Why natural cosmetics aren’t better
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…
The Challenges of formulating natural cosmetics
Clean Beauty is all the rage these days and it can be directly related to the difficulties in formulating natural cosmetics. Although there are not…
Natural cosmetic preservative ingredients and strategies
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…
Natural surfactants for cosmetic products
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 cosmetics and Standard cosmetics – What’s the difference?
In a previous article about natural cosmetic products, I wrote about the difficulty in producing actually natural cosmetics. This is particularly difficult for cleansing products…
What is a natural cosmetic?
This month we are going to focus on formulating natural cosmetic products. This continues to be a hot area for cosmetic marketers and frequently cosmetic…
Should you formulate with essential oils
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…
Speaking Engagement – CTSCC September Meeting
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/
Claims for your natural cosmetics
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…
Episode 41: Mark Broussard – Formulating to a Natural Standard
Interview: Mark Broussard – Starts at 10:00 Mark Broussard is a cosmetic formulator and entrepreneur who has a BS degree in Microbiology & Immunology, a…
Surfactant sources – Making detergents without using crude oil
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…
Should your products be organically certified?
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…
Scaremongering Groups and the Cosmetic Chemist
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…
Episode 37: Botaneco Natural Emulsion Technology
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…
Natural Cosmetic Preservative Questions Answered
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…
Natural Cosmetic Chat with Cosmetic Chemists
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…
Cosmetic Warning Labels that Make Sense
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…
The Whole Foods Unacceptable List – Part 4
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…
Whole Foods Ingredient List Clarification
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…
The Whole Foods Banned Ingredient List is Wholly Flawed
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…