7. Quaternium-15 - This is a preservative which you should avoid. If you want an ingredient that works as well without the problems try DMDM Hydantoin. 8. Formaldehyde - Cosmetic chemists avoid this ingredient anyway. 9. Bacitracin - Antibiotic. Not used in cosmetics 10. Cobalt Chloride - not used in cosmetics So, there you have it. One other ingredient that might cause some concern is Oxybenzone (used in sunscreens). To minimize your chances of causing a reaction in one of your consumers, avoid using any of the ingredients above that might cause an allergic reaction. And if you are marketing to a consumer group that is particularly sensitive, you'll have to really limit the type of fragrances you use. You can still use them, you just can't use any of the 26 common fragrance allergens. Incidentally, isn't it interesting that of the top 10 skin allergens, the majority of them are "Natural".

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I don't know how I stumbled on the knockout experiment but it is by far the most useful formulation exercise. I think I was inspired by reading about knockout mice while I was studying biochemistry. Anyway, I encourage every cosmetic formulator to go through the knockout experiment exercise with any formula on which they are working. While it is not as thorough as the DOT method it provides you nearly as much information with much less effort. Cost Saving cosmetics If you are tasked with reducing the cost of your formulation, there is nothing better than a knockout experiment to figuring out which ingredients you can cut and which to leave alone. Here is how you would do it. Step 1 - Figure out cost contributions Of course, the first thing you have to do is figure out which ingredients add the most to the cost of your formula. You can see how to do that in this post we previously wrote about cosmetic formula cost savings. This shows you how to determine exactly how much each raw material adds to the overall cost of the formula. Step 2 - Conduct your knockout experiment Next, you have to set up your knockout experiment in which you make batches knocking out the ingredients that have the highest impact on cost. There is no need to conduct knockout tests on ingredients that don't contribute much to the final cost. If you don't notice a significant cost savings by the complete elimination of an ingredient than there is no reason to do a knockout formula of that ingredient. That is just unnecessary, extra work. Step 3 - Determine impact of ingredient removal After you have made your batches figure out which ingredients had a significant impact on the formula. Things like fragrance and surfactants will have obvious effects but other ingredients like polymers may have less noticeable ones. You should conduct standard lab tests to ensure the formula still meets specifications. When you find a formulation that has potential, you should also have panelists test it to see if they notice things that aren't obvious in a lab. Small changes can have consumer detectable impacts. Step 4 - Optimize your formula Once you've figured out the impact of the removal of an ingredient and its effect on price, you can try to make formulations where you add back a little of the ingredient. Remember everything you add back adds cost so if you are trying to cost reduce a formula you want to keep additions at a minimum. Using the half and double optimization trick is useful in this regard. Knockout experiments are useful for many reasons for a cosmetic formulator. Cost savings is perhaps one of the most significant. I once used this exact technique to discover a $300,000 a year cost savings for a hair conditioner formula. Every cosmetic chemist should try it.

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I learned about the $100 Startup book while listening to some podcast. I don't recall which one, but the author made the book sound interesting and the book's promise "Reinvent the Way You Make a Living, Do What You Love and Create a New Future" seemed like something that many people who frequent this blog would find interesting. Overall, the author, Chris Guillebeau, does a great job of presenting a blueprint that anyone can follow to get started with their own business. Of course, he is talking about a specific type of business that you could start with $100, but the blueprint can be followed to start a cosmetic line (it will just cost more money). The writing is light, easy to understand, and he fills it with anecdotes of real-life entrepreneurs who have managed to start successful businesses following the steps he suggests. On some level, there are too many anecdotes and not enough substance but it makes for a more interesting read. Book organization The book is organized in three parts broken up into 14 chapters. At the end of each chapter is a Key Points section which sums up the chapter in easy bullet points. That is nice for when you want to review the information later. Part I Part I is about the type of people who are entrepreneurs and has chapters which are supposed to help you decide whether you are that type and what type of business you should run. In the first chapter, you learn the three things needed to start a business: 1. A product or service 2. People who will pay for it 3. A way to get paid The second chapter talks about what type of product or service you should create. Essentially the message is that you should figure out what people really want and sell that to them. The third chapter delves into your passions and figuring out whether they are suitable for establishing a business around. Some are and some aren't. The fourth chapter gets into the topic of the easiest type of business to start and this is probably most suited for the advice in this book. It is the publishing business. Essentially, if you have some expertise and can write about it, you can have your own, successful business. Not exactly applicable to a cosmetic line, but pretty good for someone who wants to start a cosmetic formulation consulting business. The fifth and final chapter of part I talks about who your consumers might be. The days of separating people by traditional demographics is over. Part II Part II is focused on helping you turn your business idea into an actual business. Chapter six talks about the all-important business plan and they show you how to do it in a single page. Chapter seven delves into marketing showing you how to craft your sales message that will make people want to buy your product. Chapter eight takes you through the process of launching your product...

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Last week was the annual Suppliers Day for the New York chapter of the SCC. It's always a huge event and you can find thousands of raw materials from hundreds of different suppliers. And to convince you to try out their materials, cosmetic raw material suppliers employ marketers. You'll get all kinds of promises what an ingredient can do but as a skeptical cosmetic chemist you won't know what to believe. Here are a few of tips on how to evaluate cosmetic raw material marketing. Are the claims supported with studies? The first thing you should look for when presented with a new raw material is whether there have been any studies done at all. Is there any data for you to look at that supports the claims they are making about the new ingredient. Often, a raw material will be touted as better because of the source of its starting ingredients. Unless you are going for an all-natural or sustainability angle in your formulation, the source of the raw material shouldn't matter much to you. But it's crucial to know the claims made about the ingredient and the studies done to back them up. Was the study size large enough? Fortunately, most cosmetic raw material suppliers have done studies to support their claims. This is where you have to be a curious chemist. The first thing to ask about is the size of the study. Were there enough samples used? They often do not give this information to the sales person but it is always worth asking. A study in which one sample was compared to one other sample is much less impressive than one in which multiple samples were compared. Ideally, at least 30 runs or samples should be done to support a claim. For you to be interested in a raw material however, the study should have been run at least two or three times. Was it compared to a control? One of the most frequent problems I see with cosmetic raw material marketing is that they present data of a material compared to no control or to a water control. For example, they'll claim the ingredient is moisturizing then show you data of the subject done with and without treatment. This might be fine for commercials and products directed towards consumers but for scientists this isn't good enough. At the very least you should ask for data of the product compared to a placebo control. It's great if you can get a formula compared with and without the raw material. But perhaps the best thing is when you can see a material as compared to the best material out there. Raw material suppliers love to compare their product to no control or a placebo control. However, what you really want to know is how does the raw material compare to the best technology out there for solving the problem you are trying to solve. Was the study done by an independent lab? While you should expect...

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There haven't been many new technologies introduced into sun care in the last few decades. There was the introduction of mexoryl sunscreen in the mid 2000's, nanoparticle sized titanium dioxide / zinc oxide and maybe aerosol sunscreens. But otherwise, there hasn't been much new. But this sun technology looks like it could be a neat new product for consumers who are concerned about staying in the sun too long. Sun protection technology Researchers at Michigan Technological University have created a sensor that tells you when it's time to get out of the sun. The device is a nickel-sized patch that gradually darkens when exposed to UV light. When you can't see the happy face that is on the graphic, you need to get out of the sun. They've filed a patent on the technology so you won't be able to make exactly the same type of patch but maybe you could liscence the technology. Or maybe it could be incorporated into a skin lotion that changes color. What do you think?

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I saw this interesting news story about a group of European researchers who say they have found a treatment that can eliminate gray hair. Two things strike me about this story. First, the researchers say that hair turns gray because of a build-up of hydrogen peroxide in hair follicles. This isn't my understanding of what causes gray hair at all. In fact, in the excellent book "Practical Modern Hair Science" the authors explain that hair turns gray because the melanocytes stop producing pigment. Perhaps my understanding of graying hair is wrong? Hmmm... Second, they are making some pretty extraordinary claims. The end of gray hair? Come on. They'll need more proof than this one study to support that claim. Still, gray hair is an area of lots of basic research as scientists would be happy to find a treatment that stops it from happening. Until then, it will take we cosmetic chemists and our skills with hair dye to keep gray haired people looking young.

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As a cosmetic chemist or cosmetic entrepreneur, you need to develop the power to influence other people to get the things done that you want to accomplish. If you have a new project idea you want your company to initiate or you want customers to buy your cosmetic line, you have to know what motivates people to take action. Interestingly enough scientists have been researching the question of what influences people for the last 60 years and they have developed some theories. This video explains it pretty well. The 6 principles of persuasion include... 1. Reciprocity - You give something to someone & they feel obligated to give something for you. 2. Scarcity - People want something more when there is a limited supply. 3. Authority - People follow the lead of credible experts 4. Consistency - People who purchased from you before are more likely to purchase again 5. Liking - People prefer to say yes to people that they like 6. Consensus - Most people do what other people are doing How do you use these principles? Now that you know these 6 persuasion principles think of some ways that you might employ them to convince people to do what you want them to do. If you start your own cosmetic line and you want people to try your product, what do these principles suggest you should do? (Give away free samples, make a limited supply, get people to like you, etc. ) If you are a cosmetic formulator and you have an idea for a new product or cost savings project think of how you might use these techniques to get these things done at your company. These are the types of subjects that chemists and other natural scientists do not study in college. But they are exactly the types of things that will lead to a more successful career or business. That makes them well worth learning and implementing.

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Scare stories about the dangers of cosmetics always grab headlines. Whether they are put out by fearmongering groups, politicians or even researchers, these stories are gobbled up by a less-than-scientifically-literate public. Or at least by a media that seems keen to propagate them. One of the most recent examples that I saw was this story about Gold nanoparticles and wrinkles. According to researchers at Stony Brook University, NY, gold nanoparticles may accelerate aging, increase wrinkling and slow the wound-healing process. They base this on an interaction that they noticed between gold nanoparticles and human cells in the laboratory. Giant leap to wrinkles The research is interesting enough and raises a number of follow-up questions like 1. What is it about the nanoparticles that is interfering with cells? 2. Does it matter if they are gold nanoparticles or is it any nanoparticle? 3. How long does the effect last? 4. Do gold nanoparticles penetrate skin deep enough to see this effect in real life? The last question is the most relevant to me. Remember this study was conducted on human skin cell lines in a laboratory. There are lots of substances that can have an in-vitro effect that does not show up when tested on actual people. Making the logical leap that gold nanoparticles will cause wrinkling is equivalent to making the logical leap that any number of anti-aging compounds will decrease wrinkling. Just because it works in the lab doesn't mean that's what happens in real life. If the nanoparticles do not penetrate to the level of living cells, they will have no negative effect on skin. Who uses gold nanoparticles? There is one more fundamental problem with this study. One of the researchers claim that "Gold nanoparticles are in cosmetics because they have such interesting colors. You can get yellows and browns, all the way down to blues and purples... " This is wrong! Gold is not an approved colorant for cosmetics. As far as I know, gold nanoparticles are not regularly used in cosmetic or personal care products. Where did these researchers get the idea that they were? This seems to happen frequently with academic researchers. They know a lot about a focused area of research, but they completely miss the big picture.

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As a beginning chemist, one of the most frustrating things for me as I started my career was the product ingredient lists. While all the products had cosmetic ingredient listings, the ingredient were rarely things that I learned about in college. The cosmetics industry just does not use the same naming system for ingredients as the one you learned in college. The college system of naming is the IUPAC system. The great thing about this system is that it allows you to figure out the chemical structure of any material from its name alone. Unfortunately, it also leads to incredibly long names for the ingredients so it isn't practical to use it for naming cosmetics. The cosmetic system is the one created by the PCPC and listed in the INCI Dictionary. They use a whole different set of naming conventions which lead to shorter names but also make it impossible to ascertain most ingredients structures from the name. Oh well, you don't really need to know the molecular structure to be a good cosmetic chemist. Ingredients are not the same One of the things I wanted to point out in this post is that not all ingredients are the same even if they have the same name. To understand why, let's look at an ingredient like Sodium Lauryl Sulfate (SLS). SLS is a pretty straightforward molecule. It is a surfactant with a 12-carbon chain backbone attached to a SO4 group and ionically bonded with a sodium ion. But when you buy Sodium Lauryl Sulfate from one supplier, you might not be getting the same chemical as when you buy your ingredients from another supplier. Why? It turns out that this is because of the way sodium lauryl sulfate is produced. To create SLS, you react Lauryl Alcohol with Sulfur Trioxide gas. This is further neutralized with Sodium Hydroxide to produce SLS. The key part of this reaction is the "Lauryl Alcohol" and the way that it gets produced. Lauryl Alcohol Lauryl alcohol can be obtained from a number of sources including from the fatty acids of plant oils and crude oil. Unfortunately, these sources are a mixture of fatty acids and it is incredibly difficult to isolate only the C12 molecules. So, instead of starting the production of SLS with pure Lauryl Alcohol, most companies start with a mixture that is mostly Lauryl Alcohol but contains a number of other residual fatty alcohols. Therefore, the chemical properties and quality of the SLS will vary from raw material supplier to raw material supplier depending on the quality and type of starting material for their SLS. The more pure the starting Lauryl Alcohol source, the better controlled the SLS end properties will be. This same thing applies to most any other cosmetics ingredients that you might use. It's pretty rare that a cosmetic ingredient is pure. It is nearly always a mixture of the main ingredient you want and some residual ingredients that you might not.

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I saw a story indicating that the shareholders at Avon were going to vote on whether to remove "dangerous chemicals used in their beauty products that have been linked to cancer, reproductive harm, and other serious diseases. " It made me consider the impact of things like these on cosmetic chemists. Non-science manipulating science First, I find it silly that a topic like this would even be voted on by shareholders. It is illegal for a company to sell an unsafe product so unless Avon is breaking the law, they are already selling safe products. Why would the shareholders be involved in the decision of whether something is a safe product or not? This is just another attempt by fearmongers who lack the scientific evidence to support their irrational fears to manipulate people. I hope Avon doesn't capitulate to such nonsense but if they did, they wouldn't be alone. Johnson and Johnson is reformulating their products due to pressure from chemical fearmongers. It really is troubling to me that an issue as important as product safety is going to be decided by a democratic vote. In a world where PR agents and people with degrees in English and Communication have as much say in product safety as scientists with PHDs in Toxicology, product safety will undoubtedly suffer. But I digress. Benefits to cosmetic formulators while stories like these are troubling to the scientist in me, for cosmetic chemists, it's probably a good thing. How can this be you ask? Consider the following. Requires reformulation When someone arbitrarily rules that a chemical in your formula can no longer be used, you will be required to reformulate. And from a job security standpoint, reformulating products is a benefit to cosmetic chemists. If your company didn't have to respond to silly reformulation efforts like this, there would be much less need for the number of cosmetic chemists that are in the industry today. Spur innovation While reformulation efforts like this are mostly a waste of time, they also force you to consider new ideas that you might have rejected in the past. These new ideas may lead to innovative products that perform as well or better than the current formulations. Sometimes, change can be good even if it is driven by irrationality and unscientific silliness. Creating standards Another positive thing about stories like these is that they help to define exactly what constitues safety. In the cosmetic industry, each company gets to decide what they believe is a safe product or not. This can make it difficult for a consumer to know what level of safety that they feel comfortable with. Perhaps if enough companies start doing things like these, the FDA will develop standard test methods that companies have to meet in order to call their products safe. Maybe then fearmongering groups like the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics will disband as they will be unable to use the uncertainty as a fear generating tactic. Unlikely, but possible. Bringing down big companies Since...

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The future of cosmetic chemistry may be changing. While being able to mix surfactants, emollients, occlusive agents, and other cosmetic raw materials in the proper ratio to get excellently performing products is important now, it just might give way to products like this anti-cellulite invention. The makers of Flexees have introduced a pair of slimming shorts / tights that are infused with anti-cellulite ingredients including Caffeine, Ceramides and Retinol. Theoretically, the product immediately slims the wearer but also helps to reduce cellulite over time. You can see their video here. Of course, the model they use sure doesn't look like she needs an anti-cellulite product! While I don't believe the product will work any better than an ordinary pair of shape wear, it does point to a new skill that cosmetic chemists should develop. That is the skill of working with fibers. Someone had to figure out how to infuse the fibers with those raw materials. Someone also had to figure out for the marketing people what ingredients consumers believe are active against cellulite. Anti-cellulite ingredients Here is what the product makers believe has an effect on cellulite. Caffeine Ceramides Retinol Vitamin E Fatty Acids Aloe Vera Here is what the science says. According to a review article published in Dermatologic Surgery " At present, it can be safely stated that there is no topical medication or manipulative process to which advanced cellulite visibly responds in a treatment period of less than 2 months. " And a more recent review published in the Seminars in Cutaneous Medicine and Surgery. "There are many cosmetic and medical treatments for cellulite. However, there is little clinical evidence of an improvement in cellulite, and none have been shown to lead to its resolution. " So, while this company might sell an anti-cellulite product and it certainly has an immediate effect like all other nylon fiber products like this, it's highly unlikely that the infused raw materials will have any extra benefit for the consumer. I will be curious to see how well this product sells. Cosmetic innovation While this product is most likely just puffery, the idea of infusing a fiber with some active ingredient to deliver it to the skin is an interesting one. Can you think of a new product idea in which your cosmetic ingredient or active is infused in a fiber that the consumer wears over night. Perhaps something to treat dark circles under the eye. Or maybe even a long lasting sunscreen or moisturizing product.

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By Bob Wilcox In an earlier article on cosmetic mixing with overhead stirrers I outlined how these lab tools are used to provide a fast way to develop formulations and processing parameters ranging from benchtop to pilot scale production. The article also touched on the variety of impeller configurations available — each one designed to perform a specific mixing operation. Impeller configurations — A. K. A overhead stirrer mixing tools — deserve more attention because of their impact on stirring efficiencies and the capability of the overhead stirrer drive motor to deal with sample viscosity while delivering the required mixing speed. Please refer to the earlier article for a refresher on variables relating primarily to the properties of the samples being mixed and the desired results. These include sample size, viscosity, stirring speed, stirring time, overhead stirrer control options, and record- keeping capabilities. In a nutshell: Before we get into the nitty-gritty of impeller design overhead stirrer mixing tools must accommodate sample volume and viscosity to provide satisfactory mixing action taking into account the tools’ surface areas. Stirrer motors should deliver the power needed to drive mixing tools at the set speed without overheating. Overhead Stirrer Mixing Tool Configurations This equipment has several names including impellers, paddles and blades. Whatever moniker you assign they are fabricated and welded or otherwise attached to a stainless steel rod. The rod must be long enough to immerse the tool into the sample. Somewhat like an electric drill bit the rod is inserted into and tightened in the mixer motor chuck. Rod diameter and length should be considered when selecting mixing tools. Wider diameters are able to accommodate higher viscosity samples and are offered in 6, 8 and 10mm in size. Rod lengths are selected to place the mixing tool at the correct level in the beaker. Lengths, including the blade, range from 300 to 600 mm. Note that the stirrer drive motors are equipped with a support rod that can be clamped to a mounting stand to permit adjusting the depth of the mixing tool in the sample container. Here’s a brief explanation of common mixing tool configurations: Samples with light or average viscosities can be processed by X-shaped configurations when viewed on end. Select a manifold shaped configuration to dissolve or disperse samples in the beaker. These are also produced in a round configuration with alternating up and down tabs. Medium and high viscosity samples requiring higher mixing speeds call for propeller-type mixing tools that resemble 4-bladed fans or 3-bladed motorboat propellers. Spatula-shaped blade mixers are characterized by a large surface area, often with holes, and are more influenced by viscosity. Use a centrifugal mixing tool for processing samples at an average speed. They are also called straight blade mixers and have two flat vertical blades. As you work with an increasing number of cosmetic formulations you may accumulate a variety of overhead stirrer mixing tools. Protect your investment by cleaning them thoroughly after each use so samples do not harden in...

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This is a guest author post These days, people are interested in all different types of disciplines. More and more students realize that the economic environment can vary significantly by the time they graduate from college, so it's becoming common to pursue fields in which they are most interested. Many people still major in the likes of engineering just so that they can have a stable future, whether or not they're passionate about the field, but one discipline that draws people both for love and for money is chemistry. If you've been considering the field, here are some qualities you should probably exhibit or attain. Advanced Degrees Of course, you could earn an undergraduate degree in chemistry and stop your study there; but it is always wise to take your skills to as high of a level as possible, depending upon what it is that you want to do. For example, working to procure a graduate or doctoral degree will certainly help to make you a stronger candidate for various programs. On top of that, you will have had the opportunity to gain more experience in the field - which will also sharpen your skills. An Open Mind In the field of science, new advancements and ideas are coming into fruition on almost a daily basis. If you're going to work in the field of chemistry, you need to be open-minded to these changes. Expecting that everything is just going to stay status-quo is not the best attitude to have. For those who suspect this may be a problem, visit some labs in your community to get an idea of what goes on - those who can adapt and innovate will go the farthest and make the biggest difference. Practical Experience Yes, in quite a number of fields, including chemistry, it's important to have obtained an education in the particular subject area. Additionally, it's wise to have the right personality for the right. Still though, you also want to have as much practical experience as possible. It's really hard to beat the value of practical experience, because people with these skills have what it takes to succeed in the field. They know how working in an actual lab or other chemistry environment can play out, and they also understand what it is and is not appropriate to do in the workplace. Even if your experience is only washing lab dishes, it'll count for something. Flexibility As you may already know, not all chemists work in the same types of places. Some of them will spend the majority of their working lives in labs, and others will work in high schools. Still other chemists are going to teach at colleges or universities, while many will work for large corporations. When you opt for a degree in chemistry, you might have a particular career path that you want to follow. However, it's wise for you to stay aware of the other possibilities. After all, you might not be able to get a...

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In the cosmetic industry, the compounds on the ingredient list are determined by the PCPC and published in a book called the International Nomenclature of Cosmetic Ingredients (INCI). The INCI Directory is a great free resource that lists fairly accurate information about the INCI. Here is a video which describes how to use it. http://www. youtube. com/watch? v=zSrUu_EXExY Note: This is not an official production of the PCPC so you should not use the information found in the INCI Directory without verifying it's accuracy with the PCPC.

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Here is a typical shampoo formula. It's pretty basic and features sulfates, betaine, standard preservatives, and a fragrance. Whenever you are creating a formula, you should make a sheet like this. Some companies offer special software to do it, but I've found using a spreadsheet is simple. Included in the sheet should be... (click to enlarge) 1. Ingredient name 2. % in formula 3. Cost of the ingredient Then optionally... 4. Calculated amount in formula batch 5. Calculated cost in formula Cost in the formula when you are trying to figure out a way to save money on a formula, you need to first figure out how much the formula costs you. The way to do this is to multiply the cost per pound (or KG) of the ingredient by the % of ingredient in the formula. So, in this formula the fragrance costs $11 per pound and is used at 0. 225% which means it contributes $0. 0248 per pound of formula. Not just the raw material cost In this formula you can see that the most expensive raw materials include the dyes, the polysorbate 20, and the fragrance. However, these are used at low levels so they do not contribute the highest amount to the final cost of the formula. One of the least expensive ingredients is Sodium Lauryl Sulfate and it contributes the most to the cost because it's used at a high level. Finding cost savings One simple way to reduce the cost is to water down the formula. So, suppose you wanted to save 10% on this formula. One simple way is to reduce all the ingredients by 10% and replace it with water. For example... (click image to enlarge) Note: When you do this, you shouldn't reduce the level of preservative or color as that will not save you much money and you may have really detrimental effects on your formula. What's the harm? Adding water is a simple way to create a reduced cost formula. There may be some downside as this formula could be unstable or perform differently in various tests. You absolutely must test to make sure the formula still meets your performance and aesthetic requirements. But you can often take a formula and add a little water (or other solvent) to save a significant amount of money.

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I saw an article on the FutureDerm blog about 25 things everyone should know about skin care. That inspired me to come up with this list of 25 things that every cosmetic formulator should know. For simplicity, I've organized them under the 5 key areas that are most important. In reality, we could do a list of 25 for each of these categories but we'll start with this list. Formulating Most cosmetic chemists strive to be formulators. It is the most fun job of all cosmetic science jobs, but of course I may be biased. Here are some tips that will make you a better cosmetic chemist. 1. Try all your prototypes - A good formulator can't be good without experiencing the product. 2. Do a knockout experiment on all finished formulas - The best way to figure out how ingredients affect the formulation. 3. Add colors at the beginning - If you get it wrong you won't waste good raw materials 4. Use preservatives - Preserved cosmetics are safe cosmetics. Don't fall for the "preservative-free" nonsense. 5. Record time, temp & procedure - This will help immensely when scaling up a formula. Raw materials You're going to need to learn a lot more than just these five things about raw materials but here are some tips that raw material suppliers won't think to tell you. They are helpful to know. 6. Salt can thicken (or thin) surfactant solutions - Really. Get familiar with the salt curve. 7. Raw materials with the same name can behave differently - Suppliers and supplies matter. 8. Anionic & cationic generally don't mix - They make salts which are usually insoluble. 9. Violet #2 can offset yellow colors - This is a handy formulation trick. 10. Carbomer takes a long time to hydrate - So do other powders but this one is particularly long. Innovation You will come across problems in your job and will frequently be asked to develop innovative new products. These tips will help your innovation efforts. 11. Generate lots of ideas - When it comes to ideas, generating more is better than generating the highest quality ideas. You can filter the bad ones out later. 12. Ideas aren't worth anything - If you do nothing with an idea you might as well not even have it. Tell everyone about it and don't worry if someone will steal it. They won't. 13. Personal brainstorming is better than group - Group brainstorming sessions are mostly a waste of time but individual brainstorms are incredibly useful and productive. 14. Creativity can be learned - No one is born creative. You can learn to be creative if you want to. 15. Big companies have a hard time with true innovation - Truly innovative products rarely fit the corporate model for product development. Be prepared to be ignored. Starting your own company is usually required for true innovations. Career Being a cosmetic chemist is a career and to be successful, you'll need to follow some...

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Guest author: Roger Rodriguez Now that we are in the 21st century, people are starting to learn more and more about different job opportunities and sectors - one of which is cosmetics. You might even be interested in going into the field of cosmetic formulation. Of course, you want to make sure that you are learning it in the right way. How can you accomplish that goal? Read on to find out :) Picking a Niche Before you start to work in the cosmetic industry, it is helpful to pick a field in which you want to work. For example, you might want to be more involved in the field of color cosmetics (makeup), or you may wish to work with hair care products. Whatever it is that you are interested in, it's wise to figure that out early on, but also choose some back up plans to stay well-rounded and have options. It is also good to identify companies that specialize in these products. Take Chemistry Courses While you might think that you are going to have to attend special courses in cosmetics to get into this field, you actually are going to need an array of chemistry courses. In order to know how to mix products, you must know how they work together, and chemistry courses can certainly teach you these necessary skills. Find out if your college offers any classes that specifically relate to the field of chemistry in cosmetics, and you'll really get the right experience. Internship Opportunities Of course, a difference exists between mixing chemicals in a lab under the supervision of a professor and actually creating products by yourself. Therefore, it's very important to find internship opportunities during your course of study. Without them, you might have a very difficult time understanding the practical knowledge of the field and even getting a job. By working in the field, you get a sense of what the environment is really like and how the workplace will be. Furthermore, you'll also have the opportunity to work with experts in the field and see the methods that they utilize on a daily basis. Find a Mentor As you probably realize, you're going into a really specific field, and you'll certainly need some specific knowledge to work in this industry. As a result, you should look for a professor or boss to act as a mentor throughout your experience. Not everyone is willing to take on this challenging role, so you will have to ask the individual if he or she is willing to do it. Once you find this person, you will have someone who can help to answer your questions. If you decide to write a thesis, you can also find out if this person can act as your adviser. You can also find mentors on the cosmetic science forum. Learning how to accomplish any task in the proper manner is going to require that you go through the right process and a certain series of steps....

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By Bob Wilcox If you've been frustrated from time to time (or lots of times, for that matter) trying to dispense the exact amount of a raw material or any other liquid using calibrated glass tube burettes and pipettes check into bottletop burettes as an alternative. They are especially helpful when using the same reagent over and again. There are a number of benefits you'll immediately observe. First of all you won’t ever again have to deal with filling those tiny tubes and possibly spilling ingredients on the lab table. (Not that you have ever spilled anything, of course. ) Also you won't have to worry about menisci calculations. You get exactly what you programmed into the mechanism. Forget about spending time washing glass tube burettes and pipettes every time you use them. And, oh yes, there’s breakage. You’ll really have to work on breaking a bottletop buret. Other reasons to consider these dispensing devices: Dispense or deliver? Program the bottletop burette for either action Superior accuracy from 1 µl to 20µl depending on model Flow rates up to 30 ml/min depending on model Titration accuracy

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As a cosmetic formulator you will undoubtedly run into a situation where you screw up a batch. Or maybe the batch just gets ruined through no fault of your own. Most of the time you should simply throw the batch away and start over. Of course, I am speaking from the point of view of a cosmetic chemist who worked for a large corporation and usually had access to a nearly unlimited supply of most of the raw materials I was working with. The only negative thing about pitching most batches was the extra time required to make a new one. But for most cosmetic formulators pitching a product and starting over is a luxury and saving every batch is important. So, here are some tricks I've used (for the times I couldn't discard a batch) to save a batch. When is a cosmetic batch bad? Before we give tips on saving batches, it makes sense to consider how to decide whether the batch is really bad. Since every cosmetic formula should have a set of specifications these can be used. If a value such as the pH, viscosity, color, odor or consistency is "out of spec" then the batch is considered bad. While this does not guarantee that every in-spec batch is good, it is a reasonable filter for most cosmetic chemists to follow. The other way a batch can be considered bad is that it doesn't perform the way it's expected but that is a much more complicated situation which we will ignore for this post. Figure out why it went bad Once you've decided a batch is bad, you should figure out what went wrong. This will depend on which characteristic is out of spec. For example, if the pH is too low maybe you added too much acid or not enough base. If the color is off perhaps the wrong amount of dye was added or one of your starting raw materials was a different color than usual. Go through your batch notes and identify what the possible problem could have been. Sometimes you just can't know but it does make fixing things easier. How to save a bad batch Here are some tips and tricks on how to save a cosmetic batch. The specific tactic you use depends highly on the type of formulation you are making. Remix & Reheat If your product is thin or has the wrong consistency one of the first things you can try is to reheat the product and mix it again. Often an emulsion won't form properly during the cooling phase and remixing at a high temperature can reset and fix things. If you do try this however, be sure to add back more of your heat-sensitive ingredients like preservatives and fragrances as these can breakdown when heated for a significant period of time. Add more of the missing ingredient When you notice an obvious error in the amount of an ingredient, you can often add more of the...

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We had an interesting question posed by one of our readers who has a background in Chemical Engineering. Specifically, he wanted to know if there were some general guidelines for scaling up a formulation and creating a manufacturing procedure. Since we've never written specifically about this in the past, here are eight tips that can make your scale up from the lab to the production plant easier. While none of these tips will apply to every formula they are a good guideline to help you craft your manufacturing procedures. 1. Start with abundance When making a batch you should fill the tank up with the ingredient that is the most abundant in the formulation. Since the vast majority of formulations are water-based, this typically means you fill the tank first with water. 2. Put in your powders Since many water soluble powders can take a long time to disperse or dissolve, it is best that you get those ingredients mixing. This will speed things up considerably. You also don't have to necessarily wait until every bit of the powder is evenly mixed into the formula before adding more ingredients on top. 3. Heat helps (usually) Even if a formulation doesn't need to be heated to melt the ingredients, it is often helpful to heat up the batch a bit to speed things up. In general, warmer ingredients take less time to blend. Note that this is not always the case. In fact, cellulose raw materials often go into solution faster when the water is cold. 4. Go 10 degrees C higher When you are creating an emulsion or working with solids that need to be heated past their melting point, a good guide for manufacturing procedures is to heat the batch 10 degrees C higher than the highest melting point of the ingredients you are using. For most emulsion this means your batch should be anywhere from 75 - 80C. 5. Twenty minutes of mixing While it depends on your mixing tank, a minimum of twenty minutes mixing after blending the oil and water phase together is needed. If you don't have good turnover it could take a lot longer. 6. Add fragrances and preservatives last Since these ingredients can break down when heated, it is best to add them at the very end when all your heating and cooling is completed. This will minimize ingredient degradation. 7. Color early Add colors early on in the batch and check the color versus a color standard. If you make a mistake you can easily pitch the batch without much cost. 8. Neutralize at the end Finally, neutralize your formulas that require it (gels & anything with Carbomer) at the end. This should be the last ingredient you add. It will help minimize the amount of air you get in the formula. Of course, these are just general guidelines and every specific cosmetic formulation is going to be different. Sometimes things that work easily in the lab don't work so easily in...

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Some years ago I went through a phase where I was really into making computer animations. Here's one I did that explains roughly how shampoos work on a molecular level. Shampoo Story

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Interview begins at 9:15 Lisa Leigh is an experienced Attorney and Regulatory Affairs Professional with a multifaceted knowledge of domestic and international regulations concerning over-the-counter drugs and cosmetic products. She has over 15 years of combined legal and regulatory experience working in companies as diverse as private law practices, a major national trade association, two Fortune 500 companies and she is also the founder of Leigh Business Group, a regulatory consulting firm. You can contact Lisa in the following ways. Twitter Facebook Website: Leigh Business Group Cosmetic science news Study links diet to acne New proposed US regulations for cosmetics Cosmetic Career The realities of a cosmetic science career Announcements Cosmetic science forum. Follow us on Twitter Like us on Facebook Sign up for the start a cosmetic line

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You may have heard of an elevator pitch for business idea, but did you ever consider creating an elevator pitch for your career? An elevator pitch is a short summary that you can tell to someone in anywhere from 30 seconds to two minutes that quickly gets them interested in your idea, or for your career, in you. Imagine you are in an elevator with the Director of the R&D group at a company in which you want to get hired. Or maybe you are a consultant and your in an elevator with a Big Wig from company who could provide you with a lot of business. Or maybe you are in an interview and the first question is "Tell me about yourself" or "Why should I hire you? " What would you say? This is why you need a personal elevator pitch ready to go. Writing your elevator pitch Step 1 - Brainstorm a list of your best qualities and interesting experiences that would be useful to an employer. For example, if you made a patentable discovery, created products in college, or had some other interesting experiences that would be memorable. Step 2 - Write these in the form of a paragraph that tells a story. Keep the story brief and be sure to include the situation, actions you took, and the result. Step 3 - Think about the top problems that the person you are talking to might have and think of ways in which you are qualified to help them solve those problems. Write these down and incorporate them into your elevator pitch. Remember, make it more about the person and less about yourself. People want to know how you will help them. Step 4 - Write out your elevator pitch to include the background information about yourself and the ways in which you will help the person your talking to solve problems. Always finish with some request for a card or a follow-up meeting. The elevator pitch is all about breaking the ince and beginning a longer conversation. Step 5 - Practice, practice, practice. Use a mirror, record yourself and be able to make your elevator pitch without thinking. If you want to become a cosmetic chemist, this is a great way to be ready for any opportunity or interview. Here is a video which gives some more useful tips.

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A number of people visit this website looking for information and tips on how to get a job in the cosmetic science industry. You can find lots of articles that we've previously written in our career page so I encourage you to check those out. But beyond getting more information about the industry there are a number of things you might be doing that makes it harder for you to get a job. If you're doing any of the following, make efforts to correct that now. 1. Having a poor resume. You don't need to be Hemingway but you don't want to have a resume that is awful (or non-existant). If you're looking for a cosmetic science job, write a resume that reflects your desire. See this page for some resume writing tips. 2. Being inflexible. If you are trying to find a job in the cosmetic industry, the more flexible you are about the positions you are willing to take, the companies you are will to work for and the places you are willing to move, the greater your chances of getting a job. If you have lots of conditions under which you won't take a job, it'll be a lot harder to get one. 3. Not having any accomplishments. Some people don't include clearly written, understandable accomplishments on their resume. You need to communicate the things that you've done and give people a reason to want to interview you. Include anything that might be an accomplishment for which you are proud. For example, I include "World Record holder" in my resume even though it is not related to cosmetic chemistry. 4. Assuming your recruiter will work for you. While it can be easy to let a recruiter hunt down all the job opportunities for you, this is not a great way to get a job. A recruiter should only be one method for you to find your dream job. You've still got to keep hunting yourself. Remember recruiters work for themselves not necessarily you. They want to fill a job with whomever they can. 5. Not tailoring your resume for a specific job. These days it's easy enough to change your resume for every job you apply for. Don't send a resume with an objective of landing a formulation job if the job is for Quality Control chemist. Modify every resume to best fit every job you are applying for. 6. Applying for jobs for which you aren't qualified. If you are not qualified for a job (or over qualified) don't waste everyone's time applying for them. You need to filter out jobs based on what you can realistically expect to get. 7. Having a poor online reputation. It's a reality that employers check things like Facebook, Twitter, and blogs to get background information about you that doesn't come through in a resume. Make it a point to Google yourself and see what the HR department of your future employer is going to see. If you can, get...

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After a couple years of working as a cosmetic chemist, you might get a phone call that goes something like this... "Hello (your name). I'm trying to fill this great position and I was wondering if you knew anyone who might be a good candidate. " Congratulations! You've just gotten your first call from a "headhunter. " Read on to learn how to deal with these people who can genuinely help advance your career. What is a headhunter? Headhunter is a slightly derogatory slang term for Recruiter. A recruiter is a person who's job it is to find people to fill positions in companies. Typically, they focus on one industry, job type, and geographical location. A recruiter makes money when they fill a position. So, they get paid if they can convince you (or someone else) to take a job. How can they help you? Recruiters can genuinely be helpful for your career so it makes sense for you to network with a number of them. They learn of opportunities that are not posted and can help match you up with a cosmetic science job that can make you more money, give you more responsibility, or just save you from a bad situation. LinkedIn is a great place to find recruiters. Headhunter hints There are a number of things you can do to make working with a headhunter more beneficial for both you and the recruiter. 1. Give the recruiter as much information about what you want from a job as possible. Include information about salary, job type, responsibility level desired, location, and anything else you think is relevant. 2. Provide your recruiter with a list of companies you would consider working for. This doesn't guarantee that they'll find you a job there but it can improve your chances. 3. Ask your recruiter for advice to improve on in areas in which you are weak such as your resume (CV), your interviewing skills, or your salary negotiating skills. 4. Get information about the company in which they are trying to fill a position. Headhunters are notorious for being vague about the job/position that they are trying to fill. Usually, they'll just say "some big company on the East coast is looking for a formulator". Request more information. 5. Get tips from your recruiter on how you can improve your chances of having a great interview. They might know of why other people didn't get the job. 6. It is best to work with a recruiter when you already have a job. Recruiters are not as keen to work with people who are unemployed. Headhunter Cautions While headhunters can be helpful, they can also be annoying or can get you in trouble. After I had been working for my company for a couple of years, a headhunter contacted me and told me about a job that sounded interesting. I was looking for a higher salary so was open to the possibility of changing jobs. The headhunter asked me to send him...

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There has been an interesting trend in the cosmetic industry where companies are launching products that are food themed. I was reminded about it by this article was posted by one of the chemists on Twitter. In the article they listed a bunch of strange food cosmetics including... 1. Okra Conditioner 2. French Fry Lip Balm? 3. Fortune Cookie bath products 4. BBQ fragrance 5. Pizza Hut fragrance 6. Wasabi Candles 7. Bacon fragrance? 8. Resse's Lip Balm 9. Cat food soap 10. White Castle Slider candle Ever since I worked on the VO5 Strawberries n Cream shampoo, I've been a huge fan of fruit flavored shampoos. But fortune cookie? Bacon? and White Castle? That's just odd. I wonder what other odd food / cosmetic blends marketers will come up with next. Any ideas?

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Many of the Research and Development jobs in the cosmetic industry are held by people who have degrees in chemistry. In fact, if you are interested in working as a cosmetic scientist the best degree to get would be a degree in Chemistry. But there are options for people who did not study chemistry in college. Here is a list of some of those jobs. Microbiologist - This job involves evaluating the efficacy of formulation preservative systems, recommending preservatives, and developing test methods. It is typically held by someone with a biology degree. Regulatory Affairs - If you liked the idea of being a lawyer but didn't want to spend the extra time required to go through law school then working as a regulatory scientist is the way to go. These people keep up on the latest rules coming out of various regulatory bodies around the US and the world and make rules on what ingredients can be safely used in formulations. These jobs can be held by people with any science degree or even non-science degrees. Quality Control - QC or QA scientists are responsible for testing samples to ensure they meet specifications set up during the product development phase. They collect samples and run them through a variety of instruments. While many QC scientists have chemistry degrees, they can also hold other science degrees like biology or physics. Claims Substantiation - In this job, you are required to design experiments that can support claims that your company wants to make about their various products. It takes a high level of creativity and can be done by anyone with a science background. Sensory Scientist - These scientists help determine the ways that your products will interact with consumers and give suggestions on how to modify formulas to make them better. People with biology degrees are more likely to hold these jobs. Data Entry - Not all the work in a lab requires science backgrounds and data entry is one such job. These workers take data created by the QA/QC department or they manage formula entry into the system. While scientists can do this work, it can also be done by people with computer science or other college degrees. Process Engineer - If you are more interested in equipment and product scale-up then a process engineering job is for you. These scientists help move the formulations from the lab to the production plant. They also have to travel a bit and monitor production at different facilities. To get a job like this you'll want to get a degree in chemical engineering. Innovation - Coming up with new product ideas and creating prototypes is the job of people in the innovation group. While it helps to have a chemistry degree to be in an innovation group at a cosmetic company, it is not required. Having any science degree is helpful but you can also thrive with a background in anthropology, business, or fine arts. Technician - The technician helps the formulators...

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I'm a big fan of Twitter and post regularly as @ChemistsCorner, @thebeautybrains, and @thejoggler. There are also a number of other cosmetic chemists who tweet (see this post on 20 cosmetic chemists who tweet), but we are still in the minority. There are some very good reasons why a cosmetic chemist should be on Twitter including the following. Create new relationships with other chemists & scientists The growth of Twitter continues to be amazing and it frequently is a place for cosmetic chemists to post ideas/stories that they find interesting. I've met a number of cosmetic chemists & other interesting people through Twitter. Communicate directly with non-scientists & the media My posting on twitter has lead directly to a number of opportunities to contribute to stories written by people in the main stream press. Cosmetic chemists are a unique voice in the cosmetic industry and we haven't been heard from nearly enough. Twitter provides that opportunity. Becoming an expert When you communicate information about cosmetic chemistry on Twitter you can establish yourself as an expert in the field. Even if you have only been involved in formulating for a short while, the quality of your tweets will help build credibility. Finding a job We have previously written about it and I encourage you to read our post about how Twitter can be used to find a job. Get ideas for new products Cosmetic chemists can follow beauty bloggers on Twitter and get consumer insights, learn about problems consumers are having, and come up with new product ideas. It can also help you get keyed into the hot ingredients that you know your marketing people will eventually ask you about. Easier than blogging I think blogging is a great outlet for cometic chemists who are looking to establish themselves as industry experts but the truth is it can take up a lot of time. Twitter allows you to have most of the same benefits of blogging without the amount of time required. A 140 character tweet is much faster to write than a 1000 word blog post. Social Media tips While social media sites like Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook are excellent outlets for building a reputation as an expert they can also land you in trouble. Remember anything and everything you post on the Internet has the potential to be there forever! So, take some of the following precautions before posting too much. 1. Consider posting anonymously. It's better to use your real name as it helps in establishing yourself as an expert, but if you work for a corporation they likely have a social media posting policy which can significantly restrict what you are allowed to write. Anonymity allows you to post whatever you like. 2. Be polite. If you are using your real name then being polite is better than being an Internet bully. You might think people are idiots but don't tell them. Get your point across and then let it go. 3. Post useful things. Social media...

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If you want to succeed in the world of cosmetic science, it typically requires more than knowing raw materials and being a brilliant formulator. Success in any company will require general knowledge of business and people skills. Here are some of the most useful skills to develop. 1. Getting along with all people As far as career success goes there is nothing more important than learning how to deal with other people. In truth, the people who succeed best at a job (even cosmetic formulating) are the ones who know how to get along with as many different people as possible. This means you do everything in your power not to make enemies with anyone at your company. There will be plenty of people that you may not like but never let that be known. The better you get along with people, the more likely you will be to succeed at your job. This is not the kind of thing you learn in science classes but it is a lesson that everyone should learn. The classic book How To Win Friends and Influence People is an excellent primer on how to do this. 2. Motivating people to do things you need done. It's inevitable that when you work at a company you will not be able to get everything you need to get done by yourself. You will need to work with other people in your company to make things happen. And this means that you will have to learn how to motivate people to do things for you. Often you will not be in a position to give them any kind of reward as motivation either. The book I mentioned above has some great information about motivating people as does this blog post which lists steps to motivating. 3. Clear, succinct writing As a formulator you will have to communicate experimental findings, the status of your projects, and hundreds of other daily messages that will crop up. While the phone used to be the primary way to communicate it has been largely replaced by email and text messaging. That's why it is crucial that you learn how to craft a useful email that gets right to the point. These 15 tips for writing email are helpful. Make emails as long as they need to be but no longer! People probably won't read them all the way through anyway so get the most important stuff up front. 4. Develop a knowledge of the cosmetic industry While formulating is great it is not much use if you don't know anything else about the cosmetic industry. You need to become an expert not only in the raw materials but also in the different brands and products for which your company competes. You should be looked to as an expert on the cosmetic industry not just the science. Pay attention to the advertising campaigns of your competitors. Become familiar with the top cosmetic companies and the products they make. 5. Networking Since you...

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Author: Bob Wilcox Laboratory magnetic stirrers are clever mixing tools that, most simply defined, use a rotating magnet in the base of the unit to cause a bar magnet in solution flasks or beakers to likewise rotate. A U. S. patent was filed on this device by one Arthur Rosinger of Newark NJ on October 5, 1942 and was issued on June 6, 1944. Magnetic Stirrer development Over the years substantial improvements have been made on the design and performance of magnetic stirrers. Today, they find wide application in labs, pilot plants and small production facilities to process a variety of substances such as liquids, solvents, lacquers, oils, polymers and specialty chemicals. Chemists appreciate magnetic mixers because they are efficient, quiet and can operate for hours without supervision. Moreover they take no lunch hours or coffee breaks. Added features include ease of cleaning and disinfecting. Aside from the rotating magnet in the base there are no moving parts to wear out. Magnetic mixer capabilities Most units are fitted with a hotplate allowing samples contained in glass flasks to be heated as a further option in process development. Heating capability and the amount of material that can be processed depend on the size of the unit but temperatures to 500? C and capacities to 10 liters are typical. Mixing speed can be steplessly adjusted from, for example 50 to 1600 RPM; a soft-start/stop feature avoids samples splashing from the container. In fact the primary limit to the utility of these mixers is viscosity. Unlike overhead mixers and stirrers there is no direct connection between the drive motor magnet and the free magnet in the beaker. This is what limits their use in most cosmetic formulations. As to the stirring magnets a variety of configurations are available designed to the size and configuration of the sample container. All should have inert coatings to facilitate cleaning and disinfecting, thereby avoiding cross-contamination between samples. Magnetic Stirrer Control Panels Researchers have full control over the operation of their magnetic mixer with control options based on the particular model. On the CAT MCS67 programmable stirrer for example options include on/off for power, heating plate and the magnetic motor; plate temperature, motor RPM and operating time. When coupled to the optional but highly recommended platinum resistance temperature probe the set and actual sample temperature will be displayed. Researchers can also program heating and cooling rates and set the operating timer in days, hours and minutes. Safety Features The above mentioned temperature probe plays a dual role in the operation of a magnetic mixer. When attached to the mixer it effectively takes over the operation according to the programmed parameters. It along with features built into the mixer also play a role in the safe operation of magnetic stirrers. All safety features are designed to shut the system down in the event of a malfunction. Events that trigger a shut down include: - The hotplate temperature exceeding the maximum allowable temperature - A breakage or disconnect of the...

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This article about the rules of a scientist's life inspired us to put together one about the rules for a cosmetic chemists life. See what you think and add more in the comments if you like. 10 Rules for a cosmetic chemists life 1. Every messed up batch is an opportunity to learn. 2. Keep up with new technology including chemicals & communication tools 3. Never be certain. Everything you know is probably wrong in some way. 4. Be open with your knowledge & help others 5. Don't fall in love with your own ideas. 6. Test every formula you are working on. If you won't use it why should other people? 7. Marketers will always think your competitor's products are better 8. Ideas in your head are worth nothing. If you have a good one, do something about it. 9. Ask questions even if they are tough. 10. Be willing to change a formula if consumers tell you they don't like it.

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I was fortunate to spend my entire corporate career at one company that operated independently so I never had to go through a company buy-out. However, I was on the other side as our company bought a few companies along the way. You will likely be part of a corporate merger / buy-out and it is helpful to know what to expect when it happens. Here are a few things... 1. Documentation One of the main things you'll have to do when your company is bought or buys someone else is to gather up documentation about all your systems. The new buys will want to know exactly how you do everything that you do. They won't necessarily want you to keep doing things the way you're doing them, but they'll want to know. To prepare for this you should always have on hand documented procedures for how you do most everything you do including lab notebook keeping, formulating, testing, etc. 2. People change Expect there to be a change in management and organization. Often the buyers of your company will want to put their own people in key positions in the new company. Theoretically, this will make integration with the new company faster. Also, expect a reorganization to better reflect the structure of the new company. Rather than being organized by product type you might be organized by brand or visa versa. To prepare for this I'd suggest reading How to Win Friends and Influence People. It is a great book on interacting with new people. 3. People leaving Either people will get fired or they'll find a new opportunity. When one corporation merges with another it is inevitable that many of the key players at your company will move on to other companies. This is especially true of management since the new company wants to get their people in fast. To remain prepared for this always keep a fresh updated version of your resume or CV. 4. Changing systems Don't get used to the way that you do things because if your company gets bought or you buy someone else, everything may change. Sometimes these changes are for the better. You get new equipment and the other company did things faster. But other times changes are just annoying. For example, they may change the raw material numbers for all the products you work on. Just be prepared to adapt. 5. Expectations Another thing that will change when there is a corporate merger are expectations. You may expect things to get better or worse when the new company comes along however, there is one thing for certain. Your expectations of what will happen are likely wrong. It is difficult to predict what will happen to your company when you get bought. And often what you think is going to happen doesn't and what you think certainly won't happen, does. Remember, you are responsible for your career as a cosmetic chemist. You may have a company that gives you a paycheck...

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Creating anti-aging products is a popular activity for cosmetic chemists. But did you know that humans are programmed to die? This cute video explains it all.

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I just wanted to let everyone know that I'll be giving a talk at the next Lake Erie Chapter SCC so if you happen to be in the area, be sure to stop by. Here are the details. The Lake Erie Chapter of the Society of Cosmetic Chemists Presents: Perry Romanowski “Skepticism and the Cosmetic Chemist - How to Distill Beauty Science from Beauty Bogus” Abstract While people have always held odd beliefs about cosmetics, treatment products, and beauty, the Information Age has made the propagation of erroneous beliefs much easier. Clever marketing messages, misremembered headlines and anecdotal stories shared on discussion boards have all contributed to the rise of a less critical consumer. Unfortunately, this lack of skepticism can also affect cosmetic scientists. In this presentation we’ll review some common beauty knowledge and determine whether it is science or nonsense. We’ll also talk about some logical tools you can use to protect yourself from falling for Beauty BS. Where: Cafe Bricco (The Chestnut Room) 3150 W Market St (Doubletree Hotel across from Summit Mall) Fairlawn, OH 44333 When: Tuesday, March 12th, 2013 Reception starts at 5:00 pm Dinner begins at 5:30 pm Dinner will include: Salad, Entree of choice and a Dessert Platter Entree Selection: · Fettuccine with sautéed shrimp, roasted tomatoes, caramelized onions and asiago cream sauce · Pan-seared chicken breast glazed in cajun honey over creamy parmesan risotto topped with sautéed peppers and onions · Rotini tossed with spinach, kalamata olives, pine nuts, feta, roasted tomatoes and extra virgin olive oil RSVP Info: Cost for members is $40 and non-members $50, pay by cash or check at the event. Please RSVP with your entree choice to Steve Smith at lakeeriescc@gmail. com by Friday, March 8th. Please note that if you RSVP, you will be charged for the meeting cost.

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If you're searching for a job in the cosmetic industry (say you never had one or recently got laid off) or if you have one and want a better one, here are some career tips that you might find helpful. Cosmetic science career tips 1. Don't be picky. If you lose your job spend every waking moment applying and calling into your profession. Nothing hurts a job search more than time not working. The key is to stay working in the field. 2. Don't sound desperate. While you might need a job no one want to hire someone who sounds desperate. Be inquisitive and be receptive but make sure that the company is a right fit for you. Of course, don't forget to loosen your standards when you have to. 3. Resume. Keep your resume normal. A fragranced resume printed on pink paper may have worked for Elle Woods in Legally Blonde but it doesn't work that way in real life. No crazy format, keep your resume standard. 4. Working temporarily. Take temp jobs, 3 months or more only. Remember having some job is better than not having a job. 5. Ask questions. Most managers interviewing you suck at interviewing. Memorize the job description and ask questions about the position early. Gear your answers to that. And ask good questions in the interview. Relevant ones that matter to you. No questions = no job. 6. Submitting resume. Make sure if you use a temp/staffing agency that they call you before sending your résumé, especially if you use more than one. You should tailor your resume to suit the job for which you are applying. 7. Know when to switch. If a recruiter keeps trying to get you jobs out of your field, get rid of them. If you want a job in the cosmetic industry, you need to stay in the cosmetic industry. 8. Arrive on time. Don't go to an interview more than 15 minutes early. It will hurt you. It makes you seem desperate. If you are early, wait in your car. 9. Be reliable. Once you get a job, don't be late or miss any days of work in your first 180 days. Just don't. It leaves a very sour taste in your managers mouth. It doesn't matter how good the excuse is. Get sent home, don't call in sick. 10. Keep in contact. If you're late to an interview or work, call ahead. That will probably make it insignificant. 11. Thank yous. Always send personalized thank you emails to your interviewers. Get their business card/email addresses. Don't ever ever send a mass thank you email. Mention some little detail from the interview so they remember you. 12. Be online. Set up job posting alerts on job sites. When you get an email that a job you're interested in has been posted, stop at nothing to apply instantly. 13. Answer your phone. When you're searching for a job, answer every call. A lot of recruiters don't always...

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When I got my first job in the cosmetic science field, I did it the old fashioned way. I saw a help wanted ad in the newspaper and I sent them my resume. That lead to a job interview which ultimately lead to my formulating job at Alberto Culver. Nowadays it doesn't happen like that too often. Newspapers just don't publish the same number of job openings as they used to. Today, jobs are much more frequently found online. And if you use social media the right way, you'll have a greater chance of finding a job in the cosmetic industry. Here are some tips on how you can use social media to find a job. Create a profile As of now there are three social media outlets that are best suited for connecting and finding jobs. These include Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. You should create a profile on all of these. In Facebook you can fill in all the information on your about page. In LinkedIn you can put all your employment history. And on Twitter you can put a short description that can work as a 160 character job pitch. Also, include a professional looking picture. Creating a good profile is critical! Establish yourself as an expert Once you have a profile you'll want to do what you can to establish yourself as an expert in cosmetic science or at least in some aspect of cosmetic science. If you are not yet an expert, pick one area where you can become an expert and start researching. For people seeking formulator jobs learn everything you can about an area such as hair care products or skin care products. Go even more in-depth in one area such as shampoos. You might have to begin by calling yourself an expert then learning everything you can to actually become an expert. Remember, you don't have to know everything about a subject to be an expert. You are an expert in an area as long as you know more than the people who are looking to you for advice. There are some things you can do on social networking sites that can further boost your expert status. In twitter you can create a background that can help establish yourself as an expert. Be sure to have an online version of your resume or CV and link to it whenever you have the opportunity. You can use a service like Dropbox to host your file. Be social One way to become an expert is to participate in discussions on Twitter, Facebook, or LinkedIn. On Twitter, search for mentions of cosmetic chemistry or cosmetic science and reply to the people who have posted the comment (if appropriate). Share links to articles that you think people in the cosmetic industry would be interested and follow other cosmetic chemists. A great place to start is to follow all of the people listed in our cosmetic chemists on twitter article. Another thing you can do to demonstrate your...

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I saw this interesting post which listed some standards for entry level cosmetic chemist jobs. Every company is going to be a little different but these standards reflect the kind of tasks and background that most people will need to have a job as a cosmetic formulator or technician. Here is a quick list of some of the most important characteristics. Cosmetic Technician On the most basic level, this job requires the ability to follow the instructions of a formulation and to make it. Typically, the formulation is one created by a cosmetic chemist. Some key atributes to have as a cosmetic technician. Education: Associates or Bachelor's degree in science, preferably chemistry An appreciation for the basic science (you can get that in our cosmetic science course) Knowledge of the equipment used for formulating Ability to make formulations following procedures Ability to test viscosity and pH Ability to observe changes while making batches Give suggestions on how to improve formulations Good lab hygiene techniques Ability to work well with others and to follow directions Here are the suggested technician standards. Some of these will not apply to cosmetic formulating jobs however. Cosmetic formulator The cosmetic formulator job can be the most comprehensive of all in the cosmetic industry. Depending on the size of your company you may be required to do everything from product idea generation, formulation creation, formulation testing, to scale-up and quality control. Some of the key attributes of a formulator Education: Typically a 4 year degree in chemistry or biology An appreciation for the basic science (you can get that in our cosmetic science course) Knowledge of specific cosmetic raw materials (surfactants, thickeners, preservatives, etc. ) Understanding of how to create specific cosmetic formulations (job dependent) Ability to create improvements in formulations Ability to test formulations and suggest improvements Understanding of how to talk with the marketing department Knowledge of market research techniques Knowledge of methods for doing standard cosmetic tests for hair, skin, and color cosmetics Ability to come up with innovative new product ideas Here are the suggested formulato standards. Some of these will not apply to cosmetic formulating jobs however. These are just some suggestions but they give you a good sense of what it takes to get started in the cosmetic industry. During the month of March we are going to focus on a cosmetic science career. If you are interested in more about having a career as a cosmetic chemist, be sure to see our page on cosmetic science career.

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This is a pretty cool image showing the effects of surface tension.

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I spent much of my career formulating hair care products including shampoos, conditioners, and styling products. One of the largest projects that I was ever involved in was qualifying a second source for our primary detergent, sodium lauryl sulfate. This required us to make multiple batches of each of the 13+ shampoo varieties we produced and run stability tests on them. We also had to do foam testing, salon testing, and packaging compatibility testing. It was a lot of work. And the interesting part was that we were simply substituting one supplier of Sodium Lauryl Sulfate with another supplier of Sodium Lauryl Sulfate. (We were qualifying Henkle I believe). Anyway, as a young chemist I wondered why we had to do that. Why couldn't we just substitute one supplier for another? The chemicals were both Sodium Lauryl Sulfate so there shouldn't be a problem. Well, this is something they don't teach you in college chemistry. Industrial produced raw materials are rarely the same company to company and batch to batch. Here are the primary reasons why one company's raw material is not the same as another's even though it has the same INCI name. Different starting materials Most cosmetic raw materials can be made from a variety of starting materials. For example, sodium lauryl sulfate is made using lauric acid as a starting material. The lauric acid can come from coconut oil, palm kernal oil, or petroleum. Unfortunately, these sources do not result in a pure version of lauric acid but rather a distribution of fatty acids which contain mostly lauric acid. Coconut oil contains about 40% lauric acid and a significant amount of myristic, stearic & palmitic acids. It also contains about 8% of non-fatty acid material which can end up as a residual contaminate of the final product. All of these differences can result in a slightly different version of sodium lauryl sulfate even though it has the same INCI name. Different production method Another factor that makes one version of a cosmetic raw material different from another with the same name is the various production methods. As you may have learned in organic chemistry there are multiple ways to arrive at the same raw material. Sodium lauryl sulfate can be made by reacting lauryl alcohol with sulfur trioxide gas, oleum, or chlorosulfuric acid. It is then neutralized with either sodium hydroxide or sodium carbonate to produce the final ingredient. All of these different routes of synthesis will result in a material that is slightly different at the end. And other things like the manufacturing equipment, the quality control standards, and the final specifications can all impact the chemical properties of the final product. Different residual ingredients The other important factor is the residual ingredients that are either left over from the production process or added to preserve the product or improve the color. Sometimes raw material companies add bleaching agents to their products so they don't look as yellow. These residual components can have a significant impact...

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Author: Bob Wilcox We’ve noted several posts in the Chemists Corner discussion forum on using homogenizers to prepare shampoos. Our take on homogenizers is primarily from the R&D perspective — that is how lab homogenizers can help researchers develop processes that can be scaled to production levels. And while lab homogenizers have the capability of handling relatively large samples — up to 20 liters for the larger models — those with capacities of from 0. 1 ml to 5 liters are probably more useful for preliminary research. What are homogenizers Homogenizers are part of a family that includes overhead stirrers and magnetic stirrers. What homogenizers bring to the bench are vigorous stirring and mixing action but at controllable speeds. In fact, just about any composition that can be mixed can be processed by these versatile tools. We won’t dwell here on where you can employ these tools in the cosmetics lab, but instead describe how they work and the various homogenizing configurations that are available to do the job properly. Among these jobs are included cell disruption, emulsifying, dispersion, dissolving, mixing, suspending, and — with special accessories — in-line processing, grinding and particle reduction. Lab Homogenizer Components Lab homogenizers are powered by a drive motor, the size and power of which is determined by the task at hand. Power ranges from 125 watts in smaller models up to 1700 watts. The motors power a rotor shaft (much as an electric drill powers the bit) at controllable speeds as high as 45,000 rpm. Attached to the working end of the shaft is a removable rotor of sharply machined teeth designed to perform specific homogenizing functions. The rotor shaft fits inside a stationary tube that is attached to the drive motor housing. At the base of this tube is a removable stator with sharply machined slots that are compatible with the specific rotor selected. The rotor-stator combination is called the generator. All of these components — tubes, shafts and generators — are of corrosion resistant stainless steel. Got that? Rotors and stators can be changed out to achieve different configurations that perform different tasks. The only “but” is compatibility with the tube diameter. Although there are hand held models, homogenizers are generally affixed to an adjustable mounting stand for correct positioning in the sample container and to assure stable operation during long mixing cycles. So, an Example Please... . OK, just one. Our highest-speed homogenizer drive, the 350-watt CAT X360 will handle sample volume sizes from 0. 1 ml to 2 liters based on shaft sizes. This makes it an excellent choice if your operations call for super-fine disintegration or if you are looking to process larger volume samples on a laboratory scale. With a design speed of 45,000 rpm the CAT X360 can be connected to the optional P1500 variable speed control allowing researchers to set rotor speed between 10,800 to 42,500 rpm. Other optional equipment include the highly recommended drive stand and clamp plus wrenches to attach and remove rotors...

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Well, the ban on animal testing is happening in the EU. As of March 11, 2013, cosmetics will not be allowed to be tested on animals. The ban covers... 1. Finished goods 2. Raw materials 3. The marketing of animal-tested products 4. The import of animal-tested products It is interesting to note the EU regulators have said that Upon full implementation in 2013, Directive 2003/15 will prohibit an additional eight tests for the marketing ban. These tests include “carcinogenicity, photoallergy, cutaneous allergy, toxicokinetics, reprotoxicity, teratogenesis, toxicitysub chronic and chronicand photomutagenesis. ” All of these eight tests still require the use of animals, as no validated alternatives are currently available. These are also some of the most important tests, as they are necessary to determine whether the products are safe for human use. Carcinogenity tests for cancer-causing properties, and reproductive toxicity tests for negative effects on human reproduction" So, the regulators admit that the alternatives to animal testing are not reliable. Lots of anit-animal testing advocates miss this point or directly lie about it. That is not to say I disagree with the ban. People should just be aware that the products they use will now be less safe. The Humane Society and Lush Cosmetics have said that this should inspire all cosmetic markets around the world to get rid of animal testing. We'll see if it happens. Likely result The truth is that there is not a lot of animal testing that is going on in the cosmetic industry. In the 15+ years of formulating that I did for a large cosmetic company, I could count on one hand the number of products we sent out to be animal tested. It just doesn't happen much. It is expensive and if companies didn't have to do it, they would rather not. The primary place that animal testing is happening is with raw material suppliers who have to test new raw materials. The result of this ban essentially means that cosmetic products in the EU will no longer be able to incorporate new raw materials (at least until alternative testing methods are verified). Maybe this won't matter. Maybe cosmetics are as good as they need to be. But if that is the case, will we still need cosmetic chemists? Probably. Just not as many.

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If you are not in the business of formulating hair care products you may have missed the big kerfuffle caused by the use of formaldehyde in a salon treatment called the Brazilian hair-straightening. A couple of years ago, the Brazilian treatment became quite popular until people figured out that there were high levels of formaldehyde being used to get the straightening effect. The manufacturers rightly claimed they were using methylene glycol but ultimately the regulators didn't buy the explanation. Just recently, the SCCS (regulatory organization in the EU) declared that methylene glycol in hair straightening products represented a health risk. So, here we have a cosmetic technology that works, but is not allowed. This occassionally happens to cosmetic formulators so it is helpful to have a plan on what to do with a technology you can't use. Here are some suggestions. Get the same benefit with less I actually ran into this exact problem when I was working on a hair color retention technology. I accidentally discovered a formaldehyde-donor preservative had a color locking effect. It was actually the basis of my first patent. Anyway, as we developed the technology we were conscious of the maximum amount of formaldehyde/methylene glycol we could use and we made it a point to use the maximum amount without having to label "contains formaldehyde". We were still able to get some benefit but not the maximum amount. But a partial benefit is sometimes good enough. Find an analogue If you figure out the mechanism by which your technology is working, you can partner with a raw material supplier to get a similar molecule made that doesn't have the problems associated with the unuseable technology. In the case of formaldehyde, you could search for molecules that have a formaldehyde functional group. Or you can test other molecules that have methyl groups substituted for the Hydrogen atom. This is a chance for you to use your chemistry knowledge. Incidentally, this is what many of the Brazilian hair straightening brands have done. Find a way to reduce negative effects Reducing the level is one way to minimize negative effects but there are other options. Suppose you want to use a technology that is irritating but still provides a good benefit. You can find a delivery technology like microspheres or matrix polymers to reduce irritation potential. In the case of methylene glycol this would not have worked because the regulators don't acknowledge nuianced use of technologies. Use it as a model Perhaps the best option for using a technology that is not suitable for sale is to use it as a model for what you want your product to achieve. In the cosmetic industry it is difficult to find suitable models and benchmarks for positive effects. When we found the color locking technology, it gave us a great visual target to compare all subsequent technologies to. As a formulator, finding targets to beat is critical. Defend the technology Finally, you can try to defend the technology by demonstrating...

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I recently was a judge at a local science fair for grade school students. It was great to see all the students excited about their projects and many were pretty interesting. This one made me both happy (that a kid was interested in cosmetic science) and sad (that the lead in lipstick nonsense is infecting young kids). Sigh. But maybe she'll continue her research and discover the folly of her conclusions.

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Euromonitor International is One of the market research firms that reports on the cosmetic industry. They often provide interesting insights into what consumers are thinking. This year they have published their 10 consumer trends for 2013 which you can read here. As a cosmetic formulator it is helpful to keep tabs on these trends because some of them will affect your formulating. Most are wrong or will have no impact but your marketing department won't care about that. So, here is one take on how these consumer trends of 2013 might affect your formulating. 1. The quest for value. Consumers seem more willing to spend money for trial size versions of more expensive products. Smaller containers typically means you'll have to create lower viscosity formulas to ensure consumers can get them out of the package. 2. Crowded houses. More people are living in the same house so they'll be using the same products. This means you'll have to formulate products that work for multiple generations and genders. 3. Downtime decoded. People are spending more time trying to detach from their smart phones. Not sure how this will affect cosmetic formulators. 4. Celebrating food. Look for your marketers to ask you to create more food-themed cosmetics. 5. End of Gender-focused consumption. They think unisex is the wave of the future. Maybe in some areas but I don't think that will spill over into cosmetics. But for formulators, it likely means you'll need to work with fragrances that appeal to both men and women. 6. Local love. People are more keen to use locally produced products. This could be a great time to start your own cosmetic line and sell in your own city. 7. Older and working. People will be working older which means they'll be looking for cosmetic products that keep them looking young. Formulators will have to modify their creations to appeal to an older consumer, addressing problems like age spots, graying hair, etc. 8. Parenting lifestyles. I have no idea what this even means but there was a reason I didn't go into Market Research. 9. Shopping of the future. Consumers will be buying products in less traditional ways. This will affect marketing but I can't see much affect on how products are formulated. 10. Consumer concerns. It looks like they think niche markets will be expanding so cosmetic manufacturers will need to make more niche products. This will be a problem for bigger companies as niche products means smaller markets, but for formulators who want to create their own brand, that's great news! As a cosmetic chemist you may have to modify your formulas to address specific niche needs. So there you have it. 10 trends and how they might subtly affect your formulation efforts.

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A big problem for contract manufacturers and finished goods makers in general is the development of a contaminating biofilm on the manufacturing equipment. Even after following GMP, a biofilm can persist. I know at least one large manufacturing plant in this area had a significant biofilm problem with this for years. For cosmetic chemists, a biofilm in your manufacturing facilities means you have to modify your preservative system to not only resist standard microbes that the product will typically be exposed to, but also formulate to ensure that the contaminating species that gets in your batches during the filling process is killed. These biofilms can be composed of different species at different manufacturing facilities so your formula preservative system that works in one place may not continue to be effective at a different manufacturing plant. Fortunately, scientists continue to work on this problem. Here is a new technology from IBM which is able to destroy biofilms. It is a polymer hydrogel that can break through the biofilm and deliver an antimicrobial that kills the microbes. This could revolutionize the disinfecting process in cosmetic manufacturing. Here's a video which explains the technology a bit more. Very cool technology which could impact cosmetic chemists in the near future.

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I enjoy being a card carrying member of the Society of Cosmetic Chemists. I respect and share their mission, it has been helpful for my career, and I've met lots of interesting people. The SCC is a great organization. One of things I like best about the SCC is the cosmetic science seminars that are held twice a year; in New York during December and then a mid-year meeting held somewhere around the US. This year the mid-year meeting will be held in St. Louis. I'm excited to be part of the planning committee and am encouraging everyone I know to attend. Just in case you are wondering whether you should attend, here are 7 reasons not to miss it. 1. A unique opportunity for learning cosmetic science. This year’s SCC meeting in St. Louis will feature over 35 presentations about skin, hair, testing methods, sustainability, and fundamentals of polymer/surfactant delivery systems. It will have the latest research presented by scientists in the field. The opportunity for personal scientific enrichment will be unmatched. You can ask questions, have a dialogue and learn what other scientists's views are about the various topics. You can't get that from reading the pages of the latest JSCC. 2. Discover the latest in cosmetic technology If you’re from a small company you’ll rarely get proper attention from big raw material suppliers, missing out on their latest technologies. And at big companies, you probably don’t take meetings with small raw material suppliers, so you might have missed some unique, little-known technologies. At the Mid-year SCC meeting, you can over come both of those problems. There will be poster sessions with all types of new and interesting technologies. If you can’t get a new idea here, you just aren’t trying. At the very least, you should be able to get an invite to one of the hospitality suites for drinks and food later. 3. Meet the most friendly cosmetic chemists on the planet As a cosmetic chemist you likely spend the majority of your time in your lab and don't get to interact with chemists outside of your company. While a local SCC meeting will introduce you to a few other chemists, a national event offers you the opportunity to meet many more cosmetic chemists. Literally hundreds of attendees will crowd the halls and the majority of them will be cosmetic scientists. You can find out all sorts of useful information like how things work at other companies, what techniques they use to develop & test products, and maybe even learn new approaches to solving your problems. Making friends throughout the industry is great for your cosmetic science career. 4. Get inspired with new ideas Perhaps the best reason to go to the mid-year SCC meeting in St. Louis is that you will come back brimming with ideas. It might be from a talk you heard, a poster session you attended, or even a conversation you had over drinks at the hotel bar. Just remember to keep...

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I was listening to one of my favorite skeptical podcasts, The Skeptics Guide to the Universe, and they were talking about Deer Antler Spray. Apparently, a player in the Super Bowl was rumored to have used the stuff to increase the speed at which he would heal from an injury. The ingredient was applied topically and somehow was supposed to help him heal faster. There is enough belief in it that the NFL has banned the substance. But in true Skeptics Guide fashion, one of the hosts looked into the research and discovered that there really is no proven benefit to the use of deer antler spray. The studies of the active ingredient showed some effect in lab tests but not in human trials. This reminded me of most new anti-aging ingredients used in cosmetics. Anti-aging cosmetic technology development First, a scientist makes a discovery about how an ingredient affects the growth of skin cells in a lab. It may speed growth, increase collagen production, increase elastin production, or have some other presumably positive effect. This could be an accidental discovery (usually) or done on purpose. Next, the scientist makes a presentation to the marketing group and spins an anti-aging story. Marketing groups are constantly on the look-out for new anti-aging ingredients and R&D departments are keen to deliver something. After that, the marketing group runs with the technology spinning stories about the new product, and putting them in product briefs that get read to consumers in focus groups. In the meantime, the scientists try to incorporate the technology into a cream or lotion or whatever other product the marketing group wants to launch. They also continue the process of claims testing. When the market research and marketing group strike on a product story that resonates with consumers, they move ahead. They hope that the scientists can demonstrate the effectiveness of the ingredient in a cream but it's not really required. The proof of effectiveness from the lab testing is enough to support most cosmetic claims. What it means So, what does this mean? While there are some completely unsupported anti-aging ingredients, most of the technology in anti-aging cosmetics actually have some basis for functionality. In theory, they can work... at least in the lab. The reality is that most any cosmetic active ingredient that will affect skin cells is not likely to work. There is a big difference between affecting skin cells in a lab than skin cells located in the body below the epidermis. Most any active ingredient is too big to penetrate the epidermis. And if an ingredient cannot penetrate, it cannot work. With this in mind, it's not surprising that most anti-aging ingredients do not work. They suffer from the same problem as topically applied Deer Antler spray. No penetration... no effect. On the plus side, there is benefit to moisturizing skin and this is what nearly all anti-aging cosmetics do. Also, if a cosmetic was actually able to cause collagen production to increase or interfere...

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This is a pretty cool story about slime mold. I was a biology major and always appreciated interesting animal adaptations. Here's the video.

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While it may be a dream of a cosmetic formulator to make a product that will be bought and used by everyone, this almost certainly will never happen. It is extremely difficult to be successful marketing a product when your target market is everyone. You have to narrow your focus and find a group of people who will most likely want your product. Market Segments Big cosmetic companies try to appeal to as many people as they possibly can. They go for the big markets. But even they have learned that it is impossible to market a product to everyone. So, they take a market and break it down into segments. For example, if the market for cosmetic products is all people, the segment would be all women. But this market segment is still too big and the clever cosmetic marketers break the market into even smaller segments. The most common market segments would be 1. Benefit segments - Targeting a specific need that a group of consumers are looking for. This would be something like marketing to women who want to straighten their curly or frizzy hair. 2. Demographic segments - Picking a group of people that have similar incomes, ethnicities, religions, etc. and marketing products to them. For example, creating a line of products for African American hair. 3. Occasion segments - Creating products for people that are going to buy them for some special occasion. For instance a salon offering a special wedding day make-over. 4. Lifestyle segmentation - This would be creating products for people who live a certain way. For example, selling your cosmetic products in Whole Foods to appeal to the "green" consumer. These could be broken out with lots more examples, but these are the main segmentations that big cosmetic companies look to address. Niche Cosmetic Marketing Now, if you are an entrepreneur or small cosmetic company the truth is that you will have an incredibly difficult time competing with the big companies for these large market segments. They just have a lot more money they can spend on advertising and in-store promotion than you. That's where niche marketing comes in. Niche Markets are like Segmented Markets but just much smaller and more well defined. They are perfect for small cosmetic companies because the niches are often so small that it wouldn't be profitable for a big company to spend time trying to serve the market. I recall while working for Alberto Culver in the early 1990's we had a gel brand that did about $80,000 per year in sales. The company decided to discontinue it because it wasn't worth selling. But if this were a brand owned by a small cosmetic firm, it could certainly have supported one employee. The bottom line is that when you're starting your own line, find a niche for which to make your products. So if you are interested in creating your own line, you have to find your niche, then make products for them. And if...

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In Colin's post on nail polish, he reminded me of a common question I'm asked about beauty products and cosmetics is "how long do they last? ". Most people are hesitant to throw out any product they haven't finished so they typically have a bathroom cabinet filled with old cosmetics. Even I have some skin lotions that are at least 5 years old. As a cosmetic formulator, you should have a good idea of how long these things last. Here is an estimation of types of products and how long they last. Two years or more When you are formulating, your goal should be to create a product that will pass stability testing for at least a year. So, products that last longer than this are going to be robust formulas that are not exposed to temperature extremes or intense lighting. The most stable formulations will be the ones that have ingredients that are all compatible, don't evaporate, and are stored in light-proof bottles. They will most likely be anhydrous, or solutions (rather than emulsions) and have air-tight containers which don't allow for significant weight loss. Some of the best candidates for products that will last this long include. Clear Shampoos Clear Body Washes Fragrances (in dark bottles) Nail polish Aerosols (hair spray, shaving cream, AP/Deo) After-shave Hairdressing Bath oils Powder color cosmetics Soaps Lipstick / lip balm One year to two years When you start creating emulsions you reduce the stability of the products and they don't last as long. But every well-formulated cosmetic should last at least a year. Here is a list of formulations that fall into this category. Pearlized shampoos / body washes Dandruf shampoo Facial scrubs Hair conditioners Skin lotions / moisturizers Liquid foundation / eyeliner / blush Clear bottle products Hair gels Styling products Sunscreens Less than a year There are a number of cosmetic products that are reactive and have a limited shelf life or they are not formulated to last. Here are some of the shortest lasting cosmetic formulas. Products without preservatives "Natural" cosmetics Hair colorants Depilatories Products with high fragrance levels Relaxers Sunless tanners Opened products that aren't sealed properly Warning signs: Products that are no longer good to use will typically start to smell funny, change color, taste different or feel different. But unless they are contaminated with microbes they should still be functional. This post about 5 ways beauty products go bad elaborates more.

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Over time, the job of a cosmetic chemist can occasionally get boring. With the endless stability test measurements and prototypes that fall apart, you can just get plain worn out. You don't want to quit formulating but you do want to recapture some of the magic of the old days. Here are a few tips for reviving those early days of wonder. 1. Learn something new. A simple thing to do is to start reading up on some cosmetic subject that you don't know a lot about. If you're a skin product formulator, learn something about hair products and hair biology. If you formulate hair products, look into skin or color cosmetics. There is so much to learn that we tend to specialize in a particular area. To shake off the formulating doldrums, learn something new. 2. Make something new. While learning something new is helpful, it's even better if you can apply your new knowledge to a tangible thing. So go ahead and make a formula that you've never made before. Try making a lipstick or shampoo or skin lotion or styling product. There are so many different formulas possible that there will always be something you haven't made. And here's a handy link for starting cosmetic formulas. 3. Mentor someone. There is nothing like teaching people things you know to help reinvigorate your interest in a subject. Find someone new at your company or take advantage of online resources like the cosmetic science forum to help a fellow chemist out. Another great way to do this is to offer to give a presentation at an upcoming Society of Cosmetic Chemists meeting. 4. Connect with some other formulators. You can learn a lot from other cosmetic chemists and doing so can help revive your interest in the work that you are doing or in the subject of cosmetic science. Finding out the different types of things that others are working inspires your own work. It also makes you feel more connected to people in the industry which will make you feel better about being part of it. A great way to connect is online using LinkedIn or the SCC Facebook page. 5. Pick up cooking. Alright, if formulating is getting you down why not take the skills you've learned at work and apply them to a useful hobby like cooking? You have to eat, so you might as well try getting good at making food. Who knows you might learn some useful techniques that you could apply to your cosmetic formulating efforts. 6. Write your formulating manifesto. One of the things that leads to boredom in a career is not being able to stand out. Figure out how you stand out. Figure out what makes you different and what you stand for. Come up with 10 or so core values that define you and your career as a formulator. Avoid useless platitudes like "excellent quality". Make them specific values that define you as a formulator. Are you dedicated to...

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Here is an instructive video put together by the good folks at the American Chemical Society.

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Here is a fun video to watch this weekend.

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Somehow many consumers, DIYers, and even formulators stumble on to the Environmental Working Group's Skin Deep database. Unfortunately, they have no way of knowing that much of the information is dubious and provides a skewed view of the safety of cosmetic ingredients. We have previously written about the problems with the EWG. But criticism about a website or source is not helpful for the people who ended up on the website in the first place. Consumers, formulators, and DIY cosmetic makers have questions and seek out useful information. That's why they ended up on the EWG site in the first place. Fortunately, there are websites that take a scientific approach to information about cosmetic ingredients. In addition to Chemists Corner, here are some great alternatives to the EWG database. 1. TheFactsAbout. co. uk - This website produced by the CTPA provides reliable information about the ingredients used in cosmetics. There is information about product safety, ingredients, general cosmetic information, and specific cosmetic types. 2. Cosmetic Info. org - This is a website created by the PCPC and contains information about the safety, testing, and regulation of cosmetics and personal care products and their ingredients. There are two section on the site including pages on ingredient safety and an ingredient database. A nice, science based alternative to the Skin Deep database. 3. FDA cosmetic information - Here you will find all you need to know about the regulation of cosmetics in the US. Includes safety information and a review of hot topics. 4. Personal Care Truth - Just some cosmetic industry experts providing articles about controversial topics in the cosmetic industry. 5. The Beauty Brains - If you are a consumer and have a question about your cosmetic products, these cosmetic experts will get you the answer. Got any more suggestions of great website resources for cosmetic ingredient information? Leave a comment below.

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This is a cute video about acne and what causes it. Cosmetic chemists and formulators should know what causes the problems we're trying to solve. http://www. youtube. com/watch? v=qz1FKi6z4Fc

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I saw that there was going to be a masterclass on greenwashing so I thought I would add my two cents about the different levels of greenwashing prevalent in the cosmetic industry. If you're a formulator, you'll have to decide for yourself what type of "natural" formulating you are comfortable with. Here are what I call the 5 levels of formulation greenwashing. Level 1 - Naturally named The first form of greenwashed formulating is where you create a standard product but give it a green, natural, granola crunching name. The driving belief behind this type of formulating is that consumers do not look at ingredient lists and are more focused on the product name / design. This is a slightly cynical form of natural formulating, however, it was regularly practiced in the mid to late 1990's by cosmetic companies. The reason? It was effective. On some level, it is still effective which is why you can still find contract manufacturers who will produce products using this formulation strategy. It's the least expensive way to formulate a natural cosmetic product. Level 2 - A Pinch of Nature This type of greenwashing is still prevalent representing a large segment of the natural cosmetic product market. Essentially, you formulate a standard product then load it up with low levels of natural extracts, oils, and other green sounding ingredients. The ingredients have no measurable impact on the performance of the product, but they do have important functions. They allow the marketers to talk about the ingredients in the story and they compel people to buy the products. The last time I got my hair cut, I was told by the stylist about her favorite product brand. It was based on Aloe. When I looked at the ingredient list, I saw standard ingredients like Cocamidopropyl Betaine and Sodium Cocyl Sarconsinate followed by Aloe. Since this type of greenwashing is effective it is unlikely to go out of fashion in the cosmetic industry. You can create inexpensive formulas that are highly functional and still appealing to people who are concerned with using natural or organic products. Until there are required industry standards, this will not go away. Level 3 - Natural Substitutions This next level of greenwash formulating is a little closer to actual green or natural formulation. Following these techniques the cosmetic formulator attempts to replace standard ingredients with ones that sound like natural ingredients. So, rather than using Sodium Lauryl Sulfate, the formulator chooses Sodium Cocoyl Sulfate. Afterall, Cocoyl = coconut = natural right? The other thing that is done is to put the origin of the raw material source in the list of ingredients. You'll see ingredient lists that look something like this... Water, Decyl, Lauryl Glucosides (Natural Coconut Oil, Corn, Starch, Sugar Soap Blend), Coco Betaine (Coconut Oil Moisturizer), Soy Protein, Coco Glucoside, Glyceryl Oleate (Natural Sunflower, Coconut Oil Soap Blend), Surcrose Laurate (Sugar Ester), Vegetable Glycerin, Betaine (Sugar Beet), Glucose Sugar, Fragrance, Orange Oil, Anise Oil, Lemon (Citrus Medica Limonium) Oil,...

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Being part of an industry professional group like the SCC is a great idea for cosmetic chemists because it provides numerous opportunities for learning and networking. But if you don't plan ahead, you may not be getting the most out of your visits to meetings. Here are seven ways you can maximize the benefits you get from attending industry meetings and events. Prepare yourself If you want to interact with people at a cosmetic industry event, you should be up to date on any significant events that are affecting the industry. The best way to do this is to read industry trade journals or check out the feeds at various online resources that are valuable to cosmetic chemists. Here are some of my favorites. 1. GCI 2. Happi 3. Innovadex 4. SpecialChemi4Cosmetics 5. CosmeticsDesign 6. Cosmetics & Toiletries Prepare a good introduction Think about the way you introduce yourself and develop something that is memorable. Think of it as an elevator pitch for yourself and what you (or your company) can do for the person you're meeting. You should include relevant information about yourself, your job, your background, and most importantly, what you are trying to accomplish. Also, be sure to hand out a business card and collect them from the people that you are meeting. Get introduced to people There is no sense going to a meeting surrounded by lots of people and not mingling and meeting them. So be sure to get to the meeting early and start meeting people that you see there. Now is not the time to be shy. A good place to start is to begin talking with the people who are collecting registration names and fees. Get a sense of who will be there and who they think you should meet. Meet as many people as you can Once you get started, keep talking to as many people as you can. It isn't enough to introduce yourself however. Be sure to learn about them. See if you can get some information about their background and the main problem that they are looking for help solving. It can be anything and if you can offer some help, most people will be immensely grateful. After introducing yourself focus on speaking in terms of the other person. People are less interested in you than they are in themselves. So, make an effort to be interested in them. Meet the Organizers and the Speaker Make it a point to meet with the people who run the organization and with the speaker. The group organizers are always looking for help in getting things accomplished (especially in volunteer organizations like the SCC) and this is the perfect time to volunteer to be on some committee. A great way to network in a group is to be associated with a committee. Also, go meet the speaker. Compliment them on their talk (if you liked it) and find out a little more about them. You might be able to help them...

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Phil McKinney, the author of Beyond the Obvious, is also the creator and voice of one of my favorite podcasts, Killer Innovations. That's why I was excited to get this book. I've just finished reading it and am pleased to say that he has done a great job of capturing the essence of the podcast, then distilling it down into a useful book. Beyond the Obvious summary This book is about innovation and the system that Phil McKinney has used over the years to come up with great, marketable ideas. The first section of the book is about preparing for innovation. This is where the concepts of using questions to fuel the creation of new ideas is introduced. In the first chapter he talks about what led to the development of "Killer Questions" and why they are helpful for creating new ideas. The next two chapters talk about the challenges that make innovation difficult. In chapter 2, he goes through a good discussion on questioning your assumptions. He also gives 3 questions/exercises which demonstrate how to break through your assumptions. In chapter 3, he talks about innovation in the context of your corporation and how & why it will be difficult to implement a new system. Good advice here. The second section of the book presents the system and shows you exactly how to do it. Chapter 4 is a short summary introduction, followed by chapter 5 which introduces the FIRE method. The FIRE method is an acronym for Focus, Ideation, Ranking, and Execution. It's a description of exactly how you can conduct a productive brainstorming session for your company or even yourself. Chapters 6, 7, and 8 introduce the Killer Questions. These are the questions you can pose before or during your brainstorming sessions that will theoretically lead to killer, innovative ideas. Chapter 6 features the Who questions that will help you when you want to identify the customer group you are going for (great for cosmetic product marketers) where you might find them. Chapter 7 focuses on the What questions which will lead to new product ideas. Chapter 8 focuses on ideas of How things get made. These will help with innovative ideas that will improve the way your business works. In the final two chapters, the Phil McKinney shows exactly how you might conduct a productive brainstorming session at your corporation. He gives a handy 6 golden rules for conducting brainstorming workshops and even gives a schedule. This would be incredibly helpful to anyone who has to conduct these meetings. Chapter 10 presents two case studies in how the system has been implemented in the real world. It's interesting to see how the system is adapted to different companies. Overall impression I liked the book overall and appreciated the easy writing style and useful examples. I would have liked to see an appendix at the end which listed all the killer questions in one easy spot but I can understand why the author didn't necessarily want to...

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There was an interesting question posed on the cosmetic science forum the other day. The forum member wanted to know whether they could still call a cosmetic "preservative free" if one of the raw materials was known to have a preservative (methylparaben) in it. That lead to a discussion about what a preservative free cosmetic is and isn't. Can you claim preservative free? The answer to the first question depends on the ethics of your company. The cosmetic industry guidelines allow for you to not list processing aids so technically, you may be able to get away with claiming preservative free. However, this certainly breaks the spirit of the law as the claim is misleading and could quite possibly be illegal under FTC guidelines. I'm not certain how things would be different in places outside the US. What are preservative free cosmetics Forum expert Duncan added the following comments which is helpful for any cosmetic formulator looking to create a preservative free formulation. (Note comments have been edited slightly). Preservative free formulations will include: 1. Waterless products:oil based That would include things like baby oil, massage oil, or wax based things like lip balm. They don't need preservatives because harmful microbes will not grow in them. Spores might land and rest on the product surface, but they won't germinate. 2. Waterless products: Non oil based. If your formulation uses something like glycerin or other glycols, these will not need preservatives. They also heat up when exposed to water which is why they are used for self heating formulations. 3. Water containing products that are preserved by a non preservative. This would include cosmetic formulas that have a high level of alcohol as the alcohol kills the microbes. You might also consider formulations with high levels of sugar to preserve it like Jam, or high levels of salt. Reducing the water activity will reduce the ability of microbes to grow and thus be self-preserving. 4. pH controlled formulas. Having a pH of 10-11 will discourage bugs, as will a very acidic pH. Only really ok for hand washing type products, or kitchen cleaners. 5. Using non-preservative preservatives. The cosmetic raw material suppliers continue to research and have launched some materials that are not technically preservatives but they have a preservative effect. These products are in no way good enough to get registered as preservatives, but have some antimicrobial effects. For example, Sensiva SC50. It is sold as a skin feel additive, with some limited antimicrobial activity. Used as a skin feel additive it allows you to reduce preservative levels. A bit of a grey area when some people use a lot of it to "Preserve" products. 6. Air tight packaged products. Finally, you could technically make a standard water-based formula under aseptic conditions then package it into an air tight container (like an aerosol can). This should stay suitably preserved through the lifetime of the product. Preservative free challenge Preservative free products are very difficult to create because your options are...

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Interview begins at 6:50 Melody Bockelman from privatelabelinsider. com is a seasoned professional in the cosmetic industry. Her track record includes brands on QVC, HSN, large retailers and grocery store chains. She spends her days helping entrepreneur’s of all sizes create their own product line is her passion. A graduate of Howard University, in Economics and classics has served her well in evaluating client projects. You can contact Melody in the following ways. Twitter Facebook Website: Private Label Insider Cosmetic science news SCC chapter starts in Michigan. You can see their website here. Society of Cosmetic Chemists Michigan New Gel Technology Scientists at Radboud University Nijmegen have developed a gel that is supposed to be able to retain moisture a hundred times better than any other gel. Cosmetic Entrepreneurs Should you patent your cosmetic product? No. Why you do not need to patent your cosmetic formulation Patents don’t prevent copycats Patents do not provide much benefit There are better ways to spend your money Announcements Sign up for the Cosmetic Launch Coach program. SCC meeting in St Louis. Sign up here. Cosmetic science forum. Follow us on Twitter Like us on Facebook

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This is a guest post by Bob Wilcox Overhead stirrers find wide application in the cosmetic industry. They provide a fast way to develop formulations and processing parameters ranging from benchtop to pilot scale production. One of the chief advantages of these stirrers is the variety of impeller configurations available — each one designed to perform a specific mixing operation. Overhead stirrers are generally called for when mixing formulations having viscosities or mixing requirements that cannot be handled efficiently by their cousins, the magnetic stirrers. Overhead cosmetic mixers Regardless of size, overhead stirrers are comprised of a compact microprocessor-controlled motor that is affixed to a support rod attached to a base that holds the sample beaker. The motor is adjusted on the rod in such a way that the stirring tool — the impeller — is positioned at the proper level in the sample container. Tips for choosing Overhead Stirrers When you add an overhead stirrer to your lab equipment there are a few things you should consider when making your selection and purchase. Following are some examples. Know your viscosity. Have an understanding of the sample viscosities you will be processing. Viscosities are given in millipascal seconds (mPa-s) and indicate the amount of torque energy measured in Newton centimeters (Ncm) that the stirrer motor will have to apply to assure proper mixing. The thicker your formulation the more torque is required. Some formulations may experience a change in viscosity — higher or lower — as stirring proceeds. Take this into account and note that there are models available to handle dynamic viscosity samples. The configuration of the stirring impeller (see below) must also be taken into account when considering viscosity. What is your sample size — that is the amount of material you’ll be processing? Laboratory overhead mixers are designed to process up to a certain amount, usually specified in liters. Examples: 35, 100, 150 and 200 liters. Since viscosity issues enter the equation in direct proportion to volume both must be considered when deciding on a purchase. Mixing speed. Stirring speed is another criterion. Select a model that offers a soft start (to avoid splashing contents all over the place) and is steplessly adjustable to the speeds you need to accomplish the mixing. These mixers usually are equipped to provide a soft stop as well. Examples are stirrers operating from 50 to 500 RPM, from 40 to 2,000 RPM and 20 to 700 RPM. Higher speeds to 6,000 RPM are available on request. Mixer controls. Stirring time can be controlled by the motor on-off button on basic models. More sophisticated models allow researchers to program mixing time from 1 minute to 99 days. Related to stirring time is an automatic shutdown if the stirrer motor overheats or is subjected to an overload due to viscosity increases. Stirrer control panels can range from basic models designed for small samples and stepless adjustable speeds from 50 to 2,000 rpm. Stirring speeds are shown on the control panel LCD that also...

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This is pretty cool. You almost never get to conduct cool chemistry experiments like these in a cosmetic science lab but they are still pretty cool. For 14 more cool chemistry reactions, see this page.

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Here's a fun science video for your weekend enjoyment. A demonstration that water doesn't have to be 100C to boil.

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This is a press release out of China from the Chemical Inspection and Regulation Service (CIRS). Should be helpful for cosmetic formulators who are creating products for that market. The Hygienic Standards for Cosmetics issued by the Ministry of Health in 2007 is the most important cosmetic standard in China that sets detailed safety requirements on finished cosmetic products manufactured or sold in China. The Hygienic Standard for Cosmetics have banned over 1200 substances in cosmetics and restricted the use of 73 substances, 56 preservatives, 156 colorants, 28 sun block agents and 93 dyes in cosmetics. Compared to the old regulation, the new standard contains the following proposed changes: Hygienic Standards for Cosmetics will be renamed as Technical Safety Standard for Cosmetics Safety requirements on cosmetic ingredients will also be added More detailed requirements for special use cosmetics & cosmetics for special human groups will be added The max allowable amount of Pb and As in cosmetics will be reduced from 40mg/kg and 10mg/kg to 10mg/kg and 4mg/kg respectively Quantitative limits for 1,4-dioxane(30mg/kg) and asbestos(not detected) in cosmetics will be added The new draft standard has also emphasized the importance of safety evaluation of cosmetics and cosmetic ingredients. According the standard, companies shall carry out safety evaluation of cosmetics and cosmetic ingredients (including risk substances) to ensure safe use. The annexes of the new standard are also being revised and will be published for consultations later. The annexes will include: Technical requirements on cosmetic ingredients; Banned & restricted substances; Testing & evaluation methods(Physio-chemical/microbial/toxicology/human safety/efficacy) Reference Link http://www. sda. gov. cn/WS01/CL0781/76675. html

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According to this article on Cosmetics Design, greenwashing is going to get a lot harder in the natural cosmetic segment and integrity is of upmost importance. I have to respectfully disagree. Here are 5 reasons that companies will continue to greenwash for a long time. True natural consumers are still a small market segment While the natural cosmetic market is a growing one it still represents only about 10-15% of the total cosmetic industry. So the biggest manufacturers won't significantly change their best selling formulas just to get a piece of this smaller market. They will however, add an extract here and there to capture a portion of that market. Greenwashing at its best. All-natural cosmetics do not work as well It's just a fact, when you restrict the palette of ingredients you can use to create your formulations, you are at a disadvantage against cosmetic formulators who don't have those restrictions. Sure, you can make products that work, they just won't work as well as the standard cosmetic products. And when it comes to what cosmetics consumers buy, there is no question. Consumers buy products that work. They might say they want all natural or green beauty products but this is secondary to their desire to have products that work. Consumers don't know the difference Another factor that keeps greenwashing around is that consumers do not understand (or care) about the difference between greenwashed products and truly all-natural products. Unless a consumer has a degree in chemistry or otherwise has some insider knowledge about cosmetics, they will not know whether a product is greenwashed or not. They may learn what is greenwashed by reading something on the Internet but this will not be the majority of cosmetics. As long as the label looks like an all-natural product, most consumers will believe it. Greenwashing keeps costs down Cosmetic companies are in the business of making money. They may have secondary goals of sustainability or helping the planet but when it comes down to it Burts Bees is just as interested in making money as Proctor and Gamble. And there is no question that a greenwashed cosmetic costs less than an all-naturally formulated cosmetic. As long as profit is a motivation, greenwashed cosmetics will continue to be made. There are no required standards Finally, the fact that there are no official government standards for cosmetic product means that any company can pretty much make any product and call it natural. Maybe they can't put a special organic seal or certified label but that doesn't matter to most of the cosmetic buying consumers. Until there are governmental standards that everyone in the industry has to follow, there will be greenwashing. But the bottom line reason why greenwashing will continue... It works (at least for now). And until sales of products that claim natural and organic without actually having to be, companies will continue to make those products. If creating real natural formulas that are not greenwashed is of interest to you, be...

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When I started in the cosmetic industry there were a lot more companies than there are. It used to be that there were a large number of small companies, then a bunch of medium sized ones, and a few gigantic companies. Over the years, nearly all of the medium sized ones have disappeared, gobbled up by the gigantic companies. Even big companies are not necessarily safe as this article about the anticipated demise of Avon suggests. That means odds are pretty good that at some point in your cosmetic science career, you'll be at a company that either gets acquired or acquires some other company. Either way, you should be prepared with the following tips to ensure you sail through the bumpy waters of change. 1. Networking When your company gets taken over or is taking over someone else, make it a point to meet the new people coming on board. Ensure that they can place a name to your face. It's always a good idea to network whether your company is up for sale or not. Remember you work for yourself! While some company may give you a paycheck if things turn south as far as profits go they will have no problem getting rid of you. You should feel the same about them. Create a LinkedIn profile and connect with as many people you know as you can. Help people out if you can and they may do the same for you. 2. Figure out the new organizations objectives You may have had a clear idea where your company was headed but when you are taken over, that's all changed. Don't assume that the product development path you were on is going to be the same. New companies mean new marketing & sales departments which means new R&D priorities. Find out what are the main objectives of the new company. 3. Learn how you are expected to meet them While finding out what the new objectives will be, learning how you are supposed to meet them is also critical. You may have been judged on how well you could meet deadlines or produce a quality product but some companies do not operate with those values. Figure out how the new company expects you to meet your objectives then start changing your activities to meet those. 4. Figure out what your job is now When your company is acquired (or acquires someone else) that necessarily will change the structure of your department. Maybe the big boss will be gone or even the mid level managers. That means your job will be changing at least a little bit. Quickly figure out how your job will change and start working on the new things that are higher priorities. 5. Listen to the grapevine During the acquisition phase there is a lot of gossip and rumors that go around. Make sure you are tapped into the gossip. While it is often incorrect information there is almost always a grain of truth to...

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This is a guest post by cosmetic formulator Valerie Patton. To be totally honest, when a customer requests a product that has to live up to a natural retailer's standards, a little part of me cringes. Don't get me wrong - while I love the challenge of formulating a quality, natural product, it can be difficult to meet expectations. The reasons are varied but see this post on the challenges of formulating natural cosmetic products and this other on natural cosmetic standards. Disallowed Ingredients In my recent attempt to satisfy a customer's request for a natural formulation, I decided to see what the personal care standards were for wholesome food markets. I found a list of unacceptable ingredients from the Whole Foods website. It's a PDF file that contains a mile-long list of ingredients that cannot be used in their premium Whole Body products. I had a brief moment of incredulity, as our chief formulator has created products that retail in this store, and they have definitely used some of these ingredients. I then realized (and read the fine print), that this list is for premium products. Meaning, the "Premium Body Care" designation on products is a Whole Foods standard for identifying more natural products that are free from harmful, synthetic, or petroleum-derived ingredients. Only products bearing this seal are free of items from the list, and other products without this seal may have some. While I appreciate Whole Foods being the gatekeeper by creating a set of standards for consumers to shop by, I have a little difficulty understanding the basis for some of the items on the list. Little scientific basis It's as if they took the list directly from the Environmental Working Group website, and used almost no scientific reasoning for their decisions. For example, parabens made the naughty list. While I disagree with its inclusion, as scientific evidence proves parabens are safe, I can sympathize with Whole Foods that their consumers probably don't want them in their products. Scanning the top of the list, you'll find AHAs, and further down, you'll see glycolic acid. What about malic acid? You won't find that on the list, but that's an alpha-hydroxy acid, right? What about citric acid, as cosmetic chemist Kelly Dobos joked with me on Twitter? I suppose I should also skip the fruit section of the store. And, I love squalane. What's wrong with it? Not all of it comes from shark liver, you know. Scaring consumers By screening retail products for "unacceptable" items, they are implying that products without these items are inferior and less safe, and that products without these items are natural and better. While some ingredients on this list have scientific evidence for concern (PABA), several don't have the evidence needed to discourage their use in personal care products. By adding them to this list, they’re creating a scare amongst consumers. Additionally, another point of this list was for Whole Foods to avoid synthetically created ingredients in their premium product. I don't...

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Deciding on the use level of raw materials in a cosmetic formula is an important aspect of formulation. However, product performance is only one factor that you should consider when formulating. Additionally, you have to consider the cost of a formula. But before you can consider the cost, you have to be able to figure out how to determine the final cost. In this short post we'll show you how. Step 1 - Start with a formula We are going to assume that you already have created a formula. Use this cosmetic formulation spreadsheet. The key is that when you make your formula you have to know what % of the ingredient is in your formula. This means you have to equalize your formulas by weight. For example, if you are following a formula like this that calls for cups, teaspoons, and tablespoons of ingredients, you have to convert those units to % weight. The best way is to weigh all your ingredients and determine the number of GRAMS that you are using. Once all the ingredients are in terms of grams, you can figure out what % in the formula they are. The cosmetic formulation spreadsheet does this for you automatically. Step 2 - Get your raw material costs To get your formulation costs, you need to know the costs of each of your raw materials. This is something you should be able to get from the supplier. Although if you work at a large company you might have to go to your Purchasing department because they will have the real prices that your company pays. All the costs should be in the same units. Since I formulated in America, we took all the costs in terms of Dollars per Pound. Most other places in the world you are going to use Cost per Kilogram. It doesn't matter which you use as long as all the raw materials are consistently in the same units. Also, the final number that you get will be in the same units as the cost of the raw materials. Step 3 - Multiply formula % and cost Next, multiply the % of the ingredient by the cost and divide by 100. So, if your ingredient is in the formula at 20% and it costs $4 per pound, you multiply 20 * 4 / 100 = 0. 80. The partial cost of that ingredient in the formula is $0. 80. This is what I call the residual cost. Step 4 - Add up the residual costs to get total formula cost Then it is just a matter of adding up all the residual costs to find the final formula cost. Pretty easy (especially if you are using the cosmetic formulation spreadsheet). There you have it. 4 steps to calculating the cost of your formulation. No complicated math required. If you have any questions, leave a comment below.

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There was an interesting discussion going on in the cosmetic science forum about a formulation that one of the chemists was working with which included Quaternium-15. Quat-15 is a formaldehyde donor preservative that has been around for a long time. It is effective but most people would consider it old technology. In fact, J&J recently removed it from one of their baby shampoos. But you might wonder why it was still in there anyway. Why would cosmetic formulations continue to use old technology? Well, there are a number of reasons. Old technology still works First, the technology still works. Just because a technology has been replaced by a newer one doesn't automatically mean there is a good reason to switch. It's not like a new iPhone or Car where the new thing is obviously better than the old technology. It costs money to change Another reason you wouldn't necessarily change out of an old technology is because it requires significant resources to change old formulas. You have to repeat all the stability testing, the performance tests, safety tests, claims tests, etc. Plus you have to change all of your formulation batch sheets and assign new inventory numbers to the new raw material. If you have dozens of formulation, this could be a nightmare. It's often just easier not to change. You still have old inventory Then there is the problem of old inventory. If you have a few 55 gallon barrels of an old technology ingredient it would cost you money to dispose of it. It makes more sense to continue to produce the old formula until you've used up the inventory. And if it is an ingredient which isn't used at high levels this could take a long time. Other projects are more important Ultimately, one of the biggest reasons that an old technology continues to be used in formulas is because other projects with higher money making potential take precedence when it comes to work priority. There just is limited money potential in going through old formulas and cleaning them up. Cosmetic companies are better servers by spending their resources on the development of innovative new products. And consumers probably benefit more too.

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We've been getting a number of questions about cosmetic science over the years and it occurs to us that there is enough interest that we should write a book (or maybe a series of books). This book will focus on topics that you have indicated you are most interested in (and also things that we think you need to know about cosmetic science and formulating). We're in the early, early phases of the project but before we get too far along into the writing, I thought it would be helpful to show you a mind map of the content of the book and to get your input on anything we might be missing. So here's what you do. 1. Click on the picture below and take a look at the contents of the book. 2. Leave a comment below and let us know if there is some critical topic we are missing. I'm really looking forward to this new project and I'll keep you posted on how it is going. While there are some great books on the subject of cosmetic science, I think there is room for a new one that provides more practical formulating and career information and advice. Let us know what you think! Thanks Perry, 44

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Making cosmetics can be done by almost anyone whether you have scientific training or not. Certainly, it is easier for cosmetic chemists to create new formulas because they won't need to take as much time figuring out the science behind everything, but making cosmetics is not brain surgery. In fact, it is closer to cooking than anything else. If you are able to follow recipes and have an interest in cooking, making cosmetics might be just the perfect hobby or business for you. Here is a 10-step, science based method for making cosmetic products. Step 1 - Learn about the existing products when someone gets the notion to make their own cosmetic the first thing they usually do is to ask for a formula. But this is the wrong place to start. There are hundreds of different types of cosmetic products and they have lots of different names. So, first you want to learn what is a cosmetic. Next, you'll want to learn what are the different types of cosmetic products. With this background you'll be able to narrow down to the exact type of cosmetic that you want to make. Step 2 - Get a formula There are lots of sources for formulations that are freely available on the Internet. We have previously put together this list of free cosmetic formulas. Go there to find a starting formula. Step 3 - Learn the rational behind the formula Unfortunately, just getting a formula then making it right away will not do much to help develop your skills as a formulator. What you have to do is go through and look at all the chemicals used in the formula. Figure out why each raw material is used in the formula and why it is used at a particular level. This will take a little investigation but you can find it out. And if you can't find the answer, you can always ask one of the experts in our cosmetic science forum. This article about the 8 essential ingredients in cosmetics might help too. Step 4 - Get the needed equipment Before you can begin making cosmetics, you'll need to get the equipment to do it. It is unlikely you'll have much of this stuff on hand but you can get the equipment via eBay, laboratory catalogs, or even at your local science shop. Here is a list of all the key cosmetic lab equipment you'll need for making cosmetics. Step 5 - Get the raw materials One of the things that makes making cosmetics harder than cooking is that you can't go to the local grocery store for raw materials. But there are sources for these things. Here is a list of where to find cosmetic raw materials. Step 6 - Make your first batch After you've got your equipment and raw materials, the fun begins. Find a lab bench, set up your equipment, weigh out your raw materials and begin mixing. Follow the instructions and be sure to write down...

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One of the most simple products that a formulator might be called on to produce is a toner. This Olay Oil Minimizing toner is one of the most popular ones so it makes sense for us to dissect the label and see what this thing is all about. Olay Toner LOI Water (Eau), SD Alcohol 40, Hamamelis Virginiana (Witch Hazel) Extract, Aloe Vera (Aloe Barbadensis) Leaf Juice, PEG 40 Hydrogenated Castor Oil, Allantoin (Comfrey Root), Menthyl Lactate, Fragrance (Parfum), Blue 1 Lake (CI 42090), Yellow 5 The 1% Line As always when trying to take apart a formula it is useful to figure out the 1% line to determine which are the most important ingredients and which are the claims ingredients that are not crucial to the performance. Toners are particularly simple formulas so you don't often find a lot of ingredients. This one has 10 ingredients but the reality is that there are only 2 that have most of the effect, WATER & SD ALCOHOL 40. Everything after the alcohol is likely used at levels below 1%. What the ingredients do For some, toners are a mystery. It is not actually clear why people use them as Colin has pointed out. The way they are marketed is as an additional cleanser. So in this formula the water and alcohol are doing the bulk of the oil & dirt removal. A cotton ball is used so the dirt is essentially wiped off. Since consumers expect things like Witch Hazel and Aloe Vera these are also included. The Witch Hazel is said to be an astringent but I would be surprised if someone tested a formulation with and without this ingredient and was able to tell a difference in the product performance. The Aloe, Castor Oil, and Allantoin have all been traditionally used in skin care products and are likely used to support the story of this product. I wouldn't expect them to do much either. The color and fragrance ingredients will have an effect on the aesthetics of course. Note this formula does not require a preservative because it has a high level of alcohol. Olay Toner claims and support There aren't many claims to this formula so support is pretty simple. 1. "Tones by removing dirt, oil and make-up without stripping skin's essential moisture. " This is the primary claim and the reason people use the product. The alcohol will help dissolve most oil and dirt on the skin and the cotton ball wipes it away. Since the term "skin's essential moisture" is rather meaningless there isn't much claim support that needs to be done. You could make a reasonable argument to say that since the product is water based any moisture that you may have removed would be replaced at the same time. 2. "Dermatologist Tested. " This is simply done by giving the product to a dermatologist (or testing house with a derm on staff) and having them test it in some way. The test that they...

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We often get questions about formulating and frequently those are centered on Natural cosmetic formulating. Here is a recent question sent in by someone who has limited background in chemistry but an interest in formulating. Do you know if there are any places that offer instruction on natural cosmetic formulation, teaching formulation by using only natural ingredients instead of synthetic materials? Course on Natural formulating We created a course to address this exact question. The naturals cosmetic formulating course is a 6 lesson, online video training course which teaches you exactly which ingredients you can use for creating products that would be classified as "natural. " It is an excellent course for anyone interested in this area. However, if you are new to formulating, you might do better starting with our Practical Cosmetic Chemistry course which goes specifically through how formulating is done. Get this free Natural formulating book And if you want to get a primer on natural formulating, be sure to sign up for our free natural cosmetic formulating report. In it you will learn the complicated issues with creating your own natural cosmetic line. Reality of natural formulating Ok, so natural formulating is a real thing and there are a number of people in the cosmetic industry trying to create products which could be considered natural. But if you are not trained in chemistry or cosmetic formulation then I want to make you aware of a few of the realities of natural formulating. It is a much more complicated thing than you might imagine. Natural formulating is hard First, formulating natural is hard. This is because the cosmetic products that currently exist are pretty good. Most people are satisfied with the performance of their skin creams and hair products. They are always seeking new products but for the most part, cosmetics work as described. This has created a certain expectation of performance in the consumer's mind for any product they will buy. If you sell a product that does not perform as well as one that the consumer is used to, they will not continue to buy your product. Unfortunately, when you limit yourself to only "natural" ingredients you cut out a lot of the best-performing ingredients. You reduce the number of surfactants you can use, the polymers, the preservatives, the fragrances and more. It is like being a painter and trying to use 3 colors versus competitors who can use 300. It is hard! There is no standard definition Another problem of natural formulating is that there are no standard definitions. There are a few different systems and we've written about natural formulating standards before. But there is not yet a requirement for any company to follow those standards. That means your all-natural cosmetic line is going to compete with companies who produce pseudo-natural cosmetic lines which are produced using standard ingredients with natural ingredients sprinkled in. These products will work better than yours. You will be at a marketing disadvantage. But that is the challenge...

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As we start into the new year I always have fun going through articles that predict what will be the hot trends in the coming year. Mostly they are wrong but it does provide an interesting hint at things that might be big this year and further in the future. Here is an article on the 100 things to watch in 2013. Let's see if any of these things might affect the cosmetic industry. 1. 3D printing - You can print plastic pieces already. Could this be the key to customized packaging? 3. African tech stars - Maybe the cosmetic industry in Africa is going to show big growth. 4. Allergen-free. Admittedly, I had an idea for allergen free cosmetics called Tolerant Beauty. Maybe this is the year I should launch it. 6. Amazon - For anyone starting a cosmetic line, you'll have to seriously consider using Amazon for distribution. 7. Apps - This may be the primary way consumer choose cosmetics. 10. Bee Venom - The hot new ingredient for 2013? Maybe. 13. Chia seeds - Another hot new ingredient. Look for it in your anti-aging skin care products because of the omega-3 fatty acids. 19. Direct selling - Cosmetic manufacturers may sell direct much more frequently. 21. Male-focused selling - More men going to supermarkets means more men buying personal care products for their families. This might change the way your products are marketed. 25. Detoxifying - Will we see a proliferation of detox cosmetics this year? Let's hope not. 32. Faux meat - Probably won't have an impact on cosmetics but I love this idea of Animal Free meat. 36. Frontier markets - Big companies haven't taken these markets over yet. Could be just the place for a cosmetic entrepreneur. 38. Gender blurred toys - Will we see a return of gender blurred cosmetics? Remember the Metrosexual? 40. Green products - Eh, I'm skeptical we'll see much more movement here. Green in cosmetics has been done. 47. Imperfection - Could there be a benefit to launching slightly damaged (looking) cosmetic lines? 48. Individual attention - Stores may hire people to tell consumers exactly what beauty products they should buy. Get your cosmetic line in there as a suggestion. 52. Robots - Will they take over the job of cosmetic quality control? 55. Medical smartphones - Could their be cosmetic smart phones too? 67, Offset thinking - Perhaps a marketing story is to demonstrate to consumers how your product offsets any damage it might cause. 68. Online groceries - Since personal care products are bought in grocery stores, it's likely that a movement to online purchases will affect cosmetics. 75. Quiet Products - Is it time for a less noisy hair dryer? I think so. 83. Shopping hotels - A new outlet for high-end cosmetic brands no doubt. 85. Stand up desks - Cosmetic chemists know about standing. You can't really sit down and formulate so we're ahead of the curve on this one. 87. Sugru - I...

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Did you know that the year 2013 is the first time since 1987 in which which all the digits of the year are different? That's just the kind of thing we think about here at Chemists Corner when we are not writing about formulating or starting a cosmetic business. It's been a fun year on Chemists Corner. We've written more than in any previous year, we started a new video feature, posted some podcasts and re-designed the blog a bit. We've also had more traffic to the website (>1500 visits a day) than at any other time. I'm very proud of that. The biggest news is that in 2013 we will be publishing more. Specifically, books about cosmetic science that you have told us you most want to read. Stay tuned for more about this. Also, if you haven't signed up for our free ebooks, just put your information in the box on the side. Happy New Year!

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2012 was a pretty good year for Chemists Corner. We launched a new program (How to start a cosmetic line), wrote more than ever, and even started a video series. We didn't do as many as I would have liked but we have a good system to ensure we do better next year. For the curious, here are the most read posts from 2012. 1. How to become a cosmetic chemist. 2. The 20 biggest cosmetic companies in the world 3. Cosmetic science training programs around the world 4. HLB - the easiest way to create emulsions 5. Top 10 cosmetic science books 6. Could you start your own cosmetic business? 7. Where to find free cosmetic formulas 8. How to stability test a cosmetic formula 9. A cosmetic market overview for cosmetic chemists 10. What are the start-up costs for a cosmetic business? Of course, it didn't make the top 10 but my favorite post to write this year was a piece reflecting on how I became a cosmetic chemist. You can read the Perry Romanowski cosmetic chemist story here. And there has been a great amount of activity in the cosmetic science forum. Be sure to check it out!

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We are taking a break for the holiday but thought you would enjoy this Chemistry themed Christmas Tree.

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This is a guest post from writer Marcia Poladky Chemistry is one of the more popular genres of physical science. In its simplest form, chemistry deals with the physical composition and behavior of physical matter. Many readers will remember back to high school chemistry's emphasis on atoms and their interactions, and that is one large chunk of chemistry, but another part of chemistry is the chemical bonds that hold atoms together. Understanding the laws that keep atoms together on a small scale may aid understanding of seemingly larger events. On a less abstract level, chemistry covers the burgeoning chemistry industry worldwide, as well as the tiny pills that come out of pharmaceutical companies. Who are the Chemists? Some studies indicate that today's industrial chemists tend to be largely introverted and detail oriented. This makes sense after considering the job duties of today's chemists - chemical engineering involves measuring and refining very small quantities of potentially volatile substances. For instance, one subfield of industrial chemistry deals with petroleum. This type of chemistry deals with energy, more generally, but dangerous chemicals like benzene and propylene, more specifically. For this type of work, intense concentration and attention to detail is required to get it right and prevent any disasters. Kiersey and Chemists It's oftentimes noted that good chemists have particular personality traits in common; these include being analytical, task oriented, and experiential. As it happens, within what's known as the Kiersey Temperament Sorter, which is similar to the Myers-Briggs Typology Indicator, these traits tend to cluster within one domain. Specifically, what Kiersey deems "the rationals. " In Kiersey's system, these people are pragmatic and abstract. They tend to demonstrate high competence in areas of interest as well as building knowledge to hopefully erect logical solutions. In fact, the Kiersey Temperament Sort actually posits that the rationals may excel in engineering, chemistry, or tasks requiring abstract conceptualization. Other traits of Chemists On the most basic level, chemists and chemistry help to enhance peoples' lives by understanding and manipulating knowledge about the physical environment. Although chemistry can take many forms - including organic chemistry, inorganic chemistry, as well as medical, materials, and analytical chemistry - the overarching goal appears to be increasing knowledge for human betterment and convenience. Especially within the field of materials chemistry, the emphasis is perennially on developing new materials to meet tomorrow's challenges. For this task, both ingenuity and philanthropy are required. Big 5 Personality Inventory The big five personality inventory measures personality along five discrete dimensions. These areas are discrete because factor analysis has repeatedly shown that personality can't be broken down further. One of the big five personality dimensions that affects the field of chemistry is inquisitiveness. Current and future chemists must be interested in appreciating and manipulating the ways in which the world operates both at an atomic and seeable level. In fact, this type of burning curiosity helped chemistry greats like Marie Curie develop the X-Ray and it helps thousands of chemists today shape tomorrow's technology. Marcia...

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Cosmetic formulators have to make great performing formulas. You have to get the functionality right, the formula has to be stable, and it has to be aesthetically acceptable to the majority of your consumers. However, this is still not enough to ensure you have a successful product. The last part of the formula for success is the story, or claims ingredients. Claims Ingredients These ingredients go by lots of different names; story ingredients, foo foo ingredients, puffery, woofle dust, pixie dust, feature ingredients and more. Essentially they are ingredients added to the formula for the primary purpose of impressing consumers and supporting the marketing story. Importantly, they aren't expected to have any functional benefit. These include things like vitamins, proteins, biomolecules, herbal extracts, and other pretty sounding ingredients. They can be conveniently grouped into the following seven categories. Folk lore ingredients Cosmetic consumers grow up with a number of mistaken beliefs about the efficacy of certain ingredients. They will have been given some advice from their mother or grandmother that convinces them to apply any manner of material to their skin or hair. Or they might have read something in a book or somehow absorbed erroneous information from pop culture. These beliefs persist even though there is limited evidence that the ingredients do much of anything. Things like washing your hair with beer, creating aspirin facial masks, aloe for moisturizing or using milk to cleanse your skin are all examples. Cosmetic marketers tap into these mistaken beliefs and use them to help sell the story of their products. This makes marketing easier because they don't have to spend any time convincing the consumer about the value of an ingredient. As a cosmetic chemist you need to know about these folklore ingredients as you will often be required to suggest or formulate with them. New technology medical Whenever there is some discovery in science that has the potential for changing people's lives, it gets a lot of press. This is especially true for things that might affect health. Scientists or reporters will speculate about future applications of the technology and consumers often mistake this speculation with proven applications. Marketers take advantage of these misconceptions by adding unproven technologies to cosmetics. That's why you see things like stem cells, hyaluronic acid, or enzymes like superoxidedismutase put into formulations despite the fact that there is no evidence that topically applying these ingredients has any noticeably beneficial effect. Keep an eye on the medical technologies of the day because this will be the source of cosmetic claims ingredients in the future. Nutritional ingredients Another topic that is popular in the news is health & nutrition. Daytime talk shows love to tout the benefits of a diet high in this fatty acid or that kind of flavonoid. And cosmetic companies realize that if consumers believe an ingredient is good for them when they eat it, they will readily believe it will be good to apply to their skin or hair. Many consumers readily accept that...

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This was an interesting story about the determination of skin aging. According to the report, scientists used a harmonic generation microscope to determine the intrinsic age of skin. The intrinsic age is the genetic age of the skin. They looked at skin that was not normally exposed to UV which can accelerate aging. The technique could be used to test future anti-aging ingredients. It can also be used to determine the exact age of someone. I wonder if this means IDs to prove age could eventually become a thing of the past.

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I worked as a *formulator for 17 years at a medium sized cosmetic company. We were primarily a hair care company so I spent most of my time creating new shampoos and conditioners. I did have the opportunity to occasionally make styling products and skin lotions but this was not my focus. Well, the reality was that most of my projects involved taking an existing formula, making minor tweaks to the color, fragrance or other claims ingredients and making sure it remained stable. After a while, it got pretty easy... and dull. Sure, many projects were more interesting than this but the reality for cosmetic chemists (especially at big companies) is that most of your time will be spent making incremental improvements to things that already exist. So eventually, you might start to get bored. Here are 10 things you can do to combat career boredom. 1. Experiment with new raw materials - Raw material suppliers are always coming out with new things and unless you try them in your formulations, you'll have no idea how they work. In truth, most of the new raw materials won't do anything new. But you've got to keep looking. Create a baseline formula and then whenever you get a new raw material, try it in that formula. This is also a great way for you to learn about raw materials that you may not have used. 2. Make your own formulas - If you want to be a proper formulator, than you have to be able to formulate everything. When I was at the shampoo company there really were no projects for making products that the company didn't market. For example, color cosmetics, antiperspirant, toothpaste, soap, lipsticks, etc were all things that I never had a formal project to make. But how can you call yourself a formulator if you can only make a limited number of formulations? Go through this list of free cosmetic formulas and start making things that you would never have to make. Make products that you want to use. Tweak them so you understand how things affect the final formulas. To be a formulator, you have to be able to make all types of formulas 3. Try to solve problems without formulations - If your formulating job is getting dull, try creating solutions to cosmetic problems without making a formula. Can you create a better absorbent towel to speed up hair drying? Can you create an app that might solve some cosmetic problem? As a cosmetic chemist you are an inventor. Formulating is simply one type of invention. Spend some time coming up with other types of inventions. 4. Make a plan to get promoted - When you're at a job for any length of time and you know you're a good worker, you'll get the urge to get a promotion. Often this means more money, more decision making power and sometimes even more influence on your peers. But just because you are the best formulator doesn't mean...

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I've generally been critical of the "beauty from within" trend in the cosmetic industry. There is little evidence that taking products like vitamins and herbal extracts will have any noticeable affect on the condition of your skin. Certainly, having a well-balanced diet can ensure you have the healthy looking skin and if you are malnourished it's going to wreck havoc on your skin, but there is little evidence that when healthy people take supplements they can improve their skin. But this doesn't mean what you eat can't have a significant impact on your skin. Here's a study reported on in Dermatology Times that shows alcohol consumption can reduce the antioxidants in your skin and cause you to be more susceptible to sun burns. Interestingly, it took 8 minutes for the reduction in antioxidants to occur and the decrease lasted 70 minutes. The effects were reduced when people drank the alcohol with orange juice. Presumably, scientists wanted to see how things were affected with the addition of a food that was rich in antioxidants. This indicates that if you are going to drink alcohol in the sun, be sure to have drinks that contain antioxidant rich juices. Of course, the study was done using 6 volunteers so I wouldn't put too much faith in the conclusions. More work needs to be done. This does suggest a new product idea for the "beauty within" trend. Could an alcohol manufacturer team up with a cosmetic company to produce skin safe cocktail mixers that people drink during outdoor festivities? Skin Safe Beer anyone?

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This story about a study of lipstick done by the Daily Mail which showed 55% of lipsticks contained trace amounts of lead leads me to conclude that this problem will never go away. The problem? No, not lead in lipstick. This isn't a problem. There is no credible study that demonstrates the level of lead in lipsticks is anything but safe. The problem is the belief that there is no safe level of lead or mercury or "toxin" that can be tolerated in cosmetics. Sadly, this is a problem that cosmetic chemists will have to deal with for the rest of time. Some people will never come to grips with the notion put for by Paracelsus... "All substances are poisons; there is none which is not a poison. The right dose differentiates a poison... . " Paracelsus (1493-1541) Why? I've thought about this a lot because it is such a frustrating topic for scientists. Here are five reasons I think this problem will never go away. 1. Fear stories are more compelling than safety stories. This is just a truism of journalism. People are more interested in stories that scare them than in stories that are reassuring. Sensationalism sells. So stories of toxic cosmetics will always trump stories declaring cosmetics safe. And since cosmetics are far and away safer than most any other consumer product, the media will have to rehash stories about lead in lipstick. There just isn't much else. 2. People are scientifically illiterate. The reason that these fear stories are compelling is because people are generally scientifically illiterate. They also prefer simple answers to complicated questions. Lead = bad is a much easier thing for people to comprehend than "certain levels of lead are bad but other levels are perfectly safe". Fearmongering is effective because the people propagating the stories do so to a public that is not smart enough about science to make a judgement about the validity of the story. Did you know that to determine the level of lead in lipstick you have to use Hydrofluoric Acid to separate out the lead? The stomach acid just isn't strong enough to break down any ingested lipstick so the lead will never get into your system anyway! 3. People are unable to properly evaluate risk. Another huge problem is that people are just not good evaluating risks. They fret about lead in lipstick or BPA in plastic bottles which have risk levels in the 1 in million lifetime risk, but think nothing of getting in a car which has a 1 in 100 lifetime risk of killing them. Here are the things that kill people. Cosmetics is not one of them. 4. Message benefits some marketers. One of the reasons these stories will stay around is because some marketers use fear to set themselves apart from their competition. When you see "paraben-free" or "sulfate-free" claims on a container, there is the implicit claim that those things are dangerous or otherwise bad. These are not direct lies...

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Posted 12-10-12 Limited Brands, through its high-emotion brands Victoria's Secret, Bath and Body Works, Pink, La Senza and Henri Bendel, is an international specialty retailer delivering lingerie, personal care and beauty products, apparel and accessories to customers worldwide. Limited Brands, which recorded sales of $10. 4 billion in 2011 and employs more than 90,000 associates, was Fortune's 2011 World's Most Admired specialty retailer. Limited Brands is seeking a MANAGER, PRODUCT SAFETY AND DATA INTEGRITY for our Columbus, OH headquarters. Full relocation support is available. OVERVIEW: The Manager is the functional leader managing product safety, efficacy and data integrity functions for assigned brand — Bath and Body Works (including Home Fragrance) or Victoria’s Secret Beauty, and support Victoria’s Secret apparel projects as needed. The manager is also responsible for monitoring and implementing safety, efficacy and development on a global scale. Being a scientific advisor and facilitating introduction of new technologies and functional ingredients to maximize product performance and market positioning. Providing guidance and communication to business sub-brands and support our influence in external industry trade expert committees. Leading and guiding Formula Control and Change Management to ensure product data integrity for assigned brand, including comprehensive end-to-end data, formula, information accuracy, completeness and accountable for formula change follow-up and communication. Guiding and supporting career development for direct reports and mentoring junior staff for continual development of safety and efficacy capability to expand functional expertise and skills. RESPONSIBILITIES:- Responsible for product safety and efficacy project execution for the brand assigned - Responsible for data integrity by overseeing operations of formula control and change management functions for the brand assigned - Responsible for highly complex performance claims substantiation and to ensure harmonized testing protocol for global suitability - Accountable for On Time & Cost for the entire brand assigned - Accountable for Contract Research Organization engagement/issue resolution - Accountable for metric reporting and analysis of assigned brand - Accountable for supporting new methodology development and assessing product safety and efficacy and staying current with new developments in both domestic and global markets - Support Product Innovations and external technology assessment - Responsible for handling all Adverse Event evaluation of assigned brand and provide recommendation of follow-up plan. Work with Regulatory in determining reporting strategy/decision - Responsible for monitoring NGO activities and reporting to internal departmental and external partners - Support industry and association engagement with specialized product or category interest group - Responsible for departmental SOPs - update and initiate new SOPs when needed - Responsible for department specific product and raw material policies and execute necessary testing and research associated with these policies - Support cost saving initiative within assigned brand and ensure effective change management execution to fulfill the needs - Responsible for overall team associate performance goal setting and support associate mid-year and annual review, present associate in Calibration and team reviews EDUCATION AND EXPERIENCES: Minimum BS degree and 8+ years, MS degree and 5+ years or Ph. D. degree and 3+ years of industry experience. Formula and raw material knowledge...

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I've never liked toothpaste packaging. Mostly because it never seems like you get all of the product out. Then there are some people who don't squeeze from the bottom so the center gets all smashed and it looks awful. Well, all that could end if companies started to adopt this innovative toothpaste packaging. Very cool. Packaging is certainly one area in which an innovative cosmetic maker can stand out. Innovative packaging definitely costs more but is you are starting your own cosmetic business, clever packaging may just be the thing that gets people to try your product over someone else's.

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Today, I'm traveling to New York to attend Thursday's annual Society of Cosmetic Chemists scientific meeting. I'm looking forward to it as there will be lots of great talks and I'll be able to connect with a number of cosmetic chemists & industry people who I haven't seen in some time. One of the things that has always struck me about the cosmetic industry is the lack of women scientists. At the meeting, the ratio of men to women will be something like 65 / 35. Perhaps this is a result of the fact that women traditionally haven't been encouraged to enter science. In fact, this article in Psychology Today shows that women actually have a harder time thinking about STEM topics when they are thinking about romance. Men don't have this problem. It's unfortunately because most of the women that I have met in the cosmetic industry have been excellent cosmetic chemists. It really is a perfect career for some who are both interested in science and the beauty and fashion industry. Men have a distinct disadvantage when creating some cosmetics because they don't where them. Lipstick, eye shadow, blush are all much harder for men to make. I think the problem is that there is just a lack of awareness of the cosmetic industry as being a career path. That's why one of the goals of this website and our sister cosmetic blog Beauty Brains is to encourage more women to pursue careers in the cosmetic industry. Hopefully, we've helped at least a little in this area.

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For chemists and other scientists coming out of college, one area in which you will likely be deficient in knowledge is skin biology. But if you are working on any skin care formulations, it is critical that you understand how the skin works, how compounds will affect skin, and how the skin ages. This is why we worked with Cosmetics and Toiletries and Dr Zoe Draelos to develop a course that teaches you everything you need to know about the skin. Skin Physiology course Zoe Diana Draelos, MD is a board certified dermatologist with than 25 years experience. In this course she presents an exclusive look at how cosmetic scientists, when armed with the medical knowledge of how and why the skin functions and what really makes it beautiful, can also apply their cosmetic science knowledge to proper product development in order to make the best and safest products possible. The course is presented in 8 lessons including: Lesson 1: Skin Biology and Evaluation Lesson 2: Skin Aging Lesson 3: Acne Lesson 4: Skin Disease and Skin Cancer Lesson 5: Skin Care Lesson 6: Cosmeceutical Ingredients Lesson 7: Cosmetic Dermatology Procedures Lesson 8: Skin Physiology and Topical Skin Lightening Included in this Course: In addition to the course lessons the course has the following benefits. Learn whenever you want. It is a self-paced course which can be logged on whenever you like from wherever you can get Internet access. This makes for a flexible learning environment To ensure you comprehend the material you learned, each lesson comes with a quiz to complete after the lesson. Bonus material furthers your education. With C&T's extensive library, they provide access to additional resources within each lesson that most people can't access. Certificate of Completion upon successful closure of the course You can get any cosmetic question answered and build your industry network in the online discussion forum that is exclusive to course members. Monthly live chat discussions for Q&A with subject matter experts and your peers. Registration for this course includes a free copy of the best-selling book by Zoe Diana Draelos, MD and Peter T. Pugliese, MD, Physiology of the Skin, Third Edition. If you would like to register, see the Physiology of Skin course page.

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This is a pretty cool graphic which shows how many huge brands that these huge companies own. It was a surprise to me that L'Oreal was owned by Nestle.

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Yesterday, it was announced that cosmetic giant L'Oreal was acquiring Urban Decay. The article didn't say how much the acquisition was for but brand most recently had annual sales of $130 million. This was impressive to me because I know Urban Decay didn't exist when I started in the cosmetic industry so it was a relatively new company (started in 1996). How did they build their brand so quickly & successfully in an industry where technology hasn't really changed. What lessons can cosmetic chemists who want to start a cosmetic line learn from Urban Decay? Go after a premium market One of the most common things I hear from people who want to start their own cosmetic line is that they want to make inexpensive products. They figure that more consumers will be more willing to pay for products that are less expensive. They are correct but this is entirely the wrong attitude. A start-up cannot compete on price. You can't. You shouldn't try. You shouldn't even want to try. Inexpensive products = lower profits = less revenue generated for the work that you do. Urban Decay realized that they were not going to be able to undercut P&G and L'Oreal to capture consumers who were buying Maybelline and Covergirl. Instead they went for the premium market. It would take just as much work to have a successful premium line as it would to have a successful inexpensive line so... go premium! Having a few people give you dollars is more desirable than having lots of people give you pennies. Have a unique positioning The products produced by Urban Decay are no different than any other make-up that is out there. The technology for color cosmetics hasn't changed in decades. Therefore, the only way they could create a successful new brand is by having a unique positioning. According to them, they saw that high end makeup products were dominated by boring colors like pink, red, and beige. There were none of the bright, outlandish colors that you could get in the inexpensive aisle. So, they introduced them and it worked. They also had clever packaging, an edgy design, and a great marketing campaign to help define their brand. Additionally, they took up the "anti-animal testing" mantra and got some great brand awareness from that. The bottom line is that you have to be unique to be successful. Work with passionate people The founders of Urban Decay were passionate about makeup and about creating a business. It is not enough for you to love cosmetic chemistry. You have to love running a business too. And if you don't, find a partner who does. Urban Decay was not started alone but rather with multiple, passionate partners. Being well-connected helps One of the things that undoubtedly helped make Urban Decay successful was that the founder was well-connected in Silicone Valley. She was one of the co-founders of Cisco Systems, a huge technology company. That meant she knew many angel investors, venture capitalists, and...

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Frequently, we get messages here on Chemists Corner looking for cosmetic internship opportunities. Unfortunately, the number of internships are few and far between in this industry. However, there are some. Previously we listed some general sources for internships in the cosmetic industry. Well, here is a specific opportunity for anyone looking to do an internship in 2013. Amway Internship Job title Intern - Skincare/Cosmetics Formulation Job Description Amway Research and Development comprises 800 scientists, engineers, and technicians working in 65 state-of-the-art laboratories worldwide. Our team has generated over 950 patents and 850 patents-pending supporting a portfolio of over 450 innovative, science-based, high-performance health, beauty, personal care and home care products. This internship is within Beauty Product Development, which is responsible for the design, development and scale up of a broad range of skin care and color cosmetic products to support Amway's portfolio of beauty brands, including ARTISTRY, one of the top 5 selling global premium skin care brands. The intent of this internship is to advance our ability to support new product launches and deliver consumer-preferred products in the prestige skincare category. The ideal candidate will apply learning’s from advanced academic training and/ or experience in cosmetic science to the development of new or improved product forms with targeted performance and sensory profiles. Job activity will include; Bench development, evaluation and characterization of prototype formulations Interaction with technical staff in a wide range of disciplines - Formulation, Process Engineering, Consumer Evaluation, Analytical Chemistry, Bioassay, Microbiology and Advanced Imaging. Interaction with other cross-functional partners will also include Corporate Marketing and Project Management. Delivery of an oral technical project presentation. This is a Summer 2013 internship; qualified candidates must have a minimum GPA of 3. 5 and one semester or more left of school to complete at the beginning of their internship. Candidates who have graduated are not eligible to intern. This position is located near Grand Rapids, Michigan. Minimum Education/Experience Requirements Undergradate or Graduate level student with training in a Cosmetic Science curriculum. Skincare or cosmetic laboratory experience is highly preferred. Company Profile As a $9. 2 billion dollar pioneer in the direct selling industry, Amway has been helping the world live better since 1959. We support more than three million independent business owners and 14,000 employees worldwide who provide products and services in more than 80 countries. We are accountants and marketers, farmers and scientists, outstanding leaders and sought-after experts. Based in Ada, Michigan, Amway creates unique, high-quality health, beauty, personal care and home care products. Amway brings together strong, collaborative people in a dynamic culture of mutual respect, support, and passion for the brand and product. We believe innovation drives winning performance, and we constantly challenge ourselves to be the very best we can in every aspect of our business. You will be surrounded by some of the best and brightest people in the industry. At Amway you will be in great company! How to Apply Please email Andy Davies at andy. davies@amway. com or visit our website to...

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The R&D gurus over at P&G have come out with a new press release declaring that they've identified the sevens signs of aging hair. This made me think of the entire process by which research gets turned into products and then how it is used to sell those products. Every cosmetic chemist and formulator should know how this works because they may be called on sometime in their career to participate in these types of activity. It will also make it easier to interact with your marketing group and to protect the integrity of your discoveries. The Discovery Discoveries can be made in a variety of ways. Big companies like P&G have scientists who do basic research on things like skin and hair. These are usually PHDs who look at the biology or chemistry of ingredients on hair or skin. These people are separated from the formulators and usually don't have to worry about the details of applying the research to an actual product. Most companies don't have this luxury so it is up to the formulator to come up with discoveries. These can be prompted by marketing. For example, your marketing group tells you to come up with something new to say about your hair products. Then you'll go off and look at your formula to see if there is something unique you can say about it. Discoveries can also come from raw material suppliers who might have new compounds that behave in unusual ways. Like the suppliers who once visited us with a technology that deposited sunscreen from a body wash product. Or you might just stumble on some discovery like I did while working on In the case of this Pantene discovery about the 7 signs of aging, I suspect it went the opposite way that research usually goes. They likely first heard these common complaints from consumers, then the market research people went back to R&D and told them to find some tests which proved that these were the 7 signs of aging. Seven must be some magic marketing number because they also found the 7 signs of Aging Skin to go along with their Olay line. No matter how you come to discoveries, you will inevitably make them during your tenure as a cosmetic chemist. Shaping the message Once you find something interesting, you'll present it to your bosses who might eventually present to the marketing group or the decision makers at the company. To make this happen, you'll have to shape the message of your research. Make it interesting to people who don't naturally find science interesting. Most importantly, make it interesting to consumers. The way you do is to come up with a title or one line statement that quickly communicates your finding. You need to be able to easily explain why your finding is interesting and unique. For example, when we found a common preservative could help hold color in hair better, we called it "Color Lock" technology. The folks at P&G...

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Some people might see the job of a cosmetic chemist as frivolous and less-than-important. However, there are a number of benefits to taking up a career in cosmetic chemistry. 1. Make people's lives better. Here is a report on a study published in the Archives of Dermatology that suggests cosmetics improve the quality of life of consumers. Since almost everyone in the world uses cosmetics, you'll be able to positively impact the lives of a number of people. 2. Express your creativity. Unlike some science jobs is that are repetitive, boring, and hyper focused on minutia, cosmetic chemistry gives you the chance to flex your creativity and develop all kinds of different products. You also get to work on a number of projects, many of which eventually get launched. 3. Become an inventor. Cosmetic formulating offers you a chance to invent new products that can solve real consumer problems. If you want to invent, cosmetic chemistry is a great career to have. 4. See immediate results of your work. Many scientists toil away in their labs for years only to see their work go nowhere. When you formulate, you get to complete projects that often end up in the aisles of the stores that you shop in every day. It's gratifying. 5. Free products. If you like beauty products, then you'll love the fact that as a cosmetic chemist you have to buy and try all types of competitive products. 6. Become a better shopper. As a cosmetic chemist you'll get exposure to your marketing department and will learn what really works and what is simply hype. (There's lots of hype). So when you do have to buy cosmetic products or any other type of product, you'll be able to spot what is marketing fluff and spend less money. 7. Become an entrepreneur. Cosmetic formulating allows you to learn and invent products. This is a great start to putting you on your way to start your own cosmetic line. There are a number of jobs you can do as a chemist but cosmetic formulating is certainly one worth considering.

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This question came in via the cosmetic science discussion forum and it was something that we hadn't covered before. The question specifically was "what is % solids and what does it tell you? " % solids The notion of % solids is something that you probably first learned about in your high school or college chemistry courses. Simply put, it is the amount of solid material present in a liquid (or semi-liquid) sample. For cosmetic formulators it can be useful for things such as formula duplication and quality control. Determining % Solids Figuring out % solids of a material is easy enough. Step 1 - Get a sample the raw material or finished product and figure out its starting mass. It's helpful to weigh out a sample of 100 g or so. Step 2 - Put the sample in an oven set at slightly above 100C. The idea here is to drive off as much water as you can via evaporation. Step 3 - Record the sample mass at set time intervals. When there isn't a significant change in the mass, you've approached the value of the % solids of the sample. This is just a rough way of figuring out % solids and there are fancy machines you can use, but this gets the job done, and in the cosmetic industry, that's usually good enough. Formulating with % solids The way that you use % solids to formulate is by getting a competitor's product. Take a look at the ingredient list and figure out where most likely is the 1% line. Next, use the % solids to determine how much water is in the formulation. Then, make guesses as to the concentration of the ingredients above the 1% line. Make your formulation and compare it to the original control. This is an iterative process but the more you do it, the better you will become at it. % solids for quality control The primary use of % solids in the cosmetic industry is as a quality control measure. When you get a raw material you should check the % solids on the Certificate of Analysis (COA) and determine whether the sample meets the % solid specification. If it doesn't, you may have a quality problem. You can do the same with your finished products. The % solid is a simple test and can be done rather quickly. Every cosmetic chemist should use it both for formulation efforts and quality control.

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The vast majority of cosmetic raw materials are based on hydrocarbons. Oils, polymers, waxes and more involve bonds of carbon and hydrogen. But a notable exception to this hydrocarbon dominance is Cosmetic Silicones. Let's review silicones used in cosmetics and why. Silicon Molecules Silicones are molecules or raw materials in which the primary backbone is based on a Silicon/Oxygen repeating unit. (Si-O--) In the simplest incarnation the structure is surrounded by methyl groups (CH3) and the fluid is known as Dimethicone. Chemists can vary the length of the polymer which changes the molecular weight and the fluid properties like viscosity. Hydroxyl group (OH) can also be included in the molecule to product Dimethiconol. The most common side groups include... methyl(CH 3) phenyl(C 6H 5) allyl (-CH 2CH=CH 2) vinyl (-CH=CH 2) trifluoropropyl (-CH 2-CH 2CF 3) The silicone backbone can also be twisted back on itself to produce a ring structure. These materials, known as Cyclomethicones, are volatile and used in products in which build-up is a concern. Why Silicones Now that you have a sense of the silicone structure you might wonder why you would want to formulate with them. Here are the primary qualities that make silicones useful. Slip Silicones are incredibly slippery. When diluted onto a surface they form a film that slips past most any frictional force. So silicones on hair will make it much easier to comb. On skin, silicones make them feel smooth and soft. Shine Because of the even film that silicones produce, they also make a nice shiny surface. Therefore, silicones are great for creating hair shine, shiny nails, or any other application in which you want shine. Protection Silicones have been demonstrated to create a barrier on the surface of skin and hair. So, they are useful for products designed to protect these surfaces. Lotions, moisturizers, and long lasting color cosmetics would all benefit from the incorporation of silicones into the formulation. Hair can also be protected from heat damage and color loss. Drawbacks Silicones are excellent materials and you might be wondering why they haven't replaced hydrocarbons as teh dominant ingredient. Well, as with most excellent things, there are some significant drawbacks. Cost - Silicones cost much more than equivalent hydrocarbons. Therefore, many companies avoid them. However, you can get some of the benefit by blending them with hydrocarbons which is typically what is done. Compatibility - Silicones are not as easy to emulsify as most oils so there can be stability and production issues. This makes them tricky to work with and reduces their use. Consumer Concerns - While it is mostly based on misinformation, many consumers believe silicones build-up on hair or leave a layer of damaging wax. So, if you are creating formulations for this type of consumer, silicones will just not do. Overall, silicones are great materials for cosmetic chemists and you should experiment with them in most any formulation you work on. But be aware that they will not work for every application and some...

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If you publish in the area of sunscreens, this might appeal to you. It's hosted by the Florida SCC chapter and is an excellent event. Call for papers Authors are invited to submit titles and abstracts of no more than 150 words for original papers to be presented in podium format at the Sunscreen Symposium, which will be held Sept. 20-21, 2013 in Orlando. Deadline for submission is January 31, 2013. Sunscreen Topics All topics related to Cosmetic Science will be considered for presentation. Topics of particular interest for submission of abstracts are: Global Harmonization of SPF and UVA Protection Standards Formulating Effective Sun Care Products Innovations and Trends - What is the Next Horizon in Sun Care? Sustainability and Green Initiatives Global Regulatory Updates/ Changes Educating Consumers / Connecting with Consumer Needs Long-Term Skin Health Anti-Aging Platforms Sun Care as Skin Care Evaluation of Sunscreen Drug Substances How to submit Submit abstract, bio and photo by Jan. 31, 2013 to: Danielle Wheeler 2957 Herschel Street Jacksonville, Florida 32205 Or, via email FLSCCsun@gmail. com

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During my last few years working for a corporation in the cosmetic industry I focused most of my effort on innovation. We were always on the lookout for new technologies that could revolutionize cosmetic products. Of course what we mainly found were things that could lead to incremental improvements, but that is the life of corporate innovators. In truth, if something is really innovative your company will likely reject it because they won't know how to sell it. This is a dilemma for all cosmetic formulation innovators. I recall sitting in a meeting showing our marketing team a powder shampoo technology. One of the marketers said, "That's great, but if we can't put it in our current bottle with our current dispenser, we won't be able to sell it. " Eventually, a product with that technology was launched. This was primarily because other companies had already been selling versions of a powdered shampoo so there was at least some proof that it could be done. But there were a number of technologies that our innovation group presented which went nowhere. That's what I always think about when I see really cool new technologies like this self healing skin. This material is a synthetic skin that has microspheres embedded in it that will help "heal" any cuts or breaks in the skin. It's very cool. I distinctly remember reading about a technology like this back in the mid-1990's but this one is a little further along. I always thought that technology would be excellent for a styling polymer. Start your own Alas, it will be a number of years before anything like this makes its way into the cosmetic industry. The forces maintaining the status quo are too strong. It will take a small, unknown company with passionate people to take a technology like this and make it a reality. After they make some significant sales then the big corporations might take a look. This is good news if you are an entrepreneurial minded cosmetic chemist. A little distressing for the corporate cosmetic chemist.

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This guest post was submitted by Lisa A. Leigh, of Leigh Business Group, New York, NY. Is the creativity behind cosmetic chemistry being stifled by excessive regulation? How can regulatory specialists and formulators in the personal care industry work together to develop innovative products that wow the marketplace but yet stay within the confines of the law? Can excessive regulation present unforeseen opportunities for formulators? These modern dilemmas are on the forefront of a rapidly-changing global regulatory landscape in the personal care industry. Generally speaking, cosmetic formulators and regulatory specialists work closely together to bring products to market. But how can they work together to not only streamline the process but to also develop an ongoing creative compliance framework? Regulatory roles Cosmetic chemists work with the exterior of the body developing lotions, makeup, shampoos, over-the-counter drug products such as sunscreens and antiperspirants as well as other personal care products. A formulator may be an entrepreneur or may take a position in corporate R&D. Regulatory specialists are the protectors of the businesses they work for by ensuring that the products are in compliance with federal, state and international laws where the company markets its goods. It is smart business practice for regulatory specialists and formulators to join forces and make it their mission see to it that creativity is not stifled, regulations are met, and new global products launch smoothly. Working with cosmetic regulatory specialists Unfortunately, this is easier said that done because complex marketing plans, global supply chain distribution and aggressive launch strategies often collide with unexpected regulatory restraints causing costly delays potentially destroying an otherwise profitable product line. To avoid any kind of financial catastrophe, marketing objectives must be shared during the early product development cycle so that potential claims take into consideration current consumer perception and awareness. The marketing objectives must be followed up with a well-designed product safety review and testing protocol, both pre-and post market. It is also essential that a global marketing plan takes into consideration different regional regulatory requirements for ingredient selection, product claims, advertising and promotions. Changing cosmetic regulatory landscape Aside from these obvious suggestions, there is more to the story. In the US, the cosmetics/personal care industry has seen an in-your-face visible rise in Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) or activist group campaigns that are spurring highly restrictive legislation on the industry. Companies have no choice but to pay attention to the heated debates over controversial ingredients whether scientifically proven or just perceived by consumers to be harmful. Because of the wide success of these activist campaigns, consumers now fear ingredients such parabens that have been long-proven to be safe. No matter, businesses must accept that the marketplace is the final judge of product success and perception of risk by the consumer is inherently important in determining what a product is acceptable or not. Activist groups have made it crystal clear that FDA guidelines are aging and may need to be re-upped in light of new technology, new products and growing consumer demands, not...

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Sixth Biennial Holistic Cosmetic Symposium Call for Papers. Holistic Symposium Date: March 19th, 2013 Location: Earle Brown Heritage Center 6155 Earle Brown Drive Brooklyn Center, Minnesota 55430 DEADLINE: January 15, 2013 You are invited to submit titles and abstracts for original papers to be presented in podium format. Tradenames cannot be used in the abstract or presentation. Topics of particular interest include: Organic Ingredients - Green Packaging - Natural Preservatives - Green Manufacturing Formulating Green - Sustainable or Fair Trade Ingredients Marketing and Consumer Trends - Regulatory Updates Submissions Abstracts should be submitted via e-mail to Dawn Glaser at dawn. glaser@beraca. com. All Abstracts will be reviewed and selected by the Holistic Committee. For suppliers interested in participating in the afternoon vendor showcase, please see the packet sent by Kristen Haakenson, Kristen. Haakenson@caldrea. com.

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We get a number of people who contact us here at Chemists Corner asking for help in advancing their idea for the next amazing cosmetic product. It seems the biggest concern that people have is that they are worried about someone stealing their idea. They shouldn't. It is highly unlikely that anyone is going to steal your idea. Here's why. 1. Your idea is probably not unique The reality almost no idea is actually unique. Apple's iPhone was not unique nor was it's iPod. Lots of other companies came out with products before Apple. The way Apple executed the idea was what made it innovative, not the idea. In the cosmetic industry, there are thousands of people employed specifically trying to come up with unique, sellable ideas. It's not easy. I would suggest that there hasn't been a truly unique product introduced in the cosmetic industry since the early 1980's. Everything else has been iterations on something that was already created. If you have an idea, do a Google search for something that is similar. I bet you'll be surprised to find out that someone is already doing the idea. This is actually not a bad thing. If someone has already made a product, that means that there is a market for the product. You just need to execute the idea better than the people who have already done it. 2. Your idea is not proven Companies are not actually interested in unique ideas. They are interested in ideas that are proven to make money. You may have conceived the most clever idea that a company has seen, but if there are no sales to show, they will take almost no interest. Some of the greatest sounding ideas in the cosmetic field end up making no sales. Hundreds of great ideas are launched every year and those products fail to make sales. The product & idea may be great but if you can't market it, if you can't get anyone to buy it, no one cares. The proven sales of an idea sell products, not the uniqueness of it. 3. Not invented here syndrome Another reason companies will not steal your ideas is because they didn't think of it. Many companies have marketing or product development groups who are responsible for coming up with new product ideas. They do not believe that outsiders have any good ideas. They believe that the best ideas are the ones that are generated in-house. For this reason, you do not have to worry about anyone stealing your idea. 4. No one will be as passionate as you To make a new cosmetic product idea happen, it will take a lot of work. You can't just say "here's my idea" then watch the money roll in. You've got to get the formulation made, design the packaging, create ad copy, find distributors, do consumer testing, safety testing, claims testing. Basically, there's a lot more that needs to be done than just have an idea. And if...

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Job Title Formulator and Technical Support — OTC topical products and therapeutic cosmetics Description Summers Laboratories is a small, (30 person) dermatological pharmaceutical company in business over 25 years. We are located in Collegeville, PA about 25 miles northwest of Philadelphia. Summers Labs is looking for a chemist who is familiar with the formulation of creams, lotions, and shampoos who can also help us formulate natural/organic products. We have other projects working on formulation refinements of our current products. There may also be opportunities to assist with technical manufacturing issues. This position will appeal to a chemist who is open minded and likes to “wear a lot of hats”. This position is full-time, however we will consider reduced hours and flexible schedule. We offer competitive salary and benefits and a collaborative, friendly work environment that provides a very attractive alternative to large companies. Contact For confidential consideration, please send your resume to Linda Czeiner at LindaC@sumlab. com.

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I'm traveling today so I'll keep this short. This project 94 Elements seems rather interesting. I look forward to them finishing more videos. But it got me thinking, what elements are used most in cosmetics? Here are the ones I can think of off the top of my head. Hydrogen Carbon Nitrogen Oxygen Chlorine Sodium Potassium Silicon Aluminum Zinc Iron Copper Titanium Any that I missed?

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In about an hour, I'm going to be doing a talk at the dinner meeting portion of the SCC Quebec Supplier's Day. But before that I got the chance to attend the show. There were nearly 50 booths and the event seemed well attended. I talked to a number of the various suppliers looking to see what the hot trends are in the cosmetic raw material industry. A few observations... 1. The green movement is alive and well. Most of the companies were touting the naturalness of their offerings. A corn-based substitue for Propylene Glycol was rather interesting. 2. Alternative preservatives abound. I noticed a lot of companies that had alternatives to paraben and formaldehyde donor preservatives. Most of these were based on phenoxyethanol, benzoic acid, or salicylic acid. I didn't see a lot of new molecules though. 3. Slow embrace of technology. There was one company that used an iPad to collect customer information but most everyone continued to use business cards and pen & paper. I anticipate some day this will be different but it will take a while. Overall, an excellent show. I'm looking forward to doing the talk later. Coincidentally, it is on using the Internet (and technology) to do your job more efficiently.

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When you formulate an anionic surfactant based cleansing formula, you don't normally have to include a separate thickening system. This is because salt will thicken surfactant systems. This is a pretty handy phenomena as it reduces the cost of your formula and can give you better control over the final viscosity. However, to get that control you need to do a salt curve analysis. Here's what you do. Salt Curve Analysis The fundamental idea behind a salt curve analysis is that the concentration of salt predictably affects the viscosity of the system. Therefore, you can create a plot of the salt concentration versus the viscosity which can then be used to determine the final salt concentration of your formulation. It can also be used to adjust a batch if the viscosity is too low. Here is what you do. Steps for salt curve analysis 1. Make a large batch of your formulation but do not add any salt. Record the initial viscosity. 2. Pour off samples (100g ) of your batch and create different salt concentrations for each. Use the following salt concentrations. (0. 2%, 0. 4%, 0. 6%, 0. 8%, 1%, 1. 2%, 1. 4%, 1. 6%, 1. 8%, 2%) You may want to go higher in salt concentration. 3. Remove any air from the samples, let them equillibrate at 25C and take viscosity measurements. 4. Plot the concentration of salt versus viscosity on a graph. 5. Choose the most desired viscosity level and set that as the salt concentration of your formulation. 6. Create a new batch of the formulation using the new salt curve determined salt concentration. 7. Measure viscosity and compare to predicted salt curve level. Using the salt curve You should have no problem creating a salt curve for your system. Since it is dependent on the composition of the entire formula, you should do this for any new formula. Even if you simply change the fragrance it could have a significant impact on the salt curve. For most systems, the salt curve will max out at 2% and viscosity will actually start to decrease. When you are formulating you'll want to set your salt concentration on the left side of the salt curve. That way you will have some room to add salt if the viscosity is too low. If you set the salt concentration at the peak of the salt curve, your compounder might put in too much and you will have no way to adjust the viscosity except blending with a new batch. To use the salt curve in production, just look up the viscosity of the final batch, estimate where it is on the salt curve, then add just enough salt to the batch to thicken it up. You should try this in the lab first as you want to make sure it works. And for a more detailed and complicated discussion of what is going on with the salt curve, see this excellent article by Kevin Penfield.

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I use a plugin on my web browser that allows me to read web pages at a later time. There is so often that I see something that has an interesting headline but I don't have time at the moment to read it. I just click on "Read it Later" (guess it's called Pocket now) and it saves the link for me to check out later. Right now I've got 1927 things to read. lol. Since I started using the plugin around 2009, I've got some links that are almost 3 years old. Typically, I go through and check out the list when I have a chance, but some of the older stories get passed up. This story about a new treatment for skin eczema is one of those stories. Technological discovery The story is interesting enough. Scientists found that when they give kids who have eczema a bath in a dilute bleach solution, it reduced the negative aspects of eczema including less itching and redness. The story was from 2009, so I wondered whether this technology has made its way into any skin lotions. Doctors suggestions Well, I found a reference from the Mayo Clinic suggesting that a bleach bath could help reduce eczema. That was dated August 2011. Then it seemed that lots of people were recommending a bleach bath to treat eczema. Cosmetic marketers The first reference to a cosmetic product that I found was this video produced by CLn Skin Care. They say that their body wash in addition to a bleach bath can reduce eczema. Interesting. They try to leverage the technology without actually adding it to their formulations. That video was produced in April 2012. Now, it looks like they've incorporated it into their formulation. Their CLn BodyWash contains sodium hypochlorite. Other cosmetic manufacturers have taken the same idea and used Triclosan and Benzalkonium chloride as the "bleach technology" in their formulations. So, it looks like it took about 2 years for this technology to go from the research journals into cosmetic products. It still hasn't been incorporated into any big cosmetic company brand but if these products do well, it likely will. I doubt that this short technology adoption time is typical. This technology was pretty simple using ingredients that already existed and have already been used in cosmetic products. For most breakthroughs, that will not be the case. The technology I worked on (for which I received my first patent) took nearly 5 years before we launched a product.

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You can't get around this trend in the cosmetic industry. Natural, green, organic, sustainable, etc. They are here to stay and will affect your formulation efforts in the future. According to this story in Cosmetic Design, there is a new socially responsible consumer group emerging and they are willing to pay extra for products they think are more sustainable. According to the article, Nielsen did a study that showed most of these consumers are under 40 years old and they are looking to the Internet to determine whether a product is made by a company who practices fair trade and is committed to sustainability. So, what does this mean for cosmetic chemists? Well, you're going to have to start pressing your suppliers to give you more information about the history of the raw materials that they provide. You'll have to get assurances that they practice fair trade and achieve certain sustainability requirements. Incidentally, if your company sells to Walmart, you're going to have to get this information anyway. The days of focusing solely on new benefits are coming to an end. I anticipate this will reduce innovation at least as far as performance goes. Overall, it should be better for the environment though. But color me skeptical on the emergence of a new consumer. It has been my experience that consumers will not sacrifice performance for any other attribute. If you make a product that performs better than all your competition in a way that consumers would notice, they'll buy it. But if people can't tell a difference between what you make and your competitors make, then they'll pick the more sustainable/environmentally friendly option. If you don't want to spend time creating more sustainable cosmetics, then you better come up with something that is a lot better than everyone else's products.

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In the 17+ years that I spent formulating products, our company never went through a recall. We did have a microbial contamination issue with a pump imported from China that caused a big shipment of a new product to be scraped, but it never made it to store shelves. This just demonstrates that cosmetic recalls are rare. Or are they? According to this story in Cosmeticsdesign. com, there have been some significant recalls in the last year. And interestingly, they are for different reasons. Here are the ones they list. Recent Recalls 1. Banana Boat recall. People were catching on fire after using the product and then going near an open flame such as a grill. Turns out there was too much propellant and it didn't evaporate off the skin quickly enough. It would've been tough for the company to anticipate this problem. There is no standard test that would've caught it. I bet they'll develop one now however. 2. Unliver had to recall their Suave Professionals Keratin Infusion Smoothing Kit because of a record number of complaints. They are facing lawsuits now. I wonder if this was the technology I worked on at Alberto. hmmm This seems like a failing of their safety testing. They should've caught this one. 3. J&J recalled some Aveeno baby care lotion after the FDA found that it was contaminated with too much bacteria. Tell me again why it is a good idea to remove proven preservatives in favor of unproven ones? Recalls in the cosmetic industry are pretty rare which is a tribute to the effectiveness of current regulations. You should see how many food products are recalled each year. But cosmetic recalls do happen, so it is imperative that you as a cosmetic chemist do the proper safety testing and even consider how your product might be misused. A recall can't ever be a good thing for your brand.

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This is a guest post by Rachelle Baker, Lab Manager, Cosmetic Test Labs Microbial contamination of cosmetic and personal care products is a frequent concern within the industry. Contamination with microorganisms can cause both product and monetary losses for manufacturers. Although reports of contaminated cosmetics causing injury to humans are rare, the economical and brand-related impact of such events is considerable. In the worst case, microbial contamination of cosmetic and personal care products can result in infection to the consumer. Product contamination Microorganisms can enter a product at the time of manufacturing, or during normal consumer use. Microbial growth in personal care products can take place very rapidly. Microbial concentrations in products in the period after manufacturing depend on the cleanliness and sterility of the manufacturing process and the microbial growth potential inside the product. Cosmetic preservation Cosmetic and personal care products typically contain chemical preservatives to prevent microbial growth during their shelf life. Preservative challenge testing is used to verify the effectiveness of preservative systems. Although preservative challenge testing is an essential part of ensuring quality and stability of a product, it cannot indicate for certain that contamination with a problematic microorganism will not occur at some point in within its shelf life. Often, contamination is caused by microorganisms that are not included in the various official preservative challenge test methods. In addition, sometimes errors are made during manufacturing, such as a slipped decimal place, when calculating the amount of preservative to add. For these and many other reasons, it is extremely important to run total microbial count tests, like the USP , on personal care products to verify that they are not contaminated with microbes that have the potential to grow, even in seemingly well preserved products. Microbial count tests The USP test, along with other similar methods, is a full quantitative analysis of products to determine the Total Aerobic Microbial Count (TAMC) and Total Yeast and Mold Count (TYMC) present in them. These tests are recommended for every batch of finished product. Should a contamination event ever arise, this method will be useful to test raw materials as well, to assist in determining the source of contamination. One special aspect of the full USP procedure is that it includes neutralization and recovery validations to ensure that the methods used to determine the presence of the microorganisms in each product are sufficient to detect them. This is important, because preservatives in cosmetic products have the potential to inhibit growth of microorganisms on laboratory agar plates, causing false-negative results. Acceptable standards Cosmetics and personal care products are not expected to be completely free from microorganisms. However, an acceptable standard for their microbial limits has not been established. Some manufacturers and agencies within the cosmetic industry recommend a maximum of 100 colony forming units (CFU) of bacteria or fungi per gram or milliliter of product. Everybody agrees that, pathogenic (disease-causing) microorganisms such as P. aeruginosa and S. aureus, among others, should not be detectable. By having USP tests conducted on...

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One of the last things I was working on at my former job was innovation. I am a big fan of innovation and believe that the cosmetic industry sorely needs some significant improvements. The products really have not changed significantly in the last 30 years and I'd like to see that change. That's why I'm constantly on the search for new ideas that I believe could lead to truly innovative new cosmetic products. Open innovation companies like Innocentive are one approach where a community of scientists are given problems from industry and challenged with coming up with solutions. Unfortunately, this approach hasn't been terribly effective in the cosmetic industry. Perhaps the problems are just too complicated or not well-defined enough. Or perhaps the entire system is backwards. That is what the folks over at Marblar. com think. They've switched the system around and encourage scientists who have already developed technologies to post the innovation and then have companies figure out what they can do with them. This seems like a brilliant idea. The solutions have already been found. Now, they just need problems. If you're looking for new cosmetic technologies, this just might be the place to go. Take a look and let me know what you think.

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As a chemist, little bothers me in the world of cosmetic claims than the claim "chemical free. " THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS A CHEMICAL FREE COSMETIC! Ok, I've gotten that out of my system. The reason that this is bothering me today is that I saw on my Twitter feed an article that says this company McNabb Nutraceuticals was being investigated by the NAD. The NAD is the National Advertising Division which is a part of the Better Business Bureau. They are responsible for telling cosmetic companies whether their claims are misleading or not. It turns out that there were four claims at issue with McNabb's sunscreen products. - “Most sunblocks use man-made chemicals and preservatives; That’s why I use Sunology. ” - “Sunology is different. It uses only natural ingredients to block the sun’s harmful UV rays. ” - “Sunology is safe for me too. It contains a moisturizer that helps prevent wrinkles and keeps my skin soft. ” - “Sunblock for skin that prefers no chemicals. Sunology. Naturally. ” Of these, the NAD disallowed only the claim about the product being a moisturizer. Specifically, the NAD determined that... ... the express and implied claims that Sunology is a natural or chemical-free sunscreen — coupled with the clear disclaimer — were supported. How could they possibly support being a "chemical-free" sunscreen! ! ? ? Hey NAD, everything is a chemical! Rant over.

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I'm a huge believer in the idea that cosmetic chemists should be active participants in the cosmetic science community at large. This means you should join organizations like the Society of Cosmetic Chemists (both nationally and locally), you should publish articles in magazines, participate in the cosmetic science forum, write blogs, publish on Twitter and other social networking sites, and generally communicate your love and knowledge about cosmetic science. These are all excellent things to do and I think they are valuable for advancing your career, your company's stature and the field of cosmetic science. Pressure against publishing However, the cosmetic industry is different than Academia, and you will find that not everyone at your company shares my philosophy of "openness. " I first learned this just before publishing my first article in Cosmetics and Toiletries magazine. This was in the days before the Internet. It was a non technical article about how a cosmetic chemist should keep a notebook. After we turned in the article to the publisher, my co-author, who was more senior to me got nervous and decided to run it by our boss (an R&D director). He was not exactly pleased about the article and while it didn't give away any secret information, I believe that if we had pitched the idea to him before publishing, we would have never done the article. From the company's standpoint, there are good reasons that their chemists should not publish. First, it helps teach cosmetic chemists at other companies how to perform their jobs better. This could theoretically improve the quality of the formulations coming from your competitors. Second, you might accidentally disclose some proprietary information. This could lead your competitors to knocking off your formulations. Third, you might inspire some new idea in your competition which will lead to new formulation avenues they hadn't considered. And finally, publishing might boost your own reputation in the industry which could attract job offers from other companies and they might lose you. All of these are legitimate concerns. But despite these concerns, there are a number of benefits that companies can realize if they allow their chemists to publish in magazines, at industry trade shows, and on the Internet. Here are 5 ways cosmetic companies benefit from actively publishing chemists. 1. Get new ideas. Publishing, especially on the Internet, can directly lead to the development of new product ideas or new formulation avenues. Many times when you write a piece there will be others who will comment on it. These comments can lead to new ideas and new industry connections that can help you in the future. Also, just the act of publishing about a subject causes you to have to study it in depth. Publishing then becomes a way to train your employees. 2. Solve formulation problems. Perhaps the best reason to publish is that you can get your problems solved. There are a number of people who have found solutions to their formulation challenges by participating in discussions on...

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There is a new cosmetic science program that is focused on undergads. This is a great opportunity for anyone who is starting school and knows that they want to get into the cosmetic industry. It is the University of Toledo and here you can see the cosmetic program curriculum. If you know someone who is just starting college and they are in chemistry, this would be an excellent program to start.

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This is a guest editorial post by Rajat Narang Cosmetic Chemist! ! ! A cosmetic chemist is an individual who specializes in a Degree with majors in Cosmetic Science with subjects like Cosmetic Research, Cosmetic Technology, Cosmetic Formulation Development, Herbal Cosmetics, Skincare, Hair care, Color Cosmetics, Perfumery, Immunology & Toxicology, Product Development, Cosmetic Engineering, Cosmetic Regulatory, Cosmetic raw materials and their processing, Cosmetic Quality Assurance Techniques and so on... If you see all the major cosmetic producing companies in the market including P&G, L’Oreal Inc, Avon Inc, Coty Inc, Avon Inc, Johnson & Johnson group of companies and many more... the people who are working on the bench to develop cosmetics products are not Cosmetics Chemists, rather most of them are Chemical engineers, chemistry graduates or some other degree individuals. If an accounts job is given to Accounting professional only, a Finance job to finance guy only, medical job to a doctor only, then why not Cosmetics technical job to a cosmetic chemist only? ? Immigration of cosmetic chemists This incident happened with this guy few days back, he is Masters and Bachelors degree in Cosmetic Science with hard earned experience of few years within Cosmetic field. He has been constantly checking many jobs for his career advancement in his specialized cosmetic field in other countries. These jobs have been displayed for more than 2 months, sometimes even 3 to 4 months, this guy is absolutely suitable to the job, the recruiter between is saying that you qualify for the job, but the Immigration Visa issues and country borders are so huge that finally he is rejected on the basis that his immigration visa for work would be too complicated or maybe next to impossible to do by any employer. If you see the general trend today on job searching and networking global websites like Careerbuilder, Simply Hired, Indeed , Monster, LinkedIn and few others too, they have plenty of jobs open for cosmetic chemists or cosmetic formulators or cosmetics new product development for couple of months already or time period even more, but they don’t have right people to fill them. Finally, the outcome is, they hire Chemical engineers, pharmaceutics guys, chemistry based or other individuals with experience within cosmetic field. These are those individuals who understand the basic of Cosmetics, but they are not the individuals who have put 4-8 years of their life just studying Cosmetic Science to get one good job within cosmetic field. Most of these individuals employed today on cosmetic chemist job are individuals with related science background who could get jobs in other industrial sectors too. The pity is that the jobs are available, there is shortage of cosmetic individuals in all the countries throughout globe, but still Cosmetic Chemists cannot get these well deserved jobs due to Immigration, Visa or documents issues while getting hired in some other country. Today FDA, COLIPA and all other Administrative and Regulatory bodies throughout the globe are in the phase of revolution. They are putting certain...

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Consumer advocacy groups frequently claim that the cosmetic industry is unregulated. This is false. The regulatory framework for the cosmetic industry was set up in 1938 with the passage of the Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act. This created the FDA which is who regulates the cosmetic industry. You can find more about the FDA cosmetic regulations here. Perhaps what they really mean is that the FDA is not strict enough with their regulation of the cosmetic industry. This is a reasonable claim but how can you judge whether or not this is true? I am of the opinion that you have to look at the results of the current regulatory system to determine whether it is effective. And since the cosmetic industry has an excellent record of safety, it would be difficult to claim that things need to become more strict. If they did become more strict, how would you measure whether the products are safer? How unsafe are they right now? How many less injuries would be reported? Without a baseline to prove the current level of safety, it makes no sense to make more regulations. Incidentally, the FDA has recently been cracking down on cosmeceutical type claims that are being made by the big cosmetic companies. Both Avon and L'Oreal have been sent warning letters about some of their anti-aging cosmetics. Unregulated? I don't think so.

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As a cosmetic formulator you will have the opportunity to meet lots of raw material sales people. These meetings can be extremely helpful and you can learn a lot. You may even be inspired to leave the lab to become a salesperson yourself. It can be a great career move if you are so inclined. But selling to cosmetic chemists is not easy. They are trained scientists and don't (or shouldn't) fall for the type of marketing beauty product consumers fall for. When I was formulating, I always met with sales people and tried to encourage them to bring me products that I could incorporate into my formulations. Unfortunately, they rarely did. They made some fundamental errors that made it difficult for me to use their ingredient. Since a number of chemical sales people are fans of this website, I thought I'd share some tips for how to effectively sell to cosmetic chemists. 1. Have some novel technology that provides a unique consumer benefit This is the most important tip. If your company has a technology that provides a unique consumer benefit, cosmetic chemists will use it. And if the benefit is significant enough, the price will not matter. Do you have something that will lighten skin, tighten skin, cover gray, or solve any of the other 10 most significant hair care and skin care problems? This will be easy to sell. Unfortunately, the reality is that almost no company has ANY technology that provides a significant, consumer noticeable benefit. 2. Have some novel technology that provides a unique formulation benefit Alright, if you can't produce a compound that provides a unique consumer benefit, there is still an opportunity for new technology. Cosmetic chemists will buy a technology if it provides a unique formulation benefit. Maybe you have technology that will speed up production, significantly improve stability, or reduce formula irritation. Or maybe your technology demonstrably improves the performance of the formula in lab testing (not consumer noticeable). These are still of interest to cosmetic formulators. Granted, they are not as exciting and you will not be able to charge as much as technologies that have unique consumer benefits, but real, demonstrable benefits versus what the chemist is using right are easy to sell. The trick is you have to be able to clearly demonstrate the benefit and solve a problem that the formulator has. I've seen way too many new raw materials that solve problems I didn't have! Pro tip: Formulators do not need any more emollients 3. Sell it at the lowest price If you don't have any unique technology, you can still be successful. You just have to sell the product at the lowest price. Formulators respond to lower prices. Purchasing groups especially like lower priced raw materials. However, I caution you that this is not a slam dunk. Just because your price is slightly lower than your competitor's, formulators will not automatically change. You have to demonstrate that it will lead to a significant cost savings....

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I'm going to be speaking tonight at the University of Minnesota. Here is the information. If you're in the area, be sure to stop by & say hi. How to become a cosmetic chemist and why you would want to. Speaker Bio: Perry Romanowski has been formulating cosmetic products and creating solutions to solve consumer problems since the early 1990? s. He most recently worked in the hair care innovation group at Alberto Culver. Additionally, he has written and edited numerous articles and books, taught continuing education classes for industry scientists, and developed successful websites. He is currently Vice President at Brains Publishing and is responsible for producing Chemists Corner and other science educational websites & products. His latest book is Beginning Cosmetic Chemistry 3rd Edition published by Allured. Abstract: Chemistry majors and science majors in general are typically focused on completing courses and do not focus on what they are going to do with their degrees once they finished with school. Some people may go on to graduate school but most eventually will leave school and become industrial chemists. The cosmetic field offers an excellent opportunity to apply your knowledge of chemistry to the development of products that are sold on store shelves. This talk will introduce scientists to the cosmetic industry and discuss some of the science and jobs that are available. Perry will also cover some of the popular misconceptions about cosmetics and cosmetic chemicals. Date: Tuesday, October 16, 2012 Location: University of Minnesota Smith Hall — rm 117/119 207 Pleasant St. SE Minneapolis, MN 55455 http://campusmaps. umn. edu/tc/ Room 117/119 is to the right off the lobby of Smith Hall. Parking ramp is on Church street. Pizza dinner will be catered in. Agenda: 5:30 Social 6:00 Dinner 7:00 Speaker Cost: Members $25 Non-Members $30 Students - Free Please visit http://www. tccscc. org/ to pay online. We also accept Cash or Check at the door.

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This is a pretty cool resource for you chemistry types. It is the Periodic Table of Videos. I heard about it on a podcast that I listen to called Skeptically Speaking. Good show. Anyway, take a look. It has videos featuring all the elements of the periodic table. Here's Ruthenium, my favorite element.

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The Human Genome Project was an impressive accomplishment in the history of human existence. No other creature on the planet could have done what we did, essentially translating the language of life into something we could understand and recreate. In my estimation, this accomplishment will be viewed through the lens of history as one of the greatest accomplishments of all time. But for all its impressiveness, the mapping of our genome is only the start. It's the tip of the iceberg in terms of what we can do with the information. There will be advances in medicine, human longevity, controlling disease, creating new organs, wiping out inherited diseases, and more. Cosmetic Genetics I wasn't surprised when I read about DNA Electronics and their attempt to use gene sequencing to provide customers superior cosmetics. The idea is that a consumer sends in their saliva and the company uses its advanced technology to sequence a portion of their genetic code. This information is then used "to map how ingredients in cosmetics will match with an individual's genetic profile. " Huh? I really have no idea what this means. Will they somehow use the information to figure out what ingredients will cause sensitization? Or will this be some kind of analysis that tells you what products you should use? Either way, I think the cart is coming way before the horse. As far as I know, even if you had an exact sequence of someone's genes, that wouldn't help you much for coming up with more effective cosmetics. And if there were tests that could simply look at a human gene sequence to determine whether an ingredient would cause problems for someone, there wouldn't be continued use of animal tests in cosmetic ingredient evaluations. This sounds like a lot of empty marketing fluff to me. Sure, the technology to sequence your genes is cool but I don't see this leading to improved cosmetics any time soon. What do you think? Leave a comment below.

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The London College of Fashion has been running a Bachelors Level Cosmetic Science program for some time. They have recently increased the content of that program and now offer a Masters level program. The MS degree offers more training related to awareness of the business of the cosmetic industry. The program takes 4 to 5 years to complete and has an option for finishing early for the Bachelors degree. Here is a further description. "MSc Cosmetic Science is an exciting new applied science course situated in the School of Management and Science. It is designed for students who want a career within the cosmetic and toiletry industry, and focuses on the needs of the cosmetic industry and its consumers, at the same time as providing students with the critical and evaluative skills to be able to function as professional scientists. It is an integrated MSc, with a BSc exit point, and an optional placement year in industry in the third year of the course. This provides a unique offer in cosmetic science education world-wide, enabling students to start as undergraduates and exit with a postgraduate qualification. The MSc qualification offers a distinct advantage in today’s competitive environment. The course provides you with knowledge and understanding of the various disciplines within Cosmetic Science and the organisation and function of the Cosmetic, Toiletry and Perfumery industries. These industries have expanded in recent years as consumers have become more aware of the potential benefits of their products. Industry partners involved in the design and delivery of the course include Procter and Gamble, The Body Shop, Unilever, L’Oreal, Boots and Molton Brown. " For more cosmetic science options see this post on cosmetic science programs around the world.

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This is a guest post by Gary Neudahl. He is currently Product Application Manager, Personal Care Ingredients, for the HallStar Company and is based at the HallStar Manufacturing and Technical Center in Bedford Park IL USA. As the days get shorter and colder and the air gets drier, we direct our attention to the composition of lip balms. Why use lip balms? If package claims tell the story (1), they are used primarily for their moisturizing and hydrating effects and (when sunscreen active ingredients are incorporated) for their sunscreening effects. Common product positionings revolve around botanical / herbal content and vitamin and/or mineral content. More about that later. As with lipsticks, relatively few ingredient types are required to prepare a stable and superior-performing product, although proper selection and processing are critical for optimal effect. Here are the typical components of a lip balm: Emollient Carriers 40 - 85% Flavor 0 - 0. 5% Waxes 10 - 20% Label Copy Ingredients 0 - 0. 5% Active Ingredients 0 - 50% Preservatives 0 - 0. 3% Photostabilizers 0 - 6% Antioxidants 0 - 0. 1% Lip balm raw materials Emollient carriers (which, when solid sunscreen active ingredients are incorporated, are also sunscreen solvents) are the largest component by weight. Their proper selection contributes the product's unique feel and delivery characteristics and also affects the physical and photochemical stability of the product. The most commonly utilized emollient carriers are Ricinus Communis (Castor) Seed Oil, Butyrospermum Parkii (Shea) Butter, Petrolatum, Octyldodecanol, Mineral Oil (Paraffinum Liquidum), Simmondsia Chinensis (Jojoba) Seed Oil and Lanolin. It is obvious from this list that lip balms aren't greening as rapidly or extensively as some other personal care product segments. There are several reasons for this: the superior moisturization and occlusivity of certain petroleum- (and animal-) derived ingredients, the tastelessness of many petroleum-derived products, and the greater oxidation resistance of the saturated hydrocarbon products. Waxes Waxes are used to provide structure. A range of waxes is necessary so the lip balm provides the desired pay-off and feel while also maintaining stick integrity at high (melting makes a mess! ), moderate (syneresis is a turn off! ) and low (cracking makes for difficult use! ) temperatures . The more commonly utilized waxes include a lower melting point, softer wax, Beeswax (Cera Alba), a hard and higher melting point wax, Euphorbia Cerifera (Candelilla) Wax (Candelilla Cera), and a high melting point, brittle wax, Copernicia Cerifera (Carnauba) Wax (Copernicia Cerifera Cera). Their proper proportioning is what helps the formulating chemist earn his lofty reputation and pay! Active Ingredients Active ingredients for lip care, in the USA, fall into one of two main Over-the-Counter (OTC) drug monograph categories: skin protectants and sunscreens. The monographs define the ingredients, their specifications and use levels, and the combinations of ingredients allowed to make claims. The top monographed skin protectant ingredients in lip balms include Petrolatum, Mineral Oil, Lanolin, Dimethicone, Theobroma Cacao (Cocoa) Seed Butter and Allantoin. You've seen some of these mentioned earlier among the emollient carriers,...

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One of the coolest things about being a cosmetic chemist is that you get to be an inventor. You invent new formulas, new processes, or for the lucky few, new chemical reactions. If you happen to work at one of the big cosmetic companies, it's likely that eventually you'll get to work on some patent. And you may even get your name on the patent. When I first started, Alberto Culver was a medium-sized company who was not terribly interested in getting patents because in the cosmetic industry, patents do not do much to help sell your products. This is why I do not encourage small companies to get patents. They really aren't worth the expense. Over time, Alberto saw some value in patents and had the R&D department working on more. I think it was a plan to make the company more attractive to buyers but that is just speculation. Anyway, I filed a couple of patents and I'm happy to report that two of the patents were approved. I am officially one of the inventors of US patent 8,277,789 and 8,277,790. Developing a patent Since the company doesn't exist any more and the patent is out, you might be interested in the story of how the patent happened. In the early 2000's, I was working in our Claims department. We were trying to develop some impressive new claims for color treated hair. Something like "makes hair color last longer. " Well, to do this project it required me to wash dozens of tresses numerous times. It was very time consuming. Then I had this idea that maybe I could just soak tresses in water and simulate the washing process. So, I took some colored tresses and soaked them in water. The next morning, all the color had come out of the tress. Most interestingly, the color was supposed to be a permanent color. Clearly, it wasn't. But I was encouraged that soaking could remove color. Then, I just needed to find out how long I needed to soak them to simulate some number of washings. However, there was one problem. When the tresses soaked in water, the water smelled awful. I hypothesized that it was the result of some sort of microbial growth. So, I just took a standard preservative and added it to the soak water before putting the tress into the water. I soaked the colored tress in the water overnight like I had before and when I came back, none of the color had come out. There was something about the preservative that made the color stay in the hair. This led to more research and eventually led to the development of the technology that was patented in these two patents. It took a long time to happen but it did. Products using this technology were eventually launched and they really do work. However, I'm not sure they met with much success in the marketplace. This just goes to show, in the cosmetic industry you...

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One of the top problems that consumers experience when it comes to hair is hair loss. This is particularly troubling for men but women also report hair loss or hair thinning as a significant problem. So, research continues into ways of solving that problem. Here is some progress on the hair loss front. According to a researcher at L'Oreal in Paris, they have identified a compound that can "wake up" hair follicles and restart their hair growing ways. There is no word on what the compound is but coming from L'Oreal, it is an interesting development. However, I doubt that this will make much difference to L'Oreal's bottom line any time soon. The compounds can only restart hair follicles that are still capable of producing hair but are just dormant. If the follicle goes completely dormant, new hair growth becomes impossible through this method. I wonder if this product actually works whether it will be sold as a drug. hmmmm

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One of the biggest trends in cosmetic formulating is the trend towards making "natural", "green" and sustainable formulations. This represents a challenge for cosmetic chemists because you are essentially limiting the number of raw materials that you get to start with. It's a bit like telling a painter to create a picture using only 3 colors rather than an entire pallet. It can be done, but the results may not be as impressive. Here are the top challenges that natural formulators will face. 1. Determining what natural means. Perhaps the biggest challenge is to figure out what your company considers "natural". There is no single definition and the number of different standards that are out there are overwhelming. As a formulator, you're going to want to get specific direction on exactly which ingredients you'll be allowed to use and which ones you can't. If your company doesn't know, then you should just choose one of the leading natural cosmetic standards and stick with it. 2. End product performance. Once you know which ingredients you are limited to, the real challenging part begins, formulating good performing products. There is one truism about consumers and "natural" products. Consumers will not sacrifice performance quality for more natural formulations This means you'll have to find an acceptable benchmark filled with synthetic compounds, and try to match the performance. This is a difficult task especially when the best performing surfactants, moisturizing ingredients, cosmetic thickeners and most every other cosmetic raw material are synthetic compounds. 3. Adequate preservation. Related to the previous one, preservation of your product will be a challenge when following almost any natural standard. When you can't use parabens or formaldehyde donors as preservatives you have to make formulation compromises that can significantly impact performance or end user experience. 4. Formulation cost Another problem for natural formulations is that they cost more than synthetic formulations. The difference doesn't have to be crazy, but you should expect 50% or higher formulation costs. 5. Figuring out how natural you are. Even if you do a diligent job of picking the right natural raw materials and matching performance benchmarks, you still may not be natural enough. While your raw material supplier may have given you a natural surfactant the first time, they may spike it with synthetic sources to "boost" the performance (say adding parabens to make the ingredients last longer). To ensure that you are meeting natural standards, you'll need to work with the suppliers, getting all the appropriate paperwork. This can be a hassle. Formulating natural products is an added challenge for cosmetic chemists but it also ensures that there will be more work in the future. If formulating natural formulas is of interest to you, be sure to check out our Formulating Naturals Cosmetics course.

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As cosmetic formulators, we are supposed to be scientists. Rational, curious, and willing to modify our beliefs based on new information. But we are mostly humans who suffer from confirmation bias, personal beliefs and good ol' fashion stubbornness. I've met some cosmetic chemists and formulators that hold some "interesting" beliefs that don't quite hold water. Admittedly, in my younger years I believed many of these things too. However, there is no arguing with facts no matter what you want to be true. Here is a list of some of the most common cosmetic science myths that cosmetic chemists believe. 1. Expensive raw materials are better. Formulators get introduced to raw materials from suppliers all the time. Sometimes these ingredients can be incredibly expensive, say $1000 per Kilogram or more. I often heard chemists lament that if they could only add some really expensive ingredients to the formula, they could make products that perform much better. Unfortunately, this just isn't true. If you do a blind study of the best performing cosmetic formulations, it is not the most expensive formulas that work the best. Very few ingredients are better moisturizers than Petrolatum which is a pretty inexpensive ingredient! Just like cosmetic products, expensive ingredients are not always better ingredients. 2. Results of a small study are believable. You spend a lot of time testing your ideas and often you run a quick study and make a great discovery like you've made hair stronger or you've improved skin moisturization for 24 or 48 hours. Many cosmetic chemists will just run with this information and believe it to be true. They may even get their boss or marketing group excited about it. But this is a mistake. Small studies are rarely predictable of what a larger, controlled study will show. Whenever you get great results from a small study, repeat and repeat again. There are lots of inadvertent & invisible mistakes that can happen. That's just the nature of science. Unfortunately, the business side of the cosmetic business will pressure you to stand behind small studies because they support what marketing wants to say. Try to avoid this at all costs. 3. Competitors have superior technology. It's easy for you to develop "technology envy" when you see one of your competitors come out with a cool new product or they sell a lot more than your brand. You may even field a market research study that demonstrates their products score better than yours. This could cause you to develop the notion that your formulas aren't as good. Sometimes that is true. But most times, your competitor's formulas are not better than yours. Market success is only loosely tied to the performance of the formula. And your competitors have nearly all the same tools that you've got. There is no reason a small cosmetic company can't produce products every bit as good as the big cosmetic companies. 4. Natural or organic ingredients are better/safer. Astonishingly, I hear more and more formulators claiming that they...

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Take a look at this interesting milk packaging. It changes color as it gets closer to the expiration date. I think this could be a novel way to tell people when their cosmetics have expired.

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While it may be a dream of a cosmetic formulator to make a product that will be bought and used by everyone, this almost certainly will never happen. It is extremely difficult to be successful marketing a product when your target market is everyone. You have to narrow your focus and find a group of people who will most likely want your product. Market Segments Big cosmetic companies try to appeal to as many people as they possibly can. They go for the big markets. But even they have learned that it is impossible to market a product to everyone. So, they take a market and break it down into segments. For example, if the market for cosmetic products is all people, the segment would be all women. But this market segment is still too big and the clever cosmetic marketers break the market into even smaller segments. The most common market segments would be 1. Benefit segments - Targeting a specific need that a group of consumers are looking for. This would be something like marketing to women who want to straighten their curly or frizzy hair. 2. Demographic segments - Picking a group of people that have similar incomes, ethnicities, religions, etc. and marketing products to them. For example, creating a line of products for African American hair. 3. Occasion segments - Creating products for people that are going to buy them for some special occasion. For instance a salon offering a special wedding day make-over. 4. Lifestyle segmentation - This would be creating products for people who live a certain way. For example, selling your cosmetic products in Whole Foods to appeal to the "green" consumer. These could be broken out with lots more examples, but these are the main segmentations that big cosmetic companies look to address. Niche Cosmetic Marketing Now, if you are an entrepreneur or small cosmetic company the truth is that you will have an incredibly difficult time competing with the big companies for these large market segments. They just have a lot more money they can spend on advertising and in-store promotion than you. That's where niche marketing comes in. Niche Markets are like Segmented Markets but just much smaller and more well defined. They are perfect for small cosmetic companies because the niches are often so small that it wouldn't be profitable for a big company to spend time trying to serve the market. I recall while working for Alberto Culver in the early 1990's we had a gel brand that did about $80,000 per year in sales. The company decided to discontinue it because it wasn't worth selling. But if this were a brand owned by a small cosmetic firm, it could certainly have supported one employee. The bottom line is that when you're starting your own line, find a niche for which to make your products. Here is an example of someone who did just that. Her niche is hair care products for women who are pregnant. Of course,...

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Here's an interesting story about a technology that could be the future of preservation for cosmetics. According to researchers, they've discovered a compound in the eye that has an anti-microbial effect. The material is a keratin protein fragment that was demonstrated to ward off a number of disease-causing bacteria. And since it is derived from keratin proteins, it's likely that the product will have low toxicity. Of course, formaldehyde is produced naturally in the body and that doesn't really make affect its toxicity, so I don't know how much faith I put in the claims of low toxicity. Testing will have to be done. But it's an interesting technology. Keratin fragments may be a whole new class of anti-microbials. I wouldn't look for this to be available any time soon though. The research comes out of Academia which is notoriously bad at bringing products to the market.

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One of my favorite business books is one called Blue Ocean Strategy. There are a number of things I like about it, but perhaps what I find most useful is that it provides a great roadmap to creating new products that stand out from the competition. Here is a slide deck with a summary of the most important parts of the book. Blue Ocean Strategy summary So, how does this help with formulating? Well, the Blue Ocean Strategy is all about figuring out ways to separate yourself from the crowd. The idea is to create a product that has a unique positioning or unique benefits that you avoid the bloody competition of the Red Ocean. This means that you can't simply create a formulation or cosmetic product that does everything the same way as all the other competitors. You've got to find a way to stand out. And in doing this, you do not compete with other players, competition becomes irrelevant. The Strategy Canvass is a great way to figure out where the competition is focusing and where you might make changes to offer something different. If you did this for body wash for example, you would first list the main features of the product. Luxurious foam Pleasing fragrance Delivered from 16 oz bottle Used in shower Liquid product etc. Then you would use the Eliminate / Reduce / Raise / Create grid for finding your unique niche. For example, what would the product be like if you eliminated foam or fragrance? Maybe the product is a powder rather than liquid. There is much more that can be done but if you are looking for ways to be more innovative with your formulating and product offering, the Blue Ocean Strategy book provides a great method for doing that.

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If you were a chemistry major in college, you undoubtedly heard of the American Chemical Society (ACS). It's one of the oldest professional societies in the country. They produce a magazine called Chemical and Engineering News and in one of their sections, they do a feature called What's That Stuff. It outlines the chemistry of common consumer products. Here is a list of the ones they've done about cosmetics. Shampoo Lipstick Hair coloring Self Tanners Fluoride toothpaste Sunscreens Teeth Whiteners Henna Tattoos Nail Polish Note, these articles were written by a non-cosmetic chemist so they have a slightly different perspective than you would get from us here at Chemists Corner.

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Here's a pretty interesting video that shows just how sunscreens work. It's helpful to any cosmetic chemist who works in the sunscreen field. It's pretty simple but a great introduction.

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Here's a cool new technology that could radically change cosmetic oral products. It is a tooth patch film that coats individual teeth, preventing decay and making the them appear more white. The film is made from a flexible and hard material derived from hydroxyapatite, the main mineral in tooth enamel. It appears promising but there is a significant drawback at the moment. It takes a whole day to get the film to adhere properly to the teeth. No doubt this could be improved upon and within the next 5 years, this could be a new cosmetic dental treatment that will change the way cosmetic formulators make oral care products. Neat stuff.

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This is a guest post by Rachelle Baker, lab manager at Cosmetic Test Labs. A popular trend in the cosmetic and personal care product industry is to "go green. " For most manufacturers, the switch to all-natural ingredients stems from a desire to improve the environmental fate, enhance safety, and improve marketability of their products. Makers and formulators of cosmetics can benefit from reading this article, which lays out the case for preservative challenge testing, even when a formula contains a well-known preservative ingredient. Product Testing Most manufacturers know that using natural or new ingredients not commonly used in the market can negatively affect product stability. For that reason, they often carry out physical stability tests, chemical stability tests, and microbial challenge studies. These studies give them faith that their products will look, smell, and perform just as well when purchased as after production. Unreliable preservation What many product formulators don't know is that you can't always depend on well-known cosmetic preservatives to keep a product safe and stable. For example, paraben and hydantoin-based preservatives have been around for many years and are functional in countless products. Is it still necessary to test them in your firm's formulation? The answer to this question is yes, as explained further, below. Top reasons why all basic formulations should undergo preservative challenge testing: Preservative activity The activity of a preservative depends on the combination of all the product ingredients and the packaging used. As ingredients are mixed together to create a formula, chemical changes can occur that decrease the efficacy of the antimicrobial agent. For example, an anionic (negatively charged) detergent might bind to a cationic (positively charged) quaternary ammonium preservative, preventing it from interacting with microorganisms. Therefore, preservative efficacy of a product cannot be predicted based on its individual ingredients alone. It must be established through microbial challenge testing of the complete formulation. Product pH The pH of a formula is closely tied to the potency of its preservative package. As the literature of many manufacturers shows, preservatives have optimal pH ranges. Elevated or decreased pH may render preservatives useless. Better against some than others Most presevatives do better against some types of microorganisms than others. For example, parabens mostly protect against gram-positive bacteria. Thus, a cosmetic formulator may need to employ a mixture of preservatives to protect against different bacterial strains as well as yeasts and molds. Since each individual preservative will likely be used at levels at or below manufacturer recommendation to make the custom blend, the final product's resistance to microorganisms will need to be verified as effective for the complete formulation. Legal responsibility According to the FDA, companies and individuals who market cosmetics have the legal responsibility to ensure the safety of their products. FDA may even buy cosmetics and analyze them. So even if a formula is a knock off of another formula that you know has been tested for safety, it is still the responsibility of the individual marketing the product to ensure the safety of...

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This is a guest post by Gary Neudahl The long, hot summer days in the Midwest are coming to an end, and the busier days of fall are arriving, so perhaps it’s time to put away last month’s bath oil and start using a body wash. Body Wash Formulation Body washes typically consist of the following: Water (aqua) to 100% Thickening Agents 0 — 4% Primary Surfactants 8 — 20% Opacifiers or Pearlizing Agents 0 — 2% Secondary Surfactants 3 — 8% Suspension Aids 0 — 1% Fragrance (parfum) 0. 4 — 2% Chelants 0 — 0. 2% Preservatives 0. 1 — 1% Colorants q. s. Conditioning Agents 0 — 25% “Label-Copy” Ingredients q. s. Body washes are compositionally very similar to shower gels and liquid soaps, and have higher surfactant loads than shampoos since hair has a much greater surface area upon which to generate foam. Primary surfactants are the ingredients that produce immediate and copious quantities of foam in body washes. The lauryl (linear C12) fatty chain length for anionic surfactants is optimal for foam generation in aqueous systems. Hence, the most commonly employed anionic surfactants are the salts of lauryl and lauryl ether sulfates, such as Ammonium Lauryl Sulfate and Sodium Laureth Sulfate. Laureth sulfates may be used to reduce the freezing point of clear body washes (so they don’t become hazy until they become quite cold) and/or to reduce the irritancy of lauryl sulfates. Another way to reduce irritancy is to keep the longer chain length fatty alcohols derived from coconut oil and/or palm kernel oil (from which lauryl and laureth sulfates are typically made), while still stripping the shorter fatty alcohols, prior to sulfation. Doing so yields Sodium Coco-Sulfate, rather than Sodium Laureth Sulfate, at least on the package ingredient label! With ongoing vociferous, albeit unwarranted, attacks on sulfates (and on Sodium Lauryl Sulfate in particular), other surfactants, including alkyl glucosides, taurates, sulfosuccinates, and others, are finding wider application in body washes. Secondary Surfactants and more Foam volume, richness and stability are boosted (and, by judicious selection, body wash irritancy reduced) with secondary surfactants that typically include nonionic and amphoteric surfactants such as Cocamide MEA, Cocamidopropyl Betaine, Disodium Lauroamphodiacetate and Cocamidopropyl Hydroxysultaine. These secondary surfactants typically reduce the critical micelle concentration of the product, which means there is less free surfactant present to induce an irritation response. Fragrance (parfum) is almost always included in body washes. It may be present as a compounded product or as a combination of essential oils, often at rather high levels. In an increasing number of markets, if known fragrance allergens are present in the product, they must be listed individually in the ingredient listing. Preservatives are almost always needed in body washes given their high water content and the consequential potential for microbial growth. The most cost effective approach to body wash preservation is typically the use of formaldehyde donors (preservatives that work at least in part by releasing low levels of methylene glycol (formaldehyde hydrate). These include preservatives...

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This looks like a pretty interesting conference and one that is free. Sign up here for the Virtual Hair Care Ingredient conference and expo. It is sponsored by Cosmetics Design and features experts from around the industry. It runs from 8am until 12:45pm this Wednesday. It is also free to join but you need to have a "profession" email address. This means you can't use your gmail or yahoo email addresses. This I think is pretty dumb. Anyway, it's worth signing up and hearing what they have to say, especially if you formulate hair care products.

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Here's a great new technology that demonstrates some really impressive results. The shoe coating is incredible. I see this being interesting for cosmetic products. For example, this could be the basis for an advanced hair styling product. Completely repels water. It should stop frizz. Of course, this assumes that there is a way to remove the product but still, it would be interesting to experiment with. Another great application would be for nail polish products. That should make them last longer. If you want to know more, check out Waterbeader. com

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This week I'm traveling to Thailand. I'm doing a talk for the local IFSCC chapter and then another in Kuala Lumpur next week. It's very exciting and I love to travel to places I've never been before. I'm actually in Thailand as I write this but just wanted to let you know why there might be less posting than usual. But I did get a chance to go to one of their local malls. What continues to amaze me whenever I travel around the world, is how much big brand names have been infused into the local culture. I found all the top beauty names including Lancomb, L'Oreal, Khiels, Yves Saint Lourant, etc. in this local mall. And in the local 7-Eleven, I found all the typical brand names you'd find in the US. The primary difference is that the packaging is much smaller than you'd get in the US. Interesting.

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Recently, Johnson and Johnson have announced plans to remove a variety of chemicals from their cosmetic products. This is strictly a PR move and also an unfortunate mistake for the following three reasons. 1. Emotion trumps science From a cosmetic chemist standpoint, the ingredients we use are safe. Even J&J admits that the formulas that they are currently selling are safe. But despite the guaranteed safety of their product, they are going to change them... "Because we know parents want complete peace of mind when making decisions about their babies, we will phase out the use of all parabens from our baby care products. " So in other words, they don't really care what the toxicologists, independent scientists, and government regulations say, if parents are irrationally afraid of parabens, they are going to remove them. I suppose it's not that big of a deal at the moment. But how about when the next fearmonger group comes out and convinces a tiny minority of consumers that surfactants are dangerous? Is J&J going to remove all surfactants from their products? or thickening agents, or pH adjusters, or any other ingredient that people are irrationally afraid of? Good luck with that. 2. Alternatives may be less safe The one piece that fearmonger groups miss is that when a cosmetic formulator has to switch from a material with a proven safety profile, they replace it with something that is less tested. J&J might be phasing out perfectly fine ingredients like Quaternium-15 and Methylparaben but what will they be switching to? A brand new preservative that has only a few years of safety testing? Do you know the long-term exposure effects of the material? Not likely. They could easily be using materials that are less safe than the current options. Congratulations CFSC. You just made everyone less safe. 3. Encourages scientific illiteracy The third problem I have with this move by J&J is that they are encouraging scientific illiteracy. They are capitulating to non-scientific thinking and rewarding willful ignorance. This is the same kind of nonsense that will prompt people with no background in climate science to declare that global warming isn't happening or that vaccines are causing autism. These are the non-scientific, irrational positions that are having a real, detrimental effect on our government and society. J&J is contributing to the erosion of society. Nice going. Chemical free cosmetics Perhaps the dumbest thing I've seen related to this issue are the various tweets and blog posts declaring that Johnson and Johnson are removing chemicals from their products. How J&J goes about making "chemical free" cosmetics is a mystery to me. Last time I checked everything that goes into their cosmetics is a chemical. As a scientist, I have a real problem with capitulating to non-science based conclusions about chemicals. If an ingredient is unsafe, then by all means get rid of it. But if it is safe, publicly reformulating is a mistake. I understand cosmetic companies have to give consumers what they want and...

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One of the greatest things about the Internet is the proliferation of educational materials. You can find great stuff on Youtube or elsewhere, but you don't always know about the quality. That's why I love the following sites because they give you great educational resources from respected sources (like Universities). If you want to learn about some subject, you can probably find something about it in one of these sources. Udacity - Open courses in science/math-related topics. Developed by people at Stanford Coursera - Includes lessons from top universities like Princeton and University of Michigan Khan Academy - Thousands of videos on hundreds of topics Duolingo - Learn a new language while helping to translate the web Verbling - Learn a new language by video-connecting with native speakers around the world Open Culture - Cultural and educational media TED-Ed - An offshoot of the popular TED talk series. Covers a wide array of topics. Harvard Open Courses MIT Open Courseware Yale Open Courses The Saylor Foundation edx - A combination of MIT, Harvard and Berkeley providing free courses Coursera. org - Lots of different courses. Complete list of the online courses offered by Stanford's Coursera, MIT and Harvard led edX, and Udacity: Class Central If you have some more to add, feel free.

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When I was in college the only professional chemistry group that I knew about was the American Chemical Society. It's an old organization and I was a proud, card-carrying member for over >15 years. Eventually, I abandonded it because I just never got any benefit from the $150 yearly membership fees. I still love their website and the content they provide but have yet to have a reason to renew. Anyway, while the ACS focuses mainly on organic synthesis and analytical chemistry, they do occasionally conduct courses that could be helpful to cosmetic chemists. This one about Dispersions in Liquids is one such course. The topcis covered include surfactants, nanoparticle technology, emulsion technology, polymer stablization and more. Could be just the thing you are looking for to beef up your cosmetic formulation prowess. The course is in Chicago on October 2 & 3, 2012. It is also being held in Houston, TX on December 2 & 3, 2012.

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A significant trend in the cosmetic industry is one loosely called "customization". A number of consumers claim that they want products that are customized to their needs and desires, so marketers have come out with products to address that trend. Cosmetic formulators have had to make hair products for all hair types (curly, straight, flat, dry) and skin products for different skin types. This has satisfied most consumers but marketers are always looking for ways to make cosmetics even more customized. I've seen a number of concepts that allow consumers to blend their own cosmetics in just the way they want. These products haven't been terribly successful because I suspect consumers don't really want too much customization, or at least they don't want to have to work too hard to get it. Here is a technology that is the ultimate in consumer customization... stem cells. The company Personal Cell Services offers consumers a brand called U Autologous which is a line of anti-aging skincare products that incorporates the consumer's stem cells into the customized product. The way it works is that they collect about 2oz of your body fat via mini-liposuction. Then they process the tissue to isolate the adult stem cells. Then they keep some of your stem cells in cryopreservation and take the rest and blend it into their U Autologous skin care products. Talk about the ultimate in customization. But does it do anything? Not likely. They offer no data beyond the typical clinical data that most any skin care product can achieve. They also don't show a test with and without the treatment. Color me skeptical on this one. No word on how much this will set you back but no doubt it will cost a lot of money up-front. cell collection and storage is not cheap! It's unlikely this will make its way into the formulations that you will have to create however, it's good to know that it is out there. You should anticipate one of your marketing partners to approach you with this brand new idea and ask why your company isn't doing it too.

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This is a guest post by Gavanne Davis. You can follow her at @MissGavanne. On Thursday, August 23, The Society of Cosmetic Chemists hosted their Educational Seminar and Supplier’s Day in Irving, Texas. I recently graduated from undergrad, gaining a Chemistry degree, and my passion all throughout college was to become a cosmetic chemist. I am proud to say that I have achieved that goal, and attended my first Supplier’s Day as an employed cosmetic chemist! First Impressions I was extremely excited, but had no idea what to expect. My main goal was to act as a human sponge, meeting as many people, and absorbing as much material as possible. Walking into the Irving convention center, I felt this nervousness that was very familiar to me. This feeling reminded me of the first day of school. Besides my two new bosses, I did not know anyone there, and they didn’t know me. This is a new world with faces (popular and new), and friendly competition for the recognition of being the best-selling cosmetic supplier or cosmetic company. Though, in general, everyone was very friendly and the workshops were enlightening. Education Component The Supplier’s Day is a great chance to meet cosmetic chemists with years of experience. The educational seminar was composed of five speakers, which included Dr. Beth Lange, Chief Scientist for Mary Kay, and one of my inspirations for becoming a cosmetic chemist. All five seminar speakers were extremely informative, and now I am motivated to develop innovative research and formulate cosmetic ideas. SCC events are also known as a place to learn about new job opportunities, internships, and gaining mentors. The networking possibilities are endless. I plan on attending many other SCC events, as well as presenting new research at seminars. If you have questions about becoming a cosmetic chemist, please don’t hesitate to contact me. Hope to see you at the next SCC event!

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Ever since I started in the cosmetic industry in 1992, people have been predicting that the male cosmetic market was the next big thing. Big and small cosmetic companies have attempted to launch numerous male focused brands with limited success. For every Axe & Old Spice, there have been duds like Suave for Men & Dove for Men. Men just do not buy cosmetic products in the way that cosmetic marketers want them to. And being a guy, I can understand. I'm pragmatic when it comes to cosmetic products. I'll pretty much use anything as long it doesn't make me smell like a girl. So left to my own accord, I'll just buy whatever is the least expensive. Perhaps as a cosmetic chemist, I'm not a typical consumer so we can discount my anecdotes. In fact, according to this article the male market in cosmetics is booming. The site statistics that say the male market in the US is going to be $3. 2 billion by 2016. (It's currently $2. 6 billion). It's useful to note that the overall cosmetic market is somewhere around $70 billion in the US so the male market is still a small segment. They say that the key to marketing to men is to use male-centric terms and packaging. I don't know. That seems pretty cheesy to me. But I know formulating. Cosmetic marketing is a bit different. It's more about story telling. I think the take home message from this story is that the Male market is one that is still one that the big companies have not cracked. And it could be one that a smaller-upstart cosmetic company can take advantage of.

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Dr Robert Lochhead is one of the better known cosmetic science academics in our industry. You can always find him at the yearly SCC meetings moderating, speaking, or asking a poignant question. His primary area of research is surfactants & polymers but it turns out he's been looking into a few other areas, namely advanced face paint. Face Paint According to this Discovery article, Dr Lochhead has been working to create a face paint that can protect soldiers from burns caused by explosions. To protect soldiers from bombs, scientists endeavored to develop a material that can get smeared on faces like sunscreen, leaving behind a coating that is thinner than a sheet of paper but can still protect against intense heat. Very cool! Who would have thought to add this kind of functionality to face paint? It makes me ponder what other functions you could add to makeup. Perhaps mirror reflection? Chemical detection for workers who are in coal mines. hmmmm

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When I was a kid, I didn't give much thought to cosmetics. When someone said the word cosmetics, I automatically figured they were talking about lip stick, nail polish, or make-up. I didn't know that things like shampoos, conditioners, and skin lotions were cosmetics. It turns out they are. Interestingly, the formulation of powdered cosmetics is not something that most cosmetic chemists will ever be faced with. It is a specialized part of the cosmetic industry and represents a smaller market than things like hair care and skin care. In fact, I can't remember ever having the opportunity to formulate a pressed powdered cosmetic product. The curse of working in a shampoo factory for my entire career. Anyway, this article about pressed and loose powders was interesting. It talks about many of the issues that you have to consider when formulating these different types of products and also mentions some similarities. One of the things the article doesn't spell out however is a simple listing of some of the specific ingredients that might be included in powdered products. To that end, let's add to it. When formulating a powdered cosmetic product you need a variety of ingredients including Colorants, Fillers, Binders, and Preservatives. Powdered cosmetic ingredients A basic formulation would have ingredients like this. Colorants - Titanium Dioxide, Iron oxides (yellow, red, black) Fillers - Talc, Mica Dry Binders - Zinc stearate, magnesium myristate, or lithium stearte. Wet Binders - Used to partially wet the pigments. Hydrocarbons, Esters and Silicones Preservatives - Parabens Of course, it should be mentioned that making powders and pressed powders requires special manufacturing equipment and it's rather difficult to make a high quality product without mills and filters. So, this will always be an area that the DIY cosmetic makers just can't duplicate what the big guys can do.

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Interview begins at 14:15 Interview - Beth Johnson Beth Johnson has been with Dow Corning for fourteen years, working to commercialize new technologies for the hair care general market. These responsibilities include formulating, application testing and developing new test method capabilities to meet customer needs. Prior to her current position, Johnson was a personal care industry specialist, providing technical service to key customers. She was project leader in brand support and development for Laundry and Hard Surface Cleaning Products with DowBrands, Ltd. , and was senior research chemist for the Applied Cleaning Technology group for Dow Chemical. Johnson is a member of the Society of Cosmetic Chemists and earned a Dow Corning Technology Achievement Award in 2003. She has fifteen patents and is the author of numerous personal care publications. She has a bachelor's degree in chemistry from Alma College, and master's degree in polymer chemistry from Central Michigan University. Cosmetic industry stories Sharks do not get skin cancer Is coffee the next big cosmetic ingredient? Does sugar cause wrinkles? Cosmetic Science tips How to figure out if an ingredient is effective. Step 1 - Begin by being skeptical of any ingredient. Step 2 - Test the ingredient. Step 3 — Repeat your test. Step 4 — Test different levels. Step 5 — Remain skeptical. Announcements Start Your Own cosmetic line training program Cosmetic science forum Chemists Corner is a podcast about cosmetic science and is broadcast to help educate, entertain, and inspire current and future cosmetic scientists. The information and opinions discussed on Chemists Corner are those of the hosts and the guests alone. They do not necessarily reflect those of any past, present or future employers.

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Despite what many comsetic marketers claim, there aren't a lot of anti-aging actives that work when delivered from topical applications. Retinol, maybe Niacinamide but not much else. However, alpha hydroxy acids (AHA) are one such active that works. But the exact mechanism by which they work has been unknown. At least until now. Alpha Hydroxy Acids First, an AHA is a class of compounds that contains both a carboxylic acid and a hydroxyl group on an adjacent carbon. Common ingredients include glycolic acid, lactic acid, and citric acid. They have been proven to treat conditions like acne, UV damage, and wrinkling. In high concentrations, they work as skin peels which can lead to temporary skin smoothing. They aren't the most effective anti-aging ingredients but they do work. AHA mechanism Now, researchers think they have figured out how these thing work. Candidly, I never thought there was much mystery to how they work. I just figured an acid broke down the "glue" that held skin cells in the out mantel together and that led to exfolliation. But if it were that simple, any acid should work and they don't. AHAs are special. According to research published in the Journal of Biological Chemistry, AHAs work by interacting with a membrane protein in the skin cells. They tested glycolic acid and found that it enters into keratinocytes and generates free protons. The acidic conditions activates an ion channel in the cells membrane protein which leads to a flow of calcium ions into the cell which ultimately leads to cell death due to it becoming overloaded. Fascinating. I wonder if these things could be made more effective if the skin lotion included some additional Calcium. hmmm. Something for an enterprising young cosmetic chemist to try out. Formulate on!

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Did you ever hear that sharks never get cancer? Well, this is false. Sharks do get cancer. However, they don't get all types of cancer. In fact, it turns out that sharks do not get skin cancer. Scientists have been investigating the effects of UV radiation on shark skin and have found that while their skin changes color from light to dark (sharks can tan, who knew) they don't experience melanoma. At the moment it is a mystery as to why they do not get skin cancer. It is likely due to the high antioxidant properties of the skin but investigations will continue. No doubt that this could be a unique marketing angle for some new sunscreen. I just hope no sharks are harmed. Incidentally, scientists have discovered extensive skin cancer in fish like coral trout. The cause of this is unknown also but thought to be somehow related to climate change and pollution.

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Here is a pretty useful sunscreen formulation tool created by BASF. I put together a video to show a formulator exactly how she might use it. What do you think?

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I frequently have the thought that there should be more scientists in politics. I don't know why there aren't but perhaps it's because the people who are drawn to science careers are not the same type of people drawn to politics. Maybe another problem is that scientists typically do not have definitive answers. They realize that everything they think could be mistaken and have a hard time getting that message across to the voting public. Anyway, I stumbled across a video by Kari Steele announcing that she is running for the Commissioner of the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago. Why is that significant? Well, she just happens to be a cosmetic chemist over at L'Oreal located here in Chicago. Since I'm able to, I'll vote for her. Here's her website for more information. Good luck Kari! And if any of you cosmetic chemists are running for office, let me know. I'll vote for you if I can and post a link to your website if you want.

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Here was an interesting article published on Boing Boing about sunscreens. The basic premise is that we do not know whether sunscreens actually prevent cancer or not. The reason, most sunscreens are created to stop sun burns not necessarily to stop the UVA light that causes skin cancer. There are not yet long-term studies to demonstrate that using sunscreens can actually prevent skin cancer mainly because sunscreens haven't been in use long enough to know. It takes a long time to develop skin cancer. In the future, regulations in the US will require manufacturers to note whether their products protect from both UVA and UVB radiation. SPF ratings are only indicative of UVB radiation protection. As a cosmetic chemist, it behooves you to keep up on these things. And in the future, you're going to have to develop your sunscreens to block the full spectrum of UV radiation. The days of SPF and sun burn blocking only will be gone.

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Transcript: Cosmetic Science in 300 Seconds - Silicones Welcome to Cosmetic Science in 300 seconds brought to you by Chemists Corner. Today’s topic is silicones. In the cosmetic industry, the term silicone applies to a group of compounds that contain the element silicon. First introduced into cosmetics in the 1950's, these materials have a number of unique characteristics that make them useful for improving the feel and appearance of skin and hair. Silicon is abundant and found in over 90% of minerals that make up the Earth's crust. Since it was readily available, people living during the Stone Age used silica based stones for making tools. Silicon technology was first begun by then Ancient Egyptians around 3000 BCE when they converted sand, which is primarily silicon dioxide, into glass. Silicon wasn't identified as an element until 1824 when Jí¶ns Jacob Berzelius isolated it. Later in the 1850's, H. E. Saint-Claire Deville developed a method for obtaining pure silicon. In the late 1800's, Dr. Frederick Kipping began synthesizing a number of silicon-carbon polymers that he called "silicones". In the 1930's, the first commecial silicone was introduced by Corning Glass and "silly putty", a silicone based toy was accidentally developed in the 1940's. Silicone compounds were first applied to cosmetics in the 1950's with the introduction of Dimethicone. In the 1970's, silicones were incorporated into hair products and now silicones can be found in over half of all new cosmetic products. The silicone compounds used in cosmetics are polymers which feature a monomer with a silicon bonded to two oxygen atoms. This silicone backbone can be chemically reacted with different kinds of ingredients to produce a wide variety of materials with unique characteristics. Common types of silicones include Dimethicone, Cyclomethicone, and Dimethicone copolyol. The most basic silcone in cosmetics is Dimethicone. It has a silicone backbone which is surrounded by methyl groups. It is a clear, non-reactive, liquid product that can range in thickness, depending on the length of its polymer backbone, from watery thin to taffy thick. Cyclomethicone is a shorter cyclic molecule which has many of the same properties of dimethicone except that it evaporates while dimethicone does not. Dimethicone copolyol is a silicone which contains an -OH group which makes it more soluble in water. This makes it easier to incorporate into formulations but also reduces the usefulness of the silicone. Most silicones are incompatible with water and will readily form thin films when put on most any surface. This characteristic leads to some of the most useful properties of silicones. Silicones are incredibly slippery and slick. Water slides right off them so surfaces covered with silicones can be made essentially waterproof. This is useful for make-up and styling products. This slickness also makes silicones ideal for hair products that make combing easier and skin products that improve the feel of dry skin. Since silicones make nice, even films they impart a natural shine to surfaces on which they are put. This makes them ideal for cosmetics that where...

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This is a guest post by cosmetic industry consultant Mark Fuller of Microformulation. Several years ago when I was working as a Chemist in a traditional Contract Manufacturing setting one of my responsibilities was to occasionally sit in on the initial meetings between the Client and the Sales/Marketing team. In many cases the Client was an Entrepreneur with a product that they had developed themselves in their own “kitchen. ” In general, I found that these “Hobbyists” were very well read regarding their product and they were very passionate. However, due to the artificial barriers that the Traditional Contract Manufacturer placed in the path of these Entrepreneurs, these wonderful products never made it to the Market and we inadvertently dampened the enthusiasm of these Clients. Later, I started my own company as a Cosmetic Consultant in order to help this specific type of Client to navigate their way through the barriers and to effectively sell their product in the Cosmetic market. This has afforded me the opportunity to work with some wonderful, passionate and driven Clients. So, why work with a Cosmetic Consultant? A Cosmetic Consultant can offer many services to you, especially if you are new to the Industry. Initial Planning Most Cosmetic Consultants will offer a free initial consult call to discuss the general details of your project. Many will be surprised when I say that in about two-thirds of these calls I say “I would love to work on your line, but not yet? ” This is because although they have an idea for a great project, they have not yet developed any plans for Sales, Marketing and Funding. While a Cosmetic Consultant can help to reduce costs in certain areas, there will be some moderate costs that cannot be reduced in any way. Also, my goal is not to collect Consultation fees and move on to the next client. The goal is to develop long term business relationships and to foster the growth of your line. This does not work if we get a product produced and it sits on the shelf and never sells. An effective Cosmetic Consultant should be active in professional societies such as the Society of Cosmetic Chemists (SCC), Independent Cosmetic Manufacturers and Distributers (ICMAD) and have a strong presence in Social Media. This will ensure that they develop the referral sources that you will need at this point. No one person can adequately serve you in all areas such as Marketing, Regulatory and Business planning. In many cases I will refer my clients to the Small Business Association for assistance. This organization will assist them in crafting a well written Business Plan as well as making available some sources of loans. The business plan is essential for anyone hoping to be successful in any Industry! Product Design At this point the Client will be much more informed, realistic and better prepared to make their first foray into the Cosmetic market. This is where we will start to create a “vision” of...

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By: Perry Romanowski One of the most frequented pages on this website is the post we did on how to become a cosmetic chemist. And that tells you a number of things you can do to get started as a cosmetic chemist, but I've found that everyone who works in this industry has a slightly different story. Here's mine. Early years My path to science probably started with my love of animals. When I was a kid my family had a dog named Princess who just didn't like kids. Unfortunate because my parents had 7 kids and the dog could never get away from us. I tried to befriend her but she never accepted. However, one year in the mid-1970's she had four puppies which I adored. I remember being fascinated watching as she gave birth. The puppies were so cute and I spent all my free time playing with them, taking care of them, and thinking about them. I could spend hours just watching what the puppies would do next. Eventually, my parents gave away three of them but we kept Soxie. I loved her. I still get choked up thinking about that dog. But my experiences with dogs sparked an interest in all animals. I became particularly fascinated with insects. I remember catching them, putting them in glass jars, and just watching to see what they would do next. I loved to catch daddy long legs (which aren't actually spiders), crickets, worms and grasshoppers. I recall once catching some big fat worms near a pond and carrying them over to show my parents. When I opened my hands they were all bloody. Those worms happened to be leaches. The first books I ever read were picture books about insects. This insect fascination led to an interest in other animals and I devoured any book I could find on the subject. Moving to the country When I was 9 years old we moved from an urban suburb to a rural suburb farther away from the city of Chicago. The house was new construction surrounded by farm fields. It was a naturalist's wonderland. Here I found, and caught, all kinds of different animals such as frogs, toads, salamanders, snakes, and turtles. My mother was not a huge fan (especially of the snakes) but she tolerated my obsession and let me keep a zoo in my room. I read books about how to take care of them and spent hours catching insects to feed them. I even attempted to set up a tank to mate grasshoppers so I would have a steady supply of food during the winter. It never really worked but it did teach me about the biology of grasshoppers and how to experiment. High School During grade school I demonstrated a strong ability in mathematics and science classes were always my favorite. This continued in high school. I took more science classes than most others and did well. Biology was more interesting me. I was blown away when...

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Proctor and Gamble is arguably the biggest company in the beauty business. They also spend the most money on research and development which results in the creation of products that are preferred by the most number of people. Of course, they have many of the same limitations that any cosmetic formulator will have so they resort to creative claims to convince people to buy. Let's take a look at their Olay Wrinkle Smoothing Cream to see how they do it. Cosmetic Claim Analysis When analyzing claims here's the process we follow. Step 1 - Get the label copy and ingredient list Step 2 - Figure out what claims need to be supported Step 3 - Figure out how they might be supported Olay Wrinkle Smoothing Cream Cosmetic Label Copy - Step 1 The label copy comes straight from our good friends at Drugstore. com. New Olay Professional Pro-X is a scientifically advanced line of skin care products created by an inspired partnership of P&G Beauty scientists and renowned dermatologists. Together, they took advantage of the very latest research, technology, ingredients, and thinking to create these advanced anti-aging products. Pro-X Wrinkle Smoothing Cream is professionally designed to smooth uneven textures with moisture, combating the look of fine lines and wrinkles. And as with all Pro-X products, it has been designed and tested to resignal skin to perform more like it did when it was younger. * And younger-acting skin means younger-looking skin. Guaranteed*** Product Features Olay's new Professional line of skin care products Professionally designed by an inspired partnership of P&G Beauty scientists and a renowned team of dermatologists Anti-aging technology resignals skin to perform more like it did when it was younger* Wrinkle Smoothing Cream smoothes uneven texture with moisture, reducing the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles Clinically proven anti-aging results in 28 days. ** Guaranteed*** Prescribed Protocol for Maximum Results Protect skin in the morning with Age Repair Lotion with SPF 30 Treat skin with Pro-X Specialized Treatment for your area of concern Transform skin at night with Wrinkle Soothing Cream by smoothing over the face and neck Professional Skin Expertise Olay Professional is at the forefront of science and anti-aging technology. Leading dermatologists and Olay skin scientists have partnered to establish the Olay Professional Advisory Panel. This team has professionally designed and professionally tested these products by selecting anti-aging ingredients to treat your specific skin care concerns. Through this partnership, Pro-X was created to bring you prescribed regimens to Protect, Treat, and Transform your skin's appearance. Olay Professional Promise We promise your satisfaction with this product or we'll refund your money. Guaranteed. Call 1-866-511-OLAY (6529) for information on the guarantee or visit olayprofessional. com for information and regimen tips. *Resignals skin by increasing surface turnover and repairing the moisture barrier. **Discoloration Fighting Concentrate reduces appearance of discoloration in eight weeks. ***Satisfaction guaranteed or your money back. And the ingredient list. Water, Glycerin, Dimethicone, Niacinamide, Isohexadecane, Isopropyl Isostearate, Dimethiconol, Panthenol, Tocopheryl Acetate (Vitamin E), Palmitoyl Dipeptide 7, Carnosine,...

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I have a couple of gray hairs. At the age of 43, I have much less gray hairs than other people my age but I see they are coming. A popular claim is that gray hair is caused by stress, which is odd because I almost never feel any stress. Well, it turns out that there are numerous studies demonstrating that stress does not cause graying hair. Gray hair is actually correlated with age and is mostly genetics. The primary cause is that the melanocytes (the color producing cells) somehow get turned off. For the latest info on research in this area, check out this story about gray hair in the New York Times.

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One of the people in my online cosmetic science training program asked what trade shows she should attend. I thought this would make a good post for cosmetic chemists in general. So here is a list of what I think are the best cosmetic industry trade shows that you should attend. 1. SCC Scientific Meeting - This meeting is held in New York every year in December. It is the premiere cosmetic science show and is well attended. 2. SCC mid year scientific meeting - This meeting rotates and is not as well attended as the annual meeting. However, the science is excellent and it's a great opportunity to network. The next meeting will be held in St. Louis. 3. IFSCC Conference - An international conference held once a year somewhere different around the world. This is a great opportunity for cosmetic chemists to meet other formulators from around the world. The next one will be in South Africa. 4. In-Cosmetics - This show is held in Europe but the location moves every year. Last year in was in Barcelona and next year it will be in Paris. All the biggest names in European cosmetic suppliers are there. It's a great show to meet new people and discover new technologies. 5. NYSCC Suppliers Day - If you are a formulator in the US, you have to make it to this show at some point in your career. Every raw material supplier of any significance attends. Great oppoturnities for networking. 6. Local Chapter SCC Suppliers days - If you can't make it out to New York, you should certainly go to your local SCC suppliers day event. There are significant shows in Chicago, Minneapolis, and California. Check the website of the chapter near you for more details. 7. HBA - This show is more focused on the marketing of cosmetic products so it is a great one for entrepreneurs to attend. It's quite a big show too. 8. PCHI - This one makes the list because I attended when it was in Shenzhen and I was pretty impressed. If you are selling anything in China, this show is a must. 9. Cosmoprof - This show is held in July each year and typically in Las Vegas. You'll find contract manufacturers, testing houses, beauty brands and more. A great snap-shot of many facets of the industry. 10. Beauty Expo - To get connected with the salon and spa world, you need to go to the shows that attract people from that industry. This one is held in Las Vegas and it attracts a lot of visitors. Do you have a suggestion for a trade show that we missed? Leave a comment below and we'll add it.

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There is actual science that happens in the cosmetic industry and you can find much of it written in the peer reviewed Journal of Cosmetic Science. Of course, as a working chemist it sometimes becomes difficult to go through all the articles in the quarterly journal so we provide for you a summary of the latest issue (vol 63, no 3). If you want more, go check out the journal article. If you are a paying member of the SCC then you can see the whole article online for free. Journal of Cosmetic Science v 63, no 3) 1. Determination of total lead in 400 lipsticks. This article details work done by the FDA to determine the amount of lead present in various lipsticks on the market. The results were reported widely by the media & consumer fearmongering groups a few months ago but in the jounral you'll be able to see exactly how they did it. It requires Hydrofluoric acid which is much stronger than any acids you'll find in the stomach demonstrating that any lead ingested from lipstick will never make it into your bloodstream. 2. Intermolecular disulfide cross-linked structural change induced by permanent wave treatment of human hair with thioglycolic acid. Here's some real chemistry. The authors are investigating the chemical reactions involved in the permanent wave process. Specifically, they wanted to see the mechanisms involved in the breakdown and reformation of the S-S bonds by thioglycolic acid. It turns out the S-S bonds between protein chains are preferentially broken down as compared to the inter-filament S-S bonds. This explains why reformation helps hold a curl. Heady stuff here. 3. Melanosome transfer evaluation by quantitative measurement of Pmel 17 in normal melanocyte-keratinocyte co-cultures: Effect of an Alaria esculenta extract. Ah, it took a little doing but I figured out that this article is about a new skin lightening compound. Specifically, Alaria esculenta extract. They say it works but then don't show any human trials. And they don't compare it to other known skin lightening ingredients like hydroquinone. A little disappointing. 4. Determination of kojic acid in a skin-whitening cosmetic... Another skin whitening article. It is a hot topic as the market is huge and the approved active ingredients are limited. However, this article is not really about discovering a new skin lightening ingredient, it is more about the development of an analytical method for figuring out how much kojic acid is in a particular formulation. It could be useful for QC chemists or even formulators who are looking to knock-off a competitor. 5. Microscopic evaluation of polymeric film properties of anhydrous sunscreen compositions... This is a classic type of paper done by a supplier designed to demonstrate the effectiveness of their new raw material. Specifically, they are trying to show that using their polymer will boost the SPF value and water resistence of a sunscreen. And while there isn't a huge boost, it seems like they've shown a statistical difference. Interesting. Book Review - Transdermal and Intradermal...

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Here's an article which discusses a new development in hair bleaching technology. Rather than using hydrogen peroxide as is typically the case, scientists from Kao have found an enzyme derived from a fungus that can break down melanin. It still requires a small amount of peroxide to work but the level is significantly reduced and should lead to less damaging hair bleach. There are two things that are interesting to me in this. First, this shows you that there is some progress in basic research at the edges of cosmetic technology. Second, I wondered what happened to this technology since the original report came out in 2009. A little Google searching showed that there wasn't much progress. They did file this patent but no new papers on it. I wonder if a product will be launched any time soon.

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This is a guest post by cosmetic science expert Gary Neudahl. We’ve had a warm winter, a hot spring and a really hot and dry summer in the midwest. Perhaps you’ve thought of getting rid of the sweat and getting away from it all, luxuriating in peace and quiet, taking a nice, long bath. Maybe you’ve already been there, done that. More than once. If you’ve used a bath oil, following is what was likely in it, and why. Bath oil formulation A classical bath oil composition consists of: Emollients: 85 — 100% Antimicrobial Agents: 0 — 0. 5% Dispersing Agents: 0 — 10% “Label-Copy” Ingredients: 0 — 0. 5% Fragrance (Parfum): 0 — 4% Antioxidants: 0 — 0. 05% Emollients Water-insoluble emollients constitute the vast majority of the formulation. In the absence of a dispersing agent, these ingredients float on the surface of the water and, upon exiting the bathtub, leave an emollient film on the skin that enhances moisture retention and softness. Most widely utilized is petrochemically-derived Mineral Oil (Paraffinum Liquidum). Also widely used, but botanically-derived, are Prunus Amygdalus Dulcis (Sweet Almond) Oil, Helianthus Annuus (Sunflower) Seed Oil, Glycine Soja (Soybean) Oil and Simmondsia Chinensis (Jojoba) Seed Oil. Among the more commonly incorporated synthetic esters are Caprylic/Capric Triglyceride and Isopropyl Myristate. Interestingly, Dicapryl (actually, Diisoctyl, as in Di-2-octyl, from castor oil) Adipate of Avon SKIN SO SOFT fame is not widely used in bath oils. Surfactants Dispersing agents are surfactants of moderately low HLB, soluble in the emollients, that are added to cause the bath oil to “bloom;” that is, to spontaneously form a whitish milk, when dispensed into bath water or applied to moist skin in the shower. Among the more commonly utilized dispersants are Laureth-4, Laureth-3, Laureth-2, C12-13 Pareth-3 (100% petrochemically-derived) and Glyceryl Oleate (100% botanically-derived). Bath oil fragrance Fragrance (parfum) is almost always added (either as a compounded product or as a combination of essential oils), and often at rather high levels. As a result, contact allergens in fragrances are commonly present at levels that require separate listing on the ingredient label in some geopolitical zones. Among the most commonly listed fragrance allergens in a recent Mintel GNPD search of bath oils were Linalool, Limonene, Citronellol and Geraniol. Antimicrobial agents are not required when the potential for contamination with water is excluded. If dilution with water (e. g. , towards getting the last drop out) may occur, oil-soluble preservatives such as the parabens and, depending on the polarity of the oil phase, phenoxyethanol and/or benzyl alcohol, may be added to supply a modicum of protection against microbial growth. Claims ingredients Bath oils are not exempt from the propensity to include “label copy” ingredients — components added, often at vanishingly small levels, not because they are functional, but because they help catch the consumer’s interest and garner initial product trial. A diverse array of botanical extracts and oils have been utilized in the quest for enhanced purchase intent. Antioxidants take on special importance when using ingredients...

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I read a few articles about what people called the "toxic trio" in nail polish and it really bugged me a bit. Toxic Nail Polish The basic premis of these articles is that most nail polishes contain toxic ingredients that make them dangerous and that consumers should choose polishes that do not contain these ingredients. In one, the author goes through and points out some studies that supposedly supports her point. They don't. For example. "DBP can irritate your stomach, eyes, and upper respiratory system. " - It's not surprising that a volatile compound can be irritating but this is true of many compounds and doesn't make nail polish toxic. "phthalates found in mothers can be particularly harmful, causing reproductive damage to sons. " - I don't know what this has to do with nail polish. Are women drinking nail polish? Where is the research showing phthalates from nail polish are getting through the nail and into the body? Then the author talks about Toluene and says in low doses it is safe. So why talk about high doses? ugh. Then propagates common fears about formaldehyde despite the fact that the levels used in nail polish are not harmful. Uncertain Alternatives But what really bugs me is the advice to try a brand that doesn't have the "toxic trio". The problem is that the author is quick to conclude that nail polish containing the toxic trio are unsafe but doesn't even investigate the chemicals in the products that she recommends. The nail polish brand that she recommends is not more safe than other nail polishes. All one has to do is look at the safety profiles of the alternative chemicals in the recommended brand. As alternatives to Toluene this manufacturer uses Butyl Acetate. According to the MSDS for Butyl Acetate “The substance is irritating to the eyes and the respiratory tract. The substance may cause effects on the central nervous system. Exposure far above the OEL could cause lowering of consciousness. ” And the carcinogen potential of Butyl Acetate has also been investigated and they concluded that “TBAc (butyl acetate) should be considered to pose a potential cancer risk to humans because of the metabolic conversion to TBA. ” This is somehow safer? There is little evidence that the “toxic trio” or “toxic trio-free” nail polishes are unsafe. They are safe. It just bugs me to see myths like these propagated.

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I was at a family party a couple weeks ago and was asked by my 13 year old niece how long it would take for Kool Aid to come out of her hair. Apparently, she was watching a video on YouTube which demonstrated how to color her hair with Kool Aid. Like this one I suppose. On the oen hand I have to applaud her initiative. One of her friends told her about the Kool Aid dye process and she did some research to find out exactly how to do it. Then she went ahead and tried it. It worked! But it didn't come out and her light brown hair had this long, red streak that wouldn't wash out. I had to laugh, and beamed with a little pride. With her penchant for experimenting, I think some day she just might become a cosmetic chemist.

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A friend of mine from high school frequently comes up with ideas for inventions. He's a clever guy and a bit of a thinker. But when you ask him about the invention, he refuses to talk about it. Apparently he is worried that someone will steal his idea. This is wrong. Ideas, even good ones, aren't worth anything. Execution of the idea is where money and success are made. Almost everyone at some point in their life will come up with an idea for a product. Often, the idea is for a new cosmetic product. They are convinced that the idea is amazing and will revolutionize the marketplace. Maybe it will... but probably not. Realities about your idea I don't mean to sound pessimistic or discouraging but consider some realities about your new cosmetic product idea. 1. It's almost certainly not unique. Someone has had the idea before. It was probably put forward numerous times in various brainstorming sessions held frequently by big companies. There are only so many ideas/features of a cosmetic product. 2. It probably can't be done. If the product hasn't been marketed yet, that's probably because there is some technical challenge that makes it impossible. This could be a limitation of science or a limitation of the definition of cosmetics. For example, if your idea is to create a product that grows hair, this is not a cosmetic. It is a drug and you'll need to go through all the hassle and expense of filing a New Drug Application with the FDA (in the US). Other countries have similar limitations. 3. It's probably not marketable. If it's not a drug and it's not on the market that is probably because no one has figured out how to get people to buy the idea. And if you can't figure out how to get people to buy the idea, no one else will either. An idea has to be more than just good... it has to be marketable. Cosmetic Product Ideas If I haven't thoroughly discouraged you thus far, good. Your idea has a chance. There are a few other realities I want to point out. Big Companies don't really want your ideas. If you think that you have a great idea for a cosmetic product and that you are going to pitch it to some R&D or Marketing manager at a big company and they are going to take your idea, turn it into a product, and give you royalties on every sale, you're mistaken. They won't. Despite what they say, big companies (and small ones too) do not want your ideas. They don't believe your idea is a good one. They especially won't believe that someone outside their company was able to come up with some idea that was more impressive and superior to what their internal R&D and Marketing people could do. They don't want your idea. It makes them look bad. It makes them look like they are not doing their jobs. Unless you...

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You may not have noticed but there is a small but significant DIY (Do it yourself) trend in the cosmetics arena. Well, a group out of France has launched the Rowenta Naturalis device that addresses this trend by allowing consumers to make their own cosmetics. If widely adopted, this could put all cosmetic companies out of business and eliminate the need for cosmetic chemists. Imagine a world where people mixed up their own products whenever they needed them. Of course, this isn't going to happen. While the Rowenta Naturalis device is an interesting gadget it is pretty inconvenient to have to mix up your own lotions & detergents whenever you want to use them. Consumers have to store raw materials, find recipies, mix the product, then clean the device. What a pain. Now if someone felt like occasionally creating their own products, this device could be fun. It actually might be useful for a home-based lab, although it appears to be a small blender combined with a hot plate and you could create the same thing for less money. But I just don't see the vast majority of consumers being interested enough in putting the time and effort into creating a product that probably won't work as well as something you can buy at the local convenience store. Not to worry cosmetic chemists, your job is safe. Demonstration You can see a complete demonstration of how to use the device in this video. It helps if you understand French.

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We have a new feature here on Chemists Corner... job opportunities! Our first job opportunity in the cosmetic industry comes from a Northeastern United States raw material supply company. The job details are as follows: JOB TITLE: ACCOUNT MANAGER/TECHNICAL SALES — PERSONAL CARE DESCRIPTION This important position will manage a portfolio of customers that include major consumer products companies, as well as specialty personal care companies in the Northeastern United States. The Account Manager will be responsible for building and expanding customer relationships by demonstrating the ability to understand needs, identify opportunities, present appropriate solutions, and provide ongoing account support to grow sales revenues. Based at the regional office in NJ or a home office in the tri-state area comprising New York, New Jersey and Connecticut, regular visits to customer locations in the region may require up to 25% overnight travel. Specific responsibilities will include: As key contact with customers, develop broad and deep relationships within the R&D organizations and gain specifications and inclusion in product development projects. Work with customer purchasing, manufacturing and other groups to maximize existing business, complete the sales process and strengthen overall business relationships. Develop and execute strategic account plans for target accounts. Keep abreast of customer needs, industry trends, technology advancements, and market changes; and provide ongoing communication to R&D and company leadership to support product development and market development projects and ideas. Work internally with customer service, manufacturing, and other important internal functions to meet customer needs with full account support. REQUIREMENTS The ideal candidate will have at least 7 years of experience in the personal care industry with a track record of progression from laboratory and product development work to technical sales and account management. Demonstrated ability to interact with customers and strengthen relationships is very important. Candidates must understand the complex decision making process within major consumer products companies, and be able to use that knowledge to play a key role in early stage ingredient specification for product formulations, manage pricing negotiations, and provide ongoing technical support. A bachelor’s degree in chemistry or a related discipline is required. This role requires outstanding communications and interpersonal skills. The right person will be highly motivated and results oriented with personal attributes that include intelligence, entrepreneurial spirit, energy and enthusiasm. Compensation will include an attractive base salary reflecting the level of experience plus incentive bonus, automobile allowance, and outstanding employee benefits. For confidential consideration, please send your resume to Sharon Long, sharon@sllimited. net.

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Last week I wrote about skin penetration and the difficulty of both creating a product that works and the problems associated with cosmetic products that claim to penetrate. Today, I stumbled on this interesting article about research out of Japan in which scientists have developed a skin cream that was able to deliver significant amounts of insulin through the skin. Clearly demonstrating that penetration does happen. It's pretty interesting technology. Of course, to make the insulin delivering lotion they first surroneding the insulin in proteins, then coated the proteins with a hydrophobic surfactant, then added oligo-arginine peptides as protein transduction domains, then finally dispersed the complex in isopropyl myristate to enhance skin penetration. This is much more advanced and complicated than your standard skin lotion. It also qualifies as a drug, if it can be demonstrated to work on human skin. Penetration through skin can happen, it just doesn't happen that easily and if a cosmetic could do it and interacted with skin cell metabolism, it then becomes classified as a drug (at least in the US).

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Here in Chicago we have an excellent science museum, the Museum of Science and Industry. I make a trip there almost once a year and always have a great time. There is much more to see and read than I could ever have time to do in a single day. Yesterday, I went with my three nephews and had fun going through the new Mythbusters exhibit. It was interactive and featured experiments on blowing houses down, testing whether the buttered side of toast would end up or down, throwing cards, testing your reaction times, and more. I really appreciated how they tried to reinforce the idea of experimenting and testing hypotheses. One thing that would be nice is if they had a cool cosmetic science exhibit. I wonder how one would go about getting the museum to do this. hmmm Here's a shot from one of my favorite exhibits, the "complete" periodic table. When it was made, they obtained samples of every element on the table that could be safely displayed. Here's my favorite element.

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Getting a formulation patent is a gratifying experience for a cosmetic chemist. You get to see your name listed in the official rolls of the US patent office and you get to add it to your resume or CV. It's great. It's especially great if the company you are working for pays all the required legal fees. But if you are a cosmetic entrepreneur, getting a patent is probably a waste of your time and money. Here are three reasons that a small cosmetics business should skip getting a patent. Patents don't prevent copycats One of the main reasons people think to get a patent is so they can prevent their competition from copying their formulas. Well, the truth is in the cosmetic industry, patents do not have this effect. It is really a simple matter for a cosmetic chemist to start from an existing formula and recreate something that works just as well. If you have a patent, it's an even easier task. Substituting out one ingredient for another is not hard. Making something that does not violate the patent but works just as well is easy. While you might believe your formulation is completely unique and new to the world, it most likely isn't. Or at least, it isn't so different that a consumer could tell much of a difference. Consumers are not good at discerning subtle differences between similar formulas. Patents do not provide much benefit Patents on cosmetic formulas do not provide the kinds of benefits that patents in other industries might provide. Mostly, the benefit is limited to making a patent claim like "patented formula" or "unique formula". Are these claims really going to make or break your cosmetic product? If so, you're product is probably doomed anyway. Better ways to spend your money Getting a patent on a cosmetic product can cost you tens of thousands of dollars. It can take a long time and at the end of the process it doesn't offer you much protection from the competition. There are much better ways you can spend that money including... 1. Marketing efforts 2. Advertising 3. PR events 4. Packaging 5. Other brand building efforts While cosmetic formulations are what make cosmetics work, it is very difficult to stand out through your formulation alone. There are plenty of nicely formulated products out there that never get any sales because they fail in their branding and marketing. If you have thousands of extra cash laying around, don't spend it on patenting your formulation. Spend it on building your brand.

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A contributor on the cosmetic science forum alerted me to a story in which I was quoted about the biology of gray hair. I appreciated finding out about it because the reporter didn't tell me that it where it was going to be published. Then it occurred to me that it would be helpful for cosmetic chemists to know how to interact with reporters, radio, tv and other media people. So, here are some tips that I've picked up over the years. Get questions in writing Reporters typically don't want you to "prepare" for an interview as they look for spontaneous answers. But when you are answering questions about complicated scientific topics, it's always better to have a list of questions in front of you. This will help build your confidence in the responses you know off the top of your head and will also give you a chance to quickly look something up if you aren't sure. Don't make things up Just because a reporter sends you a list of questions that doesn't mean they won't have other questions. If you are unsure about an answer, it is better to say "I'm not sure about that, let me look it up," than to make something up. Remember, what you tell them will likely be put up on the web or in a magazine and that can last for a long time. Get your message out While reporters are interviewing you for their story, be sure to get something out of the interaction for yourself. Ideally, you will have some kind of message you are trying to communicate. Work this into your answers. Even if the question is only tangentially related to a message you want to spread, steer the answer to your message. Know how to be attributed Reporters will often ask you how you want to be attributed. If you are a cosmetic chemist consultant, then you'll want to come up with some title like 'independent cosmetic chemist' or 'cosmetic formulator' or something. If you work for a company, you frequently will have to have the attribution go to your company. Get a link included Incidentally, if you have a website and the story is being written for the web be sure to ask for them to put a link to your website. This is particularly important for bloggers and cosmetic chemist consultants. Whenever I am quoted I always try to get a link to Chemists Corner. Get a link for the article Speaking of links, be sure to tell the reporter to alert you to the link for the article. You can then use this link in marketing materials for your consulting services, on your LinkedIn page or on your own media page. Links like this help establish you as an expert and lead to even more contacts. Keep a list of reporter contacts And while we're on the subject of contacts, be sure to keep a list of all the reporters and media contacts that you...

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Here's a pretty good video put together by Pielor. It shows the whole process by which they come up with a cosmetic product idea, formulate it in the lab, and produce it. This is really how a cosmetic company works (at least a medium to large company). http://www. youtube. com/watch? v=ImUeZrxi8SE

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When you are meeting with a cosmetic raw material supplier, they often talk about how their ingredient will penetrate the skin. Even cosmetic marketers use the phrase "skin penetration" when advertising skin and anti-aging products. Penetration seems to be an important characteristic of cosmetics but have you ever thought about why anyone would want a cosmetic ingredient to "penetrate"? What is skin penetration? The term penetration is used to describe a characteristic of cosmetic ingredients in which they migrate from the surface of skin into the lower layers of the skin cells. Our skin is made up of a number of cell layers and some ingredients can penetrate deep into those layers. If you want your product to go below the surface of skin you want something that penetrates. Why skin penetration While many people tout penetration as a benefit there are only certain times you want your formulation to penetrate the skin. This would include situations in which you want to improve the feel of the formula upon application and when you want to make water resistant claims. However, these are not the reason that most marketers (and some cosmetic chemists) desire skin penetration. Many people want their products to penetrate the skin to improve the effectiveness of the "active ingredient". You see, there are a number of cosmetic ingredients and products that claim to interact with skin cell metabolism, increasing collagen production, or stimulating some other enzyme that will magically remove wrinkles. But the truth is if these ingredients actually could do this, the products would then be considered drugs and would require much more stringent & expensive testing (at least in the United States). In the US any product that affects skin metabolism is a drug Penetration enhancers Although most penetration claims are for non-cosmetic purposes, there are still legitimate reasons that you would want your formulation to penetrate the skin. And for these, it is useful to use penetration enhancer ingredients. Typical skin penetration ingredients include emulsifiers and solvents. Emulsifiers are surfactants that have both a hydrophobic segment and a hydrophilic segment on the molecule. They allow for compatibility between polar and non-polar ingredients. In a solution, they form micelles which can surround and encapsulate "active" ingredients. When place on the skin, the emulsifiers will penetrate deeper into the skin and bring whatever is encased in the micelle with it. Emulsion penetration can be enhanced by reducing the particle size of the emulsion. So, microemulsions and nanoemulsions are excellent skin penetrating vehicles. Phosphatidylcholine is a good penetration ingredient. Solvents like propylene glycol are also excellent penetration enhancers. They can help shuttle soluble ingredients through the lipid top layers of the skin into the lower layers. Penetration enhancing caution There are times when you do not want your cosmetic to penetrate. This would include products that are cleansers as they can lead to irritation and colors because you want to be able to remove them. Also, cosmetics are designed to make superficial improvements so you also don't...

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There is so much ridiculous fearmongering about the dangers of cosmetic ingredients that people often ignore cosmetic ingredients that can actually be harmful. Here is a list of cosmetics and cosmetic ingredients that can be dangerous. Now, this doesn't mean consumers can't use them and that you can't formulate with them, it just means you need to be careful and label your products properly. Relaxers One of the most dangerous types of cosmetic is a hair relaxer. This product uses Sodium Hydroxide or other high pH bases that can cause severe burns on the scalp if left on for too long. You need to be extremely careful when using a product like this. It's something that is probably best left up to professionals. Perms Here's another hair treatment that can be dangerous. Perms use thioglycolates to cause a chemical reaction that rearranges the chemical bonds within hair to help create the curl. This chemical can cause burning and be sensitizing if left on the skin for too long. Depilatories These products are great for removing hair but they can also cause significant irritation, especially if the product is misused by the consumer. Patch testing should be required before using to ensure that there will be no significant allergic reaction. Thioglycolates are also used to make this product work. Hair color The thing about hair products that makes them more dangerous than skin products is that the hair is "dead" tissue. Strands of hair are no more alive than shoelaces. Therefore, chemically reactive ingredients can be used (if done carefully) Hair color is another type of reactive chemical that is used as a cosmetic. While it can be used safely, it can also cause problems if used incorrectly. The reaction can irritate or burn skin and the ingredients can also have a severe reaction to your eyes. This is why there is a warning not to use hair coloring on your eyebrows. Skin Bleaching agents While not technically cosmetics, skin bleaches are often sold as such and they can be dangerous if used improperly. The primary concern is skin irritation. Sunless tanners This ingredient isn't dangerous per se but it can cause your skin to turn orange and most consumers would not want to experience that. The ingredient, DHA, chemically reacts with skin protein to cause the orangish/brownish color and if not used properly uneven, undesirable colors can result. For the most part, cosmetic products are perfectly safe to use. The fearmongering about cancer, toxicity, and hormone disruption is unproven and in contrast with what the majority of professional toxicologists believe.

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The relationship between dermatologists and cosmetic chemists is interesting. While I can't speak for dermatologists, from a cosmetic chemist perspective I respect dermatologists for their knowledge about skin and hair biology and also their ability to treat and improve skin conditions. But as bright as dermatologists can be, I've seen plenty of instances when they were fooled by cosmetic product marketing just like everyone else. Take this video about hair advice from the AAD for example. For the most part, the advice they offer is excellent and spot on. Particularly the point that price does not reflect the performance of shampoos and the need to use a conditioner after every shampooing. But they make three points which I contend are not supported by evidence. Shampoo formulations First, they say that you should choose your shampoo based on your type of hair. The reality is that shampoos from the same brand rarely perform noticeably better on one type of hair versus another. Sure, there are minor tweaks to the formula so that companies can make legitimately claim that the formulas are "designed" for different hair types, but if you tested the formulas side-by-side and blinded, you would be hard pressed to find performance differences. This isn't always true so you should check the LOIs of the shampoo. But if the LOIs are essentially the same, you will be unlikely to notice ANY difference in performance between a product for color treated hair or one for fine, thin hair. Increases hair strength Another claim they make is that conditioners can help increase hair strength. While I know that companies make hair strengthening claims, the reality is that conditioners do very little to increase hair strength. What they do is to improve the slickness of the surface so when a comb goes through the hair it slides by and doesn't break the fiber. If you did a fiber break analysis of a hair treated with conditioner versus an untreated control, it is unlikely that any conditioner is going to significantly increase the strength of hair. Swimmer's shampoo Finally, the video makes a claim that swimmers should use special "swimmer's shampoo". I don't think this is really necessary as any shampoo will work well enough to remove the chlorine from your hair. There is little to no evidence that a special "swimmer's shampoo" works any better. While I've spent a lot of time on the criticisms of this video, I wanted to end by repeating that overall, I think they did an excellent job. This is very good advice for how to take care of your hair. I just wish in the future the AAD might have a cosmetic chemist review the script as these claims could have easily been modified to better reflect reality.

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Have you ever thought of doing a talk at a scientific symposium? Well, if you haven't you should consider doing it. Read on to learn why. I'm on the committee that is helping to organize the upcoming SCC Midyear Scientific Symposium that is being held in St. Louis in the spring of 2013. While it seems a long time away, it really is right around the corner when it comes to picking the speakers for the event. In fact the deadline for speaker abstract submissions is September 15, 2012. You can get more information here. Submit your Abstract Who should speak? If you are uncertain whether you qualify to be a speaker, let's review who makes the best speakers. Formulators. Cosmetic chemists who are actually working on projects make excellent speakers. You probably know more about your particular area of formulating than most other people in the industry. Your knowledge can provide the basis for a niche talk that could be beneficial to other cosmetic formulators. The challenge you will face is that your boss or company may frown on the idea. But once you present all the benefits to giving a presentation, they just might change their minds. Suppliers. A scientific talk is a great opportunity to introduce your new raw material and demonstrate how & why it is superior to other materials out there. This is exactly the kind of thing that the audience will want to see. Every supplier should be submitting at least one abstract for this symposium. Consultants. If you are a cosmetic chemist consultant you absolutely should be offering to talk. There is no better way to demonstrate your expertise and to impress potential clients. Done right this is free publicity that can lead to hundreds of thousands of dollars in new client business. Academics. Cosmetic chemists are craving new developments in science and rarely get to hear from academics. You'll have an attentive audience and will also get the opportunity to see how your work can have practical applications. Anyone doing research in surfactants, skin, hair, emulsions, polymers, or other personal care related technologies should consider submitting a paper. 10 Benefits of Doing a Scientific Talk Ok, now that you are considering submitting an abstract, here are 10 direct benefits you'll get from doing the talk. I'm certain there are more than 10 but these are what came to mind first. 1. Build your reputation. There is nothing that is going to build your reputation as an expert in some facet of cosmetic science than giving a talk at a scientific symposium. For consultants it quickly establishes credibility and for new formulators it makes the rest of the industry take notice. 2. Generate more ideas. When you present your talk, you will invariably get questions which could help spur new areas of research for your subject. Getting fresh minds on your project can only help make it better. 3. Improve your research. Another benefit is that you will also likely get people who...

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Here was a recent report on research published in the jorunal Cancer Research demonstrating that coffee consumption could lower your chances of developing the most common form of skin cancer. The researchers from Harvard Medical School said that their data indicates that the more coffee you consume, the less likely you are to get skin cancer. Interesting. Even more interesting is that the scientists isolated the effect to be from the caffeine in coffee. That should mean that beverages like soda or tea would also have a similar effect (if you adjust for caffiene levels). The researchers caution that the data does not necessarily mean you should increase your coffee intake. They also point out that there was no protective effect from the most deadly forms of skin cancer, squamous cell carcinoma and melanoma. So, people better keep using their sunscreen! Novel cosmetic ingredients But as a cosmetic marketer, you always need a good story to help sell your product. The truth is most cosmetic products work perfectly fine so it takes a good story to convince consumers to buy your product over someone else's. Stories like this one would make support for a good marketing story. Here's a system for coming up with new cosmetic feature ingredients. 1. Read a story about an ingredient that has shown some potential for doing something positive for skin or hair. 2. Get an extract of that ingredient and put it in your formula. 3. Publicize the ingredient that is in your formula and use scientific studies to support its use. Of course, the ingredient probably won't improve your product significantly but it might improve your sales. And ultimately, if you are producing excellent products you want people to buy them. Story ingredients like these (or claims ingredients as they are called) are just the push that consumers need to try your stuff.

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There was a bit of controversy caused by the Science: It's a Girl Thing that we discussed last week. This response made me laugh. I'm not sure if the video deserves as much criticism as it's been getting because I think it probably does appeal to a significant portion of the population that it was designed to attract. But I certainly can understand how scientists (especially women scientists) find it disturbing.

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The Chemical Inspection and Regulation Service reports that China has come out with a new list of approved ingredients for cosmetic products. You can see the new report and even download the list of approved ingredients here. Should make for some fun, Saturday afternoon reading.

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As a cosmetic chemist you are presented with ample opportunities to go to trade shows. It seems there is some kind of meeting going on every month. Trade shows and industry meetings are a great chance to meet lots of people, learn during excellent talks, socialize and even meet cosmetic science celebrities. When done right they are a lot of fun. While industry meetings can be fun, they are even better when you make them productive. Remember your time is valuable and these meetings can help you solve problems at work, come up with new ideas, and even advance your career. Follow these steps to make your next cosmetic industry trade show productive. 1. Figure out what you need. Sure, a cosmetic science meeting is an excellent place to learn new things but you can do that by reading books, watching videos, and taking courses. If you are going to attend a trade show or scientific seminar you should strive to get more out of it. Make a list of things you want to accomplish. People you want to meet, questions you want answers to, or connections to people who can help you. Basically, go into the event with a plan. 2. Do research. While you're figuring out what you need, take a look at who is going to be there. Who are the speakers, which companies will be there, who will be exhibiting. This will help you determine who you will meet and where you will spend your time. Typically, meetings have a website which lists the program, speakers, and companies. Go online to help with your research. 3. Plan what you're going to do. Next plan how you will spend your time. If you can, list the names of people you want to talk to and figure out 1 key thing that you want to get answered from them. Begin with one thing but note that the conversation might expand to cover more questions that you have. Just make sure you know the one thing you're looking to get answered. 4. Connect with people. Once you've got your list of people / companies you want to talk to, go seek them out. Do not get distracted by talking with your friends (you can see them later). Go meet the people you are at the meeting to meet. Invite them out for a drink (or coffee). Or just talk to them whenever you get a chance. Remember your time is valuable as is their's. 5. Learn to leave conversations. Steer the conversation to your main topic. Don't be afraid to interrupt and get right to your point, politely of course. Using the excuse that you have another meeting is effective. 6. Meet with people after the main meetings. Since most people are busy during the meetings, it's often useful to connect with them after the main meetings. Meeting at a bar is particularly helpful. People who have a few drinks are a lot more open with information. If you...

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When I was in high school I did a number of experiments in creating my own fireworks. Unfortunately, there wasn't the Internet and Youtube to better educate me and I made a bunch of duds. But this is the 21st century and you can learn anything on the Internet. Here is an excellent description / discussion of the chemistry of fireworks. Now, how can we use this chemistry to make better cosmetics? hmmmm

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A common request we get here on Chemists Corner is the request for a job. I never mind this much and am happy to give suggestions. We've written a lot about getting a job as a cosmetic chemist and if you're looking, I encourage you to check out some of these posts. 1. Message to Undergraduate Chemists Looking for a job 2. How to become a cosmetic chemist 3. Could you start your own cosmetics business? 4. How to use twitter to find a cosmetic chemist job 5. Three tips for finding a cosmetic science lab job 6. Cosmetic science internship programs And if you're still wondering what you can do to get a job, one of the best ways to start off is to get some experience. The way to get experience is to actually work in a lab. It doesn't have to be a cosmetics lab but it can be any lab. Someone with some lab experience is in a better position than someone without any. To get lab experience, go to a local staffing agency. Here you will find temporary jobs that can get you into labs. I know there were a number of people who eventually got jobs at my old company (Alberto Culver) who started off as lab temps. Here are some options for you to investigate. Kelly Services. Snelling. Aerotek. KForce. Adecco. Randstad. I know that we hired people from Aerotek & Kforce so it can happen. Good luck! PS. Thanks to Laurie for inspiration for this post.

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One of the most surprising things to me when I started a career as a cosmetic science was how subjective things were. There are no definitive answers about which surfactants to use, how much, or even what testing procedures make sense. Stability testing, which is an ubiquitous test that all cosmetic chemists will do, is not an exact science and decisions about whether something passes or fails are highly subjective. This non-scientific tendency troubles my scientifically leaning mind. However, while there is a lot of subjectivity in cosmetic science, there are some scientific principles behind the tests. Take cosmetic stability testing for example. One of the procedures for testing the stability of emulsions is to put a sample at an accelerated temperature and measure whether characteristics such as pH, viscosity or appearance significantly changes. There is a rough rule that says ... . 3 months of storage at 37 - 45C equals 1 year of storage at RT This rule is derived not only from experience but it is based on the Arrhenius equation. This equation gives a useful generalization that reaction rates of a chemical reaction double for every 10 degrees of increased temperature. So, if a formula is stable for 12 months at RT (25C), it would be stable at 35C for 6 months and 45C for 3 months. Simple right? Of course, technically speaking the Arrehenius equation is not really valid for emulsions. It predicts what happens when a specific chemical reaction happens at elevated temperatures. But when an emulsion is exposed to higher temperatures, there are reactions that occur which would not happen at room temperature. For example, at conditions above the melting point of some of the emulsified materials. Not a waste of time Just because it isn't technically correct that doesn't mean storing samples at accelerated temperatures isn't useful or predictive. In fact, you should use elevated temperatures to predict stability. However, don't be surprised when a formula seems perfectly stable after 3 months of high temperature storage but fails at room temperature after a year. Instability happens.

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I thought this was pretty cool. It is a series of pictures put together to show a nail repairing itself and growing. The human body is pretty cool.

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It's nice to see young people having an interest in cosmetic chemistry. This video shows you how to make your own lipgloss. The approach they take is a little different than a cosmetic chemist would take but it's effective. I especially like the old school balance they use. Cosmetic chemists would use a digital scale. Nice work!

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Someone on the forum said that they loved being a cosmetic chemist but were looking to make more money. Here is what I responded. ----------- This is an excellent question. It's also one of the most disappointing parts of being a smart person who went into a scientific field. The truth is you could have made a lot more money going into finance or marketing or some other business degree. And these degrees were much easier to get than science degrees. Getting an MBA is simple compared to getting a Masters degree in Science. If money is your primary motivation, I would encourage you to go get an MBA and switch to some business job. But alas, money isn't every thing. Cosmetic science jobs are relatively low stress, they have standard hours, and they can be fun & creative. Here is what I did to make up the income gap. Cosmetic Chemist money ideas 1. Advance at the company. This usually requires you to get into management. Note the farther you advance in management, the further away from lab work you'll go. 2. Writing. I did freelance writing outside my regular job. I worked for an encyclopedia company, wrote for trade journals and eventually published books. 3. Internet income. It costs next to nothing to start a website and you can definitely make money at it. At first it won't be much but if you stick with it, it can provide a significant boost to your current income. The nice part is that it is passive income which requires lots of work upfront but less work over time. 4. Start your own line. If you're a cosmetic chemist who has some great ideas that aren't being paid attention to by your marketing group, start your own product line. Eventually, it might be successful enough that you can dedicate your time to it. This could lead to big money (or lead to nothing). There's a lot of luck involved in whether something will be successful or not. Be sure to get our free report on how to start a cosmetic line. 5. Consulting. You have an expertise in cosmetic science so you are qualified to answer questions and even formulate products for people who need it done. This is harder to do if you have a job but some chemists have set up labs in their basements and taken on clients in an anonymous fashion. This can work. 6. Teach. I started as an instructor for the Society of Cosmetic Chemists and have been doing the Beginning Cosmetic Chemistry course since 1998. It doesn't bring in a ton of money but it was enough to fund vacations. 7. Dabble in the stock market. A friend of mine and I put in $1500 each to "play" in the stock market. Within 6 months we turned the initial $3000 into $12,000. Very lucky. I really had no idea what I was doing and just randomly chose stocks that I like. The $12,000 proceeded...

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In our twitter feed I was alerted to this innovative Waterless Shower product. The product is said to contain germicides, biocides, moisturizers, and bioflavonoids, which kill germs and eliminate odor. The blogger who wrote about the waterless shower wondered why anyone would want to reduce the amount of bathing that the world does. Well, to me this is a great product idea for a few different reasons. First, it is addressing a problem that may not be noticeable right now but will be a significant issue in the future. Water wars are coming. Second, this product is may be unique to the market. Sure, the technology might not be anything new but the idea of creating a complete shower substitute is. If this can keep people clean enough to be socially acceptable and cut down on the use of water, it sounds like a great idea. Here's the inventor's discussion of why and how he developed the product. What's in it? I'm not sure what technology is being used but he claims to have invented it by doing a Google search so it's going to be standard technology. I just wonder why one of the bigger companies hadn't invented this before. Perhaps they just didn't see a market for it. And maybe it will never be more popular than something which is "good for camping". Whenever you hear the phrase "it would be good for camping" to describe your cosmetic idea, that's not good.

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Today, we turn out claims substantiation eye to a skin product, specifically, Peter Thomas Roth Unwrinkle Night Cream. Why this product? I don't know. It was the first one that looked interesting to me and I wanted to do a skin product. If you have a suggestion on a product to review claims on, we'll be happy to take a look. On to the analysis. Cosmetic Claim Analysis When analyzing claims you'll want to follow a process. Here is a simple procedure that I'll use and you can too. Step 1 - Get the label copy and ingredient list Step 2 - Figure out what claims need to be supported Step 3 - Figure out how they might be supported Peter Thomas Roth Unwrinkle Night Cream Cosmetic Label Copy - Step 1 The label copy comes straight from our good friends at Beauty. com. Deep wrinkle, facial expression, night creme exclusive (patent pending) blend of eight anti-aging peptides and neuropeptides at a maximum strength of 24% aloe vera, vitamins A,C, E & pro vitamin B5 retinol, and glycolic acid. For normal to dry skin types. Exclusive (patent pending) blend of eight powerful, 100% active anti-aging peptides and neuropeptides are combined with SYN®-TACKS (new cutting-edge dual-peptide), a mega dose of retinol, glycolic acid, vitamins and skin moisturizers to create this cutting-edge nighttime wrinkle fighting moisturizer. Includes three neuropeptides, SYN®-AKE* at 4%, SNAP-8* at 10% and ARGIRELINE®* (hexapeptide) at 3% and five peptides, SYN®-COLL* at 3% and MATRIXYLâ„¢ 3000* (a dual peptide) at 3% and SYN®-TACKS (a dual peptide) at 1% which helps boost collagen and increases skin firmness and tonicity. Designed to assist in cellular renewal, repair daily environmental damage, minimize pores, restore moisture and revitalize the skin while you sleep. Visibly reduces the appearance of deep wrinkles and fine lines from the first application while helping to relax and diminish the appearance of facial expressions that may lead to crows feet, brow furrow wrinkling, laugh lines, frown lines, and other skin creases. Leaves skin looking soft, smooth and years younger. Animal cruelty free Made in the USA And for good measure, the ingredient list the Peter Thomas Roth Unwrinkle Cream Water (Aqua), Aloe Vera (Aloe Barbadensis) Leaf Juice, Glycerin, C12 15 Alkyl Benzoate, Glyceryl Stearate, Isocetyl Stearate, Panthenol (Pro Vitamin B5), Cetearyl Alcohol, Persea Gratissima Oil (Avacado), Tocopheryl Acetate (Vitamin E) (Vitamin E), Butyrospermum Parkii (Shea Butter) (Shea Butter), Propylene Glycol Stearate, Retinal, Palmitoyl Oligopeptide, Palmitoyl Tetrapeptide 7, Acetyl Hexapeptide 8, Acetyl Octapeptide 3, Palmitoyl Tripeptide 5, Dipeptide Diaminobutyroyl Benzylamide Diacetate, Palmitoyl Dipeptide 5 Diaminobutyloyl Hydroxythreonine, Palmitoyl Dipeptide 6 Diaminohydroxybutyrate, Retinyl Acetate (Vitamin A) (Vitamin A), Ascorbyl Palmitate (Vitamin C) (Vitamin C), Phospholipids, Allantoin (Comfrey Root), Dimethicone, Pentylene Glycol, Lecithin, Polysorbate 20, Glycolic Acid, Arginine HCl, Butylene Glycol, PEG 100 Stearate, Capric/Caprylic Stearic Triglyceride, Stearoxytrimethylsilane, Stearyl Alcohol, Hydrogenated Lecithin, EDTA (Ethylenediamine-Tetra-Acetic Acid), Carbomer, Alcohol, Sodium Phytate, Propylene Glycol, Diazolidinyl Urea, Methylparaben, Propylparaben Cosmetic claims - Step 2 Now that we've got the copy, let's list the claims. 1. Deep wrinkle,...

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Click here for a complete list of the the Cosmetic Formulation Basics series. Shaving Cream Shaving cream is a product put on the skin (primarily face and legs) to provide lubrication which helps prevent razor burn and discomfort during shaving. It comes in a wide variety of formats including creams, gels and most commonly foams. What shaving creams do Shaving creams are placed on the area of the skin in which shaving will take place. The cream is spread in a thick layer where it coats the hair that will be removed. One benefit of the foam is that it lets the consumer know where they still need to shave. The consumer (or operator) then takes a razor and slowly runs it through the shaving cream. This removes the cream and hair. The razor is rinsed and subsequent passes of it on the skin removes the rest of the unwanted hair. How shaving cream works Shaving cream formulations have a number of different ways in which they help in the removal of unwanted hair. One function is to soften the hair via moisturization to make cutting easier. Wet hair is easier to cut. Another function is to act as a lubricant between the razor and the skin. This inhibits cuts and knicks but does not interfere with hair removal. Shaving Cream ingredients While shaving creams can take many forms from liquids, lotions, gels, and creams, they all contain ingredients that help soften the hair and lubricate the skin. The primary ingredients include surfactants, solvents, humectants, conditioning agents, lubricants and aesthetic ingredients. The most common surfactants used in shaving creams are soap based surfactants such as Stearic Acid, Palmitic Acid, or other coconut fatty acids. These are neutralized with TEA, NaOH, or KOH. Additional foam stabilizing surfactants may also be used such as Sodium Lauryl Sulfate. The surfactant system typcially makes up about 10% of the formulation. To lubricate and moisturize the skin, humectants and other conditioning ingredients are included. These can be mineral oil, lanolin, glycerin, guar gums, or a variety of polyquaternium compounds. These ingredients make up around 5-10% of the formula. The other ingredients include aesthetic materials like fragrance, preservatives, pH adjusting materials and sometimes colorants. For aerosol systems a propellant is needed. This can be something like Isobutane. In California, there is a 5% limit on the amount of VOCs that can be used in a shaving cream foam. Fortunately, the typical propellant level is between 3 and 4%. Below is an example of a typical shaving cream formula (click to enlarge). * *Formula from HallStar. Click below if you are interested in learning more about our cosmetic science training program:

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There is little that frustrates me more than ignorance masquerading as authority. It is particularly galling when the fake authority is making claims about cosmetics, a subject of which I have a good deal of knowledge. While there are a number of reasons that this troubles me, the main reason is because I know how long I've studied, how much I've read, and how complicated the topic can be. It is not something that a person with limited or no science background can just research on Google and automatically become an expert. It offends me when someone does that. Knowledge requires work and effort to obtain! Usually, the people who do this are well-meaning and sincerely believe they are helping people. They are not. They are unnecessarily scaring people and spreading ignorance. They are also causing people to waste money on cosmetics that are NOT more safe. Despite my personal indignation, I do appreciate the Toxic Makeup Patrol's enthusiasm. So perhaps they would be interested to learn the truth and stop spreading lies and misinformation. Here are a number of claims that the Toxic Makeup Patrol makes that are just mistaken. 10 Myths about Toxic Makeup 1. "Lead in lipstick is dangerous. " It is not. There is no evidence that if people use lipstick that contains trace levels of lead, it will have any impact on their health. Read more truth about lead in lipstick. Incidentally, in the video the interviewer also says that their is Mercury in lipstick. This is just wrong. 2. "Cancer rates are increasing. " - The author begins with an interesting question, "Did you know that 100 years ago only one in 800 people got cancer and today one in three women will get cancer? " She then goes on to say that is because of poor diets, lack of exercise and our toxic environment. This is wrong. The number one reason that more people get cancer today is because people live longer! Cancer is mostly a disease of older adults. The average life expectancy of people 100 years ago was about 51 years. The truth is cancer rates are decreasing. 3. "One-third of personal hygiene products contain at least one ingredient linked to cancer. " - No, they don't. 4. "We absorb 5 lbs. of chemicals in our bodies from the make-up and products we apply every year. " No, we don't. 5. "Go to the Skin Deep Database to run a check before you shop" - No you shouldn't. The Skin Deep database is filled with unreliable, non-scientific information. 6. "Sodium Lauryl Sulfoacetate (SLS)*" - SLS is Sodium Lauryl Sulfate. It's a different chemical. 7. "Germall plus is not a synthetic preservative. " - Yes it is. It is actually a formaldehyde donor compound. Perfectly safe but completely synthetic. 8. "Aloe increases shelf life. " No, it doesn't. Aloe actually decreases shelf life and is one reason you have to include preservatives in your formulation. 9. "Parabens are associated with cancer. "...

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I have to say that I appreciate the effort but I'm not sure this video hits the mark. The European Commission has the laudable goal of trying to inspire more women to go into science. I'm not sure if this video is the way to go. On the plus side, they are using cosmetic science as a way to inspire girls and women & I think this is a pretty good idea. There should be more women in the cosmetic science industry. For more information about the program, see their website. It's actually better than the video. Especially the profiles of real women in science.

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Here's an interesting video. They show how their product can protect skin from corrosive acid. Do you know how they do it?

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Are you a cosmetic chemist or entrepreneur interested in starting your own cosmetic line? Well, here's a tip for you, if you're going to market your product in the US, it would be a good idea to make some kind of anti-aging cosmetic. According to a study done by Mintel, women in the US are the most likely consumers to use an anti-aging facial cream. The study found that American women have spent $2. 3 billion on anti-aging skin care products. And more importantly over 37% of female US consumers have tried anti-aging products. Growing market The reason that this is a good niche for someone who is starting their own line is that the market is growing and consumers are looking for products that work. The current products are not meeting the consumer's needs. Plus, there is good web traffic to the key words in the anti-aging cosmetic space. This means your brand can compete. Ultimately, you need to make great products to attract loyal consumers. But starting out with a growing niche is the first & critical step to launching your own line.

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To become a cosmetic chemist, you are going to have to learn to speak like a cosmetic chemist. As in any industry, the cosmetic industry has a number of terms that are distinct to our industry. Some of these terms may be unfamiliar while others may be familiar words with different meanings. Go here for a list of cosmetic industry acronyms. In this post we're going to look at some of the jargon related to formulating color cosmetics. Specifically, we'll define terms related to the colors. Color cosmetic terms Dyes - These are color compounds that are fully soluble in the medium they are used. They are typically transparent. For example, water soluble dyes used in body wash. Pigments - These are color compounds that are insoluble in the medium in which they are used. They are typically opaque. This refers to compounds used in color cosmetics like foundation or eye shadow. Lakes - A pigment made by dissolving a water soluble dye onto an insoluble, inorganic substance such as Aluminum Hydrate. Toners - A pigment made by precipitating a water-soluble dye as a metal salt. True Pigments - Water insoluble color compound. Chemical structure makes it insoluble. Extender - These are compounds that are used to dilute out a color and help improve coverage. Usually they are fillers made from talc, clay, silica or zinc oxide. Bleed - This is a characteristic of a color additive which is slightly soluble in the vehicle used to deliver the color. If the bleed is too high it can lead to staining of skin or nails. Masstone - Refers to the ability of a color additive to improve the tone of a cosmetic product. Most relevant when making dark colored lipstick. Shade - This is the particular color that a color molecule can impart on a surface. Strength - This refers to the intensity of the color additive. Transparency - Property of color that allows light to be transmitted to the substrate (e. g. the skin). To get good coverage you do not want high transparency.

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Allured sent us a review copy of their latest release Practical Modern Hair Science. It's a great addition to any cosmetic science book shelf and a must-read for someone focused on hair care product formulation. The book is written by a variety of authors including an impressive list of academic authors and industry experts. It is a bit more "heady" than many other cosmetic science books and is focused more on the scientific background of the subject than on practical applications. But if you are looking for the perfect primer for a hair care product scientist, this could be it. Hair science book details The first two chapters describe in detail, the biology of hair. In chapter one, the current understanding of hair structure is presented. I found the focus on amino acid distribution and tying it into biochemistry particularly interesting. The second chapter goes into great detail about the growth cycle of hair. It provides excellent background information for anyone interested in working on hair growth/thickening products. The next three chapters delve into the chemistry of different types of hair products. Chapter three gives a great overview of shampoos and does an excellent job of covering the pertinent issues related to surfactants. Conditioners are also covered in this chapter but not as thoroughly as cleansing surfactants. In chapter four, the science of hair color is nicely reviewed complete with chemical reactions and even some formulations. This is a must-read chapter for anyone interested in formulating hair color products. The fifth chapter gives a great overview of the chemistry of changing the shape of hair. This includes permanent curls and relaxer products. While the material included was excellent and thorough, it would have been nice to see information about other hair straightening treatments such as the Japanese or the Brazilian straightening methods. Chapter six provides a great review of ethnic differences in hair. This will be helpful to any formulator who is creating products for different parts of the world. The only issue with this chapter is it seems out of place and may have made more sense to include it early on in the book with the other hair biology chapters. The next four chapters describe testing and physical parameters of hair fibers. Chapters seven and eight go into detail about the mechanical properties of hair including information about hair strength and breakage. The physics behind the behavior of the fibers can be a bit complicated but the authors do a good job of keeping it meaningful to cosmetic formulators. These chapters will be of great help to formulators who are developing test protocols for claims and prototype evaluations. Chapter nine gives a detailed description of how to evaluate and quantify visual properties of hair. In chapter ten, everything you would ever want to know about the adsorption of materials onto hair is provided. While I'm not sure how this would directly relate to formulating it is interesting nonetheless. Chapter eleven does a good job of covering the causes...

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The claim "chemical free" really bugs me and I really wish marketers, the media, and everyone else would stop using it. Almost nothing is "chemical free"! ! My latest irritation with the claim was from an article published on the Times Free Press website entitled Chemical free ways to clean your home. Further reading of the article has the author recommending "chemical free" products like Vinegar, Salt, Baking Soda, Lemon Juice and Castile Soap. What! ? Has this reporter ever taken a chemistry class? Vinegar is Acetic Acid... a chemical Kosher salt is Sodium Chloride... a chemical Baking soda is Sodium Bicarbonate... a chemical Lemon Juice is mostly Citric Acid... another chemical Ugh! Why, why, why would someone publish such nonsense? What do they even mean when they say "chemical free"? It certainly can't literally mean chemical free. Incidious Chemical Free My complaints about chemical free are more than just semantics. This incidious claim has a number of negatives associated with it. And these will be problems for cosmetic chemists and formulators who want to produce safe, functional, and excellent products. Here are the primary problems with chemical free. 1. Chemical free is inaccurate. Almost nothing is chemical free. All matter is made up of chemicals (elements). And all products are made up of matter. Water is a chemical (2 parts Hydrogen, 1 part Oxygen). Vinegar is a chemical. The only things that are not chemical are things like light, electricity, magnetism, or subatomic particles. These are unlikely to be the composition of your "chemical free" cosmetic or cleaning product. 2. Chemical free is deceptive and misleading. This is the most significant problem with the chemical free claim. It is used when the marketer wants to say "this product is safer than other products". The implication is that "chemical free" products are more safe than "chemical containing" products. Of course, since every product contains chemicals the claim is a lie. The implication that a "chemical free" product is safer is also a lie. "Chemical free" cosmetics are not demonstrably safer than ones that don't claim "chemical free". It's a lie! Consumers are being duped. I don't know why these claims are allowed, especially when they are false advertising. Consumers deserve accuracy in advertising and they should not be lied to. There is no such thing as a chemical free cosmetic and these claims of "chemical free" sunscreens are complete fabrications! If you have any ability to stamp out this chemical free nonsense at your company, I encourage you to do it. These claims are spreading scientific ignorance and leading to the errosion of critical thinking among the general population. There really should be a law or at the very least, people who make innacurate "chemical free" claims should be publicly flogged. Metaphorically of course.

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There were a couple of troubling stories that I read about actions taken by some of the biggest cosmetic companies. In one, Unilever reports that they are shutting down a couple of their factories which will result in the loss of 500 or so jobs. Many of those affected used to be Alberto Culver employees (my former company). In another story, analysts are telling P&G that they should restructure their business operations. Moves like this often lead to layoffs. So what does this have to do with cosmetic chemistry? Well, part of being a cosmetic chemist means that you will most likely have a job and will be working for a company like one of these. And no matter how well you do your job, no matter how great a formulator you are, they can come to you one day and tell you you no longer have a job. This happened to a lot of people at my former company and it continues to happen to people all over the industry. Fortunately, everyone pretty much lands on their feet finding other employment opportunities. However, this usually requires significant changes to their lives. Who do you work for? There was a time in America when people would start with one company and work there their entire careers. Those days are over. It's pretty rare now. And if you are one of the people who are in this position, you probably didn't make as much money as you could have. There is no doubt about it, moving companies is the fastest way to get a significant salary increase. Cosmetic Chemist Career Tips Here are a few career tips that I think every cosmetic chemist should keep in mind. 1. No matter who pays your salary, you always work for yourself. Learn how to run your own business even if you aren't planning on doing it. If you are interested in cosmetics read this How to Start a Cosmetic Line 2. Keep your resume updated. It's not hard. Just do it. 3. Develop a strong network. LinkedIn is an excellent place for doing this. 4. Don't burn any bridges. Yes, you'll run into people you don't like, just never let them know it. 5. Go on interviews. Even if you aren't looking to leave your company, it's good to stay in practice & you'll have a good idea of what's out there. 6. Don't pigeonhole yourself. Take opportunities to develop skills in other areas. If you're a skin formulator, develop some hair formulations. Be a generalist with some specialist skills. Take courses in cosmetic science like these. 7. Volunteer. Go volunteer for your local SCC chapter. It will only help your career & will help you meet a lot of people in the industry. Remember that no body owes you a job and bad luck can happen to anyone. Following these career tips can help mitigate any bad luck that you run into. And it can also help keep you feeling confident and...

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Formulating is only one of the responsibilities of a cosmetic chemist. An equally challenging task is to come up with claims and tests that will support the claims that your marketing people want to make. Since this is a pretty specific task, it would be helpful to go through a variety of products and figure out how they support the claims they make. Cosmetic Claim Analysis When analyzing claims you'll want to follow a process. Here is a simple procedure that I'll use and you can too. Step 1 - Get the label copy and ingredient list Step 2 - Figure out what claims need to be supported Step 3 - Figure out how they might be supported Let's start with something easy, shampoo. Here is a shampoo from Liquid Keratin Liquid Keratin Professional Healthy Hair De-Frizz Shampoo Cosmetic Label Copy I love websites like Drugstore. com, Beauty. com, and Ulta. com. They almost always have a list of ingredients and the claims that label copy from the bottles. Here is the copy for this product. Liquid Keratinâ„¢ Infusing Healthy Hair De-Frizz Shampoo gently cleans hair while drenching it with keratin proteins for improved strength, shine and manageability. Moisturizes as it protects hair from sun damage, leaving even frizzy hair silky smooth. Developed for all hair types and suitable for natural or color treated hair. All Liquid Keratinâ„¢ aftercare products help prolong and improve the results of Liquid Keratinâ„¢ 30-day Straight Smooth Strong & Long Treatment. All aftercare products are paraben and sodium chloride free. And for good measure, the ingredient list for Liquid Keratin shampoo Water, Ammonium Lauryl Sulfate, Aloe Barbadensis Leaf Extract, Cocoamidopropyl Betaine, Ammonium Laureth Sulfate, PEG 150 Distearate, Keratin, Panthanol, Polyquaternium-10, Cetrimonium Chloride, Glyceryl Stearate SE, Fragrance, Polysilicone 15, Disodium EDTA, Methyl Alcohol, Caprylyl Glycol, Methylisothiazolinone Cosmetic claims Now that we've got the copy, let's list the claims. 1. Liquid Keratin Infusing Healthy Hair De-Frizz Shampoo 2... . gently cleans hair 3... . drenching it (hair) with keratin proteins 4... . for improved strength, shine and manageability 5. Moisturizes 6... . protects hair from sun damage 7... . leaving even frizzy hair silky smooth 8. Developed for all hair types & suitable for natural or color treated hair. 9... . help prolong and improve the results of Liquid Keratin Strong and Long Treatment 10... . paraben and sodium chloride free You see that I had to pick apart some of the sentences because there are multiple claims being made in a single sentence. Ok, next step, how might they support the claims. Supporting cosmetic claims These are all relatively easy claims to support because they don't make any incredible claims. They are all fairly standard. 1. This is just an identification of the product. It's required and the fact that it is what it says it is is enough. 2. Since this is a shampoo that contains surfactants, it will clean the hair. "Gently" is a relative term on some undefined scale so it can be...

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One of my goals is to create a website that gives starting formulas to anyone who is looking for one. I'm modeling it after the Open Source Software movement and dubbing it Open Source Formulating (or something like that). Essentially it will be a place where people can find and exchange formulas. Almost a recipe swap. But until I get that going, I thought it would be useful to provide links to places where you can get formulas to start already. Here is what I've got so far. The list will continue to grow. Please feel free to add other links in the comments if there are sources that aren't mentioned. General Cosmetic formulation lists Cosmetic Bench Reference - A list of hundreds of supplier formulas searchable by type, ingredient trade name and more. Suppliers for all materials included. Requires registration. C & T 2008 Skin Care formulary - Formulas for creams, lotions, cleansers, and masks. C & T 2006 C&T Skin formulary - Formulas for creams, lotions, cleansers, and masks. Happi formulary - Wide range of formulations from suppliers of cosmetic raw materials. Also some formulation of household products if you're looking for that. No registration required Personal Care Magazine - Nice set of easily accessible formulas. No registration required. UL Prospector - Requires registration but has hundreds (maybe thousands) of formulas from suppliers. SpecialChem - They have an excellent starting formulations selector with over 3000 formulas! Includes skin care, hair care, sun care, toiletries, fragrance, and makeup. Requires registration but it is free Merck formulations - Hundreds of cosmetic formulations and some other interesting things like insect repellent. No registration required. Google Patents - This takes a little digging but if you do a search of the patents on any kind of formula that you want to make, you can find example formulas in the 'claims' section of most any patent on the subject. Google Books - Google has a number of books that list some cosmetic formulations. Many you can get listed for free. Supplier Formularies Grant Industry Formulary - Lots of cosmetic formulas including make-up, creams & lotions, Sunscreens, Skin treatments, Hair care, and more. Over 100 formulas Colonial Chemicals formulas - A number of cosmetic formulas. Also some household cleaner and metal working lubricants too. Croda Formulary - Some excellent starting formulas using materials from Croda. Formulas in all types of different products and includes some "green" or Natural formulations. Registration is required (a little annoying). Dupont Tate & Lyle formulations - Offers a number of skin care and color cosmetic formulations. Also has a couple of hair care product formulas. Check the formulation library tab. Stepan formulary - One of the biggest surfactant suppliers in the business. They have some excellent starting formulas for cleansing products and emulsions. HallStar Formulations - A searchable list of formulations with particular focus on suncare and skin care. It is handy that it allows for searching by keyword including INCI names. Kobo formulations - A rather extensive list...

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If you are interested in getting an advanced degree to help your cosmetic formulating prospects, you might consider the London College of Fashion. Here is an interview with Dr Danka Tamburic the current program director. For more information about this cosmetic science program, see this cosmetic science information page.

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Click here for a complete list of the the Cosmetic Formulation Basics series. Toothpaste Toothpaste is a semisolid product designed to clean teeth and leave breath smelling and feeling fresh. While it can be considered a cosmetic, it is almost always classified as a drug because fluoride (a drug active) is included. What toothpaste does The primary function of toothpaste is to remove debris from the teeth surface. The most acceptable forms of toothpaste are easily extruded from the package, stay stiff enough to remain on the toothbrush, have a consumer acceptable taste, and foam adequately. How toothpaste works Toothpastes are a blend of surfactants, abrasives, water, humectants, anticaries actives, thickening agents, flavoring, and other aesthetic ingredients. When the toothpaste is put on the toothbrush and scrubbed in the mouth, the surfactants help remove the hydrophobic materials. Abrasive agents help to remove stains and the anticaries ingredients help kill plaque causing bacteria. Ingredients Since teeth are such a hard surface, the abrasive ingredients are required to help clean the surface of the teeth. A number of different abrasives may be used including hydrated silica, calcium carbonate, and dicalcium phosphate dihydrate. The key to a good abrasive ingredient is the size, shape, brittleness, and hardness of the particles. To create foam and to aid in removal of hydrophobic materials surfactants that are tasteless, nonirritating and high foaming are used. While foaming isn't required for good cleansing, consumers do expect it so cosmetic chemists have to consider this when formulating. The most common surfactant used is Sodium Lauryl Sulfate. For companies who want to avoid SLS, sodium lauroyl sarcosinate and sodium methyl cocoyl taurate may also be used. Bleaches like hydrogen peroxide and urea peroxide may also be added to make teeth look more clean. The anticaries actives are fluoride ions delivered from some salt. These include sodium fluoride, sodium monofluorophosphate, and stannous fluoride. In the United States, the amount that you can use is dictated by the anticaries monograph. A number of ingredients are added to improve the aesthetic characteristics of toothpastes. To keep toothpaste from drying out humectants are added. These include materials like glycerin, sorbitol, and xylitol. Thickening agents like tragacanth gum, cellulose gums, and carrageenan are used to keep the product on the toothbrush. Flavorings are added to make the use experience more pleasant. Common flavorings include cinnamon, clove, menthol, and mint. Other ingredients that round off the formulation include preservatives, colorants, and desensitizing agents. Click this link if you are interested in learning more about our cosmetic science training program.

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Recently I picked up a few chemistry books. It's very interesting to go back and read about basic chemistry because I haven't done that since college. As a cosmetic chemist, you spend more time learning about raw materials than you do about basic chemistry. But I went into chemistry because I loved the subject and can better appreciate it now. After thoroughly enjoying my reading of The Joy of Chemistry, I was eager to read Chemistry Connections - The Chemical Basis of Everyday Phenomena. Chemistry Connections overview The basic goal of Chemistry Connections is to introduce the general public to the wide variety of places that chemistry touches their lives. It's written in a question and answer format and covers such diverse topics as lava lamps, baby shampoo, bullet proof vests, contact lenses, carbonated drinks, blue jeans, and much much more. The great part is that there were many topics which I had never studied. These aren't the kinds of things that you would have learned in college as they are really specialized. When getting a chemistry degree you learn general stuff and there isn't much time for specialization. The book has about 100 questions (with answers) and is organized by typical chemistry topics like atoms, solids, liquids, gases, acids/bases, thermodynamics, organic chemistry, and polymers. This is similar to the organization of the Joy of Chemistry book. It makes sense. Each question is answered in general terms and then with more specific chemistry. It makes sense and the entries are interesting. Also, they provide a listing of where you might learn more with Internet links. Very handy. This may make the electronic version of the book superior. Of course, I like to have actual books for some reason. The one negative thing I should say about this book is that while the authors say they wrote it for the general public, I'm a little skeptical. There is some complicated stuff and if I didn't have a background in chemistry it would have been a much more difficult read. It was already a bit of a heady read quite frankly. No doubt I will have to go back and review some of the answers in the future. Final ruling Overall, I enjoyed this book. I learned a lot of things about different aspects of chemistry and realized that I was already familiar with topics I hadn't realized. Guess my college general courses did prepare me to pick things up via osmosis. You can get a copy of Chemistry Connections - The Chemical Basis of Everyday Phenomena here. And if you purchase through this link you help support Chemists Corner. Thanks!

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Cosmeticsdesign. com reports that a recent study carried out by The Allstate Corporation showed that US Adults are heavily connected on social media outlets. 51% are on Facebook, 28% on Google+, 13% on Twitter, and 12% on LinkedIn. And Youtube gets a whopping 4 billion views a day! These "media" outlets provide an excellent opportunity for small brands to compete with the big brands. This is perhaps one of the biggest challenges of starting your own cosmetic brand. It's extremely difficult to compete with the big brands. But here's a secret. Big companies haven't figured out social media. They do not know what makes someone popular or what causes something to go viral. They are in the same boat as almost everyone else. In fact, big companies have the added problem of being successful with traditional advertising. This new social media stuff is as foreign to them as it is to everyone else. Buying online In the past people were a little skeptical of buying products online. Sites like Drugstore. com and Beauty. com have been around for a while and have been doing a steady business, but more and more sites are popping up and consumers are taking notice... and buying. A recent survey showed that 62% of consumers now shop online regularly. That's a pretty good market and one in which a start up cosmetic company can compete against the big guys. What social media? But to build a useful social media presence that helps build your brand and ultimately lead to sales, you need a few key things. 1. A website - This is the face of your brand. It helps sell your product, convince your fans you're worth buying and can even lead to direct sales. Without a website, it is much more difficult to build a new cosmetic brand. 2. An email list - One part of your website should be a free newsletter or something that allows people to give you their email address. These are the people who will most likely be your first customers. You can give them offers or ask them questions about new product development. This is a key part of any online strategy. 3. Social networks - While social networking sites are great they can also be a complete waste of time. You need to have a strategy for building up your presence and using it to build your cosmetic brand. To that end there are some key ones to join. You should have a presence on Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube. It also makes sense for professional reasons to be connected on LinkedIn. Next steps So if your dream is to eventually start your own brand, you don't have to start by creating a product. Start with a name, a logo, a story and then a website. Build traffic to your website using your social media profiles. Then when you have enough people interested, create your brand. Remember spend time building products that people want and you can't help...

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Suppliers for most cosmetic chemicals have websites and some are certainly better than others. Overall, the quality of the websites that are available is not great which is why when I see something that is pretty good I have no problem publicizing it. That brings us to this tool that Lonza has put together to help people choose the best cosmetic preservative for their system. In the following video, I go through and show you exactly how to use the tool. And like many great Internet tools, this one is free. To get the most out of this preservative choice tool you'll have to register with Lonza but that really shouldn't be a problem. If you want to try it, click on the following link to get to the Formula Protect tool directly.

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Last week I attended one day of the SCC Midyear Scientific Meeting. It was a two day event but my schedule just didn't allow for Friday attendence. But the Thursday talks were interesting and featured some thought-provoking and useful topics. Green chemistry The first session was on sustainability in cosmetic development. It was kicked off with the keyonte speaker Dr. John Warner who spoke on the development of green chemistry. Dr. Warner is one of the originators of the concept of "green chemistry". He introduced the concept when he and another author wrote the classic Green Chemistry Theory and Practice. He said that we need a national system to determine what chemical practices are safe / green. Then he took us through the 12 principles of green chemistry. It gives a framework for improving chemical synthesis. Not all are applicable to cosmetic formulation but some are. After describing his views on green chemistry, he was pushing for chemists to be required to get toxicity and environmental impact as part of any undergraduate chemistry degree. A good idea but could prove challenging. Dr. Warner did state one of the overarching facts of the day. You can't sacrifice performance to make products more green The second speaker was Dr. Camille Sasik from Aveda. She gave a nice description of how they were trying to develop more green hair styling products using natural polymers. The problem with these products is that there is not an easy way to evaluate the performance. The Aveda team developed some standard protocols which could demonstrate differences in polymers. A modified corn starch product outperformed the standard hair styling polymer PVP. Wonder if they will switch. Interesting quote from her talk that applies to sustainability and cosmetics. A frog does not drink up the pond it lives in The next two speakers were from the ACS on their Green Chemistry Round Table committee. Tom Burns talked about how raw material suppliers could improve the "greenness" of the supply chain. He outlined the challenges of finding green antimicrobials, amines, and surfactants. He comes from the household cleanser area and interestingly, there were some cosmetic ingredients of which he might not have been aware. Dr. David Wylie next talked about building a global sustainable cosmetic enterprise. In this talk we learned that green chemistry is often the cheaper way of doing things because it reduces waste and cleanup costs. It just requires people to think differently. He then introduced the NSF Green Standard that they are working on. Look for this in the future. After a lovely lunch and a run through the poster sessions, we had the afternoon talks. Afternoon scientific session The afternoon was about the skin penetration of cosmetic ingredients. Dr. Ingo Schellenberg told of how his group had used HPLC to separate skin lipids to identify the exact makeup. Before being able to figure out whether an ingredient is getting through the skin, it is useful to know what's already in the skin. It only takes...

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Not much to post except to report that I'm in Charleston for the mid year SCC meeting and having a great time. Here's a shot of tonight's dinner. The benefits of being a cosmetic chemist.

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I may be a bit odd but statistics and probabilities have always been favorite subjects of mine. Ever since I learned that I could calculate the probabilities of a certain distribution of card hands, I've devoured every book on the subject I could find. Recently, I accidentally stumbled on The Drunkard's Walk: How Randomness Rules Our Lives and I'm glad I did. Author Leonard Mlodinow takes the reader through the wonderful world of statistics and probabilities using real life examples and peppered with interesting historical anecdotes. The first few chapters hammer home the idea that people are not nearly as in control of things as they think. Using the findings from real life psychological experiments, he deftly demonstrates that people are pattern seeking animals who are easily fooled by patterns that are not there. He also illustrates how the worth of a person is inappropriately judged by the results they can achieve. Randomness shows us that in the short term luck has a much bigger role in the outcome of any scenario than the skill of the people involved in it. He spends a long time discussing some interesting probability conundrums including the famous Monty Hall Problem. He demonstrates why, mathematically, it is always the best strategy to change doors rather than keep the one that you picked first. In the second half of the book he discusses statistics and the development of the normal distribution curve. He shows you how most everything in the world can be described using some version of a normal distribution. It's fascinating. Overall, I loved this book and can't wait to read more from this author. He took a subject that could be mundane (like statistics) and really brought it alive with fascinating anecdotes and mind stimulating problems. For a cosmetic chemist, the thing that I found most useful was the idea that success is not a reflection of how well you are doing your job. Just because your formula may have failed in the marketplace does not necessarily mean that it is a bad product. Rather, you were most likely, just unlucky. The solution to this... keep trying. While you can't control luck, you can control how often you try to get lucky.

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It's a holiday today but I wanted to at least post a video for our non-American audience who isn't celebrating a holiday. Here's a cool video which demonstrates the entire cosmetic manufacturing process. Pretty cool.

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It's not often that I see some technology that I think can have a significant impact on the cosmetic industry. In truth, most "innovations" are simply baby step improvements in things that we could already do. Body washes foam a little more creamy, skin moisturizers moisturize just a little bit longer, and packaging gets a little bit lighter. Certainly, there have been some clever inventions but no significant technological changes that are consumer perceptible. Package coating Well, here's an innovation in packaging that could really have a noticeable impact. It is called Liquiglide and is a coating that can go on the inside of packaging to ensure that all of the product comes out. Take a look at this video of it in action. Now, this might not seem like much but imagine if all the product would come out of your cosmetic packaging. This would save about 10% of your cost right away because this is how much extra you have to fill in your bottles to ensure you deliver the amount stated on the package. If the coating application is cost effective, then this will be a no brainer. And this won't just be useful for the final package. Think of all the raw materials that you buy! No longer will you have to throw away a bucket coated in Dimethicone or a pail filled with unused Petrolatum. This really could have a significant impact on the entire industry. Costs should go down & profits increase. It seems like a win for everyone. Now, let's see if my prognostications hold true in the next few years.

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This is a guest post by cosmetic chemist Dana Cifelli If you are a member of the Society of Cosmetic Chemists (SCC) then it is likely you are aware of the happenings of Suppliers’ Day. However, for those of you who are not members, you may be wondering what takes place at the event. Suppliers’ day is an event that is hosted annually in New Jersey by the New York chapter of the SCC (NYSCC). This year’s event was held at the New Jersey Convention and Exposition Center. The goal of the event is to connect industry professionals and cosmetic chemists from the surrounding areas to suppliers from around the world. The suppliers that attend the event display the latest technologies in equipment, raw materials and subcontracted finished goods. Tips for New Attendees With an attendance of over 8,000 industry professionals and 100 suppliers, the experience can be quite overwhelming. Thus, it seems fitting to begin this discussion by offering a few pointers that will help new attendees and veterans alike navigate their way through the event efficiently. First, attendees should wait at least a couple of hours after the posted start time of the event to arrive, since it is likely that even with advanced registration it will take more than an hour to be granted entrance immediately after the official star. Unfortunately, many attendees did arrive early this year which forced them to take a shuttle from the overcrowded parking lot to the center. Subsequently, these individuals were greeted with an hour wait before being admitted into the event. Based on this experience, it appears that attendees should plan to arrive around 10:00am, which should leave plenty of time to experience all that the event has to offer. Welcome bag After entering the event, the be sure to acquire the event’s welcome bag. This bag contains a map of the vendors and free samples. Attendees that are trying to make the most of their time should label on the map the vendors that are of particular interest. This will help attendees meet the desired vendors without getting distracted. When meeting with the vendors make sure that they scan the provided badge if any requests are made for samples. These samples may take anywhere from 2 weeks to 4 months to be delivered. Thus, it is important to keep in contact with the individual that manages the company account in order to assure that the requested material arrives in the desired timeframe. Bring business cards Finally, bring business cards and be prepared to converse with each of the selected vendors for approximately 5 minutes. It is a good idea to be cautious when speaking to the vendors, as some of them will have nothing new to show and often will try to pitch their old products from a new marketing standpoint. In general, when viewing products it is essential to first determine if there is a need for them and if it can enhance your lab and/or formulations. Suppliers'...

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As a cosmetic formulator I get the opportunity to look at a number of cosmetic formulations. Cosmetic chemists are like artists and many will have their own special style they bring to their formulas. (There are a number of formulators who simply copy the work of others but we'll ignore them for the moment). Loaded Label Anyway, one of the most common things that I see is formulas that have a dozen or more raw materials. Take this product for example. Here is the ingredient list... Aluminum Hydroxide, Anthemis Nobilis Flower Oil , Ascorbic Acid, Benzyl Benzoate, Butylene Glycol, Caprylic/Capric Triglyceride, Cetyl Hydroxyethylcellulose, Cetyl PEG/PPG 10/1 Dimethicone, Citronellol, Coumarin, Dicaprylyl Carbonate, Disteardimonium Hectorite, Epilobium Angustifolium Flower/Leaf/Stem Extract , Ethylhexylglycerin, Eugenol, Geraniol, Glycerin, Glycine Soja (Soybean) Oil , Iron Oxides (CI 77491, CI 77492, CI 77499), Isostearic Acid, Lavandula Angustifolia (Lavender) Oil , Lavandula Hybrida Oil , Lecithin, Limonene, Linalool, Phenoxyethanol, Phytoecdysteroids, Polyglyceryl-2 Diisostearate, Polymethyl Methacrylate, Polymethylsilsequioxane, Polysilicone 2, Potassium Sorbate, Propanediol, Retinyl Palmitate, Sinorhizobium Meliloti Ferment Filtrate, Sodium Benzoate, Sodium Metabisulfite, Soil Minerals, Stearic Acid, Tocopherol, Tocopheryl Acetate, Triethylhexanoin, Trisodium EDTA, Water , Zizyphus Jujuba Seed Extract Now realistically, how many of the ingredients in this formula are having any effect at all? How would the formulator even know? To be fair, a number of the ingredients on the list are components of the fragrance or are solvents and aren't expected to have an impact on the functionality. These would include things like Limonene, Linalool, and Propanediol. But seriously how would any consumer (or chemist) tell whether any of the following ingredients are having any effect? Anthemis Nobilis Flower Oil Ascorbic Acid Coumarin Epilobium Extract Glycine Soja Oil Lavender Oil Lavandula Oil Phytoecdysteroids Retinyl Palmitate Ferment Filtrate Soil Minerals Tocopherol Tocopheryl Acetate Triethylhexanoin Jujuba Seed extract Can you tell a difference? If the formulator removed every one of those ingredients I bet no one would be able to tell a difference. And if that is the case, why are the ingredients in the formula at all? I'll tell you why. To tell a marketing story. There is scant evidence that any of these ingredients will have a noticeable effect when topically applied to skin. But they do have a noticeable effect when put on the label of your formula. People will be more apt to buy. So cosmetic chemists drop in these claims ingredients, make incredibly long label lists, and convince people who are not in the know that things like Jujuba Seed Extract is going to improve some aspect of their skin. It's not. In a world shifting to more sustainable and environmentally friendly formulations, I don't see how this type of bloated formulating can continue. Better is to follow a minimalist formulation approach. It will save money, save resources and you will know that the cosmetic ingredient you add actually has some function in the formula beyond story telling.

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Here's an interesting website. It's called the Cosmetic Calculator and it ostensibly tells you how old your cosmetic is. You put in the lot code and it will tell you when the product was made. They don't have all the cosmetic brands but they have a good number. I don't know how accurate the information is but it looks like a cool tool.

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I always cringe when I see people referencing the EWG's Skin Deep database about the safety of cosmetic ingredients. Since we've previously written about its shortcomings (inaccuracy, incompleteness, inconsistent ratings) I won't rehash it here. Feel free to read our EWG post. Today, I want to write about the legitimate scientific group that is tasked with the job of reviewing cosmetic ingredients and ensuring that they are safe for use. The group is called the Cosmetic Ingredient Review board and is made up of a majority of scientists who are independent of the cosmetic industry. They review the safety data of ingredients provided and make judgments about what is safe and at what level. Since there haven't been any significant large scale problems with the safety of cosmetic products, the system seems to be working. Chemical fearmonger groups might disagree but their complaints are not scientifically based. CIR website While I don't think the information in the EWG Skin Deep database is of much use, they certainly have done a good job of putting the website together. They make it easy for someone to look up a chemical and see a listing of all the studies and data that has gone into their rating. Sure the rating is misleading and doesn't mean much but it is simple for consumers or researchers to use. Then you take a look at the CIR website. It's awful in comparison. Right away there are some minor problems. First, the home page is all about the organization. That's fine and all but how is this helpful to the people who might be using the website. The information about the organization should be placed in the About page not on the front page. And the big flash animation billboards on the front are not useful at all. The front page should be reserved for information that is useful to the user. Specifically, there should be a big obvious link to the ingredient search function. That's why people come to the website! Sure you can get to the ingredient search from the front page but you have to search for it. Why? Why are they making it so hard to find the information that people would want? Cosmetic ingredient data When you do finally get around to finding the ingredient database it is extremely disappointing. I saw a recent story about Benzophenone being linked to Endometriosis and naturally I wanted to see what the CIR had published about the safety of the ingredient. According to the CosmeticsInfo website, the CIR has deemed Benzophenone safe at some level. But searching through the CIR website you would never know it. Try this. Go to the CIR website and do a search for Benzophenone. Then try to find any data on the ingredients. There is nothing! The CIR database is filled with ingredients that have no information about. Why! ! ? I mean the work has been done why isn't it on their website? Or at least a summary or...

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Two of my favorite things brought together in a fun song. Enjoy.

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Everyone should have had a chemistry instructor like this.

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Chemical free claims always bug me. You see them a lot in the sunscreen market where people claim "chemical free sunscreens. " For some reason they don't see titanium dioxide or zinc oxide as chemicals. But they are chemicals! Every substance is a chemical. Chemical free anti aging cosmetic So, how is it that this headline is about a chemical free anti aging cosmetic? Well, it's based on this story about research carried out at Jena University. Researchers found that when people surrounded themselves with other people who were much old, observers judged the younger people to look even younger than they really were. That means you can create a chemical free cosmetic. Just get a bus full of senior citizens and hire them out to follow people around who want to look younger. A totally new and innovative beauty product. And it really is "chemical free". (Except for the chemicals in the people of course).

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Cosmetics & Toiletries® Launches Four Online Video Education Courses CAROL STREAM, IL–Cosmetics & Toiletries magazine, in partnership with program director Perry Romanowski, has launched four courses in its Complete Cosmetic Chemist Training Program, an online community purposed with developing the skills of new formulators and seasoned cosmetic professionals alike. Each multi-lesson course provides insight and information from the industry's most esteemed experts, and the Web-based video format allows participants to learn at their own pace and at their convenience. Each course lesson features quizzes designed to ensure comprehension of all subject matter, and a Certificate of Completion is awarded upon successful closure of each course. An online discussion forum and monthly live chats with our subject matter experts are also available to course participants to take the learning experience even further. The courses available include the following: Beginning Cosmetic Chemistry–12 lessons, Total approx. run time: 11 hours, 22 minutes Led by Perry Romanowski, this course covers all the essentials of cosmetic science to help chemists become confident and competent formulators. A copy of Romanowski and Randy Schueller’s best-selling book, Beginning Cosmetic Chemistry, Third Edition is also included in the registration for this course. Developing Natural Cosmetic Formulations–9 lessons, Total approx. run time: 10 hours, 13 minutes Experienced, international educators and hands-on natural formulators Judi Beerling and Art Georgalas present this course, which will afford new and seasoned formulators alike the opportunity to learn all about the raw material palette and practical aspects of constructing natural personal care products for the growing naturals market. A copy of Anthony C. Dweck’s Formulating Natural Cosmetics is included with the purchase of this course. Optimization for Cosmetics–5 lessons, Total approx. run time: 4 hours, 56 minutes Steven Abbott, PhD, delivers a series of lectures based on the ideas of his recently departed colleague and collaborator, Johann W. Wiechers, PhD. This course allows seasoned chemists and formulators to think afresh about many of the fundamentals that apply directly to their everyday work ethic. Participants in this course will receive a copy of Abbott’s Rheology for Skin Care Formulators Guide, data analysis spreadsheets and the data analysis software program referred to throughout the course. Physiology of the Skin–8 lessons, Total approx. run time: 6 hours, 25 minutes Board-certified dermatologist Zoe Diana Draelos, MD, presents an exclusive look at how cosmetic scientists, when armed with the medical knowledge of how and why the skin functions and what really makes it beautiful, can also apply their cosmetic science knowledge to proper product development in order to make the best and safest products possible. For more information about these courses, or to register, visit learn. cosmeticsandtoiletries. com.

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Transcript of video Hi I'm Perry Romanowski and Welcome to Cosmetic Science in 300 seconds brought to you by Chemists Corner. Today’s topic is Cosmetics. Cosmetics are used by people all over the world and represent a huge industry that sells over $300 billion a year. Almost every person on the planet uses some form of cosmetic product. This is true now and has been since the dawn of civilization. Throughout history people have used cosmetics for three primary purposes. Camoflauging flaws, improving overall appearance, and enhancing attractiveness to the opposite sex. The first direct evidence for cosmetic use are some 30,000 year old cave paintings in Europe that show people with colored faces. In ancient Egypt from around 3500 BCE cosmetics were routinely used for religious ceremonies, aesthetic and hygenic reasons. They used a variety of natural ingredients like oils, honey, natron, and even lead. There is also evidence of cosmetic use by people in ancient India, China and the Americas. The ancient Greeks & Romans had records of cosmetic use. The first cosmetic formulation book was produced by Galen during the Second Century. Recently, archeologists have uncovered the oldest skin lotion which is over 2000 years old. During the Middle Ages use of cosmetics was at times frowned on but technology developed along with medicine. The term Make-up was introduced in the 17th century and during these times, cosmetics were generally produced at home. In the 19th century most cosmetic & perfume development was done in France where it was more acceptable. It wasn't until the 20th century after World War 1 that regular use of cosmetics was viewed as socially acceptable. Throughout history there had been instances of cosmetics harming people. Lead & mercury were common ingredients until it was discovered that they were poisons. In the US, the cosmetic industry was largely unregulated until the passage of the 1938 Food Drug and Cosmetic Act. This helped set safety standards and provided the current definition for cosmetic products. According to FDA regulations cosmetic products are... "articles intended to be rubbed, poured, sprinkled, or sprayed on, introduced into, or otherwise applied to the human body or any part thereof for cleansing, beautifying, promoting attractiveness, or altering the appearance, and (2) articles intended for use as a component of any such articles; except that such term shall not include soap" What this means is that cosmetics are pretty much any product you put on your body that is meant to change the appearance. It also means that cosmetics are not supposed to have any significant effect on the biochemical processes of the body. If a product does, it is classified as a drug. There are 5 cateogries of cosmetic products including hair, skin, oral, makeup, and fine fragrances. In each category that are numerous types. Skin cosmetics are the most popular types of products and include moisturizers, lotions, anti-aging creams, facial scubs, body washes, deodorants, self tanners, and toners. Sunscreens and anti-acne products are often sold with cosmetics but...

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There are a number of raw material supplier shows around the United States and around the world. Last March, the Midwest SCC chapter held their Teamworks show which featured cosmetic suppliers from around the country. It was well attended. However, on May 15 and 16 the New York SCC will be holding the biggest cosmetic raw material supplier show in the country, their Suppliers' Day 2012 event. Here are some of the details. When: May 15 & 16 (2012) Time: 8:30am - 4:30 pm Where: New Jersey Convention & Expo Center Why Attend? If you want to see all of the suppliers in the industry and the new materials you can get from them, this is the place to go. Every large and medium sized supplier will be there. You will be able to ask questions, get information, get samples, and network with people throughout the industry. Looking for jobs? This is a good place to start networking. You can use the show as research for where your next source of employment may come from. Remember, being a cosmetic chemist does not mean you work only for finished goods manufacturers. Many chemists work for raw material suppliers. Looking for samples? Many of the suppliers give out free samples of their materials. If you want to get anything, this is the place to go. Looking for answers? If you are having a problem that you're not able to solve, there will be experts at the show who you can talk to and most likely find answers. Looking for free stuff? Well, you'll find it here too. Free samples, literature, candy and food. So, be sure to bring a stack of business cards and a list of questions you want answered. Bring a notebook and write down ideas that might occur to you. Notice trends in the industry and hopefully it will lead to new product ideas. I'm not going to make the show this year but it's definitely on my calendar for next year.

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You might have an idea for a cosmetic product but how do you know if it is any good? Well, you can ask your friends and family but they might not give you honest feedback for fear of hurting your feelings. Enter Quirky. com. This website allows you to join a community where you can post an idea (for $10) and get feedback from the community about whether it is a good idea or not. I'm not sure how valuable this information will be however, a mere $10 should be a great value.

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Here's an article which claims that paraben-free cosmetics are gaining popularity. They say that it is due to consumer demand but I suspect there are other more significant forces. 1. Fearmonger press releases. Whenever someone writes about awful things in cosmetics, they always cite parabens. But when consumers are asked about them, they don't even know what a paraben is. The press attention gets the attention of cosmetic marketing departments who ask their formulators to remove parabens. 2. Raw material suppliers. They want to expand their sales and parabens are relatively inexpensive. If they can get formulators to switch to a more expensive cosmetic preservative, that will make more money for them. I doubt that parabens will ever be completely removed from cosmetics because they are safe & effective. Plus the alternatives haven't been nearly tested as well. But for now getting parabens out of your formula is something you might have to do.

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I always like to discover free online information. The University of Minnesota is working on a new program where they make full textbooks available online (and there is the option to buy them too). This is great! You can see a free Chemistry Textbook here. Here is an introductory chemistry book too. Of course, if you can get the information for free you might wonder how the authors can make any money off their hard work. Good question. In truth, while some people can read a book and immediately understand concepts this is not true for most people. Most people need information from books explained further before they get it. You can read the entire Beginning Cosmetic Chemistry book but there will still be things that are hard to understand. Books (whether free or otherwise) will never replace classrooms and instructors.

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I remember reading about this years ago and then stumbled on it while doing research for the next Cosmetic Science in 300 Seconds video. It was interesting enough that I thought I would share. Archeologists have discovered a container of color foundation makeup that is over 2000 years old. It was found in a dig in Southwark which is just outside of the southern part of London. The cream was made from animal fat, starch and tin oxide. When researchers made a modern version of the formula they said it left a smooth powdery texture when rubbed into skin. Of course, I'm not sure how different the starting raw materials were. The biggest differences would be in the purity of the compounds used. Anyway, the article doesn't say whether the formula separated but if it didn't, that would be an incredible feat of formulating. Imagine a 2000 year long stability test. I've had some formulas that have lasted 4 or 5 years, but 2000? Wow. Although the ancient formula may not have passed all the stability testing. According to the researchers when they opened the jar there was a strong pungent rotten eggs smell. Not quite the kind of thing you want to put on your skin. But it leaves me wondering, how would you modify a formula to be stable for 2000 years?

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Today we're going to take a look at a hair gel. This is one of the best selling formulas in the category and may even be worth using as a benchmark for your future hair gel formulation efforts. Also, this formula is pretty typical of hair gels so it should make for a descriptive analysis. Let's take a look at Aussie Sydney Smooth Tizz No-Frizz Gel LOI - Aussie Tizz No Frizz Gel Water, Laureth 23, PVP, Psidium Guajava Fruit Extract (Guava Extract), Pyrus Malus (Apple) Fruit Extract, Prunus Armeniaca (Apricot) Fruit Extract, Euphrasia Officinalis (Eyebright) Extract, Salvia Officinalis (Sage) Leaf Extract, Fragrance (Parfum), Carbomer, Triethanolamine, Benzyl Alcohol, DMDM Hydantoin, Polyquaternium 4, Disodium EDTA Real Ingredient Order The first step in dissecting an ingredient list is to figure out where the 1% line is. This helps give an indication to which ingredients are crucially important. And it can let you get a rough guess as to the amount of each raw material used. Like most gels, this product is primarily water. Laureth 23 is high up in the list as is the styling polymer PVP. The first obvious claims ingredient is Psidium Guajava Fruit Extract. This most certainly does not have any significant impact on the performance of the gel and it is safe to say every ingredient below PVP is used at levels less than 1%. If I had to guess at what the ingredient list would look like if it was listed in order of concentration, I think it would look like this. (With guesses at ingredient levels) Water ~ 94% Laureth 23 - 2% PVP - 2% Carbomer - 0. 6% Fragrance (Parfum) - 0. 5% Triethanolamine - 0. 4% Polyquaternium 4 - 0. 4% Disodium EDTA - 0. 3% DMDM Hydantoin - 0. 2% Benzyl Alcohol - 0. 1% Psidium Guajava Fruit Extract (Guava Extract) -

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To become an expert cosmetic chemist, it is not enough to learn the science of cosmetic raw materials and which ones are compatible or not. Indeed, this information is criticial but another part of the cosmetic formulator job is just as important. Evaluating your prototypes. Evaluating cosmetic prototypes We've previously written about the importance of trying your own formulations. However, we did not get into the details of what to observe while doing that. Here is a system that you can follow which will help make you a formula evaluation expert. Step 1 - Pick a benchmark It is almost never the case that you will be working on a product that is completely new to the market. There is always a market leader that you should be comparing yourself to. This can be a competitive product or one of your own formulations. You just need to pick some product as a starting point. This is the thing you are trying to beat. If you're looking for a benchmark, it is always a good idea to look at sales information and see which ones consumers are buying most often. This is a good place to start. Step 2 - Develop your baseline skills In 2005, I believe that I had the most shampooed head in America. That year I was working on a new shampoo formula and a conditioner formula. I washed my hair over 1500 times. Yikes! While I did develop some redness and an itchy scalp, I always developed keen senses to differences between formulations. To be able to tell differences you have to experience the products. Each formulation will be different and you may want to focus on some specific aspect however, there are some general things to start noticing. For hair products the most important characteristics include... 1. Rinse time - how long is takes to be reomved from hair 2. Flash foam - how fast the foam forms 3. Lather feel - does the lather feel creamy or loose 4. Feel in hair - how does the product feel in the hair 5. Spreadability - how easy is it to move through hair 6. After feel - what does hair feel like after using it 7. Dry feel - when hair dries how does it feel 8. Lasting feel - how does hair feel later in the day For skin products... 1. Rub in time - how long it takes to disappear 2. Greasiness - how does it feel on skin 3. Tackiness - does skin feel sticky 4. Overall feel - after you've applied it how does it feel 5. Whiteness - how does it effect skin color 6. Reapplication time - how long does moisturizing effect last For each of these characteristics you should develop a rating scale (1-5 or 1-10 works well). Then use your benchmark formula and give ratings for each important characteristic. It's good to repeat this process and see if your scores stay consistent. Step 3 - Make prototypes...

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As an ongoing project, we here at Chemists Corner try to put up posts that might inspire people to come up with truly innovative new cosmetic products. The majority of things that are invented now are simply minor tweaks on existing technology. We would love to see some incredible new breakthroughs. Only by actively brainstorming wacky ideas will completely new innovations get invented. Of course, most of these will be useless but it only takes one idea to make something really new. All your consumers are Synesthete Are you familiar with the concept of synesthesia? This is the idea that there are people out there who have wires crossed in their brains and can experience mixed sensations. That is they can smell colors simply by looking at them or they experience taste sensations by reading certain words. Wonder if you are a synesthete? Take the test on this website. Innovation exercise So, imagine that your consumers are all synesthetes. How would you make your products different to appeal to them? List 5 ideas Here are mine. 1. Remove fragrance from products. Use colors to adjust the fragrance. 2. Remove colors from products. Use product name to change the color. 3. Sell products in bottles shaped like letters and number to change the experience. 4. Use meaningless combinations of letters to create unique sensorial experiences in consumer 5. Name your products by days of the week to give them characters. Ok, your turn. Add some ideas if you have some.

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When a consumer has a problem that can be addressed by cosmetics, they will often go and buy products. This is good for cosmetic chemists because it means more sales for your company and job security. But many consumers would rather find some home made or DIY treatment to fix their problem. I don't know why but DIY appeals to a lot of people. It's useful for cosmetic chemists to see what consumers are attempting. It may also give you some ideas for new products. Here's a good website that gives consumers home made solutions to their cosmetic problems. Take a look and see if you get some new ideas.

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A common question we get here on Chemists Corner is where to find sources of raw materials. Ingredients like methanol, propylene glycol, or glycerin are commodities which will have a number of sources. More specialized ingredients like cocamidopropyl betaine or potassium methyl cocoyl taurate have fewer sources. Some cosmetic raw materials have only a single source which makes them a risk and challenge to use. Where to get raw materials Where you get raw materials depends a lot on who you are, what you want, how much you will buy, and how much you're willing to pay. Here is a quick list that may guide you. 1. Independent chemist - Unless you have a reputation or friend in the industry it will be hard for you to get raw materials directly from companies. This is because they require you to buy a minimum amount of material which is often more than you really need. Typically, you'll need to get raw materials from chemical distributors like Nexxeo or find a source online like Making Cosmetics. You can get commodity ingredients like methanol or glycerin but it may be harder to get specialty compounds. It can be done, but you need to prove to the chemical company that there will be future business for them. 2. Small company chemist - For chemists who work at established companies, your options open up. You'll be able to contact many of the raw material manufacturers directly. A great resource is the INCI Directory. You'll have to prove to them that you work for a company that makes product but it shouldn't be too difficult to get the attention of distributors who are eager for business. You may still have a problem getting raw materials from large raw material manufacturers however. They just don't want to deal with small accounts. Going to an SCC trade show is a great idea! 3. Mid sized company chemist - Of all the situations, this is perhaps the best. All the major raw material companies will be interested in providing you samples and many of them will give you large quantities for free. You'll often be too big for the supplier to relegate you to a distributor so you get a lot of attention. Also, you will be in the position to have custom made materials for you. Companies don't like to do this too often but if they believe that there will be a big pay-off order, they'll be willing to spend some resources. To get raw materials you need to build up your network of contacts in the industry and start speaking with sales people. Going to an SCC meeting is a great place to start. 4. Big company chemist - You would think that a big company chemist would be in the best position, and for some people it may be. Even mid sized companies are ignored by the biggest chemical suppliers so you theoretically will have access to everyone. Unfortunately, the bigger your company gets the...

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Faulkner's new book Coloring the Cosmetic World: Using Pigments in Decorative Cosmetic Formulations is the latest color cosmetic technology book from Allured Publishing. The book promises to provide a comprehensive look at all aspects of this subject and overall meets and exceeds that goal. Its blend of practical information and theoretical information make it a valuable addition to any cosmetic chemist's bookshelf. Book organization This book covers the subject of colorants in 12 chapters. It also includes extensive appendices, glossary, and bibliography. The first chapter provides a solid background for the subject of colorants, covering topics of color theory, effects on people, physics and finally an introduction color chemistry. This is particularly helpful for a cosmetic chemist just getting started with the subject. The next four chapters take an in-depth look at the key aspects of choosing a colorant. These include regulatory considerations, stability, color esthetics, and the economics of color. The regulatory chapter provides a description of the requirements of the US, EU and Japan. It also includes a nice historical perspective of how things ended up the way they are now. This chapter is particularly helpful because it suggests what may happen to color regulations in the future. In the chapter on color stability, the author describes the various colorants that a formulator will likely use in her product. Two parts of this chapter will be most helpful to cosmetic chemists including a chart which lists the compatibility of colorants with a number of solvents and a section of colored photos of numerous powdered colors. No doubt this will become a section of the book that gets referred to often. One of the most useful chapters in the book is the one on color esthetics. Here the author takes us through dozens of colorants describing the shade that can be produced, which product forms it is normally used in and both positive and negative aspects of using the color. This chapter will save time for any color cosmetic formulator. The chapters in the second half of the book deal with the specifics of formulating with colorants, testing, and newer pigment technology. The pigment dispersion chapter focuses on creating color cosmetic products and it would have been nice to see this expanded to cover more types of formulations. The color testing chapter is brief but detailed methodologies in the appendix more than make up for any shortcomings. The final chapters of the book discuss some specific color technologies including surface treated pigments, effect pigments, specialty pigments and natural colorants. Each chapter provides a blend of interesting background science and practical knowledge that can be used at the bench right away. Colorful ending The book's last chapter is possibly one of the most entertaining. It does not discuss much about colorants but rather provides some sage advice from a color formulator who has spent 40 years in the pigment and cosmetic industries. This is bound to make any cosmetic formulator smile. There is a number of useful pages included after...

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We're starting a new feature here on Chemists Corner. It's called cosmetic science in 300 seconds. It will be a 5 minute video that will quickly explain some aspect of cosmetic science, formulating, testing, or any other cosmetic formulator appropriate topic. To kick it off, here is Surfactants in 300 Seconds. Surfactants http://www. youtube. com/watch? v=aWw_5wAsS2w Transcript Welcome to Cosmetic Science in 300 seconds brought to you by Chemists Corner. Today's topic is surfactants. Surfactants are one of the most important types of ingredients used in the formulation of cosmetic products. You'll find them in cosmetics ranging from body washes to skin lotions to eye shadows to toothpaste. Almost every cosmetic you use contains at least one surfactant. Surfactants have been used by people since the invention of soap back in 2800 BCE. But it wasn't until late 19th century when sulfonated castor oil was used in the textile industry as a dyeing aid that synthetic surfactants were made. In the 1920's & 30's surfactants from long-chain alcohols were created and in the 1950's and 60's most of the synthetic surfactants that we use today were introduced. Some commonly used surfactants include Sodium Lauryl Sulfate, Cocamidopropyl Betaine, and Glyceryl Stearate. The term surfactant stands for Surface Active Agent. This refers to the fact that in solutions, surfactant molecules migrate to the surface and align themselves in a manner which reduces surface tension. The reason surfactants behave in this manner is because of the way their molecule is structured. A portion of the molecule is hydrophilic (or water loving) while another portion is hydrophobic (or water hating). You might also hear them refered to as lipophilic (oil loving) or lipophobic (oil hating). When a surfactant is mixed with water, the hydrophobic parts of the molecule align themselves as far away from the water as they can. Simultaneously, the hydrophilic portion of the molecule continues to be attracted to the water. This leads to a variety of different molecular arrangements such as monomers, spherical micelles, tubules, rods, lamellar sheets, and bilayers. The exact structure depends on the type and concentration of surfactant in the solution. Normally, when oil and water are put together they do not mix nicely but rather stay separated. You can see this in salad dressings. This is because polar materials like water are more compatible with other polar materials while nonpolar materials like oil are more compatible with nonpolar materials. This has led to the general adage in chemistry "like dissolves like". The unique surface properties of surfactants mean that they can be compatible with both the oil phase and the water phase of this solution. This leads to a number of useful applications in cosmetics. Cleaning - First, surfactants are useful whenever you want to make something that will clean a surface. Water will remove all the water compatible ingredients, but for nonpolar dirt and oil, you need a surfactant to help remove it. These surfactants are called detergents and are found in shampoos and body washes....

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If you are going to make it in the cosmetic business you have to know your consumer. And if you are like most cosmetic companies, your consumer is a woman. Woman buy far and away more cosmetics than men. So here is an interesting survey about what women want from their cosmetic and skin care companies. Some useful findings. 1. Women in their 50’s use different products than they did in their 30’s and 40’s. Brand loyalty is completely up for grabs. Which means that this group of consumers would make an excellent target for a new cosmetic brand. 2. Women in this age group want products that “protect skin from damage” and “make skin look healthy”. This means that you have to create a product that has some obvious benefit. Just creating a product with a neat brand name and pretty packaging will not be enough. 3. Women believe skin changes more at age 50 than at any other time. Whether this is true or not doesn’t matter but what is important is that when formulating for this group, you test your products on this group of women. 4. This consumer group is more convinced by scientific data of efficacy & they want online consumer information. This is great news for new brands because you can compete online against the biggest corporations out there. The Internet is still competitive. The big guys still have a big share of this market with leading brands including Olay, Clinique, Estee Lauder, Lancome, Avon and L’Oreal Paris. But small brands have a chance in this market. You just need to figure out how to make yourself stand out.

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I thought this was an interesting article about how Proctor and Gamble are responding to claims that their Tide Detergent brand contains carcinogens. According to the story, they are satisfied that the level of the ingredient (1,4 dioxane - a contaminant in the production of their detergent) is at a low enough level that it is safe. They are not going to reformulate. The consumer advocate that is interviewed in the article makes the claim that "There are certain things that you do you know you’ll get 1,4 dioxane with, and there are fairly easy things you can do to make sure you don’t get it. " I wonder how true that is. If getting rid of that contaminant was easy, why wouldn't P&G just do it? I suspect there is more to this. But the real interesting point of this story was that P&G wasn't going to reformulate... yet. This is different from how they handled their Herbalessence brand a couple years ago when the same issue was brought up. In that case, they reformulated. J&J also reformulated last year when concerns were raised about their Baby Shampoo containing Quaternium-15 (a formaldehyde donor). They contend that the product was not unsafe but the bad publicity forced their hand. As a cosmetic chemist you will no doubt have to face a similar issue in your career. It's unfortunate that you'll be working on a project that doesn't make your product any better but on the plus side, it's good job security.

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This question was asked on the cosmetic science forum and I thought would make for a good discussion here on the blog. How do you go about switching ingredient vendors? We want to switch vendors because of lower prices and lower minimums. Can you just switch one ingredient out for another? Why switch cosmetic ingredient sources Before we answer, it is a good idea to explain why you would want to have an alternate source for a raw material. There are a number of reasons. 1. Price - You can get the raw material for lower cost. An excellent reason to switch suppliers. 2. Lower minimums - You can buy less of the ingredient. This is particularly important for small businesses. 3. Insurance - If you have a single source, you are at the mercy of your supplier. You should have other sources just in case something goes wrong. 4. Reliability - You need to have a supplier who will be able to reliably fill your orders. Changing cosmetic raw materials sources Unfortunately, changing from one source to another is not so simple as just buying from a new source. The primary problem is that just because ingredients have the same name, that doesn't mean they are the same material. INCI names cover a wide range of mixed materials. Another problem is that suppliers often make raw materials in a different way which can lead to different residual materials in the finished product. These residuals can wreck havoc with your formula. The bottom line is that you can't just switch raw materials from one source to another without testing. How to approve alternate suppliers To approve a new supplier there are a number of things you need to do. First, you need to make sure the specs for the ingredient match. To do this, you can look at the certificate of analysis (C of A) that the new supplier provides with samples. Compare this to your current spec and note where there are differences. Then you can tell the new supplier changes in the specs that you can make. It may also be easier to just give the new supplier your specs. Remember, specifications are negotiable. Once you have the specs for the new material, you'll need to make batches and run some tests. The first test is simply to see what happens to your batch when you use the new raw material. Check the pH, viscosity, appearance, order, and anything else that might be different. You should also conduct performance tests. Finally, if things look good you'll have to conduct stability tests of the formula in your final packaging. Once you are satisfied that you can't tell any differences you can start using the new raw material. Note, it may make sense to make a batch where you blend the new raw material with your current source just to make sure that you can safely blend the two ingredients in the future. Sometimes when you are making a batch...

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Here's a nice Saturday video shot. A couple fun science experiments on the Kelly and Guest show. It's not Helium its heavier than air so makes your voice lower. Sulfur hexaflouride.

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Today, I'm going to be speaking to a group of high school students about cosmetic chemistry and what it means to be a cosmetic chemist. It is my goal to inspire some of these people to go into science and maybe even follow a path to becoming a cosmetic chemist. It is a fun and interesting career which is largely unknown by college students. The talk will cover a few topics including... What is a cosmetic What kind of jobs do cosmetic chemists do What do the ingredients do What are some cosmetic myths How to be skeptical This is a blend of career advice / cosmetic science / and critical thinking training. I do enjoy giving talks like these because the audiences are always very appreciative. I remember in high school I was voted the "Best Impromptu Speaker". It's still a source of pride. In case you are curious, here is a copy of the slides I will be presenting on. Cosmetic Science presentation

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Interview begins at 5:55 Interview - Steve Herman Steve Herman is the Principal at PJS Partners where he consults on technical, formulating, regulatory and marketing for the cosmetic & personal care industry. He is an Adjunct Professor in the Fairleigh Dickinson University Cosmetic Science program and is the 2012 Chair Elect for the NYSCC. He's a returning guest on Chemists Corner. Cosmetic industry stories Whale barf no longer used in fragrance Optimistic consumers are more trusting Pale is the new Tan Interview Steven Herman FDU Cosmetic Science program NYSCC Get in touch with Steve through his website. Announcements Formulating Cosmetics training program Cosmetic science forum Chemists Corner is a podcast about cosmetic science and is broadcast to help educate, entertain, and inspire current and future cosmetic scientists. The information and opinions discussed on Chemists Corner are those of the hosts and the guests alone. They do not necessarily reflect those of any past, present or future employers.

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Recently, the FDA released a report on nanotechnology in cosmetic products. In case you didn't know, the FDA is the governmental body in the US that is responsible for regulating cosmetics. The report is meant for people to read and give comments and it is not yet binding. This is the way things work with the FDA. They release a draft report, let people comment on it, make some changes, then issue a final report. The whole process can take a long time but things eventually get done. Nanoparticles in cosmetics The report on cosmetics is rather short and I encourage you to read it. But in case you just want the summary points, here are the highlights. 1. The FDA does not take a position on a formal defintion of nanotechnology but they mention that it is most commonly used to refert to materials that range in size from 1 to 100 nanometers. They do point to the National Nanotechnology Initiative Program for guidance. 2. The FDA makes no blanket judgement about whether nanotechnology is intrinsically benign or harmful. They will make judgements on a case-by-case basis. 3. FDA says you should meet with them to discuss test methods you need to follow to substantiate your product's safety. 4. Nanoparticles have to be assessed for safety for each application. This is different than chemicals which can often be saftey tested outside a formulation. 5. You need to fully characterize the nanoparticles you work with. (name, size, structure, formula, etc. ) 6. Traditional toxicology tests need to be modified when testing nanoparticles. 7. Toxicology tests need to consider different routes of exposure including skin absorption and inhalation. 8. FDA still recommends in vivo (animal) testing for toxicity evaluation. Some in vitro methods are being considered but have not been suitably validated. 9. Clinical testing of the material in human volunteers under controlled conditions is recommended. These regulations and testing requirements may make it difficult for small cosmetic companies to use nanotechnology any time soon. But if there is a big enough benefit, you can bet the big companies will be launching more products in the future. That is, if the chemical fearmongers don't scare everyone away from what could be radically better cosmetic products.

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When I first came into the Industry the terms Organic, Natural, Green and Sustainable kind of jumbled themselves into one niche group, of next generation products. We have previously taken a look at Organic cosmetics and Natural cosmetics, so what about Sustainable? Sustainable is the synonym of GREEN which refers to manufacturing processing as opposed to Natural and Organic ingredients that are categorized by agriculture, originating source or the lack of synthetic ingredients. These pronounced differences provide more opportunity for growth in Sustainable products than Natural and Organic products in the years to come. DEFINING AND UNDERSTANDING SUSTAINABILTY As I understand, Sustainable and Green practices were defined by the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency). I took the following statements directly from their website: Sustainability is based on a simple principle: Everything that we need for our survival and well-being depends, either directly or indirectly, on our natural environment. Sustainability creates and maintains the conditions under which humans and nature can exist in productive harmony, that permit fulfilling the social, economic and other requirements of present and future generations. Sustainability has emerged as a result of significant concerns about the unintended social, environmental, and economic consequences of rapid population growth, economic growth and consumption of our natural resources. Today EPA aims to make sustainability the next level of environmental protection by drawing on advances in science and technology to protect human health and the environment, and promoting innovative green business practices. Sustainability is important to making sure that we have and will continue to have the water, materials, and resources to protect human health and our environment. The goal of the EPA to promote innovation and Green business practices are outlined in the Twelve Principles of Green Chemistry “Also known as sustainable chemistry -the design of chemical products and processes that reduce or eliminate the use or generation of hazardous substances. Green chemistry applies across the life cycle of a chemical product, including its design, manufacture, and use. ” Please click on the link below for the list of the 12 Principles of Green Chemisty. WHAT THIS MEANS FOR BRANDS, MARKETING, AND FORMULATIONS Compared to Organic and Natural products, Sustainable products have a more desirable appeal overall. Organic and Natural are limited to a narrow group of ingredients used in a formulation, but Sustainable allows you to choose what part of your product contributes to the goal of sustainability — ingredients, the process of production, packaging, shipping, and anything else that may fit in the 12 Principles of Green Chemistry. Due to innovative processing and the reduction of waste and energy, the savings incurred are passed on to the customer. Unlike Natural and Organic Ingredients that drive the cost of goods up, Sustainable ingredients can actually SAVE money and who does not like to save? ? ? EVERYONE! Not only is it Cost saving, but a greater variety of ingredients exist on the market... synthetic ingredients included, that contribute to ease of formulation and performance. Let us do some simple math: Environmentally...

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I was always of the opinion that innovation in the surfactant field was pretty much finished. It seems there really isn't much more you can do. Perhaps you can make things create more bubbles or make them less harsh but from a functionality standpoint, what is going to perform better than SLS or SLES? But Dow has come out with a new surfactant designed to be a replacement for SLES. This surfactant, called EcoSense, is plant-based and designed to be biodegradable. It will certainly help natural formulators in their quest to make all-natural, sustainable cosmetics. They say it offers better flash foam and rinsibility than SLES so I suppose that is an improvement. But this doesn't appear to be a quantum level improvement in surfactant technology. It is not going to allow you to do something in your formula that you couldn't have done before this product was launched. No doubt they will get a ton of sample requests. Now, whether they make significant inroads into the market remains to be seen.

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This seems like a pretty handy app for formulators. Hopefully, other raw material manufacturers will jump on this bandwagon. Floratech has created an app that allows people with smart phones to scan the QR code and get access to all kinds of information about the raw material including INCI name, product descriptions, efficacy claims, MSDS and other technical data sheets. If you don't know, a QR code is that little square of black and white pixels. Each one is unique and leads users to a website. You can generate your own QR code here. See if you can figure out what the QR code in this blog post is associated with. Cosmetics of the future Forward thinking cosmetic chemists will start devising ways how this technology could be used on thier products. For example, you could have a link to a video which shows a funny commercial for the product. Or you could have a link to some more information or some fun interactive game related to your product. The possibilities are limitless. But the time to do something is now. No one else in the marketplace is doing it. Could you get your company to be first? And you entreprenuers out there... could this help differentiate your product?

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There was a question on one of the cosmetic science forums I subscribe to about viscosity. This reader wanted to know whether they needed an "expensive" Brookfield viscometer or whether they could take viscosity readings another way. It turns out there are a variety of choices. Why measure viscosity Viscosity is one of those terms that wasn't covered much in college but tends to be used a lot in the cosmetic industry. We've previously writte about fluid viscosity and I would encourage you to read that to get up to speed on what it is and why you would want to measure it. But basically you measure viscosity to ensure your product is of consisten quality and that it remains stable. How to measure viscosity In the cosmetic industry the overwhelming instrument of choice for measuring viscosity is the Brookfield Viscometer. Viscosity is measured by looking at the force required to spin a plate through the fluid. All the calculating is done by the instrument. The Brookfield viscometer is rather simple to use and has a number of benefits over other options including 1. Speed - you can get a reading in less than 2 min 2. Easy clean up - you can get multiple readings fast 3. Reliability - readings are consistent 4. Versatile - you can test lots of different rheologies Of course, there are some downsides. For shear thinning products your readings might not be accurate due to the drilling effect. And the device needs to be callibrated to give consistent readings. This adds to the cost of operating it, in addition to the >$1500 that it costs up front. However, if you are a serious formulation chemist you need to have a viscometer and Brookfield makes the industry standard. Here's a viscometer in action. Alternatives to Brookfield Viscometer While most every company uses a Brookfield viscometer, there are other options. For example, there is the Ubbelohde glass capillary viscometer. This is a glass tube made with some curves and bulbs. It has no moving parts and simply requires a stop watch and a vacuume bulb. The fluid is drawn up the tube and the time it takes to flow back down is related to its viscosity. Unlike the Brookfield, there is no issue with shear thinning products. Of course, the major drawback is that it takes 5 to 10 minutes to get a viscosity reading and it would be impractical for most cosmetic labs. You can see one in action here. The primary benefit of this option is that it is much less expensive than the Brookfield and it doesn't require recallibration. And then there is the Rheometer. This device uses a flat plate in which a small sample of the product is put between. The plate is rotated and the force required for rotating the plate is related to the product viscosity. This device is easy to use but generally not as accurate as the Brookfield. But for a cosmetic lab, it might be good...

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I've just started reading a book called Chemistry Connections and it's quite good so far. One of the questions had to deal with cosmetics and I thought it was an interesting one to discuss. Why do cold creams feel cold? And more generally, how do you make a cooling sensation in your cosmetic formulation. Cold creams Cold creams are typically Water in Oil emulsions. Classic products like Pond's Cold Cream is a mixture of Mineral Oil, Water, Beeswax, and Ceresin. It also has a thickener, preservative and fragrance. The product is interesting enough because you don't see a lot of water in oil emulsions on the market. But what about this cooling sensation? Physics of cooling It turns out the cooling effect is not a result of any special chemical, it's just the water. When the cream is put on the skin, water and the fragrance begin to evaporate immediately. Evaporation is an endothermic process meaning it requires heat to happen. The heat is drawn from the skin which produces the cooling effect. Incidentally, this is the same process the body takes advantage of when you are sweating. While water in the formula can give you the cooling sensation, there are other compounds which can make a much more intense sensation. Ethanol is great for causing that cooling sensation. Menthol, Methyl Salicylate, Eucalyptus and Tea Tree Oil are other examples of materials that can give a cooling effect. Unfortunately, these can also have unwanted side effects like odor or irritation.

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For you formulators that are interested in natural formulating there is a beauty summit that is being held in New York on May 14 and 15. At the event you will be able to engage with leading natural players, learn about the key issues and challenges, find the latest consumer insights and be inspired by successful products. It's a new event so it just might be worth checking out. You can find more information here. Natural Beauty Summit

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One of the greatest things about science is that you can set up demonstrations / experiments that have unexpected results. And these demonstrations don't have to cost a lot of money. Often you can do them with things you have right in your kitchen. There aren't a lot of great science demos to show the principles of cosmetic science (although I'm going to work on coming up with some). Here is a good list of kitchen experiments that you can try. It's from one of my favorite podcasts Naked Science. Here are two demos related to surfactants. 1. Bubble color interference 2. Bouncing soap Do you have any great sources for science demos? I'm always on the lookout for them. Leave a comment below.

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Did you know that the biggest brands in the cosmetic industry are some of the biggest spenders on advertising and marketing? And you know what that means? Small, start-up entrepreneurs just can't compete when it comes to traditional marketing and advertising. You won't win a war against P&G and their $2 billion plus advertising budget. But maybe you can win a few battles. Online cosmetic marketing While the traditional advertising outlets of Television, Radio and Print are dominated by the Big Guys, they haven't been able to dominate the Internet. And they won't because success in Internet marketing requires more than just money. It also requires time, passion, and a willingness to experiment. These are areas in which you as a cosmetic entrepreneur can beat the cosmetic giants. So how do you do it? Here is a general plan that should work. Find a niche consumer The first step to successfully marketing your own line of cosmetic products is to find a niche consumer that is dissatisfied with the products being offered elsewhere in the market. We've previously written about how to find a niche cosmetic consumer. The key for successful Internet marketing of your cosmetic brand is that you need to find a niche that is small enough that the big cosmetic companies are ignoring it, but large enough for you to be able to sell products and make money from it. Set up your website Next, you'll need to create a brand name (make sure you can legally use it) and set up a website. Until you become a gigantic brand sold in stores across the world, your website is going to be your main connection with consumers. It will help educate them about your brand and also be a place where they can purchase your products. In the beginning, you don't need your products on display in stores, you display them right on your website. Getting customers After you've created your website, you need to get people to come and visit. Many brands do this via advertising. They put up a banner ad or a text ad on a website which gets people to click to their site. This is one method but it can become extremely expensive. A better method is to start writing a blog about the things your niche consumer cares about. For example, if your niche consumer is Bald Men, you can start writing about products for bald heads. You can write about things like famous bald people, why bald men are sexy, what women think about bald heads, etc. The idea is to create pages on your website that will attract Google searches to your website. Chemists Corner is a website who's niche consumer is cosmetic formulators or people interested in cosmetic science. So, we write articles about cosmetic science, a career in cosmetic science, formulating, etc. We think about all the things our consumer might care about and write something. Over time, the blog entries on your subject will start to...

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As a cosmetic chemist you have to hone certain skills to be able to discern subtle differences between formulation prototypes. These skills include things like determining differences in feel, picking up differences in odor, and noticing color differences. While it's tough to practice the former using only the Internet, the color skills can be done remotely and digitally. Color matching skills Here's a pretty good test for you to try and see how well developed your color matching skills have become. Online color challenge In case you were curious, I tried it once and got a score of 38 (on a scale of 0-99). Lower is better so I'm only slightly better than average. I guess I better practice if I'm going to start formulating again. What is your score?

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When you go through college and get a degree in science, you can rest assured that you are taking the hardest courses that the university offers. I suppose there are a few math majors who might disagree but there is so much overlap that I feel confident in my claim. You can't be a good science student without also taking a lot of math. Anyway, this means that the people who can get through these science courses are usually the smartest ones coming out of college. And if you were like me, you thought that the smartest people would get the best jobs and make the most money. Unfortunately, they don't. Want to make a lot of money? If making a ton of money your primary concern, you will be disappointed with a job in cosmetic chemistry. Switch to Finance or Marketing or some other business major and get a job in those fields. That's where the big money is. Of course, to someone with an interest in science, those jobs may also be incredibly dull and unfulfilling. Realities of cosmetic R&D Ok, now for the good news. Although it's unlikely that you will quickly become a multimillionare as a cosmetic chemist, you can still make an excellent salary that gives you a comfortable life. The job is also a relatively low stress one and the demand is high enough that unemployment is pretty low. Wonder what salary you might make? Well, it will vary around the country (and the world) but this report from Happi magazine of the 2011 R&D Salary survey is a pretty good snapshot of what you can expect. Some highlights... Cosmetic chemist salaries Here are the average annual salaries in the US for people who get jobs in the cosmetic R&D field. Lab Technician = $43,000 Chemist / formulator = $58,000 Senior Chemist = $83,000 R&D Manager = $101,000 R&D Director = $110,000 Starting right out of college you can expect to get a job as a technician or chemist so that is your salary range. Cosmetic chemist job frustrations Another interesting aspect of the survey was the job frustrations. I remember feeling all of these in my cosmetic science career. 1. Lack of advancement 2. Internal office politics 3. Inadequate compensation 4. Inadequate project funding 5. Regulatory issues 6. Pressures from marketing department Other tidbits There were a few other things in the report which are interesting. 1. Salaries for chemists outside of the US are typically lower. 2. Women make only slightly less than men (but still less) 3. Most (48%) cosmetic chemists have Bachelor's degrees. 27% have Master's degrees, and 14% had PHDs. 6% did not have college degrees. It's an interesting survey and a pretty good reflection of what you can expect when entering the job market as an R&D worker in the cosmetic industry.

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We just received word that the University of Toledo will be starting a new Pharmaceutics/Cosmetic Science Major in the fall of 2012. This will be a four-year degreed program that will result in a BS. in Pharmaceutical Sciences. For a list of the courses in the curriculum, see this list. This is a new program but it promises to be a good one. I know they have been in contact with industry professionals to help develop the curriculum. The first class is going to consist of between 30 and 40 students. If you are interested in more information you can contact Ken Alexander by email Kalexan@utnet. utoledo. edu or Ms Crystal Taylor at crystal. taylor@utoledo. edu for further information. See this post for more information about other cosmetic science programs.

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While answering a reporter's question about the hisotry of cosmetics, I came across the name Johann Bartholomaeus Trommsdorff. He lived from 1770-1837 and according to the source, he is considered the first cosmetic chemist. This is primarily because of a book he published in 1805 called "Kallopistria, or the art of the toilet for the fashionable world". It is "... a guide to perfumes and toilet preparations, harmless formulations, powders, pomades, face painting, pastes, aromatic baths and of all the relevant funds, which serve to enhance the beauty... " Johann seems like he would've fit right in with Chemists Corner and the Society of Cosmetic Chemists. In 1795 he founded a pharmaceutical studies institute in Germany where he taught people to become pharmacists (and to make cosmetic products). Over the years he trained 300+ students in the subject and wrote 34 books. Kallopistria Google has actually made a copy of the book available online for free. You can see Kallopistria here. Unfortunately, I do not know any German so the contents of the book is completely baffling to me. Anyone speak German out there that can translate? Mostly, I want to read just one of the formulations that he has published. But I can't even tell where the formulas are or what they are for.

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I stumble upon some of the most interesting things while going through the Internet. Back in 2004 the CTFA (now the PCPC) and its EU sister organization COLIPA issued some Guidelines on Stability Testing. We have previously written about cosmetic stability testing which was strictly based on experience. Let's see how our stability advice stacks up. Stability testing Objective According to the report, the objective of stability testing is to ensure that products meet chemical, microbiological and performance standards. Yep, that's pretty much why you do stability testing. The other important part is that it provides a paper trail for you to help prove that you are only selling safe products. Stability testing design A cosmetic stability test should be designed to assure Stability and physical integrity of cosmetic products under appropriate conditions of storage, transport and use, Chemical stability, Microbiological stability, The compatibility between the contents and the container Indeed, this makes sense. This means you have to test the products under different conditions, in the right packaging, and do microbiological testing. The system we have described in our stability testing post meets these requirements. Interestingly, they hedge their bets by saying that "Because of the wide variety of cosmetic products and their inherent complexity, 'standard' stability tests cannot be prescribed. " That is a good point but if you are creating a standard product, there are standard methods you can follow. Predicting shelf life One of the most common questions we get asked is "how much time at accelerated temperature will predict 1 or 2 years of stability testing". The rule of thumb that I have always followed is that a sample stored at 45C for 8 weeks will predict how the sample will behave when stored at room temperature for 1 year. The COLIPA guidelines do not give any such recommendations. This is typical of political organizations. They never want to say anything too specific. In truth, the 45C for 8 weeks is just a guideline and it may not work for every formula. What to test in stability tests The guidelines give a good description of the things you should test including Color, odor and appearance, Changes in the container, pH,Viscosity, Weight changes Microbial tests demonstrating the ability of the products to prohibit microbial growth during normal use and other specific tests if necessary, Analytical data in relation to other parameters for specific product types Finally, the COLIPA guidelines suggest that stability samples should be put under additional stress such as Freeze/thaw testing and light exposure. This is a good practice. I've seen numerous samples change color and fragrance character when exposed to UV light. This will happen to any product that is sold in stores under fluorescent lighting. The guideline ends with some tips on creating your own cosmetic stability test protocol. You are free to create one based on these testing guidelines or you can just follow the system that we've already written about. Just remember, stability testing is crucial to ensure your product...

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This is a guest post by Gary Neudahl who is currently Product Application Manager, Personal Care Ingredients, for the HallStar Company and is based at the HallStar Manufacturing and Technical Center in Bedford Park IL USA. In this post, we move from general hand & body care to sun protection. With the issuance of a new FDA Final Rule that goes into effect later this year, there has been a heightened interest in the OTC Sunscreen Drug Products category. This rule requires sun protection products for the U. S. marketplace to move a step closer to the quality of protection provided in the EU, Japan, Australia and most of the rest of the world. And with rising instances of skin cancer in young adults, it is none too soon. Sunscreen UVB history For many years, sunscreens marketed in the U. S. have provided protection against UVB radiation (290 — 320 nm), the rays that are responsible for sunburn, that is comparable to that of similarly rated products around the world. A sunscreen’s sun protection factor (SPF) is the ratio of the minimum erythemal dose (MED) — the amount of UV radiation it takes to turn the skin slightly red — of skin protected with sunscreen to the MED of unprotected skin. Higher SPFs mean greater protection against burning (and, presumably, skin cancer). Sounds good, but UVB is not all the sun delivers! UVA protection Sunscreens marketed in the U. S. must soon also provide protection against UVA radiation (320 — 400 nm), the rays that are commonly known as the “tanning rays,” to avoid sporting a warning label. That’s because the longer wavelengths of UVA rays allow them to penetrate more deeply into the skin than UVB rays – through the outer layer, the epidermis, all the way to the dermis. The only visible short-term effect of UVA irradiance is skin tanning, and short wavelength UVA exposure actually has a beneficial effect in children, converting 7-dehydrocholesterol into vitamin D, thereby reducing the incidence of rickets, a bone-softening disease. But as with UVB irradiation, long-term UVA exposure has detrimental effects. In the dermis, it degrades collagen, a critical structural component, resulting in sagging and wrinkling of skin. And UVA radiation contributes to the incidence of basal cell and squamous cell carcinomas, as well as malignant melanoma. Like UVB radiation, it decreases the number of Langerhans cells, which lowers resistance to infection. Limiting the sun's effects So there are good reasons to limit sun tanning, and one way to do that is to apply a broad-spectrum sunscreen (one that significantly reduces the amount of both UVB and UVA rays that reach the skin). A sunscreen’s UVA Protection Factor (PFA) is determined by measuring persistent pigment darkening (PPD), the appearance of brownish skin pigmentation within three hours of exposure to UVA. Products with higher PFA provide better resistance to persistent pigment darkening. Rather than using this in vivo measure of UVA protection, the FDA chose to use the critical wavelength — the wavelength...

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While this site is primarily about the science of cosmetics, it is also about helping future chemists get cosmetic science jobs. If fact, we have a whole section of articles about cosmetic chemist careers. So, whenever we hear of opportunities we like to post them and give people a chance to land a cosmetic science job. Here are a couple that we have recently been alerted to. Cosmetic Science Internship There is an Intern skincare/cosmetic formulation position open at Amway Research and Development. They are located in Ada Michigan and are looking for someone who is an Undergrad or Graduate level student with training in a Cosmetic Science curriculum. Skincare or cosmetic laboratory experience is highly preferred. Candidate must have a minimum GPA of 3. 0 and one semester or more left of school to complete at the beginning of their internship. Candidates who have graduated are not eligible to intern. For more information contact Dr. Paul Seehra (paul. seehra @ amway. com) or see the Amway website. Cosmetic science jobs If you're looking for an opportunity in R&D at a large cosmetic manufacturing company, you'll be interested to know that Kao USA is hiring. They have several positions available in skin care product development including Senior Scientist, Scientist, and Technician. For people just starting out in the cosmetic industry, the Technician position would be an excellent place to begin. Incidentally, these jobs are located in Cincinnati, OH. If you're interested, send us a message here and we'll forward to the appropriate people. More cosmetic science jobs For more cosmetic science opportunities, be sure to see the various Society of Cosmetic Chemist websites. They often have job postings. Click the following link to go to a complete list of the SCC Chapters.

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I don't know why but there seems to be a desire by consumers (at least according to some cosmetic manufacturers) to put food on their bodies as cosmetic treatments. There is beer shampoo, egg facial masks, and honey hair treatments. This brand Dairyface has embraced the trend with their Dairyface line of skin care products. They really play up the idea that people want cosmetic products that look like food. For example, they use containers that look like yogurt cartons. Then their products are yogurt based or milk based. They even forgo the typical preservatives and instead tell people to refrigerate to ensure freshness and to use by the expiration date. I don't know about these products. I don't think it's such a great idea to go around using unpreserved cosmetics. However, Dairyface does stay true to their niche. They even say you can eat the products although they also say it wouldn't taste very good. We'll see how well they do. I suspect they will always remain a niche player. Having to refrigerate your cosmetics doesn't sound appealing.

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When I was a kid, Easter used to be a much bigger deal holiday than it has become. We used to get baskets of candy, go on easter egg hunts and get together for a big family dinner. Now, it's just the dinner but perhaps that is reflective of the fact that I don't have any kids. Anyway, there are a number of cosmetic ingredients that evoke the traditional American Easter holiday. Here are some examples. Eggs One of the most ubiquitous symbols of Easter is the egg. If you are formulating a cosmetic product there are a number of egg ingredients, mostly for hair conditioning and skin moisturization. Defatted Egg Yolk Powder Dried Egg Yolk Hydrogenated Egg Oil Hydrolyzed Egg Protein Rabbits Delivering eggs is done by the Easter bunny. While animal ingredients are almost never used in cosmetics any more there was a time in the recent past when they were. The hessinfeferous ingredient for cosmetics is... Rabbit Fat Flowers Finally, another universal symbol of Easter is flowers and specifically the Tulip. Want to add some tulips to your cosmetics, try these raw materials. Tulipa Darwin Flower Extract - Emollient Tulipa Gesneriana Flower Extract - Emollient Tulipa Hybrida Flower Extract - Emollient Tulipa Kaufmanniana Bulb Extract - Skin conditioning So, if you're looking for an Easter themed formulation, be sure to include some of these feature ingredients. Happy Easter!

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I've been reading this book which is excellent called the Disappearing Spoon. It's a historical account of the periodic table of elements. And I love it. I will do a review of it shortly but I wanted to post this video of a disappearing spoon today. It's pretty cool. It turns out Gallium can be made to look exactly like a silver spoon. But when you put it in hot water it dissolves. I must try it.

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As a cosmetic chemist and formulator you will likely receive requests from your marketing group or your customers to develop an all-natural formula that is devoid of any "bad" chemicals. Indeed, this is a request that is sent to us here at Chemists Corner frequently. In fact, formulating natural cosmetics is such a frequent request that we even teamed up with Allured Publishing to produce a Formulating Natural Cosmetics online training course. If this is an area of interest to you, be sure to sign up for the course. Challenges of natural formulations While the course will give you an excellent start on formulating natural products, you will still be faced with 3 significant challenges as a natural formulator. These include a lack of standards, a derth of functional ingredients and a fickle consumer base. Challenge 1 - No Natural Standards Although we say there are no natural standards there are actually lots of natural standards. Just take a look at this post we did on natural cosmetic standards. In fact, we list 15 different standards. This is the problem. Since there is no single standard that will apply to your formulations, you will not have any good way to decide whether you can use an ingredient or not. And even if you follow a specific standard consumers are not familiar with the various standards. They will have no idea how to judge your natural product versus a competitor. You could follow extremely strict rules while your competitor makes a standard product and simply puts the words "Natural" on the label. Most consumers won't know the difference. Possible solution - Find out what your target consumer understands and cares about and formulate to those standards. Challenge 2 - Fewer ingredients This is possibly the most challenging problem a natural formulator will face. You just won't be able to use many of the best functioning ingredients available. You know what the best moisturizing ingredient is? Petrolatum. You can't use it if you are formulating natural products. There are a number of preservatives you can't use, and synthetic surfactants... nope. Formulating natural products is like trying to create a painting without being able to use most of paint colors in existance. Certainly, you can still produce a nice product, but probably not the best product possible. What makes this an even more significant challenge is that you are competing against other cosmetic formulators who are not hampered by such restrictions. This is a significant challenge indeed. Possible solution - Continute to experiment with all the new natural raw materials and push your raw material suppliers to develop replacement ingredients for the best synthetitic options Challenge 3 - Consumers won't compromise The problem of formulating with less ingredients may necessarily mean that the product you end up creating does not work as well as some of your synthetic chemical based competition. As a marketer you might think that consumers are willing to sacrifce some functionality for the fact that they are using natural...

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I loved Richard Wiseman's book Quirkology. His book 59 Seconds was also excellent. That's why I was pleasantly surprised when I stumbled on this video he did containing 10 cool science tricks. Take a look and try them out.

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This is a guest blog post written by cosmetic chemist Mica Oba. She is currently an undergraduate in Pharmaceutical Chemistry and spent some time working with a contract manufacturer in the Bay Area (California). You can read more from her on her blog Geek Makeup Wisdom For this guest post on Chemists Corner, I decided to dedicate this to the future cosmetic chemists–to the high school students and undergraduates who read this blog. Becoming a cosmetic chemist As an undergraduate, I understand how difficult it can be to get your foot into the industry. I have been struggling with that problem since my senior year in high school. I emailed cosmetic companies around my area (Northern California) for internships. At one point, during the beginning of my junior year in college, I was offered an internship, but a month later they told me that they could no longer offer me the position. As discouraging as that situation was, I picked myself up and continued inquiring about internships with other companies. Finally after years of persistence, I was lucky enough to be offered an internship position with a company in my area. So what did I do in that span of four years before obtaining my internship? Acquiring a B. S. in chemistry and applying for positions in the industry or graduate schools are a given, but here are some other things I did to prepare myself for a job in cosmetic chemistry. Network, Network, Network I cannot emphasize networking enough. I think a big mistake a lot of undergraduates make is keeping to themselves and waiting to network until after graduation. I think it’s important for undergraduates to realize that not only can you network with people in the industry or from academia, but also with your classmates. It’s good to network with a variety of majors aside from chemists. Networking with biology, business, art, design and communications majors is a great idea. Remember that getting a product out onto the market is a collaborative effort and takes more than just chemists. Be sure to keep networking with a variety of people in other fields even after you graduate. Power of the Internet The internet also makes it easy to network with people around the globe! My blog and Twitter alone has put me in contact with a lot of cosmetic chemists that I never would have been able to network with had it not been for the internet (Perry for example! ) Sometimes people will leave their e-mails in comments on other people’s blogs. I’ve made contacts this way as well. Networking doesn’t even need to lead to a collaboration. Contacts can share their experiences with you, give their opinions, and even inspire you. Even if a contact cannot have a job for you right away, keeping in touch with this person may present a new opportunity down the line. If you decide to utilize social networking sites such as Facebook, LinkedIn or Twitter to network with people in...

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On the cosmetic science forum someone posed this question, "Where can I find the monograph for cosmetics? " It's an interesting question for a number of reasons so I thought I would make a complete blog post out of it. To answer this question, we need to step back and discuss what a monograph is. FDA Monographs A monograph is essentially a recipe book that tells formulators exactly the ingredients, doses, and formulations they can use when creating an over-the-counter drug. It also gives the exact claims that can be made about the product and describes other labeling requirements. This means that the technical answer to the original question about finding monographs for cosmetics is "nowhere because they do not exist. " Monographs are for drugs, not for cosmetics. Cosmetic monographs While that answer is technically correct it is also incomplete because there are a number of cosmetic like products that are classified as over-the-counter (OTC) drugs here in the United States. Here is a list of cosmetic/OTC products that are governed by an FDA monograph. If you are formulating one of these products, you will have to follow the rules described in the OTC monograph. 1. Anti-acne products - This monograph describes 40 different ingredients that can be used for anti-acne. Rule was finalized in 1990 although there was some action in 2010 on Benzoyl Peroxide. 2. Toothpaste & anti-cavity products - This monograph gives a list of over 20 ingredients that can be used to fight cavities. The final rule was issued in 1995. 3. Topical anti-fungal - Products that are topically applied to places that need anti-fungal effects (diaper rash, feet, etc). Final rule was originally passed in 1993. 4. Anti-microbial products - There is a long list of ingredients that can be used for topical anti-microbial products. For most of the antimicrobial ingredients, the final rule has not yet been issued. It is suggested you follow the proposed rules when formulating. 5. Antiperspirant - This monograph is for products that are designed to stop sweating. The final monograph was originally issued in 2003. It lists 26 active ingredients that you can use. 6. Astringents - These are classified as skin protectants. The final rule was originally issued in 2003. 7. Corn & Callus removers - Definitely a niche product but some cosmetic companies might want to create these formulations. 8. Dandruff products - If you are planning to create an anti-dandruff shampoo, then you have to follow the rules of this monograph. The final monograph was issued in 1991 & revised in 1992. 9. Hair growth / hair loss - The final monograph for these types of products was issued in 1989 and includes nothing that works. However, in 1994, Minoxidil was switched from a perscription drug to an OTC. It remains the only non-perscription option. 10. Nailbiting products - There is a monograph for products that are designed to stop people from biting their nails. Who knew? The final monograph was issued in 1993. 11....

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As a cosmetic chemist you will no doubt run into people (either in person or on the Internet) who hold strong opinions about beauty products, chemicals, and product safety. They will be quick to tell you about the products that work and the ones that are a complete waste. They also seem to know exactly which chemicals are causing all sorts of health horrors from cancer to birth defects. You might even run into someone who writes books about the subject despite the fact that they hold no particular background in the subject. This has always puzzled me. Why would someone who has no background in cosmetic science or toxicology develop strong beliefs that are in contrast to what researchers and scientists who study the subject say? Dunning-Kruger effect It turns out, there is an explanation. It's called the Dunning-Kruger effect. This is a psychological condition in which a person who is unskilled in an area believes themselves to have above-average intelligence in that area. It's thought that this is a result of the person's inability to recognize their own mistakes. Conversely, people who actually have a competence in an area tend to underestimate their knowledge and confidence in that area. This is why scientists typically couch their words in terms of probabilities and possibilities. They never say, "Use of this chemical is absolutely safe. " Rather, they would say something like, "There is no evidence that this chemical will cause harm. " Unfortunately, recognizing your own shortcomings is difficult so even if you are competent in one area, you might suffer from this same effect in another. There are some things you can do to avoid it such as remaining skeptical of your own expertise and getting advice from trusted friends. Here's a pretty good article which discusses the Dunning-Kruger effect further. What to do? While there are things you can do to prevent this effect in yourself, you might become frustrated when you run into a person who is afflicted by the condition without knowing it. If you are on Twitter, Facebook or read beauty blogs you will run into a lot of people like this. Here are some ways that I try to deal with it. 1. Avoid criticism. Calling people names or telling them they are ignorant is not an effective way to help them see the light. 2. Never tell someone they are wrong. They may be wrong but if you tell them they are, you will not change their mind. You will just make them mad and most likely increase their conviction in their erroneous belief. 3. Offer your opinion when asked. Rather than telling people what is right or wrong, offer your own opinion in as humble a manner as you can. 4. Ask questions. The number one way to debate/dialogue with a person suffering from the Dunning-Kruger effect is to ask them questions. If you can get someone to examine why they believe something, you might be able to crack their confidence....

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Here's a pretty good demonstration that you might use in the future for a presentation to your marketing group or other people you want to impress with a cool science trick.

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I thought this was a pretty interesting video. It shows how Lush makes one of their bath bombs. A few things are noteworthy. 1. The green color they get is actually from dyes and not the avocado. 2. I doubt they cut up avocados like this every time they make a batch 3. Hand packaging everything can take a lot of time. Still, if you were every curious about making these types of products, this is really how it is done on a production level.

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This is a guest post by Gary Neudahl. He is currently Product Application Manager, Personal Care Ingredients, for the HallStar Company and is based at the HallStar Manufacturing and Technical Center in Bedford Park IL USA. In this second article in the series, we move from the underarm area to general skin care. Product application areas may include the feet, legs, genitals, breasts, trunk, arms, hands, cuticles, neck, face, eye area, scalp, or entire body. Product forms include emulsions such as milks, lotions, creams, soufflés and butters; liquids, as solutions, sera, mists, or sprays; semi-solids like gels, sticks, balms or ointments; and solids, including powders. The benefits of topically applied products are often not entirely cosmetic. Active ingredients may be incorporated to provide any of a variety of benefits including, among others, sun protection, pain relief (analgesics or anesthetics), itch relief (anti-inflammatories), redness (“erythema”) reduction, age spots reduction (e. g. , fade creams), acne treatment, and fungal and/or bacterial infection prevention or treatment. Hand and body lotion With all these possibilities, what will we examine today? The ubiquitous hand & body lotion. Whether the lotion is a well-known brand name or a new introduction, natural or organic, luxury or value priced, it is going to contain certain components core components, and will often have more: Emollients 5 — 20% Emulsifiers 2 — 7% Humectants 2 — 5% Stabilizers 0. 1 — 2% Preservatives 0. 1 — 1% Feel Modifiers 0 — 2% Protectants 0 — 1+% pH-Adjusting 0 — 1% Chealants 0 — 0. 1% Antioxidants 0 — 0. 1% Fragrance q. s. Colorants q . s. Water to 100% Moisturizing ingredients Emollients are substances that are used to correct or mask skin dryness and scaling. They are typically oil soluble and make skin look and feel smoother. Emollients are often grouped according to their longevity and intensity of effect. Those that are volatile or are absorbed rapidly into the skin, and so provide only a transient effect, are termed very light, dry emollients. These include Cyclopentasiloxane and esters such as Ethylhexyl Isononanoate and Diisobutyl Adipate. Light emollients are typically slightly more viscous and have a light oily to cushiony feel on skin. Examples include light mineral oil and Butyloctyl Salicylate. Heavy emollients are viscous liquids or semi-solids that penetrate the skin slowly and that are often occlusive (trap moisture within the skin). The best known examples may be Petrolatum and Lanolin. Waxy emollients may be included as feel modifiers (see below). They include fatty alcohols such as Cetearyl Alcohol and fatty esters such as Cetyl Palmitate. Humectants are substance that have an affinity for water and so increase the water-holding capacity of skin. They are also included to improve finished product freeze-thaw stability, which is very important in frigid climates. The gold standard for humectancy is Glycerin. Because of the high degree of tack it imparts to skin on its own, it is often combined with one or more glycols, such as Butylene Glycol, to reduce the tackiness to...

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Today we're going to take a look at a cleanser that is fairly frequently recommended by dermatologists. This was a brand that I had heard of even before I got into the cosmetic industry. And that is saying something because prior to working in the cosmetic industry, I didn't pay attention to any brand of personal care product. I just used whatever happened to be in the bathroom. Anyway, let's take a look at Cetaphil Gentle Skin Cleanser LOI - Cetaphil Water, Cetyl Alcohol, Propylene Glycol, Sodium Lauryl Sulfate, Stearyl Alcohol, Methylparaben, Propylparaben, Butylparaben Talk about a straightforward formula! This are certainly no superfulous ingredients in this product. The 1% line is pretty easy to guess and it is almost certainly between the Stearyl Alcohol and the Methylparaben. Kudos to Cetaphil for embracing the Formula Minimalist startegy. What the Ingredients do There really isn't much to this formula but let's analyze it. 1. Water - Solvent 2. Cetyl Alcohol - Opacifying, thickening, moisturizing 3. Propylene Glycol - Humectant, foam supressant 4. Sodium Lauryl Sulfate - Cleanser 5. Stearyl Alcohol - Opacifying, thickening, conditioning 6. Methylparaben - Preservative 7. Propylparaben - Preservative 8. Butylparaben - Preservative Formula Commentary It really is amazing that a formula so simple could be the basis for such a significant brand. SLS is one of the harshest detergents you can use but when you mix it with propylene glycol and fatty alcohols, the irritation is mitigated and the product can be sold as a "gentle skin cleanser". The formula has no dyes or fragrances so I'm certain dermatologists like that, but why they would recommend it, I do not know. It says it was originally created by a dermatologist so perhaps that is the reason. This is a nice formula and shows that a simple formula can still be a best seller.

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We always appreciate the messages we receive from followers of Chemists Corner. I love to read the ideas that people have and am encouraged that innovation in our industry continues despite the unintentional efforts government regulators to stop it. Natural overload But I must say, I'm a little concerned by how often I hear the same idea. Almost every "new" cosmetic line is going to be... 1. All-natural 2. Organic 3. Chemical free And they aren't going to contain... 4. Parabens 5. Silicones 6. Preservatives 7. Artificial anything Sigh. I really do appreciate the thinking and effort that go into ideas like this but to actually launch a product you need more of an idea than that. All-natural has been done... to death. A quick review of Drugstore. com shows that there already exist over 250 cosmetic brands that are "green" and "natural. " That is no longer enough of an idea for a new product. Focus on the consumer So, what can you do if you want an all-natural, green cosmetic line? Certainly, you can go ahead and make one. You can take our course on Natural Formulating or hire a natural formulation chemist who can make the products for you. Do it! However, you need to take the next step. Ask yourself a few questions to see if you can make your product stand out. For example... 1. Who will buy my product and why? 2. Why will they buy my product instead of a competitor's? 3. What problem is my product solving? 4. If my product never gets made, how will the world be worse? 5. What will my product allow people to do that they can't already do? There are at least 250 brands that are all natural, organic, green and everything else. If you want to successfully launch a new brand... How is yours going to stand out? Do you have ideas about starting your own line? Get our Free ebook that tells you what you need to know to start your own cosmetic line.

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I saw some interesting development in the creation of artificial skin. According to scientists at Ohio State University, synthetic skin is getting good enough to mimic animal skins in test labs. This means that cosmetic companies will no longer need to do animal patch testing. Of course, the technology is still a little way from being a replacement for animal testing (or for replacing human skin for burn victims) but they are making progress. Things like this can really have a big impact on the development of better cosmetics. One of the biggest hurdles to developing better skin cosmetic products is that you don't have a good substrate to test new formulas on. Sure, you can use living humans but most of them don't take to kindly to having chemicals put on them for hours days and weeks. This could be a great invention. I can't wait until it happens.

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I like Malcolm Gladwell's stuff. While it gets a little too story like and is more definitive about life than science would suggest, it is inspiring for innovators.

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I read a couple of articles recently about pressure on governments to make cosmetic products more safe. This article points out that there are "toxins" found in even 'safer' cosmetic products. Then of course, there are calls for the US government to pass a Safe Cosmetics law with hearings currently going on and in the EU they are going to make cosmetics safer for infants. But I wonder, how are they going to do that? In the EU, they say that companies are supposed to "reduce health risks due to exposure. " I just don't see how that can be done. To be able to reduce a risk, you have to be able to measure a risk. And if cosmetic companies are already required to produce safe products, how can they make them safer? If you take out all the "toxins" from a cosmetic, how do you prove that it is now safer? Making things safer I can understand how to make a product like a car safer. You see how many people die or are injured in car accidents, you make a change to the car, and then determine whether less people die or are injured. Simple. A similar thing could be done to make children's toys safer. You see how many children are injured or die from a toy, make some changes and then determine whether the incidence of injury/death goes down. With food you can measure incidences of food poisoning or sickness. With medicine you can measure incidences of disease or negative side effects. But how are companies supposed to demonstrate their safe products are made safer? I don't really have any answers. If cosmetics can not be proven to be harmful, it just makes no sense to me how you can make them less harmful. Perhaps one of you could enlighten.

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Being a cosmetic chemist can be frustrating. You'll want to create products that can solve consumer's problems but the reality is that you are handcuffed by one significant fact. The most pressing cosmetic problems probably require drug solutions. Hair problems There are a number of problems with hair that are easily addressed by cosmeitcs but the most significant one, hair loss, is not. I just read this story about one of the latest discovery in hair loss research, a molecule that can turn off the production of Prostaglandin D2. It's very interesting and offers a chance for curing baldness. But you know what? If it worked, it wouldn't be a cosmetic. It would be a drug. This is not a solution that a cosmetic chemist could offer. Of course, your raw material vendors might have different ideas and will offer lots of things that affect hair growth (which don't work either) but I digress. What can a cosmetic chemist do about hair loss? A couple of ideas come to mind. 1. Spray on hair. The current technology is pretty crude. A cosmetic chemist could make it better. 2. Artificial hair fibers. Can you make a product like this better? This isn't much, but it is something and I don't see much work going on in these areas. If you could develop a product that could be put on the head and made hair that looked natural and stayed in place, that would be an incredible breakthru.

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I'm going to take a break from writing about cosmetic science today and show you some other sciencey thing that caught my interest. It is a vortex cannon and it looks very fun and easy to make. Just take a box, cut a hole in it and fill it with smoke. Then have some fun.

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First talk was by Dr Sam Shefer about fighting acne using time release technology. He explained the problems formulating with salicylic acid and discussed a solution which involved encapsulation technology. Interesting but the ingredient seemed pretty complicated. How could they possibly prove that each component is necessary? A good story and the MultiSal may be worth evaluating but I remain a bit skeptical. Second talk was about technologies for skin lightening by Cecilia Teran from Active Concepts. She discussed lots of metabolic pathways that are involved in skin pigmentation and strategies for blocking synthesis. Interesting but isn't this a drug? Many cosmetic companies in this area make claims that border on drug claims. The nice part about the talk was that she presented lots of alternatives to hydroquinone. None worked better but it is still interesting to see where there is active research. Third speaker, Marcie Natale talked about the biosynthesis of esters. Same price, lower waste. This sounds like a great idea. Natural formulators should check out compounds from Eastman Chemical. Fourth talk was by Any Ziegler from Mintel about the customization of the cosmetic industry. Many companies launching segmented market products. eg. products for specific ages and ethnicities. Her suggestion for future product innovations: new ingredients, advanced technologies. Consumer identities. My favorite part of her talk, consumer groups Glammas (glamorous grandmas) and Mammals (middle aged men in Lycra). Next talk was a scientific look at formaldehyde and alternative hair straighteners by Dr Ali Syed. I like seeing explanations of scientific research. Carbocysteine was just as effective as formaldehyde. I wonder how it does versus a relaxer. The final speaker is the keynote given via Skype. Rebecca Gadberry presents a talk about the Epigenome. Hurrah, biochemistry. Very interesting stuff. Unfortunately, the technology failed half way though. She has great slides by the way. Overall, a good session of talks. Now, off to the trade show.

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I saw this excellent video about critical thinking and how you can detect whether a claim is bogus or not. This is an important skill for cosmetic chemists because despite your knowledge of science, you can still be prone to some thinking errors. These errors can cause a number of problems in your work. They can... ... lead you to waste time by seeing see positive experimental evidence where there is none ... cause you to waste money buying chemicals that don't work ... make you feel inadequate by comparing yourself to competitors who are making bogus claims. What you need is a baloney detection kit that helps you figure out when claims are real or bogus. 10 Baloney Detection questions Here are 10 questions to ask yourself when you hear any claim about a chemical, new discovery, or competitive product. 1. How reliable is the source of the claim? As a cosmetic chemist, you will encounter lots of claims about technology and miracle cures. The first thing you should do is question the reliability of the source. What is the motivation for the person making the claim? If it is a sales person, they are motivated to make their products look as good as possible. This doesn't mean they lie (not usually) but it does mean they might make a product seem much better than it actually is. And when your marketing people come to you with a claim that a competitor is making, point out to them the unreliability of the source. 2. Does the source make similar claims? There was once a company who sold raw materials that were always the greatest breakthru in cosmetic technology. It seemed that the products were always interacting with the cell metabolism and changing some aspect of skin or hair. This caused me to be extremely skeptical about what they were saying. 3. Have the claims been independently verified? It's rare in the cosmetic industry that you'll get independently verified claims. When presented with a new technology, you should ask whether the data they are showing you was produced by an independent lab. Just be careful because there is a confirmation bias happening here. If the data came back negative, the sales person wouldn't be showing you. Therefore, you only see positive results. 4. Does this fit with the way the world works? When people see claims that simple treatments from the refrigerator can make you skin and hair look great, they find it compelling. But the world really doesn't work that way. If you could open your refrigerator and find a product that performs as well as a professionally developed cosmetic, some company would already be selling it. Developing cosmetics that feel great and work takes more effort than going to your refrigerator. 5. Has anyone tried to disprove the claim? When you are presented with a new technology, there will typically not be enough time for anyone else to have evaluated the data. If you are in the innovation...

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The Midwest SCC Trade Show is this Wednesday. If you are going to be in the Chicago area, it is a free event and you should certainly attend. Here is the information for registering. Cosmetic chemist & Trade shows Going to a trade show can range from highly educational to being a complete waste of time. Here are a few tips to help you get the most benefit out of attending. 1. Start with a plan. Trade shows almost always publish a list of companies that are going to have booths at the event. Make a list of the companies that you must see and write down why. Bring this list with you and check it off as you visit the booths. 2. Take notes. You are going to see lots of different companies and will be inundated with information. It is not enough to simply collect the paperwork that they are handing out. Write notes on any information that you are given so you can remember why you found it interesting. 3. Write down ideas. Cosmetic trade shows are an excellent place to be struck with ideas. So, be sure you write down any new idea that you might have had while at the show. I find it incredibly helpful to carry a notebook around just for writing down ideas. Make them detailed enough that they will still make sense to you when you review them a few days later. You might try recording voice notes but I've always found this more difficult to review. 4. Bring lots of business cards. The people who participate in trade shows do it mostly to generate business and business leads. You are the business lead and they want to know you. It's a fair trade for the information they provide you. So, be sure to bring a big stack of business cards. If you don't have many, give them out only to companies who you want to hear from again. Of course, business cards are frequently used in prize drawings so you'll want them for that reason too. 5. Network. One of the best things about a trade show is the opportunity to meet other people in the industry. Take some time to talk to people you don't know and swap your contact information. Creating a big network of individuals is one of the most useful activities you can do at a trade show. The more people you know the more likely it will be that they can help you in the future. I'm really looking forward to this upcoming event. If you have any other tips, leave a comment below.

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Here are a few stories that caught my eye. 1. 2012 will be the year of skin care. Really? I think the fact that skin care products border on drug claims may make it tougher for cosmetic chemist. 2. New campaign to reduce animal testing. This will happen soon. 2012 will be the year of skin care.

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Although I'm on vacation I continue to think of new product ideas. The idea I thought of was related to my running clothes. Whenever I run my clothes get sweaty and end up smelling really bad. I've been looking for a solution to this problem and I think I found it. If I dunk it in a pool, the clothes don't smell nearly as bad. It must be the chlorine killing the bacteria. Now, how do I turn this into a workable product?

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Today I'm traveling to Utah for a little downhill skiing. Of course, I've got my sunscreen and travel toiletries as every good cosmetic chemist should. But writing a full blog post gets a bit challenging. No matter, here are some interesting discussions going on the cosmetic chemist forum that you don't want to miss. Feel free to add to the discussion. 1. Where is the preservative? - Do you know? 2. How do you make a hazy batch clear? 3. How do you thicken a leave in conditioner? Sign up for the forum is free so go sign up now.

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It's pretty common to hear people complain that they didn't like Chemistry in school because it was too hard or too boring. And perhaps the way it was taught to them, this was true. But if you like cooking you really would like cosmetic formulating. There is no other job more similar to formulating than cooking. Here are ways in which they are alike. Creating Recipes One of the hallmarks of a good chef is that you have the ability to create a tastey dish from the available raw materials. You pick out the right ratios and mix the ingredients in the right way to create a masterpiece. This is exactly what cosmetic chemists do. But instead of working with ingredients like eggs, flour, and milk, you're working with raw materials like Glyceryl Stearate, Sodium Lauryl Sulfate, and Dimethicone Copolyol. And like a chef, you even keep a recipe book. We call it a lab notebook. Making Recipes While cooks spend time coming up with recipes, they also spend a lot of time actually creating them. They measure out the ingredients, follow a procedure, mix things together at a certain time using blenders or mixers. They change the temperature by heating in an oven or microwave and cool batches down with ice. Cosmetic chemists do all of these same things. Making a skin lotion requires the same type of emulsification procedure as making a salad dressing. If you can make food, you can make cosmetics. Evaluating Recipes A primary skill that a cook has to develop is their sense of taste. They need to become familiar with which flavors go well together and the relative proportions of ingredients when combined with other ones. And while a cosmetic chemist almost never has to eat their products, they do have to use their sense of touch to get a feel for how the cosmetic is interacting with the skin. The skills that a cook develops for evaluating flavors are analogous to the ones you develop as a cosmetic chemist. And both the chemist and cook have to develop a sense of what smells good. Aesthetics Finally, a good cook does not just throw the food on the plate but rather they create a plate with some style. This requires them to develop an eye for what will appeal to their consumers. A cosmetic chemist also has to develop a sense of what will appeal to their consumers. They need to know what colors, odors, and feels that consumers want and expect. If you didn't think you liked Chemistry but you love Cooking, it's time to reconsider. Chemistry, just like cooking, is all about putting ingredients together to create new things.

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Whenever you begin a formulating project there is a variety of information you need to establish before doing anything else. Some of these things will be obvious and easy but others might be challenging especially if you have to get your marketing department to make a decision. Remember, on some level formulating is a team sport. But here is a handy checklist that any cosmetic formulator could use to speed up their formulating efforts and ensure that they have the best chance for success. Cosmetic Product Profile The product profile is intended to establish the goals that you are trying to achieve with your product. It should include information about Aesthetics, Performance, Cost, Claims and Packaging. Cosmetic aesthetics The specific characteristics will depend on the type of formula you are making, but in general you should have targets for all the following parameters. Since your marketing people will typically be the ones guiding the development you will need to work with them on picking the benchmark and most of these other characteristics. 1. Benchmark standard - A product that you are trying to match. 2. Color 3. Intensity of color 4. Clarity - (opaque, clear, hazy) 5. Special effects (e. g. pearled, glitter or not) 6. Consistency - Liquid, Gel, Solid, etc. 7. Rheology / viscosity 8. Product odor (fragrance benchmark) Cosmetic performance These characteristics depend on what you want the product to do. Your ability to come up with measurements or targets depends on your ability to test these characteristics. These can be instrumental tests or trained panel tests. We can't list them all but here are some standarad characteristics for most types of products. Cleansing products 1. Foam volume 2. Foam height 3. Foam density / feel 4. Level of cleansing 5. Feel of surface after cleansing (hair or skin) 6. Level of moisturizing / conditioning 7. Drying rate 8. Other... Moisturizing products 1. Feel upon application (greasiness, dryness, tackiness) 2. Speed of rub-in 3. Immediate moistuirizng level 4. Shine 5. Skin moisturization score For hair products 6. Ease of combing 7. Flyaway levels 8. Hair breakage reduction 9. Speed of rinsing Styling products 1. Hair workability 2. Level of hold Formula cost Before you start any formulation work, you need to know how much money you have for creating the product. Typically, you will cost a formula out in terms of how much it costs per pound (kilogram) or how much it costs per unit (depends on package size). 1. Total formula cost limit Cosmetic claims An important thing to consider while in the early stages of formulation is the types of claims you want to make. This will help you choose feature ingredients and make you decide what characteristics you need to build into the formula. Some of this work can be done after formulating but the more you can get done before you actually start to work, the easier your formulating efforts will be. 1. Ingredient claims 2. Performance benchmark claims 3. Competitive product claims...

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There have been a couple stories that demonstrate how the FDA has been ensuring that cosmetics are safe for consumers. Recently, they have sent out a warning about skin lightening products that contain mercury. They've also been involved in getting the makers of the Brazillian Blow out product to stop producing the product that contains high levels of formaldehyde. Hardly an unregulated industry eh?

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There is a trend in the cosmetic industry some market research folks have labeled 'beauty from within'. These are products which consumers are supposed to ingest to realize the benefit. For example, BORBA Age Defying Skin Balance water. In truth, I've been a bit skeptical of this trend. There is very limited data that suggests you can have a specific effect on skin by eating a certain product. There certainly have been studies that show some foods have an effect on skin. For example, eating a diet rich in tomatoes has shown to protect skin from UV damage. But the conclusion of these is that there is only a small effect and you should still use standard sunscreens if you are going to be in the sun. Here is a recent study that looked at the effect of what you eat has on your skin color. In this research, scientists found that you could indeed improve the appearance of your skin color by increasing the amount of fruits and vegetables that you eat. This is just preliminary research but it is interesting. It also coincides with an idea I had to see if I could turn my skin orange by eating enough carrots. I once ate 3 pounds in one evening but didn't see any skin color change. Cosmetic chemists ingredients While I don't find the current crop of 'beauty from within' products to be compelling (there's little evidence that they work), research like these two do suggest that there may be something to this field of cosmetic development. Perhaps, innovative cosmetic chemists will have to study up on nutrition and create some products that really are effective.

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I'm traveling back to Chicago (from Florida) today so don't have much time to post. But I thought I'd let you know about a couple courses coming soon. One is the Physiology of Skin and the other is Formula Optimization. For the latter, Dr Stephen Abbot is the instructor. Here is a picture of him during the recording session.

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Ooops. I read this story about Avon and animal testing and it looks like they are in a bit of trouble. According to the story, Avon is being sued (along with Estee Lauder and Mary Kay) for conducting animal testing while claiming that they don't. The reason, they sell products in China and the Chinese government requires animal testing of cosmetic products. Animal testing in China These companies are in a bit of a bind. They like the sales (and the potential is huge) from China but they must comply with the regulations of the country. If you want to sell cosmetics in China, you have to test your products on animals. The reported position of these companies is that they do not test on animals or ask other companies to test on animals “... except when absolutely required by law. ” The problem for them is that they tout themselves as a cruelty free company that does not test on animals. They didn't include the foot note “... except when absolutely required by law” in their advertising. They really should have. Unfair treatment Of course, I don't think allowing any company to claim their products are “cruelty free” is right. Companies who have conducted and continue to conduct animal testing for cosmetic ingredients should not be tarred and feathered because of their actions. It is these companies that have made it possible for other companies to create their “cruelty free” cosmetics. Almost every ingredient that is used in cosmetics was tested on animals. The only reason a “cruelty free” product can exist is because some company, some time in the past tested the ingredients on animals. Hopefully, this issue will be going away in the next 5 to 10 years when we finally develop animal testing alternatives that work and are acceptable to governments. But until then, companies shouldn't be claiming that they don't test on animals when they do and they shouldn't be claiming “cruelty free” while using chemicals that were previously tested on animals.

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I saw this article about REACH which suggests that the EU regulation is costing industry between 1. 5 and 2 billion Euro annually. It makes me wonder, who is this helping? In case you don't know REACH is a regulatory framework that requires raw material suppliers to register their products with the EU in order to allow them to be used in cosmetic products. Ostensibly, this will make cosmetic products safer. But is it? I don't think so. Cosmetic products have an excellent track record of safety (especially ones produced in the more developed countries of the world). Why do we need to spend billions of dollars or Euros on more regulation? The result of this regulation is a stifling of cosmetic product innovation. Raw material companies can no longer create innovative new ingredients because if they do, it costs too much money to register. And animal testing is banned so there is no good way test the new raw materials for safety. The result is chemists have to create formulas with existing raw materials. The cosmetic chemist loses as do the consumers looking for products that really work better. Of course, stories like the recent one about the FDA warning consumers against using certain skin lightening because they contain mercury, it is clear that some regulation is needed. I don't know what the right level regulation is but it doesn't seem to me that REACH or the ones kicking around the US right now are the right ones. What do you think about the level of cosmetic regulation?

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This is a guest post by UK cosmetic chemist Colin Sanders. You can read more from Colin on his excellent blog at Colins Beauty Pages. The latest iteration of the EU cosmetic regulations come into force in July 2013, and they are a pretty major upgrade with lots of new provisions and innovations that will affect everyone in the business of supplying cosmetics and personal care into the European market. If you are doing so, you really should know all about them by now, but here is a quick whistle stop tour if you are just starting or if you don't operate in Europe but are curious. EU cosmetic regulations There are 6 main new areas. Claims - it is now necessary to have data on file to support any claims you make for the product. This has been an implied requirement for some time via other bits of consumer legislation but it has now been codified into the actual cosmetic regulations. One eye catching provision is that it is now illegal to make claims that denigrate safe and legal ingredients. This sounds a bit like somebody somewhere is working out their pet peeve. In theory this outlaws claims like 'paraben free', though I dare say ways will be found round this one soon enough. Nanoparticles - nanoparticles as defined by the EU will now need to be specified as such on the label. The format will distinguish a nano particle with the suffix 'nano', so Titanium Dioxide becomes Titanium Dioxide nano. Cosmetic GMP - cosmetics will now have to be produced under controlled conditions, i. e. , pretty much how they already are but it is now mandatory. Notification - all products and their individual raw materials will have to be disclosed on a database covering the whole EU. This is to provide information for poison centres for them to use in the event of dealing with an adverse event where the ingredients of the cosmetics the victim is using might be relevant. (If any toxicologists reading this can give an example of how this might be useful I would love to hear it. ) Safety Assessments - currently the safety of cosmetic products have to be assessed prior to release by a 'suitably qualified' person. The new regulations specify that the qualifications should be in toxicology and that the assessment should follow a particular protocol. Adverse Event Reporting - all adverse reactions now need to be reported directly to the authorities in the country in which the reaction occurs. The intention is that the data thus generated will be made public. Regulation implications Overall these changes represent a significant tightening of the regulations governing the manufacture, promotion and sale of cosmetics. I am planning to allocate an hour a day to the work needed to get ready for it, and I imagine that it will create about 2 hours a month extra work per formulation to keep compliant once it is in force. This isn't too much of...

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I thought this was an interesting story that I stumbled on. It turns out scientists have isolated the proteins responsible for protecting hippos (who spend numerous hours every day in the sun) from sun burns. These scientists believe that the compound could also double as an insect repellant too. Pretty cool. Wonder if this will ever pass the FDA NDA process.

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We posted this a while back but there are a number of new readers do I though I would post it again. This video shows you how to make an excel spreadsheet for formulation efforts. http://www. youtube. com/watch? v=xymoPm2T7_g

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I don't know how I stumbled upon the book The Joy of Chemistry (received it as a Christmas gift) but I'm glad I did. It was just what I needed to reignite my interest in the entire field of chemistry. And it also helped clarify some of the things that I learned in college but forgot right after passing the exam. The Joy of Chemistry is written by chemistry experts Cathy Cobb and Monty Fetterolf with the intention of inspiring a general audience to appreciate chemistry. To this end they cover each topic with in three distinct ways. First, they begin with a experiment which demonstrates the principle. These are easy experiments with materials that anyone can get. At the start of the book they give a checklist of materials you need to do all the experiments which is incredibly helpful. The next way they cover each topic is to explain the scientific principles behind what is happening. This is the “hard science” but the authors write it in such a way that it is understandable by most people. In truth, I didn't have a difficult time understanding the chemistry but I'm not completely sure someone without a science background would have such an easy time. Still, with some thought, anyone could get the basic ideas. The final part of every topic covered is to discuss some real world application of the chemistry. For example, in the chapters on electrons and atoms they describe how these chemistry principles make photocopiers function. I found this part of each section most enlightening because when learning chemistry in college you rarely get exposed to real world applications. The Joy of Chemistry is 393 pages long but only about 320 pages of actual reading as there are lists of elements and their properties, a long index and other appendix pages. It's a very readable book and is organized in two parts. In the first part, 18 topics in chemistry are covered including things such as atoms & electrons, pH, colligative properties, electrochemistry, inorganic chemistry, and more. In the second part they cover 4 topics that demonstrate how each of the principles are applied in real life. This includes chapters on Organic Chemistry, Inorganic Chemistry, Biochemistry, and Analytical Chemistry. The last chapter shows how chemistry is used by forensic scientists to solve crimes. Overall, I recommend the Joy of Chemistry for anyone who has an interest in chemistry and wants a simple explanation of the topics. Chemistry graduates might find it a little too simple, but anyone who has been away from school for long will be delighted to remember many of the principles that you might have forgotten. And if you didn't get a degree in chemistry but want to get a good background (to help understand formulating) this will be an excellent book for you. You can get a copy of the book through Amazon. If you purchase through the following link you help support this website. The Joy of Chemistry

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I've had the opportunity to spend the last couple weeks in Florida by the ocean. This means I've had many opportunities to go to the beach. And while I'm at the beach I often think about sunscreens. Mostly because there are still some fundamental problems with the product which I think some cosmetic formulator night be able to do something about. The problems with sunscreen So, here are some of the sunscreen problems that seem possible to fix. 1. Difficult application. Creams never feel right because they are incredible greasy. Also, you can't get it on all the spots on your back. Spray sunscreens are a step in the right direction but they suffer from the next problem I'll discuss. 2. Uneven application. While I like the spray sunscreens, they are difficult to tell when you've put on enough. Since they are invisible when applied, it's really easy to miss a spot upon application. Since you have to rub them in, this isn't as much a problem with creams. 3. When to reapply. The third big problem is that there is no easy way to tell when you need to reapply the sunscreen. I know the directions say like every 2 hours but sometimes that doesn't seem like enough and most often I forget. I'm sure these are not new problems and there may be attempts at solutions. However, no one has come up with that killer solution that will take over the sunscreen market. I will ponder this problem a bit more during my next trip to the beach. If you have any interesting solutions to these sunscreen problems, leave a suggestion below.

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I just finished reading the excellent book The Joy of Chemistry and in a future post I'll do a review but while I was reading I began to think about inorganic chemistry. For the most part cosmetics require knowledge of organic chemistry. Inorganic chemistry doesn't come into play too often. But fret not, learning about all those p-orbitals and coordination compounds were not a complete waste of your brain. There are still a number of inorganic compounds that are incorporated into cosmetic formulations. Sunblock. Titanium dioxide and zinc oxide. These materials are used in sunscreen formulations to protect the skin from UV damage. These ingredients also double as pigments in color cosmetics. Colorants. There are a number of color compounds based on inorganic complexes. Iron oxides, alumina, calcium carbonate, bisthmuth oxychloride and mica are just a few examples. Cosmetic thickeners. There are a number of bentonite clays that can be used as thickeners. Also, salts like sodium chloride or ammonium chloride can be used to thicken surfactant formulas. Acids. Strong inorganic acids like Hydrochloric acid or Phosphoric acid are used to reduce the pH of some formulations. Bases. To adjust pH up bases are used. Sodium hydroxide is used to create soap and potassium hydroxide is used in relaxers to straighten hair. Hydrogen peroxide is used to bleach hair and advance the chemical reaction of polymeric hair colors. Aluminum salts. These compounds are used in antiperspirants to prevent sweating. Selenium sulfide is a potent anti dandruff ingredient. Pumice is an inorganic compound used as an exfoliant. Silica is added to cosmetics as a filler material that can extend color cosmetic colorants and provide slip. Compressed air. One of the ways that aerosols are made is by using compressed air. That means nitrogen, oxygen, hydrogen and the rest of the inorganic compounds found in air are used. And of course the most common inorganic ingredient used in cosmetics is water. Knowing organic chemistry is a key part of your cosmetic science background but don't ignore inorganic chemistry completely. It's still an important part of formulating.

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This is a guest post by Shannon Romanowski While this winter has been mild and there is a spring-like feeling in the air, we are still in the midst of cold and flu season. Clean hands are a good way to prevent the spread of cold and flu causing germs. Hand sanitizers are certainly a good portable solution to keeping hands clean. Lets take a closer work at how they work. How do hand sanitizers work? Hand sanitizers are very basic formulas with few ingredients. Most hand sanitizers are simply alcohol thickened to a gel with color and fragrance added to make them more appealing. This isn`t the kind of alcohol you`d find in your local tavern however, it is ethanol or isopropanol. Some formulas contain moisturizing ingredients which can help to slightly offset the drying effects of the alcohol. The rest of the ingredients like vitamins and extracts are used at very small amounts and don’t do much of anything. The way that these products work is simple, you put them on your hands and most living bacteria are instantly killed. The alcohol breaks their cell walls and all their critical organelles leak out. We say most are killed because there are some crafty buggers who can form spores that are immune to alcohol. That`s why companies can only claim to kill 99. 9% of germs. After a few moments, the alcohol evaporates and your hands are briefly sanitized. Of course, that`s when the bacteria population starts to build up again. Think of it like a car windshield when it`s raining. Your hands are the windshield, the rain is bacteria and the sanitizer is the wipers. Sure the wipers remove the rain on one pass, but the rain (or bacteria) just keep coming back. Are hand sanitizers effective? Yes, these products work like they say they will, although their claims are supported by measuring microbe populations in a lab, not on human skin. There may be a difference. Washing your hands with soap and water is a better option because it will actually remove all the microbes. It also has the added benefit of removing non-microbial chemicals that can also make you sick. Additionally, overuse of hand sanitizer can dry out skin and irritate scratches or cuts that you may have on your hands. Bottom Line Hand sanitizers are a good option in a pinch (or when that yucky public restroom is inevitably out of soap! ). However, you can’t beat good old-fashioned soap and water in the battle to fight disease-causing germs.

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Today, I was given a product that I didn't know existed. It's a product called New Skin liquid bandage and the premise of the product is that it can repair damaged skin. Now, I'm familiar with the brand Nu Skin but the product i was given is more like nail polish in that it is a solvent based product that forms a permanent film on the skin when it dries. An interesting product that I will have to explore more. I remember thinking of a product just like this to help stop people from biting their nails. I wonder how this works. I'll have to investigate. Anyone know more about the product?

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I just read an article which suggested that 2012 will be the year of the skin care formulator. They went on to list a number of different conferences around the world that are focused on formulating products for the skin. Indeed there is a lot of interesting work going on in skin care. But as far as the market goes, skin care products still only make up about 30% of the total market. If you have an interest in a career in cosmetic science, it's helpful to know all the different types of areas you might focus. Skin Care formulation As a skin care formulator you will focus on creating products for the skin. These will include moisturizing lotions for the face, hands and body. Also, anti-aging products designed to get rid of wrinkles. Cleansing products such as facial washes and body washes are another group of products that skin care formulators create. Finally, sun screens are a category of product that skin care formulators work on. To be a good skin care formulator you need to learn about the biology of skin and become well versed in techniques for creating emulsions since nearly all skin care formulations are emulsions. To become a great skin care formulator you'll also need to learn a bit about skin biochemistry and all of the active ingredients that are supposed to improve skin condition by affecting chemical pathways in the skin's natural growth system. It's a challenging area of study. Hair care formulations As a hair care formulator you will focus on developing products that make hair look and feel great and make it easier to style. The majority of hair products sold are shampoos. But you will also need to formulate conditioners, putties, gels, and other hair styling products. Some hair chemists also work on hair colorants. To be a good hair care formulator you'll have to develop a good knowledge of hair biology and specifically the composition of the fibers. You'll also need to learn about the variety of surfactants that work best for cleansing. Hair products do not rely on emulsions as much as skin products because oils are used much less. For hair products of the future you'll want to keep posted on the developments of active ingredients that can restart hair color or hair growth. Color cosmetics Color cosmetics is a specialized area of cosmetic formulation and requires you to have a good appreciation for the properties of the skin surface. Also, you need to know about pigments and the way that they are incorporated into formulations. Color matching tends to be a frequent activity for color cosmetic chemists. Aerosol formulators While some cosmetic chemists focus on hair, skin, or color cosmetics, other chemists focus on a packaging type. Specifically, aerosol formulations. These include a variety of products such as hair sprays, sunscreens, antiperspirants, and other aerosol products. If you have an interest in physics this type of formulating might be a good one for you. It's difficult to...

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To create innovative cosmetic products or to start a cosmetic brand, you need to know about and find niche markets. Since science majors never really learned about this type of marketing information, I thought it would be helpful to give you a quick run down of what they are, why you should care about them and how to find them. Niche market for cosmetics A cosmetic niche market is no different than a niche market in some other field. Essentially, a niche market is a sub set of a larger market. In practical terms, it is a smaller group of people with some specific characteristic that sets them apart. So, if the general market is everyone who uses personal care products, a niche market would be men who use personal care products. Women who use personal care products is also a niche market, but it is so large that almost no one considers it niche. You could find further sub sets of these groups to find even more targeted niche markets. For example, women with naturally red hair color could be a niche market. This group could be broken down even further as women with naturally red, curly hair, a focused niche indeed. Cosmetic chemists and niche markets Now that you know niche markets are smaller segments of consumer groups, why should you care? There are a couple reasons that this is important to cosmetic chemists. First, if you are trying to create innovative new products you will have to make products that solve specific problems. All of the easy-to-solve problems in the cosmetic industry have already been solved. Unless you work for a large company that has a basic research wing you will not likely be able to solve the significant problems like wrinkles, acne, hair loss, hair growth, etc. However, you can solve some of the easier problems that niche markets experience. Second, if you are going to start your own cosmetic line as many cosmetic chemists want to do, you will need to identify a niche market for which to sell your product. The reality is that you will not be able to compete with the big cosmetic companies for the general market. It is only the niche markets that are too small for big companies to pay attention to that you will have a chance. The fact that big companies ignore them means less competition for your new brand and a greater possibility for your success. Also, niche consumers tend to be more rabid fans of their brands. They like that there is a product made especially for them. This will give you a significant marketing and product development advantage. Finding niche markets The key to finding niche markets is to start with a large group of consumers and identify sub sets of that group. Then make a list of all the products in the category and match them up with your consumer group. Step 1 - Identify consumer groups In this step you just make...

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I like to amuse myself with chemistry videos on youtube. Here is an interesting about entropy that might be helpful for current and future cosmetic chemists. Incidentally, entropy is one of my favorite chemistry topics of all time.

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One of the most overrated things in the cosmetic industry is getting a patent. They almost never give you an actual advantage and they are rather easy to get around. But fortunately, companies still apply and get them. I say fortunately because they can be a great source for information for a cosmetic chemist. Here are some things you can learn from patents. 1. Starting formulas. Great place for finding how to make any kind of cosmetic. You'll have to change the formula to sell the product but it's a great place to start. 2. Manufacturing tricks. Not only can you get formula prevents you can also find clues on how to make formulas. 3. Testing procedures. Another great thing to discover in patents is procedures for testing your cosmetic product. Sometimes these can be pretty clever. 4. Product history. In the background section you can learn the history of the development of a formula type. Very interesting. While I don't believe patents are valuable for companies to get, they are certainly valuable for cosmetic chemists. Be sure to use them as often as you can.

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We get asked this question a fair amount by people who are in college, high school or are even just interested in starting a new career in cosmetics. Here are some suggestions. Figure out your objective The background you need really depends on your objectives and goals. For example, do you want to start your own cosmetic line? Do you want a job working in the lab? Do you want to make a lot of money? Answers to questions like these are the first thing to figure out because it will help guide your decisions in the future. Getting a job If your primary goal is to get a job in the cosmetic field, then you will want to get an undergraduate degree in chemistry. You can study biology if you find it more interesting but it reduces the number of jobs you will be qualified for. You can also study chemical engineering, though your job options may be geared more towards process engineering than cosmetic formulating. In almost all cases, you'll need at least a 4 year degree in some science to get an R&D job in the cosmetic industry. In addition to your science degree, it will be good to take electives in marketing and market research. People in these subjects will be the ones who you will be working with closely (and be making decisions that affect you) so it will be helpful to know what they know. To advance in your career and improve your chances of getting a job, it will help to get an advanced degree in cosmetic science. See our post about cosmetic science programs. Starting your own line While a degree in chemistry is the best thing for getting a cosmetic science job, it may not be the best thing to do if you want to start your own line. If you want to start you own cosmetic line, you do not need any degree in particular. In this case you could get a degree in any subject you want. You should take some chemistry and business courses, but you may want to just learn how to start a business. See our free report on how to start a cosmetic line. To start your own business you need to come up with a business plan, financing, marketing strategy, and figure out how to get the product made and sold. The best way to learn how to do this is to just do it. A college degree will not be terribly useful for being an entrepreneur, and for some people it is a hinderance. But not everyone can tolerate the lifestyle of an entrepreneur. If you are unsure or worry about your level of passion, you should get a degree, then a job to learn the business, then start your own line once you figure everything out. There are a number of ways you can start a career in cosmetic chemistry. Getting a degree is the most straightforward route, but if you want...

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I saw this article that is encouraging to cosmetic chemists and their potential to find jobs. The cosmetic industry is predicted to reach $333 billion in global world wide sales. This means more companies will be hiring more cosmetic chemists. Yeah! Some interesting points from the article. 1. The teen market is predicted to be a big growth area. - Are you developing teen products? 2. Skin care products are predicted to grow the most. - Study up on your skin care. 3. Hair care areas are more competitive. - Tough to differentiate here. 4. Hair coloring is the fastest growing area. - Not many chemists specialize in this area. 5. Retailers are looking to do more online promotion. - Good news for bloggers. And of course, there is always the fabled growth in men's products but this one has been predicted since 1990 and I haven't seen it. I remain skeptical.

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I was having an Internet conversation about the nature of misleading claims wheas someone accused me of being closed-minded. This came about when I asked for some scientific evidence ofa what was being claimed. As a skeptical scientist you will often have this claim thrown at you even though it is not true. In fact, it is the opposite of true. Skeptical scientists are the most open minded people there are. I would be willing to believe anything if there was sufficient evidence for a position. So how does this relate to formulating? Well, when you are formulating you will be presented with lots of information that is supposed to be true. People will present raw material information, your marketing people will tell you "facts" about consumers and you may even hear things in a scientific conference. Much of this material will be wrong. Some will be accidentally misleading but others might be flat out deception. You need to be skeptical of everything lest you fall into the trap of being duped. Being skeptical enough Of course you don't want to go too far and become cynical. You need a healthy level of wide eyed optimism to be a ghost formulator. So here are some tips to be skeptical without becoming cynical. 1. Remain receptive to new ideas. 2. Look for evidence that disputes your beliefs. 3. Conduct blinded experiments 4. Double check claims with independent sources 5. Understand that much of what you know could be wrong As you advance in your formulating career you will build more and more beliefs about cosmetic science. Don't get too attached to them and always remain open to the possibility that they are wrong. But always require evidence to change any belief.

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When my group started the Beauty Brains in 2006 there were a couple thousand beauty blogs. It was the early years of blogging but we were still relatively late to the party. But we did have a unique angle and a tenacity for keeping the project going so 6+ years later we are still writing and going strong. In some polls we are in the top 5 of all beauty blogs. That's pretty cool. Beauty Blogs and cosmetic chemists Of course, this website is for cosmetic chemists so I'll try to bring it back to you. There are a number of reasons you should be reading beauty blogs. 1. Product ideas - You can find out what problems people most want solved. And you can see what kluge consumers have invented themselves. 2. Product opinions - You can learn what passionate consumers think about the performance of certain products. There is nothing like a blog to reveal all of the flaws of yours (and your competitor's) products. 3. Trends - You can learn what products are most interesting and what is resonating with consumers. Beauty blogs have thousands of followers and you can discover what they are thinking about right now. Very helpful information for your marketing group. 4. Getting opinions - Once you establish yourself as a follower of their blog you can ask specific questions of the blogger. You don't even have to reveal your own identity if you don't want to. As long as you are using the information to improve your formulas, there really isn't a problem with it. Top Beauty Blogs So, now that you see the utility of beauty blogs, how do you know which ones to follow? Well, here is a decent list of the top 100 beauty and fashion blogs. They are not all beauty product related (lots of fashion stuff) but there are plenty that are. If you are not following at least a few beauty blogs, you are missing out on some excellent new product and consumer feedback. Do you have any suggestions for blogs that are great to follow? Leave a comment below.

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Article submitted by Gary Neudahl In a previous post, the composition of an antiperspirant deodorant (APDO) stick was presented. In this post we’ll look at the typical composition of a deodorant stick, which is very different from that of an APDO stick. Deodorant Formula Here's the typical composition of a deodorant stick, presented from highest to lowest average concentration: Hydrophilic Carriers: 50—80% Water: 15—20% Gelling Agents (Gellants): 5 — 8% Clarifying Agents/Solubilizers: 0 — 6% Antimicrobial Agents: 0 — 2% Fragrance (Parfum): 0 — 2% Chelating Agents (Chelants): 0 — 0. 1% Neutralizing Agent 0 — 0. 01% Anti-oxidants 0 — 0. 01% Colorants 0 — 0. 001% Ingredients The primary carrier system for deodorant sticks today usually consists of one or more glycols, such as Propylene Glycol and/or Dipropylene Glycol, with a judiciously selected amount of water (aqua). Before the regulation of volatile organic compounds (VOCs), specially denatured alcohol (SD Alcohol; alcohol denat. ) was typically used instead of glycols. This allowed an immediate antimicrobial action, and immediate cooling sensation, which was great for the guys, but it also presented the potential for irritation, especially if the underarms were recently shaved, which was not so wonderful for the gals! Some deodorant sticks with Alcohol denat. and Propylene Glycol remain available and are, not surprisingly, marketed to men. Gelling Agent This primary carrier system is gelled using Sodium Stearate. That’s what the INCI name is, but it’s not your usual analytical grade material! The alcohol-containing sticks commonly utilize what is essentially the sodium salt of triple-pressed grade stearic acid. That is, this “Sodium Stearate” is actually primarily Sodium Palmitate with a somewhat lesser amount of Sodium Stearate. It is ideal for optimizing the clarity of the sticks. The composition of the Sodium Stearate that is used for glycol-based sticks is even more complex. Because the gelling properties of the Sodium Stearate used for the alcohol-based sticks proved suboptimal for glycol-based sticks, its composition was further adapted to achieve the desired esthetics and gelling properties. The result is a “Sodium Stearate” that contains appreciable amounts of Sodium Palmitate, Sodium Stearate, Sodium Arachidate and Sodium Behenate. The sticks that result usually aren’t as clear, but they provide superior set point and payoff (or do you say payout? ) characteristics. Other Ingredients Clarifiers and/or solubilizers may be used to promote stick clarity and reduce the potential for syneresis, particularly when high levels of fragrance are utilized. Nonionic surfactants of moderate to high hydrophilic-lipophilic balance (HLB), such as PPG-3 Myristyl Ether or Isosteareth-20, may be utilized. Antimicrobials are sometimes added to inhibit the growth of microorganisms in the armpits. This can help with the reduction of axillary malodor since certain bacteria metabolize sweat and sebum into volatile, malodorous substances. Triclosan remains the most commonly used antimicrobial, although continuing bad press has resulted in its removal from some products and the adoption of alternatives including specially selected botanical extracts and silver chloride. Fragrance (parfum) is frequently used in deodorants and, in the absence of antimicrobials...

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If you are going to start your own cosmetic line (or even help your company launch something new) you have to figure out how to add value to your product so you can sell it for more money. As an individual cosmetic chemist, you will not be able to compete with the big guys on price. They can always sell products for less money than you. But you can compete with them on quality, story, design, and formula. So today's challenge is to figure out what you can add to your product to justify making it cost 5 times more. Challenge 09 How can you change your product to justify charging 5 times as much money for it?

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This is a little outside the realm of cosmetics but I like science and thought this animation was very cool. It takes you all the way down to the smallest thing that we've discovered (or theorized) up to the largest things in the Universe. So very cool. The Observable Universe

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What do “we” and “they” mean by “NATURAL”? Is it just me, or does it have an obscure aura about it? According to the Natural Product Association, the natural standard is anything coming from flora, fauna or the earth, except petroleum derived products. This statement in itself is a walking contradiction, as petroleum derived products are the essence of flora and fauna coming together that has naturally produced crude oil in and from the earth... Puzzling isn’t it? ! So, in this clear as crude oil definition, we must clarify. Natural as Fauna I am not going to lie. I had to look up fauna since the only real reference I had was one of Sleeping Beauty’s Fairy God-mothers — Flora, Fauna and Merry Weather. Fauna is anything coming from an animal, therefore animal derived... again, puzzling! With all the hopping around of pink (non-Playboy) bunnies on cosmetic packages as a declaration of “we do not conduct animal testing,” who would realistically want to use an ingredient sourced from an animal. Yes at times shark cartilage, cock combs, emu oil and such have made their way into cosmetic products, but with no success, from my knowledge in the past 5 years. Let’s agree that fauna does not make the cut for “they’s” definition of Natural. Natural as Flora Natural to consumers and marketers truly means PLANT derived ingredients, vegetal sourced. Hopefully you can narrow down your list and have a straight forward conversation with your Customer, Product Development, Marketing, etc. when it comes to the topic of your natural ingredients, to plant based. Even though petroleum and fauna derived products make sense from a natural stand point, save face and be prepared to offer your best formula with vegetal alternatives. Natural as Everything In Between There is a caveat to my statement of plant derived — the in betweens of fauna and flora — invertebrates, crustacean marine life and fungus. Ingredients derived from animal life devoid of a spinal cord tend to skip the conscience of most, like the recent snail extract phenomenon in South Korea. Also materials like chitosan from crustacean exoskeletons pass as well. Then we have the fungus that is neither plant nor animal, which have a very firm place in the market from thickening to whitening. I think overall this section of biology has room to gain comfort in the minds and hearts of our consumer without feeling a grave injustice has occurred. Vegetal Options In preparation of our Plant derived products I have found silicones to be the most difficult to replace. Silicones give products the touch that every consumer loves — the feeling of luxury. Silicones, specifically D5 has a bad reputation due to its cyclic molecular structure that evaporates into the air and bio-accumulates. This day in age, biodegradability matters. Even though D5 has been the main focus, dimethicones (linear, non-cyclic silicones) have started their walk to the door as well. I understand the choices for synthetic replacements have their limits, but here...

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Since I'm traveling today I didn't get time to do a full post however, I was reminded of one of the most innovative cosmetic products that I've seen in some time. Magnetic nail polish. Here's a picture. What I find innovative is that they took a common beauty product, added some magnetic particles and turned it into something unique. Very cool. Now, I don't know if women are going to like it but from a scientific point of view, it's pretty cool. What is the most innovative cosmetic that you have seen recently?

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We get lots of career questions about cosmetic chemistry related to salary, how much education you need and how easy it will be to advance in a cosmetic chemist career. So, I thought you might find my experience interesting. Becoming a cosmetic chemist When I first started in the cosmetic field (1992) I didn't have an advanced degree. I came in as a formulating chemist. I had no plans to become a cosmetic chemist while in school rather, I was just looking for a job... any job. I even remember thinking as I left the interview that working for a "shampoo" company didn't seem very important. I was a "scientist" after all and i should be using my brain to work on more pressing problems. I figured I'd work there for a couple years then go back and get a PHD. That never happened. Mostly, because I liked the job and had no burning desire to study anything in particular. Also because I got over my arrogance. My starting salary was low. $26,000 per year. I actually created a bit of a scandal because the offer was for $25,000 a year and I countered them with $28,000. They never had a beginning chemist do anything like that and that story stuck to me for a half dozen years after I was on the job. The R&D VP frequently referred to it whenever he would see me. But I digress. Chemists Salary The truth is if you wanted to make a lot of money, cosmetic chemistry is the wrong field. Jobs in Finance or Stockbrokers or Hedge fund managers make the big bucks. Chemists... not so much. If money is your driver, go get an advanced degree in Finance or something like that. (This is actually a problem in the US as people who would have traditionally gone into science & engineering are chasing the big bucks on Wall Street. ) However, you can still make an excellent salary as a cosmetic chemist. When I left my job after 16 years I was making over $120,000 annually. And I wasn't particularly ambitious in my career nor did I have all the right skill set for moving up the ranks of corporate America. I should note that my experience is probably not typical because I was able to increase my salary without moving jobs. Most people need to move jobs to increase their salary like I did. Realities of being a scientist If your focus is being a cosmetic chemist and doing a good job at that... you won't advance much in a corporation. Corporations value things like pleasing your boss, being bold and decisive in meetings, and making good presentations. They don't particularly value being a good scientist. To advance in a corporation you need to become a manager & you need to be a good "people person". Sucking up to your boss and your boss's boss helps too. Many scientists have a hard time doing this. Should you get an...

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A few months ago we talked about creating a program to teach people how to launch their own line of cosmetic products. One of the most common questions we are asked is for help in launching a beauty product line so we thought we would put together a free report that tells you just how to do it. This free report is 44 pages long and is filled with information telling you exactly what is involved in starting your own cosmetic brand. After reading it you will be in an excellent position to decide if this is something you want to pursue. Cosmetic Launch Coach The free report is actually part of the start of our next online training program called the Cosmetic Launch Coach. This program will be a 10 week program that goes in detail showing you step by step how to go from the idea of a product to seeing it on store shelves. We are not quite ready to start taking students in the training program just yet but by downloading the free report and signing up for the email list, you'll be the first to hear about when the program opens. We estimate the start of the course to be in the third of fourth week of March. To get the free report, just go to this web page and sign up. Start a cosmetic line free report.

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Recently, lead in lipstick has been in the news. The FDA came out with a report in which they reviewed 400 samples of lipstick and found trace lead levels in nearly all of them. This prompted cosmetic chemist Colin Sanders to give his thoughts on how much lipstick it would take to give yourself lead poisoning. To see more from Colin, check out his beauty blog - Colins Beauty Pages

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Some of the followers of this website do not have degrees in chemistry. In truth, you don't have to know chemistry to formulate products. However, it is extremely helpful! So, we're going to occasionally post lessons on the most important background chemistry topics that will help you in cosmetic formulating. Here is a good lesson on pH. The lesson isn't cosmetic science focused and in the future we are going to produce one that is. But this will be helpful if you never had pH explained to you. It will also be helpful if you've been away from basic chemistry and need a refresher.

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One of the key techniques that has helped me immensely in my career as a cosmetic chemist is the Mind Map. I have previously mentioned mind mapping in my post about setting goals but it occurred to me that I didn't go into details about what a mind map is and how it can help a cosmetic chemist. Mind map A mind map is a graphical way to represent ideas. It is a visual thinking tool that can help you organize your thoughts, connect unrelated ideas and come up with new ideas. Uses of a mind map Mind maps have a variety of uses that are beneficial to cosmetic chemists. Here are a few examples of when you might use one. 1. Brainstorming new product ideas 2. Solving technical challenges 3. Writing papers 4. Creating presentations 5. Writing marketing stories 6. Determining consumer needs 7. Studying and memorization 8. Planning your todo list 9. Taking notes at a conference or meeting Basically, mind mapping takes a dull activity and makes it fun. How to mind map When I'm in a meeting, I like to use a blank piece of paper. When at my computer, I use a free bit of software called Free Mind. Click on the link to get your free copy. The way it works is that you start in the middle of the page with some topic. If it is a meeting, you can just write the meeting subject. If you are brainstorming ideas, you can just start with a primary subject like "product ideas". Draw a circle around the initial word. Then come up with a related idea to the central topic. If you are in a meeting taking notes, just write your notes the way the speaker has organized them. For brainstorming ideas, just write down whatever topic comes to you. Then simply repeat until you have written enough and come up with lots of ideas. Here is an example of my mind map for goals. You can do the same for lots of topics. Mind mapping is a great way to get your brain working, inspire creativity and speed up the writing process. You should try it out.

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With all the fear mongering that goes on about cosmetic preservatives, it is no wonder consumers and some cosmetic manufacturers wonder why they can't make products without those "nasty" cell-killing chemicals. Well, there is a good reason. Because if preservatives are not included your cosmetics would be too dangerous to use and could spread diseases. Here is just a sampling of some of the things that preservatives are protecting you from. These microbes have been found growing in cosmetics ranging from lotions, shampoo/conditioners to lipsticks,etc. Bacteria Gram Negative Non-Fermentors Acinetobacter sp. - Can cause life-threatening infections in compromised individuals. Alcaligenes sp. - Opportunistic infections Pseudomonas sp. (putida, fluorescens, pausimobilis, aeruginosa, etc) - Second most common infection in hospitals Gram Negative Fementors Citrobacter freundii - Can cause life-threatening infections in compromised individuals. Enterobacter sp. ( agglomerans, aerogenes, gergoviae) - infections include bacteremia, lower respiratory tract infections, skin infections, soft tissue infections, urinary tract infections, UTI, endocarditis, intraabdominal infections, septic arthritis, osteomyelitis, and ophthalmic infections. Klebsiella sp. (oxytoca, pneumonia) - Causes pneumonia. Proteus sp. - Causes mastoiditis Serratia sp. ( marcescens, odorifera rubidaea) - opportunistic pathogen Gram Positive Bacillus sp. Staphylococcus aureus - Staph infections Staphylococcus epidermidis - Staph infections Enterococcus sp. - urinary tract infections Streptococcus sp. - Strep throat. Meningitis Propionibacterium sp. - Acne Yeasts Candida sp. - Can cause thrush. Systemic infection kills 40 - 50% of people infected. Saccharomyces sp. - Food spoilage Torula sp. Zygosaccharomyces sp. Molds Absidia sp. - Causes Mucormycosis... ewh. Alternaria sp. - Human allergen Aspergillus sp. -Produces aflatoxin which is both a toxin and a carcinogen Citromyces sp. Cladosporium sp. - reported to cause infections of the skin and toenails Dematium sp. Fusarium sp. - Infections may occur in the nails or the cornea Helminthosporium sp. - Asthma and respiratory infections Hormodendrum sp. - Allergies Mucor sp. Geotrichum sp. - Causative agent of geotrichosis Paecilomyces sp. Penicillium sp. Phoma sp. - Can cause cutaneous or subcutaneous infections. Aureobasidium sp. - Can damage lungs Rhizopus sp. - Can cause a fatal fungal infection zygomycosis Thamnidium sp. Trichothecium sp. Verticillium sp. So the next time you're thinking about slathering on a personal care product that hasn't been properly preserved, just think about all the microbes that you could be putting on. And then imagine those same microbes wrecking havoc on your immune system. Is that really worth it to you or your customer? Reference: Brannan, Daniel K. Ed. , Cosmetic Microbiology: A Practical Handbook. CRC Press , Boca Raton, FL. , 1997. Chapter 2.

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Articles about anti-aging treatments always catch my eye because let's face it, that is one of the main functions of cosmetics. This article about new anti-agining treatments focuses on things that dermatologists are doing to fight aging. And as these treatments come down in price, they represent real competition for cosmetic formulations. As a formulator, you should know about these. You should also use them as your benchmark for how well your formulations should work. Skin care anti-aging treatments Fillers The newest anti aging skin treatments include fillers and lasers. According to the article, fillers are designed to give the face a more plump, youthful look. The most common filler is botulinum toxin (botox), hyaluronic acid, and collagen. But the FDA has recently approved Calcium Hydroxylapatite which is supposed to restore facial volume and promote collagen production for up to a year. This will remain a hot area of research with scientists trying to find materials that last longer and are less toxic. Lasers The other skin rejuvenation technique is laser technologies. These are getting better and have been used for removing age spots, spider veins and circles under eyes. Stem Cells While stem cell technology is not ready for prime time, it could have big implications in the future. The idea is to get stem cells in skin to somehow turn on and create more skin structure under the surface. This seems a long way off. Cosmetic chemists For the moment cosmetics continue to provide the most cost effective anti-aging solutions available to consumers. However, we will certainly have our work cut out for us in the future. I'm not sure topically applied treatments will last to the end of the century.

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Here's another in our continuing series on dissecting the cosmetic label. By reviewing these labels it is our hope that you will develop the skills yourself. This is a key activity that all good cosmetic formulators should be able to do. Today's label is a product from Burt's Bees called Baby Bee Tear Free Shampoo. Previously, someone had asked us to do a 'natural' product. Ingredient list First thing is the ingredient list as listed on Drugstore. com. Water, Decyl, Lauryl Glucosides (Natural Coconut Oil, Corn, Starch, Sugar Soap Blend), Coco Betaine (Coconut Oil Moisturizer), Soy Protein, Coco Glucoside, Glyceryl Oleate (Natural Sunflower, Coconut Oil Soap Blend), Surcrose Laurate (Sugar Ester), Vegetable Glycerin, Betaine (Sugar Beet), Glucose Sugar, Fragrance, Orange Oil, Anise Oil, Lemon (Citrus Medica Limonium) Oil, Vanilla (Vanilla Planifolia) Extract, Clove Oil, Xanthan Gum (Natural Thickener), Glucose Oxidase, Lactoperoxidase It's notable that while this source mostly gets things right they certainly make mistakes. In this label the second ingredient is wrong. There is no such compound as Decyl. More likely the compound is supposed to be 'Decyl Glucosides' as this is the only thing that makes sense. It's also notable that this list doesn't follow proper INCI labeling because they include marketing words in the ingredient list. (Coconut oil moisturizer) and (natural coconut oil, corn... ) are not proper INCI names. The corrected label should look more like this... Water, Decyl Glucoside, Lauryl Glucoside, Cocamidopropyl Betaine, Soy Protein, Coco Glucoside, Glyceryl Oleate, Surcrose Laurate, Glycerin, Betaine, Glucose, Fragrance, Orange Oil, Anise Oil, Lemon (Citrus Medica Limonium) Oil, Vanilla (Vanilla Planifolia) Extract, Clove Oil, Xanthan Gum, Glucose Oxidase, Lactoperoxidase The most likely 1% line is after the Cocamidopropyl Betaine and before the Soy Protein. Since Burts Bees is owned by Clorox, it is a bit surprising to me that they have this many errors in their ingredient lists. Perhaps the errors are Drugstore. com ones. Ingredient breakdown Detergent system These are the ingredients that are responsible for making the product clean hair. Water Decyl Glucoside - Primary detergent Lauryl Glucoside - Primary detergent Cocamidopropyl Betaine - Foam boosting, thickening Betaine - Foam boosting Thickener Xanthan Gum Conditioning These ingredients are put in to offset the dryness of the detergent system. Soy Protein Coco Glucoside - Emollient Glyceryl Oleate - Emollient Sucrose Laurate - Emollient Glycerin - Humectant Glucose - Humectant Preservative system There isn't an obvious preservative system but they use a number of extracts and oils that could provide enough microbial protection in a detergent system. These ingredients are likely adding to the preservative effect (in addition to providing odor and good label copy). Orange Oil Anise Oil Lemon (Citrus Medica Limonium) Oil Vanilla (Vanilla Planifolia) Extract Clove Oil Glucose Oxidase - Product stabilizer Lactoperoxidase - Product stabilizer No doubt this is a fine enough product and it avoids parabens, sulfates, and other ingredients that buyers of 'natural' personal care products would want to avoid. With all the oils in there it will be a low foaming product...

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If you are a science student in college or even in high school and you have an interest in pursuing a career in cosmetic science, then you might be curious which classes will be most useful. Here are the ones that had the most relevance. Chemistry It's surprising how much of what you learn in most chemistry courses is not applicable to a cosmetic science job. The most relevant are the following. General Chemistry This will give you a good background to get you started. Much of what you learn won't be used but some of the key concepts include pH, solutions, and surfactants. Organic chemistry while the chemical reactions that you learn are interesting, there is very little synthesis that you will do as a cosmetic formulator. Mostly, you mix chemicals together and hope nothing happens which is the opposite of Organic synthesis. However, information about chemical names and structures will be helpful as will lab skills, chemical reaction types and learning how to read IR spectroscopy graphs. Physical Chemistry One of the most complicated of all chemistry courses with lots of math. If you had trouble with this one, don't worry, being good at this subject is not critical for good formulation. It will be useful for Process Engineers and aerosol chemists but not much for formulators. Analytical Chemistry This will be most important for people who end up in the analytical labs. It will be helpful for formulators to know this stuff but not critical. Inorganic Chemistry This is most applicable to mineral ingredient like Iron Oxides, Zinc Oxides and some clays that are used for thickening. Polymer Chemistry Many raw materials that you use in formulating will be polymers so this course provides useful background information. Biochemistry While this course may not be directly applicable, the future of cosmetics will be moving more and more to cosmeceuticals that interact with biochemical mechanisms. Therefore it will be helpful to learn about biochemical mechanisms. Non-Chemistry Courses There is more to being a cosmetic chemist than chemistry. Here are some courses that will also be useful for cosmetic chemists. General Biology This course is a requirement of most university science programs but much of the information won't be directly applicable. The important topics include microbiology and human physiology. If you could take courses in both of these topics, that would be a great idea. Statistics Typically science majors will take Calculus but the most useful math course for formulators will be statistics. Much of the cosmetic testing you do will require a good grasp of statistics. Marketing In the cosmetic industry the Marketing people drive most product development efforts. It will be extremely helpful for a chemist to understand what is important in marketing. Market Research While this type of research isn't the same as lab research, it is an important type of experimenting that is crucial for launching new products. It's a great idea to take a market research course. Psychology Designing cosmetics depends on more factors than...

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On a previous post about the Natural cosmetics market, someone left a comment that suggested I was anti-natural. This is not true, although I can understand how someone would get that impression. Natural ingredients are important to cosmetic chemists because they help to sell products. They're also important to cosmetic marketers so as a cosmetic chemist you need to keep your eye on news about the latest ingredients. Here was an interesting news story about the use of Honey as a treatment for wounds. According to scientists Manuka honey has been clinically shown to treat bacterial infections. The researchers suggest that it could be used in place of antibiotics that some bacteria have become resistant to. Interesting. For skin formulators, this kind of information could be the basis for an interesting lotion story.

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One of the fundamental principles of cosmetics and personal care products is the action of surfactants in a solution. Here is a video that demonstrates what happens to the surfactant molecules when they are put into a solution of water. Essentially they form structures called micelles.

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There is a lot more activity going on in the cosmetic science forum and we are delighted! The questions have been excellent and the responses too. I am especially happy to be learning from the different experiences of my fellow cosmetic chemists. Here is a run down of the hottest topics. 1. What is the proper way to label an ingredient via INCI? 2. The best way to work with Carbomer. 3. How do you stop product rancidity? 4. Tips for scaling up batches from lab to production Feel free to add to the conversation or post your own questions or comments. It's free to join and participate in the Cosmetic Science Forum.

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Click here for a complete list of the Cosmetic Formulation basics series. Foundation Foundation or skin colorants are designed to enhance the color and appearance of the face. They are also used to impart a smooth surface for which other color products can be added. What foundation does Foundations are available in a variety of forms including emulsions, anhydrous cakes, sticks, and pressed or loose powders. They are composed of colorants that are applied to the skin to create a continuous even tone. The colorants are able to smooth out the surface of the skin and scatter light to modify the color. Some foundations have additional ingredients that can provide benefits such as skin moisturization, sun protection and anti aging. How foundations work A foundation formula is composed of a variety of compounds to impart benefits. The primary functional ingredient is a coverage pigment and coloring pigments. Additionally there are filling ingredients, fragrances and depending on the formulation type emulsion ingredients, preservatives, antioxidants, and even UV protectants. The primary coverage pigments in foundations are Titanium Dioxide, Zinc Oxide, and Kaolin. These produce a white color which is able to scatter light and reduce the skin's natural color. Some of these ingredients have the added benefit of being UV protectants. However, foundation is not applied in a manner that can provide significant sun protection so it is rare that any foundation formula would claim it. Filler ingredients include talc which can help spread the primary coverage pigments around on the face. They make the product easier to use. Filler ingredients include talc, mica, sericite and specialty fillers such as bismuth oxychloride. Color pigments including red, yellow, and black iron oxides can be mixed to create a shade that matches any skin tone. Fragrances are often incorporated in foundations because consumers generally like pleasantly fragranced products. If the formula is going to be an emulsion ingredients like emulsifiers, water, and preservatives are also included. Foundation formula Here is a typical foundation formula (click to enlarge)

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At the start of every year I put together a goal list which articulates all I want to accomplish for the year. I've been doing this since 2003 accomplishing many of the things I list but not accomplishing many more. So, I thought it would be helpful to do monthly updates to keep me honest and on track. Here is how I did in January 2012. Chemists Corner goal progress I've actually made decent progress on almost all my goals thus far. Here is the 7 goals I listed at the start of the year and the progress I've made. 1. Write a blog post every day - I've written 31 posts in 31 days. On track 2. Launch the “How to Start Your Own Cosmetic Line” program. I've actually written the report and anticipate this training program to be ready sometime in mid-March. You'll be hearing a lot more about this in this coming month. 3. Record 26 podcast episodes - I've recorded 2 and have a third one half way done. So, I'm no pace here. 4. Create a series of basic chemistry videos (30) - I've brainstormed these and read a refresher book on chemistry so I'm just about ready to start. But I should have 3 videos completed and I don't. A little behind here. 5. Begin an open source formulation site - Haven't done much on this yet because I don't know how it will work. Need to come up with a plan. 6. Run for SCC VP elect - Can't do anything on this until late March or April. 7. Grow the website traffic & social networking followers - January had the second highest traffic month in the history of this website. And we had 16,000 more visitors to Chemists Corner than in January 2011. Our Facebook page is up to 803 likes and Twitter has 825 followers. We're making progress on all of these. Making goals at the beginning of the year is an excellent way to help you get things done. But if you aren't regularly reviewing your progress it's easy to let things slip. Hopefully, by doing reviews like this I'll ensure that I keep gorwing this website and spreading information about cosmetic science. How are you doing on your 2012 goals? Leave a comment below.

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We recently worked with Allured to launch a Natural Cosmetic Formulating course. If you haven't signed up to receive the free report on the subject be sure to go get it here. Formulating natural cosmetics While working on that project I discovered a bit about the naturals cosmetic market which I thought was interesting and would share here. Natural cosmetic market Finding market data about any cosmetic area can be a little challenging if you aren't signed up with a market research company like Mintell or IRI. However, if you read GCI, Cosmetics & Toiletries or some of the other cosmetic industry magazines, you can get hints of data. Here is some data about the natural cosmetic market that you might find interesting. The data represents the annual sales of natural cosmetics in the US circa 2008. It's a little old but it gives you a good idea of the distribution and size of the market. Color Cosmetics - $419 million Hair care - $1. 7 billion Baby care - $159 million Nail care - $24 million Bath items - $147 million Deodorants - $217 million Shaving - $138 million Skin care - $3. 05 billion Soap - $998 million Fragrance - $352 million Total personal care - $7. 92 billion So, if you're getting into the natural formulation market, that's what the market looks like.

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This question was raised on the cosmetic science forum and I thought it was so good that it warranted a full treatment here on the blog. Many of our followers here on Chemists Corner are people who are interested in creating formulas and possibly producing their own line of products. Almost every good cosmetic chemist that I've known has said they wanted to start their own line. But should they? Reality of the Cosmetic Industry Before answering this question, it is important to face facts about the cosmetics and personal care industry. Big companies have significant advantages over small and start-up companies. More money Big companies have more money than small ones. They can outspend you in every way from R&D to performance testing to safety testing to advertising and marketing. They can use the money to get their products in stores and get price breaks on packaging and raw materials. More money naturally leads to other advantages. Less expensive products Big companies can make less expensive products. Even if a small company copies the formula exactly from a big company they will not be able to produce the product as inexpensively as a big company. In fact, the product costs to a small company will be 2 or 3 times higher than a big company. This means that big companies can charge less for products that perform every bit as well as the ones you can create. More scientists The additional money available to big companies means they can hire more cosmetic chemists and create better formulas. A small cosmetic company just can not create a formula that will be as optimized and tested for superior performance. More advertising More money also means more advertising. Big cosmetic companies will buy TV commercials, magazine ads, and radio spots. They will host events for bloggers & beauty editors and they will have an advertising agency working to promote their brand. A small cosmetic company will not be able to outspend the big guys in advertising. More distribution Finally, the additional money and size of a big cosmetic company means that they will be able to get their products on more store shelves and in more locations than a small company. There is just no competition when it comes to mass market and drug stores. Are big cosmetic companies unbeatable? With all of these advantages, you might start get the feeling that Big cosmetic companies are unbeatable. You might also think that starting your own cosmetic line is a waste of time. Well, that isn't necessarily true. Think of companies like Burts Bees and Aveda who started small and built huge brands. It can happen because small companies have a few notable advantages over big companies. Small markets An advantage small companies have is that big companies want to make big money. If a brand is not going to sell at least $100 million with the potential to reach $1 billion, the big cosmetic company won't even investigate the idea. When I...

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There was a bit on Penn & Tellers show Bullsh*t where they convinced people to let snails climb all over their face. It was supposed to be an anti-aging product but the real point of the segment was that people are gullible and will believe anything if you dress it up right. It was an amusing bit. So, imagine my surprise when I saw this article about the latest fad in skin care. Wow. Of course, no one is immune to magical thinking. And it is incredibly difficult to remain skeptical when a perceived authority is giving you a good story. As a cosmetic formulator you need to keep an open mind (maybe this snail slime really does work) but not so open that you become gullible. Some ingredients really are silly.

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Here is an article about 100 incredibly useful and interesting websites. I've pared down the list to point out the ones that would be useful for anyone in the cosmetic industry. Money RetailMeNot - A place to find coupons for numerous stores. Prosper - Need money for your business? Here is a place you can get crowdsourced loans. Pageonce - If you have a problem keeping track of all your accounts, consolidate them with this website. It lets you keep track of everything in one spot. Making things HowStuffWorks - Look up any cosmetic or personal care product and you can get the basics of how it works. If we haven't covered it here on Chemists Corner, it might be listed on HowStuffWorks. TreeHugger- While I don't put much faith in the scientific accuracy of this site, there is useful things you can learn about the Green consumer. If you are creating cosmetics for them, you should follow this website. Getting stuff Craigslist - If you are looking for something obscure (e. g. lab equipment) you might be able to find it here. Freecycle - There could be some lab equipment here too. And if you want to get rid of something but you don't want to throw it out, try Freecycle. Traveling Kayak- If you are looking to travel to a cosmetic science conference, Kayak is an excellent place to arrange your travel. Publishing Vimeo- Sure everyone knows about YouTube but Vimeo has a ton of videos and has a great collection of science videos that might be interesting for cosmetic chemists. If you want to see the entire list go here. 100 useful websites Do you know of some useful websites? Leave a comment below.

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A little while back we received the following questions about being a cosmetic chemist consultant. Since there are a number of you who may end up becoming consultants at some point in your formulating career, it will be useful to have these questions answered. If you have other questions about cosmetic chemist consulting or other cosmetic science questions, leave a comment in our cosmetic science forum. How do cosmetic consultants work? "When cosmetic chemistry consultants work independently, where do they do the formulating? " Many consultants have their own lab space. Some can be in their houses or they rent space. Other cosmetic chemists will make a deal with a contract manufacturer and use the manufacturer's lab space. In exchange they generate business for the manufacturer. Typically, consultants will outsource the manufacturing but some have enough space to create batches that are 5 gallons or less. Start-up costs "What should be factored into startup costs? " When stating a consultant business you have to figure in costs of... Business startup costs - filing paper work, accountant, setting up bank accounts, incorporating, getting business stationary, website, logo, etc. Getting lab equipment. If you are going to create your own lab this will cost money. Getting lab space. If you create your own or if you rent from an outside lab it will cost money upfront. Chemical inventory. You may have to buy chemicals to start formulating. This might be covered by some upfront money you receive from your client but it probably won't be sufficient. Getting paid "How are consultants paid? " Consultants are paid in different ways. Typically, they quote a price on a project and get paid 50% up front and 50% upon completion. Also, their expenses will be negotiated into the price. Some formulators are paid a royalty on the formulas they develop or they are paid based on % of sales. Cosmetic chemist consultants If you have anything to add, please feel free to comment below. Also, if you are already working as a consultant be sure to sign up on our cosmetic chemist consultant page. We often get contacted here at Chemists Corner by people looking for cosmetic chemists to help them formulate products.

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Interview begins at 13:30 Interview - Matt Zoeller Matt Zoeller holds a B. S. in Chemistry from Roosevelt University and is a 30-year veteran of the personal care product contract manufacturing industry segment. He has held senior technical management positions at Schmit Laboratories, SMAP Mfg. , and Raani Corporation. He is currently V. P. of Product Development for Paket Corporation in Chicago, a respected contract manufacturer of HBA products packaged in flexible pouches. Matt has contributed to the MWSCC in many capacities, most notably as Editor of the SCCoop from 1999 to 2003. He also co-produced several technical seminars for the chapter and managed publicity for Teamworks events since 1996. Cosmetic industry stories Clorox rolls out Ingredients Inside app --------------- Tadpoles development hindered by cosmetic chemical ------------- Bacteria on skin affects attractivenss to mosquitoes Cosmetic Industry Better cosmetic ingredients So how do you figure out which cosmetic ingredients are the best to use? The following checklist can help you figure it out. 1. First, have a standard test to compare performance 2. Consider the overall cost impact of the ingredient 3. Consider the impact on production 4. Figure out what your marketing people would say 5. Decide what you like Announcements Formulating Natural Products training program Cosmetic science forum Chemists Corner is a podcast about cosmetic science and is broadcast to help educate, entertain, and inspire current and future cosmetic scientists. The information and opinions discussed on Chemists Corner are those of the hosts and the guests alone. They do not necessarily reflect those of any past, present or future employers.

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Another in our continuing series that endeavors to teach cosmetic chemists how to look at a product label and see what they can determine about the cosmetic ingredients used in the formula. In this post we will look at Pantene Pro-V Brunette Expressions Daily Color Enhancing Shampoo. Pantene is one of the most successful and popular shampoo products on the market and for good reason, it's a great formula. Let's see what in it. LOI - Brunette Expression Water, Ammonium Lauryl Sulfate, Ammonium Laureth Sulfate, Ammonium Xylenesulfonate, Dimethicone, Laureth-4, Fragrance, Sodium Chloride, Sodium Citrate, Sodium Benzoate, Citric Acid, Disodium EDTA, Polyquaternium-6, Trihydroxystearin, Mica, Panthenol, Panthenyl Ethyl Ether, Iron Oxides, Titanium Dioxide, Yellow 6, Acid Green 25, Red 4, Benzoic Acid, Ferric Ferrocyanide, Methylchloroisothiazolinone, Methylisothiazolinone. 1% line The trick to figuring out the primary functional ingredients in a formula is to find the 1% line. This is the line at which the concentration of ingredients is at 1% or lower. In this particular formula, the 1% line is likely after the Dimethicone. In previous versions of this shampoo formula the shampoo patent calls for 1% dimethicone. For most mainstream products fragrance will not be included at a level above 1%. What the ingredients do Now that we know the 1% line, here's what the ingredients do. Cleansing ingredients These are the ingredients that make the hair clean. P&G has optimized their surfactant blend to create an incredibly creamy and rich lather. One of the best systems in the business (as far as acceptance by consumers goes). Water Ammonium Lauryl Sulfate Ammonium Laureth Sulfate Ammonium Xylenesulfonate - Secondary surfactant to reduce irritation Laureth-4 - Could be to improve creaminess & reduce irritation Conditioning ingredients These ingredients are left behind on the hair and give it a conditioned feeling. While it is not advertised as such this is actually a 2-in-1 shampoo formula (shampoo+conditioner) Dimethicone - Add conditioning Polyquaternium-6 - Cationic conditioner Panthenol - Moisturizer though could just be a claims ingredient Panthenyl Ethyl Ether - Supposed moisturizer but I'm skeptical Trihydroxystearin - Emollient to affect foam feel Colorants Since this is supposed to be for brunettes they wanted to give it a shimmering brown color. These colors might stain the hair a bit but they are primarily used to make an otherwise white shampoo look brown. Mica - White shimmering color Iron Oxides - Brown coloring Titanium Dioxide - White shimmering color Yellow 6 Acid Green 25 Red 4 Ferric Ferrocyanide Preservative system They certainly have a more complicated preservative system and seem to have gone out of their way to avoid Formaldehyde donors like DMDM Hydanotin and Parabens. I wonder what the reason behind this was. Most likely to make it a more global formula because those preservatives are not acceptable everywhere. Disodium EDTA - Chealating agent helps preservative Methylchloroisothiazolinone Methylisothiazolinone Benzoic Acid Sodium Citrate Sodium Benzoate Odor Fragrance - Signature fragrance of Pantene Formula adjusters Sodium Chloride - Thickener Citric Acid - pH adjuster to get formula ~pH 5. 5...

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I was searching through some of my old bookmarks and was reminded of this website called the Martindale Center. The amount of information that they have is really quite amazing. They have information on everything from science to language to fashion to business and beyond. You could get completely lost. It's great! You want to learn about Glass Blowing to make your own lab equipment? You can do that here. Glass blowing info. Looking for lectures in first year chemistry? Find those chemistry lectures here. And if you want some chemistry lab demonstrations... here's a list of them right here. Chemistry lab demos It really is an amazing collection of useful and interesting information. If you find anything particularly cool, let us know!

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I was reading some of my latest Twitter updates when I saw another claim about a beauty product being "chemical free. " Reading claims like this really bug me because nearly EVERYTHING is a chemical. There is no such thing as a Chemical Free Sunscreen! ! ! Zinc Oxide and Titanium Dioxide are CHEMICALS! ! Alright, enough of that. I'll calm down. But it does remind me of all the other misleading cosmetic claims that I see from cosmetic marketers. Here is a list of 10 of the most misleading cosmetic claims that I could find. What makes a claim misleading? Before I get to the list, I want to define my terms. There are plenty of more egregious claims than the ones on this list but typically those are direct lies. (e. g. cosmetics that say they will regrow your hair). The claims listed here are not lies per se, the companies no doubt have supporting tests. However, they are specifically made to mislead consumers. 1. Natural, organic, green, etc. This claim can mean anything because there is no specific definition for 'natural'. Some companies argue that if an ingredient comes from a natural source then it's natural. They conveniently overlook the fact that they chemically modify it to make it work the way they want it. And 'organic' is not much better. True, there is a USDA organic certification program but it is not required that a cosmetic company follow it to use the 'organic' claim on their products. Why it is misleading - Companies who use this claim want consumers to believe that the products they produce are "safer" than other cosmetics. Natural / organic / green cosmetic are not safer. 2. Chemical free. Every cosmetic or personal care product you would buy is made of chemicals. There is no such thing as a 'chemical free' cosmetic. Water is a chemical. Titanium Dioxide is a chemical. Why it is misleading - It's just wrong. It also is made to imply that the product is "safer" than cosmetics made with chemicals. The products are not safer. This is just wrong. 3. pH balanced Skin and hair products often advertise themselves as 'pH balanced' as if that is supposed to be some big benefit. What products are sold that are not pH balanced? Why it is misleading - Companies who make this claim try to imply some superiority over products that are not making this claim. They want consumers to believe that the products will be less irritating and will work better. They won't. Why? Because any decently formulated product will be made in a pH range that is compatible with skin and hair. A consumer will never notice a single difference between a product that is "pH balanced" and one that is just normally formulated. 4. Hypoallergenic Companies make this claim because they want consumers to believe that their products will not cause allergies. But the FDA looked at this issue in the 1970's and essnetially concluded that...

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Are you familiar with Instructables. com? It's a website where people share their methods for making different things. They have a number listings for different cosmetic products and most of the techniques that I found were not too good. But I like this one for creating your own fragrance. Make your own perfume This moisturizer formula however... not so good. How to make a basic moisturizer Still, this is an interesting site and could provide you with some inspiration for making your next formulation.

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There are a couple of things I like about this video. 1. It encourages girls to be interested in science. 2. It demonstrates simple safety testing that should be done They do brush over the science a little too much but maybe that is best for this audience. Click here to find out how you can purchase this cosmetic science kit

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If you spent any time on the web this week, it would have been difficult for you to avoid the news of the impending Internet censorship legislation called SOPA and PIPA. Some major websites went dark and thousands of others modified their websites, facebook pages and twitter feeds in protest. You can read more about the issue here. SOPA PIPA and Cosmetics While looking at the list of companies that support this awful legislation, I noticed a number of companies from the cosmetic industry. They include... 3M Chanel Coty Dow Chemical Company Estee Lauder Johnson & Johnson Dolce & Gabbana L'Oreal USA Personal Care Products Council Pfizer Revlon I don't get it. Why would these cosmetic companies support censorship of the Internet? What is the benefit to them? Chemcial companies like 3M & Dow Chemical? How does online piracy affect them? The only thing that I can think of is that these companies are worried about pirated copies of their make-up or brands being made available on the Internet. The PCPC is on the list of supporters! ! ! What the hell! ! ? A majority of their member companies don't even support it. Very troubling PCPC. Seriously, what are these organizations thinking?

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Here was an interesting article about innovation and creating disruptive ideas. The cosmetic industry is definitely in need of some disruptive ideas. Unfortunately, the big companies are risk adverse and any idea that is really disruptive likely won't see the light of day. That is why it is up to the entreprenureial cosmetic chemist to create disruption. Note - Odds are high that your disruptive idea will fail. Anyway, if that doesn't discourage you read on to see how you can develop innovative disruptive ideas for the cosmetic industry. Disruptive ideas The Mashable author suggests three steps to creating disruptive ideas. 1. Figure out what you want to disrupt 2. Figure out the industry cliches 3. Come up with a disruptive hypotheses Let's look at how this might work in the cosmetic industry. What do you want to disrupt? In this step you want to define what you want to disrupt. This should be high level stuff. For example, hair care or skin care. But you can get more specific. Hair products for curly hair or skin products for senior citizens. Then turn it into a sentence. "I want to disrupt the hair care market. " Determine the cliches Figure out what are the things about the cosmetic industry that everyone (insiders) believe or takes for granted. In the hair care example... 1. Shampoo must foam 2. Hair products make hair look beautiful 3. Hair products come in plastic bottles 4. Hair products are advertised using women with beautiful hair. Do a little research and see what everyone in the industry is doing. Checking out websites of the biggest brands and finding similarities is a great way to make this list. Create disruptive hypotheses Now that you have your list of obvious things that everyone does, come up with ideas that disrupt the status quo. It is helpful to begin with the statement "What would happen if... " For example, "What would happen if shampoo didn't foam? " - Like Dry Shampoo perhaps? "What would happen if hair products couldn't be sold in plastic bottles? " - How would you sell them? Well, you get the idea. The more scenarios you come up with, the more disruptive ideas you can create. And the more ideas you have, the more likely you are to come up with something that is truly unique. That is what the cosmetic industry needs and you are the ones who need to do it.

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Click here for a complete list of the Cosmetic Formulation basics series. Nail Polish Nail polish is designed to improve the appearance and condition of nails. It also can protect nails from breakage. What nail polish does In its simplest form, a nail polish is a liquid solution of pigments, solvents and film formers. It typically comes in a bottle with a brush applicator. The solution is applied to the nail and then allowed to dry at which point it becomes a smooth, hard, colored film. How nail polish works Nail polishes contain a number of ingredients including pigments, film formers, plasticizers, resins, solvents and other additives. There are two types of pigments used in nail polishes. Mineral pigments like titanium dioxide and colored iron oxides and organic pigments like red #6 and yellow #5. In the US the pigments that are allowed for use in nail polish are strictly limited. To make the nail polish look right, a film former is needed. The ingredient most frequently used is nitrocellulose. Since it is a dangerous compound to work with there are a limited number of manufacturers who can produce nail polish. Resins like shellac and acrylic polymers are added to improve the properties of the nitrocellulose film. This makes the film tougher and helps the nail polish last longer. Plasticizers are needed to improve the film flexibility. Camphor and dibutyl phthalate are most often used. Solvents like alcohols, esters, and ketones are used to help the product spread and dry quickly. Finally, additives like viscosity modifiers and UV protectors may be included. Nail polish formulation Here is a standard nail polish formulation (click to enlarge)

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There was a recent study on parabens that made the news. It was research published in the Journal of Applied Toxicology conducted by Dr. Philippa Darbre and Mr Lester Barr. The key findings of the research includes 1. Parabens were detected in 99% of all breast tissue samples 2. An average of 85. 5 ng/g was found. Four times higher than work done in 2004. 3. Propylparaben and methylparaben had the highest levels detected The researchers conclude... Mr Lester Barr - "Our study appears to confirm the view that there is no simple cause and effect relationship between parabens in underarm products and breast cancer" Dr Darbre - "The fact that parabens were detected in the majority of the breast tissue samples cannot be taken to imply that they actually caused breast cancer in the 40 women studied" Darbre further concludes that the fact that parabens are found in breast tissue justifies further investigation. What's the story? The study is interesting and presents a bit of a mystery. Why are parabens being found in breast tissue? Where are they coming from? As Darbre says, more research is needed. But the story I most want to write about is the way that this story is being reported. Take a look at these different headlines about the same press release. From Science Daily... Parabens in Breast Tissue Not Limited to Women Who Have Used Underarm Products From Cosmetics Design... Study finds no link between deodorant use and breast cancer Then from Red Orbit... Possible Link Between Personal Care Products, Breast Cancer Studied And NHS... Deodorant chemical 'found in breast tumours' And finally Healthcareglobal. com Popular cosmetic chemical found in breast cancer tissue Viva la difference How is it that all of these media outlets got the same press release and came up with completely different headlines? None of these headlines are lies per se. But they all communicate a different message. The Science Daily headline (which I view as the least biased source) captures what I see as the main point of the study. Parabens are found in breast tissue whether people have used deodorants or not. The Cosmetic Design headline is clearly biased to tell the story in a way that exonerates the cosmetic industry. They don't lie but they do miss the point of the research. The next few headlines are much more sensational however, and communicate the message that the study somehow links parabens, cancer and the use of cosmetics. The study does the exact opposite! ! I guess it just goes to show that way you tell a story is just as important as the facts that go into creating it. In my view, this research provides no new information to the debate. Unfortunately, chemophobes will look at this research as a new reason to ban parabens from cosmetic products. Sigh

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On a number of occasions we've mentioned the use of vitamins in cosmetic products. The typical spin is that vitamins are put in cosmetics to make label claims because they don't really have much effect but they do sell products. This is true in the vast majority of cases. But perhaps this is a bit unfair. In this post, I'm going to take a different spin and explain the vitamins that are used in cosmetics and whether they have any (even if it's small) effect. Vitamins in cosmetics Since vitamins are such an appealing ingredient to cosmetic consumers and marketers, you're going to find many different kinds in products ranging from skin lotions, hair products, make-up and even toothpaste. The primary vitamins used by cosmetic formulators includes vitamin A, B, C, D, E, F, and K. We'll go over each of them roughly in order of prevalence in cosmetics. Vitamin A What it is- This popular vitamin in cosmetics belongs to a large class of compounds called retinoids. It's precursor is called beta-carotene and is found in cosmetics as retinol, retinyl esters, retinoic acid, retinyl palmitate, acitretin and adapalene. Why use it- It has a variety of effects in the body such as decreasing inflammation, helping the immune system and regulating growth of epidermal cells. It has been shown to reverse photoaging and reduce the appearance of wrinkles. It also works as a treatment for acne and may have skin lightening effects. Does it work- Of all the vitamins found in cosmetics, use of Vitamin A is most supported by the evidence. In fact, it is so effective for anti-aging that in the US it is considered a drug that requires a doctor's prescription. But this ingredient is difficult to formulate with because it is inherently unstable when exposed to light. More stable forms are less effective. And there is no evidence that Vitamin A will have any effect on your hair. Vitamin E What it is- Vitamin E is a naturally occurring antioxidant which is why it is frequently added to cosmetics and skin care products. Why use it- It is considered to be a protector ingredient since it is a major free-radical scavenger. Free radicals are very damaging to the skin tissue. Topical application of vitamin E is said to result in skin smoothening, moisturizing, prevention of pre-mature skin-aging, and suppression of UV-induced erythema. Does it work- Those all seem like good things benefits however, for skin smoothening or moisturization Vitamin E is not going to compare to traditional skin ingredients like petrolatum or mineral oil. And for other unseen benefits? This study which examined whether UV induced damage could be helped by topical Vitamin E treatment concluded that it could not. And this study looked at the effect of topically applied vitamin E on scar tissue resulted in no observable benefit. But other researchers have reported effects so a benefit is possible if not yet proven. There is no evidence that using Vitamin E in hair will...

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Very clever summary of how to spot quackery. In the cosmetic industry, you can find examples of people selling products using all of these methods. Here is a list of their Red Flags of Quackery. If you see them in a cosmetic ad, it might be quackery. 1. Testimonials 2. Helps your body 3. Celebrity Doctor 4. Ancient Wisdom 5. Secret/Conspiracy 6. Buy my book 7. Miracle ingredient 8. Non-MD Doctor 9. Natural 10. Quantum 11. Toxins 12. Energy 13. Magnets 14. Hostility to criticism 15. Western Medicine Perhaps in a future post, I'll list examples of cosmetic products sold using these red flags. Some of these apply more to health products but lots of cosmetic products are marketed using these quacky techniques. Why? Unfortunately, they often work.

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Here is one of my favorite chemical demonstrations of all time. It is the old iodine clock reaction. What happens is that there is a chemical equillibrium that happens and the different species change colors. Eventually, the system runs out of energy and stops changing color. When I first started in the cosmetic industry, I always thought this would be a cool effect. Imagine having your product "blink" on the store shelves. Unfortunately, it's just not practical for a cosmetic product. Here's a good explanation of the chemical reactions that are happening.

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Evaluating the Effectiveness of Cosmeceuticals I saw this interesting review study about cosmeceuticals. The article goes through and looks at the best scientific evidence available for various cosmeceuticals including... 1. Retinoids 2. Kinetin 3. Niacinamide 4. Soy phospholipids 5. Green tea polyphenols Their conclusion, all 5 of these cosmeceuticals fall short of the proof standards for efficacy as proposed by Albert Kligman (

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Another installment of our Dissecting the Label series. In these blog posts we dissect a lable and discuss what each of the ingredients do in the formula and ponder why they are added. Last time we did a skin self-tanning prodcut. This time we'll look at a hair conditioner. Organix Conditioner Organix LOI Here's the ingredient list. Aqua/Water/Eau (Water), Cetyl Alcohol, Behentrimonium Methosulfate, Parfum, Cetearyl Alcohol, Cetearyl Glucoside, Glyceryl Stearate, Glycerin, Cyclopentasiloxane, Dimethicone, Simmondsia Chinensis (Jojoba) Seed Oil (Jojoba), DMDM Hydantoin, Panthenol, Silk Amino Acids, Cocos Nucifera Extract (Coconut), Albumen, Cocos Nucifera Oil (Coconut), Hydrolyzed Milk Protein, Tocopheryl Acetate (Vitamin E) (Vitamin E), Tetrasodium EDTA, Methylchloroisothiazolinone, Methylisothiazolinone, Coumarin The 1% Line Our first challenge as a cosmetic chemist is to figure out where the 1% line might be. This can give us a clue as to what are the most important ingredients in the formula. In this product there are two likely spots for the 1% line. Either right after the Behentrimonium Methosulfate or after the Dimethicone. My gut belief is that it is right after the Dimethicone. They certainly aren't adding the jojoba oil at levels above 1%. I'm just a little surprised that the Parfum (Fragrance) would be used at a level above 1% but Cetearyl Alcohol most likely is so that's what I'm going with. You can see that figuring out this 1% line is not a precise science. What the ingredients do As always, we'll group common ingredients and describe what they do. Emulsion ingredients These ingredients make the formula look and feel appealing. Water - The solvent. Probably makes up 85-90% of this formula. Cetyl Alcohol - Opacifying / emulsifier Cetearyl Alcohol - Opacifying / emulsifier Cetearyl Glucoside - Emulsifier Glyceryl Stearate - Emulsifier Conditioning ingredients These are the things that make the formula work. It's why people use the product. Behentrimonium Methosulfate - Hair conditioning. For anti-static, detangling. Makes hair easier to comb. Dimethicone - Hair conditioning for shine & slickness Cyclopentasiloxane - Hair conditioning Glycerin - Some moisturizing effect but likely rinses down the drain. Claims & Puffery ingredients These ingredients are added to make the product sound more appealing. If these raw materials were left out of the formula, it is unlikely that anyone would notice a difference in performance. Simmondsia Chinensis (Jojoba) Seed Oil Panthenol - Some evidence this could effect hair but I remain skeptical Silk Amino Acids Cocos Nucifera Extract (Coconut) Albumen Cocos Nucifera Oil (Coconut) Hydrolyzed Milk Protein Tocopheryl Acetate (Vitamin E) Coumarin Preservative system Since microbes can grow in the environment created in this formula, preservatives have to be added to ensure they don't. This conditioner uses two classic preservatives that have a broad spectrum of organisms that they will kill. DMDM Hydantoin - Preservative Tetrasodium EDTA - Helps to losen cell walls & make preservatives more effective. Methylchloroisothiazolinone - Preservative Methylisothiazolinone - Preservative Fragrance Parfum - In US this should be labeled Fragrance. This is a pretty standard conditioner formula with lots of claims ingredients added...

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This video is funny... and a little sad. Thankfully, this isn't how it really is for cosmetic chemists but there is certainly a tinge of truth here. Early years In my younger years I often fretted about taking a job as a cosmetic chemist. One recurring thought was that it wasn't "important" enough. In fact, I remember driving home after my interview at the shampoo factory thinking that there is no way that I would want this job. I took it with the intention of making some money then quitting after a few years and going to get a PHD in something "important". After a few years, I found I really enjoyed my job. I liked the projects. I liked the challenges. I liked the people. And overall, it was fun. Being a cosmetic chemist is a great job. If you have an interest in inventing things, learning about chemicals and human biology, being creative and seeing your work directly impact people's lives, then you'll love a career in cosmetic chemistry. But is it important enough? Is cosmetic science important? You really have to decide for yourself if cosmetic science is important enough. Consider the pros and cons. Pros Your work leads directly to products that people use Your products make people happy There is a lot to learn & the subject is interesting It's economically important It is a low stress job, good salary It can pose challenging problems Cons You're not curing cancer or saving lives There is very little "new" science You're not solving Big world problems You're not going to change the world You could have made more money in banking or sales These are just off the top of my head but I'm sure there are other things that cosmetic chemists would add to the list. (feel free to do so in the comments) Since I've spent nearly 20 years in the industry it seems that my answer to the question is... Yes, cosmetic science is important enough. When I thought about it I decided that no one is really curing cancer because cancer is still around. And people may be making progress on Big Problems but there are still plenty of Big Problems that are unsolved. And they'll remained unsolved whether I work on them or not. The other thing is that as a scientist you are free to keep tabs on other areas of research. If you ever have an idea that you think will cure cancer or Alzheimer's disease or solve some other world problem, go work on it. But if you don't have any ideas about those subjects, a cosmetic science career is a great place to keep your brain fresh and work on interesting problems (that can be solved). Epilogue Incidentally, I did go back to school and pursue a Masters degree in biochemistry but I never left the cosmetic industry. Biochemistry just didn't seem like it would be an interesting job. For me being interesting is more important than...

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We received this question here at Chemists Corner central and thought it would be a good one to write an article about. "Why do the raw material suppliers recommend the combination of presevatives versus using them alone... . . for ex: why do the manufacturers recommend a combination of sodium benzoate and potassium sorbate rather than using them individually... . Why you put preservatives in cosmetics With all the bad press about chemicals used to preserve cosmetics you might wonder why companies don't just stop using preservatives. Well, the reason is that products with cosmetic preservatives are safer than ones that don't contain preservatives. This is because disease-causing microorganisms can multiply at exponential rates in cosmetics if there are no chemicals in there to stop them. And if the consumer is putting a dollop of microbe laden skin lotion on their body, they are bound to contract a disease. It is just not smart to use unpreserved cosmetics. The other reason to include preservatives is that when microbes grow in your cosmetic product they can produce foul smelling odors and strange colors. Consumers just aesthetically do not want to use bacterial contaminated products. It's a bit like the same reason people don't want to eat moldy bread. What do preservatives do Cosmetic formulas have all the key factors needed for microbial growth including water, nutrients, and energy. At a suitable pH and temperature, it will be like a microbial cocktail party. Preservatives stop growth by killing cells and spores (usually by disrupting cell membranes) or by making the system hostile to growth. See this article for more about cosmetic preservatives. Why you need multiple preservatives So that brings us to the question that started it all, why use multiple cosmetic preservatives? Basically it's because some single preservatives do not kill a big enough range of microorganisms. As a cosmetic formulator you need to ensure that your preservative system will kill any bacterial, mold, or fungi that the formula might encounter. Since you don't know what will be encountered you have to plan for every possibility (or at least as many as you can). There are some preservatives that are able to kill a wide range of microbes (e. g. Alcohol, Parabens, Formaldehyde donors). That is why these ingredients are so popular with formulators. Other ingredients like Sodium Benzoate or Potassium Sorbate are only effective against certain types of microbes. They are more active against yeasts and molds but have a lower activity against bacteria. One way to compensate for the ineffectiveness of one compound is to include another compound that has the ability to kill other organisms. By combining preservatives, you increase the spectrum of microbes that your formula can withstand. Of course, if you used parabens and formaldehyde donors you could be more confident in the effectiveness of your preservative system. However, for marketing reasons these compounds must be avoided. It makes your job as a cosmetic formulator a bit harder.

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**NOTE: This post was written in 2012 and at the time was accurate. The EWG has changed some aspects of their Skin Deep Database which prompted the writing of this fresh look at why the EWG Skin Deep Database is a dubious resource. **** If you work in the cosmetic industry, then you should know about the Environmental Working Group (EWG) and their off-shoot group the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics. The EWG focuses on providing information while the CFSC attempts to get legislation passed. Ostensibly, they are consumer advocacy groups who endeavor to ensure that cosmetic manufacturers produce only safe products. A laudable goal and one that all cosmetic chemists can get behind. However, cosmetic chemists, formulators and the cosmetic industry already support this goal so the cosmetic products we produce are already safe. The EWG & CFSC are unnecessary. But I'm certain that the good folks at these groups would disagree. From their perspective cosmetics are not safe. And cosmetic chemists can not be trusted to create safe formulas. They seem to believe that there are cosmetic chemists who want to create formulas that will poison their families and cause widespread cases of cancer. They don't think very much of cosmetic chemists or formulators. Problems with these groups The primary place that consumers (and beauty bloggers) find out about the EWG is through their online ingredient resource called the Skin Deep database. It's an interesting concept and they've clearly put a lot of work into it. Unfortunately, it is full of misleading information & many things that are just wrong. Skin Deep database Flaws There are a few obvious flaws in the database that have been pointed out to the EWG but they don't seem interested in changing them. Here is what I mean. False information There is false information in the database but they don't seem interested in fixing it. For example, they have a listing for Polyparaben. They even give it a chemical rating and call it an endocrine disruptor. Unfortunately, there is no chemical called polyparaben. It doesn't exist. How they managed to come up with a toxicity score and links to studies about a non-existent chemical is baffling and it certainly doesn't build faith in the reliability of their data. If they had a cosmetic chemist review the information they were putting up before entering it into the database, perhaps this wouldn't be a problem. Clearly, they don't. And they don't care to fix it because this has been pointed out to them directly. Nonsense ratings Creating a hazard score is a dubious activity anyway (since it is the dose that makes the poison) but they aren't even consistent within their own scoring system. For example, they have listings for both Sodium Coceth Sulfate and Sodium Laureth Sulfate. Cosmetic chemists know that these compounds are essentially identical with minimal differences. But somehow the Sodium Coceth Sulfate gets a 0 hazard score, while Sodium Laureth Sulfate gets a 4 hazard. This makes no sense. Belief not...

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While Chemists Corner is a great place to learn about the science of cosmetic formulating and some ins and outs of the cosmetics industry, there are other web resources that can provide you a different look on beauty products. Here are some of the best. Alltop — Headlines from some top beauty blogs. The Beauty Blog Network* — The ultimate resource for beauty blogs. Cosmetics Business — Latest news stories in the cosmetic industry. Glam — The latest makeup trends, runway looks and posts from a network of beauty bloggers iVillage Beauty & Style Channel — Consumer focused site that features beauty tips, hairstyles and beauty news. Makeup Alley — A beauty community that features a message board and product reviews. Paula’s Choice — Paula Begoun, a. k. a. the “Cosmetics Cop” offers beauty advice and beauty product reviews. Total Beauty — Features beauty reviews, makeup tips and an active beauty blog community.

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Interview begins at 13:35 Interview - Alex Westerberg Alex Westerberg is the Research Director at Cosmarts where he enjoys formulating cosmetics products, and oddly enough, knows the do's and dont's of the European cosmetic legislation. He speaks fluently in five different languages, including sign language. He is a highly academically educated cosmetic chemistry rockstar in the European cosmetic industry. Welcome to the program Alex! You can connect with Alex at Cosmarts. com Cosmetic industry stories Animal testing ban delayed? French chemical regulations 1. Dried licorice root fights the bacteria that cause tooth decay and gum disease 2. Notre Dame researchers develop paint-on solar cells 3. In third-degree burn treatment, hydrogel helps grow new, scar-free skin Cosmetic Industry How to label a cosmetic product My first experience with cosmetic labeling came in college when I turned over the bottle of a shampoo and looked at the ingredient list. It was right around the time when I was learning how to name chemicals and I was confused why I couldn’t recognize almost any of the ingredients. It turns out that the cosmetic industry doesn’t follow the IUPAC system which is what they teach you in college. It follows the system set up by the Personal Care Products Council (PCPC) as described in the INCI Dictionary. See our previous post on cosmetic labeling and the naming conventions in it. But the ingredients names in your formula are only part of the labeling process. You also have to follow the labeling rules laid out by the FDA that affect ingredient order, placement on the label, text

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Well, it's that time of year again. Time to create all the goals I'm going to endeavor to accomplish in 2012. For me, the goal making process is highly involved. It goes something like this. Step 1 - Create a list of goal categories. My categories change only slightly each year but they are basically Health Money Relationships Personal Development Impact on the World These came from my personal manifesto that I wrote some years ago. Essentially, it is a road map for the things that I think are important in life and what is going to make me happy. Step 2 - Brainstorm goals for the year I like to use a piece of free software called FreeMind. It is a simple mind mapping program that lets you create categories and connect things. I'll often write a mind map on paper but the computer program is useful too. You can see my 2012 mind map here. I pretty much put down any idea that occurs to me under those areas. When I get to the next step I pare down the list a bit but during the brainstorm phase, anything can happen. Ideally, you'll create goals that have numbers associated with them. For example, I have a joggling mileage goal (1500 miles) and I have a weight goal (180 lbs). Goals that don't have a number associated with them (e. g. Build a better brain) are much tougher to complete because you won't have a way to determine whether or not you were successful. For goals like this, I try to re-write and quantify them during the planning stage. Step 3 - Make your plans Here is the key to accomplishing these goals. At the brainstorm phase things are just wishes. To actually accomplish something you have to create a plan. If you're like me you'll soon find that there isn't enough time to do everything and you'll start cutting things out. Of course, I have a hard time cutting things out so many of my goals go unfulfilled. I never mind this much because I accomplish enough to keep myself satisfied. Some goals, the plans write themselves. For instance, I have a goal to "write a blog post every day". My plan is simple... write something new every day. For goals that have a number attached to them, I can split them up during the year and schedule when to work on them. For example, I want to "Draw 12 pictures". So, I schedule a day on my Google Calendar that sends me a reminder to draw a picture. I only have moderate success here because I often am too distracted with other things that I don't spend time on the goal. This year, I'm going to be better. I will not so easily ignore those things. Step 4 - Track your progress For me, this is the key. You've figured out some goals, made some plans, but if you don't keep track of your progress you'll have...

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I am health. I am wealth. I am stealth. Ok, maybe not stealth, but it rhymed so well... I am ORGANIC. At least this is where my mind goes when I think of Organic. You make think it odd, that I did not mention soil conditions, synthetic pesticides and such, but really, when it comes down to it, “organic” speaks to those that live a healthy lifestyle, have the money to maintain that lifestyle and have the time, energy and savviness to continually educate themselves and develop somewhat of a personal conviction, for organic to really matter. In all actuality, Organic refers to specific agricultural conditions that are void of synthetic pesticides and fertilizers. Certified Organic standards for the cosmetics industry usually falls under a 70% organic formulation excluding water and/or NOP Organic with is 95% Organic and the remaining 5% natural. So, what does this mean for us as chemists... time, money, and a customer. Cutting formulation time Regardless of what the Rolling Stones say, time is not on our side, during the day to day grind of research, testing, formulating and benching. I love it when marketing says, “Oh just change the actives to something that works with your current base,” because it saves so much time! Unfortunately, we have limited availability and activity in our Certified Organic ingredient options. I have found emulsifiers the most difficult to source. Hopefully I can save time by sharing my five finds for organic emulsifiers: Hydredsia O — (Botaneco) Oleosome cold-process, mild emulsifier derived from Safflowers Andean Quillaja Organic — (Desert King) Surfactant/Emulsifier derived from the Andean Quilliaja Tree Berry Saponin Concentrate — (Ecological Surfactants) Surfactant/emulsifier derived from Nepal Soap Berries Prodhycreme CE and Prodhybase GLN — (Laboratoires Prod’Hgy) A self-emulsifying base multiple vegetal sources Organic Emulsifying Wax — (Koster Keunen) Blend of organic waxes and lecithin multiple organic sources I have found Hydresia O, the most innovative and interesting of the Certified Organic emulsifier options due to cold process formulations and multi-functional benefits of encapsulating oil soluble actives and essential oils with a delayed release effect on the skin. The oleosomes have also shown an incredible SPF boosting effect. For more info visit the Botaneco website. Importance of packaging A good emulsifier helps stabilize a formula, but packaging aids in protecting often unstable oils and extracts. For example, while strolling along Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills, I came across an Organic Skin Care store that claims to meet SOIL Association Certification (one of the most stringent organic certifications). I popped in, looked at the labels and experienced the oxidized formulations first hand. Needless to say, I felt sorry for the customers that succumbed to the organic hype only to purchase high end oxidized formulations, in glam packaging (that did not protect their product), leaving them somewhat ineffective. Make sure Marketing and Product Development know the special packaging needs of your formula, since the emulsions and plant extracts tend to be more sensitive to degrade than traditional synthetic systems... very important!...

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After a month or two of working on it, we have revamped the Midwest SCC website. The previous version was excellently handled by our former webmaster but his departure gave us an opportunity to revisit the site and make some tweaks that will help with community building. It's my hope that this new website becomes a model for how all the websites throughout the chapter can be revised. We will begin posting content from the meetings and solicit comments . Ideally, the website will become a place where chapter members will interact and swap information about cosmetic science in the Midwest. Take a look and let us know what you think. Midwest SCC website

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This is a guest post by Gary Neudahl. In personal care, there are cosmetics and there are toiletries. What’s the difference? In general, a cosmetic is intended to beautify the body; a toiletry is intended to care for the body. Among toiletries, let's take a look at Antiperspirant Deodorants (APDOs in industry shorthand) sticks. APDOs are made with an astringent substance (typically an acidic aluminum-based salt) that, when applied to the underarms, reduces perspiration and concurrently inhibits microbial growth for reduced malodor generation. Sticks, gels, soft solids, roll-ons, pads and sprays are typical product forms. They are usually scented for additional malodor protection. APDO stick formula Here's the typical composition of an APDO stick: Volatile Carriers 15—45% Co-Gellants 14—18% Active Ingredients 10—25% Non-Volatile Carriers 8—20% Gelling Agents Gellants 4—8% Clarifying Agents/Solubilizers 0—5% Feel Modifiers 0—4% Fragrance (Parfum) 0—0. 5% “Label-Copy” Ingredients 0—0. 5% Antioxidants 0—0. 05% Ingredients The most commonly used volatile carrier is Cyclopentasiloxane, a cyclic silicone fluid that evaporates about one-sixth as rapidly as water, with virtually no cooling effect due to its low heat of vaporization. The typical co-gellant is Stearyl Alcohol, with a specific chainlength distribution (mainly C18) that inhibits stick crystallinity. A commonly employed active ingredient is Aluminum Zirconium Tetrachlorohydrex Gly, which provides good efficacy. Nonvolatile carriers, which contribute to product skin feel and also reduce or prevent a whitening effect on skin, may include mineral oil, vegetable oils, and/or esters. The most commonly used gellant is Hydrogenated Castor Oil. It is not fully hydrogenated (to convert unsaturated Ricinoleic Acid moieties to saturated Hydroxystearic Acid moieties), both to control melt point and further inhibit crystallinity. Due to its residual unsaturated content, antioxidants may be added to extend shelf life. An emulsifier and/or solubilizer may be used to help incorporate the fragrance and to extend shelf life. It also helps with removal of the product from skin during cleansing and from clothing during laundering. PEG-8 Distearate is such an emulsifier that is commonly used in APDO stick formulations. Feel modifiers include particulates such as corn starches and talc, which are added to improve product aesthetics during and after application. What about "label copy" ingredients? They are ingredients that are added for marketing- rather than performance- based purposes, to increase the likelihood of consumer trial and satisfaction. They are among the hooks that snare consumer interest, although product performance, and scent, are what determine repurchase intent. Click here for a complete list of the the Cosmetic Formulating Basics series.

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It's the final holiday of the year, or more properly the first holiday of the year. Anyway, in celebration of the holiday, I'm not going to create much of a substantial post today. I'll be back to regular posts tomorrow. However, I just listened to a podcast about Consumer Reports. There is some interesting stuff there. Here's a video post they did on Wrinkle Creams. The results are not surprising to anyone who knows about cosmetic formulating. They also have posts on Sunscreens, Eye Creams, and Wrinkle Serums. Interesting. Happy New Year!

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Living in America, I was raised to wash my hair every day. In 2005, while developing a new shampoo and conditioner formula for the mass market brand, I took it to an extreme and actually believe that I had the “most shampooed head in America. ” That year I lathered my locks over 1500 times. It was a little surprising to me to learn that daily shampooing was not the norm when shampoos first came out. This shampoo story by NPR (I'm a proud card carrying member by the way) tells how shampoos used to be a once a month activity. In 1908, an article in the New Yorker suggested people could safely shampoo every two weeks. Over time marketers convinced consumers in America that daily shampooing was best. It was pushed really hard in the 70's and became the norm by the 80's. Nice going P&G. Shampooing every day Well, it turns out that shampooing every day is more than people actually need. Dermatologists recommend washing your hair 2 or 3 times a week. I don't know how they come to that number as it's really just a matter of personal preference as to how often you shampoo. There are no health reasons to wash you hair more than once a month. However, most people are not going to like the way once a month shampooing feels. The cosmetic industry would rather people wash their hair more frequently because that means more product will be sold. However, from a sustainability standpoint this is excessive. I don't see how companies dedicated to producing sustainable products can justify encouraging consumers to continue to use this amount of product. Will we see big companies start pushing for people to use less product? Maybe. Sustainability Strategy As a cosmetic formulator, you might consider trying to make formulas that can create effects that last longer. This could ultimately reduce the amount of product used and support the sustainability goals of your company. At the very least, this could create an interesting marketing position for a new company. Are you looking for your Purple Cow positioning? This could be it.

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This has been a great year for Chemists Corner and I have thoroughly enjoyed working on this project. We've got some big things planned in 2012 but before we get there, here is a list of the top 10 highlights of 2011. 1. Complete cosmetic Chemist - First developed in 2010, we teamed up with Allured to make the program even better. It has been satisfying to help introduce people to all they need to know to get started in cosmetic science. 2. Trip to China - I traveled a lot this year and got to talk about cosmetic science. My trip to China to speak at the PCHi show was an excellent experience. 3. Trip to Europe - The inCosmetics event in Italy was also a great experience. I was fun to meet people from around the world who knew me only through this website. It was also great to see all the new technologies in the cosmetic industry. The other part of the trip sent me to Berlin to talk to a pharmaceutical industry group about stability testing. Then I went to the UK and spoke at an SCS event. An incredible experience. 4. Media appearances - This year I did a number of TV appearances. It was all the result of the launch of my book Can You Get Hooked on Lip Balm. TV has its challenges but being on the Rachel Ray show, Dr. Oz, and numerous local news broadcasts was lots of fun. 5. Talks around the country - I was fortunate to be invited to do a number of talks around the country including places such as Connecticut, Long Island, Dallas, San Jose, and Boston. I also spoke at a few events here in Chicago. 6. Cosmetic Science forum - I was very happy about the launch of the cosmetic science forum this year and even more pleased at the quality of discussions that are going on. Thanks so much to all of you who participate! If you want to join the forum just click on the Forum link at the top of this website. 7. Five-minute cosmetic science talks - This was an experiment I tried with our November SCC meeting here in the Midwest. Essentially we had 7 speakers give 5 minute talks about a variety of cosmetic science topics. It worked well and I hope to expand the event in the future. Here is the link for my five minute cosmetic science talk. 8. Podcast - We doubled the number of podcasts that we did this year. The guests have been excellent and so has the feedback. I look forward to recording more next year. We might even get a sponsor! 9. Regular posting - Perhaps the biggest change on this website is that we went to a "post every day" model. Whereas the beginning of the year we posted maybe 5-6 times a month, now we post every day. This has been challenging to continue to generate fresh content but...

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Yesterday, I wrote about what makes a good scientific study and how you can prevent fooling yourself. The key was to remain skeptical and create studies that are blinded. Here is a video which shows just how one can be done. Granted this video is not about selecting a cosmetic ingredient level. However, it does illustrate the proper way to do a scientific study. Here's what they do. 1. Start with a hypothesis. In the video, the hypothesis is that people with different immune systems will be more attractive to each other than people with similar immune systems. 2. Figure out a way to test the hypothesis. There are a number of implications of this hypothesis that can be tested. In this video, they look at the relationship between natural odor preference and genetic makeup. In the video, the hypothesis is that a woman's natural odor will be prefered by a man based on their mutual genetic composition. If the hypothesis is correct, the man should pick the woman who has the least common genetic immune system. 3. Do a blinded test. The evaluator is unaware of which sample is which so he is blinded and therefore, unbiased. Of course, this isn't a perfectly blinded test because the evaluator does have some information about the study (like why he should pick a difference). A better study would have been to have evaluators that are completely unaware of the purpose of smelling the t-shirts. However, in cosmetic formulating it's rare that you could use unaware panelists to help in this way. This study is a bit simplified and for real science you need to be more rigorous (e. g. have a lot more panelists) but overall, this type of study is a nice example of how you should create studies for evaluating new raw materials in your cosmetic formulas.

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In yesterday's post we talked about cosmetic claims ingredients and why they are used at low levels. In today's post we'll describe a process by which you can evaluate ingredients that might have some effectiveness. How to not fool yourself Everyone has things that they believe. Often these beliefs are not reached through rational means. You may have heard something from your mother when you were a child and you never questioned whether it was true or not. They don't call them old-wives tales for nothing. You also might hold beliefs about things because you want them to be true. Many people want to believe that things that occur in nature are superior than those created from petroleum in the lab. But is it true? As a cosmetic chemist you are best served by focusing on what is actually true instead of what you want to be true. So, how do you avoid fooling yourself about whether an ingredient should be used at a high level or not? Try this approach. Step 1 - Begin by being skeptical of any ingredient. If you can't prove that an ingredient should be in your formula or not, leave it out (or put it in at claims levels). Forget about the proof given to you by raw material suppliers or what you've read in literature. Begin with the assumption that the ingredient will not work in your formula. Step 2 - Test the ingredient. But don't just stop there. If the story of an ingredient appeals to you, by all means test it. You can do a triangle test, a paired comparison, a simple with and without comparison, or any number of different types of product evaluation tests. Just be sure to begin them with the assumption that the ingredient will have no effect. Be genuinely surprised if it does. Also, be sure to do these tests in a blinded fashion and compare them to controls. Without these steps, the evaluations you do are subject to your own biases. Step 3 - Repeat your test. Once you've tested an ingredient and are convinced that you notice a difference, give it to other people (ideally your consumers) and see if they can tell any difference. It does no good for you alone to sense differences. If your consumers can't notice differences the ingredient may not be worth including. Step 4 - Test different levels. If you continue to find differences noticed even by the consumers who are using your products, excellent. You are on your way to a functional discovery. The next step is to figure out the range of levels in which the ingredient works. Try to double the level. Do you get double the results? Cut the level in half. Do the effects drop? If there really is an effect, you should notice a difference when you use different levels. Step 5 - Remain skeptical. Even after all your testing it is still possible that you could be wrong or you've somehow...

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One of the things that people find surprising when they first enter the cosmetic formulating business is that many of the feature ingredients have very little effect. I distinctly remember the look on my colleague's face when she first discovered that the expensive, salon-only brand of hair care products that she religiously spent extra money on used "puffery" ingredients to make the products sound more appealing. A moment like this is something that nearly all cosmetic chemist and formulators will experience. Claims Ingredients We've previously talked about cosmetic claims ingredients. Essentially, these are ingredients included in formulas to support the marketing story. They are often natural sounding ingredients or a made-up scientific term that is supposed to connote superiority over standard products. While they are not essential to the function of the product, they are essential to creating a product that sells. Consumers would just rather buy a body wash that contains some natural moisturizer rather than a synthetic polymer. Formulating with claims ingredients So, what do formulators do? They create the best working product that they can and then spike the formula with whatever ingredient will make a good marketing story. Incidentally, the phrase "spike the formula" means... to put enough of a material in the formula to be able to claim that it is in there without significantly affecting the price or stability of the product. This means claims ingredients are put in formulas at 0. 5%, 0. 1%, or as low as 0. 0001%. As long as you legitimately add an ingredient to a formula, you can talk about it in your advertising and on your label. Granted you have to stick to factual information, but if you add 0. 0001% of an ingredient in your formula, it's in there. This means that any laboratory proven benefit of the ingredient probably won't ever be realized in the formula. Reasons for non-functional levels There are a few reasons that cosmetic chemists do not put claims ingredients in formulas at high levels. 1. They are expensive. These ingredients are so expensive that you can't realistically make a mass market product that has a high level. Consider an ingredient like Ribonucleic acid. This ingredient can cost $90 a pound or more. So, if you added it to your formula at a 1% level, you've added $0. 90 per pound to the formula. In an 8oz bottle of lotion, that is 45 cents per bottle just for this one ingredient. Add to that the cost of the rest of the ingredients and the formula cost for your single bottle can get to over $3 per bottle. Then add packaging costs, production costs, marketing, distribution costs and the price of your lotion with RNA is just too expensive to be competitive with mass market products. So, it is highly unlikely that any mass market product will contain functional levels of these claims ingredients. 2. There is little evidence they work. Some ingredients are known to have no functional effect but are included...

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Here's just a quick post about what I think is the 5 most significant stories in cosmetic science during 2011. 1. J&J caves to fear mongering group and promises to reformulate baby shampoo. 2. FDA declares formaldehyde containing Brazilian hair straightening products to be unsafe. 3. P&G vows to stop using photoshop to touch up mascara ads. 4. French government has attempted to ban parabens. 5. Corporate mergers and acquisitions. Lots of chemical companies merged this year and so did a fair amount of finished goods companies. It's getting tougher to be a cosmetic chemist for a small company these days. Well, we'll have a look at some of the more significant scientific events this year but what stories do you think were the most important in the industry?

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Well, I don't have much today but I never like to take a day off so I'll write a Christmas cosmetic chemistry poem. Cosmetics Humectants Rheology Ionic bonds Surfactants Thickener Molecules Aerosol Solutions Merry Christmas!

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On this holiday weekend, here's a little Dr. Chemistry for your amusement. Merry Christmas.

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Here is an interesting video explaining how P&G shifted their focus from merely creating excellent formulations to making products that make women feel better about themselves. I'm not really sure how well they succeeded but they certainly changed the way products were advertised. They also had a huge impact on the role of consumer research in the development of cosmetic products. If you have your own line, creating the best performing products is not good enough. You've got to create a compelling story too. P&G is a big reason why the industry has embraced this philosophy. Is that good for cosmetic formulators? hmmmm

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On one of my other blogs (The Beauty Brains) we do a series where we look at the ingredients on a cosmetic label and write about what they do. I don't know why it never occurred to me to do the same on this blog about cosmetic science. So, here is a new series. We'll take a look at labels of random cosmetics and dissect what each ingredient does and ponder why it was added. Today's product will be Jergens Natural Glow. I should note that I haven't personally worked on this product or any of the future products that we will dissect here. This analysis is strictly based on my knowledge of cosmetic chemistry and formulation. Jergens LOI First, we list the LOI in the order presented. Water, Glycerin, Cetearyl Alcohol, Ceteareth 20, Mineral Oil (Paraffinum Liquidum), Petrolatum, Dihydroxyacetone, Ethylhexyl Isononanoate, Tocopherol (Natural Vitamin E), Olea Europaea (Olive) Fruit Oil (Fruit), Avena Sativa (Oat) Kernel Extract, Simmondsia Chinensis (Jojoba) Seed Oil, Calendula (Calendula Officinalis) Flower Extract, Persea Gratissima (Avocado) Oil, Octyldodecyl Myristate, Stearic Acid, Acrylates/C10 30 Alkyl Acrylate Crosspolymer, Dimethicone, BHT, Citric Acid, Sodium Hydroxide, DMDM Hydantoin, Methylparaben, Propylparaben, Fragrance, Erythrulose, Caramel, Titanium Dioxide, Mica The 1% line When looking at an LOI the first thing I always like to do is guess where the 1% line. This is the point in the LOI where the ingredients are no longer listed in order of concentration. According to labeling rules, all ingredients above 1% in the formula have to be listed in order. At 1% or below they can be listed in any order. This usually means that companies will put their "natural" sounding ingredients higher on the label to give the impression that there is more in the formula than there actually is. In this product, the most likely point for the 1% line is after the Ethylhexyl Isononanoate. It is highly unlikely that Tocopherol is used in this product above 1%. What the ingredients do Rather then go through each ingredient in the order listed on the LOI, I thought it would be better to group them according to function. So, here you go. Self tanning functional ingredients Dihydroxyacetone - Responsible for changing color of skin Erythrulose - Responsible for changing color of skin Using a blend of these two ingredients gives a better result than DHA alone. Emulsion ingredients Water - The solvent. In an oil in water emulsion it's almost always to most abundant ingredient. Stearic Acid - Emulsifiers Cetearyl Alcohol - Emulsifiers Ceteareth 20 - Emulsifiers Acrylates/C10 30 Alkyl Acrylate Crosspolymer - Thickener / emulsion stabilizer Skin feel ingredients Glycerin - For its humectant and moisturizing effect Mineral Oil (Paraffinum Liquidum) - Moisturizer Petrolatum - Occlusive agent and excellent moisturizer Ethylhexyl Isononanoate - Emollient affecting skin feel Octyldodecyl Myristate - Emollient Dimethicone - Emollient that improves shine & slip Claims & puffery ingredients These make the product sound natural and allow for various marketing claims. They don't have much impact on the performance of the...

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The slower holiday season is an excellent time for cosmetic chemists to brainstorm some new ideas to work on in the upcoming year. So, try out this week's innovation question and see what kind of ideas you can come up with. Scenario 6 Suppose you were not allowed to sell any cosmetics that contained chemicals. Assuming the need for cosmetic products doesn't change, how would that change the cosmetic industry? Example 1. Cosmetic companies would become become publishers and sell formulas rather than products. 2. Formulators wouldn't need cosmetic manufacturers to sell products. 3. Raw material suppliers would have to sell ingredients directly to consumers. 4. Formulating would become a service job. 5. Store shelves at Walmart and Target would be empty or be books. 6. More people would become experts at creating their own products. 7. Chemical accidents in the home would increase. 8. There would be a reduction in plastic waste. 9. A black market of people who sell products to friends and family would develop. 10. Brands would not mean as much or anything. Now it's your turn. How do you think the cosmetic industry would be different?

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This recent story about P&G being cited by the NAD for publishing misleading mascara ads and their subsequent vow to stop doing it makes me ponder whether advertising and marketing corrupt cosmetic science. I haven't really concluded one way or another but consider... No it doesn't In the United States we have a law that makes it illegal to publish false advertising. You can say whatever you want about your products but you can't lie. This means that every magazine ad, television commercial, radio spot, or claim on a website should be technically true. This means that if a company is making a claim, they must have some rationale for substantiating that claim. So, if you say your shampoo cleans hair, you have to be able to demonstrate that the shampoo removes dirt & oil from your hair. This is pretty easy to do and is such a well established fact that no one would really question you for making the claim. Similarly, moisturizers have to moisturize, hair gels have to hold hair, a lipsticks have to color lips. This type of advertising does not corrupt cosmetic science. Maybe a little The problem with advertising is that if you say the same thing as everyone else, you can't really stand out. For this reason cosmetic companies try to go beyond the standard claims. They make claims that are technically true (at least in a court of law) but imply something that is not true. For example, a company may create an Aloe Vera body wash. From a practical standpoint, it will be the same formula as their standard body wash but they will put in an aloe vera extract, color the product green and add a fresh green scent. Since consumers have already identified Aloe Vera as moisturizing, healing, or otherwise "good" for their skin they will naturally associate this new body wash with the positive thoughts they have about aloe. Functionally, the new product is no different than the old product. Is this corrupting the science? A little. But the truth is, consumers are not interested in purchasing the most functional product. They want the glitz. They want pretty packages, colors, and fresh scents. If you create the best functional product you will not last long in the cosmetic marketplace without some glitz. Maybe a lot The advertising by P&G shows that indeed the cosmetic industry can be corrupted by misleading ads. When they take a model and airbrush out her lines, wrinkles, and uneven skin tone, they are crossing the line into false advertising. Or at least that is what the NAD said in this case. I would suggest that this isn't the only way that companies mislead. Sometimes they use science and their cosmetic chemists. In the area of hair care, one of the most misleading claims about products is the one where they say it "makes hair 10 times stronger". Or maybe they just say 2 times or 5 times or whatever. This is a lie....

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A lot of people have asked us what they should major in if they want to become a cosmetic chemist. There are a wide variety of majors you can have and still become a formulator but these are the best. 1. Chemistry major No doubt that the most versatile major for breaking into the cosmetic industry is a BS in Chemistry. By far the largest percentage of people working in cosmetic science have these kinds of degrees. A BA in Chemistry is also acceptable and in my experience, there is no difference between a BA and a BS in chemistry when it comes to getting hired. The jobs you can get with a chemistry degree include formulator, research scientist, quality control chemist, and analytical scientist. 2. Chemical Engineering There are a number of chemical engineer majors who have become cosmetic chemists. However, since engineers often know about mixing equipment they usually end up in the process engineering group. These are the scientists responsible for scale-up of batches. If you like this kind of job you should get a chemical engineering degree. 3. Biology The third most common degree for cosmetic chemists is Biology. This degree will help you get a job in the industry but will usually be in the microbiology department. If formulating is what you want to do you may have to work a few years in the micro area then try to move jobs. 4. Environmental sciences Some cosmetic chemists get specialized degrees in environmental sciences. This allows them to get safety and environmental jobs in the cosmetic industry. 5. Any Bachelors of Science degree While it is harder, it is not impossible to get a cosmetic chemist job with a degree in something like Physics or Anthropology. You'll probably have to start in the role of a technician or QA scientists and work your way up but it can be done. If you are interested in getting into the cosmetic industry and you're just deciding on a major, Chemistry is probably the best one to pick. However, if you did choose something else and are too far along to change, that doesn't mean you can't become a cosmetic chemist. It may just take you a little longer.

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Skin care is one of the most common areas in which cosmetic chemists get to formulate. And acne is one of the most common problems they are trying to either prevent or cure. Here is a nice short video that explains exactly how acne is formed and how anti-acne ingredients work. It's quite good. http://www. youtube. com/watch? v=vy6KX5bZOg0

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Well, I still have some of these so here is the next installment.

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Well, it looks like the show that I was on was just broadcast nationally. I personally have a difficult time watching and I haven't actually done it yet. In the past, I had no problems watching myself and was not self conscious, but sometime over the summer I started noticing what I sounded like and the way that I said things. Then watching myself began to make me cringe. It's not going to stop me from appearing of course. It's fun and it gives a perspective that isn't often heard on television. If you are curious you can click on the picture to watch. Dr Oz show appearance Perhaps in the future I'll get into a whole discussion about going on TV shows and remaining an objective, skeptical source (it's NOT easy) but for now I'll just put a couple of notes about the appearance. 1. Dr. Oz and everyone on his staff were exceptionally friendly and kind. 2. Getting the complete explanation of the science and explaining nuances of technology on TV is nearly impossible. 3. When put on the spot, it's very easy to say things in a way that you didn't exactly mean to say them. 4. There were a ton of people who work behind the scenes! Over 30 people. 5. Friends and family are really excited for you and the kind words and well-wishes make you feel great. 6. While it was a bit nerve racking, it was also fun to talk about science in front of a large studio audience. I didn't even think about the millions watching at home. I apologize if you can't see the video based on your location. In some places around the world it will not work.

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Today we feature a new writer here on Chemists Corner. Natural. Green. Organic. EcoCert. EWG. COSMOS. NPA, etc. , etc. , etc. Do these ever nagging terms sound familiar? Did I say nagging? Well yes, I did, but why? As a formulator of "natural based" products in the Cosmetic/Beauty Industry I have had countless discussions trying to define "natural" and put my finger on why this obscure concept is the platform for the majority of new products. The countless discussions have led me to believe that very few cosmetic formulators and Industry professionals know why we push "Natural" other than to turn a dollar, please marketing or jump on the bandwagon before some organization with a long arm comes and picks you out of the Beauty crowd as a face of evil, to unborn children and seedlings of cancer. It seems that formulators are forced to choose a side, that of "Science" or that of "Nature". This dichotomy brazened before me as, I witnessed profanity jumping from one industry leader to another at a seminar, presented by a well-known organization. At that moment, I realized something was lost in translation and efforts to bring the best products to our ever changing Organic, Natural, Paraben-free, Sustainable market were yet to come. So what is a Formulator and Cosmetic Chemist to do? ? ? I cannot speak for you, but I decided to come up with a strategy to research and formulate as a consumer, open my mind to innovation, and make purposeful decisions to bring change, one skin care product at a time. Becoming a cosmetic chemist My background and journey through Beauty has set me as bit more fastidious than the average consumer. It all started with my mother’s aim to drive a pink luxury car. Needless to say, I had a 3-step skin care regimen at the age of 10 and teaching skin care classes at 10 and a half. At 14, I started my love affair with fake eyelashes and 15 years later still going strong! As Natropathic medicine illuminated my Biology studies in college, flecks of treated mica illuminated my cheeks while working at my local cosmetic counter. The luminescent light of my future faded and upon graduation moved to Los Angeles finding myself in the Fashion Industry as a part time starving Makeup Artist and painfully full-time CFO Assistant. Then Craigslist soon brought me to a non-starving artist and painless adventure, marrying my education and passion for fashion, skin care and cosmetics as a Formulator, for an established skin care line. My mentors encouraged me to research and source replacements to synthetic and crude oil derived ingredients as well as alternatives to parabens, sulfates, and silicones. Soon after this venture, I realized the replacement market had fairly slim pickings, if you know what I mean. However, I found ingredients and made them work. Organiceutical formulator My fine education appreciates scientific substantiation and testing, but my interest and personal experience with Natural medicine appreciates unconventional methods as...

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One of the biggest trends in the cosmetic formulating business is the Naturals or Green product trend. Terms get thrown around and it is often difficult to know exactly what people mean. Therefore, we thought it would be useful to create a dictionary list of these terms. Feel free to suggest any term that we miss in the comments. Biobased - Formula or ingredient that is created from living material (usually plant based) Biodegradable -Product will be broken down to more simple compounds by organisms or natural processes. Botanical - Contains derivatives from plants. Means pretty much the same thing as 'herbal' Carbon footprint - Relates to the amount of carbon dioxide produced while making and distributing the product. Cruelty free - Products are not tested on animals Fair trade - The source of the raw materials comes from places that do not exploit workers Free from - This is a type of claim which is true but misleading designed to imply unwarranted additional safety. (e. g. free from parabens, free from sulfates) Green - Environmentally friendly products Herbal - Containing some kind of plant extract. Used interchangeably with the term 'botanical' LOHAS - Lifestyle of Health and Sustainability. Refers to a type of consumer that is interested in green or natural products. Natural - Created from non-synthetic ingredients. The term is so broad it can be used to pretty much mean anything. Non-toxic - Product will not poison the user. Sometimes used to mean that the product is safe enough to eat Not tested on animals - The final formula was not tested on animals. Of course, each of the raw materials may have been. Organic - Some people mean that it achieves the organic labeling standards as directed by the USDA. But it could pretty much mean anything. Plant derived - Ingredients that are made from plant materials. May be synthetically modified or not. Renewable - Raw materials that come from a renewable source (typically plants) Sustainable - A method of producing cosmetics that does not use up resources or produce permanent pollution Synthetic - Ingredients that are produced through non-naturally occurring chemical processes. Vitamin enriched - Formulas that have vitamins added to them. See our previous post for a list of organic and natural standards for cosmetics. This is a working list so if you have terms to add, feel free to comment below.

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Interview begins at 11:20 Interview - Gina Cosby Gina Cosby is a Technical Services scientist currently working for Rhodia. She has focused primarily on the formulation of surfactant and conditioner blends, esters for skin care and creating other sample formulations for the personal care and cosmetic industry. Gina received her BS in Chemistry from Purdue University and was also the winner of the Society of Cosmetic Chemists Young Scientist award in 2006. You can connect with Gina on LinkedIn Cosmetic industry stories Age old remedies of White Tea, Witch Hazel and Rose could be the next anti-aging treatments. Gluten in cosmetics Cosmetic Science Forces against Innovation and how to solve them 1. Current formula already work Solution — Challenge yourself to come up with completely new formula types that would never be launched. For example, an all oil-based shampoo. A spray-on skin lotion. 2. Regulatory environment Solution — First, don’t ask your regulatory people whether you should investigate an ingredient. They’ll say “no”. Investigate then ask for forgiveness later. Most of the stuff you look at won’t be special anyway. But if you do find something special, prove the benefit of your new formula. If you can prove something you have created is truly revolutionary, your company will find a way to get your regulatory people to discover “loopholes” to allow use of a raw material. 3. Hard to understand Solution — Create prototypes that so obviously show the benefit of your claims that people automatically understand. 4. Push cost savings Solution - Use cost savings exercises like a knock-out experiment to make formula changes that you normally wouldn’t consider. These could lead to some completely different formula types. For example, what would a skin moisturizer that was completely water-based look like? 5. Things that work are drugs Solution - Look to the coatings industry for some new product ideas. Cosmetic films have been under investigated and could lead to some non-drug solutions. Announcements Complete cosmetic chemist training program Cosmetic science forum Chemists Corner is a podcast about cosmetic science and is broadcast to help educate, entertain, and inspire current and future cosmetic scientists. The information and opinions discussed on Chemists Corner are those of the hosts and the guests alone. They do not necessarily reflect those of any past, present or future employers.

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There are a variety of cosmetic emollients that cosmetic chemists will use to formulate skin and hair care products. The type you use will depend on your specific formula and the characteristics you are trying to achieve. Emollients Traditionally, emollients are considered ingredients which have smoothing or softening properties. They are put into formulas to provide moisturizing benefits and support a variety of conditioning claims. There are a number of types which we'll list below. Hydrophilic emollients The term emollient is rather broad so things that are humectants can also be considered emollients. Water soluble ingredients like glycerin, sorbitol, and propylene glycol are all technically emollients. When you need conditioning, this are good ones for your water phase. Lipophilic emollients These are ingredients that are not soluble in water and make up the bulk of the available varieties of emollients. The one that you use depends on properties such as polarity, emolliency scores, spreading behavior, compatability with other ingredients, rheological behavior, and hydrolytic stability. This group can further be broken down by grouping them by their polairity. Non-polar: These are mostly derived from petroleum and include ingredients like mineral oil, Isoparaffin, and Isohexadecane. Polar: This includes a range of ingredients including materials such as natural oils (Jojoba oil, Olive oil, coconut oil), esters (Octyl Palmitate, Isopropyl stearate, Isopropyl palmitate) and alcohols (Octyl dodecanol). Silicone fluid emollients The final group is silicone fluids. They provide incredible levels of slickness and also feel light compared to lipophilic emollients. The most common ones used include Cyclomethicone and dimethicone. There are a number of varieties to choose from and each have different characteristics when it comes to viscosity, volatility, and ease of formulation.

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Remember all that chemical nomenclature that you learned in Organic Chemistry? Well, in the cosmetic industry it's easy enough to forget because you don't use the information too often. But it is valuable to do and useful to review. Here is an excellent game which quizzes you and helps you learn the names better. It pits you against mad scientist zombies and you have to type in the chemical name before the zombie kills you. It's quite fun and useful! Oh, and it's free too. Can't beat that. Play the Organic Chemistry tutor game

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This is an interesting enough video for anyone who wonders how aerosol hairsprays, sunscreens, or deodorants are made. This is an example of a slow speed filling machine. It's slow enough that a worker can add the dip tube and valve prior to crimping. In this particular system, the valve is crimped while the can gets filled with the correct amount of propellant. There aren't a lot of places that fill aerosols for cosmetics because it can be a bit dangerous dealing with potentially explosive products and chemicals.

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It's been a little while since we've done an innovation question but here's one that might make you think differently about developing your cosmetic product. When you work at a cosmetic company, the thing that everyone wants you to do is to create a product that you can sell to as many people as possible. But instead of doing that, what would happen if you did the opposite? What if you customized your formulas so they could be sold to a specific group of people? Scenario 5 How can you change your cosmetic formulas/product to make them customized? Example Right now a product like skin lotion is made for the masses. There is some effort to differentiate skus by making them "extra moisturizing" or "intensive healing" but this is not customized enough. Think of how you could change your formula to make it so customized that it is made specifically for one consumer. Come up with as many ideas as you can. For example... 1. Match the color to the person's skin color 2. Create a formula with a controlled rub-in time 3. Customize odor for person's favorite 4. Add a signal on the packaging reminds customer to apply lotion when they need it 5. Determine exactly which ingredients work best on customer & make appropriate lotion 6. Create package that perfectly matches bathroom decor 7. Make package a work of art 8. Customize color to match customer's favorite color 9. Put unique chemical marker in lotion to identify person 10. Customize shine level to customer's desire Now it's your turn. What can you do to your formula to customize it for an individual?

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On Tuesday I had the opportunity to be a guest expert on the Dr. Oz television show here in the US. It's a nationally televised show and has a rather large audience, so it was a good opportunity to plug my book (Can You Get Hooked on Lip Balm) and counteract some of the typical BS you see on TV. At least, the latter half was the plan. TV appearances are much more difficult than you can imagine. Here is what happened to me. Getting on TV The first time I was on TV related to my work as a cosmetic chemist was back in January. My publisher arranged to get me a spot on the Rachel Ray Show. Over the next couple months I made a number of TV appearances. You can see them here. I should back up and explain how I got a publisher. A couple years ago, I started a beauty blog with other cosmetic chemists called The Beauty Brains. The concept was simple, real scientists answering your beauty questions. People would write in questions, and we would give science-based answers. It was a bit like Mythbusters for cosmetics. In fact, one of the original names for the blog was BeautyBusters. But after kicking around the idea a bit, we decided it could be a bigger idea because we could do more than just bust myths. So, instead we went with The Beauty Brains. The blog gained some traction and we developed a pretty sizable audience. This prompted us to self publish a book called The Beauty Brains. It was simply a paper version of the best questions and answers from our blog. The sales were decent but we didn't do much to get distribution and we were writers, not publishers. Then a book agent contacted us and we worked up a proposal to sell the book to a large publisher. After getting a number of offers, we settled on Harlequin to be our publisher. About a year later, our book was turned into a new book called, "Can You Get Hooked on Lip Balm? " And the launch of the book prompted the television (and radio) appearances. I should note that originally, The Beauty Brains was written anonymously. We didn't think that we could be completely honest answering questions if we had to answer to the legal or regulatory departments of our company. I think this was a good move and if you are considering starting a blog, it's something to think about. You don't want to jeopardize your job for your opinions on the Internet. Media training So last year my publisher sent me to some "Media Training" which is designed to help you figure out what message you want to get across and how to do it. It was rather helpful and enlightening. The idea is that you are not supposed to answer questions, rather you are supposed to use every question asked as an opportunity to get out your message. Most people...

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I stumbled on this interview that a cosmetic chemist working in the UK gave for the Guardian. She does an excellent job of describing what a cosmetic chemist does and really can make people excited about working in this industry. The video captures the feelings of many cosmetic formulators that I've met. Anyone know who she is?

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There was an interesting discussion on the SCC Linked-In group about what cosmetic chemists expect from suppliers. If you are a new cosmetic chemist you might not be familiar with some of the terms or what benefit raw material suppliers can have for you. Here are some ways your raw material suppliers can help make your job better. But first, let's talk about how you will interact with a supplier. Making supplier contact There are basically four ways that you will connect with a supplier. 1. Sales person calls you 2. Distributor contacts you 3. You meet at an industry trade show or event 4. You contact the supplier No matter the method, it almost always leads to a face to face meeting. Education Raw material suppliers should be experts in the field of whatever type of chemical they are selling. So, the surfactant suppliers should know about all surfactant chemistry. Preservative suppliers should be experts in preservative chemistry. You can ask them to give you general background information. Of course, they will push their own materials but that seems like an even trade. Samples When you hear about a compound or a sales person introduces it to you, they can also provide you with a (typically free) sample. They do this because it is the best way to ensure that you evaluate their raw materials and increases the chances that you will use it when you launch a product. Technical support When you run into a stability problem or batch problem, the raw material suppliers should be willing and able to help you fix the problem. If you run into a problem you can't solve right away, contact your supplier. Regulatory paperwork With the way governments are changing regulations, the job of a cosmetic chemist is becoming more and more one where you have to track down and collect paperwork for every raw material you use. Your raw material supplier is the source for this paperwork. Use them. Innovation / New product ideas Suppliers should be bringing you potential new product ideas and you should request them if they are not. Why would they give you new ideas? Well, they make money by selling chemicals to you. If they suggest an idea that you ultimately launch, they will (or should) get orders for some of their chemicals. Suppliers are an excellent source for new ideas but remember, they want to sell chemicals so they'll give this idea to other companies too. Industry news Suppliers are like the bees of the cosmetic industry. They go around to all the different manufacturers picking up inside information and depositing the information to other places around the industry. At times, they may accidentally spill a secret, a bit of gossip, or some other useful bit of news (say a new job opening). When you build a personal relationship with your supplier, you'll be more likely to learn inside information. Of course, this also raises the possibility that they will learn info from you...

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While accompanying my wife on a trip to the grocery store I saw this gem in the wine section. The claim of "no sulfites detected" seems like an evolution in the ridiculous "no" claims trend. Does this mean the chemical is in there but they just didn't test for it? I could see it now, a company could make a cosmetic with any chemical they want and as long as they don't test it for any chemical they could claim "no sulfates" or "no parabens detected". Showing just how silly the "no" claims are.

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Every so often a reporter will contact me and look for answers to questions related to cosmetics and cosmetic science. I'm happy to answer because I like talking about science and because it provides a balance to the "experts" who do not take a scientific approach in their answers. Anyway, I've recently been quoted in a few articles and thought I would just list them here mostly as a convienent way for me to remember them. I also thought you might find them interesting. Latisse for your dome? - MSNCB - Talking about hair growth technologies. Dangerous beauty: FDA discusses contaminated cosmetics - Another MSNBC article. This one discusses why preservatives are in cosmetics. Makeup of Makeup: Decoding blus- Talking about color cosmetics. My Fox Boston appearance- I can't watch my tv appearances but you might find it amusing.

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One of the most pervasive criticisms of the cosmetic industry is that it tests on animals. In fact, when people learn that I made cosmetics for a living a frequent question is, "do you test on animals? " No, I've never tested on animals (except myself). I think this is the case for most cosmetic chemists. However, it is disingenous to say that the products are not tested on animals. Most aren't, but nearly every raw material used in cosmetic products has been tested on animals. This is why I'm always troubled by "cruelty free" claims. Everyone is "cruelty free. " Anyway, the bad press, bad public opinion, high cost and scientist's genuine desire to minimize the number of animals which get tested on has led to the development of alternatives. These are primarily in-vitro skin cultures which can mimick human skin. Here is one of the latest technologies that has been developed Evocutis. They have launched the first skin model for the testing of anti-microbial and pre-biotic product claims. The skin model actually simulates the epidermal and the dermal layers of skin. It remains to be seen whether this technology will replace any real animal tests (it takes time to validate) but it certainly seems like progress. Stay tuned for more developments in this area...

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Searching around the Internet, you can find lots of examples of people selling products online. You can also find wild claims that as a cosmetic chemist you know are probably false. Unfortunately, your marketing groups won't always know that they are false and will frequently approach you and ask why they can't make claims like the ones they are reading. After you explain to them that the claims are probably unsupported & illegal some will walk away unsatisfied and begin to see R&D as obstructionists. Thus is the life of a cosmetic chemist. But it is a good question. How do some companies get away with making wild claims or downright "lying" in their advertising? Regulation of advertising In the United States there are two main regulatory bodies that deal with the advertising of cosmetics. First, there is the FDA which disallows any specific drug claims for cosmetics. They also have specific requirements of what is included on the cosmetic product label. Second, there is the FTC (Federal Trade Commission) which requires that you cannot make false claims in your advertising. In the UK there is the Advertising Standards Authority which has the power to remove ads from the airways. In fact, they've recently done a lot of that in the cosmetic industry. Are cosmetic companies going too far in their advertising? So how then do cosmetic companies get away with some of their outrageous claims? Here are a couple of ways. They are too small Government agencies are not large enough to keep track of everything going on in the cosmetic industry. Often they have to cover multiple agencies and they are not provided enough money to properly do the job. This is why the cosmetic industry is largely self regulated. And fortunately, this system has worked well for many years. But this means that there is limited tracking of what is going on in the cosmetic industry. If a company is small enough, they can sell pretty much anything they want and the government has no way of knowing what's happening. It's only when (or if) they are discovered that the government can step in and tell them to stop. Made to look big A compounding fact is that the Internet makes it simple to distribute your product all over the world. In the pre-Internet days, people had to go to farmer's markets or other non-traditional outlets to distribute their products. But no more. The Internet lets you be everywhere. On the Internet, you really have no way of telling how big a company is. If someone creates a slick looking packing and a beautiful website, it gives the impression that there is a huge support system behind the brand. This could be true but it could just as easily be one person in their kitchen creating the products. This makes it easy for your marketing people to find outrageous claims but doesn't do much for helping the government stop the claims from being made. No one complains...

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The most common types of questions that we get here on Chemists Corner are ones about formulating natural cosmetics. This is a hot trend in the cosmetic industry and formulators are struggling to find information about how to make their formulas more "green" and "natural". That led us to find industry experts who have been focused on formulating natural products and enlist their help in creating the next course in the Complete Cosmetic Chemist series. The course isn't quite ready but we have created a free download about formulating natural products. This is a primer or introduction to the field and will help prepare you for our upcoming course. Free Natural Formulating Download You can download the free naturals formulation primer by clicking on this page. Formulating Natural Cosmetics The course will open on December 9, 2011 but won't officially get started until early January 2012. But if you sign up now, you'll get the free ebook and a bunch of bonus material created just for people interested in formulating natural products. So, click on the link and sign up today. Formulating Natural Cosmetics Perry, 44 PS. If you have any questions, feel free to leave a comment below and I'll answer.

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Someone sent me a question about how to convert their formula from ounces into percentages. This is an important skill for cosmetic chemists to learn so we provide it here for anyone who might not know how to do it. Steps to convert a formula from ounces to percentages Step 1 — Add up the common mass terms If you have the mass of formulas you can simply add up all of the like terms. So, if you have something in ounces, you can add up those. If you have other masses in grams, add those up separately. Step 2 — Convert masses to grams Since it's easier to do calculations in metric units it is useful to convert the ounces into grams. This is done by multiplying ounces by 28. 3495231. So, 2. 0 ounces = 56. 7 grams. Step 3 — Convert volume measurements to masses (grams) The challenge comes when you have some values in volume rather than mass. Volume units have to be converted to mass before you can add them. To do this, you have to know the specific gravity of a liquid. This website gives some helpful values. Step 4 — Find the total mass of the formula Once you've changed all the units to grams, you need to add up the total amount of grams. This will give you the formula's mass total. Step 5 — Figure out individual percentages The next step is to figure out the individual percentages. To do this take the individual gram mass and divide it by the total gram mass. Step 6 — Double check your figures To make sure you've got everything right add up the individual percentages. They should equal 100%. Example See this spreadsheet example of a lip balm converted from ounces to %. Click to enlarge

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The Internet has really changed the way you should be doing cosmetic formulating. In the past, you used to rely on your suppliers, trade shows and SCC events to learn the latest in cosmetic science developments. However, the Internet has made it much easier to find information without leaving your desk. Here is one of our favorite tricks for keeping track of what's going on in the cosmetic industry and in your particular area of interest. Google Alerts Google has lots of cool features but one of the most useful is their Google Alerts. Google alerts is a service in which you sign up for keywords and when the word gets mentioned anywhere on the web (that Google tracks) you'll be sent an email. Go here to learn how to sign up for a Google Alert. So why would you sign up for one? You use email everyday and it is sent to you passively. This means you'll see only the most relevant stories and you can decide on whether you want to read them or not. It is great for keeping track of the new product alerts, technology developments, and any other information about whatever topic you want to be an expert about. What kind of alerts should you get? There are a number of alerts you should sign up for but it typically depends on what subject you are researching or developing products in. First, you should sign up for an alert of your name. It's important to know what people are saying about you. Especially if you want to become an expert in a certain area. Next, you should sign up for an alert of all the relevant brands that you work on and that you compete with. If you are in hair care, you should have an alert for the top brands like Pantene, Suave, Tresemme, Herbalessences, etc. You should not be hearing from your marketing people about new product launches. You should be telling them about them. Other keyword terms to sign up for include... 1. Makeup 2. Hair care 3. Skin care 4. Beauty products 5. Product type (shampoo, body wash, skin lotion, suntan, lipstick, etc) 6. Natural terms (natural preservatives, natural cosmetics, green cosmetics) The benefit to using Google alerts is that you can keep track of your competition and get new product ideas. You can also learn of potential problems with your brand. And best of all, it's a passive process that requires almost no work by you. Do you have some other cosmetic industry keywords that cosmetic chemists should follow? Leave a comment below.

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We've previously talked about the importance of trying all of the products you are working on. But this article about the ability for people to train their sense of smell made me think of the skills that you need to properly evaluate your formulas. Sense of smell Developing a good sense of smell is critical to the creation of nearly all cosmetics. It is imperative that you know what your raw materials are supposed to smell like. This will help ensure that you are using the right raw materials. Sense of smell can also aid you in determining whether a product is stable or not. Finally, it will help you develop more appealing products by allowing you to figure out just the right fragrance levels and type. Sense of sight Color is another important factor in inspiring consumers to buy your formulations. You need a good sense of sight to be able to pick the right color and to determine the proper levels of dyes to use. Color changes also will help you determine stability problems. And one of the hardest parts of the makeup chemists job is matching colors from batch to batch of product. You need to develop a good eye to do a good job. Sense of touch For a skin care formulator, the sense of touch is the most important one to develop. You need to be able to feel the difference between esters, oils, and other skin moisturizing ingredients. For a hair care formulator you'll need to be able to detect subtle changes in ingredient combinations on hair. To develop your sense of touch, you need to apply ingredients to the back of your hand and memorize the different feels. Sense of taste Most cosmetic chemists will not have to develop their sense of taste as the products are not meant to be eaten. However, for people who make lip products or oral care products, a good sense of taste is critical to making an acceptable formula. Sense of hearing This one is perhaps the least important of all your sense that you will need to employ. Most products do not make a sound. However, if you are the creator of aerosol products then it may be important. Sometimes you will have to use the sound of the spray to help determine product stability. Of course, this could be an interesting area for developing some innovative cosmetic formulas. It's certainly not an area that anyone is focusing on now.

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I'm not really much of a shopper but after this morning's round of golf, my father in law and I went to American Science and Surplus. It's a fun store literally full of science stuff and other junk. Take a look at these old shampoos. You can tell they must be old because much of the product has evaporated out of the container. The chemist probably didn't count on needing a 5+ year stability testing.

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While you're out on the black Friday shopping spree, don't forget about the cosmetic chemist in your life. Here are 10 gift ideas that any chemist would love. 1. Cosmetic Science books Nothing says Happy Holidays like the gift of knowledge. Some excellent choices... Beginning Cosmetic Chemistry Harry's Cosmeticology 8th Edition Handbook of Cosmetic Science and Technology, Third Edition 2. Cosmetic Chemistry kits While most cosmetic chemists will create formulas at work, the aspiring cosmetic chemist might not have access to all the chemicals she'll need. Or she might want to share a creative activity with her children. Here are a couple of excellent cosmetic chemistry kits. Sophisticated Science Perfume Science kit Creative Cosmetics:The Science of Skincare 3. Lab Equipment Digital Pocket Scale - In case you are out of the lab and you need to do a little formulating on the run. Or how about a cool mixer? Talboys 101 Light Duty Overhead Mixer 4. Complete Cosmetic Chemist training program You can never get enough training and if you don't know about all the different areas of cosmetic science and formulating, this course will get you started. Sign up here 5. DIY cosmetic books Learning the science of cosmetics is great but you need some recipies to start somewhere. Here's a book that will help the cosmetic chemist on your list make their own color cosmetics. Recipes for Color Cosmetics 6. Music You might not know that the coolest cosmetic chemists are really into cutting edge music. If you don't know their tastes, try one of these science-themed albums. Here Comes Science - They Might be Giants Feed the Animals - Girl Talk It's Blitz! (Deluxe Version) - YYY 7. Clever T-Shirts Chemists are proud of their jobs so why not get them a shirt to show it off. I particularly like this shirt which has the saying "Bond... Ionic Bond" "Taken, not shared". Bond, Ionic Bond Chemistry Dark T-Shirt Or how about this Chemistry Bacon t shirt 8. Molecular modeling kit Sure you can do these things on the computer but having a molecular modeling kit right at your desk is a cool thing for a cosmetic chemist to have. Molecular Modeling Kit 9. Chemistry Mug Almost every cosmetic chemist drinks coffee and the ones that don't drink hot tea. A chemistry mug is a great gift idea. Here are a couple of options. Glass Beaker Mug with Handle 400ml Konitz 15-Ounce Science Chemistry Mugs 10. Chemistry Set If you don't have a lab at home, can you really consider yourself a chemist? hmmm. Get the cosmetic chemist in your life this chemistry set so they can work on their ideas any time they want. Chemistry Lab Set - Advanced Level AA What do you want for the holidays this year? Leave a comment below.

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As a cosmetic formulator, you can find some fun stuff by looking through the INCI dictionary. In honor of the US Thanksgiving holiday, today we're going to do a post on Thanksgiving ingredients used by cosmetic formulators. Turkey Tryptophan is a common component of turkey and it's also an ingredient you will find in some cosmetic products. It is actually used in testing to show the extent to which hair is damaged by UV rays. In formulating, tryptophan is useful as an antistatic agent or hair conditioner. Stuffing No turkey dinner would be complete without some bread stuffing. One of the primary components of bread is flour and the cosmetic ingredient dictionary is packed with derivatives of flour. You've got skin conditioning ingredients like Triticum Aestivum Flour Lipids and Hydrolyzed Wheat Flour. Then you have bulking agents like Panicum Miliaceum Seed Flour and Arachis Hypogaea Flour. Gravy Since gravy is a combination of meat drippings, flour and butter, we'll focus on the butter ingredients because we've already covered the first two. In the INCI dictionary there are a whopping 70 ingredients with the name 'butter' in them. As you can imagine most are conditioning emollients like Butter Glycerides or Butter Decyl Esters. Others are surfactants like Shea Butteramidopropyl Betaine and Shea Butteramidopropyltrimonium Chloride. Cranberry You can't go wrong on Thanksgiving with some Hydrogenated Cranberry Seed Oil. This emollient is sure to spice up your skin lotion. And if skin protection is what you're after, try Hydrolyzed Cranberry Fruit/Leaf Extract. It works (according to the raw material supplier). Potatoes Ah, mashed potatoes are not only good to eat, they also make an excellent viscosity controlling ingredient. If you need to thicken your cosmetic formula, try Hydrogenated Potato Starch. Of course, if you are looking for a hair and skin conditioning ingredient, Hydrolyzed Potato Protein is the way to go. Pumpkin Pie For the dessert course, pumpkin pie is a classic. It also has led to a number of cosmetic ingredients. There is Hydrogenated Pumpkin Seed Oil and Pumpkin Seed Oil PEG-8 Esters for your skin moisturizing needs. Then there is Pumpkin Fruit Extract Beta-Glucan which is supposed to have an antidandruff effect although it's not an approved antidandruff active so beware. Well, that's it for the tour of Thanksgiving Cosmetic Ingredients. Have a happy holiday everyone!

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Show Notes - Interview - Chris Boone Chris Boone is a cosmetic scientists who specializes in solving problems in the area of formulation, product development and innovation. He has worked with Unilever and Alberto Culver as a formulator and also worked on the supplier side with the McIntyre (now Rhodia) group. Currently he is a technical services specialist at Nexxeo solutions. You can connect with Chris on LinkedIn Web sites mentioned Innovation web tools Seth Godin's blog Cosmetic industry stories L'Oreal Buys Clarisonic devices Older men prefer stronger fragrances Cosmetic Science Reactive cosmetic products While most of the chemical reactions in our industry occur at the raw material suppliers labs, there are some cosmetic products specifically designed to chemically react. Here’s a list of the most common. Permanent Waves These products are designed to permanently change the shape of hair. People with straight hair often use permanent waves to get a little curl in their hair. A permanent wave formula has a reducing agent like thioglycolic acid that reacts with the di-sulfur bonds in the cystine amino acids breaking down the hair structure. Hair is first shaped into curlers, then the product is put on hair. It begins reducing hair and is rinsed with water to stop the reaction. A neutralizing chemical like hydrogen peroxide, is added which reforms the di-sulfur bonds into the new configuration. Hair Relaxers These products do the opposite of permanent waves. They make curly hair permanently straight. The method is similar you chemically break down hair, reshape it, then reform the protein bonds in the new configuration. Sometimes ammonium thioglycolate is used but most often it is sodium hydroxide or lithium hydroxide. The compounds break down the di-sulfur bonds in hair and the neutralizing step stops the reaction. This is the most damaging chemical treatment for hair. Hair Bleach Hair bleaching is a process used to turn brunettes into blonds. You didn’t really think that there were that many blonds in the world did you? Hair bleach is a chemical reaction between melanin (the material in hair that gives it color) and hydrogen peroxide. Hair Colors Hair coloring is a slightly more complicated version of hair bleach. It uses hydrogen peroxide to break down hair’s natural color, then the peroxide also oxidizes a polymeric reaction with dye monomers. When the dye polymerizes inside the hair, it creates a color molecule that is too big to easily come back out. Skin Darkening These products are designed to give fair-skinned people a tanned look. They work by using an ingredient called dihydroxyacetone or DHA. It reacts with the proteins in the stratum corneum via the Maillard reaction to produce the brown (although sometimes orange) color. All the steps haven’t been worked out, but basically when DHA is exposed to skin protein, it is converted to pyruvaldehyde, which then reacts with arginine, lysine, and histidine amino acids in skin to form brown/yellow pigments called melanoidins. Depilatories These are products designed to help people to remove unwanted hair. The...

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On the cosmetic science forum, user PMA asked an excellent question about the effectiveness of Hyaluronic Acid in skin care products. Specifically, the question was, "Is hyaluronic acid a better moisturizer than glycerin? " This is a great question. As a cosmetic chemist you are going to be faced with questions like this all the time. You will have ingredients traditionally used for specific effects but will be inundated by raw material suppliers with new, super star ingredients. How do you know whether you should use an ingredient or not? Factors to consider If you are a believer in minimalist formulation you will want to create the best performing product with optimized pricing. This means that given the choice between two products that perform identically, you will go for the one that is the least expensive. It also means that more expensive formulas that have superior performance are better than low cost formulas. So, this means that the two most important factors to consider when formulating are Price and Performance. Price is easy to figure out. The raw material supplier will (eventually) tell you. Performance is the tricky one. While minimalist formulation is a useful guide but it is worthless if you can't figure out whether the performance of a formula is better or worse than another. This is where it is important to create good cosmetic ingredient studies. What's a good cosmetic ingredient study The HA study that was referenced in the start of this post is an interesting. You can see the whole study here. The conclusion of the study is "Yes, hyaluronic acid is a beneficial ingredient for the skin. " Not getting into the specific details, I would be hard-pressed to disagree with their conclusions. We will ignore for the moment that the study was not a double-blinded one and was commissioned by a company that sells hyaluronic acid. This study was published in the Journal of Drugs Dermatol. 2011;10(9):990-1000 which is a decent publication and is peer reviewed as far as I know. But is it a good study? Or rather, is it a helpful study for a cosmetic formulator? Should you start using Hyaluronic Acid in all your anti-aging skin formulations? Evaluating the cosmetic study There are a number of things to like about this study, best of which is that they included a placebo. Including a placebo is important because it answers the questions "Does this ingredient make any difference? " As a cosmetic chemist, you should know this about all your ingredients. Get rid of ingredients that make no difference. Unfortunately, they make a glaring mistake in this study and it is this mistake that makes the study practically worthless for a cosmetic formulator. They don't include a POSITIVE control. A positive control is one that will be known to give a positive effect. Right not the best ingredients for giving the effects studied in this article is Petrolatum and mineral oil. But their placebo does not contain either of these ingredients....

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I just finished reading the book Proust was a Neuroscientist. It really was an excellent book and I encourage anyone who is interested in science and art to pick it up and read it. The book goes through and describes some of the most interesting artists of our time and how their art was actually explaining parts of neuroscience that were eventually proven via scientific experiment. He covers a number of artists like Proust, Walt Wittman, Gertrude Stein, Stravinsky, and more. While I was reading, an idea occurred to me. What if we applied the principles of some of these forms of art to cosmetics? Scenario 4 Apply the principles of molecular gastronomy to cosmetic products. What would a deconstructed personal care product look like? Example Product type: Skin Lotion Take the ingredients of your skin lotion and lay them out in drop form on a small plate. To use the product, the consumer would have to mix the ingredients prior to applying to skin. That was just a quick run through of the exercise. Now it's your turn. For previous exercises see the cosmetic innovation page.

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Last Friday I was in Boston and had the opportunity to be interviewed on one of the local news station. You can see the clip here. Fox News Cosmetic Chemist interview While I have fun doing these TV spots, I have to admit that I cringe whenever I watch them later so I probably won't be watching the clip. But in case you're curious, there it is. Let me know what you think.

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On Thursday I visited the New England SCC chapter and did a talk on how a cosmetic chemist can use the internet to become a better formulator. It was a great visit. I flew into Boston in the morning from Chicago. It was uneventful but was certainly more bumpy than most flights I'm used to. I don't know if that was the weather or just a natural bumpiness on that air path. Whenever I fly, I always imagine what would happen if the thing crashed. It doesn't exactly worry me because the probability of a crash is low but that doesn't stop my brain from thinking about it. The talk was held in one of the suburbs of Boston in a steak house. We had a large room off to the side which was packed. I was very impressed that they needed to bring in extra chairs because more people kept showing up. My presentation went off without a hitch although I have to do a little more investigating on how to use PowerPoint. I've been using OpenOffice and LibreOffice for so long that I've forgotten most of the PowerPoint shortcuts. Unfortunately, I couldn't figure out how to adjust the screen size so my slides didn't show up perfectly. No matter. When giving a presentation you want the focus to be on you not your slides. You should be able to do any talk even if your slides don't show up. This is a good habit to get into because it frequently happens when you are giving presentations that something can go wrong. There have been a couple of times when my slides practically didn't show up at all. Also, always bring a zip drive to hold your slides just in case you need to use someone else's computer. After the talk I had an enjoyable discussion with some new people at the dinner table. I thoroughly enjoy meeting new people. It's really one of my favorite things about being involved with the Society of Cosmetic Chemists and with this website. This is my last real meeting of the year but I've already got a speaking engagement at the mid-year meeting next year. Unfortunately, I'm going to miss the New York National meeting this year. Hopefully, I'll be back there next year.

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According to this story, researchers have developed a new viscometer that can take viscosity measurements by simply flowing liquid through it. They say that it can be made the size of a microchip and would completely eliminate the need for QC and QA groups to take samples for viscosity measurements. In case you don't know, one of the most important measurements in developing cosmetic and personal care products is viscosity. It is a measure of the way the product flows which is one of the characteristics that consumers most notice. We've previously written about fluid viscosity and what cosmetic chemists need to know. So, the makers of this device claim that it will make the measurement of viscosity quicker and easier. Perhaps one day in the future there will be production sized tanks with these tiny viscosity monitors in them. Or even more beneficial for formulators is to have beakers with a viscosity chip incorporated into them. Interesting. I'm not sure how much of an impact this will have on cosmetics however. It's really not too difficult to take a viscosity meausurement and you'll have to take samples out for pH and color evaluations. QA of the future But imagine if this device could be coupled with something that takes pH measurements, color evaluations, odor evaluations and even tests micro contamination. That could be pretty cool. I'm not sure it would lead to improved personal care formulations but it would still be neat.

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We follow the continuing story of Dr. Chemistry, the crafty ole cosmetic chemist and formulating veteran. Click on the link to enlarge

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Today we have a very special show. We have an interview with our first returning guest, Dr. Johann Wiechers. I recorded the interview in May but it took a little time to edit and post. Sadly, Johann passed away on November 5. I was uncertain whether I should post the interview but I've been informed that Johann had a great passion for this formulation software and wants it to thrive and flourish. We're going to skip the usual features of the show and just focus on the interview. But before we get to the interview, I wanted to share with you some memories that I have of Johann. I first became aware of Johann while reading his last page article in the IFSCC journal. Johann was the president of the organization at the time. His articles were always interesting and thought-provoking. Typically, they would be some form of a puzzle or challenge that would make you think. I recall one had to do with calculating the height of the skin cells that a person sloughed off over the course of their lives. It was fun. What I appreciated about Johann's work was that he injected science into the cosmetic industry. That doesn't happen too often. Johann also published some excellent articles in Cosmetics and Toiletries. I was particularly impressed with his essays on whether cosmetic science should be considered junk science or not. That was the topic of our first interview. Johann gave a great defense of cosmetic science and cosmetic scientists. I only met Johann this year in Milan at the inCosmetics trade show. He was very personable and kind. He was also rushing here and there as he had a number of talks and meetings scheduled for the event. I was happy that we got a few moments to speak. One thing that was clear about Johann was that he was extremely passionate about cosmetic science and truly interested in teaching. He gave a number of talks which have been well received all over the world. He was an international rock-star of the cosmetic world. We lost a great teacher and ambassador of the industry too soon. I'm going to miss Johann. Interview In this interview, we spoke with Johann about his software called Formulating for Efficacy. It's an extremely interesting approach to cosmetic formulating in that the program helps you pick exactly the levels of the actives you need to optimize the performance of the formula you are creating. It really is an interesting technology. Dr Johann Wiechers got his degree in 1989 at the University of Groningen, The Netherlands, in the subject of skin penetration enhancement. After working a number of years at Unilver Research in the UK, he joined Uniqema in Gouda, The Netherlands, in 1995 where he had global responsibility for the company's skin R&D as their Skin R&D Director. In 2007, he was appointed Visiting Professor at the University of London, School of Pharmacy, Brunswick Square, London. Later that year, he founded JW...

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If you have a mobile smart phone (an iPhone for example) there are a number of apps that a cosmetic chemist will find useful. Here are some of the best that I've found. Productivity Dropbox - This is one of the best apps for sharing files. I like it because it will sync any file no matter where you work on it. For example, if you make a change on one computer it will make the changes on all other places the file is stored. It works great if you have a home computer, work computer, and iPhone. Evernote - This is just an excellent app for keeping notes, websites, pictures or anything you want to store. Think of Evernote as an extension of your brain. It is really a great app. iTalk - I like to keep audio notes. It's especially useful when you are commuting. The iTalk app is one of the best ones for recording audio notes. This works well for writing or planning projects. Read it Later - If you subscribe to a number of RSS feeds but don't always have time to read interesting articles, you can save them to read later with this app. It's a simple as clicking a check mark on your web browser then reading the article on your phone. Communicating Echofon - If you are on Twitter, the Echofon app makes it easy to keep up. What I like best about it is that it allows you to follow multiple Twitter accounts. Facebook - If you find Facebook useful as a website (and it is certainly great for keeping up with beauty brands), you'll find the Facebook app for the iPhone an excellent adaptation. LinkedIn - Install the LinkedIn app so you can keep up with all the interesting discussions on this website. LinkedIn is one of the best social networking sites for professionals and this app makes it easy to follow. Product Sleuthing Sephora - If you want to find out some of the newest, most innovative products in the cosmetic industry, you should take a look at the Sephora app. It's a great way to get new product ideas. iPerfumer - This app was created by Givaudan and lets you keep track of the best selling consumer fragrances. Total Beauty - This app lets you read customer reviews of thousands of beauty products. It's always helpful to know what consumers think about products. Do you have an app suggestion that is useful for cosmetic chemists? Leave a comment below.

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When trying to come up with different ideas for new cosmetic products, you need to consider the "pain points" that people experience when purchasing your product. Every product has some kind of issue that consumers would rather not have to face. For example, suppose a consumer needs gas for their car. Some of the possible pain points include... 1. Price 2. Inconvienent travel to the gas station 3. Odor 4. Pumping gas in bad weather 5. Getting hands dirty New product ideas can be found when you consider the problems associated with your product and then think about ways to solves those problems. Note that not every problem will be applicable to all your consumers. However, as long as some of your consumers are affected by the problem, you can include it. Scenario 3 Make a list of 10 "pain points" related to buying or using your cosmetic product. Then come up with 10 ways you could change your product to solve that problem. Example Product type: Shampoo Pain points Have to get hair wet Makes hands feel dried out Causes split ends Bottles clash with bathroom decor Unsure about how much to use Allergic to harsh chemicals Mold/mildew grow around the bottles Too many different products to wash hair and body Too hard to rinse out Leaves hair feeling dry Ideas to address pain points Create a dry shampoo Add skin/body moisturizing ingredients to shampoo Add ingredient that repairs split ends Get a professional designer to create chic bottles Create a metered-dose dispenser Reformulate using the least harsh chemicals possible Put anti-microbe ingredients in plastic Make a hair + body cleanser Create formula that rinses faster than any other Make an improved 2-in-1 shampoo That was just a quick run through of the exercise. Now it's your turn. For previous exercises see the cosmetic innovation page.

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As an information hungry scientist and cosmetic science blogger, I see lots of stories about health and beauty. There is a lot of nonsense out there and it's difficult for a cosmetic chemist to find out what is really true. Take this story for example. Can eating too much sugar really cause wrinkles? I had never heard of that and the fact that there was no reference to any study or anything made me a bit skeptical. People are always looking for some reason to say 'sugar is bad for you. ' Some want to demonize everything that brings happiness to people. But I'm all about science and if the evidence indicates people should avoid excess sugar to prevent wrinkles, I'd happily change my ways. Well, probably not because I personally don't care much about wrinkles as I see them as inevitable, but I would start to advise people not to eat too much sugar. Anyway... Is this sugar / wrinkle connection real? There are plenty of popular media types saying it is. Dr. Oz says it's true and so does Dr. Brandt. Of course, just because these guys say it doesn't make me any more inclined to believe it. I need a better source than just Google and popular TV and book doctors. How about some science? The best place to search for science is PubMed but it is so technical that I'd have a tough time learning anything. Next best option is to look at the press releases from Universities. Do a Google search of the website Sciencedaily. com. There's a 1998 article that suggests Fructose may accelerate skin aging. But the evidence is pretty weak and it was a rat study. Nothing about humans. I did a little more searching and found the FutureDerm blog and her analysis of whether sugar causes wrinkles. I don't look to her for the definitive word as she is just reporting on science that other people are doing but she raising some interesting ideas. According to the research, glucose reacts with collagen to make it more stiff which can ultimately lead to more wrinkles. While this is supported by lab data (it's just a chemical reaction) there is also some data which suggests that cutting sugar out of your diet completely can cause even more damage to collagen. Sweet wrinkles So, I don't really know what to think. Certainly, I haven't done enough research to come to a definitive conclusion. But it seems like having no sugar in your diet is probably bad (from a wrinkle standpoint). Although it would be nice to see a study of the skin of people on a long term Atkins diet. Excessive sugar can cause changes in collagen structure which can lead to more wrinkles. But there isn't a study that compares the skin of people with high sugar diets to people with lower sugar diets. I guess the answer is that it is complicated and I'm not going to feel too bad about occasionally...

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Here is the 5-minute, speed talk I did at the Midwest SCC November dinner meeting. The idea is that speakers get 5 minutes to talk about a topic. There must be 20 slides and the slides automatically move after 15 seconds. It's really a challenging way to give a talk. The topic I picked was just meant to encourage people to become experts at their chosen field and discussed the steps to do it. Essentially, Step 1 - Develop a general knowledge of all cosmetic science then pick a niche to specialize in. Step 2 - Share your expertise with the world by writing, giving talks, and communicating with people. Step 3 - Continue to learn. The field is constantly changing and experts have to keep up. Midwest SCC meeting We had a total of 7 talks at the meeting and everyone did a great job getting their ideas across in only 5 minutes. I'm hoping this becomes a regular feature of the SCC meetings. I'd love to see a National SCC version of this.

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There are some pretty good discussions going on at the Cosmetic Science forum. If you haven't been participating, you should really take a look. Here are some of the highlights. Top cosmetic science discussions 1. What tests should be done before launching a product? Chemists weigh in on what they think you have to do before going to market with your new formula. 2. What is the must-have equipment for a cosmetic laboratory? Chemists say what they think you need to have for running a successful cosmetic lab. 3. How do you determine period after opening? Excellent info about exactly how you do this. 4. Alternatives for parabens and formaldehyde donor preservatives. Don't want to use these maligned preseravtives? Well, see this discussion for the best alternatives. 5. Why more cosmetic chemists aren't doing research? See why cosmetic chemists think that more research isn't being done in our industry. We have a great group of contributors to the cosmetic science forum so be sure to click over there and participate.

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To be a good cosmetic chemist, you'll want to generate a lot of creative ideas. Unfortunately, it's pretty tough to come up with new ideas. With thousands of new cosmetic products being launched each year, it can start to seem like all the ideas have been generated. But if you ask the right questions, you can generate ideas that you never even thought about. In this series of cosmetic innovation posts, we'll pose scenarios or questions that you can use to generate new product or innovative ideas. Scenario 2 Imagine water has just become the most expensive cosmetic raw material available. Name at least 10 ways in which this will change your current and future cosmetic formulations. For previous exercises see the cosmetic innovation page.

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Back in my younger years I did a series of cartoons called Dr. Chemistry. It wasn't a terribly original name nor do the comics seem as funny to me as they used to. I did enjoy drawing them and they are still amusing and reflective of what it's like to be a formulator working for a big corporation. This was a bit like a Dilbert meets cosmetic chemistry. Here's one of the early ones. Maybe I'll start drawing again since I have this outlet to publish.

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Are you familiar with the Khan Academy? If you aren't, you should be! The Khan Academy was started by Salman Khan in 2006 with the expressed mission of "providing a high quality education to anyone, anywhere. " And he does just that. Take a look at the chemistry lectures. There are over 100 high quality talks about various chemistry subjects. If you are looking for a refresher on chemistry, this is an excellent place to go and it is all FREE. Of course, most of this won't directly apply to cosmetic chemistry (that's why we're here) but if you're looking to get caught up to speed on basic chemistry, this is a great place to start.

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In case you were curious, the EU is in the process of updating its regulations regarding the use of parabens in cosmetics. According to the new rules, parabens will continue to be allowed at specific use levels. 1. Methylparaben and Ethylparaben can be used at a maximum concentration of 0. 4% 2. Butylparaben and Propylparaben are allowed at a use level of 0. 19% Some other parabens that were not used in cosmetics have been banned. Now, I wonder how consumer groups who point to the EU as a good model for cosmetic regulations will react. Will they finally agree that parabens are safe for use? Or will they reject the findings of European scientists too? Incidentally, it's tough to keep up with the latest goings on in the world of cosmetic regulations. I find things like Twitter, Google Alerts, and RSS feeds useful.

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The sunscreen market is a growing one and to be a competent cosmetic chemist, you should know the basics of how to formulate one. How a sunscreens work A sunscreen is typically a skin lotion with added UV blockers or absorbers. UV exposure from the sun has a number of negative impacts on skin such as burning, wrinkle causing and cancer. So, sunscreens are designed to protect from these. There are two ways in which they can work. First, they have ingredients that block or reflect sunlight. Second, they have compounds that absorb sunlight and convert it to a less harmful energy like heat. These sunscreens are oil-soluble or disperseable so emulsions are excellent delivery vehicles. Sunscreens are also available in gel and aerosol forms but we'll save those types for another post. When a sunscreen lotion is put on the skin, it forms a continuous film which provides protection from UV rays. Ideally, this film will spread easily and will be resistant to wash-off. Sunscreen ingredients In the United States, sunscreens are classified as OTC drugs and are regulated by the FDA. Accordingly, there are a limited number of approved sunscreen active ingredients. You can find a complete list of approved sunscreens in the FDA sunscreen monograph. For our purposes, we'll just mention a few of the more common actives; Titanium Dioxide, Zinc Oxide, Avobenzone, Benzophenone 8, Octocrylene, and Oxybenzone. To vary the amount of sun protection, the level of the active ingredient is adjusted. Moisturizing ingredients The most common moisturizing ingredients are occlusive agents which create a barrier that blocks water from escaping the skin. Ingredients like Petrolatum, Mineral Oil and Dimethicone can all be used as occlusive agents. Humectants, which are ingredients that attract water, are also added to lotions. Glycerin is the most commonly used humectant. Finally, emollients are added to improve the feel of the lotion on the skin. They can reduce the tackiness and greasiness caused by the other moisturizing ingredients. Common emollients include coconut oil, cetyl esters, and certain silicones. Sunscreen formulations are typically thinner in viscosity than standard skin lotions. Other ingredients In addition to the moisturizers, sunscreens contain emulsifiers to make the oil and water compatible. There are suspending agents, neutralizing agents and thickeners. Finally, to make it a complete and stable formula raw materials such as fragrance, preservative, and colorants are also included. Here is a typical sunscreen formula. Click on image to enlarge it.

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To be a good cosmetic chemist, you'll want to generate a lot of creative ideas. Unfortunately, it's pretty tough to come up with new ideas. With thousands of new cosmetic products being launched each year, it can start to seem like all the ideas have been generated. But if you ask the right questions, you can generate ideas that you never even thought about. In this series of cosmetic innovation posts, we'll pose scenarios or questions that you can use to generate new product or innovative ideas. Scenario 1 Imagine none of your customers can see color or smell fragrance. How would you make your cosmetic formulations stand out? For previous exercises see the cosmetic innovation page.

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As a cosmetic chemist, one of the most basic things you need to be able to do is to evaluate formulas and new raw materials. This is one reason we highly recommend that formulators try EVERY product they make. But just haphazardly trying a product will only give you so much information. If you really want to know if a cosmetic formulation is different, you'll have to conduct a triangle test. What is a triangle test Simple put, a triangle test is a study in which you compare 3 samples and pick out the one that is different. Of the three samples, one is actually different while two are the same. If you can consistently pick out the different one, there is a pretty good chance that there is actually some difference that you're picking up on. You might not always know what the difference is but sometimes that doesn't matter. The key is that if you can notice a difference then there is probably something different about it. When to conduct a triangle test Triangle tests are useful whenever you need to determine whether a change in the formula is noticeable or not. So, they work well for... Fragrance evaluations - When you have an odor change and you want to see if there is a noticeable difference. New raw materials - To see if there is some performance effect by using a raw material Cost savings - Remove a raw material and see if anyone can tell a difference Formula development - See if changes you've made actually improve your results Triangle test basics A triangle test can be done by one person or by an entire panel of people. The former is best when you are making new prototypes and evaluating raw materials. The later is better for making final decisions as it will give you some statistics and numbers to show your boss. Step 1 - Design your test The first thing you have to do is figure out what test you'll run to compare the samples. For odor evaluations this can be a simple "sniff test". Just put your formulas in a small jars, label them and smell. I like to keep my eyes closed for odor evaluations or do it in a dark room so you can't be influenced by color. For other products you can use any number of tests such as foam tests, moisturizing tests, combing tests, etc. It really depends on what you are testing and what characteristic you want to notice. If you are doing a test in which you want to get some useful statistics, you need a panel of about 30 people before you get meaningful data. However, if the differences are significant you'll be able to make decisions on many fewer test subjects (say 15). Step 2 - Make your samples To do a triangle test you need to make two batches of a product. Be sure to create enough to pour off multiple samples. One batch...

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One of the problems facing sunscreen formulators is that many of the chemical UV filters can cause contact allergies in a large group of consumers. So, you can formulate an excellent product that can not be used by a high percentage of your potential population. This is unfortunate, especially since sunscreen is one of the most useful cosmetics/drugs that you can create. It's also becoming more and more common to include UV protectors in all types of cosmetics so this could potential limit the market of other product forms. Well, this story from researchers at the University of Gothenburg and Chalmers University of technology may provide some promising news. They found a substance in bacteria that might lead to sunscreens which do not produce the allergic reaction. The bacterial produced UV blocker they discovered is called scytonemin. Theoretically, it will not cause the sensitization that other UV blockers can cause. Of course, this is really early research and it is not known how well it would actually work in a cosmetic. Interesting stuff and evidence that there is still research going on in the cosmetic field. Although, I should note that I doubt this is kind of research that would be done at a company. Getting useable results is just too far off in the future. Hopefully, they have some government or corporate sponsor because finding a new, less allergenic UV filter would be a good thing.

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This article about Procter & Gamble's sustainability efforts suggests that they are on pace for achieving their 5 and 10 year sustainability goals. They've reduced their energy usage by 16% since 2007, reduced CO2 emissions by 12%, reduced water usage by 22% and reduced waste by 57%. All seems very impressive, although since they set their own targets and report their own numbers, I'm certain they present the data in the most positive light. And I wonder if they count the energy that their suppliers put into making raw materials. For example, you could easily reduce your water usage if you required your supplier to dilute their raw materials with water before selling it to you. hmmm It is great that they are following a program like this but it makes me wonder, is the notion of sustainability and the goals of a corporation compatible? Conflicting goals Consider this. The primary goal of a corporation like P&G is to grow. Grow profits, grow sales, grow customer base. In order to grow, they have to get more consumers to use more products. They could also do it by increasing the prices of their current products but that is a limited strategy. Making more products is ultimately going to lead to more resources usage which is ultimately not sustainable. Reduce usage If a company was really committed to sustainability, they would have to focus on reducing the number of products they make. Or course, this directly conflicts with the corporation's primary goal. And I have to wonder, can a sustainable driven company really be in the consumable business at all? Perhaps I'm missing something here but the notion of sustainability and corporate growth seems ultimately at odds.

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On another post about wrinkle treatment breakthrus, Louise asked this excellent question which I thought would make a good post because people just starting out in the cosmetic industry might wonder the same thing. Why aren't cosmetic chemists doing research? The basic premise of this question is that cosmetic products haven't really changed much over the years. Cosmetic marketers seem to just take the same old formulas, change them a little and call them a new product. This is a fair observation (although incomplete). But there are two main reasons cosmetic chemists spend more time on developing products than they do on researching new technologies. 1. Success Cosmetic companies are in the business of selling products. When you try to research a technology you are not actually creating a new product. Certainly, you might find something that could some day be turned into a market changing product, but the reality is most technologies that you investigate will not turn into products. This is true in the cosmetic business as well as almost every other market. Research has a low level of success. Product development, on the other hand, has a high degree of success. At least when it comes to whether or not you have a product to sell. When your company has to go to Walmart or Target and tell them the latest product they are launching, they have to have some tangible, new product that can go on store shelves. Product development will almost certainly create that. Basic research will not. Thus if a company has to decide where to focus it's efforts, they will invariably choose the short term product development strategy over the long-term research one. 2. Money While success is not guaranteed in research, the fact that it costs money is guaranteed. It's a relatively small amount of money in the cosmetic industry but it is money nonetheless. When a company pays for something they want to see results. Unfortunately, research does not work that way. Finding technological breakthrus is not something that can be easily planned, budgeted, or guaranteed. Most times it can't even be explained to marketing and sales people. Therefore, people who are in research have a tough time justifying their work because they can't show an obvious result. While basic research is the most promising area to create truly breakthru technologies, most companies do not have the risk tolerance, time, or money to invest significantly in it. And that is why most of the jobs in the cosmetic industry focus on "new" product development rather than new technology discovery.

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This is a guest post submitted by cosmetic chemist & formulator Valerie Patton. The California SCC Suppliers’ Day, which took place October 25 & 26 at the Long Beach Convention Center, is a highly anticipated event — and rightly so - this two-day soiree only comes around once every two years. I was particularly looking forward to going this year for two reasons: everyone likes a field trip out of the office (especially when free food is involved) and I’m working on some particularly interesting products for my company. Suppliers’ Day is a must-see for anyone involved in the cosmetics industry, and for good reason. A Little Bit of Everything There was great variation amongst booths, so I was able to cover all my bases — even for a hair color line I’m working on. And when I wasn’t particularly looking for things, I was able to make reference of interesting raw materials and keep the company information — as a cosmetic chemist you never know what you’re going to end up needing. I also liked how some of the booths were grouped together — DD Chemco created Jungle Safari, a series of booths featuring botanicals, extracts, a jungle photo booth, and Animal Crackers — proving science can be fun! Ross Organics featured their partners in a trendy, metropolitan type manner with high glass tables to chat at with brand representatives and an espresso bar. Meeting the Little Guy We all know some heavy hitters — such as DuPont, HallStar, and BASF — make appearances often, but this week was intimate enough to show what the little guy has to offer. My most exciting moment was meeting with the master perfumer of a small fragrance company who offered excellent advice on an upcoming project. I feel I really got the attention I needed from some smaller booths. Technical Posters I haven’t seen a single one of these since my days as a graduate student — so it was nice to read about some research being done. As cool as it was, they were my only criticism of the show. The posters were off to the side and a little difficult for people to notice. It would have been nice to see them integrated into the aisles of exhibitors. Unreturned Phone Calls? Suppliers’ Day is a prime opportunity for networking, and not just with exhibitors. As a Los Angeles local, I got to catch up with many other industry professionals that I hadn’t seen in months. We shared pointers on interesting booths at the event, and I even got to dust off an old project with another company and get it back on its feet. Also, it was a good chance to conveniently bump into a certain someone that hadn’t returned my calls. If you didn’t make it to Suppliers’ Day in Long Beach this year, you missed a great event. Don’t worry, you can always go in 2013.

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In my talk about using the Internet to do cosmetic chemistry, I frequently say people should use Twitter. But I think people are having a hard time seeing the benefits. In this video, I will show you exactly how Twitter can be useful to a cosmetic formulator. Here are the basic points. 1. Keeping up with industry news 2. Getting questions answered 3. Finding experts 4. Keeping track of competitors 5. Establishing yourself as an expert. 6. Finding out what consumers care about 7. Finding a job Click on this link if you would like to find other cosmetic chemists on twitter.

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Self tanning products are designed for people who want to darken the color of their skin without risking the negative health effects of UV exposure. Technology improvements in the purification of the main active ingredient and better awareness of the dangers of excessive UV exposure has led to an increase in the sales of these types of formulations What self tanning formulas do Self tanners are active cosmetic formulations that stain the outer layers of the skin and give it a more yellow/brown/orangish hue. They can be applied as a lotion or spritz and will slowly change skin color as the dye reacts with skin protein. How do self tanning products work The primary active ingredient that makes self-tanners work is Dihydroxyacetone (DHA). This is a white, crystalline powder whose skin staining effect was first discovered in the 1950's. DHA is a 3-carbon sugar that naturally forms a dimer. When heated in a solvent, the molecule can revert to a monomer which is more effective. The reaction that causes skin browning is the Maillard reaction in which the hydroxyl group on the DHA reacts with skin amino acids & proteins. It typically requires about an hour for the color change to be noticed. The delivery of DHA is typically in the form of an oil-in-water emulsion similar to a skin lotion. Since the palms will stain darkest, consumers have to wash it off or wear gloves for application to prevent unnatural looking browning on the hands. The color will wear off as the outer layers of the skin are naturally removed via exfoliation. We should note that while there are some spray-on self tanning products, this use has not been approved by the FDA. Click here for a complete list of the the Cosmetic Formulation Basics series.

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I can't tell if this is hype (probably) or if there is something to this new technology that is supposed to work like botox without needles. The basic story is that researchers took the active ingredient in Botox and put it into a topical treatment gel that supposedly removed crow's feet wrinkles. This could be an incredible advance in cosmetics, although it would be more likely an OTC since it is currently going through FDA drug trials. The treatment is applied to the crow's feet area, left on for half an hour, then wiped off. According to researchers, 90% of people who had the treatment showed clinically meaningful reduction in wrinkles. In a placebo group 28% saw an improvement. This is interesting itself. 28% of people saw a clinically meaningful improvement with a placebo? I wonder why that would be. No matter what the results, this product would be a drug so it wouldn't be directly competing with cosmetics in the US market anyway. But it does make you wonder. With drugs like this, would cosmetics have any chance to compete?

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Last week I spent a couple days working with the instructors of our new Formulating Natural Products online training course. Here's a shot of Art Georgalas as he's taping one of his segments. I think it was the one on natural Fats and Oils. And our other instructor is Judi Beerling from Organic Monitor. Here is an action shot of her speaking about the definition of Naturals. The course will be launching in December and will feature 9 online lessons going through a variety of ingredients and how they are put into natural formulas. The course will also come with a copy of Tony Dweck's book Formulating Natural Cosmetics. Stay tuned because we'll be giving away a FREE naturals book in the coming weeks as a promotional item for the course.

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Last week I did a talk in Dallas for the Southwest SCC. It was a good meeting and I felt fortunate to be invited. While walking around Dallas after the meeting, I stumbled upon this open market where people were selling trinkets, crafts, food, and personal care products. I don't know about you but I'm always a little skeptical of DIY or hand-made cosmetics. I wonder about the testing that was done and just the general stability of products. My suggestion is to stick with the store brands. These places are great for getting ideas for new products but as the products themselves go, I'd avoid them.

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As a cosmetic chemist, you will frequently be called on to evaluate a new raw material or to optimize its level. But unless you've done it before, you won't have any easy method. Here's one you can follow. Starting out We'll assume that you have a standard base formula with which you are starting. This is pretty standard practice in the industry. The first thing you have to decide on is a starting level. To figure this out, you need to decide whether your driving force is performance or cost. On some level, it will be both but one of them should take prominence at first. Personally, I like to ignore cost in the beginning and focus on performance. When focusing on performance the starting level should be the highest level suggested by the raw material supplier, or 1%, whichever is higher. The 1% level is nice to use because it is the maximum level you can use without affecting the ingredient list. The reason we say to use the supplier's suggested level is because they will usually give the highest level they can. Suppliers are inclined to do this because they want to sell more product. Make your batch After you've figured out your starting level, make a batch with the new raw material. If you are working with a solution and a water soluble ingredient, you can post add the ingredient to a finished base. However, if it is a more complicated formula form or oil soluble, you should start from scratch. Be sure to observe the effects the ingredient has on your formula (e. g. On appearance, viscosity, etc. ) Test with and without After you've made your batch you should compare it to a sample of the base formula (without the ingredient). The comparison test really depends on what the raw material is supposed to do. So for a moisturizing ingredient, try the product out on your skin. A hair product you would test on your hair or a tress. If you can't tell any difference at this point, it's probably not worth going any further with the ingredient. There are a lot of ingredients out there so you don't want to waste time on ones that don't show any differences at high levels. Optimizing cosmetic raw material Next, you have to optimize the level of your ingredient. This is an iterative process but you can be most efficient if you follow the "half and double" technique. To use the half and double technique, you simply make one batch where you cut the level of the ingredient in half and another where you double the level. So, if your starting level was 1% you would make one batch using 0. 5% and another using 2%. Then you evaluate the samples (blinded) and see if you can tell a difference. If you can't tell a difference between the samples, you can repeat the test a few times just to make sure you're not missing something. But if...

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One of the primary tests that you will run on your cosmetic formulations is a stability test. You can read this other post for a complete procedure for stability testing. In this post I wanted to go over the times when you should do a stability test. 1. New working prototype. You don't need to do stability testing on every prototype but when you get to the point of having one that gives good results, you should put up at least a minimal stability test. This would include control samples (4C and RT) and samples at accelerated temperatures of at least 45C. Early stability testing will speed up the launch process. 2. New raw material source. Often your purchasing department will find a cheaper source of a material that you are currently buying. They'll then want to use the ingredient right away. However, don't use it until you have conducted a proper stability test. Just because two raw materials have the same INCI name, that doesn't mean they are the same. When you run the cosmetic stability test, be sure to run a sample with the current formula along side the formula with the new ingredient. 3. Scaling up to production. When your formula gets made on in production for the first time, you'll need to do a stability test. Things don't always work the same in production batches as in lab batches. 4. New production process. Speaking of production, another important time to do a stability test is when you make any changes to the production process. Often the compounders will discover faster ways to make products but you'll need to verify that the product will remain stable before implementing. 5. New packaging. Even when you don't change the formula, you may have to run a new stability test. The most common instance is when you change the packaging that the product is sold in. This could be a whole new package type or simply a change in the package resin source. 6. Regulatory requirements. Sometimes you have to run a stability test just to satisfy the regulatory paperwork of a new market that your product is being sold in. 7. New production plant. If your product is successful enough it might be produced in a different manufacturing facility. In this case you'll need to do a stability test just to ensure that the product remains to be of the proper quality. If you want to create consistently, high quality products, stability testing of cosmetic formulas is one of the primary tests to run.

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We've previously talked about the beauty with-in trend in the cosmetic industry but this idea has inspired me to talk about it some more. While most beauty from with-in ideas are all about ingesting something to stimulate cells in hair or skin cells to improve some characteristics, this idea from artist Lucy Macrae takes the idea to a new level. Her Swallowable Parfum is a cosmetic capsule that is supposed to enable people to emit a genetically unique scent. According to the website, the technology involves fragrance molecules that are excreted through the skin surface when people sweat. This leaves odiferous droplets that emanate a unique scent. Clever idea I have to say, while I doubt that this would actually work, it certainly is a clever idea. The artist says that the product was developed with a synthetic biologist named Sheref Mansy so there is some scientist behind it. But color me skeptical. I know ingredients like Garlic are supposed to be able to go through your skin and produce an odor & certainly people's diets can affect the way they smell. However, I doubt you can actually control it to any great extent. I would love to be proven wrong however. If anyone can get me a sample, I'd be happy to test it out. Incidentally, this product was produced in the EU but it would require very little testing to be sold here in the US. Our food supplement industry is woefully weak on regulations and you can pretty much sell whatever you want as long as it can't be proven to kill someone. This is a huge hole in the US FDA system.

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Here's a video I put together explaining how cosmetic chemicals get their names. http://www. youtube. com/watch? v=5dvW5o8GOm0 It's not quite the IUPAC system but it is logical.

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Next week I'm giving a talk on cosmetic sustainability at the Southwest SCC monthly meeting. It should be fun. This is a hot topic in the cosmetic industry and it is particularly of interest to formulators who are interested in creating "Natural" formulations. In preparing the talk, I investigated natural and sustainable formulations and thought you might be interested in what it takes to create a natural shampoo formulation. Natural Shampoos Shampoos are made up of only a few types of ingredients including... 1. Diluent (usually water) 2. Surfactant (primary & secondary) 3. Thickener 4. Preservative 5. Fragrance 6. Colorant 7. Conditioning ingredient 8. Feature ingredient For standard shampoos, "synthetic ingredients" are typically used for everything except the diluent and the feature ingredients. Finding natural alternatives for the rest of the cosmetic ingredients is the challenge of the natural formulator. Here are some options. Natural Surfactants There are not many options for truly natural surfactants. It turns out that nature just doesn't make many that work great for cleaning. Certainly not for creating the foam that people expect from a shampoo. Your best options for a sustainable, acceptably natural surfactant are Alkylpolygulcosides. Decyl Polyglucoside is made from starch and a fatty alcohol and can work. You'll need to add a secondary surfactant to improve it's foaming. Natural Thickeners One problem with using a natural surfactant like APG is that it won't thicken up readily when you add salt. Therefore, you have to add a thickening agent. A variety of natural gums can be used including Guar gum, Karaya gum, and xanthan gum. You have to experiment to get the right thickness without making the formula feel too slimy. Natural preservatives It's tough to find something that will work well enough and still be considered "natural". However, you can try any of the natural preservatives we've previously suggested. Phenoxyethanol and benzoic acid are commonly used. Natural Fragrance For fragrance you can pretty much use a number of the different essential oil available. It's not difficult to make a decent smelling, all-natural fragrance. However, it is more expensive. Natural Colorants There are a number of options for natural colors. Annatto is used to make red and orange products. Chlorophyll can be used to make green colors. Other natural colorants would include berry extracts, red oak bark, henna and walnut. Unfortunately, natural colors are prone to oxidation and can degrade over time. Natural Conditioning Agents There are not many that are as effective as polymeric conditioners or silicones. You can try things like banana pulp derivatives, plant gums, chitin and chitosan. Also, natural oils and waxes may be suitable options. Formulating natural products is much more difficult than standard formulating. The products will tend to be more expensive, be less aesthetically appealing, and will not work as well. It's just really difficult to make the best performing products when you aren't allowed to use all the ingredients available. However, with trial and error you can make suitably natural formulations that will appeal to...

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Here at Chemists Corner, we have an online training course (the Complete Cosmetic Chemist) and we encourage everyone who would benefit to take the course. But there are a number of other types of courses on the Internet. Best of all they are put out by various universities and are often free. Here are a couple of our favorite sources. 1. Open Culture - Lists 400 online courses from top universities. Includes a number of Chemistry courses and Biology courses. Also useful are the Business courses. You can get really smart just going through these links. Make Use of - This website lists a number of free online video lectures. We especially like the videos from Big Think. You can sped a lot of time on the Internet. Instead of being unproductive by watching funny cat videos, spend your time learning and improving yourself. This could ultimately lead to you having the ability to create something like your own product line or business, and this is a goal worth pursuing.

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As a cosmetic formulator, you have a tough task. You have to make great new formulas that consumers love, your marketing department loves and they have to be better and unique compared to anything on the market. But in a mature industry like the cosmetic industry, making truly new, breakthrough advancements is tough. And it's made tougher because of the following forces working against innovation. Forces against cosmetic innovation 1. Current formula already work - Sure there might be complaints about greasiness or weighing down hair, but almost any consumer can find a formula that works for them. And if consumers are generally happy with the products that exist, they isn't much room for you to create ones that are better. Solution - Challenge yourself to come up with completely new formula types that would never be launched. For example, an all oil-based shampoo. A spray-on skin lotion. 2. Regulatory environment - Regulatory departments are out to protect the company from liability lawsuits. They are not generally interested in new innovations. If you ask permission to use an ingredient, they would rather say no than yes. Solution - First, don't ask your regulatory people whether you should investigate an ingredient. They'll say "no". Investigate then ask for forgiveness later. Most of the stuff you look at won't be special anyway. But if you do find something special, prove the benefit of your new formula. If you can prove something you have created is truly revolutionary, your company will find a way to get your regulatory people to discover "loopholes" to allow use of a raw material. 3. Hard to understand - Innovative products are often hard for people to understand. This makes them inclined to ignore them and even work against seeing the product succeed. Solution - Create prototypes that so obviously show the benefit of your claims that people automatically understand. 4. Push cost savings - Companies are frequently more interested in finding ways to make cheaper formulas that making ones that work better. Solution - Use cost savings exercises like a knock-out experiment to make formula changes that you normally wouldn't consider. These could lead to some completely different formula types. For example, what would a skin moisturizer that was completely water-based look like? 5. Things that work are drugs - The biggest problems in the area of cosmetic science are things that are unlikely to be fixed by cosmetic formulas. Things like cosmeceuticals are technically drugs. Solution - Look to the coatings industry for some new product ideas. Cosmetic films have been under investigated and could lead to some non-drug solutions. It's tough being a cosmetic chemist these days but it's not impossible. Think about the pressures against innovation and work hard to overcome them. It really would be nice to see the next generation of cosmetic formulas that work better and don't require marketing messages to convince us.

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Today, I went to the Midwest SCC Technical Symposium and was pretty impressed with the event. The talks were nicely done (no awful slides) and the topics were really engaging. Of course, I might be biased because I did give one of the talks but I thought overall, the talks were better than most events that I've attended. A great job all-around. Cosmetic science topics The topics included Formulating Products for the Growing Ethnic Skin and Hair Care Markets Eunice Cofie, president and chief cosmetic chemist at Nuekie I did not realize ethnic hair care was a $1. 2 billion industry. Also learned about http://Houseofmikko. com which is a great place for seeing what consumers care about. Designing Devices for Better Skin Care Efficacy Robb Akridge, PhD, co-founder and VP of clinical affairs for Clarisonic An interesting story about the development of the Clarisonic skin device. Came from the people that worked on the Sonicare toothbrush A good summary of the product development process Choosing Successful Fragrance for Personal Care Jill Costa, PhD, chief perfumer at Bell Flavors and Fragrances Learned lots about fragrance for example, why vanilla fragrance works better from candles than citrus Specks and Flecks, Lumps and Bumps—Identifying What Shouldn’t Be There Kathleen Martin, Research Scientist/Spectroscopist for McCrone Associates Ever wonder what those little unknown bits are in your products? Kathleen does. She looks at these things using a microscope and figures out what they are. Usually bug parts, paint chips, or pieces of dirt. Interpreting the FDA’s Final Rule for Sunscreen Formulation Farah Ahmed, Chair of the Personal Care Product Council’s Sunscreen Task Force Pretty good summary of the new proposed rules. Internet Research in Personal Care Formulating Perry Romanowski, Brains Publishing This was my talk on how a cosmetic chemist can best use the Internet for doing their job. I especially liked the student posters. This was the first time we had posters at an event like this and it is encouraging to me to see new people come into the industry. Networking In addition to the talks and posters, I enjoyed catching up with so many cool people in the industry. I've known most of the people in the Midwest SCC chapter for more than 10 years and it is always fun to swap stories. One of the biggest companies here is shutting down and lots of people are losing their jobs so there was plenty of talk about what people are going to do. Overall, a great event! If you get a chance to go to one of these in the future you must do it. Incidentally, if you are on Twitter you can get our complete reporting of the event by searching the hashtag #midwestscc.

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Today, I am giving a talk about how cosmetic chemists can use the Internet to become better cosmetic chemists. It should be a fun talk and I look forward to it. This is one area that I believe chemists can get better at and after the talk I will upload the slides and perhaps redo the talk. But for now, I'm just going to tell you if you are in the Chicago area and you want to see a talk about cosmetic chemistry and how the Internet can help, come out to the SCC Technical Symposium. More information can be found here. Midwest SCC Website.

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I'm always pleased when I hear that people are using and getting benefit from our book Beginning Cosmetic Chemistry. Here is a picture that a friend of mine who is taking a perfumery program in France sent me. It looks like they are using the BCC book for the course. Love it! .

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This is an unfortunate story. There has been a big spike in the number of melanoma cases in young women and it has been linked to tanning bed used prior to special events like Prom or Homecoming. I know the indoor tanning industry says that the product is perfectly fine but this is evidence that it is not. As cosmetic chemists, you will often be asked about all kinds of beauty topics and it makes sense for you to be well versed on a variety of topics. Indoor tanning is one of these topics. The bottom line is that indoor tanning is not safe and it has been proven to cause melanoma. If someone tells you otherwise just have them look up what the American Academy of Dermatology has to say.

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Here's a short video worth watching. Phil McKinny explains why "best practices" is not a great way to do innovations. A quote that I love "If everyone is special than no one is special. " In the world of innovation you have to stand out and be different. Doing what everyone else is doing will not lead to new, innovative products. You have to be different. If you are formulating just like everyone else, you are not going to create products that are different. Formulate differently One of my favorite formulators told me a story about how she was searching through old formulating books and re-discovering formulating techniques that have long since been abandoned. There may have been good reasons why modern formulators are not using these techniques anymore, but she wanted to learn for herself. If you want to be innovative, you should too. This strategy of doing something that no one else is doing certainly has the best potential for creating truly innovative cosmetic formulations. Remember, do something different.

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If you are a student studying science (chemistry or biology is best) you might qualify for a scholarship from the Midwest SCC. The Midwest Chapter Society of Cosmetic Chemists each year offers multiple $1,000 scholarships to undergraduate or graduate students exhibiting excellence in either coursework or research in the fields of chemistry, biology, cosmetic, or allied sciences. Special consideration will be given to students actively pursuing careers in cosmetic science. Applicants must have a letter of recommendation from a faculty member where the recipient is attending. The deadline for this year's application is October 15, 2011. You can apply for the scholarship by going to this website. Midwest SCC Scholarship program

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I thought I would weigh in on this topic as it's been in the news a bit and have a little history researching in the field. When I was at a former employers, I accidentally stumbled on the notion that formaldehyde donor molecules could react with hair under room temperature or slightly higher conditions. This was way back in 2002 or 2003. We worked hard to launch a product to straighten hair (among other things) but were never able to make the product effective enough due to the high level of formaldehyde donors we needed to use. Regulations inhibit innovation It was disappointing never to have launched this interesting discovery, but we were looking to do an at-home, world-wide product. The regulations on formaldehyde donors are just too strict. Not that they shouldn't be as strict as they are. They are perfectly reasonable. Apparently, the people behind the Brazilian Straightening system skipped that part of the research and just went ahead and launched the product. Now, they have to pull it off the market because the CIR has ruled that use of Formaldehyde in these products is unsafe. This pretty much kills the Brazilian hair straightening brand and much of the company. Perhaps they made enough money so it won't matter to them. Perhaps not. Consider regulations It is a good lesson for cosmetic chemists and entrepreneurs alike. When you find a new technology or a new application of an old technology, be sure to take head of any regulatory problems you might face. This may result in you not launching a product but it could be the difference between your company still existing or being shut down. We eventually found a molecule that was similar to formaldehyde and had a similar effect without the regulatory problems. I left before the product was launched but I know it works and we may see it on the market some day. That is more that can be said for the Brazilian Hair Straightener. That brand is done. Incidentally, who says the cosmetic industry in the US is not regulated? Here is proof that it is.

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One of the most useful things about the Internet is that you can get free consumer research (if you know where to look). The way you can do this is to peruse various beauty blogs, forums, and opinion sites. Ideally, you'll participate and can get people to respond to your questions. You might have to do it anonymously if you're working for a company, but that's ok, as these sites typically allow for anonymous participants. Here are some of the top beauty forums where you can interact with consumers who are rabid fans of beauty products. 7 beauty forums to talk to consumers The Beauty Brains forum - You'll find a number of smarter, skeptical consumers here. Site has over 6000 members but a few hundred are active. Top Beauty Care forum - Skin care, hair care and make-up are their top categories. Difficult to say but likely a few hundred active users. Make-up Talk - If you are looking for some consumer insights related to make-up, this is a pretty good place to go. Allure forums - Lots of views so there will be plenty of consumer information to be gleaned here. Make-up alley - One of the best forums for all kinds of beauty products. They talk about almost any product that there is. The Fashion Spot forums - This site specializes in fashion but they have a huge skin care, makeup and hair care section. Womens health forum - I wanted to round it out with 7 sites so I included this one. It seems to have good traffic and there are lots of good consumer insights you can glean. Just not sure how active it is. Communicating with Consumers To come up with new products and formulations that will set you apart in the cosmetic industry, you need to listen to the consumer. Learn what problems they have and how they have tried to solve them. The Internet makes it easy to get information that years ago could only have been gotten through a big consumer research group. Good luck and have fun!

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Perhaps the most difficult thing about being a cosmetic chemist is that the formulas are already pretty good. Also, nearly everyone has access to the same technology. This makes it nearly impossible to make your formulas stand out. Sure, you can optimize your formulas and find a unique consumer group that likes your product over everyone else, but for the most part, cosmetic products rely on marketing to set them apart. But don't worry, I said it was "near impossible", not impossible. If you start investigating and formulating in ways that other people aren't you can create formulations that are truly different. This will require looking in areas where no one else is. Biomimicry Perhaps one of the best possibilities for creating noticeably new formulas is to look into the world of biomimicry. Biomimicry is described as "innovation inspired by nature. " Essentially, it involves looking at how things in nature have solved problems and adapting them to your products. Here is a list of some of the coolest adaptations of biomimicry to real products. The ones that could be applied to cosmetics would include. 5. The Lotus Effect - this is a self-cleaning surface with "superhydrophobicity. " Could you make a make-up product that has this effect? 6. Self-healing plastics - I always thought a self-healing hair spray might be interesting. Fill it with unreacted styling resin monomers nanosperes that open up and repair themselves when moved. 7. The golden streamlining effect. Could this be used to make a better hair dryer? 12. Diatomaceous Nanotech. I've always thought diatoms on skin might be able to create some interesting effects. Maybe color changing? 15. Butterfly-Inspired Displays. Could these be the next new colorants for cosmetics? Here's a pretty good application. Using bacteria to create 3D objects. Biomimicry projects There is an entire institute dedicated to developing biomimicry technologies. Take a look at the Biomimicry Institute and search through their database. You just might find that inspirational idea that could open up a whole new market of biomimetic cosmetics!

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There is this trend in the cosmetic industry called "beauty-within". (There's even a conference about it. )The idea is that people can consume some product and it will have a beneficial effect on skin and hair. In general, I'm skeptical of the food supplement industry but I'm always willing to change my mind about things if there is good evidence. So, is there anything to this "beauty-within" trend or is it just marketing BS? Define the scope At the start, I want to say that of course what you eat or drink can have an impact on your skin and hair. If you starve yourself you'll lose your hair and you skin will get dry. If you are short of some critical nutrient your skin can change color or start looking awful. I'm not talking about these extreme effects. What I'm wondering about is whether a normal, healthy person can take some food supplement or eat some special diet to improve their skin. Skin wrinkles and food In a study done out of Monash University in Australia, researchers concluded that "skin wrinkling in a sun-exposed site... may be influenced by the type of foods consumed. " But after reviewing the study, I'm unimpressed with their conclusions. There are numerous flaws in the study including... 1. Self-reported food intake. They asked people who were 70 years or older about their food intake over the last year. Who would actually be able to give a good estimation of this? Unless you are writing it down, forget about it. The conclusions of the study hinges on this diet data and the data the collect is nearly worthless. 2. They didn't control for sunblock use. I saw nowhere in the study a discussion of whether people used sunscreens or not. That would certainly effect the end results. So, maybe eating more vegetables will be good for your skin as they point out, or maybe not. This certainly isn't enough support to give any credence to the "beauty within" marketing trend. Dietary intake and wrinkles In this next study conducted by researchers at Unilever (uh oh), they attempt to look at women aged 40-74 to see the impact of diet on skin appearance. The conclusion is that higher intake of Vitamin C and linoleic acid and lower intakes of fats and carbohydrates were associated with better looking skin. Interesting enough but this study also relies on self reported food levels. And they say they control for sun exposure but there is no mention of sunscreen use. Not sure how they can control for it. Somehow, this feels like weak science to me. Proof needed I know these are only two studies but there isn't a lot published on this subject. If you know of any other studies, let me know as I'd love to review them. Here is a study I would like to see. 1. Recruit people of varying ages for the study. Rate their skin at the start of the study. 2. Give...

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I can completely understand how something like this happens. Overzealous marketers were selling iPhone apps that use colored lights to supposedly treat acne. The FTC found out and brought action against the two app makers. They subsequently stopped selling the products because they couldn't prove they worked. Of course, not before they sold over $25,000 worth of product. Their fines totaled about $16,000. Seems reasonable. Marketing pressure So how does a product like this even get made? This happens frequently in the cosmetic industry. It usually goes something like this. 1. Company outside the cosmetic industry sees problem not solved (e. g. acne) 2. Same company sees size of market. 3. Company creates product & makes impressive claims without adequate testing. 4. Company cashes in on desperate consumers. 5. Company keeps collecting money until FDA or FTC figure it out and shut them down. Unfortunately, this last step doesn't always happen and consumers waste lots of money on products that don't work. The other unfortunate thing is that marketers from legitimate cosmetic companies will see products like these that are making money and they will pressure their cosmetic chemists to come up with copycat products. When their scientists tell them they can't do it, they risk being labeled obstructionists and having diminished reputations. But such is the life of a cosmetic chemist. There will be times you have to disappoint your marketing people. Just remember to do it in a friendly way. You don't want to develop an adversarial relationship with your marketers. You need each other to be successful.

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One of the biggest problems in society is that people do not appreciate or understand science. This makes them prone to be easily swayed by the media, the government or marketing people. That makes for a worse society. So, whenever I get a chance, I'm happy to talk to people about science. Since my career has focused on cosmetic science, that's usually the topics of my talks. Last week I participated in an event through the Illinois Science Council called the Chemistry of Cosmetics. It was about a two-hour event which included talking about various cosmetic science subjects and some hands on learning exercises. It was lots of fun (and held in a bar). Here's a video from the event. I would encourage anyone to take advantage of any chance to talk about cosmetic chemistry to the general public. And if you don't want to, feel free to contact me. I always like an audience. No doubt the result of being raised in a family with 6 siblings.

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Have you ever heard the phrase "Lipstick Effect"? It is a phrase supposedly coined by Leonard Lauder in November of 2001 and refers to an observation that During a recession, the tendency for consumers to purchase small, comforting items such as lipstick rather than large luxury items. Essentially, the theory says that when people start spending money on small luxury items like lipstick, the economy is in trouble. Good news for the lipstick manufacturers, not such good news for the rest of the economy. But is it real? Many people doubted it last year because the lipstick market didn't show any significant upturn. However, according to Mintel the lipstick effect can be seen in the European color cosmetic market. They look like fairly modest growth numbers to me so I don't know how much faith I have in the reality of the lipstick effect. Whether the lipstick effect is real or not, it is still interesting to see how the cosmetic market is predictive of the overall economy. It seems to me that no matter what, people are going to continue to buy personal care products. It should be a recession-proof business.

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When you formulate cosmetic products long enough you start to think that everything that can be invented has been invented. In fact, it's pretty tough to imagine formulators creating a better shampoo. Cosmetic formulators are a lot like cooks and face the same problem. Egg omelets were introduced hundreds of years ago and they haven't really changed much in a long time. But even if improved formulations are only a small part of the cosmetics of the future, certainly technology will open up all new avenues. Hair care of the future Here's a story about a hair-washing robot that is supposed to make it easier for older people to do their hair. Panasonic developed the robot that can both wash and dry hair. It automatically shampoos, rinses, conditions and dries hair. It can even keep track of different people's head and adjust its action based on who is getting their hair washed. I guess these are the hair stylists of the future. No doubt they will be programmed to recommend expensive salon brands. Want to see what it looks like? Check out this video.

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Show Notes: Duncan Abbott interview Duncan Abbott has been in the cosmetic industry over 20 years and has worked for cosmetic companies such as Alberto Culver, Unilever, and Meller Beauty. He is currently Developing Manager at Simple Health and Beauty. You can connect with Duncan in the Chemists Corner forum. Interview begins at 14:23 Cosmetic News Stories discussed... Cosmetics can cause serious adverse effects Yale scientists find stem cells that tell hair it's time to grow. Pantone picks colors for 2012 Cosmetic Chemistry Programs See this post for a complete list of the cosmetic chemistry programs around the world. Announcements Join the discussion at the Cosmetic science forum. You can still sign up for the Complete Cosmetic Chemist cosmetic science training program here. More information about the Midwest SCC Technical Symposium If you have a question, comment or other suggestion about the podcast, leave a message in the space below. Chemists Corner is a podcast about cosmetic science and is broadcast to help educate, entertain, and inspire current and future cosmetic scientists. The information and opinions discussed on Chemists Corner are those of the hosts and the guests alone. They do not necessarily reflect those of any past, present or future employers.

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This article is Happi reports that Pantone, the global authority on color, has released it's predictions for the top 10 colors for women's fashion in 2012. I guess these are the people the pick the colors that are supposed to be popular in the future. It's a bit of a self-fulfilling prophecy however, because the fashion designers take these colors, then make clothes out of them, which limits the color choices that people will get and therefore like. But I digress. Happi has the complete list but having the list without a picture seems pointless. So, we here at Chemists Corner have gone through and created a diagram showing the actual colors of the Pantone top pics for 2012. Start your color matching now.

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The Journal of Cosmetic Science published by the Society of Cosmetic Chemists is the premiere scientific journal and a great resource for finding out the latest developments in the field of cosmetic science. You can find new methods, new raw materials, and research in biology, chemistry, and physics. Some of the articles are incredibly useful and enlightening. Unfortunately, some of them are not. Recent JSCC Issue The May/June 2011 issue of the Journal has the following articles. If you are a member of the SCC you can access the articles online, otherwise you'll have to wait for 5 years or go to the library. 1. Enhanced female attractiveness with use of cosmetics and male tipping behavior in restaurants. 2. Tryptophan fluorescence in hair - Examination of contributing factors 3. Evaluation of anti-cellulite efficacy: A topical cosmetic treatment for cellulite blemishes 4. Luster measurements of lips treated with lipstick formulations Article Evaluation There are a number of good things to say in general about the journal. First, it is consistent in look and content. They cover a wide range of topics that would be relevant to cosmetic chemists. Next, the articles are readable, have relevant graphics and most importantly, are peer reviewed. But the JSCC faces a significant problem. Most of the research being done in the cosmetic industry is paid for by companies that want to promote some product. This means that there is an inherent bias in almost all the articles. Sometimes this problem is less significant but other times, it's just ridiculous. Let's look at some of the articles. 1. Enhanced female attractiveness and tipping behavior This study purports to determine whether a waitress wearing makeup will garner more tips than one not wearing makeup. While it is an interesting question, it seems nearly impossible to control all the factors that would enable you to adequately figure out the answer. And indeed the researchers make an attempt but there are so many holes in this research it's hardly worth publishing. Small sample size, no blinded controls, not controling for the psychological effect of wearing make-up versus not, no comparison of the waitresses normal tip generating ability, etc. This kind of stuff might be passed off as science in areas like Consumer Research or Psychology but come on, this is hardly science. 2. Tryptophan fluorescence in hair Ah, finally some science complete with controls and a specific analyasis. This article looks at the fluorescence emissions in a variety of different types of hair. They control the chromophore emissions from different wave lengths, compare hair types, and look at the effect of various treatments. Now this, could be useful to cosmetic chemists. For example, if you get good at this method of hair analysis you can determine what effect your new formulation will have on hair. You could then set targets for which to exceed and use it to help steer your formulation efforts. A nice study. Of course, Janusz Jachowicz is one of the rock star researchers in cosmetic...

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I saw this article about electronic devices being more important in cosmetic treatments. It seems that dermatologists are using these gadgets more frequently to deliver skin care benefits. They are specifically being used for microdermabrasion, chemical peels, lasers for hair removal and anti-wrinkle treatments, and skin tightening. As a cosmetic chemist, you should make it a point to become familiar with all the different types of gadgets that are being used by dermatologists. This may help you develop improved skin products that can work in conjunction with the devices or at the very least, you'll be able to speak intelligently to your marketing people who will inevitably hear about these. For a quick primer on the types of devices that are being used, take a look at this article about dermatology devices.

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Here is an interesting story I stumbled upon. The makers of some food supplements are claiming that they have created the first anti-wrinkle pill that actually works. According to the manufacturers (skepticism alarm should be going off now), they've created a three-a-day capsule from a blend of natural food extracts that can activate genes to improve skin tone. Independent researchers said that the preliminary results look intriguing. They did a double-blind trial that shows a benefit from the pills against "crow's feet" wrinkles. They report some other results from their study of 110 women. Unfortunately, there is no peer reviewed results so I remain a bit skeptical. Also, if this could work wouldn't we be worried that an untested drug is turning on and off genes that affect skin growth? Of course, this is a product put out by one of the big guys (Unilever) so presumably they'll have done the necessary safety testing. I don't know. I'll remain skeptical until I see the study and some results from people independent of the product. Still, just more proof that cosmetic chemists have to start thinking about the kinds of things that go into food supplements. This certainly could be where the jobs of the future go.

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Happi has an article about how science is shaping the future of beauty care products. The title was very appealing to me and I eagerly began reading. I whole-heartedly agree that to create new and innovative cosmetic and beauty products, the industry is going to have to start doing some real science. We can no longer get away with changing colors, fragrances, packaging, and stories to convince consumers that our products are really different. They are going to actually have to perform differently. But then I read the article and was a bit disappointed. The things that Mintel considers "science based beauty" are really just more marketing stories based on scant scientific research. For example... Pseudo Science of Skin Care 1. Gene therapy skin care. According to the article, Lancome found a link between a person's genes and skin youth. This isn't surprising but I don't get how they used that knowledge to create a better performing anti-aging skin product. According to the article, proteins at the surface of the epidermis are supposed to somehow prevent wrinkles? I couldn't find any scientific evidence that this is true. And the idea of applying a topical cream to "re-boost" the activity of youth genes is just marketing fluff. If the product actually stimulated the skin to do anything, it would have to be marketed as a drug, not a cosmetic. 2. Stem cell technology in skin care. While stem cells have made the news for their potential in treating a range of diseases, the application to skin creams and anti-aging products is premature at best. There is no evidence that stem cells (even ones that come from apples) will protect DNA and counteract premature skin aging when applied topically. This is a pseudo-science story that uses actual science terms. 3. Sirtuins. These compounds are enzymes that are supposed to prolong the lifespan of cells and slow aging. The most popular is resveratrol which can be found in red wine. With an incredible claim like this, you'd expect some incredible study that backs it up. But alas, there is no study that demonstrates topical application of sirtuins has any extra beneficial effect on skin. I do look forward to a time when we have a breakthrough in the development of topical applications that actually reduce wrinkles or make aged skin look better. I'm afraid that right now marketing is still getting ahead of the science.

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I received the following press release from the PR people at Pantene. Being a beauty blogger I get lots of these things and I mostly ignore them (unless they pique my interest for some reason). This one from Pantene caught my eye... Get Frizz Free — Without Formaldehyde! Achieve Pantene Pro-V hair without the harsh effects As I’m sure you’ve heard, the hair care industry (and women everywhere) are all a flutter following the FDA’s recent warning to the makers of a popular hair straightening product, Brazilian Blowout, claiming that the company's smoothing solutions are “adulterated and misbranded, containing misleading labels and advertising that falsely claims that the products are formaldehyde-free. ” With dangerously high levels of formaldehyde linked to illness in hair stylists and their customers, are you and your readers willing to risk your health for smooth hair? ! Luckily, you won’t have to put your health in jeopardy to achieve frizz-free locks if you use the Pantene Pro-V Restore Beautiful Lengths Frizz Control Shampoo and Conditioner and Restore Beautiful Lengths Smoothing Balm! As Pantene Celebrity Hair Stylist, Danilo’s favorite product line, these frizz fighters are sure to keep your strands shiny and silky smooth all year round- without any dangerous side effects to worry about. The Pantene Pro-V Restore Beautiful Lengths Frizz Control line is specially designed to help restore hair’s moisture for smooth, frizz controlled hair. The regimen contains advanced pro-vitamin formulas that penetrate to the core and help to repair damage, and create smoothness. The shampoo and conditioner system helps lock in natural moisture and seal out frizz-causing external moisture and humidity. Chemical Fearmongering The thing that bugs me most about this press release is that they call-out a specific ingredient and focus on how dangerous it is to your health. This is exactly the kind of chemical fearmongering that groups like EWG and Campaign for Safe Cosmetics rely upon to manipulate a misinformed public. Indeed, the FDA did warn the Brazillian blow-out people that their product is improperly labeled. But when they make the further claim that... "With dangerously high levels of formaldehyde linked to illness in hair stylists and their customers, are you and your readers willing to risk your health for smooth hair? ! " ... they are just playing into people's fears and possibly lying. The Brazillian Blowout is not linked to illness in customers. It has not even been linked to illness in stylists, but rather it has been demonstrated to exceed limits for health and safety. This represents a danger to stylists, not consumers as this press release says. Then when they say "... you won't have to put your health in jeopardy... " if you use Pantene, they are just selling a product based on fear, not based on superior performance. This is exactly the kind of junk marketing that natural and organic players use when they bash Pantene and other mass market brands. It's really a terrible way to promote a product. It makes people fearful and...

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When you get a job in the cosmetic industry you'll most likely be working in the Research and Development department, or The Lab, as most people will call it. But there is much more to your company outside the Lab and if you want to advance your career, you'll need to become familiar with other departments. Here is a brief rundown of all the departments you might have at your company and how you may interact with them. Note, your company may be organized slightly different. Marketing In most big cosmetic companies, this is the group that drives new product development. They are given responsibility for building brands so they help drive the launch of new products, the advertising, the promotion and the aesthetic characteristics formulas. As a cosmetic formulator you will usually get a product brief from a marketer explaining exactly the type of product they want you to create. Marketing people are your internal "customers" and you need to make sure they are happy. Market Research This group interacts with consumers to find insights which lead to the development of new products or advertising claims. Marketing relies heavily on them for collecting data that supports the launch of new products. As a scientist you will rely on them to help provide direction for your formulation development work. Be careful, however, just because the word "Research" is in their department name, it doesn't mean that they are doing scientific research. The results from their research are highly subjective. Sales The Sales people are responsible for selling your products to resellers. They are often looked at as the most important group because they directly bring in money. They also have to do a fair amount of traveling and work all the time. They may call on you to do presentations at their sales meetings or even to develop products specifically for their customers. In their zeal to get things done quickly, the sales people will sometimes work outside the system and make requests that you probably shouldn't fulfill. Of course, it's good to make friends with the Sales department as they are often the most powerful group in the company. Help them whenever you can. Packaging These are the people that help design and source new and alternative packaging. You will have to interact with them to ensure that the formula you develop is appropriate for the package they want to use. Note that in some companies the Packaging department is part of R&D. Purchasing The Purchasing group is responsible for negotiating with sales people and getting the best prices for raw materials, packaging and other services. They can be helpful for you when developing formulas to ensure that you are meeting cost constraints. They will also help guide you to find significant cost savings by suggesting alternative materials at lower prices. Regulatory This department is sometimes part of R&D or other times part of the Legal department. These are the people who are supposed to keep up with world...

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On today's program we have an interview with Ron Robinson of Beautystat. com. He has created one of the largest portals for beauty information on the web and he stated his career out as a cosmetic chemist. We're also going to talk about a couple of science stories in the news and answer some of the most common career questions. Ron Robinson Interview begins at 13:00 Cosmetic Science news Animal testing is in the news. According to an article in Cosmetics Design-Europe, the European Commission who reports to the European Parliament has said that it will not be possible to meet the impending 2013 deadline for the banning of all animal testing. In light of this fact, they are still looking at alternative scenarios which means there might be a delay in the outright ban of animal testing of cosmetic products. The final decision will be announced at the end of this year. Currently, there are alternative methods for a variety of things that are normally determined with animal testing. These include, tests for the identification of corrosive substances, skin irritants, severe eye irratants, skin phototoxicty and skin penetration. The EC says these alternatives are validated enough for ensuring the safety of cosmetic products. There are just a few more gaps that need to be filled in before a complete ban on the marketing of any cosmetic product that uses ingredients that have been animal tested after March 2009. This is definitely a thing that a cosmetic chemist needs to keep an eye on. You will not be able to sell your products in Europe if you use any ingredient that has been animal tested since 2009. So much for all those new raw materials that have been launched in the last 2 years. I really don't know what cosmetic raw material suppliers are going to do. Until animal testing alternatives can completely replace current tests, there will be no new raw materials used in cosmetics in Europe. I wonder if anyone will notice. ------------------ Sunscreen from a pill? Scientists from Kings College London are testing a new type of sunscreen that requires you to swallow it to get the benefits. They found a coral-derived compound that is an efficient screen against UV rays. According to the team, the research could eventually lead to the development of a pill that you eat to get long lasting sun protection. Eventually, they will have to figure out the molecular structure of the compounds and also a way to make them in the laboratory if the product is ever to be launched on a large scale. The reason they believe it could work in pill form is because fish that live around the coral reefs where they discovered the compound, also benefit from the UV sun protection. This is interesting for a couple of reasons. First, cosmetic chemists may now (or in the future) be competing with food chemists for the development of sunscreens. I could see people just taking this pill rather...

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Click here for a complete list of the the Cosmetic Formulation Basics series. Since skin care represents the largest market in cosmetics and oil soluble ingredients are often the best performing skin materials, it's helpful to learn to make emulsions. We can't teach you that in this short post, but we can give you the basics behind skin lotions. How a skin lotions work A skin lotion is a pseudo-stable mixture of oils and water. The oils are used to provide moisturization to skin. This can happen in a variety of ways including changing the feel, attracting water to the skin, and blocking water from escaping the skin. When put on the skin, lotions interact with skin proteins and immediately soothe dry feeling hands. Over time, the occlusive agents in the lotion prevent water from leaving the skin which helps build moisture in the surface. This additional moisture ultimately mitigates the problems associated with dry skin. Skin lotion ingredients The primary ingredient that make lotion include both water soluble ingredients and oil soluble ingredients. To hold them together requires an emulsification system. Moisturizing ingredients The most common moisturizing ingredients are occlusive agents which create a barrier that blocks water from escaping the skin. Ingredients like Petrolatum, Mineral Oil and Dimethicone can all be used as occlusive agents. Humectants, which are ingredients that attract water, are also added to lotions. Glycerin is the most commonly used humectant. Finally, emollients are added to improve the feel of the lotion on the skin. They can reduce the tackiness and greasiness caused by the other moisturizing ingredients. Common emollients include coconut oil, cetyl esters, and certain silicones. Other ingredients In addition to the moisturizers, skin lotions must also contain emulsifiers that can help combine the oil materials with the water. Glyceryl Stearate and Stearic Acid are commonly used. Other ingredients such as thickeners help keep the formula stable and make it more appealing to use. Raw materials such as fragrance, preservative, and colorants are also included to make a well-rounded formulation. Here is a typical lotion formula. Click on image to enlarge it.

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The Society of Cosmetic Chemists is probably the best organization for any cosmetic chemist to join. It connects you with cosmetic chemists around your area, around the country and even around the world. There are scientific conferences, a bimonthly journal of cosmetic science (peer reviewed research) and a host of chapter events every month. Also, if you are looking for a job there are often jobs posted in the various SCC chapter newsletters. SCC Chapters around the country Here is a list of all the chapters for the SCC around the country including 2 in Canada. Here is a list of all the website included on the map. California Chapter Carolina Chapter Connecticut Chapter Florida Chapter Intermountain West Chapter Lake Erie Chapter Long Island Chapter Michigan Chapter Mid-Atlantic Chapter Midwest Chapter New England Chapter New York Chapter Ohio Valley Chapter Ontario Chapter Quebec Chapter Southeast Chapter Southwest Chapter St. Louis Chapter Twin Cities Chapter National Chapter Maybe in a future post we'll put a map of the entire world and connect to all the IFSCC websites.

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You should be familiar with all the website dedicated to cosmetic science such as the various industry magazine websites, the regulatory websites, and the cosmetic chemistry blogs. We've previously written about all of them. However, to break out from the crowd to develop really innovative ideas, you'll need to keep tabs on what is going on in other areas of science. There are some great websites to help you do that. Here are 7 of our favorite, non-cosmetic science focused websites that will be useful to cosmetic chemists. Discoverybuzz. com - Here is a website which will keep you updated on the latest, coolest discoveries throughout the world of science. Most relevant are the Biology and Chemistry categories. Discover Magazine - Some of the best online writing about science. All categories are covered but the Health & Medicine articles as well as the Biology and Chemistry ones are most applicable to cosmetic science. Eureaklert - One of the best aggregators of scientific news releases from all over the world. Every science topic is covered and you get the latest news. A great place for new ideas. The Naked Scientist - They do an excellent, entertaining podcast but they also publish a number of articles about general science topics. Check out the biology, chemistry, nature and medicine categories for new ideas. The Why Files - An interesting application of science to the news. This site isn't specifically focused on chemistry or biology but it provides an interesting look at how science is applied to every day news stories. Science Daily - Another aggregator of science news releases. This one is organized a bit better than Eurekalert but covers many of the same topics. Excellent source for new news. Wired Science - Really interesting general science topics. Often you'll find something that can inspire a new idea in your cosmetic formulation efforts. Do you have any websites that were particularly helpful to you? Leave your comment below.

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As a cosmetic chemist, it is always good to keep an eye out on developments in other fields of science. I found this article about advancements in skin regrowing technology interesting and pondered how it might affect skin care of the future. Spray on skin According to the article, scientists have been able to take a small scraping of cells from a patient and disperse the cells in a solution of trypsin. When the solution is sprayed back on the burn site the melanocytes and basal stem cells take hold and start dividing and growing. In less than a week, healthy skin has replaced damaged skin. Cosmetic connection This is a great advancement for medicine and I look forward to following the developments of the clinical trials that are going to take place. But it also could be an intriguing new way to treat aging and damaged skin. I can imagine a future in which dermatologists take people's own skin stem cells and spray them more evenly onto aged skin improving the look of fine lines, wrinkles, and age spots. Is this skin care of the future? Probably not for a decade or more but this certainly does point to a new direction in the development of skin care treatments.

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Show Notes: Desiree Mattox interview Desiree Mattox is the owner and operator of Envie Bath and Body Read her blog: The Glam Laboratory Follow her on Twitter: envielabs Cosmetic News AAD: broad-spectrum sunscreen important, antioxidants could be the future A new study by the AAD (American Academy of Dermatology) has further emphasized how important it is to use a broad-spectrum sunscreen to protect skin against cancer and the aging effects of the sun. They even say that adding antioxidants to formulas could be a key tactic in the future. In research published in the latest issue of the Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology, scientists say that antioxidants could help turn passive UV absorbing or reflecting sunscreens into active protectors. Researcher Dr. Steven Wang says that sunscreens with UVA protection reduces the total amount of free radicals generated in the skin. In the past people were more concerned with blocking UVB rays because these are the ones that cause sunburns. It is only recently that UVA has become a big concern. Dr. Wang also cautioned that while supplementing sunscreens with antioxidants could boost the body's natural defense against UVA damage, it is difficult to measure the effectiveness of antioxidants in topical products. This will be one of the main challenges for cosmetic formulators. In the US, new FDA sunscreen rules will make it mandatory for manufacturers who make broad-spectrum claims about sunscreens to follow specific tests that prove protection against both UVA and UVB rays. This is going to mean that a lot of sunscreens will have to be reformulated. Good news for sunscreen cosmetic chemists. Cell-based alternative to animal testing found to detect allergies This is interesting news for cosmetic chemists who are concerned about animal testing. Researchers in Sweden report finding a cell-based alternative to animal testing that can detect allergic reaction and the strength of response to certain cosmetics. They use laboratory grown human cells to classify chemicals as sensitizing or non-sensitizing. They also are able to predict the strength of the allergic response. The research can be found in the latest issue of BMC Genomics. They found 200 genes in their human cell culture line that could discriminate between sensitizing and non-sensitizing chemicals. This data correlated with known data about cosmetic chemicals. Of course, more work has to be done to verify the procedure but it is promising. In the EU, they banned animal testing for new cosmetic products and ingredients in 2009 so currently there is no approved way to demonstrate that a product will not result in allergies. This test might help change that. This does demonstrate one of the challenges you'll face as a cosmetic formulator. Often, regulators make rules that are ahead of scientific developments. Banning animal testing in 2009 seemed like a good idea when they proposed it but the officials figured we'd have alternatives by now. Unfortunately, we don't. Cosmetic chemists in Europe are now hampered and it is extremely difficult to develop innovative, new formulations. Ah, but this...

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When I first got into the cosmetic industry I worked on hair care products, specifically, shampoos. One of the things that I found fascinating about shampoos was that if you added salt to them they would get thicker. I later found that if you added too much they get thinner. It turns out there is a range of salt concentrations at which a shampoo formula will get thicker or thinner. We call this the Salt Curve and it is an important thing to know because it can help save many production batches. Salt Curve and Shampoos To understand why salt affects the viscosity of a shampoo (or body wash) you have to first realize that shampoos are mixtures of surfactants that arrange themselves in tiny structures called micelles. The viscosity of the shampoo solution depends on the size and packing structure of these micelles. Since shampoos are typically made from anionic surfactants the outer surface has a specific charge density. This will affect the way that the micelles can pack together. A higher charge density will cause the micelles to repel and result in a thinner solution. The sodium ions from the salt lower the charge density of the micelle surface. This makes them more able to pack closer together and creates a thicker solution. This is why salt thickening is really only affective with anionic-based or anionic/nonionic-based shampoos. Micelles and salt While salt can help increase the viscosity of a shampoo system, it works differently in different formulas. Some systems will be highly tolerant of salt while others get thin as water with just a small increase in salt concentration. This is because the size of the micelles is dependent on a number of factors including Concentration of surfactants Type of surfactants Ratio of surfactants Temperature Charge density The way salt reduces the charge density is that it pushes the dissociation equilibrium of the surfactant to the left. As an example, consider this dissociation equation for Sodium Lauryl Sulfate. C12SO4Na = C12SO4- + Na+ More sodium ions push the equilibrium to the associated state. This drops the micelle charge density and the size increases. This in turn causes more micelle agglomeration which can ultimately lead to lammellar structures which can form a gel. Creating a salt curve When formulating an anionic cleansing system, it is useful to create a salt curve so when your manufacturing people present you with a product that is too thin, you'll know exactly how much salt they should add to get the right viscosity. Here's how you do it. 1. Make a 500 g batch of shampoo (or body wash) and leave out the salt. 2. Split the batch into ten 50g samples. 3. Add salt levels in the following increments. (0. 2%, 0. 4%, 0. 6%, 0. 8%, 1%, 1. 2%, 1. 4%, 1. 6%, 1. 8%, 2%) 4. Record viscosity & plot viscosity versus concentration. Most systems should not tolerate much more than 2% salt levels. Based on the results you can...

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Are you stumped for new cosmetic product ideas? Think that everything has already been invented? Well, it hasn't. Take a look at the Cosmetic Product Idea Pool and see for yourself. What is the Idea Pool? Over the course of my career I've had a number of ideas that I've captured on post-its, strips of paper, in spreadsheets and pretty much anywhere else I think to write something down. Some of these ideas may be great or they may be rubbish. I don't know. They don't exist yet. But I believe that ideas themselves are worthless. Anybody can come up with an idea. It's what you do with the idea that is important! Ideas for free It's for this reason we have created the cosmetic product idea pool. This is just a simple forum in which people write ideas of cosmetic or personal care products that they want to see invented. Any idea can work. Just take a look at the idea pool and see the ideas that are there. We encourage everyone to sign up so you can post comments on ideas and post your own ideas. Why give away ideas? This is a great question! We give away these ideas because it's unlikely that we will ever have enough time to actually make them happen. But that doesn't mean that they are not good ideas. If you have passion for one of these ideas, feel free to run with it. Take it! Make it big! ! Be successful. Make lots of money. The only thing we ask is that you contribute ideas that you have too. So, if you want to participate in the cosmetic science idea pool, just click here and sign up. Thanks Perry, 44

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Since cosmetics are chemicals that get applied to people’s bodies, governments from around the world strive to ensure they are safe. It’s a laudable goal, but a challenging one to implement since there is no universal standard for what is “safe”. The most difficult thing about cosmetic regulations for cosmetic scientists is that few people know definitive answers about the rules. They are almost always open to interpretation so your actions will depend more on what your company regulatory expert thinks than on what the regulating agency thinks. Unfortunately, most regulatory departments are set up to tell you what you can’t do, rather than help you figure out what you can do. The best way to combat this regulatory obstacle is to find the answers yourself. To that end, here are 5 key websites that will help you find regulatory information about cosmetics. Cosmetic Regulation Websites 1. FDA Cosmetic Info - Everything you need to know about the rules governing the sale of cosmetics in the United States is here. Some say the cosmetic industry in the US is not regulated but it is, by the FDA. You can find information useful to both the consumer and cosmetic business owner. 2. European Commission - In the EU, cosmetics are regulated by a document called the Cosmetics Directive 76/768/EEC. At this website you can find the full-text version and also some important commentary on the implications of the rules. An excellent website for all things EU regulatory. 3. Health Canada - While it’s not as big a market as the US or EU, Canada is still a significant player in the cosmetic industry and their government wants to have their say. At this website you can find all the rules (current and proposed) that will govern how you can sell your products in Canada. 4.

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If you’re like me, you went through college and focused on learning & passing some of the toughest courses they had to offer. You didn’t give much thought to what you would be doing once you left college. Well, I was fortunate enough to stumble into the cosmetic industry. Certainly, there were other fields that need good scientists, but the cosmetic industry has a number of benefits that make it one of the best places for a scientist to work. The brain trust here at Chemists Corner pondered what we think is the best part of this job and came up with the following list. Why Become a Cosmetic Chemist You get to practically apply what you learned in chemistry — While most of what you learned in college won’t be applicable; the skills you developed in Organic lab will be incredibly helpful. As a cosmetic chemist you will spend some of your time actually applying your knowledge & not just working on theoretical problems. You love science and can express your creativity - Cosmetic science is as much an art as it is a science. You have to sharpen your creative skills to come up with new product ideas, new formulating approaches, and new ways to solve unique manufacturing problems. You get to be an inventor - Painters paint, sculptures sculpt, writers write and cosmetic chemists invent. Your “art” takes the form of a beauty product that is uniquely yours. If you’re good, you may develop a patentable invention or better yet, something that people the world over recognize and love. You get to make people happy - Consumers love their beauty products. It makes them feel better about themselves. You, as a cosmetic chemist, are responsible for this happiness. Chemistry majors who ended up in the oil industry aren’t so lucky. You don’t have to work with dangerous chemicals - The compounds used by a cosmetic chemist have to be gentle enough for consumer exposure. So, you won’t have to work with the kind of nasty chemicals that people in the pharmaceutical, oil, and sanitizer industries have to use. Cosmetic chemicals are (mostly) harmless. You are respected as the smartest people in your company - While you might not be the best paid workers at your company, you’ll certainly be looked at as the smartest. The business majors know how complicated chemistry can be and they respect people who know about it. Being respected for your brain is nice. You can make a difference in people’s lives - Cosmetic chemists help solve people’s problems in direct ways. Your work can literally change someone’s life. How cool is that? You get to create formulas - As a cosmetic chemist you get to learn how to make any beauty product and really any kind of formula you want. You can then create nearly anything you want. This gives you a sense of power and satisfaction. You get free product - I haven’t paid for hair care products since 1992. Why?...

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Looks like my old company has gotten themselves in a little trouble with a recent ad about their Tresemme Naturals product line. I fondly remember working on this line and also know that the formulas are really good. In fact, I still use Tresemme even though I don't get it for free any longer. The problem that they had was when they made the claim that the product "makes hair 10X stronger after just one use". This proved too much for the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) who is the regulatory body in the UK. According to the article, they received 3 complaints about the claim. Making hair stronger While I love the product, I always felt a little uncomfortable with these strengthening claims. No shampoo or conditioner system actually makes hair stronger. If you do a test where you take the hair and pull it apart with an instrument like the Diastron, then measure the amount of force required to break the hair, you'll see no significant increase in strength. But this isn't how companies who claim hair strengthening support their claims. What do hair strength claims really mean? In response to the ASA complaints, Alberto-Culver said that stronger meant that it makes hair better resistant to breakage and splitting. This is proven by using a robotic comb (a flogger) and counting the number of hairs that are broken after a given number of combing strokes. There is no doubt that they actually were able to support this claim. Although, when I was working on Tresemme we were only able to prove 4 times stronger. But this testing doesn't really prove that hair is made stronger. Shampoos & conditioners will not make hair stronger. At least none that are on the market today. The ASA agreed that this could be a method for supporting the claim, but they rejected the advertisement because they thought it was a little too misleading. Cosmetic chemists and claims In your career, you'll frequently be asked to come up with claims and tests that support those claims. The marketing people will continue to push the envelope and try to get you to support stronger and stronger claims. You have to continue to keep them honest and resist the temptation to please your marketing partners. Don't be an obstacle as it will be bad for your career but don't compromise your scientific integrity either.

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According to a recent report by the market research firm RNCOS, the nutricosmetics market is due to experience significant growth and will reach $4. 24 billion by 2017. If true, this will undoubtedly have a significant impact on cosmetic formulation efforts in the future. Beauty from within As a cosmetic chemist, the first thing you should know is what this trend is all about. Basically, it is the idea that what you eat can have a controllable impact on the condition of your skin. So companies have begun selling products that are supposed to improve the condition of your skin and hair from within. This includes products like Imedeen, Murad's Youth Builder, Kate Somerville anti-aging supplements, Borba Vitamin water, etc. This article is a pretty good recap of the beauty-from-within trend. Basically, it's beauty achieved by taking some pill. Effect on Cosmetic Chemists Now, supplements are not something that cosmetic chemists are charged to formulate. They fall more into the realm of pharmacists or food scientists. But since the claims are overlapping your marketing people will no doubt come to you and ask you to explain how these products are working. They'll also want you to add the active ingredients from these supplements into your products. Thankfully, these supplements usually just contain vitamins and plant extracts that have already been included in various cosmetics. It shouldn't be a problem. But as a cosmetic chemist, you should keep an eye on this market and be prepared to adopt some of the ingredients they are using to your own formulations. It could also be an excellent source for "new ideas" to give to your marketing folks. Do they work? Perhaps the most troubling thing to me about this trend is that there is very little (read almost nothing) that these supplements or "beauty within" products have any effect. People are so desperate to buy a pill that will improve their looks that they willingly shell out money for unproven remedies. Astonishingly enough, scientists are also checking their skepticism at the door and falling for some of these unproven claims. I'm not suggesting that I know these things don't work but as with all things, extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof. We certainly haven't been given extraordinary proof for the claims of these "beauty within" products. What do you think about the beauty from within trend? How will it affect your formulating efforts? And are you aware of any evidence that they work? Leave your comment below.

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Every cosmetic chemist should learn how to make a gel. It has a great look and consumers respond well to the product form. The most common type of gel in the cosmetic industry is hair styling gels so we'll explain how they work and how to make them. How a styling gel works A hair styling gel is designed to help hold hair in a fixed shape. It is a clear product that is smoothed through the hair, coating it, and setting up a rigid film that inhibits movement. A well-formulated gel will remain flexible when initially applied but will become stiff when it dries. Styling gel ingredients The primary ingredient that makes a styling gel hold the hair is a styling polymer. These polymers are typically based on vinyl monomers and have names like PVP (Polyvinyl Pyrolidone) or VP (Vinyl Pyrolidone). These polymers give good hold while still being water soluble enough to be easily washed out of the hair. The other ingredient that is critical to a styling gel is the thickening system. There are a number of cosmetic thickening agents that can be used but the most common for styling gels is Carbomer. Carbomer is an acrylic polymer that has an interesting characteristic. It is acidic when put into a water solution. When the polymer is neutralized with an ingredient like TEA, it causes cross-linking within the polymer which in turn creates the gel. It's really quite cool to see it happen. The rest of the ingredients in styling gels include colorants, solubilizers, solvents, emollients, spreading agents, preservatives, and colorants. While important, they have varying degrees of effect on the performance of the product. Click here for a complete list of the the Cosmetic Formulation Basics series.

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The Fall seems to be an important time for trade shows in the cosmetic industry. In New York there is the HBA coming up and around the world there is In-Cosmetics Asia. Here's an article I wrote for the in-cosmetics Asia website giving 7 reasons you can benefit from attending a trade show.

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This post was originally written for a consumer website but it is relevant to cosmetic chemists. As a cosmetic chemist who is responsible for formulating skin and hair care products, I often get the feeling that some people think chemists are trying to kill them. They must believe we are sociopaths, hell bent on using ingredients that will cause cancer just to increase the profits of the evil corporation who pay our salaries. Or perhaps they think we're powerless stooges manipulated into using toxins by said evil corporations. Either way, it's a bit depressing and wrong. No cosmetic chemist I know is trying to kill people. One of the most contentious type of ingredients used by cosmetic formulators are parabens. Some people believe that they are unnatural, toxic, carcinogenic, poisons that have no business being in cosmetics. These people are wrong. Why use parabens? Parabens are put in cosmetic products to prevent contamination from bacteria and other microorganisms. Without some kind of preservative, cosmetic and personal care products would be dangerous to use. Parabens have also been used for over 40 years and are deemed so safe that they are allowed for use as preservatives in food. There are no other preservatives that have been tested for safety more than parabens. This is why cosmetic chemists choose to use them. For many cosmetic formulations, there are no better alternatives to parabens. What is the problem with parabens? So where did the furor about parabens and cancer come from? In 2004, Dr Philippa Darbre at the University of Reading published a study in the Journal of Applied Toxicology that said her group tested 20 different human breast tumors and found parabens in all of them. Neither she nor anyone else could explain how they got there or why they were there. They also couldn’t say whether normal tissue had parabens. She suggested that this raised the possibility parabens could have something to do with the cancer, although in the paper they admit that there was no causal link. Since then, the study has been discredited. Should consumers be concerned? Since people are inundated with false fears about parabens, it is not surprising that some skepticism and fear remains. Governmental groups like the FDA have looked at the available data and concluded that parabens are safe for use in cosmetics. And outside the United States, the independent scientific body SCCP (Scientific Committee on Consumer Products) in the EU has also determined that parabens in cosmetics are safe. The consensus of the scientific community is that parabens use does not represent a significant risk to consumers. Living in fear If you are afraid of chemicals in your cosmetics, there is a simple solution. Stop using cosmetics. They are not necessary to live a healthy life. You won't look or smell as nice but you'll reduce your risk of chemical exposure from cosmetics to nothing. This won't make you measurably safer but it might make you feel better. Just know that the alternative preservatives...

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Last weekend I taught a class on ways cosmetic chemists can use the Internet to become more more productive. The class was created as an attempt to teach people ways to get just what they need from the Internet and to avoid wasting time being non-productive. I will put the entire course online at some point. However, here are some of the highlights. Automating Your Internet Experience The Internet is so full of information you can quickly become overwhelmed. The old method of visiting a bunch of websites every day is not efficient. A better method is to set up a good homepage and subscribe to websites that will produce information you want. You can subscribe to almost any regularly updated website through their RSS feed. Take a look at this video to get a sense of what RSS feeds are all about. We suggest that you use iGoogle as your homepage and Google Reader as your RSS reader. Google has so many great products that are easily integrated with each other. You can create an excellent web experience using them. And you can’t beat the price... Free. Key Websites There are a number of websites that are specifically geared towards the cosmetic industry. Here are just a few Innovadex. com - Site listing a number of raw materials relevant for cosmetic chemists. Hub site for a number of raw material suppliers. Also has a database of formulas. Free to sign up if you qualify. A great place to learn about the latest in cosmetic science. Scconline. org — The main site for the national Society of Cosmetic Chemists. Keep up with the latest news of the chapters and also get the entire Journal of the Society of Cosmetic Chemists right online. Personal Care Products Council - Find consumer information, regulatory news, etc. all relevant for the cosmetic chemist. FDA Cosmetic site- A wide range of articles concerning the FDA and its position on various topics like labeling, ingredients, and enforcement. Online Magazines Happi. com Cosmetic World GCI Magazine Cosmetics & Toiletries Skin and Allergy News Womens Wear Daily Allure Science News Sources Eurekalerts — The latest news release in all areas of science. Sciencedaily— Another news release site. Easier to search than Eurekalerts. Ways to Search While everyone is no doubt familiar with the Google search engine, there are a few others that you might find more useful. Here are just a few that are good for cosmetic chemists. Google — The biggest and best keyword research tool around. Simply Google - Lists all the different Google search options on one page. Chacha — Search engine where you can ask a specific question Kartoo — Search engine that gives a visual representation of your results Stumbleupon — Focused but random search engine that helps you find interesting new websites and ideas. Great source for generating new ideas. Pubmed — Search engine for science/health journal articles. Life Hacker List of 10 alternate search engines Social Networking Social Networking sites are...

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Consumers like to change the appearance of their nails and the most common way to do this is to use nail polish. What Nail Polish does Nail polish is a liquid solution applied to the fingernails or toe nails to change their appearance (usually colored) and to protect from chipping and breaking. The way nail polish works is that after it is evenly spread on the nails, the solvent evaporates and it creates a protective film that resists removal. A colorant or shine agent is also included to improve the nail look. How nail polish works Nail polish contains a variety of ingredients to produce a useful, colorful film. The primary ingredient is a film former such as nitrocellulose. This organic polymer forms a continuous, even coating on the nail. Nitrocellulose is used because it is particularly tough and wear resistant. Film modifiers are required to improve the adhesion of the nitrocellulose to the nail and to increase the gloss. The most common ingredient for this is toluene sulfonamide/formaldehyde resin (TSFR). Because of sensitization issues, chemists continue to look for alternatives. Plasticizers like dibutyl phthalate and camphor are used to improve the flexibility of the film. After the film creating and modifying ingredients, color additives are the next most important. These are typically insoluble pigments that won't stain the nail. Bismuth oxychloride and mica coated with titanium dioxide are frequently used. Finally, a solvent that can carry the formulation ingredients but will quickly evaporate is needed. Toluene used to be frequently used but regulations now limit its use. Alkyl ester and glycol ethers are now more common solvents. Below is an example of a typical nail polish formula. (Click to expand) Read more on nail polish from Chemical and Engineering News.

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While many areas of the economy of still mired in the recession, it looks the the cosmetic industry is finally shaking it off. After modest growth in 2010, the first quarter of 2011 has seen sales rise nearly 5%. That is the news out of a recent market research report put out by the SymphonyIRI group. On a day-to-day basis, this kind of news is not relevant to cosmetic chemists but if you are just starting out and looking to get into the industry, improved sales figures can only be a positive thing. Greater sales will equal an increase in hiring, so you will have many more options when looking for a job. Greater sales will also inspire companies to invest more in innovation and forward looking projects. This is another good thing for cosmetic chemists. There is nothing worse than being employed as a cosmetic formulator who has to focus on changing colors and fragrances of products rather than inventing new, superior performing formulations. Hopefully, this trend will continue.

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Articles like this bug me. "The Claim: A Sunscreen Chemical Can Have Toxic Side Effects" In this sound-bite, headline reading world, a person will casually see this in their reader or on the Internet and conclude that sunscreens are toxic. The fact is further supported in the first paragraph where the writer says "Sunscreen is supposed to protect skin. But some people suspect that a chemical in sunscreen, absorbed through the skin, may be even more hazardous than the sun’s rays. " The author then goes on to site a couple of small studies that some people find supports the headline. But if you read a little further down the article, you see a completely different story. According to the independent researchers at Memorial Sloan-Ketterin Cancer Center the research raising toxic concerns of Oxybenzone are unrealistic and that oxybenzone is safe for use at normal levels. They also looked at the data for the compound being tested on humans and found there were no safety concerns. I appreciate the fact that they end with the bottom line that "exposure to oxybenzone, through normal sunscreen use, is safe... " but what's with the "sunscreeens are toxic" spin? Ridiculous.

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One of the biggest challenges a formulator faces is creating products that are different than their competitors. Unfortunately, most cosmetic chemists have to do this using the same ingredients that everyone else can use and the public is not good at discerning subtle differences. This is why most cosmetic formulas end up relying on packaging, story, fragrance and color to stand out. Most cosmetic chemists find this unsatisfying. A strategy that still holds promise for allowing you to make your cosmetic formulations stand out is the creation of multifunctional cosmetics. While there is no single definition to what constitutes a multifunctional cosmetic, there are three aspects of it that can impact your formulation. Multifunctional Performance This is the most obvious type of multifunctional formulation. Essentially, you create a formula that will have multiple benefits during one application. This would include things like a 2-in-1 shampoo which combines both cleansing and conditioning in a single product. Antiperspirant/Deodorants are also technically multifunctional products as they combine both wetness protection and odor relief. This type of multifunctionality has also been applied to makeup, skin products, hair styling products, oral care and more. For some companies multifunctional products are their primary innovation strategy. Creating a list of different types of cosmetic products then randomly choosing two to mash-up into a single product is a great way to generate new product ideas Multifunctional Cosmetic Ingredients With the push to sustainability and reduction of compounds, multifunctional ingredients will play a more important role than ever in the cosmetic formulating business. Multifunctional ingredients are those which have dual purposes in a formula. For example, some fragrance ingredients will double as preservatives. Emulsifiers can both keep the formula stable while thickening the system. They can also have a significant effect on the feel of the end product. These type of ingredients can help formulators reduce chemical inventory, reduce formula complication, and improve ease of manufacture. They are also an excellent source of patents if you can find multifunctional ingredients. Multifunctional Applications When I worked at Alberto Culver we had a product called VO5 Hairdressing. The marketing department wanted to increase use up rates and thought that if they could find other applications for the product it would help. So, we discovered that you could use VO5 hairdressing for lots of things like removing scratches from wood, stopping squeaking doors, using it as lip balm, protecting from chaffing, etc. The idea is that your formulations may have been designed for one function but if you give it some thought you may be able to discover other functionality or applications for which the product might also work. Differentiating your formulations will continue to be a challenge all cosmetic formulators face. You can achieve some real differentiation if you apply some of these principles of multifunctionality.

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On today's show, we have an interview with Dennis Abbeduto. He has the unique perspective of working on both the supplier side of the cosmetic industry and on the finished goods manufacturer side. You'll hear what he thinks makes them different. This will be particularly interesting to people who are just breaking into the industry. With the consolidation of finished goods manufacturers more and more chemists are being pressed to work for raw material suppliers. We'll also talk about some cosmetic science stories in the news and the 8 different types of ingredients added to cosmetic formulas. Interview begins at 12:00 Cosmetic News FDA Releases Draft Guidance on Nanotechnolgy It looks like the FDA is getting ready to do something about nanotechnology. If you don't know nanotechnology refers to the use of nano-sized particles in formulations and consumer products. In cosmetics, they have been used in sunscreens and skin products. Many consumer groups don't think they are safe and they are calling for government to regulate their use. Of course, industry doesn't think there is a problem and the scientific evidence that has been collected thus far (at least related to sunscreens) supports that view. As the next step to regulation, the FDA has released a draft guidance on nanotechnology. In it they are attempting to discuss some of the characteristics that make something "nanotechnology" and they are giving consumer groups and industry a chance to weigh in with an opinion. The FDA first formed the Nanotechnology Task Force group to look at the emerging technology and how they might address safety issues. You can go to the FDA website to see the latest release. Now, if all goes as usual with the FDA you might be able to expect some draft guidelines in the next 10 years and 30 or 40 years from now some official regulation. At least this is how things have gone with the FDA Sunscreen monograph. It still hasn't been issued and it over 30 years since it first got started. As a cosmetic chemist dealing with government regulation can be challenging. ---------------- P&G pioneers the use of "Omics" in beauty products "Omics" is a combination of genomics (which is the study of gene expression), proteomics which is the study of proteins and their effect on gene activity, and metabolomics which is the study of biochemical processes in cells. Reportedly, they are using this technique to determine how compounds can affect over 9. 4 million gene changes and protein expressions just from one experiment. They say the approach has already shown that there is a difference in UV sensitivity between male and female skin. I do like that P&G really focuses on applying the latest in science. It would be great if this leads to the development of even more advanced skin care products. Of course, someone has to do something about cosmetic regulations. If any of these ingredients are found to interact with genes, proteins, and skin cell metabolism, they would no longer be...

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I tend to like speaking in front of crowds. I don't know why but when I was in high school I just loved speech class, especially the "Impromptu Speech. " Anyway, I'll talk in front of an audience almost any time I'm asked. Here is a talk I did for an event called Ignite Chicago. In it, you are allowed exactly 5 minutes and 20 slides that move automatically every 15 seconds. It's a challenge but fun.

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This was an excerpt from a talk I did on sustainability and the cosmetic industry. Everywhere you look around the cosmetic industry you hear about sustainability. This trend will no doubt continue and change the way a cosmetic chemist approaches formulation. While every company and chemist will be effected differently, there are a few general concepts that will be applicable to your future formulation efforts. Consumers and quality. The first thing to know is that no matter what the consumers tell you, most will not sacrifice quality for natural and sustainable products. Above all, people want products that work. I spent many hours behind two-way mirrors listening to feedback about natural products. People say they want natural, safe and sustainable products but they buy things that work. As a formulator you need to focus on creating products that work. Of course, I've found that most consumers have a difficult time telling the difference between formulas so even if your sustainable products don't work quite as well, that isn't a crucial problem. Consumers will not sacrifice quality for sustainability More difficult job. By adhering to sustainable principles you can make products that will work adequately enough for most people. In fact, most people will accept your product as long as it meets some minimum performance standard. But adhering to standards that prevent you from using non-sustainable ingredients (e. g. petroleum derived) you are handcuffing yourself and are doomed to make inferior performing products when compared to your equally competent, but unimpaired, competing cosmetic chemist. All things being equal, your formulas will be inferior to the best that can be made (at the moment). Fortunately, the thing about science is that all of this can change with a new discovery. There may be some natural, renewable, sustainable, affordable ingredient out there that moisturizes better than petrolatum but it hasn't been found yet. What is certain is that your job as a cosmetic formulator will be more difficult. Benefits to the cosmetic chemist. Of course, this isn't all bad for cosmetic scientists. In fact, there is a lot that is good about the sustainability and natural movement when it comes to cosmetic chemists. Job security. First, it bodes well for job security. You are undoubtedly going to have much more work to reformulate all your perfectly fine products to meet whatever sustainability guidelines your company is following. At a former company we expended a lot of effort to remove Lauramide DEA from all of our shampoo and body wash formulas. Half the lab was focused on just figuring out a solution to remove an ingredient that has never been shown to be harmful to anyone. Yet we did it just because there was enough bad press about DEAs that our company thought it made good business sense. And perhaps it did. It certainly meant a lot of work for the cosmetic chemists. But it also meant an interesting new challenge to solve. Unfortunately, it didn't provide any real new benefit to the consumers....

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Some years ago I co-edited a book about the different types of conditioning agents that are used by cosmetic chemists for hair and skin products. You can still get the book through (Conditioning Agents for Hair and Skin) and it still has a wealth of excellent information. There's even a chapter by the famous dermatological researcher Peter Elias. However, this is such basic information that I thought it would be helpful to have a general blog post on the topic of the book, conditioning agents for cosmetic products. Here are the 7 classes of conditioning agents used in cosmetic formulations. Occlusives The classic example of this type of ingredient is Petrolatum and in the book there is an entire chapter devoted to it. You'll find the evidence that when it comes to skin moisturization, few (if any) ingredients are better than petrolatum. The way occlusives work is that the produce a film on the skin that substantially blocks the evaporation of water from the skin surface. This causes water to build up in the stratum corneum and subsequently makes skin feel moisturized. Dimethicone is another ingredient that can be considered an occlusive. Both dimethicone and petrolatum are used as hair conditioners but they work more like emollients/oils for that application. Humectants Humectants are materials that can attract and bind water. The property is known as hygroscopicity. The humectants used in cosmetics are typically water soluble so they don't work so well for products that are rinsed off. In skin, they have the ability to rehydrate so work well in lotions. In hair, they can attract moisture so they are good for leave-in styling products. Examples include glycerin, propylene glycol, and sorbitol. Emollients & oils These ingredients are designed to lubricate biological surfaces and in this way they condition. There are a wide variety of these types of ingredients including triglycerides, natural oils, lanolin, and synthetic esters. They work best in skin products to change the feel of an applied product however, they can also be used to increase flexibility in hair. The downside is that they can weigh hair down and make it feel greasy. Proteins Proteins are a complicated polymer made up of a series of amino acid monomers. When present in living things, proteins can have complicated structures. But when used in cosmetic products, the proteins are typically denatured and have less complicated structures. At that point, it becomes more important what amino acids make up the protein than the specific sequence of the amino acids. Proteins conditions in the same way as humectants or as emollients depending on their water solubility and hygroscopicity. They are not a major conditioning agent and are used as secondary conditioners that support marketing stories. Silicones Silicones are ultimately derived from sand and are some of the best ingredients for providing slickness and shine. There are a wide variety of silicones including things like dimethicone, cyclomethicone, and amodimethicone. They work in the same way that emollients work in that they are a...

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I see this claim a lot. "cosmetic companies are only interested in profits" I call BS. Here are a few examples where the cosmetic industry is not doing things "just for profits" Sustainable cosmetic ingredients Sustainable sources are definitely not the cheapest ones. But that hasn't stopped some big cosmetic companies from doing something about it. For example SC Johnson going to sustainable palm oil sources only and Unilever is going to sustainable agricultural raw material sources by 2020 (but making big strides right now) Environmentally friendly packaging These are definitely not the least expensive types of bottles to use but P&G just made it's Pantene bottles green. This isn't going to do much for their profits. While the cosmetic companies are definitely interested in making a profit, the claim that this is all they are interested is just wrong.

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I saw this interesting approach to hair testing that TRI (Textile Research Institute) is doing this June 2011. They are offering the opportunity for any company to submit samples of shampoos and conditioners to be included in an extensive benchmarking study. The samples will be tested for speed of rinse, hair lubrication and detangling ability. The test methods were specially developed by TRI but likely are similar to the standard hair tress tests that involve the Diastron & Instron combing machines. These devices work by measuring the force required to pull a comb through a tress. The thing that makes this most notable is that it could be a significant savings for smaller companies. For example, while it would normally cost $27,680 for a single sample, it only costs $3100 in this group study. That's a pretty significant savings. Value of hair testing While this is an interesting study and a great opportunity to get some samples tested for smaller companies, I'm not sure they'll get a lot of actionable data. True it will be nice to see how formulas compare to market leaders but you'll need to do further testing if you want to make your product better. This can start to get really expensive. This is why you should develop some fairly reliable in-house testing method. It will allow you to see the effects of formulation modifications. The test offered by TRI is great for supporting claims but not so useful for giving you ideas about formulation directions. Still, at $3100 (or less) it is certainly worth it to see how your best formula stacks up to the market leaders.

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In this episode of the podcast we speak with Mark Fuller, the Technical Director at Microformulation Cosmetic Consulting, a firm dedicated to helping small entrepreneurs create their own cosmetic formulas. He has a degree in Pharmacy and has experience in OTC and prescription products as well as cosmetics. Our topic is How to Start your own cosmetic line. Interview begins at 12:30 Cosmetic News There were two future technologies that caught my eye this week. Both are skin care related and both could eventually revolutionize the way skin products work. Nature Technology and Aldevron manufacture genetic cosmetic In this story, the two companies announced the development of a plasmid DNA-based genetic cosmetic ingredient. The Gene Facelift plasmid uses the DNA of a growth factor that signals skin cells to make more collagen and divide faster. Apparently, this keratinocyte growth factor has been used in preclinical wound healing and has shown some skin re-growth in mouse and pig models. According to the company, the DNA plasmid is taken into the cells where it then gets replicated and produces the growth factor. This growth factor is naturally found in human body but production declines with age. They say, the result of using the product will be increased collagen, elastin and a thicker epidermis and dermis. They say, there is up to a tripling in skin thickness within 72 hours of a single treatment. Wow! What wasn't reported was how the plasmid will get put into the living skin cells. It seems you'll have to do more than just apply it to the surface. The other problem is that if this did work as declared it would be a drug and a little bit scary. I hope they do all the proper testing. Strangely, they say the cosmetic products using this technology will be out before the drug products. Guess they know that the plasmid won't actually make it through the skin barrier when delivered from a topical treatment so there isn't much worry. Still, this is an interesting technology and could signal skin care products of the future. Story 2 The next story is one about a a skin gun. It's a device that looks like a paint sprayer but instead of paint, it sprays skin cells from your own body. There is a skin gun video going around but you can read about an analysis of whether it is real here. Basically, when people get burned, some skin stem cells are taken from their body, grown up in a culture over the course of a day, put into the skin gun and sprayed onto the damaged skin. New skin grows back with limited scarring. The video is impressive. There hasn't been any peer reviewed research published on it yet so I'm not certain whether it will pan out, but it does provide an interesting new way that people can rejuvenate their skin without getting cosmetic surgery. Skin creams and lotions have really gotten to the point where they are as good...

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Ever wonder what kind of salary you might make as a cosmetic chemist? Well, the truth is things are highly dependent on your location, company, experience, and economic conditions. The average salary for a cosmetic chemist around the country is $67,000 per year. However, this list might give you a good idea of what you can expect in your area. We looked at a popular online career site and found the average salaries of cosmetic chemists around the United States. Here are some of the key cities and areas Cosmetic Chemist salaries by city 1. San Jose - $90,000 2. Philadelphia - $84,000 3. New York - $79,000 4. Detroit - $78,000 5. Twin cities - $77,000 6. Los Angeles - $75,000 7. San Diego - $75,000 8. Chicago - $74,000 9. Dallas - $69,000 10. Houston - $68,000 11. Cincinnati - $67,000 12. Phoenix - $64,000 13. Nashville - $64,000 14. Memphis - $62,000 15. San Antonio - $58,000 Do you want to know what the average cosmetic chemist salaries are in an area we didn't mention? Check out SimplyHired. com

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While there are a variety of cosmetic chemist jobs, the formulation chemist is the most interesting if you want to be an inventor and create products. Come up with new product ideas This is one of the most interesting parts of being a cosmetic chemist. You actually think of things that do not yet exist and imagine ways that you can make them happen. While it is interesting, it's also one of the hardest parts of the job. How do you imagine that which hasn't been created yet? It's tough. But there are things you can do. First, look for the things that bother you most in your grooming habits. Then ask your friends and family. Next, go to the internet and check out beauty product discussion forums. Get engaged in the conversation and see what people really want to know. The other angle is to look at your suppliers and see if they have some interesting new technology that could be turned into a clever product. These types of ideas are the most likely ones to be turned into patents so spend a lot of time coming up with new ones. Invent products that fit marketing concepts While your own ideas might be your favorite, the ones that marketing gives you will be the ones that you'll be required to spend the most time developing. In some ways this is easier because you have a target product and you just need to adapt technology to fit the claims. Try to inject something new in the formulas and resist the temptation to take existing formulas, change claims ingredients, and pass it off as a new product. Improve existing products New products are not always required. Sometimes you'll be required to take existing products and make them better. The key to making a formula better is to have a good set of tests for which you have specific scores that you need to beat. For example, the foam of a cleansing product should be tested and given a score. Then your task will be to try to exceed that score. For skin products, the test might be moisturization of a feel test. Without a set score on specific tests, you'll have a difficult time improving an existing product. Find cost savings Making things better is great but during tough economic times, your company is going to look to save money. This means you have to find a way to make your current cosmetic formula perform just as well at a much lower cost. Try doing knockout experiments to find cost savings. It's also possible that you can just water down your formula by a little bit and consumers will not notice. Solve production problems One of the only times a cosmetic chemist gets called in the middle of the night is when the production department has a problem with a batch. Usually, the viscosity or pH are out of spec on a formulation. You'll look at the batch sheet and everything...

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I like the TV show Top Chef. If you don't know it's a competition show in which cooks are given challenges and a time limit to create their best recipes. The reason I like it is because a cook and a formulation chemist are very similar. Both face the task of taking raw materials and converting them into something that pleases customers. Both have to consider texture, stability, color, odor, and appearance. Of course, there are some significant points of deviation. First, cooks primary focus is on what their formulas taste like. Cosmetic formulators are concerned more with how their product functions. The other point of deviation is the raw materials that are used. While there is a small amount of overlap, cosmetic chemists have significantly more options than a cook. Unfortunately, chemists are not able to go to their local Whole Foods to get their raw materials. For that, you'll need other sources. Cosmetic raw materials Your ability to get raw materials depends on the size of your company. If you work for a big cosmetic industry corporation, then you'll often have no problem getting free samples from large and mid-sized suppliers of chemicals. In fact, the only companies you might have a problem getting free samples from are small to tiny chemical suppliers. They are often underfunded and sampling may represent a significant cost to their business. Without a guarantee of future sales, these companies are often hesitant to give product away. To find sources of free samples, you'll want to consult one of the many cosmetic industry buyers guides. While there is no single source that lists all the raw material companies and the products they have available, there are a couple of sources that can get you started. Cosmetic Bench Reference — over 600 suppliers listed and >18000 raw materials Happi Buyers Guide — Limited selection but useful PCPC Buyers Guide — They list suppliers for over 3800 raw materials with international sourcing. SpecialChem4Cosmetics — The INCI directory is an excellent source of raw material information. ULProspector — You can order samples right from the website. Cosmetic trade show directories A little known source for cosmetic industry information and raw material suppliers is trade show listings. There are a couple of great cosmetic trade shows and they frequently put exhibitor information online complete with website and contact info. Here are a couple of the best. InCosmetics NYSCC Suppliers day Alternative cosmetic raw material sources But what if you do not work with one of the big guys or you work in an industry that isn't recognized in the cosmetic industry or you are at a university? Well, there are some options. Unfortunately, these sources rarely give free samples so you might have to put out some money to get the raw materials you want. The other problem is that they are not cosmetic industry specific so you have to sort through a lot of irrelevant compounds to find what you want. Signma - Aldrich chemical Chemexper....

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Click here for a complete list of the the Cosmetic Formulation Basics series. Lipstick Lipsticks are designed to improve the natural appearance of lips. They typically involve a color change but also increase shine and smooth out the appearance of wrinkles and folds on the lips. They are a solid stick product housed in a molded packaging. What lipsticks do When lipsticks are applied, a waxy product film is left behind on the lip surface. The color components of the lipstick block the natural surface color, changing it while the film components help keep the color attached to the lips. How lipsticks work Lipsticks are made from hydrophobic materials. When the solid formula is applied to the lip surface, friction melts it briefly and allows for transfer. The material cools and re-forms creating a film that sticks to the surface due to hydrophobic interactions. In addition to the hydrophobic base, color is another key ingredient in lipstick. The color reflects light of a certain wave length to give the impression of a new color on the surface. Silicones and oily materials are also added to reflect light and provide shine. The main ingredients in a lipstick include a solidifier, diluent oils and colorant. Typcial solidifiers include waxes such as Beeswax, Carnauba Wax or Candelilla wax. Diluent oils are used to help evenly disperse colorants. Examples include castor oil or jojoba esters. Finally, colorants are included in lipsticks including organic colorants such as Red 7 or inorganic colorants like Red Iron Oxide. A variety of other ingredients are added to lipstick formulas to modify the melting characteristics, the adhesion profile, stability and make production easier. Lipstick formula Here is a typical lipstick formula. Click on the image to enlarge

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I just read the news that my former company Alberto Culver was officially bought by one of the "big guys", Unilever. It has yet to be determined what this transaction will mean to the people who work at Alberto but undoubtedly there will be some changes. This could be getting a new boss, being asked to move, or being laid off. As a cosmetic chemist working in industry you have no control over these types of changes so here are some tips on how to always be prepared in the event that they happen. 7 Ways to be prepared 1. Keep your resume updated - I dreaded putting together a resume but it is the key calling card to let people know what you've done and what you are capable of doing. Read this resume article or hire a resume writing professional. It is a good idea to update your resume once a year. A perfect time is when your company is giving you your annual review. Just review all your accomplishments from the year and add it to your resume. Feel free to drop things that aren't relevant any longer. Incidentally, in some parts of the world they refer to a resume as a Curriculum Vitae (CV). 2. Develop your online personality - When HR companies are investigating you to determine whether they should interview or hire you, they are going to do an Internet search to learn things about you that you haven't necessarily told them. For this reason you need to know what is "out there" on the Internet and control it if it's unflattering. There are a couple of simple things you can do. First, Google yourself. Go to Google and type in your full name. See what kinds of things people have written about you. Next, look through your Facebook pages and create security settings that allow only a limited amount of information. It's not good for a potential employer to see pictures of your college day hijinks. In addition to learning what's written about you, you should also create online profiles in Linked-In, Twitter, and Facebook just so you can control what information about you is freely available on the Internet. 3. Go on occasional interviews- If you spend any time in the cosmetic industry, you'll be asked by headhunters (recruiters) if you are interested in potential jobs. Even if you are not interested, you should go on interviews. This helps keep your interview skills sharp and introduces you to new possibilities that you hadn't even considered. It also gives you an idea of what you are relatively worth in terms of salary / impact on the company. Is your company underpaying you? or overpaying you? Going on interviews will let you know. 4. Continue to learn- Often a corporation will put you on one product line and give you time to become an expert. This is great... for them. Of course, having an expertise is good for you too but don't pigeonhole yourself...

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I like the PCPC and believe that for the most part they do an excellent job of ensuring that our cosmetic products are safe and effective. The cosmetic industry is not interested in poisoning it's consumers and the PCPC helps prevent a waste of time and effort that the FDA would have to expend if it had to enforce more regulation. I also think the INCI is an excellent resource for all people interested in cosmetics. However, the PCPC is not perfect and the launch of their recent website FightGermsNow. com is a good reminder. The good The goal of the website is laudable. They aim to be the the official source on antibacterial hygiene products. This is great. Consumers, scientists, and regulators could use a site like this. I'm all for giving people information and fighting germs is certainly important. I also like the way they have a tab for the relevant regulations with links to the proper governmental agencies. Finally, I like the safety information they provide. No doubt, antibacterial products are safe to use (at least for the user). The bad After that, it goes downhill for me. They have a tab of 'Surveys' which lists people's attitudes about antibacterial products. This is fine enough but I don't exactly understand why it is useful. Perhaps regulators might find it interesting. But it seems to me to just be a measure of how well people are responding to the marketing efforts of companies that sell antibacterial soaps. It is also presented in a way that suggests that antibacterial soaps are good because the majority of people use them and find them useful. I have to say that whether people find them useful or not is relevant to whether they are actually useful. This is the kind of thing you would see in a marketing effort for antibacterial soap rather than in a scientific website about it. The ugly While the survey tab is just bad, the really ugly stuff is the things included under the “Facts” and “Science” tabs. These things are not Facts and the Science is not presented as Science. Let's look at the Facts and Science pages. One claim they make is that “Using personal cleaning products that contain an active antibacterial or antimicrobial ingredient helps to provide extra protection against germs that cause many common illnesses (e. g. skin infections, food poisoning, intestinal illnesses). ” I'm not sure there is good evidence for this. Certainly not good enough evidence to call it a fact. This is on the antibacterial soap page but then again on the Science page. ”Antibacterial hand washes have been shown to reduce the numbers of germs on the skin to a greater extent than washing with plain soap” I found this strange because I remember reading this report Antibacterial soap is not better than regular soap. Perhaps there was another study that countered the claims made by this study. What I appreciate about the FightGermsNow website is that they provide...

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In this episode of the podcast we speak with Gay Timmons, president of Oh Oh Organics and Chair of OASIS inc. Our topic is Organic cosmetic standards. Interview begins at 15:00 Cosmetic News Is the cosmetic industry becoming plant based? Cosmetics Business had an interesting editorial on the movement in the cosmetic business. I also noticed a lot of this at the InCosmetic event in Milan. Companies are more and more turning to plant based ingredients and renewable resources. Not only are these green ingredients renewable, they also presumably have a lower environmental footprint than petroleum-based products. However, diverting farm land to grow cosmetic ingredients raises both ethical and ecological questions. Is it ethical to supplant food production for cosmetics when the population is estimated to grow to over 9 billion people by 2050 and the amount of available farm land will decrease? This has been a concern for some of the bigger companies getting moving to the "natural" sourced ingredients. Big organizations like L'Oreal, P&G and Unliever have made commitments to sustainable sourcing. Walmart is also putting pressure on companies to become more sustainable. Sustainable sourcing just means sources that can be continually renewed. Right now farmland is not necessarily a problem but as the population grows, in the future it will be. It will certainly be interesting to see how the industry changes. There were 2 technologies that I saw as viable for sustainable and ethical raw material development. There is the concept of urban farming in which you use greenhouses and hydroponics to create vertical farmland. Then there is also bioreactors in which you reprogram bacteria to produce the raw materials you want from basic feedstocks. I don't think much will change as long as oil prices remain low and supply is plentiful. But more and more consumers are looking to "green" cosmetics so if you are just starting out in the industry, be sure to learn all you can about creating completely plant-based cosmetics. Story 2 State of the Natural Movement in Cosmetics GCI had an interesting article about the natural/organic market in their April issue. According to the story, Euromontior International collected data to show that smaller brands have a greater credibility when it comes to being perceived as natural/organic. Considering that large companies are trying to cash in on this trend, it just means it will be a bit harder for them. But that hasn't stopped the big guys from trying. P&G recently announced that it's Pantene bottles will now be created from environmentally friendly plant based resins. J&J has a new naturals line for children claimed to be made from 98% plant ingredients. And of course, the big guys have also bought up some of the smaller natural companies like Clorox buying Burt's Bees and Estee Lauder buying Aveda. It seems that the market still remains the domain of the smaller companies however. Companies like Yes To (as in Yes to Carrots) and Lush are experiencing the biggest growth rates. Consumers are thought...

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Click here for a complete list of the the Cosmetic Formulation Basics series. Body Wash Body wash is a product designed to remove dirt and odors from skin. They have taken the place of bar soap in many markets and typically require a wash cloth or poof for application. What body washes do Body wash is a liquid product that is applied to a wash cloth or poof which is then moved over the skin surface. As it is spread around it generates foam and helps lift dirt and oils off the skin surface. When rinsed away, the product takes dirt and oil with it leaving skin clean and feeling soft and smooth. How body wash works The functional ingredients in a body wash are detergents (surfactants). Generally, anionic surfactants are used. These ingredients are composed of molecules that have portions which are compatible with both oil and water. The oil loving (lipophilic) ends orient themselves with the oil particles while the water loving (hydrophilic) ends orient towards teh water. Oil particles are then surrounded by surfactant molecules and lifted off the surface where they can be rinsed away. Secondary surfactants are also used to impact the foam characteristics along with the viscosity of the formula. They can also make the formula less irritating. Examples of ingredients that make body washes work include Sodium Laureth Sulfate, Cocamidopropyl Betaine and Cocamide MEA Body wash formula Body washes are typically solutions and most often clear. They are slightly thickened liquids with a pH around 6-7. Other ingredients are included to impact the aesthetics of the product. Below is an example of a typical body wash formula. * *Source: http://www. happi. com/formulary/2008/11/#405 Click this link if you are interested in learning more about our cosmetic science training program.

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After a whirlwind couple months of traveling to China and Europe, I've finally had some time to dedicate to our cosmetic science website. We have a secret new training program in the works but before we get to that, we're launching a cosmetic science forum. One of the things I asked you about a couple months ago was whether you would be interested in a Cosmetic Science forum or not. The response was overwhelming in the affirmative! So, we finally took the plunge and put up the Cosmetic Science forum. You can check it out here. Cosmetic Science forum It's definitely a work in progress and we'll be making improvements over time, but it actually works and there are already discussions going on. Since this is new and we need some beta testers, you'll have the opportunity to sign up for FREE right now. In the future we may charge for new members to cover costs but right now, it is free to join. All you have to do is click on the following link and then sign up to join the forum. Cosmetic Science forum Once you've been approved you can start posting and interacting with the other cosmetic scientists on the forum. If you have any questions, take a look at the following short videos which explain the whole process. 1. Introduction to the forum - Explains how the forum works. 2. How to post to the forum - Explains how to add comments and start discussions. 3. How to modify your profile - Explains how to change your picture

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Click here for a complete list of the the Cosmetic Formulation Basics series. Rinse-out Hair Conditioners While shampoos represent the most common type of hair product, conditioners are a close second. They are designed to improve the look and feel of hair. What conditioners do Rinse-out conditioners are applied to the hair after shampooing. They are allowed to stay in the hair a short time (say 30 seconds to a couple of minutes) then rinsed. After being rinsed thoroughly, they make the hair easier to comb, frizz-free, soft feeling, reduce static charges, improve shine, and protect hair from future damage. How conditioners work Conditioners contain a variety of conditioning and moisturizing ingredients that are left behind on the hair after rinsing and affect the hair characteristics. This is a key concept in conditioning. For a hair conditioner to work, it has to be left behind on the surface. The primary conditioning agents include quaternized surfactants (quats), cationic polymers, silicones, emollients, and humectants. Quats (also known as cationic surfactants) and cationic polymers remain on the hair via electrostatic interactions. These ingredients are positively charged when placed in a solution of water. They are attracted to the negatively charged, damaged protein sites on the hair. This positive/negative interaction prevents them from being removed. On hair they coat the fibers and counteract the problem characteristics. Silicones and emollients rely on their hydrophobic nature to plate out on the hair. Conditioners are emulsions composed of water and these hydrophobic materials. They also contain emulsifiers which keep the oily materials suspended in solution. However, as the product becomes more dilute when put on hair and rinsed, the oily materials separate out and remain on the hair where they can counteract hair problems. Examples of ingredients that make conditioners work include Cetrimonium Chloride, Dimethicone, Polyquaternium-10, Meadowfoam Seed Oil Below is an example of a typical hair conditioner formula. * *Source: http://www. happi. com/formulary/2005/02/ Click this link if you are interested in learning more about our cosmetic science training program.

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In this episode of the podcast we speak with Eric Abrutyn, cosmetic industry consultant and owner of TPC2 Advisor. He has nearly 40 years experience in cosmetic formulating and raw materials. Interview begins at 14:40 Cosmetic News The first article that caught my eye was a report by the Nanodermatology Society that released a position statement on the safety of nanotechnology in sunscreens. According to them, the data shows that nanoparticles in sunscreens are safe. Titanium dioxide and zinc oxide have been used as sunscreen ingredients for years and some time ago, nanotechnology was applied to them. Nanotechnology is just the process of making the particles less than 100 nm. This made the sunscreens feel better and allowed them to be clear so you wouldn't have a white chalky look on your skin. NDS, a physician-led organization dedicated to the scientific and medical aspects of nanotechnology and dermatology, claims that sunscreens with these nanomaterials offer superior UV protection when compared to conventional formulations. However, various organizations and regulatory bodies have raised concerns about the safety of using nanoparticles in cosmetic products. They worry that nano-sized particles will have some unanticipated reactions that might make them dangerous for people to use. In particular, the worry is that they will penetrate and build-up in the body. Dr. Adam Friedman vice-president of the NDS said in a statement that the data it has found indicates that nanotechnology in sunscreens is safe. This is good news for cosmetic chemists who are continually looking for ways to improve on the feel and substantivity of sunscreens and cosmetics. Unfortunately, I doubt that this will quell the concern by people who are afraid of any new technology. Nanotechnology still has some hurdles to clear before it is accepted by consumers and advocacy groups, but this is a step in the right direction for people who want to realize the benefits of nanotechnology. Story 2 FDA issues warning letter to eyelash growth companies One issue that I have followed for a number of years is the proliferation of eyelash growth products. I first learned of them a few years back when Jan Marini had a product that was extremely popular (and expensive). I was skeptical that it worked after all, the product said that it grew hair. It seems anything that can grow hair would be huge and I didn't know why I had never heard of it being applied to people's heads. Upon further investigation, I learned that the product was originally a glaucoma medicine and longer eyelashes was a noticed side effect. Jan Marini went ahead and launched a product as a cosmetic. Unfortunately, they didn't realize that a product that could actually grow hair isn't a cosmetic in the United States, it is a drug. Eventually, they got their product impounded by the FDA for it being a mislabeled drug and they stopped producing that product. They reformulated with a different active but it didn't work the same. Latisse was eventually launched by a pharmaceutical...

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As a beginning cosmetic formulator you will most likely not be given the responsibility to create your own formula from scratch. More likely, you will inherit a formula from a previous chemist and be asked to modify it in some way. It is just more efficient for cosmetic manufacturers to make slight modifications on existing formulas rather than create completely new ones for new products. So when you get the formula you'll see all these ingredients in there and have to guess at why they were added. It turns out there are only a few reasons that cosmetic raw materials are added. Learn them and it will help you figure out your formulas faster. Functional The functional ingredients are the ones that actually make the cosmetic product work. These would include the detergents, conditioning agents, moisturizers, colorants in make-ups, and any other active ingredient that provides a benefit to the consumer. Functional ingredients are the raison d'íªtre for cosmetic formulas. To make working products, every cosmetic must have at least one of these ingredients. Aesthetics Cosmetic raw materials are not pretty and many smell bad too. So, to make cosmetics more appealing we add ingredients that improve the aesthetics. These include cosmetic thickeners, fragrances, and colorants. Other things like pearlizing agents are also added to improve the opacity or visual appearance of the product. Experiential ingredients While aesthetic ingredients effect the way the formula looks and smells, experiential ingredients effect the way that the consumer interacts with the product. These ingredients are added to improve the feel of the product on skin, speed up the rinse-out time, or effect the quality of the foam. Technically, fragrance can also be considered an experiential ingredient. Experientials are not meant to affect the major function of the formula, however, they are used to make consumers like the product better. They are not essential but nearly all cosmetic formulas will have some type of experiential ingredient. Diluents The functional raw materials can rarely be used as a complete formula themselves. They just don't feel good, smell good, or spread evenly. They also can be irritating in a concentrated form and typically would lead to a formula that cost way too much. Therefore, the bulk of a cosmetic formula is a diluent which is inexpensive and compatible with the majority of the formula. For aqueous or emulsion based formulas, water is most commonly used. You can't beat the cost and safety record of water. For oil-based formulas, an ingredient like Mineral Oil might be used. Powder diluents are called fillers and would include an ingredient like Talc. Usually, the diluent is the first ingredient listed on the LOI because it is the most abundant. Diluents will be found in almost every cosmetic formula. Stabilizers Since many cosmetics are mixtures of water and oil, you need to add ingredients specifically to stabilize the formula. These would include emulsifiers and polymers that can help keep products from separating over time. Preservatives are also considered stabilizers as they...

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Last month I got to spend time at the InCosmetics event in Milan. It was a great experience and a lively show. Here are some of my observations about the event. Cosmetic Trade show layout If you have never been to a trade show, here's what you can expect. They are typically held in a large expo center where you have a huge room filled with booths from all the most important companies in the industry. Some of the booths are small and simple containing a few posters and a couple chairs. Other booths are elaborate constructions taking up large areas. They'll have entertainment, a bar, tables, and displays of the new raw materials being launched. It really can be an amazing site. InCosmetics was no different. There were over 500 companies from around the world (mostly Europe) and nearly 7000 visitors. At times it got pretty crowded and difficult to walk down some of the aisles. But there was an energy you could feel. You knew things were happening, business deals were being made. It was great. Diversity was much more prevalent at the InCosmetics show compared to shows in the United States. There were so many different languages being spoken that you often felt like being on the floor of a UN meeting. It certainly made me want to learn a new language. Sustainability in Cosmetics The theme of the show was sustainability. This is a big buzzword with cosmetic raw material companies so it's not surprising that almost 80% of all booths had some sort of sustainability theme. There were fair trade Aloe companies and sustainable Palm Oil displays. There were plant based emulsifiers, non-paraben preservatives, and even plant derived stem cells. An interesting collection, but I was a bit disappointed that there weren't more ingredients to provide new benefits to consumers. The focus on sustainability has really derailed the development of new consumer benefits. Does a beauty product user ultimate care about whether their shampoo uses fair-trade, coconut based surfactants or not? Not really. They are more concerned about whether it cleans their hair. Other cosmetic information In addition to the booths of chemical companies, trade shows usually have some sort of educational component to the event. InCosmetics had a variety of talks on sustainability, branding, new raw material technology and even a discussion on new formula optimization software by Johann Wiechers. These educational talks are yet another benefit to going to a trade show like inCosmetics. Cosmetic Science Training I spent much of my time at the Allured Publishing booth explaining to people about the Complete Cosmetic Chemist training program. We had a good crowd and everyone was friendly and attentive. I only regret that I didn't do a little juggling but I didn't want to undermine my credibility as a serious scientist. Lol. Incidentally, you can still get in on the cosmetic science training program. Just click the link. Upcoming cosmetic trade shows There are a few trade shows coming up and perhaps in...

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One of the goals of Chemists Corner is to help people who are curious about the cosmetic industry learn how they could start a career in cosmetics. That naturally attracts a number of questions which we have usually responded to via email. However, other people likely have similar questions so we're going to edit and publish those questions and answers about cosmetic science careers here. What kind of degree should I get? I really enjoy Chemistry but I'm not sure I would like to do it for a living for the rest of my life. What I really am interested in is going into cosmetic sales. Would a Chemistry degree be a good way to get into Cosmetic Sales? Or do most sales employees you know start with a business degree? Answer: If sales is what you really want to do, you'd probably be best served by getting a business degree first with a minor in Chemistry. However, lots of cosmetic industry sales people start out in the lab (with chemistry degrees), then get an MBA and switch to sales. What should my area of concentration be? I have decided to major in Polymer and Color Chemistry, the only thing is I do not know what concentration I should chose. There is ACS certified, Science and Operations, and Medical. I would like to concentrate in Science and Operations and attend grad school for Cosmetic Science. My question is, are my chances still good for getting into grad school with regular physics and calculus courses versus more advanced? Answer: I think that you would be fine following the Science and Operations route. If you really want to be a cosmetic chemist, you will not need to know as much of the math behind things. It is more important to know the characteristics of the chemicals that you are mixing together. What can you expect when starting a cosmetic science career? Hi i'm going to study Chemistry at University in the UK , at the end of this year and have a lot of questions. What is the average salary? (although money isn't my only target it is significant)Do you get a chance to meet people like you would if you were working as a pharmacist? What is the most important factor for loving your job? Do you ever get the feeling that you could do more with your skills? How hard is it to get a job with a big company e. g. Estee Lauder? Answers: A. In the US, the average salary for a starting cosmetic chemist is ~$35,000 per year. I don't know what that would be in pounds but you get the idea. B. You don't get much interaction with the general public but you certainly get to meet people who work in the cosmetic industry. C. Loving my job involves doing something I'm interested in, feeling like I can make a difference, and making people happy. Cosmetic chemistry satisfies all those. D. I certainly did think I...

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This is a guest post by Dene Godfrey. He was a recent guest on the Chemists Corner podcast and always has more to say about cosmetic formulation. WHY ORGANIC? I understand the concept of “organic” farming (although I don’t especially approve of the hijacking of the word “organic”, but language evolves, so who am I to argue? ), and I understand the desire of people who make a lifestyle choice to eat only, or mainly, “organic” produce. This is food. It is grown under the required conditions to meet the approval of those who determine what constitutes organic food, and there is broad agreement on these requirements because the concept is based on some logic. Apart from the cooking aspect, there is very little modification required between what springs from the earth (or from the female animal, in the case of meat), and what lies on the plate to be eaten. Despite the absence of proof of any real health benefits from eating organic produce, I understand the concept. (Having said this, I am aware that there are those who maintain that ANY chemical change to natural materials means that they are no longer natural. So cooking is out, then, if you want to eat only natural foods! ) Organic Cosmetics I just don’t get “organic” cosmetics. I should, at this point, explain that I am not “anti-natural” or even “pro-synthetic”. I simply believe that cosmetic products should be effective and safe, irrespective of the origin of the ingredients. I understand the desire for “natural” products, but only as a lifestyle choice (NOT as being more safe), but I don’t understand what “organic” adds to this. Despite the many and varied definitions of “natural”, there is some logic in the concept, despite the technical difficulties of actually achieving 100% natural. There is certainly no inherent safety benefit between natural and organic. Illogical Organic Cosmetics Organic cosmetics seems an illogical concept to me. In order to have any real use in cosmetics, natural ingredients usually have to go through some stages of processing and, in some cases, chemical modification. After the organic ingredient has been processed, the difference between the organic and its natural equivalent is surely irrelevant, if indeed there was any difference before processing! In fact, I find the whole concept of organic cosmetics counter-intuitive. I think it reasonable to assume that most people who seek organic cosmetics are those who are more likely to believe the most passionately in protecting the environment and improving sustainability. Given that the yield of organic crops tends to be much less than “conventional” crops, more land is required to produce the same quantity of ingredient in organic farming, compared with conventional methods and, consequently, less land is available for food crops. Food prices are already affected by the huge land usage required to grow crops for bio-fuels — growing organic crops for cosmetic use exacerbates the situation (as an aside, this is also an argument against relying too heavily on natural ingredients...

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I learned lots of new things at the InCosmetics show in Milan last week but perhaps one of the most useful things I discovered was that you can get Cosmetics & Toiletries magazine FREE! I knew they had an e-newsletter sign-up but I didn't realize you could get the entire magazine for no cost. This is a great deal and one that every cosmetic chemist should use. Here's how you do it. Cosmetics & Toiletries In addition, you can also get the entire GCI magazine for free. You can get this one by signing up here. GCI Magazine Both of these titles are put out by Allured Publishing who is also our partner with the Complete Cosmetic Chemist training program. I know when I was at the bench my desk would get piled high with magazines and it was really tough to keep up. Getting an online version is much more useful (searchable! ) and even more environmentally friendly. So if you want to stay up on the latest news and science in the cosmetic industry, go sign up. Incidentally, see this post we previously did on other cosmetic industry magazines which lists other ones you can get for free.

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I just returned from an interesting trip to China where I spoke at the PCHi trade show. There is a lot of interest in cosmetic science in China right now! Did you know that the per capita spend in China is only $10 per person per year! ? Talk about an emerging market! I'm pleased to tell you that while I was gone the web & video team were hard at work and we are ready to open the Complete Cosmetic Chemist training program. You can see more details here Complete Cosmetic Chemist training program If you are interested in learning how to become a cosmetic chemist, a cosmetic science expert, or even have interest in learning what is involved in launching your own line, this course could help you. Cosmetic science course features Take a look at these features we're including in the program. 1. 12-lesson online, self-paced course. Watch when you want 2. Covers hair products, skin products, color cosmetics & more 3. Provides market data, science, formulation, batching & testing 4. Review more than 50 formulas 5. Download all slides & formulas 6. Copy of the book Beginning Cosmetic Chemistry 7. In-lab formulation demonstrations 8. Members-only forum for interactive Q&A 9. Bonus articles from C&T and GCI 10. Quizzes & a certificate of completion when you're done! 11. Live call-in session to ask questions directly And of course, I'll also be available to answer email questions about anything related to cosmetic science. I look forward to working with you. Thanks Perry, 44 PS. If you are worried the course will be too technical take a look at this video about Naming Cosmetic Ingredients. This is good background information and gives you an idea of the level of detail we cover for each topic. Note: In the program, the video / audio quality will be much better. If you have any questions, just leave a comment below

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Hey everyone, I just wanted to let you know that I am making the trip out to one of the premiere cosmetic industry trade shows; In-Cosmetics. It is being held in Milan from March 29 - 31, 2011. I will be spending some time at the Allured booth introducing people to the relaunch of the Complete Cosmetic Chemist training program. If you want to learn more about the program, just take a look at this cosmetic training program introduction video. Why go to a cosmetic trade show? While it is going to be great just to go on a trip to Europe, there are a variety of reasons attending an industry trade show is a great idea. Here are just a few ideas off the top of my head. 1. New technologies - Not only will you find the latest raw materials, but you'll also get to see advances in testing devices, batching equipment, and even packing innovations. As a cosmetic chemist, these things can help revolutionize the way you do your job. Even if you don't buy the equipment, it may spark an idea of how you might do something different using your current lab set-up. 2. Networking - The cosmetic industry is a small and friendly one. In-Cosmetics is one of the largest trade shows and a good percentage of people in the industry go. And usually the people that go are people in positions to make buying and hiring decisions. If you are looking to sell your product or service, there is no better place to find people who would be most interested than a cosmetic industry trade show. 3. New ideas - One of my favorite things to do is just to walk around the trade show exhibits and let my mind wander to new ideas. I keep a notepad with me and record all my random thoughts. These have actually led to projects that went on to become real products. It's a forced ideation session that can keep you busy developing new products for months or years to come. I can't wait to check out the show and to be inspired. Are you going to the in-cosmetics show? Leave a comment below. Be sure to stop by the Allured booth and say hello.

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When people find out you are a cosmetic chemist, they instinctively begin asking questions. They assume that you are an expert who will give them the “real” answers to their burning beauty queries. This phenomena was what prompted me and a few of my cosmetic scientist friends to start the Beauty Brains. I'll write more about the Beauty Brains and the power of science blogging in the future, but in this post I want to discuss how to answer questions that you inevitably get from both consumers and non-scientists in your organization. Cosmetic Science experts Depending on how long you've been on the job, your expertise will undoubtedly be limited in some areas. Typically, you'll focus on one formulation area such as skin, hair or color cosmetics and get limited exposure outside your area. Also, you will not know too much about ingredients that you don't personally use. But non-scientists will expect you to know everything and as a cosmetic science “expert” you will also want to at least know more than the people asking the questions. This is why you need to make it a point to learn about areas beyond your area of focus. (The Complete Cosmetic Chemist is a great way to learn the basics of all types of cosmetics). You need to learn the important science, the raw materials, and the general types of formulas that are developed for each area. We cover some of this stuff on Chemists Corner but there are other resources. Learn Cosmetic Science Issues Consumers are bombarded from many areas with information that is exaggerated, inaccurate, or worse, downright lies. There are a variety of activist groups who want to cause mistrust in authorities and fear to gain power and drive donations. They don't let science get in the way of their beliefs. Additionally, there are cosmetic marketers who benefit from fear and misinformation that dissuades consumers from buying more popular brands created by bigger manufacturers. At one point in history, companies were saying that Proctor and Gamble was run by satanists. And, of course, there are also marketers who trick consumers into buying products by making promises on which they can't deliver. You as a scientists need to be the voice of unbiased reason. Do not fall for your own (or other company's) marketing BS. Keep an open mind and go where the science takes you. This brings us to the issues that consumers (and marketers) most frequently ask about. A. Cosmetic Ingredient safety B. Expensive versus inexpensive products C. What products work D. Ingredients that work E. How products work In the next section we'll look at each of these areas and give you places to find answers. Finding reliable answers A. Cosmetic Ingredient Safety. It seems some of the people most passionate about cosmetics are the ones that are convinced that cosmetic companies are run by evil capitalists and are driven by profits with no concern about poisoning their consumers with toxins and carcinogens. This attitude is best...

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As I sit here on an airplane to Beijing, it occurs to me that in my career as a cosmetic chemist I have traveled to numerous places. These include a number of cities in the USA such as New York, Los Angeles, Orlando, Santa Fe, and Washington DC. It also included international places like Toronto, Mexico City, London, and Berlin. While my experience may not be typical, most of the cosmetic chemists I worked with also did their fair share of traveling. As a formulator, you can expect to travel for the following reasons. Traveling cosmetic chemist 1. Focus groups — If you have an active market research department you will often be asked to attend consumer research at various places around the country. These can be long days but can be a good bonding opportunity with your business partners. 2. Conferences — To keep up on the latest science, you'll want to attend annual industry conferences. Additionally, you'll get the chance to network with others in the industry and learn about new opportunities. This typically requires traveling. 3. New product launch — As the formulation expert, you'll frequently be required to be on hand during the first production batch. This may be at your own plant, but often you'll have to travel. 4. Press events — As a cosmetic chemist, you are the product expert so you might be required to travel to meet with beauty magazine editors, PR firms, and other media companies. This can be fun but a little stressful as it's very different from a formulating job. 5. Brainstorming — On occasion, your company might fly the product development team to an off-site location and hold an intensive brainstorming session to develop new concepts. These are typically run by the marketing group. 6. Trade shows — To learn about the latest developments in raw materials, packaging, and new products in the cosmetic industry, there is no better place to go than to a trade show. The two biggest trade shows in the cosmetic industry is InCosmetics and the New York SCC Supplier's Day. Unless you live near the show you'll have to travel to get to them. 7. Off-site training — If your company is interested in maintaining a well-trained research & development team, they will send you to any number of the training courses available around the country (or world). The Society of Cosmetic Chemists frequently holds continuing education courses in New Jersey and throughout the United States. There are other groups that hold courses on chemistry, innovation, management, and other topics that will help you out in your job. This usually requires traveling. Cosmetic chemists do not travel as much as sales people but you should expect some trips during your cosmetic science career.

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On another discussion group someone asked how to determine the correct viscosity range and spindle for your formulas. Specifically, they wanted to know what parameters go into making a viscosity range and picking a spindle. First, see this post for a quick primer on fluid viscosity see this post we did and then look at what the viscometer manufacturer Brookfield has to say about what is viscosity. Viscosity factors to consider The key things to consider when picking a spindle and speed. 1. Target viscosity of the product. This is more dependent on the marketing of the product than the formulating. Body wash/shampoo have viscosity ranges from 5000 - 20,000 cps. But lotions, gels, and other products vary. If you haven't set a target viscosity find a competitive product that looks like what you want. 2. Middle of the range. Get spindle/speed combination that puts target viscosity at middle of the range. A Brookfield viscometer has a range from 0 to 100 (at least the old analog ones did) which was then multiplied by a factor depending on spindle & speed. Ideally, you want to use a spindle and speed that gives a reading of 50. 3. Use "drilling" viscometer for non-Newtonian fluids. Since some products get thinner as you apply a force (e. g. creams & gels) you need a movable viscometer so the reading is more reflective of the static product. Brookfield calls this type of viscometer a Heliopath. Typically, you use T-bar spindles for these products. Do you have any other tips for taking viscosity? Leave a comment below.

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One of the hardest parts of being a cosmetic chemist is coming up with new product ideas. Of course turning them into working new products is also challenging but we'll save that for another time. In this post I'll teach you a technique that I've used to generate some interesting new product ideas. Killer Questions I learned this approach by listening to a podcast called Killer Innovations. Phil Mckinney is the host and he explains how he helps come up with tech innovations at HP. It's really a great podcast and you should listen to it. One of the techniques he suggests is using the Killer Question approach. This is a brainstorming technique in which you ask a thought provoking question and try to come up with as many answers or product ideas to address the question. Here are a couple of examples. 1. If water was not allowed in your formula, how would you reformulate to reproduce what you are already selling? So, if you make shampoo and weren't allowed to use water, you might try some of the following A. Powdered shampoo B. Glycerin or PG based formula C. Multifunctional polymer based surfactant D. Concentrate that consumer dilutes with water E. Aerosol based shampoo that foams when it comes out F. Volatile oil based shampoo G. Solid shampoo like bar soap H. Hair cleansing wipes I. Oil absorbing / cleansing comb or brush J. Coat hair with self-cleaning film These are 10 quickly brainstormed ideas which could be developed into new shampoo formulations or products. You can do the same with any product type. Now, whether these ideas are worth doing or not is a different question. I would say they are certainly worth developing working prototypes but you would have to prioritize which ones to try first. Here are some more killer cosmetic questions. 2. If your customers were all color blind and couldn't sense fragrance, how would you differentiate your formulas? 3. If you could use three times the amount you currently spend on raw materials, how would you improve your formulas? 4. If your customers were only allowed to use 1 gallon of water for personal grooming, how would you change your formulas? 5. If you had to reduce the cost of your formulas by 80%, how would you do that? Brainstorming and idea generating is something that cosmetic chemists don't do enough. Then following up on your ideas is even more rare. To really make an impact on your company and this industry it is going to take more and better ideas. By using a technique like this, hopefully you can come up with that killer formulation that will revolutionize our sometimes stagnant industry.

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I saw this article in the Guardian about the delay the EU faces in their ban of animal testing of cosmetic products. For someone new in the cosmetic industry, the role of animal testing may be confusing. There are many brands out there that claim to be 'cruelty free' and that 'don't test on animals. ' It might make an aspiring cosmetic chemist wonder, why do some companies continue to test on animals? What kind of animal testing is done? If one company could stop testing on animals, why don't they all? Good questions. But before we answer, let's go over what animal testing has been used in the cosmetic industry. Cosmetic animal testing There are a number of animal tests that can be done on cosmetic formulas and ingredients. The primary tests include the following. 1. Draize test - This is a procedure used to determine dermal irritation. Animals used are albino rabbits who have much more sensitive skin than humans. Semiocclusive patches of the test material are placed on skin and readings are taken at 24 and 72 hours. The skin is then graded for erythema and edema. In the United States, this test is required by law for cosmetics and skin care products under the Federal Hazardous Substances Act. 2. Eye irritancy test - Tests what happens if the cosmetic gets into the eye. It involves albino rabbits again and compounds are put into the eyes. Evaluations take place at 24, 48, 72 hrs and up to 7 days. 3. Guinea Pig Maximization test - This test measures for the sensitizing potential of an ingredient and involves injecting the compound under the skin followed by topical application. I've never been too comfortable doing animal tests and as a cosmetic formulator, I never had to. Fortunately, it is unlikely that you will ever have to do any animal testing yourself. It is typically done by an outside testing laboratory. But governments still require cosmetic companies to demonstrate their products are safe and while they don't usually require animal testing, for some products, it is the only proof they accept. Thoughts on cosmetic animal testing I was once asked a series of questions about animal testing. Here is my perspective. 1. Do you think that animal testing for cosmetics should be banned? While I don’t like animal testing, as the original story shows there are currently no suitable alternatives for some types of tests. I don’t think animal testing should be banned until there are alternative tests that help prove products are safe. 2. Should animal testing be banned for cosmetics, but still be allowed for medicine? Animal testing is not something that anyone wants to do. Scientists feel the same affection for animals as everyone else. But until alternative tests are better developed, banning animal testing for either cosmetics or medicine seems unethical. Aren't human lives more important than animals? EU animal testing ban 3. Do you agree with the EU ban on animal testing? What will the...

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I saw this article about being innovative. In it they list 10 ways to be innovative. Not all of the original list of 10 apply but I'll list the ones that do. 1. Do you see opportunities the competition doesn't see? Every cosmetic chemist in the industry is brought the latest raw materials to try out. You might get a head start if you're at a big company but once Suppliers Day hits in May, everyone else knows the new stuff. How are your formulating ideas going to be different that other cosmetic chemists? 2. Do you have new ideas about where to look for new ideas? Most people don't even spend time coming up with new ideas. If you are not doing personal weekly brainstorming sessions, writing ideas down and finding new ones on the Internet (forums, blogs, etc) you are not keeping up. 3. Are you the most of anything? This is a great question to ask yourself. Are you the best formulator in any area? Do you make the best skin creams or hair products? If not, who is better than you and how can you jump ahead? 4. If your company went out of business tomorrow, who would miss you and why? This is a real possibility whenever you are not the owner. Is your company making much difference in the marketplace? Are you making much difference at your company? To have a satisfying career as a cosmetic chemist, you should be able to answer yes. 7. Do your people care more than the competition? If you care about the products that you formulate, you'll do a much better job of creating them. It's easy to work on a formula just enough to get the job done. It takes special dedication to make a formula better. 8. Are you getting the best contributions from the most people? Working alone does not always lead to the best products. Certainly, your initial ideas and prototypes should be done solo but once you get to the evaluation stage, you should bring in trusted advisers to help improve your formulas. 9. Are you consistent in your commitment to change? Technology always changes and you should be willing to try new things. We frequently had compounders change the order of addition in formulas and they occasionally led to faster processes. (Sometimes they led to stability problems but that's a different story). Be open to change or you'll go the way of the dinosaurs. 10. Are you learning as fast as the world is changing? Things are changing quickly in the world. Keep up on all the latest news as soon as it happens by becoming an internet savvy cosmetic chemist. If you don't do it, the kid who's in college right now will be running circles around you when she gets out.

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In this episode of the podcast we speak with Mark Richards from Alluralab. He is the CEO of a company that helps chemists and other entrepreneurs create their own cosmetic brands. Interview begins at 14:00 Cosmetic News Parabens safe to use in cosmetics, says European safety committee This was some big news out of Europe. The Scientific Committee on Consumer Safety (SCCS) which is the main regulatory body of the EU, has released its opinion that parabens are safe to use as cosmetics preservatives. They also indicated that levels of some of the compounds should be reduced. If you don't know, parabens are one of the most widely used preservatives in cosmetics. They have recently been the subject of attacks by consumer & chemical fearmongering groups who claim parabens have a disruptive effect on hormone systems. The SCCS recently examined the data on butl- and propyl parabens and found that there was insufficient data to characterize the effects on hormonal systems. They opted for a conservative use level of 0. 19 percent. This is a slight lowering from the 0. 4 percent level that was previously allowed. The new guidelines actually reflect what manufacturers were already using so from an industry standpoint, there is not much change. They also confirmed that manufacturers can continue to use methylparaben and ethylparaben at levels of 0. 4 and 0. 8 percent. Not all the parabens were positively judged. The SCCS said there wasn't enough data to say isopropyl-, isobutyl- and phenyl-parabens were safe to use. Of course, manufacturers don't use these ingredients so that's not much of a problem. This is good news for formulators. Now you'll have some support to continue to use a preservative that has been used safely for decades. Of course, this will not likely stop people from raising paraben concerns. Nor will it stop “all natural” folks from touting the dangers of parabens. To some people it is impossible to prove an ingredient is safe. To those people I ask, why use cosmetics at all? If people are really afraid of getting sick from cosmetics, they should not use them. They are not a requirement for a healthy life. Fortunately for cosmetic chemists, many people think they are a requirement for a happy life. Cosmetic Science 6 Steps to Create a Cosmetic Formula Formulating is one of the most enjoyable aspects of being a cosmetic chemist. This is when you get to blend all the cosmetic science you’ve learned with your creative inspirations. It’s how you can make your mark as a formulation chemist. The following 6 steps will help you take your ideas and convert them into functioning cosmetic products. Step 1 — Define your product Before you get started, you need to think about what you are going to make. Figure out what functions you want your product to achieve. Is it a cleansing product, a moisturizer, a coloring product, or maybe a combination of factors? Also think about the aesthetic characteristics like color, thickness, clarity,...

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A makeup chemist is a cosmetic chemist who focuses on creating color cosmetics. They face the same issues as personal care product formulators, but they need to know about slightly different ingredients. Here are the main categories of cosmetic raw materials that you need to know before you can be an expert makeup chemist. Makeup Colorants These are the ingredients that give your formulas color. In the United States, these ingredients are highly regulated by the FDA and there are only certain ones that are allowed. This is also true in the UK and Japan. Of all the cosmetic ingredients, colorants are the most highly regulated. You can see this FDA Cosmetics page for the basics about color additives and their use. But the regulatory stuff only helps so far. Here is some specific science information that will be helpful to makeup chemists. There are two primary types of colorants Inorganic (or Mineral) pigments and Organic pigments. Here's what you need to know. Inorganic Mineral pigments Inorganic pigments found naturally around the Earth are primarily composed of compounds from transition metals. Color is a result of the outer electrons that can absorb visible light and get promoted to a higher energy level. Here is a partial list of the more important inorganic colorants. Iron Oxides - These include the colors Red, Brown, Black and Yellow which can be blended to make most any shade. Chromium Oxide - This is a green color Ultramarines - These can give you a blue violet or pink color. Titanium Dioxide / Zinc Oxide - When you need a white pigment, these are the best. It also provides some UV protection. Inorganic pigments are generally more opaque and solvent resistant. They are also not as bright as organic pigments. Organic pigments These ingredients are organic molecules that have a chromophoric group like N=N, C=O, or C=S. They have different levels of solubility in various solvents. The primary groups include the following. AZO colorants - These are the basis for a number of Red and Yellow colors. Triarylmethane - This is the basis for Blue and Green colors Xanthenes - This material is a staining dye which can provide Red or Orange colors. Anthraquinone - A green colorant Natural Colorants - There are also a number of natural dyes that do not have the same regulatory restrictions as the Organic and Inorganic dyes. These include things like Cochineal (beetle shells), Caramel, Cartenoids, etc. The biggest problem with these types of dyes is that they have limited stability and can also exhibit strong odors. They provide a great challenge to the "natural" cosmetic formulator. Fillers Fillers ingredients (or filler pigments) have the primary job of extending the main pigments so you get the color and even coverage that you want. Makeup would be awful if it were blotchy and unnatural looking. Fillers can sometimes be in the formulas a higher percentage than the primary pigment. The main fillers to know include the following. Talc - A mineral...

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On this is the last day of the year and we just wanted to wish you a Happy New Year. We've got big things in store for this cosmetic science website in 2011. Thank you so much for following and participating. Cheers!

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On a few occasions we've been asked here at Chemists Corner about whether we know of any internship programs in the cosmetic industry. While many are not advertised, we searched our list of contacts and got the following leads. This is by no means all of the cosmetic science internships available but they were the ones we could find. Cosmetic Manufacturers Wyeth (Pfizer) Glaxo Smith Kline 3M Amway Avon Bristol-Myers Colgate-Palmolive Johnson & Johnson L'Oreal Procter & Gamble Company Revlon Unilever Estee Lauder Suppliers Akzo Nobel Dow Chemical National Starch PPG Industries Other options To be sure, this list is not complete and there may be many unadvertised cosmetic science positions that you can get if you know the right person. The biggest companies often have the most positions available so investigate the top twenty beauty industry companies as they might have unadvertised opportunities. Small, entrepreneurial companies also have intern positions available but they are much more difficult to find. Finally, see this website about finding internships for some basic advice like writing resumes, writing cover letters, and how to interview. Do you know of any cosmetic science internship opportunities that we didn't mention? Leave a comment below.

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We received an email from a student who was doing a report about becoming a cosmetic chemist and thought it would be a good idea to post the answers to these basic questions here. If you have ever considered becoming a cosmetic chemist, you'll find these questions and answers useful. 1. How did you get into cosmetic chemistry? I always liked science and when I went to college I studied Biology. When I got in my last year I switched to Chemistry and got my first job at a shampoo manufacturer. This was my first introduction to Cosmetic Chemistry & I thought it was lots of fun. 2. What classes do you need to take to prepare for a cosmetic chemist? The most applicable classes for cosmetic chemistry are the ones you take during college. a. General Chemistry b. Organic Chemistry Other classes that are helpful are Physical Chemistry, Analytical Chemistry, and Instrumental Analysis. 3. What type of degree is needed to be a cosmetic chemist? A BS in Chemistry is best but you can also get a Chemical Engineering degree or a Biology Degree. 4. What are the duties of a cosmetic chemist? This depends on what you do but range from formulating products, testing them, and being responsible for the regulatory information. See this post on things that a cosmetic chemist does on the job. 5. What are the responsibilities of a cosmetic chemist? Depends on the company. Some cosmetic chemists are solely responsible for formulating products. Other cosmetic chemists are responsible for everything from coming up with an idea, creating prototypes, testing prototypes, scaling up batches for production and quality control testing when it's done. 6. What is the starting salary for a cosmetic chemist? This will depend on where you get a job (what country and what part of the country) but you could expect a starting salary range between $30,000 and $40,000 per year. Do you have anything to add to these responses or do you have any other questions about being a cosmetic chemist? Leave a comment below.

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In this episode of the podcast we speak with cosmetic chemist Dene Godfrey about preservatives, the cosmetic industry in the UK and the Society of Cosmetic Scientists. The show also features cosmetic science news and a discussion about knockout experiments. Interview begins at 14:00 Cosmetic News More Research to be done on Formaldehyde According to a report by Cosmetics Design, the Cosmetic Ingredient Review panel (CIR) will be taking another look at Formaldehyde as used in cosmetics. This was prompted by complaints about a product called the Brazilian hair straightening system. The CIR is an industry sponsored, independent expert panel that is responsible for reviewing and assessing cosmetic ingredients and determining whether they are safe. It will specifically be looking at the ingredient as used in these hair smoothing systems. Last month, both Health Canada and the US Occupational Safety and Health Administration came out with reports that there was significantly more than 0. 2% formaldehyde in these products. . 2% is the maximum allowable limit when used as a preservative according to the CIR. The company who makes the product claims that they are using Methylene Glycol and not formaldehyde. They also say that the tests used by Health Canada and OSHA do not distinguish between the different chemicals. -------------- This is an interesting issue. When I first started in the cosmetic industry I worked on a hair conditioner that contained Formaldehyde as an ingredient. But according to experts, it really wasn't formaldehyde. Formaldehyde is a gas and when you put that ingredient in water it chemically reacts to form Methylene Glycol. The same is true of formaldehyde donor preservatives like DMDM Hydantoin and Imadazolidinyl Urea. As some would say, methylene glycol was not tested for safety so the limits on Formaldehyde shouldn't apply. Sounds reasonable but I'm not sure I would agree that the limits shouldn't still apply. When the CIR testing of formaldehyde was originally done, it was done on a liquid product. Presumably, methylene glycol. So any limit they came to originally, should apply to that compound. Of course, I'm not an expert in this area but it does make sense that there is more testing done. It will be interesting to see where the CIR comes out on this one. They are having a meeting in a couple of weeks so maybe there will be some news soon. In the meantime, the issue of Formaldehyde in the Brazilian hair straightening product will also be interesting to watch. There is a court case currently going on. I know the makers of the product say they don't use formaldehyde but I'm not sure this is exactly accurate. Sure they might not put formaldehyde in their products, but the chemical reaction that happens between the protein and the solution does involve formaldehyde creation & reaction. That's what makes it work. Stay tuned to see how this one turns out. How Nanosized particles may affect skin products The other story I wanted to talk about was this report from...

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It's happened to me on numerous occasions. I spend weeks testing different ingredients and improving the performance of my cosmetic formula. I get evidence from lab tests that demonstrate its superiority. I try it out myself in a blinded fashion and get to the point where I can always pick out my awesome, new formula. By all logical measures, I have successfully improved my formula. Unfortunately, the Halo Effect conspires to spoil my work. What is the Halo Effect? The Halo Effect is a psychological phenomena in which people come to erroneous conclusions about product features based on non-related factors. For example, if a consumer likes the way a product smells, they might rate something like foam quality higher than if they didn't like how it smells. It doesn't matter that the fragrance has no measurable impact on foam quality. To demonstrate the Halo Effect for yourself, make a batch of body wash and split it into two separate batches. To one add a nice smelling fragrance. To the other add a foul smelling fragrance. Give the products to a panelist and ask them which one is better. Then ask them to rate the foam quality on a scale of 1 to 10. Invariably, the product with the more preferred fragrance will score higher in foam quality. Factors that impact Halo Effect We've mentioned fragrance as a significant factor in the Halo Effect, but there are others. These include... a. Color — If people like the color of the formula, they'll rate other factors higher b. Clarity — A pearlized or translucent formula will perform different than a clear one. c. Packaging — If two products are identical except for packaging, the one in the better package will be rated higher. d. Story — If you present a story about the formula and people like it, they will be more inclined to like the performance. Unfortunately, these factors rarely have an actual impact on how well the overall formula performs. This means, as a cosmetic formulator, you could be wasting your time improving formulas if you don't consider the Halo Effect factors. It should also be pointed out that the Halo Effect is not limited to consumers. You can be fooled by the Halo Effect too. For example, you may add a new technology to your formula and you want so badly for it to make an improvement that you might notice one that is not there. As Richard Feynman said about science The first principle is that you must not fool yourself and you are the easiest person to fool How to deal with the Halo Effect The Halo Effect does not mean that you should stop trying to improve your formulas. What it does mean is that you have to take it into consideration when you send your formula out for salon, panelist, or consumer testing. The further you get away from lab testing, the more impact you find from the Halo Effect. Here are some key steps...

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This is a guest essay by cosmetic chemist Cindy Yu from Corn Products International. Beauty is a form of genius. -Oscar Wilde The simplicity of this statement cannot be more ideal in characterizing the cosmetic industry. Despite the popular misconception of the industry as a narcissistic microcosm of vanity and self-glorification, beyond the glitter and the glamor of the marketing lies the true "genius" of cosmetics: the sophisticated understanding of applied science and technology that is fundamental to how the products work. Although these products showcase a complex and elegant blend of science and art, cosmetic science is commonly regarded as inferior to the more “elite” scientific disciplines. There are reasons why cosmetic scientists do not seem to get the respect that they deserve, but with an understanding of these reasons, changes can be made so that this image does not continue to persist. All about beauty As an initial matter, it is important to note that cosmetic science exists because of one reason: beauty, a difficult and abstract concept to define. This concept of beauty has baffled anthropologists, psychologists, scientists and mathematicians for decades, yet it cannot be ignored as “beauty” matters within all societies. Every individual possesses a vague, innate template of beauty that exists in their minds. Because an individual’s physical appearance is, whether they like it or not, a major determining factor in many aspects of life, there exists a perpetual challenge to achieve some form of conventional “beauty” without ever knowing what that truly means. It is with this vague and fickle desire for “beauty,” as well as the ensuing abuse of this desire by marketing gimmicks, that the field of cosmetic science has come to be judged by the public. Undiscerning consumers who purchase "hope in a bottle" products making outrageous claims become disillusioned and jaded when those claims prove false, and thus close their minds to a distorted view of cosmetic science, ignorant of what it can truly offer. These unscrupulous companies, who ignore moral integrity and choose the path of deception for monetary gain, have paved the road for the increasing cynicism towards the merits of cosmetic science by consumers. Skeptical Consumers Unfortunately, as a result, products and companies that actually do deliver as promised fall to the collateral damage of this skepticism, being lumped into the same category as those which do not by the public eye. Bewildered consumers have difficulty distinguishing legitimate claims from those that are nonsense, and with the unregulated spread of information on the internet, more and more unfounded and unsupported theories are being widely propagated by self-proclaimed “beauty experts,” such as the recent “green/natural” movement against the use of certain chemicals. Additionally, the public focuses too narrowly on traditional independent fields of study as the “elite” scientific disciplines. Cosmetic science is an innovative, interdisciplinary field that encompasses many traditional disciplines. It incorporates fundamental and applied sciences, and branches out into areas of dermatology, nanotechnology, and other medical related studies. It is the fusion of scientific research...

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Here at Chemists Corner we get numerous questions about the various cosmetic science programs around the world. Perhaps the most common are from people inquiring about the FDU Cosmetic Science Program. We forwarded a few questions about the program to adjunct professor Steve Herman and here was his response. Hopefully, this will help you decide whether the program might be right for you. Cosmetic Science program questions 1. How is the MA in Science different from an MS degree? STEVE: The program is being changed to an MS as we speak. New students will all be MS candidates. 2. What should your GRE, TOEFL, and overall GPA be to get admission. STEVE: Admission is at the discretion of the program head. 3. What are the chances of getting a job after the course? STEVE: The chances are excellent even as you are enrolled. The courses are all at night and you would be in the heart of the cosmetic and fragrance industry. 4. Is the course well recognized by the industry since this course is rare? STEVE: The course is unique and well recognized. Students come from around the world (including) students from India, Australia, France, Italy, Thailand, and China. The program has always had close ties to the NYSCC and the adjuncts are all industry experts. If you have more questions about this or any other cosmetic science program, feel free to contact us or leave a comment below.

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I was recently asked by one of the students in the cosmetic science training program about the future of cosmetic formulating. She said... Are we reaching a stage where further novel & creative products don't often exists except in the marketing stories? This got me thinking about formulating and what the future looks like for cosmetic scientists. Current formulating limits The truth is the vast majority of cosmetics are not significantly different. If you make the fragrance and colors the same, and put a formula in identical packaging, most consumers can't tell a difference. People just don't have a very well developed sense of feel. It's much easier to tell differences between taste and smell. Touch, which is the sensation required for telling differences in cosmetics, is just not as well developed. (Sadly, most cosmetic chemists can't tell a difference either. ) As a cosmetic chemist, you can spend lots of time optimizing your formulas and getting just the right levels of actives but it won't make nearly as much difference as changing the fragrance or packaging. I've seen it happen. I've given a panel of people vastly different shampoo formulas which had the same fragrance, viscosity, color and packaging and they couldn't tell a difference. It can be troubling. When it comes to formulation optimization, there is only a little bit that you can do to make your formulas better than your competition. This doesn't mean there isn't a lot of work to do for formulators. Optimizing formulas to make them less expensive, making slight improvements in feel, and keeping up with regulatory changes are all going to keep you pretty busy. They just aren't going to lead to significantly improved formulas. Cosmetic formula improvements Since your consumers can't tell much difference, the chances of you creating a revolutionary product through formula optimization are low. There may be some discoveries that can be made using Combinatorial Formulating, DOE formulating or even Crowdsourcing formulation, but breakthroughs aren't likely. Two things that could dramatically improve cosmetic formulas include improved raw materials and nanotechnology. New raw materials could lead to new properties of formulas. Unfortunately, there aren't many new raw materials being made. Sure, chemical companies are always introducing new ingredients, but they almost never introduce an ingredient that will dramatically change the way consumers experience products. Raw material suppliers focus on the needs of chemists producing things like better emulsifiers, delivery systems, thickening agents, and lower cost ingredients. Consumers do not care about these things. They won't really notice if they are in there. The most promising areas of new ingredient development would be polymers. Polymer manufacturing is in it's infancy and not terribly sophisticated. One only has to look at the polymer molecules of life (DNA, Proteins, Enzymes) to see what is possible with polymers. In the cosmetic world, we get simple thickening agents, film formers, and conditioning polymers. There are much more interesting possibilities if anyone could figure out how to control which monomers get placed where. Nanotechnology also...

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We've previously written about cosmetic preservatives and for the most part, there are ingredients that are effective for almost any standard condition a cosmetic product will experience. However, for a variety of reasons standard preservatives are scary to some people. Cosmetic marketing departments have discovered this and have started requesting that cosmetic chemists come up with formulas that are “paraben free,” “formaldehyde free,” or worse, “preservative free. ” They have no idea how difficult this is. Why use preservatives? The first thing to consider is why you are using a preservative in the first place. In a perfect world, cosmetic chemists wouldn't use preservatives because they typically have absolutely no beneficial impact on the performance of the final product. They are an added ingredient which conflicts with the notion of minimalist formulation. Unfortunately, the real world is populated with microbes, some of which spread dangerous diseases. Gram negative, Gram positive, yeasts, and molds have all been found to grow in various cosmetics. As a formulator, you need to ensure that these things do not grow and that your cosmetics are not dangerous. Not only is it the ethical thing to do, it's also legally required. Unless your product packaging is impervious to microbes (e. g. aerosols) and you've made the product under aseptic conditions, you need some kind of preservative system. Why use parabens & formaldehyde donors? Now that we've established that you need preservatives, it's just a matter of figuring out which to use. By far the most effective, broad spectrum preservatives you can use include Parabens Formaldehyde donors Halogenated compounds Other preservatives just aren't as effective against as many possible microbes. Additionally, these ingredients have been used for many years with tons of safety data supporting their use. Any new or alternative preservative you would use will not have as much supporting safety data. When all these considerations are added together, there is very little reason to use an alternative preservative. But if your marketing department insists on handcuffing your formulating efforts by limiting your preservative choice, you can consider some alternatives. Regulatory issues Before giving some alternatives, you should be aware of the regulations. Things are much too complicated for this blog post, but here is a quick summary of cosmetic regulations. In the USA, cosmetics are regulated by the FDA. The regulations are that essentially you can use any preservative you want as long as your product remains safe. There are a couple preservatives that have been banned or strictly regulated including mercury compounds, hexachlorophene, bithionol, and halogenated salicylanilides. But the FDA does require that you provide proof that each batch you ship for sale is adequately preserved. This means you have to do microbial challenge testing and demonstrate that your product is not "... contaminated with microorganisms which may be pathogenic, and the density of non-pathogenic microorganisms is low. " If you're going to use an alternative preservative, you must prove that it works! In the EU they are a bit more restrictive. If a...

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I recently traded emails with one of our Complete Cosmetic Chemist training program students about a cosmetic formulation she was working on. Without getting into the exact details, she was working with another cosmetic chemist to develop a moisturizing shampoo. She sent me the LOI and it had over 20 ingredients. This included a half dozen cleansing surfactants, a dozen extracts, multiple conditioning ingredients, and multiple solvents. It was astounding that a cosmetic chemist could create such a formula. In my estimation, the formula could have been made with fewer than 10 ingredients. But then it occurred to me that perhaps my philosophy is not typical. So, in this post I'm going to explain my formulating philosophy. Cosmetic formulating philosophy I'm a formulation minimalist. That is, I believe that the best formulas are the ones that use the least amount of cosmetic ingredients at the lowest level to produce noticeable differences. Use the least amount of ingredients at the lowest levels that produce noticeable differences This philosophy has a number of advantages including 1. Low inventory of ingredients 2. Low chemical exposure 3. Low production of environmental waste 4. Low cost of final formula 5. Low complication during scale-up The biggest advantage of this cosmetic formulating philosophy is that it allows you a way to determine whether one formula is “superior” to another. I'll explain this in a moment. Not just the cheapest formula Before getting into the specifics of the philosophy, you should know that Formulation Minimalism is NOT a philosophy of just creating the cheapest formula possible. Instead, it is about creating a formula with the greatest value for the consumer. In this philosophy, PERFORMANCE always trumps cost. However, superior performance has to be demonstrably noticeable by the consumer. Unfortunately, this is rarely true. How to be a formulation minimalist While I don't have the philosophy completely worked out, I have thought about it enough to pass on these 6 tips to help you implement it in your own formulation work. Please feel free to add questions and comments at the end. Principle 1: Less is more The basic tenet of formulation minimalism is that fewer ingredients at lower concentrations are superior. So theoretically, the best formulation will have one ingredient at a low level. Of course, this can't be the only thing driving your formulating efforts as it would lead to formulas that perform significantly worse than ones that have multiple ingredients. Remember that performance is a major consideration. But this idea of fewer ingredients being better can help you decide whether to add another ingredient to your formula. Principle 2: Know why you add any ingredient This naturally leads us to our next principle. Always know why you are adding an ingredient. As a cosmetic formulator you will frequently inherit a formula from another chemist or you might have a starting formula from someone else. Before trying to improve the formula, you should conduct a knockout experiment to determine which ingredients are most important and which...

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Next week is the Midwest SCC's technical conference on Innovation in the Cosmetic Industry. I will be doing the emceeing and helping lead some of the group exercises. It promises to be a great event. See some of the details below. 2010 MWSCC Technical Symposium When: Tuesday, October 26, 2010, 8:15am Location: The Westin Chicago Northwest 400 Park Boulevard Itasca, IL 60143 (630) 773-4000 Includes free continental breakfast and lunch INNOVATION: Seeking inspiration from new sources Our symposium will success if our audience leaves feeling they: - Learned the basic elements of Open Innovation and its benefits for transforming businesses to create value and deliver sustainable growth. - Reviewed case studies of companies across industries that are leveraging open innovation processes, systems and tools to deliver a robust product pipeline and new profitable business models. - Developed an understanding of the key do’s and don’ts for implementing open innovation. - Were not “spoken at” all day long, but participants in an interactive session comprised of speaker experts, creative exercises and showcase innovation examples. 8:15a Registration and Continental Breakfast 9:15a Program Begins 3:15p Program Ends Registration includes program, continental breakfast and buffet lunch. Cost: $130 for SCC members, $150 for non-members This event will be facilitated by our own Perry Romanowski, who will guide us in an interactive, creative day in line with our Innovation theme. We have engaged an impressive group of experts across different industries for our speakers this year. Note these are the final speaker listing, but not necessarily the order in which the speakers will appear at our event: Speakers KEYNOTE SPEAKER: Cheryl Perkins President and Founder of Innovationedge Cheryl will set the tone for the rest of our day by providing an overview of open innovation. She will discuss the benefits of bringing products and technologies from the outside in, and well as discussing new business models that can drive growth and profit. She will wrap up with specific do’s and don’ts for implementing open innovation in your organization. Robert Lochhead Professor of Polymer Science, School of Polymers and High Performance Materials, University of Southern Mississippi President of Society Cosmetic Chemists Bob will identify current capabilities in the key components of invention, innovation and commercialization components and how they are coordinated. He will outline how to develop an ‘innovation ecosystem’, of partners and resources to support your innovation pipeline. Bob will share some examples of what works and does not work leveraging Personal Care case studies, and conclude with lessons learned from the National Science Foundation’s Partnership for Innovation program. Paul Pucci (WARF) Licensing Associate, Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation (WARF) Vice-President, Flatt Cola Paul will focus on what companies should know about finding new technologies at a university like UW Madison (e. g. , technologies such as those related to cosmetics, skin care, and health care). The insights will include case studies, tips for success and how to navigate the university licensing landscape. Steve Goers VP Open Innovation, Knowledge Mgmt, IP & Investments, Kraft Foods Steve...

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In this episode of the podcast we speak with cosmetic chemist and business owner Allison Kontur about how she got into the industry and the challenges involved with running your own cosmetic company. The show also features cosmetic science news, discussion of trying prototypes, and another innovation question. Cosmetic Science News Consumers believe natural ingredients are healthier Society of Toxicology report. Cosmetic Science topic - Trying your own formulas Cosmetic product development, it's important to try your own prototypes. Here are 5 reasons why. 1 — Learn the most important characteristics 2 — Build your powers of observation 3 — Figure out formula problems 4 — Learn the effects of raw materials 5 — Inspire new product ideas Interview - Allison Kontur Allison Kontur is the founder of 100% Organic: Simple Nutrion, a Non-Profit Consultancy for the advancement of Organic Health & Wellness with a specialty in Organic Vegetarian Diet. She is also the president of Smell No Evil a company that creates bulk skincare supplies including product bases, raw materials and more focused on the organic and eco-friendly skincare market. You can find out more about Allison at her websites. bathbodysupply. blogspot. com bathbodysupply. com smellnoevil. net The Innovative Cosmetic Chemist Suppose water became scarce and you were restricted to using a maximum of 10% in any formula. How would that change the cosmetic formulas you are creating? Announcements The Complete Cosmetic Chemist training program has closed. You can get on the early notification list by clicking here. Midwest SCC's fall technical symposium about Open Innovation on October 26th. If you have a question, comment or other suggestion about the podcast, leave a message in the space below. Chemists Corner is a podcast about cosmetic science and is broadcast to help educate, entertain, and inspire current and future cosmetic scientists. The information and opinions discussed on Chemists Corner are those of the hosts and the guests alone. They do not necessarily reflect those of any past, present or future employers.

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Many job-seeking cosmetic chemists are unaware of a powerful tool that can help them stand out in the crowd: start a cosmetic science blog. If you are a new graduate, recently laid off (or about to be), or returning to the workforce from a long hiatus, a blog is an excellent way to set you apart from other job applicants. Benefits of cosmetic science blogging Blogging can help you get a job in a number of ways including... 1. Demonstrate your subject knowledge 2. Help you learn the industry 3. Show your ability to write & think 4. Connect with other industry people 5. Become a perceived expert 6. Attract media attention 7. Get job offers Subject knowledge When you write a blog for a few months, you'll start to be noticed by people. You'll build a resume of your subject knowledge that people can look at whenever they want to know more about you. You'll have proof that you know what you're talking about. Hopefully, you do. Learn the cosmetic industry If you are a recent graduate, it is unlikely that you know much about what is important in being a cosmetic scientist. However, if you write a blog you will be forced to do the proper research to learn what is important, to learn which companies matter, and to know what is going on in the industry. Future employers will be impressed with your knowledge of the industry, especially when other job applicants have nothing to show. Show your ability to write and think With a blog, you demonstrate that you have ideas and thoughts that could be beneficial to a future employer. A blog helps you provide a face to the resume. A good blog gives you a significant leg up. Connect with people in the industry Blogging will get you noticed and the research required to write a blog will require you to seek out the important and influential people in the industry. Start writing about people and ask to interview them via email. Many will be more than happy to help you and you'll have an important new connection. Become a perceived expert If you answer questions that your readers happen to have, you become their expert. It doesn't really matter how expert you are at a subject. If you've researched a topic and they don't know the answers you're providing, you are an expert. And expert status grants you significant advantages when attempting to land a job. Attract media attention In addition to industry people recognizing your expertise, the media may also begin to see you as an expert. My blogging activities have garnered me quotes in the New York Times, C&E News, and a variety of other media mentions. These can be given as further proof of your expertise. Get job offers Perhaps the greatest advantage of having a blog about cosmetic science is that people may directly ask you to come work with them or to help them with a consulting project....

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In your career as a cosmetic chemist, you will undoubtedly have the following experience. After months of prototyping and testing you create the most inspired, most incredible cosmetic formulation of your career. You present it to your marketing group and they absolutely LOVE IT! The project starts to move forward and everything is going great, but then they make a simple request. “We love it, but can you make it less expensive? ” While your first inclination will be to answer “No” this is not always an option in the world of the cosmetic industry. But fret not, there are certain strategies you can follow to turn your excellent, expensive formula into an adequate, reasonably priced formula. Here are 5 tricks you can try. Reduce the fragrance level In most formulas, the fragrance is the most costly ingredient. It's also often put in at a level that is much higher than required. To get a quick cost savings, you can cut the fragrance level in half and see if a panel of users can tell a difference. You will be surprised how few people will notice even a 50% reduction. If people do notice a difference, try lowering it by only 10 or 20%. You probably have more fragrance than necessary and when you're looking for a quick cost savings, that's the first place you should start. Reduce the level of Claims ingredients Another source of a cost savings is the claims ingredients that you've put in your formula for the marketing story. These natural ingredients are frequently more expensive additions than standard ingredients so you can save a relatively high amount of money by reducing the levels. If you are using an extract at 0. 5% or even more, you're probably wasting money. Verify it yourself by doing a knock-out experiment. On a blinded-basis, see if you can pick out the one that is missing the extract. If you can't, then you can reduce the level to almost nothing. For example, using a level of 0. 01% of an extract in the formula is not unreasonable when you're looking to cut costs. Eliminate unnecessary ingredients Speaking of reducing ingredients, there may be some ingredients that are completely unnecessary. These represent a great cost savings not only in terms of formula cost but in terms of storage costs for additional raw materials. To figure out if an ingredient isn't necessary, you should do a knockout experiment and compare the formula with and without the ingredient. If you can't tell whether a missing raw material is in the formula or not, you don't need it. Find less-expensive alternative ingredients While you may love your specialty emulsifier or ultra soft emollient, you may be able to replace them with a less-expensive but approximately equal alternative. It is surprising how few differences non-trained beauty product consumers notice. I once created a two-in-one shampoo formula and compared it to a basic shampoo formula that looked and smelled the same. 14 out of 15 panelists...

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This episode of the podcast features an interview with longtime UK cosmetic chemist and beauty blogger, Colin Sanders. It also discusses how and when to do stability testing. Cosmetic Science News Women looking for flawless skin Hair washing robot Cosmetic Science topic - Stability Testing Cosmetic product stability testing demonstrates whether your product will last when stored on a shelf. When do you perform stability testing? 1. New prototypes 2. New raw materials 3. New manufacturing procedure 4. New packaging How do you stability test a cosmetic? Step 1 — Make your batch. Step 2 — Fill your samples. Step 3 — Take initial readings. Step 4 — Put samples at different conditions. Step 5 — Evaluate the product. Step 6 — Determine stability. Interview - Colin Sanders Colin Sanders is a UK based formulator of cosmetic and topical pharmaceuticals for 27 years. Over that time he has formulated nearly every category of product including shampoos, cosmetic skin creams, pharmaceutical skin creams, face masks, lip balms and more. He has been an active member of the Society of Cosmetic Scientists since 1985 and in 1999 organized the first of the Formulate shows. His degree is in environmental science and he continues to take a keen interest in the impact of human activities on the planet. He regards himself as an environmental activist and all round green. When not in the lab, he writes a blog, Colin’s Beauty Pages with the intention of entertaining and hopefully informing users of cosmetic and personal care products with some insider insights, a bit of science and his own opinions. The Innovative Cosmetic Chemist Suppose all the people who use your product suddenly couldn't see color & couldn't smell fragrances. How would you differentiate your products from your competitors? Announcements The Complete Cosmetic Chemist training program is only open for a short time but you can still get in if you register before September 30, 2010. Midwest SCC's fall technical symposium about Open Innovation on October 26th. If you have a question, comment or other suggestion about the podcast, leave a message in the space below. Chemists Corner is a podcast about cosmetic science and is broadcast to help educate, entertain, and inspire current and future cosmetic scientists. The information and opinions discussed on Chemists Corner are those of the hosts and the guests alone. They do not necessarily reflect those of any past, present or future employers.

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Listen to a podcast about cosmetic organic standards If you work as a cosmetic formulator for any amount of time you will likely be asked by a marketer or customer to develop a “natural or “organic cosmetic formulation. It would be nice if you could just go look up a list of ingredients that fall under these categories but unfortunately, you can't. The reason is that the terms natural and organic have no definition under the FD&C Act which is the law that defines how cosmetics are regulated. Similarly, the EU has no definition for “natural or “organic cosmetics either. Since there isn't a standard various groups have come out with their own guidelines for what they think these words should mean when applied to cosmetics. If you are trying to formulate a natural or organic cosmetic, any of the following standards could be adopted. US Laws - USDA National Organic Program (NOP) In the United States, there is already a government regulation for organically grown food. This standard has been set by the USDA National Organic Program. These represent the toughest of all standards and it isn't surprising most cosmetic companies aren't able to meet them. To get certified you can only use surfactants derived from organic sources (no petrochemicals) and you can't have any ingredients that are processed via hydrogenation or sulfation. Additionally, no synthetic preservatives are allowed. After you get certified, you can make claims like “100 percent organic" or "Organic" and you may put the USDA Organic Seal on your products. You can get lesser certifications with 95% or 70% organic materials, however, these do not get to use the organic seal. There are some legal implications when using the word "organic" for any agriculturally derived ingredient (like oils, sugar, beeswax, etc). A tough standard which typically leads to inferior functioning products California Organic Products Act of 2003 This Act regulates the use of organic claims on cosmetics in the State of California only. In order to make either an "Organic" or a "Made with Organic" claim in Calif. you must have a minimum of 70% organic content calculated as described in the Act. You must also register with the California Department of Health Organic Program if you are a California based business. Private Certification NSF Organic Certification The National Sanitation Foundation (NSF) is a non-profit, non-governmental organization that created standards for products that can be labeled organic. The standards are a bit easier for cosmetic companies to meet while still creating a useable cosmetic product. For example, they allow many ingredients that are banned in the USDA's standards including some synthetic preservatives and biodegradable surfactants. You're still not allowed to use petrochemicals however. This organization is attempting to set world-wide standards. NSF is an ANSI Standard that only pertains to the US and is predicated on US law. QAI Int'l, a for profit certification company, offers certification to the NSF 305 and they are owned by NSF. The standard is available at the NSF web...

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Creating new cosmetics is what cosmetic formulators are hired to do. But if you're new to the cosmetic industry or have concentrated on one specific area, you probably haven't had the chance to formulate many different types of cosmetics. So, what do you do when you're asked to create a formula that you've never made before? Read on to find out. Find a good starting formula Sure, you could just start from scratch combining cosmetic raw materials in different proportions to see what you get, but this isn't the best way. The best way is to find a starting formula that someone else has previously created. Then, modify it to meet your needs. Unfortunately, if you don't know where to look, finding starting formulas isn't easy. That's why we've created the following list of the best sources for starting formulations. Patents The big cosmetic companies love to patent as many formulas as they can. This prevents other people from duplicating their formulas. Fortunately, it also requires them to publish (some version) of the formulas they are patenting. This makes them excellent sources for starting formulas. You can search US patents by going to the USPTO. gov website or even better, search Google Patents. Books There are a number of cosmetic science books that include formulas. Even better is that these books give explanations of why they are adding certain ingredients. You can get most of them at a large library or even buy them online. Some of my favorite books for finding formulations include. Harry's Cosmeticology Handbook of Cosmetic Science and Technology, Third Edition Chemistry and Manufacture of Cosmetics: Science 4th edition Google Books If you can't afford to purchase the books above you can find preview copies of them online via Google Books. This won't give you the entire book but it often provides you with the pages that have formulas for which you might be looking. Just go to Google Books, type in the search term for the formula you want and take a look. Chemical Suppliers One of the most helpful things the raw material suppliers do is create starting formulas. Of course, these formulas are usually packed with high amounts of the supplier's ingredients but they are an excellent place to start. Here are some of the best supplier formularies that I've used. Croda Stepan Trade Journals There are many suppliers who do not have formula websites so they send their starting formulas to trade magazines to publish. These trade journals have put together compilations of formulas on their websites. Some excellent resources include. Happi C&T Cosmetic Bench Reference Online Aggregators These are websites that exist as hubs connecting suppliers with cosmetic formulators. If you haven't signed up for these services, you're missing a great opportunity. The following two websites are particularly helpful for finding starting formulations. Innovadex SpecialChem4Cosmetics Ingredient Lists If you really can't find a good starting formula for the specific product you are making, then getting an ingredient list of an existing product...

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We're re-opening the Complete Cosmetic Chemist training program for a limited time. You can get all the information by clicking on the following link. Cosmetic Science training program The class begins on September 20 and you will only be able to sign up until the class fills up. If you have any questions about the course, please leave a comment below.

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This episode of Chemists Corner features an interview with Doug Schoon of Schoon Scientific. He is an outspoken cosmetic chemist who specializes in nail technology. Show notes: 1. News Better Animal-Free Test for Chemicals That Can Cause Contact Dermatitis- Scientists develop an alternative to animal testing for cosmetic raw materials. AAD versus the EWG - Is retinyl palmitate safe in sunscreens? - The AAD says it is but the EWG says it isn't. Who would you believe? 2. Cosmetic Science In this segment we discuss cosmetic labels and how a cosmetic chemist can use the to get better at her craft. 3. Interview with Doug Schoon Doug Schoon is an internationally-recognized scientist, author and educator with over 30 years experience in the cosmetic, beauty and personal care industry. He is a leading industry authority, known for his technical and regulatory work that has helped shape the beauty industry. He is Co-Chair of the Nail Manufacturers Council (NMC), and as Creative Nail Design's (CND) Chief Scientist, was head of the R&D laboratory, QA, and Field Testing/Evaluation departments for almost 20 years. Contact Doug Schoon at Schoon Scientific. If you have a question, comment or other suggestion about the podcast, leave a message in the space below. Chemists Corner is a podcast about cosmetic science and is broadcast to help educate, entertain, and inspire current and future cosmetic scientists. The information and opinions discussed on Chemists Corner are those of the hosts and the guests alone. They do not necessarily reflect those of any past, present or future employers.

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If you have spent any time reading information about cosmetics on the Internet, you've no doubt come across scare stories about dangerous, “toxic” ingredients. It might be lead in lipstick, mercury in mascara, or some other outrageous headline but the message is always the same, cosmetics kill and cosmetic companies are more concerned about profit than producing safe products. As a cosmetic chemist, this has always troubled me. I was a formulation chemist for years and I never used chemicals that I thought were unsafe. Also, I was never pressured by my company to use “less safe” ingredients because they were cheaper. This is complete nonsense and groups that propagate it are bad for society and for cosmetic chemists. But if you're going to be a formulator, it would be helpful for you to know which cosmetic ingredients get bad press, why and whether it is true or not. So here we present a look at the 12 most vilified cosmetic ingredients. The next time a friend or family member asks you about them, you'll be in a better position to answer. Top Vilified Cosmetic Ingredients 1. Parabens 2. Diazolidiny Urea 3. Diethanolamine 4. Sodium Lauryl Sulfate 5. Petrolatum 6. Mineral Oil 7. Propylene Glycol 8. Triclosan 9. Fragrance 10. Color pigments 11. PEG — Polyethylene Glycol 12. Talc Parabens Parabens include ingredients like Methylparaben, Propylparaben and Butylparaben. They are used in cosmetics to prevent microbial contamination. Their high temperature stability, high level of effectiveness, and long record of safety make them an excellent preservative choice. Parabens have recently come under fire by certain consumer groups and all-natural companies. They claim that parabens are “... a strong hormone disrupting chemical. Has direct links to breast cancer and heart problems. ” These claims are not true, not based on science and are complete exaggerations. For a full account of parabens and their safety in cosmetics see these excellent articles. Paraben puzzlement More about parabens Diazolidinyl Urea / DMDM Hydantoin Like parabens, these cosmetic ingredients are preservatives added to combat disease-causing microbes. They are called “formaldehyde donors” because when placed in a solution they dissociate into ions, one of which is formaldehyde. The formaldehyde then quickly kills microbes. Formaldehyde is a scary ingredient to people as it has been shown to cause irritation, gene mutations, and cancer. But formaldehyde donors are not the same thing as formaldehyde and the amount of exposure gotten from cosmetics is well within safe levels. See this summary explanation for why formaldehyde donors are safe for cosmetics. Formaldehyde mythbusting For a full review of formaldehyde, see this toxicology report from the CDC. Triclosan Triclosan is an anti-bacterial ingredient added to cosmetics to reduce or prevent bacterial contamination. It's usually found in antibacterial soaps, handwashes, toothpaste and deodorants. The FDA has affirmed its effectiveness and regulates products that contain triclosan as over the counter (OTC) drugs. Some groups object to triclosan for various reasons. They say that Triclosan can produce a toxic, hormone disrupting chemical. That it poses...

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If you're looking for the best book titles in cosmetic chemistry, take a look at Allured Publishing's newly re-designed cosmetic science bookstore on the web. Here you can order all of their titles including books on Cosmetic Chemistry, Flavor Chemistry, Fragrance and Spa & Wellness. Of most interest to cosmetic chemists is the Cosmetic Chemistry titles. There are a total of 39 cosmetic science books available including ones on Aging Skin, Biologically Active Ingredients, Cosmeceuticals, Formulation Strategies, and of course, Beginning Cosmetic Chemistry. Allured really does produce some of the best cosmetic science books in the business so if you're looking to learn more, these books will help.

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As a cosmetic chemist you will likely be inundated with new raw materials and sales people encouraging you to try out their latest and greatest offerings. If they have an interesting sales pitch you might even request a sample. Unfortunately by the time you get the samples a few days later, you often forget why you were interested in the first place. You're left with unopened samples which will pile up on your lab bench only to be moved and pitched the next time you have lab clean-up day. This is a complete waste of effort for both you and the sales people. To prevent this from happening you need to create a system obtaining and evaluating raw material samples. Here are some tips for setting up a system to evaluate new cosmetic raw materials. Write down your ideas During a meeting with a sales person be sure to keep notes about the meeting. Specifically write down raw material names and the reason you might want to get a sample. Note also whether you requested a raw material & if you received it. This way when you get a sample a few days later you'll know why you wanted it in the first place. It's useful to keep a list of raw materials and ideas related to the material on a separate sheet from your meeting notes. So when you receive a raw material sample you can consult the list and quickly remember why you asked for it. Have a place for your samples After you receive a raw material sample, you should put it in a designated space. Leaving it out on your lab bench or randomly putting it on a shelf makes it less likely that you will ever do anything with it. Keep only new raw materials in this space. Also, don't make the space too large as this will only encourage you to put off doing something with the sample. You should also have a policy where you can't get a new sample if there isn't room in your designated area for it. This will make you do something with old samples before filling the cabinet with new ones. Oh yes, be sure to put a date on every sample you receive. If a sample is over 1 year old, THROW IT OUT and get a new one. But remember, if you haven't done anything with a sample in over 1 year it's not likely you are ever going to do something with it. Have a plan for your cosmetic raw materials In addition to labeling your new raw material sample, you should also put a short Post-It Note on the sample indicating what you plan to do with it. This can be a simple sentence like “test in body wash” or “evaluate in skin cream” depending on what idea you had for the sample. These reminders will make it easier for you to remember why you requested a sample and what you plan to do...

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There was an interesting article about 'clinical testing' of cosmetic products. Essentially, the authors suggest that the science used to support the claims made by the nutrition supplement product Inneov Sun Sensitivity is faulty, biased, and practically worthless. I don't yet have access to the original BJD article but if the news report is accurate, indeed this is sketchy science. The extraordinary claims are not quite supported by the testing. Unfortunately, this is usually the case with studies designed to prove a point rather than discover a truth. In the cosmetic industry, it is called Claims Testing. Let's look at some of the questionable testing that goes on in the cosmetic industry and suggest how it could be improved. Using consumer opinions to make claims This happens all the time. When a cosmetic manufacturer wants to make a strong claim their product, they go to consumers and see what they think. If it is a bad study, consumers will be given a product that they use for a certain amount of time, then they answer questions about it. Their answers will then be used to support claims made about the product. Why is this questionable? There are a variety of reasons this is not good science but the biggest is that consumers are easily fooled. If they like how something smells or feels, or they just enjoyed the overall experience, they will be inclined to rate everything higher. For example, if a consumer likes the fragrance of a hair conditioner, they'll be much more likely to rate highly the performance of the product for shine, detangling, manageability, etc. The positive feelings about the fragrance has a "halo" effect on all other attributes. So, if you ask a consumer whether a product made their hair more shiny, the answer will likely be influenced by something that has nothing to do with shine at all! How to make it better. If you are really interested to know whether a product improves a specific attribute consumer testing isn't the best thing to use. Better are lab tests or trained panel tests. However, if you want to use consumer tests then at the very least make it a double blind controlled test. This means that you give them your test product and a control product that look and smell the same. You should then have the products made by someone who is unaware of the test purpose so you don't know which samples are which. You should also use a minimum of 30 people for the test however, >100 is even better. Using improper controls This is a fairly common occurrence in the cosmetic industry. Perhaps most common is in studies done by cosmetic raw material suppliers. They show impressive looking data that is much less so when you consider the control. Frequently, a raw material will be evaluated against a 'no-treatment' control. It should come as no surprise that any skin lotion will improve skin condition when compared to no treatment. Why is...

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https://www. youtube. com/watch? v=xymoPm2T7_g If you're interested in making cosmetic products from scratch but you don't have fancy software to do it, you can easily make them using a simple spreadsheet formula. Here's a video that explains the process. It allows you to make different batch sizes, calculates ingredient masses, and also costs out the formula. Cosmetic Formula Template

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Cosmetic scientists can be found all over the world. In this episode we talk with Joel Edwards, a cosmetic chemist from Australia. He tells his story how he started out as an environmental chemist but transitioned to the cosmetic industry. Show notes: 1. News P&G teams with Amyris to make bio materials for cosmetics. Where is the new innovation in cosmetics coming from? Probably the biotech industry. Consumer infidelity hurting luxury brands. What is happening to the luxury beauty market during this uncertain economic times? People aren't necessarily trading down. 2. Cosmetic Science We review the different types of equipment that every cosmetic laboratory needs to function properly. We look at 5 different areas of equipment including... Weighing equipment Containers Mixers Temperature control equipment Testing equipment 3. Interview with Joel Edwards Joel Edwards is a cosmetic chemist who works with Trendpack in Australia. He has been in the cosmetic industry for about 8 years. He shares his insights on what it's like to be a cosmetic chemist and where he thinks cosmetic research of the future should focus. If you have a question, comment or other suggestion about the podcast, leave a message in the space below. Chemists Corner is a podcast about cosmetic science and is broadcast to help educate, entertain, and inspire current and future cosmetic scientists. The information and opinions discussed on Chemists Corner are those of the hosts and the guests alone. They do not necessarily reflect those of any past, present or future employers.

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To become a college graduate with a degree in chemistry, you probably had to take at least a year of calculus and some type of statistical analysis. Then classes like Physical Chemistry or Inorganic Chemistry further demonstrated the complicated math that was required to be a scientist. Who remembers partial differential equations? Well, if the math in your college chemistry classes wore you down, then we've got good news for you. Cosmetic chemists use almost no complicated math. In fact, all the math you need to know to be a cosmetic formulator, you likely learned in high school. Here are the top mathematical challenges faced by cosmetic chemists and how to do them. Cosmetic Chemist mathematical challenges 1. Figuring out % activity of an ingredient This is one of the most common problems you'll face. Most liquid raw material are not supplied as 100% ingredients but instead are water solutions (or other diluent). So, if you buy SLS it is usually sold as a 28% solution. You can find the activity of an ingredient by looking at the specification sheet. Usually, it is listed as % solids. If you have a formula that calls for 30% SLS, the product doesn't actually contain 30% SLS. It contains 30% of a 28% solution. By multiplying the % solids by the % required in the formula, you can find the % activity. Therefore, a formula calling for 30% SLS only contains 8. 4% SLS. For formulators, this is the most important mathematical concept you must learn. Math skill required - Multiplication 2. Adding up formulas When creating formulas, you have to make sure everything adds up to 100%. Fortunately, this is fairly simple. To make sure the formula adds up to 100%, you just need to add the percentages of all the ingredients in the formula. If they are higher or lower than 100, just add or subtract from the main diluent (usually water) to make it equal to 100. For example. Water 78% HEC 1% Citric acid 1% Cetyl Alcohol 5% Cetrimonium Chloride 2% Preservative 0. 2% Fragrance 1% This conditioner formula adds up to 88. 2%. You subtract that from 100 and you are left with 11. 8%. This is the amount that should be added to your water % to make the formula square. So, the amount of water in this formula should be 89. 8% Math required - Addition and subtraction 3. Figuring out required ingredient amount Frequently, you'll inherit a formula and will have to figure out the amount of raw materials required to make a certain sized batch. This just requires simple multiplication. First, determine the size batch you want to make. Next, find the % of the ingredient in the formula. Multiply the two numbers and your result is the required amount of the ingredient. For example. Suppose you want to make a 500g batch of the conditioner in the example above. It calls for 2% of Cetrimonium Chloride. To figure out how much CC you'll...

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Are you a cosmetic scientist who dreams of one day starting your own line of cosmetics? On today's show we talk to Kimberly Riley of FSL Cosmetics Show notes: 1. News Wrinkles are scarier for young people than cancer. If you want to stop people from exposing themselves to harmful radiation, just tell them it will make their skin look bad when they get older. Benefits of Vitamin D in skin care products. Do these sound like drug or cosmetic claims? 2. Cosmetic Science Ideas How to use the SCAMPER method for coming up with new cosmetic product ideas. * Substitute * Combine * Adapt * Modify * Put to other Purposes * Eliminate * Rearrange 3. Interview with Kimberly Riley Kimberly Riley is a cosmetic chemist who began FSL Cosmetics in January 2010. She earned a bachelor's degree in Chemical Engineering and had double minors in Chemistry and Business Administration. Her goal in life is to use nature as an aid that fosters in revolutionizing and enhancing women's beauty worldwide. You can contact Kimberly through her website FSL Cosmetics You can also follower her on Twitter (FSLcosmetics) If you have a question, comment or other suggestion about the podcast, leave a message in the space below. Chemists Corner is a podcast about cosmetic science and is broadcast to help educate, entertain, and inspire current and future cosmetic scientists. The information and opinions discussed on Chemists Corner are those of the hosts and the guests alone. They do not necessarily reflect those of any past, present or future employers.

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I put together this video about cosmetic ingredient nomenclature that you might enjoy. It's about 15 minutes long and gives you a basic introduction to how cosmetic ingredients get their names. Just click on this link

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Every year Happi magazine does a listing of the top beauty companies. They actually do two rankings where they give the 50 top US companies and the 30 top International companies. I always wished they did a compilation list. Well, it turns out, they did. This article lists the top 20 beauty industry companies. Click the picture for the full list. Filtered beauty company list What I like about the list is that it separates out the beauty company part of the business from the rest of the company. For example, Johnson & Johnson is listed as the 9th company with $5. 6 billion in yearly sales. However, J&J is more of a pharmaceutical company making over $63 billion a year in sales. Baby shampoo is profitable but it doesn't bring in nearly as much as their drugs. Why should cosmetic chemists care? While this list is interesting from a trivial standpoint, it can also be quite useful to a cosmetic chemist. Here are just a few ways you can use the list. 1. Interview research - If you want to stand out when interviewing for a cosmetic science job, it's helpful to know something about the company. This list can quickly get you familiar with your potential employer. It can also help you learn about the company's competition. The more you know about the industry, the better your chances of landing a job. 2. Competitive research - If you already have a job, it's good to know which brands go with which company. This can help you compare formulas and determine what raw material blends they might be using. This could help you in your efforts to knock-off their formulas. You can also see where they are using the same basic formulas for different brands. 3. New product ideas - This list gives you an idea of where these companies are putting their development efforts. It can help spark ideas on what areas you might want to pursue or even avoid. Becoming knowledgeable about the companies in the beauty industry is a crucial part of being a well-rounded cosmetic chemist. Hopefully, this list has gotten you started.

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While learning how to become a cosmetic scientist is fun, it doesn't do you much good if you don't have a job. Sure, you could start your own company and we love to encourage people to do that, but if you are like most people, you'll first get a job working for someone else. Cosmetic Science Jobs Here are a few places that you might find cosmetic science jobs. Careers in Cosmetics This is a site that helps connect employers with job seekers. You can post your resume and search for cosmetic science jobs by job title, company, and location. If you're searching for a job in the beauty industry, you should be looking here. Indeed. com This website takes aggregate results from a variety of online job search sites and puts them conveniently in one place. You can search by job title or location. It also gives you alternative terms which will help you expand your search. For example, if you search for cosmetic chemist, it will suggest cosmetic formulator. Juju This job search engine is much like Indeed. com but it seems to give slightly different results. Twitter Many people are finding that Twitter can help them make connections with important people and are landing jobs directly. Here is an articles that gives you 50 tips on using Twitter to find a job. After you create your twitter presence, start following all the people in the cosmetic industry that you can find. You can start with this list of >20 cosmetic chemists on twitter. Society of Cosmetic Chemists Many of the SCC chapters have job listings in their monthly newsletters. Most of the chapters have websites where you can read their newsletters online. So, if you're looking go to one of the SCC chapters (find them at the National SCC webpage) and look at their newsletters. Finally, here is a list of 10 of the best job hunting websites as decided by DigitalTrends. com. Is there a job finding website that we missed? Leave a comment below and let your fellow cosmetic chemists know.

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If you are reading this blog then you most likely found it by doing a Google search. There aren't a lot of sites dedicated to cosmetic science so Chemists Corner comes up frequently. Google is a great search engine but did you know that there are other ones that can give you better results for some specific types of questions? Alternative search engines Here is a list of some useful alternative search engines and how a cosmetic chemist might use them. Factbites. com If you are first starting to research a topic that you know little about, try Factbites instead of Google. Factbites distills results to factual information about a topic and cuts down on editorializing and other distracting info. For example, a search for nanoparticles leads you to a CDC article about the subject and a wikipedia link. The website also tells you how reliable the information might be by flagging potentially misleading sources. Quintura. com If you don't know all the relevant information about a topic, Quintura can help you figure it out. You start with a simple search and it gives you a cloud of other options related to that search term. So, if you are looking for information about cosmetic emulsions, you'll see related searches for cleansing emulsions, emulsion composition, and emulsion balancing. Clusty. com This is a great search engine that takes results and clusters them into related clouds. Have you ever done a search on Google and gotten lots of results you weren't interested in? For example, if you search the term "Cosmetics" you'll get information about cosmetics mixed in with information about cosmetic surgery. Clusty (also called Yippy) organizes the search results into handy clouds. It makes it much more useful than Google when you're looking for information about a specific topic. Dogpile. com If you really want to be thorough when searching a topic, then Dogpile is the way to go. It is a search engine aggregator and will give you the results of searching multiple search engines at once. This is the closest thing to a universal search engine as there is. Dogpile is definitely worth using if you want to speed up your online searches. ChaCha. com If you're looking for a quick answer to some trivia question, then you should start with ChaCha. com. Unlike Google that returns completely thorough results for all queries, ChaCha specializes in answering specific questions. cooliris. com As a cosmetic chemist, you'll often need images to use for creating presentations. Google has an image search function, however Cooliris is just a much better choice. You have to try it out to understand. Indeed. com Are you looking for a cosmetic chemist job? Then do your search on Indeed. com. You can search jobs by title, company, or key word and even narrow results to location. It's not a place to submit your resume but it lists actual jobs that are looking to be filled. There are many more search engine alternatives to Google but...

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Chemists Corner is dedicated to teaching you about the field of cosmetic science and how to become a cosmetic chemist. We've enjoyed writing blogs, discussing topics with you through the comments and doing the podcast. Advanced Cosmetic Science Training One of the most common questions we're asked is whether there is some training program that people can take to help them become cosmetic scientists. For people who are looking for an advanced degree in cosmetic science, we've encouraged them to look into university sponsored programs like the University of Cincinnati or the Fairleigh Dickinson Program. These are excellent programs and if you can afford the time & money to attend, you should do it. And if you are looking for additional training in specific areas of cosmetic science, you should certainly participate in some the many fine SCC continuing education programs. Online Cosmetic Science However, these programs are not suitable for everyone as they involve travel, years of commitment and a significant amount of money. They also cover much more material than is practically required to get started as a cosmetic chemist. For people in this situation, we've created a training program called the Complete Cosmetic Chemist. It is an online course that goes over the fundamentals of cosmetic formulation. It is beginning soon and if you are interested, take a look at the course syllabus and sign up. Complete Cosmetic Chemist syllabus This promises to be a great program and we look forward to working with you.

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There's an interesting new website that promises to provide people with information about cosmetic and personal care products based on scientific facts. It's called Personal Care Truth and it looks pretty well done thus far. Personal Care Truth Founders The website was begun by two beauty product makers. Kristin Fraser Cotte is the founder of the Grapeseed Company which produces botanical beauty products from wine derivatives. Lisa Rodgers is the founder of Cactus and Ivy a manufacturer of cruelty free, vegan, and natural bath and body products. Most impressively, they've assembled a group of experts which includes formulators, beauty product manufacturers, writers and cosmetic scientists. The website is just getting started but you can already find some great articles about SLS, natural products, and cosmetic regulations. This is definitely one I'm going to add to my RSS feed reader. We'll have to get an interview with them on the Chemists Corner podcast.

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I like science and seeing a cool experiment done well is always entertaining. That's why I found this article at Wired Science about the top 10 chemistry videos so amazing. Some of my favorites include... 9. The melting Gummy Bear 6. The Oscillating reaction. (I always thought this would make a cool cosmetic product effect. 4. Elephant toothpaste. You have to try this in your lab! We've included the Elephant Toothpaste below. I wonder if this same effect would happen with a shampoo, body wash or other cosmetic formula. Have you got a clever experiment done with cosmetic products? Leave a comment below.

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The SCC Midyear meeting is fast approaching. It's scheduled for June 3-4 in Long Island, NY. It's an excellent meeting for any cosmetic chemist to attend but if you are on the fence as to whether attend or not, here are a few reasons that might help convince you to attend. Reasons to attend the mid year SCC meeting 1. Go for the talks. The line-up of speakers that have been arranged is top notch. They include people speaking on such topics as a. Green Chemistry - Sustainability, Natural formulations, etc. b. Hair formulation - Including a talk by Dr. Marsh who leads the industry in colored hair research. c. Formulating - Focusing on consumers, lip gloss and other makeup products d. Dermatology & Cosmetology - Speakers include Dr. Zoe Draelos, Dr. Vince Gruber, and other skin care researchers. 2. Go for the courses. Of course, you may want to just attend to go to the continuing education courses like the mini breakfast seminars on topics like sunscreen stability, skincare research, and color use in cosmetics. Then there is the Beginning Cosmetic Chemistry course taught by yours truly and a Formulating for naturals by Art Georgalas. 3. Go for the new ideas. If you are feeling like you're in a rut as a formulator a meeting like this can do wonders for shaking up your brain. I get no less than a dozen good ideas while attending SCC mid-year meetings. 4. Go for the networking. It's an excellent opportunity to meet and speak with cosmetic scientists around the country. See how they might be doing things different than you. 5. Go for the location. The meeting is just a short distance from Manhattan. If you've never visited New York City, well, that itself is a good enough reason to attend. BONUS: Meet some of the people behind the Chemists Corner website and podcast. I'll be there and there is also a chance that the coolest cosmetic chemist will also attend. If you want to attend, just fill out this form and forward it to the National SCC office. Are you attending the Mid-year SCC meeting? Why or why not? Leave a comment below.

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The Internet is an excellent source for information, learning, and research. Unfortunately, it is not nicely organized and it can make you unproductive if you spend too much time trying to find the information. Here is a system I use to keep informed about the latest in cosmetic science using the minimum amount of time. If you follow a similar set-up you will be able to maximize the information you receive while minimizing the time it takes to get it. Objective Staying informed of important developments in the cosmetic industry. Step 1: Create a homepage The first thing to do is to create a homepage which is the first thing you see when you access the Internet. On the homepage, you'll want to include only the most relevant information and links. There are many different options but we suggest you use iGoogle as your homepage. It's easy to set up and best of all, it's free! Step 2: Find websites to follow In the old days you used to have to go to websites to see their new content. Today, the websites will send links to their new content to you. This is much more efficient for you because you will only have to go to a page specifically to see information you want. So, what sites are the best to follow for a cosmetic chemist? Follow these and you'll be off to a great start. List of sites to follow 1. Cosmetic Industry news Cosmetic World C&T GCI Happi Perfume and Flavorist Cosmetic Design EU Cosmetic Design Cosmetic Business Specialchem 4 Cosmetics 2. Beauty Blogs The Beauty Brains Total Beauty Blogs Splendicity Glam Network beauty blogs Beauty Blog Network Alltop Beauty 3. Science sites Science Daily Eurekalerts New Scientist Science blogs eScience News 4. Innovation blogs Innovation Tools Killer Innovations Idea Connection Opine Consulting And you can find other blogs of interest by using either of these sites. Technorati Blog Search Step 3: Subscribe to relevant websites The way to follow websites is to click on their RSS feed and add it to your Google Reader page. There are other RSS reader applications but Google is by far the easiest to incorporate into your home page. The RSS is the little button in the address bar that looks like this. (See the top of your browser). When you click on the orange button it will take you to a page asking if you want to subscribe through your reader or your home page. I suggest adding the website to your reader for most sites. For websites you want to read every day, you should add it to your home page. Step 4: Scan your feed reader daily Now that you are subscribed, you should check your feed headlines. Most sites update once a day so checking your feed daily makes sense. This doesn't mean you have to read every article every day, it just means you should spend some time checking your feed to see if there is some...

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After months of planning, writing and recording, we're almost ready to begin our new online cosmetic science training program. We're not quite ready to start, but space will be limited so I wanted people who are most interested to get on the list for early notification of the course's launch date. See this webpage, watch the video that explains the new course, then put in your sign-in information. The Complete Cosmetic Chemist In the next week, we'll send out some more information explaining more details about the course and how it will work. There is nothing else like this online course and it is designed to fill a need that isn't already covered by the SCC, university programs, or other cosmetic science degrees. I look forward to working with you. Perry, 44 PS. If you have any questions about the program, leave a comment below.

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Many people have asked about whether they should get an advanced degree in cosmetic science. Well, in today's show we interview one of the instructors at the Fairleigh Dickinson University cosmetic science program, Steve Herman. Show notes: 1. News New acne technology that kills bacteria using gold & lactic acid 'nano-bombs'. 2. Cosmetic Science Jobs We discuss the different types of jobs you might get as a cosmetic chemist. This is related to a blog post we did about chemist careers. 3. Interview with Steve Herman Steve Herman is an adjunct professor in the FDU Masters in Cosmetic Science program and has been since 1993. He is also a regular columnist at GCI magazine and has written the book 'Fragrance Applications: A Survival Guide'. He has over 30 years of experience in the cosmetic and fragrance industry. You can contact Steve through his website www. stephen-herman. com If you have a question, comment or other suggestion about the podcast, leave a message in the space below. Chemists Corner is a podcast about cosmetic science and is broadcast to help educate, entertain, and inspire current and future cosmetic scientists. The information and opinions discussed on Chemists Corner are those of the hosts and the guests alone. They do not necessarily reflect those of any past, present or future employers.

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It's the latest episode of the Chemists Corner podcast. Please have a listen and let us know what you think. Chemists Corner podcast is about cosmetic science and is broadcast to help educate, entertain, and inspire current and future cosmetic scientists. Each episode we’ll talk about news in the cosmetic industry, answer some of your questions, and discuss a topic in-depth, usually with an industry expert interview. In this episode... 1. News Discuss Consumer Reports article about anti-wrinkle treatments 2. Cosmetic Science The 10 topics that were barely covered in college chemistry but are most important to cosmetic scientists 3. Interview Kevin Young has been a Cosmetic Chemist for 35 years. He has formulated cosmetic products for several major cosmetic companies including Maybelline and Almay. He now owns his own Independent Laboratory and Consulting Service - KYLabs You can contact Kevin through his website KYLabs. com where he is available for consulting on cosmetic formulation of skin care, hair care, make-up, EPA regulated FIFRA and OTC products *If you would like to participate in the Yahoo! cosmetic science group discussions, please visit here - The Cosmetic Lab. If you have a question, or have any topics you’d like us to cover, leave a comment below.

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Specialchem4cosmetics. com has an upcoming online course on emulsions. I'm going to do a review after I take the course but if you are interested in signing up, here is the information. It promises to be a useful course for any cosmetic chemist. This week there is an the upcoming e-Training Course on Emulsion Stability in Practice. Register now! Attend this online course to better understand emulsion science and how ingredients impact product stability. It will enable you to implement effective prevention measures and solve faster instability issues (flocculation, Ostwald ripening, coalescence... ). Practical case studies on silicone emulsions and double emulsions will also be presented. Join and push back your formulation skills to achieve faster more stable and robust emulsions! Course Objective: Help experienced formulators strengthen their ability to develop faster stable emulsions. In the light of every day practice, the following will be discussed: - Emulsion science in very accessible terms - Major instability factors - Impact of ingredients on overall stability Date: Thursday April 15, 2010 Time: 4 p. m. CET / 10 a. m. ET Check your local time Course Details & Attendance Benefits Covered sections: 1. Main factors ruling emulsion technology: Bancroft rule, Interaction energies forces between droplets, HLB 2. Major instability mechanism and prevention measures: Gravitational instability, Flocculation, Ostwald ripening, Coalescence 3. Particular cases of silicone emulsions and double emulsions 4. Role of polymeric surfactants in emulsion stabilization - examples See Detailed Outline Featuring Independent Speaker: Isabelle Afriat With over 20 years of experience in cosmetics international companies like L'Oreal, Estee Lauder NY and Helena Rubinstein Laboratories, Isabelle Afriat is an independant consultant specialized in product development for the cosmetic industry.

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I received the following question and it's a pretty common situation that most new science majors will find themselves in. Although I have an excellent educational/research background in the field of Antioxidants, many skills/lab techniques in the field of Biochemistry, I cant find a job in cosmetic science. What would you do if you were in my position? ? I'm not exactly sure how things work in Europe as I've never worked there. However, if it's anything like here in the US, I would suggest you try the following to get a job in the cosmetics industry. 1. Identify companies that hire cosmetic scientists. This way you'll know where you might find a job. Don't limit it to finished goods makers. Look also at raw material suppliers that make surfactants, emollients, specialty chemicals, etc. There are cosmetic chemist jobs there too. 2. Start off in a QA/QC job. Ultimately, you don't want to stay in one of these jobs as they aren't really cosmetic chemistry and you'll probably get bored. However, you can learn a lot and you can use the experience to meet new contacts & improve your resume. If you can get a technician job that would be great too. Don't worry about what your first job is. Remember, it is just a way to get started in the industry. 3. Go through a temp agency. Many lab jobs are filled by people who first started off at the company as a temporary worker. In the US, we've got companies that help place temporary lab workers into companies. If they have something like that where you live, it's a great way to start. 4. Use social networking. The key to finding a job is to meet the right person. Social networking on the Internet is an excellent way to meet new people. I would suggest you start using LinkedIn. This is like Facebook but for professionals. You can identify people in companies and building your network on LinkedIn can certainly help you identify jobs & important contacts. Getting an advanced degree in cosmetic science is helpful, but it is only one step on the way to getting a job in cosmetic science. Ultimately, you need to meet people who work in the industry and have them introduce you to the people who are hiring. An advanced degree only helps with that a little. Good luck!

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As a cosmetic chemist you won't use the periodic table very often. It just isn't something you frequently need. However, it is something that is unique to chemistry and if you're like me, you still find it interesting and amusing. There are lots of free ones on the web but here is one that is filled with great information.

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It's the latest episode of the Chemists Corner podcast. Please have a listen and let us know what you think. Chemists Corner podcast is about cosmetic science and is broadcast to help educate, entertain, and inspire current and future cosmetic scientists. Each episode we’ll talk about news in the cosmetic industry, answer some of your questions, and discuss a topic in-depth, usually with an industry expert interview. In this episode... 1. News Discuss the passing of skin research pioneer Albert Kligman. Dermatologist gets warning letter from FDA 2. Listener question Why is fluid viscosity important to cosmetic chemists? 3. Weekly Challenge. Which headline is the FAKE? a. Drinking tea can protect your skin b. Music is good for your skin c. Spent oil from French fries can repair your skin. If you’ve got an answer to the challenge, have a question, or have any topics you’d like us to cover, leave a comment below.

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If you live anywhere near Chicago or can be around on March 31, 2010, you won't want to miss the 2010 SCC Midwest Chapter TEAMWORKS trade show. This is always a great show and you can't beat the price... FREE. The TEAMWORKS show features all the biggest & best raw material and ingredient suppliers in the cosmetic and personal care industry. It also features a half-day educational program. Every cosmetic chemist or interested science major should make it a point to attend. Here are the details SCC Midwest Chapter TEAMWORKS 2010 March 31, 2010 - 8:30 AM-6 PM Donald E. Stephens Convention Center 5555 N. Des Plaines River Road Rosemont, IL (Chicago) Educational Program March 31 8:30 AM - noon New colleagues are waiting, new concepts abound and innovations are within reach - discover them in Chicago. The Midwest Chapter Society of Cosmetic Chemists (SCC) will host TEAMWORKS 2010, the premier exhibition for formulators among the specialty chemical allied trades, on March 31, 2010, at the Donald E. Stephens Convention Center in Rosemont, Illinois-conveniently located near O'Hare International Airport. Chemists, chemical buyers, engineers and technologists in the cosmetic, personal care, pharmaceutical and other allied industries will mingle among 130+ booths representing prime technology suppliers in the industry. TEAMWORKS 2010 is an opportunity to gather for an exciting learning experience, and to foster friendships in a bond of cooperation and success. Education, innovation and networking are key focal points during this event. The half-day educational program will highlight the latest material launches to give formulations an added edge, and technology exchanges will occur throughout the exhibition. See below for more information. Networking opportunities will also abound-grab a colleague during the buffet luncheon, sit down together and debate product development strategies; or arrive a day early to network during the Social Night with some of the great minds in the industry. A buffet lunch, raffle prize drawings, BINGO card prizes, and a well-appointed networking area will be provided. Pre-registered attendees are also eligible for a raffle prize. (must register by March 16, 2010) Attendance is FREE! Register online - Educational Program: Formulating for Marketing Demands - 8:30 AM - noon 8:30-9:00 Continental Breakfast and Networking 8:50-8:55 Opening Remarks Gene Frank, Raani Corp. 9:00-9:30 Keynote Presentation: A Corporate Strategy for Sustainability Peggy Ward, Manager of Corporate Sustainability Programs, Kimberly-Clark 9:30-9:35 Q&A 9:40-10:00 Addressing the 'Free-from' Conundrum-paraben-free, sulfate-free, etc. Tim Kapsner, Senior Research Scientist, Aveda Corp. 10:00-10:05 Q&A 10:05-10:20 Coffee Break 10:25-10:45 Formulating for Sensitive Skin Russell Walters, PhD, Johnson & Johnson 10:45-10:50 Q&A 10:55-11:15 Formulating for Ethnic Care Ali Syed, CEO, Avlon Industries 11:15-11:20 Q&A 11:25-11:45 Improving Sensory Benefits in Hair Care Michael Wright, Senior Research Scientist, Nexxus Salon Hair Care/Alberto Culver Co. 11:45-11:50 Q&A 11:55 Closing Remarks *The education session will open with a continental breakfast at 8:30 am, followed by opening remarks with the keynote presentation beginning at 9:00 am. Online Exhibitor Guide! Plan your visit ahead of time and check out the exhibitors today! All exhibitors are listed alphabetically on...

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One of my favorite times when training new cosmetic chemists is the moment they learn that many of the ingredients cosmetic companies put in their formulas are added for reasons other than their direct function. The look of puzzled enlightenment when they realize that the beauty product marketing they’ve accepted thus far is exaggeration is... well... priceless. Perhaps by the end of this post, you might experience that look too. What are puffery cosmetic ingredients? In the cosmetic science business, non-functional ingredients that are added to your formula to support marketing stories have a variety of names; puffery ingredients, featured ingredients, woofle dust, and pixie dust have all been used to describe these ingredients. They usually have some of the following features. 1. They sound impressive 2. They provide a story that consumers find compelling 3. The are trendy and probably featured in a magazine article 4. They are endorsed by some “expert” 5. They are expensive 6. They are used at low levels Basically, these ingredients are added to help convince consumers that their beauty product is special and will provide miraculous results. Which of these sounds more compelling to you? “Our product combines a blend of naturally charged biominerals with powerful botanical ingredients to create an exclusive anti-aging technology” Or “Our product combines petrolatum with cetyl alcohol to create an exclusive anti-aging technology” Obviously, the first one. But the truth is, the functional claims of this product are provided by ingredients like petrolatum, mineral oil and cetyl alcohol. They just don’t sound as good. Examples of puffery ingredients There are a wide variety of cosmetic ingredients that are added as puffery ingredients but they roughly fall under one of the following types. Vitamins — Everyone knows that vitamins are good for your diet and you need them to live, but consumers also have the erroneous belief that if something is good to eat, then it’s good to put on your skin & hair. The truth is there is very little evidence that topically applying most vitamins to your skin will have any effect. (Vitamins A & C are exceptions and can have an effect if properly formulated). There is no evidence that vitamins in your hair care products will have much effect. Some claim Vitamin B can increase hair strength but I’m not convinced by the available science and my own experience. Whether they are functional or not, adding vitamins makes your cosmetic products more appealing to consumers Proteins — These are another type of compound that consumers know about and are naturally inclined to believe they are good for them. When eaten, they are good for people. When slathered on their skin and hair, not necessarily. Proteins like collagen and elastin are added to skin creams. Silk, keratin, and other exotic hydrolyzed proteins are added to hair products. These ingredients aren’t added because of the effect they have (they don’t do much). They are added because consumers and marketers like the stories they convey. Natural ingredients —...

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If you are a cosmetic chemist who works on hair care products, this conference would be a good one to attend. TRI Princeton is doing some great basic research on hair and hair products of anyone in the industry. See the press release below. ------------- TRI Princeton presents the 4th International Conference on Applied Hair Science October 5-6, 2010 Princeton, New Jersey TRI's Conference on Applied Hair Science promises to provide a unique forum for the discussion of state-of-the-art science relevant to those practicing applied hair science. This year's conference will inspire the hair care industry through an innovative selection of speakers from industry, academia and government. Participants will have the opportunity to: learn from recognized leaders in hair science and technology presenting fundamental principals, an understanding of the evolution of current technology and contemporary experimental techniques interact with an international group of panelists, preseners and attendees to discuss category relevant topics in raw materials, claims and regulations experience demonstrations bringing the academic topics to the practical clarity of in-use observation Key topics include: Hair Care *Mega trends in Naturals and Efficacy *Multicultural Hair Solutions *Performance Profiling *Sensory Profiling & Consumer Perception Actives and their Benefits *Penetration of Fibers - Effects of Small Molecules on Hair *Hair Growth *Nutrition for Hair Product Technology *Silicone and Silicone Alternatives *Deposition of Actives via Rinse-off Applications *Hair Damage - Cutting-edge Technology, New Methods, Treatments *Color Fading and Protection Style - Devices and Formulations *Curl Management/Treatment *New Devices from light therapy to steaming irons *How Devices are used on Hair *Basic Research Call For Papers Abstracts for oral or poster presentations must be submitted by June 1, 2010. Please email your abstract to the Conference Organizer at info@triprinceton. org or complete the abstract submission form on the conference website. Proceedings of the Fourth International Conference on Applied Hair Science will be published as a special volume of a peer-reviewed journal. For further information on the conference visit the TRI website.

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It's the latest episode of the Chemists Corner podcast. Please have a listen and let us know what you think. Chemists Corner podcast is about cosmetic science and is broadcast to help educate, entertain, and inspire current and future cosmetic scientists. Each episode we’ll talk about news in the cosmetic industry, answer some of your questions, and discuss a topic in-depth, usually with an industry expert interview. In this episode... 1. News Colorado Safe Personal Care Products Act - The state of Colorado is proposing a bill that could limit the cosmetic chemist's ability to formulate. 2. Listener question — How do you do a Freeze / Thaw stability test? 3. Cosmetic Science - Top 10 problems in hair care science 4. Interview — Amanda Foxon-Hill of Realize Beauty. Amanda Foxon-Hill is a longtime cosmetic chemist who's worked in both Europe and Australia. She has experience formulating a wide range of products and is currently the Director of Realize Beauty, which features a website dedicated to de-mystifying the cosmetics industry for the consumer. She works as an instructor for the Institute of Personal Care Science which offers a certified diploma course in cosmetic chemistry. Additionally, she runs workshops called Cosmetic Kitchen for adults and kids where they make a few basic products. Her latest project is writing a book called "Realize Beauty" which is a philosophical look at our relationship with our bodies. 5. Weekly Challenge. Perfume manufacturers are bringing out new fragrances for the coming season. Ralph Lauren has four new fragrances, Christian Dior has five, and Givenchy has two. How many new fragrances will be promoted by Yves Saint Laurent? If you’ve got an answer to the challenge, have a question, or have any topics you’d like us to cover, leave a comment below.

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Last fall I did a talk for the Joint Forensic Association meeting in Orlando. It was a lot of fun talking to forensic scientists about cosmetics. I did a modified version of my Beginning Cosmetic Chemistry course which focused less on formulating and more on the composition of cosmetics. What I found most interesting was the way that forensic scientists use cosmetics as evidence in crimes. Here are some examples. Lipstick prints You probably know forensic scientists use fingerprints for solving crimes, but did you know they can use lipstick prints and smears as well? By comparing the composition of a lipstick smear with that of a victim, forensic scientists can demonstrate indirect proof of contact or a relationship between victim and suspect. Also, it is sometimes possible to extract saliva DNA from the print. See this article published in the April 2002 issue of Forensic Science Communications a paper on how they do it. Idea: Could lipstick manufacturers add an ingredient to their cosmetics that would help forensic scientists better identify prints? Foundation smears Like lipstick smears, make-up foundation can easily be transferred to clothing or other surfaces just through contact. Forensic scientists can discriminate between different types by using FTIR, SEM-EDX and GC-FID analysis. According to this paper in the Journal of Forensic Sciences, they can get up to 99. 7% accuracy. Idea: Could cosmetic scientists modify their formulas to help make identification even easier without impacting performance? Shampoo identifications Although it is thought to be a myth that your hair gets “used to” a certain shampoo, there is some evidence that components from your shampoo will accumulate in your hair. Using HPLC, forensic scientists have found that they can determine the type of shampoo that may have been used on a hair sample. The technique requires only a 5 to 10 cm single hair and is non-destructive. This technique could be used for making cosmetic claims about your hair products Hair bleach interference Forensic scientists can use hair to determine whether a person has been taking illicit drugs. It’s really quite amazing what kind of things get trapped in your hair. They analyze samples using GC-MS and can detect codeine, morphine, cocaine, and opiates. Bleaching, perms and other hair treatments were found to significantly reduce the detectable amount of many of these compounds. New ideas While thinking about the intersection between forensics and cosmetic science, it occurred to me that this could be a rich area for new product ideas. The idea of putting something in your cosmetic formula to make it easier to identify seems like a pretty good one. In addition to helping law enforcement, it could also help stop product counterfeiters. Think about your own products. How could you change them to make them more useful for forensic scientists?

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Formulating is one of the most enjoyable aspects of being a cosmetic chemist. This is when you get to blend all the cosmetic science you’ve learned with your creative inspirations. It’s how you can make your mark as a formulation chemist. The following 6 steps will help you take your ideas and convert them into functioning cosmetic products. Step 1 — Define your product Before you get started, you need to think about what you are going to make. Figure out what functions you want your product to achieve. Is it a cleansing product, a moisturizer, a coloring product, or maybe a combination of factors? Also think about the aesthetic characteristics like color, thickness, clarity, etc. and the cosmetic product form. Write these parameters down so you’ll know when you done whether you’ve been successful. It is always helpful to have a target product with characteristics that you are trying to match. Be sure to get a sample to look at and feel. Step 2 — Find a starting formula Next you need to figure out a good starting formula. Starting formulas can be found from a variety of sources. You can look at some of the most useful cosmetic science books. You can also look at online formularies like the one from Happi. com or Chemidex. com. Raw material suppliers like Croda and Rhodia also have formularies that you can use. Another useful source is patents. You can use Google patents or the USPTO. gov website to find formulas. Of course, you can also talk to a colleague who may be able to share one of her starting formulas with you. Finally, if you work at a big company, they will have a big archive of old formulas that will give you a great starting basis. Remember, starting formulas are not meant to be finished formulas Step 3 — Prepare for your batch Once you have your starting formula, you’ll want to determine how much you want to make and create a spreadsheet which lists out how much of each ingredient you need. Then you’ll need to list the specifications that you will test when the batch is finished. After that you’ll have to gather up all the raw materials and processing equipment needed to make the batch. Next, put on your safety glasses & start making your batch. Step 4 — Making the batch Making a cosmetic product is much like cooking. You weigh or measure out your ingredients, mix them together as dictated in the procedure and heat & cool as required. During the entire process you should be writing detailed notes and observations in your lab notebook. These will come in handy when you need to make refinements for future prototypes. You almost never make a perfect batch on your first try Step 5 — Test your batch Once you’ve finished your formula, you’ll want to test it to see how successful you were. After letting the sample equilibrate to room temperature, take appropriate measurements like...

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It's episode 3 of the Chemists Corner podcast. A bit shorter than previous episodes but it was a busy week. Please have a listen and let us know what you think. Chemists Corner podcast is about cosmetic science and is broadcast to help educate, entertain, and inspire current and future cosmetic scientists. Each episode we’ll talk about news in the cosmetic industry, answer some of your questions, and discuss a topic in-depth, usually with an industry expert interview. In this episode... 1. News - Nutricosmetics for skin 2. Cosmetic Science - How to get useful formulation info when shopping 3. Weekly Challenge. Which of these beauty science headlines are false? a. Hair makes a good plant fertilizer b. Asian hair is the easiest type to simulate on computers. c. All natural hair colors come from 2 pigments d. Some 80-year-olds have no gray hair. If you've got an answer to the challenge, have a question, or have any topics you'd like us to cover, leave a comment below.

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It's the second episode of the Chemists Corner podcast. Please listen and leave a comment below with what you think. Chemists Corner podcast is about cosmetic science and is broadcast to help educate, entertain, and inspire current and future cosmetic scientists. Each episode we’ll talk about news in the cosmetic industry, answer some of your questions, and discuss a topic in-depth, usually with an industry expert interview. In this episode... 1. News - Dr. Oz on Beauty. The Price of Beauty article was discussed. 2. Listener question - How do you make your formulas less expensive? 3. Interview - Johann W. Wiechers, PhD Article discussed - Is cosmetic science "bad science"? Contact Dr Wiechers through JW Solutions. 4. Weekly Challenge. Derma wand - shoots oxygen into your skin Safe tox - wrinkle reducing headband If you have a question, or have any topics you'd like us to cover, leave a comment below.

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When I was in college, I had no idea what kind of job to get when I graduated. In fact, I switched from a biology major to chemistry major in my first senior year because I realized there were a lot more job listings for chemists in the newspaper than for biologists. Biology was great but I needed to make money to pay off my college loans. I accidentally stumbled into the cosmetic science field and have enjoyed it as my chemist career. If you are unsure about what to do with your science degree, you might find it helpful to know the types of jobs you might enjoy in the cosmetic industry. And if you're in the cosmetic market, you might find it useful to know about the other jobs you might get. Chemistry Majors In the cosmetic industry, a degree in chemistry or chemical engineering is most useful. No doubt other scientists are hired, but chemists always have a leg up. There are a variety of different jobs available depending on the type of chemistry you liked. Organic Chemistry If you liked mixing things together in the lab during organic chemistry course than you're well-suited for a job in a cosmetic laboratory. Here are just a few of the jobs you would like. Formulation Chemist - Responsible for creating product formulas. Synthesis Chemist - Responsible for synthesizing new raw materials for formulation chemists to use. Basic Science Researcher - Responsible for doing basic research on skin, hair, or surfactants. Not many of these jobs out there. Analytical Chemistry If you enjoyed your analytical chemistry classes and liked doing those chemical isolation investigations then these are a few jobs you'd like. QA/QC Chemist - Run samples through instruments like GC, Mass Spec, IR to test raw materials, formulas, and insure quality. Analytical chemist - Use instruments to come up with tests for QA/QC scientists to run. Also, solve complicated production problems & assist product development group. Physical Chemistry Although this is one of the toughest classes you had to take, if you enjoyed it you might also enjoy the following cosmetic industry job. Process Engineer - Responsible for scaling up formulas from beaker sized batches to thousands of gallons tanks. Also, assist in picking batching equipment. Basic Science Researcher - Responsible for doing basic research on skin, hair, or surfactants. Not many of these jobs out there. General Chemistry If you didn't specialize in any specific area of chemistry these jobs might appeal to you. Technical Services - Responsible for evaluating raw materials and finished products to see what they can do. Sensory Scientist - Develop and conduct tests which will predict consumer response to formulas. Claims Substantiation Scientist - Develop tests to help support cosmetic claims made about products Cost Savings Chemist - Take existing formulas and figure out how to make them less expensive. Regulatory Scientist - Ensure your formulators are not infringing on patents or otherwise getting themselves into legal trouble. Biology If proteins, genetics, plants...

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Innovation is a subject I enjoy learning about, so I read as much about it as I can. Recently, I finished The Medici Effect by Frans Johansson. It was a great read and filled with practical information that any cosmetic chemist / inventor can use to help inspire new ideas. Here is a basic summary of the key information from the book. I encourage you to get a copy and read it, but this should get you started. Medici Effect book summary I. The Intersection In the first part, Johansson explains what he means by the Medici Effect. This is a phenomenon of extraordinary creativity created by the intersection of ideas from different fields. This effect is the source for the most revolutionary and innovative ideas. He also explains that there are three factors that have led to an increase in the potential for revolutionary ideas including a. The movement of people & blending of cultures b. The convergence of different fields of science c. The increase in computing power Bottom line for cosmetic chemists — If you want to create innovative ideas you need to combine fields that are not obviously related. (e. g To make a better cosmetic, go learn about pet biology, classical music, or fishing) II. Creating the Medici effect This part of the book explains the practical ways to go about creating the Medici Effect and generating a bunch of revolutionary ideas. The steps seem easy enough. First, break down the mental barriers that keep you stuck in your field. This can be done in a variety of ways including. Expose yourself to new fields, people, and cultures. Learn in a different way (be as self-taught in an area as you can) Reverse assumptions — Think about all the assumptions about your current product and imagine what would happen if the opposite was true. Randomly combine subjects The book gives other ways for a team to create a Medici effect including Work with teams of diverse occupation backgrounds Work with teams of diverse ethnic / gender backgrounds Bottom line for cosmetic chemists To come up with the most innovative ideas, study subjects unrelated to cosmetic science, work with people a diverse group of people, and brainstorm frequently to come up with ideas. Quantity of ideas is much more important than Quality. III. Making Intersectional ideas happen The final section of the book is about how you can turn innovative ideas into actual products. You first have to realize that you are going to fail much more frequently than you succeed. Most of your ideas will be bad. But you have to learn from your failures, don’t be afraid of them, and don’t waste all your money/resources on one idea. Revolutionary ideas are risky but the payoff is worth the risk. To make a revolutionary idea happen, you’ll also have to break out of your typical network of people. Your current network is set up to maintain the status quo. Most people will scoff at anything...

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One of my favorite parts of the C&T website is their "Biology Research" section. Here you'll find science based articles that illuminate the latest understandings of basic human hair and skin biology. An article that caught my interest was a summary of twins skin research published in the Archives of Dermatology. I was more of a hair care cosmetic chemist so I always find skin articles interesting. Some facts I found most interesting. It's in your genes Genetics is responsible for 60% of all aging. This will be noticed as fine wrinkles and skin growths. So, no matter what kind of special anti-aging cream a cosmetic formulator can create, it's only going to affect 40% of the consumer's problem. No wonder cosmetic chemists have such a hard time. Smoking and eating Smoking, being over-weight, and previous history of skin cancer were all correlated with higher levels of photodamage. Looks like more evidence that you should wear a UV protector. Alcohol benefits Drinking was correlated with lower photodamage scores. So, people who drink alcohol have better looking skin? I saw it hypothesized in a different article about this research that the alcohol may have come in the form of wine and the anti-oxidants in it could explain this result. The researchers didn't separate out what type of alcoholic drinks subjects had so this remains a mystery. How to have great skin So, the advice I get from this research is as follows. If you want great looking skin... Don't smoke Don't become overweight Wear a sunscreen Drink alcohol Hope that you inherited youthful looking skin genes Unfortunately, there is nothing in this research that indicates using anti-aging skin creams will give much benefit at all. Looks like the cosmetic chemists who work on these products still have more work to do.

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This article on Gizmodo about the 10 Science stories that changed our decade made me think about the advances in cosmetic science that have changed our industry. It's pretty tough to narrow down but the following cosmetic science topics have certainly had a big impact. 1. Nanotechnology - Nanotechnology has been used in cosmetics since the early 1990s but it was only during the last decade that marketers caught on and started using it to sell products. The technology is promising but questions about safety have led to a backlash that could short circuit widespread use. Nanotechnology is currently used mostly in sunscreens. However, skin lotions, color cosmetics and hair products may all benefit from them in the future. 2. Green formulations. Little has affected cosmetic formulation in the last decade than the Green Movement. Proponents of this philosophy have prompted personal care manufacturers to completely reformulate many products to remove animal derived ingredients, add organic extracts and expunge formulas of any chemical that might sound controversial. Formulas also have to be sustainable and come from fair trade sources. The Sustainable Cosmetics Summit goes through all the things a cosmetic chemist will need to know to formulate "green" in the future. 3. REACH - One of the most impactful pieces of regulation that has come to the cosmetic industry, REACH is the EU's directive to get the chemical industry to prove the safety of their ingredients. This means that formulation chemists everywhere will have to think through the global compatibility of all ingredients. The practical implication is that your raw material suppliers will probably open factories in Europe so they can get around many of the toughest requirements. 4. Alternative preservatives. Parabens and formaldehyde donors were fine in the 90's but in the last decade, they were some of the most vilified chemicals a cosmetic formulator could use. Raw material suppliers have been trying to come up with alternatives but the truth is, nothing yet matches the current preservatives for efficacy, safety, and cost. Finding alternative preservatives that satisfies the chemically frightened consumers is the Holy Grail. 5. Globalization - It used to be that you could create a formula for your market and if it sold well, you would launch it into other countries. But with new regulations and a more global focus, companies are beginning with a global mindset. In the last decade, formulation chemists had to think about all of the potential markets of their products before anything was launched. This prevented a huge reformulation effort when the company inevitably wanted to launch in new countries. No doubt, this trend will continue. 6. Animal testing alternatives - The last decade saw a huge push to get rid of all animal testing of cosmetics. Consumers don't like and neither do cosmetic companies. Scientists have worked hard to come up with alternatives but the work isn't complete and is proving harder than once believed. The EU is due to ban all animal testing by 2013. For the innovative cosmetic...

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While we know you adore Chemists Corner and use it for all your cosmetic science needs, the truth is we can't cover every topic. To get even more cosmetic chemistry information, take a look at some of these other websites created and written by cosmetic chemists. Cosmetic Chemist Blogs 1. Colin’s Beauty Pages — Written by a UK-based cosmetic scientist. Colin reviews products, beauty advice, and the science behind beauty and attraction. He’s currently writing a book on the science of beauty and you can see some excerpts on the blog. 2. The b-spot - Nikita is a cosmetic chemist who works as a consultant to the industry. She also has a regular column in the prestigious Cosmetics & Toiletries magazine, one of the top publications for cosmetic science professionals. She gives an insider’s view of the cosmetic industry. 3. Science of beauty — Here’s a site that discusses the science behind beauty products from the perspective of a university professor. Joanne doesn’t work in the beauty industry but she loves beauty products & knows a thing or two about chemistry. Be sure to see her video experiments. 4. Natural Haven — Written by JC, a natural haired scientist based in UK who does not work for any cosmetic company, but is well-versed in the latest beauty research published in scientific journals like the Journal of the Society of Cosmetic Chemists. Definitely worth checking out. 5. The Beauty Brains — A blog written by cosmetic chemists answering consumer questions about beauty products. They try to present cosmetic science in a manner that is appreciated by the non-scientific public. 6. Soapy Guy - Here's a cosmetic scientist who surfs the web and links to stories that any cosmetic chemist will find interesting. He often provides his own commentary which helps give the stories real-world application. It's a great read and one we wish was updated a little more frequently. New Blogs with Potential 7. Dr. Dad's Advise - Here's a relatively new blog which is written by a cosmetic chemist who works in the Chicago area. He's got a couple of useful articles on surfactants and emulsifiers. We'll keep an eye on this one. 8. Rajat Narang's blog - As often happens, someone is excited when they start their new blog and then fizzle out after a few entries. This one seems to have gone that way. However, the entries that Rajat did write are pretty good. If you're looking for information about colorants, check out this site. Useful Resources Sense about Science - This isn't necessarily about cosmetic science but it does give you some great information about science and how to think critically about claims you see in the news. It should be on every cosmetic chemist's RSS feed. Do you have some websites that we didn't mention? Leave a comment with a link below.

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Kelly alerted me to this interesting article about some of the more unusual cosmetics launched in 2009. In it they highlight the following products as examples of what cosmetic companies are doing to create "innovative" products. 1. Soap from a lingerie company 2. Men's cologne in a bottle shaped like a #1 3. Nanotechnology skin care cream 4. 3D anti-ageing skin mask The thing I find most interesting is that at least 2 of these products do not require any new cosmetic formulation (the soap & cologne). And the other 2 could also be done without any difficult formulation work. The basic problem with these new products is that they aren't solving any consumer problems in a superior way. The new package may make you stand out on the shelf but it is still cologne. Soap from a lingerie company is still soap. I have no idea what a 3-D face mask but it's not a stretch to imagine it is just another name for a typical face mask. The only product that could have some technological innovation is the one based on nanotechnology. Unfortunately, there are no claims given and you could easily make the product by creating a standard skin lotion with added, non-functional nanotechnology. Solve Consumer Problems If cosmetic companies really wanted to set their products apart from the competition, they need to create formulas that solve consumer problems in some superior way. Consumers don't care about how their products work (say nanotechnology), they care about the end results. So, while you enter the new year and are thinking about projects to work on, start with figuring out which consumer problem you want to solve. Don't know what they problems are? We've previously written about them. Top Hair Care consumer problems Top Skin Care consumer problems Creating products to solve problems like these is definitely more difficult than package or color/fragrance changes. But ultimately, the products that will be successful are ones that cosmetic chemists create focused on solving real consumer problems. Happy formulating.

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One of the missions of Chemists Corner is to teach and inspire scientists in the cosmetic industry to become more innovative. The personal care and cosmetic products of today have changed only slightly in the last 20 years. This is primarily because new product development is led by Marketing and Market Research groups rather than by cosmetic chemists. New stories drive innovation rather than new technologies. But cosmetic chemists and R&D departments can change this. They can take responsibility for innovation and focus on solving real problems in new ways. Changing color, fragrance and packaging may be innovative to Marketing departments but it is not the kind of innovation that solves cosmetic problems. This type of “real” innovation can only come from people who know cosmetic science. Unfortunately, innovation is not a topic that is part of most undergraduate science programs. You’ll need to study the subject on your own to get better at it. One way to do that is to keep up on innovation blogs, read books, and attend continuing education courses. However, ultimately the way to be innovative is to DO SOMETHING. Identify problems you want to solve, generate ideas, conduct experiments, and play in the lab. No doubt you are “too busy”, everyone is. Make it a priority and you’ll find the time. For some innovation inspiration, the Heart of Innovation blog put up this article about 50 ways to make your culture more innovative. Here are a few that are most relevant to a cosmetic chemist. 3. Have more fun. If you're not having fun (or at least enjoying the process) something is off. 4. Always question authority, especially the authority of your own longstanding beliefs. 9. Ask questions about everything. After asking questions, ask different questions. After asking different questions, ask them in a different way. 18. Encourage people to get out of their offices and silos. Encourage people to meet informally, one-on-one, and in small groups. 27. Make customers your innovation partners, while realizing that customers are often limited to incremental innovations, not breakthrough ones. 35. A great source of new ideas are people that are new to the company. Get new hires together and tap their brainpower and imagination. What have you done to make yourself more innovative? Leave a comment below and let us know.

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Beginning Cosmetic Chemistry 3rd Edition Sure it might be a bit much to include my own book on a list like this, but it really is one of the best resources for introducing someone to the world of cosmetic science. The book is in its third edition and has been expanded to over 50 chapters. It covers everything from industry jargon, raw materials, formulating, and even testing. It also includes chapters written by other industry experts so it’s not just “my book”. Chemistry and Manufacture of Cosmetics: Science 4th edition This is one of the original, complete set of books about cosmetic science. It is packed full of technical information covering cosmetic science, formulating and cosmetic ingredients. Almost every industry expert has written a chapter for this 4 volume book series. If you have a question about cosmetic chemistry, no doubt this book will have the answer for you. Harry's Cosmeticology 8th Edition The first edition of this classic book on cosmetic science was first published in 1940. It is now in its 8th edition and is one of the most comprehensive tomes on the subject. It covers all aspects of cosmetic science in 5 sections including the substrates (skin, hair, nails), formulation approaches, ingredients, specific formulations, and production. As a formulation chemist, you will find this single volume book an indispensable resource that you frequently reference. Handbook of Cosmetic Science and Technology, Third Edition Much like Harry’s, the Handbook of Cosmetic Science & Technology attempts to cover as many aspects of cosmetic science as it can in a single book. This 880+ page work covers everything from the biology of hair, skin and nails to cosmetic formula types, cosmetic ingredients and even cosmetic claims. Of all the books mentioned thus far, this one does the best job of covering cosmetic claims and testing. It’s definitely worth having on your bookshelf. A Short Textbook of Cosmetology I don’t know where I got this book but it is a nice, short volume that covers the basics of cosmetic science. It was written by an author from Switzerland so it has a more Euro-centric view of the cosmetic industry. Other books discussed many focus on the North American cosmetic industry. I particularly enjoyed the extensive historical section in this book. The book is significantly shorter than others weighing in at only 435 pages, but it packs a lot of information in those pages. Surfactants in Personal Care Products and Decorative Cosmetics, Third Edition (Surfactant Science) This book is a bit more technical about the science of surfactants than any others on the list. It has chapters written by a variety of cosmetic industry experts and is an excellent resource for the advanced cosmetic chemist. It is probably not one you want to start with but after a few years of formulating, you’ll definitely want to have it in your cosmetic science library. Chemical and Physical Behavior of Human Hair This is the most specific of all the books on this list and...

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Here's an interesting bit of research that might change the way cosmetic chemists make cosmetics and personal care products in the future. We know that surfactants plus heat & mixing are used for making oil and water emulsions, but in the future shaking might also be used. Writing in the journal Chaos (yes there is such a thing), researchers did an experiment that showed how water and oil mix. It turned out that by bouncing an oil-coated water droplet, a tiny emulsion could be formed inside the water droplet. See the video for a demonstration of what the researchers did. What is interesting about this is that it was silicone oil that was used. Silicone is sometimes difficult to formulate with because it is not compatible with most traditional cosmetic emulsifiers. I'm not sure if this manufacturing trick will ever be used on a large scale for cosmetic manufacture, but it is an interesting approach. It could lead to a more efficient way to create cosmetics which uses less energy. It may even lead to lower concentrations of surfactants required which is beneficial because surfactants are often the most irritating components of a cosmetic formula. It's great to see this basic research advancement in cosmetic science.

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Previously, we covered the basics of cosmetic stability testing. But one member of the Chemists Corner community wanted some more details on Freeze Thaw testing. We'll look at that aspect of stability testing in a little more detail. What is Freeze Thaw testing Freeze thaw testing is a type of stability test in which you freeze your formula, then thaw it out, and test to see what effect the process has on your product. To do a thorough freeze-thaw test you will repeat the cycle a few times. Why do Freeze thaw testing? Freeze thaw testing gives you information that regular stability testing can't. Namely, it will show you whether your formula will remain stable under varied conditions that it might experience during the shipping and storage phases of the product life cycle. It's likely that your product will be shipped via trucks or rail cars. These vehicles are rarely equipped with temperature controls so it is likely that your product may freeze one day and be in hot temperatures another. It is crucial that your formula is able to withstand extreme, rapid temperature changes. How to conduct a freeze-thaw test While there is no "right" way to do a freeze-thaw test, the following method is standard in the industry and will give you the information you need if you follow it. Step 1 - Prepare samples. (3 test, 1 control) Step 2 - Take initial readings. Step 3 - Put test samples in the freezer for 24 hours Step 4 - Remove samples and allow to thaw at room temperature Step 5 - Put samples in 50C oven for 24 hours Step 6 - Remove samples & allow to equilibrate at room temperature. Step 7 - Take end of the cycle readings You should repeat this test through 3 cycles. If done correctly it can be completed in 3 weeks. What to look for While the specific tests will depend on the type of formula you are testing, generally you'll want to take readings for Appearance, Odor, Viscosity and pH. Make particular note of whether there is any separating at the top or the bottom of samples. This is the most common form of instability. You may also test the products for performance characteristics just to ensure that the formulas still work as expected. Do you have any questions about stability testing or other cosmetic science topics? Send us an email or leave a comment below

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One of our favorite cosmetic chemist resources, SpecialChem for Cosmetics, just got a whole lot better. At this website, you can find all kinds of free information about the cosmetic industry like industry news, technology launches, and even some basic articles. This is good and all, but the INCI Directory that they just launched is really something special. In fact, in some ways it's even BETTER than the online version of the actual INCI dictionary published by the PCPC. And best of all... it's FREE! INCI Dictionary The INCI Dictionary is the book which contains all the legal names for the ingredients used in cosmetics. See this previous post on naming cosmetic ingredients for more information. Unfortunately, to get access to the online version you have to be a paying member of the PCPC (not something most individuals can afford). With the new INCI Directory from SpecialChem, all you need to do is be a registered member to get access. It's great! Why the INCI Directory is useful As a new cosmetic chemist, you are going to run into names of chemicals you've never heard. There are literally thousands of compounds and new ones being launched all the time. You just can't keep up. If you want to know more about a chemical with an unfamiliar name you would have to go search for the supplier or visit the library (unless you had access to the INCI online dictionary). Now, you can use the INCI Directory instead. INCI Directory Benefits The best thing about the INCI Directory for a formulation chemist is the search function. You can look up chemicals by their CAS numbers and by partial matches of their name. One of the biggest complaints about the online INCI Dictionary is that their search function is terrible. You need exact matches instead of partial matches. Another great feature is the extra information attached to each compound. You'll find links to technical data sheets, suggested starting formulations, articles which discuss the ingredient, news mentions of the ingredient and even a list of finished products that use the ingredient. This is much more information than the INCI Dictionary gives. INCI Directory Deficiencies The primary problem with the free directory is that you have no guarantee that the information is up-to-date and accurate. The PCPC might change something about their listing which the directory might not update. But this is of minor concern when you are doing some basic background research on an ingredient. The other problem is that you don't get the chemical formula or molecular structure like you do with the standard INCI Dictionary. However, this information is easily obtained through the numerous technical data sheets that are attached to each entry. INCI Directory This is a great resource that every cosmetic chemist should be using on a regular basis. The free information should speed up your development time and introduce you to new cosmetic materials you might be interested in trying. It doesn't replace the INCI Dictionary, but it...

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I remember learning about surfactants in first year college chemistry. It covered one page of Zumdahl Chemistry, and we spent exactly 5 minutes covering it. It came up again briefly in Organic Chemistry and that was about it. Surfactants were just not important. That’s why I found it strange to learn that in the cosmetic industry, surfactants are the cornerstone of nearly all formulation and cosmetic science in general. To be a great formulation chemist, you have to know the chemistry of surfactants. Surfactants Reduce Surface Tension There are various places you can find background information about surfactant chemistry such as here and here, but we’re going to focus on what is most important for cosmetic chemists to know. The key thing to know about surfactants is that they are chemicals which have parts that are both hydrophilic (water loving) and lipophilic (oil loving). This molecular composition means they have the ability to reduce the surface tension when placed into solutions of oil and water. In fact, the word “surfactant” is a shortened form of the phrase “surface active ingredient. ” While it may make sense that surfactants reduce surface tension, you might be wondering what that means from a practical application standpoint. We’ll look at that next. How do cosmetic surfactants work? When surfactants are put into solutions, the molecules have a tendency to line up in a certain way depending on the solution composition, the concentration of the surfactant, and the temperature. In a water solution with extremely low surfactant concentrations, the molecules tend to bounce around randomly without forming structures. But at the Critical Micelle Concentration (CMC) they arrange themselves in spherical structures called micelles. On the outer layer of the spheres are the hydrophilic parts of the surfactant molecule and on the inner layer are the lipophilic parts. It’s a bit like a cream filled donut. Increase the surfactant concentration and more complicated structures result such as hexagonal cylinders, lamellar planes and liquid crystals. Since this is an introduction, we’ll stick with the micelle structures. Surfactants uses cosmetics Now that you know about micelles, you’re ready to learn practical applications of surfactants in cosmetics. Surfactants are useful for the following application. 1. Cleansing 2. Emulsification 3. Solubilization 4. Conditioning 5. Special effects Cleansing Surfactants The useful thing about micelles is that they can help suspend oil in water. When a small amount of oily materials is put into an aqueous solution of surfactants, it will migrate into the center portion of the micelle. So, when you put a surfactant solution on a surface like hair or skin, the oil that is there will be drawn away from the surface and into the micelles. When the surfactant solution is rinsed away, the surface is clean. For a graphical explanation of this process, see this short instructive video about surfactants (requires a Flash player). Foaming Foam is another characteristic of surfactant solutions so you’ll need surfactants if you want your product to foam. Essentially, foam is the entrapment...

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If you haven’t done so yet, you might want to review part 1 of this surfactant series to learn what surfactants are and when you might use them. There are thousands of different types of surfactants and it can be difficult to know which to use for any specific application. This task is made easier by knowing how surfactants are classified. Types of surfactants Surfactants can be grouped by the charge characteristic of their polar (hydrophilic) head groups. The four groups include Anionic Cationic Amphoteric Non-Ionic We’ll discuss each of these next. Anionic Surfactants Anionic surfactants are those that have a negative charge on their polar head group. They include groups like carboxylic acids, sulfates, sulfonic acids, and phosphoric acid derivatives, of which the first three are most important in cosmetics. They are most useful for applications that require good cleansing and foam. Carboxylic acid anionic surfactants like stearic acid are useful for creating stick products like deodorants and antiperspirants. The salt version (sodium stearate) makes an excellent soap. Sulfates are the next most commonly used anionics. They include synthetic detergents like sodium lauryl sulfate (SLS), ammonium lauryl sulfate (ALS), or their ethoxylated companions, sodium laureth sulfate (SLES). They are excellent foamers, cleansing agents, and are relatively inexpensive. The drawback is that they can be irritating and some consumers find them troubling. In fact, sulfates are some of the most highly vilified cosmetic raw materials but we’ll save that discussion for another time. Sulfonic acid surfactants are generally more mild than sulfates. They include Taurates (derived from taurine), Isethionates (derived from isethionic acid), Olefin sulfonates, and Sulfosuccinates. The reason they are not used more often is that they are more expensive to produce and do not provide a significant enough benefit over Sulfates. Cationic Surfactants Cationic surfactants are those that have a positive charge on their polar head group. They are most useful for conditioning cosmetics. They include chemical classes such as Amines, Alkylimidazolines, Alkoxylated Amines, and Quaternized Ammonium Compounds (or Quats). By far the most significant cationic surfactants used in cosmetics are Quats. These are nitrogen-containing compounds that acquire a positive charge when dispersed in solution. This positive charge makes them electrostatically attracted to the negative (damaged) sites on hair and skin protein which makes them resist rinse-off. Quats like Cetrimonium chloride and Stearalkonium Chloride provide the basis for numerous hair conditioners. The biggest challenge of working with cationics is that they are not typically compatible with anionic surfactants. This means it is difficult to produce products that simultaneously clean and condition using only surfactants. Cationic surfactants can also be irritating so this must be considered when formulating cosmetics with them. Amphoteric surfactants Some surfactants have the potential to have both positive and negative charges depending on the environment they are placed. This characteristic is termed “zwitterionic” and surfactants of this type are called amphoterics. Examples include Sodium Lauriminodipropionate and Disodium Lauroamphodiacetate. Amphoterics are primarily used in cosmetics as secondary surfactants. They can help boost foam, improve conditioning and...

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Hey all, just a quick note to tell you I'm working on a talk about the cosmetic industry and skepticism. I'll be giving it tonight (11/10/09) at the Midwest SCC meeting in Chicago. When I'm done with the slides, I'll post them here for everyone to review. In truth, the slides won't be much good as they are mostly pictures, but if you're interested feel free to download as you like. Skepticism talk The outline for the talk is as follows. I. Review of beliefs about Beauty Products & other things II. How we know what we know III. How to practice skeptical thinking & Why IV. Detecting beauty industry BS V. Conducting experiments VI. Avoiding logical fallacies I'm trying to keep it short and fun so I might have to axe a few topics. But I encourage everyone to think and behave skeptically. Remember, reality doesn't care what you want to believe. It is what it is.

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When you first enter an industry you will learn that there are a host of magazines dedicated to that industry. In their pages you'll find news, technology developments, stories about industry influencers, and many other useful bits of information. Here is a list of some of the most useful trade journals for cosmetic chemists about the cosmetic industry and cosmetic science. Free Cosmetic Industry Magazines These magazines are supported by advertisers and are usually given away for free to qualified readers. Just having a job (or interest) in the cosmetic industry is usually enough to qualify. Happi — A great magazine reporting on both the household and personal care industry. They also have a pretty good website too. GCI Magazine — This magazine is less about science but filled with useful business and marketing information for people in the cosmetic industry. They also cover personal care, fine fragrance and candle and home fragrance manufacturers and marketers. Skin Inc. Magazine — An industry publication for day spa, medical spa and wellness professionals. If you work in skin care, this is a good magazine to read for finding market trends. The science however, is a little “soft”. Modern Salon — If you are a creator of beauty products for the hair, this magazine will give you an insight into what stylists are doing and the trends that affect them. Cosmetic chemists will find it a great source for new product ideas. Of course, it’s thick with marketing “stories” so read with a skeptical mind. Spray Technology & Marketing — This publication specifically covers the world of sprayable products like hair spray, fragrance, AP/DO, etc. If you are working in this area of the cosmetic industry, you’ll want to keep up on this magazine. Paid Cosmetic Industry Subscriptions The problem with free subscriptions is that they don’t dedicate a lot of money to content generation so you get articles that seem more like sales pitches than unbiased articles. For the most unbiased the industry has to offer, a paid subscription to one of these magazines is a great idea. Cosmetics & Toiletries — This is the premiere trade journal discussing the topic of cosmetic chemistry. If you have any interest in the science of beauty products, this is the publication for you. If you purchase only one magazine, this one should be it. Journal of the SCC — This is a peer reviewed scientific journal that you get your membership to the Society of Cosmetic Chemists. The topics represent the latest in cosmetic science research and have titles/articles that are more complicated than the usual trade publication. Excellent for anyone who is trying to become an expert in a specific area of cosmetic science. The Rose Sheet - If you are looking for anything about regulatory, legislative, and just about any other insider news about the cosmetic industry, this journal has it. The design isn’t much to look at (it’s a glorified newsletter) but the content is top notch. And you’ll pay top...

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I read this interesting interview over at the Harvard Business blog. Some university types conducted a 6-year study of 3000 "creative" executives and came to the following conclusions about what innovative people have that non-innovative people lack. Basically, there are 5 skills that they have developed. We outline the skills below and suggests some exercises that can help you build them. This should be useful in your cosmetic science career. 1. Associating This is the ability to make mental connections between seemingly unrelated ideas and problems. For example, the guy who made Velcro was inspired by the way burrs stuck to his dog's fur. Exercise 1 - Mash-up exercise. Think of 2 different kinds of products, one personal care product & one non-personal care product. For example, skin lotion and a mop. Spend 5 minutes trying to come up with inventions that would combine characteristics of both products. Here are just two quick examples. A mop you use to apply skin lotion (for your back? ) An additive to your mop solution that softens & moisturizes your floors Don't worry whether the ideas are good or not. The point is to train your brain to start thinking this way. 2. Questioning Innovative people are inquisitive people. They constantly ask questions like "what if" and "Why? " This can make them look stupid because the answers seem simple but it can also shake up your brain and get you to a new way of thinking. Exercise 2 - Questioning. Ask basic questions about the product you are working on. For example, "What if you couldn't use water to take showers? How would products be different? ". "What if none of your consumers could see color or smell fragrances? How would your products be different? " 3. Closely observe details Scientists are well suited for this skill. When you are trying to develop innovative products the first thing you should do is observe someone using the current product and see if you can find any points where you can improve the process. Exercise 3 - Video observations. Go to YouTube and search for people doing demonstrations on using the type of products you are developing. You can find people applying cosmetics, makeup, washing their hair, washing their face, etc. Watch the process and see if you can figure out a way to make it easier. 4. Experiment Here's another skill your training as a scientist will help. If you are able to come up with a hypothesis and test it, you are well on your way to developing your new idea into an innovative product. Exercise 4 - Be an inventor. Get a book like 'How to make sneaky things out of everyday objects' and just tinker. To be an inventor, you have to invent. Practicing the inventions of other people is a great way to get started. 5. Good at networking In today's world, the "lone inventor" rarely exists any more. To get things accomplished you need a good network. You...

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We recently wrote about all the Cosmetic Chemists on Twitter and even listed some things you can do with the service. But here is an application we didn't think of. According to this article on WSJ. com, some people are using Twitter to get themselves jobs. How to find a job through Twitter Step 1: Sign up for a Twitter account Step 2: Create a profile that lists your career goal (e. g. To become an excellent cosmetic chemist) Step 3: Link to your LinkedIn profile or personal website in your profile Step 4: Put your Twitter alias on your resume Step 5: Search for major companies on Twitter who you'd be interested to work for Step 6: Follow them and respond to Tweets you find interesting. How to search for people in the Beauty Business This can be challenging if you don't know where to look. Try TweepSearch. For example, if you do a search for P&G on TweepSearch, you'll find 31 people who you could follow. Search for L'Oreal, and you'll find 52 people who might be worth following. Search for Unilever, there are 36 people to follow Note: It's a bit harder to find smaller companies because this method depends on people to have put their company names in their profiles. But you can still find many people who work at the companies you may be interested in. It's worth trying! And for more tips on using Twitter to find a job, see this article which lists 50 more tips. And don't forget this article on Twitip on how to get a job using Twitter.

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I just saw that the FDA (Food & Drug Administration) revamped their cosmetics information website. This is an excellent resource for anyone who wants to know what the US government has to say about cosmetics. Here are some of the highlights. FDA Cosmetic Regulation Many people erroneously claim that the cosmetic industry is not regulated, but in the United States this responsibility falls on the FDA. Their specific responsibilities are outlined on this page. Basically, the FDA takes a hands-off approach with the mandate that cosmetic manufacturers are responsible for substantiating the safety of their products. They don't tell you specifically what testing proves safety so that's where things get a little fuzzy. FDA and cosmetic claims There is a section outlining what the FDA considers appropriate cosmetic labeling and claims. The requirements are not too stringent but they do say things like you can't put false or misleading information on the label. Required information on the label includes the following 1. Identity statement 2. Accurate quantity 3. Name & place of business 4. Directions for use 5. Appropriate warning statements 6. Ingredient list Definition of Cosmetic If you ever wonder what makes something a cosmetic or not, just check out this page on the new FDA cosmetic website. It comes right out of the FD&C Act sec. 201(i). This definition covers pretty much any kind of personal care product you can imagine (except soap). Other products that are not technically cosmetics are products classified as OTC drugs. This would be things like dandruff shampoos & sunscreens. More FDA Cosmetic Information The FDA has published about some specific cosmetic topics which they presumably were asked to do. This includes subjects like Mad Cow Disease, 1,4-dioxane and other potential cosmetic contaminants. They also have written about villified compounds such as parabens, phthalates, and color additives. Finally, there is some specific product information regarding hair color, makeup, etc. The FDA takes a lot of heat from consumer protection groups but they do try and provide the public important information about cosmetics. As a cosmetic scientist, you should be familiar with all of the information on their new website. It will make you a better formulator if you do. Have any questions about cosmetic formulas? Leave a question in the comments section below.

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If you're a recent college graduate or are up on Web 2. 0, you have no doubt heard about Twitter. And if you're really up on things, you've signed up and used Twitter. However, even if you've tried it you still might wonder what it is all about and more importantly, why should you use it? We here on Chemists Corner have been using Twitter for more than a year and have found a number of things that make it beneficial to cosmetic chemists. I wrote some of these in this article about Twitter contributed to GCI. Reasons to Use Twitter I'll summarize the reasons why cosmetic chemist should use twitter and include a few more that weren't listed in the article. 1. Discover types of products consumers want - You can spy on the Twitterverse and see what products / problems people are talking about. Try the Twitscoop to follow and search hot topics. 2. Get help solving your problems - Do you need advice with formulating, writing, directions, or even figuring out what to do with yourself while you're traveling? Posing your question to your followers on Twitter can help you solve almost any problem. 3. Find and share links about the beauty industry - You don't have time to read every article published on line or in print. You can use Twitter to find the latest industry or science news filtered by other cosmetic chemists. And you can share things you find interesting too. 4. Discover new science relevant to beauty industry - There are a number of scientists who use Twitter to publish their latest research. You can quickly find obscure topics that could help you create new, innovative products. 5. Connect with other cosmetic chemists - This is one of the most useful uses for Twitter. See what other cosmetic chemists are up to and help them out. In turn, they will help you when you might need a problem solved. Creating a network of cosmetic chemists will undoubtedly be useful for the future of your career. 6. Find out who's talking about you or your brand - If you work on a brand you can see what people are saying about it. This can alert you to potential problems and also help you figure out what you are doing right. Just use something like Twitscoop to track your brand. 7. Become an industry expert -The media uses Twitter as a quick way to identify experts who they will quote in their articles. If you have any interest in being quoted or featured in traditional press outlets, build a following on Twitter and they'll find you. 8. Virtually attend conferences -When I was at the latest National SCC meeting, I tweeted what was happening in the various conferences. The folks from C&T were also tweeting as were a few other cosmetic chemists. You could find out what was going on without having to travel across the country to find out. 9. Create a brainstorming group...

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Just some fun for this sunny Wednesday. In your career as a cosmetic chemist, you just might get the opportunity to work with some of these weird cosmetic ingredients. Snail serum - There was a joke treatment on an episode of Penn & Teller's Bullsh@t in which they had people let snails crawl over their face as some kind of new age facial treatment. It's no joke now. Here is a story that shows snail serum can be an anti-acne ingredient. I also thought snail slime would make a good ingredient for hair shine. Placenta — The life-giving uterus lining expelled after birth has been used in some beauty care products for years. Various manufacturers claim it helps stimulate tissue growth, reduces wrinkles and is good for your hair. Unfortunately, none of those claims have ever been proven. Certainly, there are other ingredients you could use that would work better. Cow dung — It turns out you can make an incredibly pleasant smelling vanilla fragrance from extracts of cow dung. And you thought it was just for fertilizer. Whale vomit — This material called Ambergris is useful as a fixative in perfumes. It has a sweet, earthy odor and is usually found washed up on a beach in South America or Australia. It has mostly been replaced by synthetic alternatives. Some of the most fascinating ingredients are used to make fragrances! Cochineal beetles — When you need a nice red color, you can drown a few of these buggers in some hot water, dry them out and pulverize them. The deep crimson dye is versatile enough to be used in skin creams, lipsticks and almost any other beauty product. These kinds of ingredients are difficult to get a consistent color Human breast milk — It could be a gimmick but some people swear by using human breast milk to make soap. I'd be surprised if any main stream cosmetic company would make a product using this ingredient. Bird poop — Ever heard of a Geisha Facial? It features deep cleansing, $180 price tag, and a big scoop of Nightingale bird poop. Supposedly the uric acid is supposed to be great for your face. I doubt that smearing bird droppings on yourself is the best way to get uric acid however. Bull semen - Want shiny hair? Then a few salons in Europe think they have exactly what you need. Protein from bull semen is supposed to give amazing results. I’m skeptical it will give you anything more than a stiff price for a hair cut. Snake venom — One of the most ridiculous new ingredients for keeping wrinkles at bay is snake venom. Cosmetic makers who use this stuff hope that you’ll connect the Botox poison with snake poison and figure both must work wonders on wrinkles. Despite what Jamie Pressly might think, snake venom hasn’t been shown to have any positive improvement in wrinkle creams. Chicken bone marrow — Supposed to be a good source of glucosamine but how...

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At some point in your chemist career, you are going to have an idea that you think would make a great product. You might even think the idea is so incredible that once it's developed it will make you rich beyond your wildest dreams! (or at least make you wealthy). This is good. You should continually be thinking up ideas like this. If you are like most people, you won't know what to do next. For cosmetic chemists who work for companies, the next step is typically to share your idea with your boss and do what you can to push the idea up to people who can make it happen. Sadly, this is rarely effective & the direct financial gain realized by you isn't much. But if you are on your own and feel a bit entrepreneurial, you might start thinking about how you can get the idea created on your own. Idea sharing fears One of the most common things I've heard is that people don't want to share their ideas with anyone because they are afraid the ideas might get stolen. If this is you, read this article about ideas. I know it's about software but it's relevant to cosmetics too. The bottom line is that even if your idea is incredible you don't have to worry about it being stolen because 1. Most people won't care 2. More people won't understand it 3. People care more about their own ideas What to do with your new idea The best thing you can do with a new idea is tell everyone you know about it. Ask them for their input and ways that you can make it happen or make it better. Remember, ideas are practically worthless. It's what you do with your ideas that makes them valuable to you and your chemist career. This is especially true in the cosmetic industry. A new product in your head is no good to anyone. Ideas are worthless. Execution of ideas is valuable. Incidentally, this is why I freely share any idea that I have. I'd rather see my idea realized (even if it's not by me) than to take it to my grave. Ideas locked up in your head are lost forever. Got an idea you haven't been able to get developed? Leave it below and set it free in the world. Someone might provide just the right feedback that will help you actually do something to make the idea happen.

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Here’s the biggest difference between what you experienced in your college organic chemistry lab versus a cosmetic formulation lab. In an organic lab, you mix chemicals together and hope something happens. Ideally, you get a chemical reaction you expect. As a formulating chemist, you mix chemicals together and hope nothing happens. Cosmetics are mixtures of chemicals that mostly aren’t supposed to react with each other. Unfortunately, they often do react (or otherwise change) so you need to test your formulas to see how long they will last. This is called Stability Testing and is something a cosmetic scientist spend much of her time doing. In this post, we’ll give a brief description of the test and suggest when, why and how it should be done. What is stability testing? Stability testing is simply an experiment in which you create a batch of your formula and put samples of it at different environmental conditions for a set period of time. These conditions vary in temperature and light levels and are meant to simulate what will happen to the product during its life cycle. At select intervals you evaluate your samples for various physical, chemical and performance characteristics to see how they have changed. If the changes are minimal according to your company standards, then your formula is said to have “passed” stability testing. This means you can have confident that when the formula is shipped to stores and ultimately customers, it will still be as good as when it was first manufactured. The underlying assumption in stability testing is that increasing storage temperature speeds up any aging reactions that will occur. A handy rule of thumb is that a sample stored at 45C for 8 weeks is equivalent to one that is stored at room temperature for one year. This isn’t an exact predictor, but is good enough for the purposes of cosmetic products. A sample stored at 45C for 8 weeks is equivalent to one stored at room temperature for a year When do you perform stability testing? Since you’ll be making hundreds or thousands of prototypes during your career, it won’t be practical to run a stability test on all of them. You’ll also find that changes happen so rapidly at your company, you won’t have time to properly test many of your formulas. But there are times when you need to do stability testing. Here is a short list of some of the most important times to conduct a stability test. 1. New prototypes — Whenever you make a new formula and are satisfied with the way it performs, you’ll want to do a stability test to ensure that it will stay together. Don’t bother testing all your prototypes, just the ones that work the way you want. 2. New raw materials — Whenever you have to change the fragrance, color, or other raw material in a formula, you’ll have to do a stability test to make sure there aren’t unacceptable changes. Also, when you have a new...

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I've always believed that the smartest people in the cosmetic industry are the scientists who make and test the products. Which has always made me wonder why more of them haven't gone out to start their own companies. It's easier to do now than ever before, only a small investment is required and it can be done in your spare time. This story about a YouTube user who got so popular that she was able to start her own cosmetics company might be just the inspiration you need. Of course, this is not to suggest you must go out and start your own company to be a successful cosmetic scientist. But if you've ever thought about it, why aren't you doing anything about it now? What do you think is holding you back? Click the box below to learn to start a cosmetic line.

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To advance in your cosmetic chemistry career you have to come up with good, unique ideas. If all your company needed from you was color and fragrance changes to formulas, they could’ve saved a lot of money by hiring a technician rather than a formulating chemist. Chemists who can come up with and implement ideas are the ones who will be most valuable to any company. Of course, coming up with and implementing ideas was not a subject you’re likely to have learned in any college science course. Some people seem born with the ability to generate ideas. And maybe they were. But generating new, unique ideas is something that everyone can do. You just need to use some proven brainstorming tools. One of these tools is the SCAMPER technique. Let’s look at what it is and how you might use it SCAMPER Idea Generation First, SCAMPER is an acronym that stands for... Substitute Combine Adapt Modify Put to other Purposes Eliminate Rearrange It uses a set of directed questions to come up with new product/process ideas. Generating New Product Ideas While we’ll go through an example of generating new product ideas, the SCAMPER technique could be used for any challenge or problem you face. Some of the categories won’t fit exactly so you’ll have to adapt it to your needs. To start this process, get a pen and paper so you can start writing your ideas down. Using a computer is fine but I’ve found actually writing things improves the ideas I generate. Suppose you work on Body Wash formulations. Here is how you would use the SCAMPER technique to come up with new ideas. Substitute Substitute means thinking about your product and trying to make substitutions to come up with something else. Ask yourself a question like ‘What can I substitute to change the product? ’ For a formula like Body Wash you might try substituting ingredients like the primary and secondary surfactants. The key is to not think critically about your ideas. Forget what you “know” and try any idea you can. Could you make a body wash substituting the Water for Alcohol? Maybe. Combine The idea behind combining is that you take multiple aspects of your product and combine them. This is the kind of thinking that led to multifunctional products like 2-in-1 shampoos. Could you combine skin lotion and body wash to make a 2-in-1 body wash? How about combining the body wash with the poof to create a foaming wash cloth? You could even create a body wash that does everything from washing, to conditioning, to prepping your skin for shaving. Adapt Adapt means thinking about some aspect of the product and adapting it for some other purpose. For example, could you find a surfactant for your body wash that also doubles as a fragrance or colorant or preservative? Modify Modify means changing or distorting the product in some way to come up with something different. Ask yourself a question like ‘What would happen...

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Since we already reviewed the 10 unsolved problems in hair care, it makes sense to look at the problems that need to be solved in skin care. Here are the top unsolved skin care problems which, if you can solve them, you can make a lot of money as a formulator. 1. Dry, itchy skin It’s a fact of life that in some climates, skin just won’t stay moisturized. When it dries out it becomes flaky, itchy and just generally feels bad. Tens of thousands of lotions have been made to alleviate the problem but nothing is long lasting. Cosmetic formulators need to push the envelop and make moisturizers that will better relieve dry skin, last longer, and even prevent it from occurring. The company that does will slide their way to the top of the skin product market. 2. Wrinkles Everyone gets wrinkles and it seems that everyone has an idea of how to get rid of them. In truth, the only topical treatment that has had moderate success is Retinol. Finding new compounds and strategies for smoothing out wrinkles is the Holy Grail of skincare. Right now, the industry has many stories but few working solutions. 3. Acne If you do nothing to the little blotches on your face and skin, they usually clear up in a week. Use a treatment and it will take 7 days. Seriously, people continue to seek better, faster ways to treat and prevent acne. There is still room for a cosmetic chemist to help formulate longer lasting, more effective treatments. 4. Sagging skin Gravity, age, and a reduction in collagen production all conspire to make our skin droop to the ground. Cosmetic chemists have tried forever to make products that fight this condition by tightening the skin. Unfortunately, nothing works nearly as well as cosmetic surgery. But that doesn’t mean an invention isn’t out there waiting to be discovered. 5. Age spots These are black, brown, or gray spots that pepper the skin of older people. They are caused by sun exposure and are treated with skin bleaching products. The ultimate cosmetic would be one that prevents these marks of age from ever forming in the first place. 6. Skin Lightening While not necessarily a problem, many people around the world desire to have their darker skin lightened. Hydroquinone is generally the prescription of dermatologists. Other treatments like Kojic Acid with Glycolic acid have been used too. None of these treatments are satisfactorily safe and effective so there is room for development of something better. 7. Tattoo Removal One of the most common problems people have are tattoos that they want to get rid of. What seemed like a good idea in college, now looks like an ugly blotch in the real world. Chemical peels have been sold to rid the skin of the tattoos, but no suitable solution (short of surgery) has been proven highly effective. 8. Eczema / Dermatitis These are skin diseases characterized by redness, inflammation, itching, and even...

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As a cosmetic scientist your job will often involve coming up with a formula that satisfies the desires of your Marketing department. Fortunately, or unfortunately, those desires are usually satisfied by taking existing formulas, adding small amounts of ingredients to support the marketing story, and testing the formulas to make sure they are stable. I say unfortunately, because this isn’t a very creative activity. You really aren’t fully using your skills as a chemist or inventor. If you limit yourself to these types of projects and activities, you’re going to get bored. Fortunately, there are still unsolved problems in many areas of cosmetics. Many problems will require more than just tweaking existing formulas with story ingredients. Here are the top 10 unsolved problems in the area of hair care. 1. Hair Loss It's a fact of life that people lose hair. Much of this is through natural shedding which is replaced in the normal hair growth cycle. But as people get older, hair loss becomes permanent. If you can figure out how to stop hair loss or to make it start growing again, you'll be rich. 2. Unwanted hair growth This is the opposite problem of the first but not any less important. Nearly everyone has hair in places where they wished it wouldn't grow. Solutions like depilatories or shaving provide short-term, temporary relief. If you can figure out how to stop hair growth you may become famous. 3. Hair going gray Everyone goes gray and there are only two ways to handle it. Artificial hair color that has to be constantly re-applied or just let it go gray. If you can invent a way to restart natural hair color or apply color in a constant and convenient way, you could make millions or billions. 4. Hair color changes People spend tons of money on changing their hair color but unfortunately, it changes quickly. Make a way to keep the color in people's hair and you'll have a product that will out-sell all competitors. 5. Bad Hair condition (feel) ? The only solution to this problem is the repeated application of condition. But if you could figure out a way to give people long lasting conditioning / excellent feeling hair you would radically change the hair care market. 6. Unruly hair — Frizzy, uncooperative Conditioners help but they don't stop hair from fizzing up during days of high humidity. There is still room to develop a product that really stops frizz but leaves hair feeling natural. 7. Thinning hair Hair loss is one problem but hair thinning also happens as people get older. The thinning comes both in the thickness of the hair fibers and the number of them. Figure out how to keep hair full and your wallet will get thicker too. 8. Lack volume A high percentage of people complain that their hair has no "volume". These people have naturally straight hair that lays flat on their head. Figure out a way to give them more permanent volume...

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Here's some great and useful news to aspiring cosmetic chemists. The premiere journal of our industry has put their back issues online in a searchable database. You can see all the cosmetic science that people have been writing about since the 1940's. You only get complete access if you are a card carrying member of the Society of Cosmetic Chemists. I recommend you join. For non-members, you can get access to most volumes up through 2005, I think. Check out the full Journal of Cosmetic Science archive here.

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As formulation chemist, it can be fairly easy to spend your days executing projects your marketing & sales people think are worthwhile. This will usually involve taking a formula that already exists and tweaking it with color & fragrance changes or adding some "magic" ingredient to help make a better story. It's easy to do this because to the people on the business side of things, this is complicated work. They appreciate you and your brilliance for being able to get it done. In fact, this kind of formulation can be challenging. But there will be times when you'll find yourself wondering stuff like "I made it through P. Chem and Advanced Inorganic so I could change the dye in a formula? " Innovation is up to You Well, it doesn't have to be that way. Yes, you'll have to work on a lot of less-than-meaningful projects but you should also be coming up with your own innovations/formulas. Your boss or marketing department are not going to give you great projects. You've got to make them yourself. Start doing a daily review of the following innovation resources to help you come up with the next big idea that will change the cosmetic industry. Marketing people can come up with new stories. Only scientists and cosmetic chemists can come up with new products that will actually bring new benefits to consumers. Remember, you are the future of the cosmetic industry. Favorite Innovation Online Resources Blue Ocean Strategy - An extension of the excellent book Blue Ocean Strategy. Gives practical tips and techniques for generating & developing breakthrough ideas. Innovation Tools - One of the best resources for all things innovation. The Innovation Blog keeps you connected with all the latest thinking in innovation & idea development. Innovators Digest - Site that helps you learn innovation techniques and connect with other innovators. Killer Innovations - The BEST innovation podcast anywhere. Phil McKinny provides practical advice about innovating at companies both big and small. He also re-blogs lots of the best innovation information being published. Seth's Blog - The blog of Seth Godin. He is one of the clearest innovation thinkers of our time. Author of bestselling marketing books The Purple Cow and The Dip. Speaks in a practical way that even chemists can understand. Extremely useful ideas. The Heart of Innovation - Dedicated to inspiring and nurturing the spirit of innovation. You'll find some useful information here. Unusual Business Ideas that Work - A source for wacky inventions and stories about how they were developed. Great way to inspire yourself to think more creatively and get going on developing your own ideas. Inventor Spot - Interesting inventions, innovations and weird/inspiring ideas. An excellent resource for inventors. Ted Talks - You need inspiration to go change the world? Look no further than Ted Talks. Some of the best minds in the world talk about great ideas. You could get lost for days listening to these important talks. Certainly, there are more but this...

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There's a good article over at BNET about selling your ideas to your company. They give the following 5 steps to help turn your idea into an actual project at work. People with ideas make the most valuable employees. Unfortunately, ideas in your head aren't worth anything. You've got to do something with your ideas if you want to advance in your cosmetic science career. 5 Steps to Sell Your Idea 1. Confirm that you and your idea are a credible match. - If you're not a plausible messenger for the idea, nobody will take you seriously. 2. Frame your idea within a strong narrative. - Tell a story to illustrate your idea. 3. Map the idea to the perspective of the decision. - Make the idea relevant to your audience. 4. Reduce or eliminate downside risk. - Think out objections to the idea & how you'll address them. 5. Close the deal. - After presenting your idea get agreement on the next step. Do you have ideas that you haven't done anything with? Are you going to try to get them implemented now? Leave a comment and let us know.

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We're just getting started. Come back soon. Leave a comment if you have suggestions on what should be included. Technorati Profile

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## Forums


This category is all about posting something that you believe but are open to evidence that your belief is mistaken. Arguments to change someone's mind should use scientific evidence, rather than emotional appeals or marketing claims.

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This is a place to post topics that are important to forum members but are not necessarily related to cosmetic formulating.

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This is for formulation questions from people who already have a solid background in cosmetic formulating. Don't ask general, basic questions here.

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This is the place where you can ask for help from a cosmetic chemist or post job opportunities.

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General discussions

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Questions and discussions about formulating cosmetic products

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Advice and tips about your career as a cosmetic chemist and formulator

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Here is where you would put comments, topic suggestions, guest suggestions and anything else about the cosmetic science podcast.

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Discussions about cosmetic science and science in general

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For discussions about developing hair care products

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For discussions about developing skin care products

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If there is something going on in the cosmetic industry, this would be the place to talk about it.

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Discussions about how to start your own cosmetic line

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A place to put discussions about helpful resources for cosmetic chemists, formulators and cosmetic entrepreneurs

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Do you know of a cool new technology? This would be the place to talk about it.

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Discussions specifically about color cosmetics.

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## Courses


AI is everywhere—but how useful is it really for cosmetic chemists and formulators? With new platforms, chatbots, and recommendation engines launching every month, it can be hard to tell what’s helpful and what’s hype. In this practical, no-nonsense session, we’ll explore some of the latest AI tools tailored to the beauty and personal care industry. You’ll see real examples of how they work—and whether they’re worth your time. Course length: 71 minutes What's covered: The latest AI platforms designed for R&D and formulation How chatbots and virtual assistants can support your lab work The role of recommendation engines in ingredient selection and trend tracking Real-world examples of AI tools in action A critical look at where AI genuinely helps—and where it might slow you down Whether you’re curious, cautious, or already experimenting with AI, this session will give you clear takeaways you can apply to your work right away.

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This course is designed to provide you with all the information you need to know about cosmetic active ingredients, so you can formulate with them and speak knowledgeably and confidently about the topic. It covers a wide range of ingredients, many of which are currently being sold to consumers as active ingredients that solve specific skin and hair problems. After completing this course (and making an effort to understand the material), you will know everything you need to know about the a number of active ingredient raw materials, the stories and science behind how they work, and when & how chemists use them in formulating. You will become a more knowledgable ingredient resource who will know what ingredients should be used to solve the common consumer skin and hair problems.

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Course Synopsis The "AI Tools and the Cosmetic Chemist: A Guide for Formulators" course is an innovative program designed to provide cosmetic chemists with a comprehensive understanding of the practical applications of Artificial Intelligence (AI). The course explores how AI can streamline and enhance various aspects of the cosmetic chemist's role, including formula creation, research analysis, content generation, ingredient and data analysis, problem-solving, idea generation, learning new techniques, and presentation making. It also covers the current limitations of AI. Don't worry, AI isn't going to be taking your job quite yet! Key Benefits of the Course Enhanced Formulation Skills: The course will introduce you to AI tools to use when creating starting formulas, enabling more efficient and optimized formulation processes. Cutting-edge Knowledge: By staying abreast of both old and new technologies through AI, cosmetic chemists can ensure they are at the forefront of industry developments. Improved Research Capabilities: The course will provide the ability to utilize AI for analyzing and understanding the latest research in cosmetic chemistry, thus enhancing scientific comprehension and application. Effective Communication: Understanding how AI can assist in writing reports, articles, and professional emails can greatly improve the quality and efficiency of written communication. Data Analysis Proficiency: A significant benefit is the increased capability in ingredient and data analysis, enabling more accurate and effective use of experimental data in formulation design and optimization. Problem-solving Skills: Learning to use AI to solve stability problems can streamline troubleshooting and improve the overall quality and stability of formulations. Innovation and Creativity: The course can enhance the ability to generate new product ideas and test method innovations, driving creativity and industry leadership. Learning New Techniques: With AI's assistance, the process of learning new techniques and procedures in cosmetic chemistry can be significantly expedited. Effective Presentations: AI can aid in the creation of impactful presentations, improving the ability to communicate complex concepts and findings to various stakeholders. Future Preparedness: The course offers insights into the future of AI in cosmetic chemistry, preparing participants for technological advancements and ensuring they remain competitive in an evolving industry. Course design The course begins with an introduction to AI and its importance in cosmetic chemistry. Then it gets right into showing you how to use AI for formulating. It examines how AI can generate initial formulas based on predetermined criteria and data analysis, highlighting various AI tools beneficial for this purpose. The course then transitions into the use of AI in staying updated with both new and old technologies, demonstrating how AI can facilitate continuous learning. Further, it explores how AI can assist in analyzing and understanding the latest research in cosmetic chemistry. One key module investigates AI's role in content generation, specifically focusing on how it can be employed in writing reports, articles, and emails. This section also identifies AI tools designed for this task. A significant portion of the course is dedicated to AI's applications in ingredient list and data analysis. Students will learn how AI can analyze ingredient lists, predict performance, suggest substitutes,...

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The Cosmetic Regulation course, encapsulated across multiple modules, offers an extensive overview of various aspects of cosmetic regulation, product development, and their intersections with research and development (R&D) as well as marketing strategies. Module 1: Introduction to Cosmetic Regulation Overview: Fundamentals of cosmetic regulation, defining what constitutes a cosmetic product, and differentiating it from medical products. Key Focus: Legal definitions, borderlines between cosmetics and medicines, and general regulatory frameworks. Module 2: Drivers for Ingredient Restrictions Content: Factors influencing restrictions on cosmetic ingredients, including safety concerns, environmental impact, and ethical considerations. Highlights: Discussion on consumer trends, media influence, and legislative changes affecting ingredient selection. Module 3: Cosmetic Ingredient Categories Scope: Detailed analysis of various ingredient categories such as surfactants, moisturizers, pigments, and preservatives. Emphasis: Functional roles, risks, and regulatory aspects of these ingredients. Module 4: Cosmetic Risky Ingredient Categories Focus: High-risk ingredients like cyclosiloxanes, microplastics, endocrine disruptors, CMRs, nanomaterials, fragrance allergens, and heavy metals. Details: Challenges, environmental and health impacts, and regulatory responses to these ingredients. Module 5: Global Market Regulations Overview: Guidelines on how to place cosmetic products in global markets. Topics: International regulatory differences, compliance strategies, and market-specific challenges. Module 6: EU Cosmetic Regulations Content: Deep dive into EU cosmetic regulations, including safety considerations, roles of responsible persons and distributors, labelling requirements, and good manufacturing practices. Additional Aspects: Cosmetovigilance, penalties for non-compliance, and cooperative aspects within the EU framework. Module 7: Cosmetic Claims Main Points: Nature and placement of claims, legal obligations, building claims substantiation packages, and navigating borderline products. Specifics: Types of claims, evidence levels, substantiation protocols, and legislation on advertising and claims. Module 8: Product Development Process Focus: The intersection of product development with regulatory and R&D touchpoints. Process Overview: Forms of product development, key stages (concept, kick-off, lock, commit, execute), and the relevance of regulatory and R&D at each stage. Each module is comprehensive, covering not only the technical and legal aspects of cosmetic regulation but also integrating practical considerations in product development and marketing within the cosmetic industry.

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Hello and welcome to the Cosmetic Launch Coach I’m Perry Romanowski and I’m here to help you start your very own line of cosmetic or beauty care products. If you follow all the modules in this course and actually take action, you will create a product and will be on your way to having a successful cosmetic brand. Before you get started I wanted to show you around this course and explain how it works. Course layout Near the top of this page is the navigation bar where you can access all the course materials. This includes the modules, bonus videos, a list of resources, recorded Q&A sessions, and a page to contact us. To access the modules just click on the module link or click on the specific module you want to access. Once you click on a module link, you’ll go to a page with all the content from that module. For example, clicking on the first module brings up this page. This includes the multi-part video in the module along with all the downloadable content. This includes the video, an audio version of the lesson, the text for the lesson, the slides, and the module checklist. The checklist sheet is a list of steps that you need to do to complete this module and launch your product line. You can watch the videos at your own pace or you can read the lessons or listen to them. I’ve tried to provide you the content in multiple ways to help you learn in the manner best for you. Here is a list of all the modules to the course 1. Setting up a business 2. Coming up with a good idea 3. Developing your product 4. Funding your business 5. Producing your product 6. Distributing your products 7. Marketing and selling Additional resources In addition to the main module lessons, there are bonus videos that help supplement the course. These videos will help explain certain concepts in a more detailed manner giving you real life examples of how to implement the ideas. The resources section contains links to all types of resources that will make it easier for you to get your brand started. Many of these are the same services I have used for launching my products. From time to time we will hold Question and Answer sessions where we can speak directly and you can get your questions answered. I’ll pretty much answer any question you might have that I can answer. Don’t forget to Join the Facebook Group for this course. BONUSES To download the free bonus ebooks, click on the Bonus Download link on the left side of this page. Contact me If at any time you need to contact me, you can fill out the contact form or send me an email to perry. romanowski@gmail. com. Thanks again for joining the cosmetic launch coach. It is my sincere hope that by going through this course you will be on your way to launching...

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Welcome to the Cosmetic Raw Material course Overview: The purpose of this course is to introduce you to all the different types of ingredients used in creating cosmetic, beauty product, and personal care formulas. Objectives: After successfully completing this course you will Know why specific ingredients are used in formulations Enhance your knowledge of which ingredients can be used together and which ones can’t Be able to identify the function of cosmetic raw materials based on its name Become a better formulator who is more knowledgable about different raw materials and their usage Learn what ingredients to use to make formulas that are safe and effective Understand the science of how raw materials interact with skin and hair to provide benefits Pre-Modules If you want to get up to speed on the basic Math, Biology, and Chemistry that will help you successfully complete this course I encourage you to start with the Pre-Module Lessons. Click here to go to the Pre-Modules. If you already have confidence in your scientific background, you can skip ahead to the first lesson.

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There are four lessons in this pre-module course. They are meant to provide you the basic information that you should already know to complete the course. Most of these topics were things that you would have learned in high school or perhaps college. They aren't difficult lessons but it's good to have a refresher. You should understand the information in these lessons to successfully complete the courses. If you are done, just click here to return to your main courses.

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Practical Cosmetic Formulating: Naturals Edition Course Description Practical Cosmetic Formulation – Naturals Edition is designed to introduce you to the principles of creating natural cosmetic formulations, including: understanding natural standards and definitions, natural cosmetic raw materials, formulating with natural ingredients, formulating specific hair and skin products, learning to market natural cosmetics. Course Progress You can go through the course at your own pace. Once you finish all the videos & quiz from a module, you’ll be able to move on to the next. We will periodically hold Q&A session. Pre-Modules If you want to get up to speed on the basic Math, Biology, and Chemistry you will need to successfully complete this course I encourage you to start with the Pre-Module Lessons. These were helpful for people who took the PCF course so they should be helpful for you too. If you already have confidence in your scientific background, you can skip ahead to the first lesson.

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Course Description Practical Cosmetic Formulation is designed to introduce students to the principles of cosmetic science and formulation, including: understanding cosmetic form and function, the basics of cosmetic chemistry, cosmetic terminology and techniques, the product development process, formulation of specific cosmetics, an understanding of raw materials and their use, cosmetic product testing, product scale-up and government regulations affecting cosmetics and the consumer. The focus of this information is reflective of the experience of actual cosmetic chemists in the industry. Course Progress You are encouraged to take the course in order. Once you complete a module and the quiz, you will be able to advance to the next module. After completing a module, you'll be able to return to it whenever you like. Pre-Modules If you want to get up to speed on the basic Math, Biology, and Chemistry you will need to successfully complete this course I encourage you to start with the Pre-Module Lessons. If you already have confidence in your scientific background, you can skip ahead to the first lesson.

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