75 Things a Formulation Scientist Does
“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…
How to Prevent Contamination in Cosmetic Products
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…
HLB – The Easiest Way to Create An Emulsion
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…
Knockout Experiments for Cosmetics – The Fastest Way to Become an Expert Formulator
There are many different routes you can take to learn to become an expert formulation chemist but few are more powerful than conducting your own…
Cosmetic Tests You Must Run Before Launching Your Product
Many followers of this website have a desire to create and sell their own product. We continue to work on a training program that shows…
Do consumers think about parabens in cosmetics?
If you spend a lot of time on the Internet surfing RSS feeds and social media, you could develop the notion that parabens are dangerous…
Factors influencing the deposition of conditioning polymers
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…
How long should your cosmetic formulas last?
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…
Cosmetic Prototype Batch Size
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.…
Why an oil phase heats faster than a water phase
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…
Badger Sunscreen recall demonstrates risk of small brands
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…
When should you reformulate your cosmetic product?
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…
Cosmetic Preservation – Some Definitions
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…
The Best Formulation Software Options for Cosmetic Chemists
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…
Production Guidelines Every Cosmetic Formulator Should Follow
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…
What can you eat or drink for better skin?
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…
25 tips all cosmetic chemists should know
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…
How to save a cosmetic batch
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…
General guidelines to scale up cosmetic formulations
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…
10 Consumer Trends in 2013 that will affect cosmetic formulators
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.…