30DaysToBecomeABetterCosmeticChemist PDF

Chemists Corner
30 Days to Become
a Better Cosmetic Chemist
First Edition
Publication date January 2016
Published by: Perry Romanowski

www.chemistscorner.com
Graphic Design: Paul Romanowski

pdrdesigns@gmail.com
©Copyright 2016 Element 44 Inc.
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Table of Contents
Preface............................................................................................................................................ 4
How to use this book...................................................................................................................... 5
Day 1: Industry – Types of Products in the Cosmetic Industry....................................................... 6
Day 2: Raw Materials – Functional Raw Materials....................................................................... 12
Day 3: Formulation – Best Formulating Books & Resources......................................................... 19
Day 4: Cosmetic Science – Biology of the Skin - Problems to be Solved...................................... 27
Day 5: Testing – Stability Testing .................................................................................................. 33
Day 6: Career – Non-Formulating Skills – Networking.................................................................. 40
Day 7: Cosmetic Science – Biology of the Hair – Problems to be Solved...................................... 49
Day 8: Raw materials – Aesthetic Raw Materials......................................................................... 56
Day 9: Formulation – Equipment Needed for Formulating.......................................................... 65
Day 10: Testing – Claims Testing .................................................................................................. 73
Day 11: Industry – Companies in the Cosmetic Industry.............................................................. 83
Day 12: Career – Types of Jobs in the Cosmetic Industry............................................................. 88
Day 13: Cosmetic Science – Basic Chemistry for Formulators...................................................... 94
Day 14: Raw Materials – Claims Raw Materials.......................................................................... 103
Day 15: Formulation – Types of Cosmetic Formulas.................................................................. 111
Day 16: Testing – Product Testing Required Before Launching................................................... 116
Day 17: Industry – FDA Regulation of the Cosmetic Industry..................................................... 122
Day 18: Career – How to Further Your Education in Cosmetic Science...................................... 128
Day 19: Cosmetic Science – How do Surfactants Work?............................................................ 135
Day 20: Raw Materials – Dissecting an Ingredient List............................................................... 142
Day 21: Formulation – Calculating Formulation Costs................................................................ 150
Day 22: Testing – Using Patents to Find Test Methods............................................................... 154
Day 23: Industry – NGOs and the Cosmetic Industry................................................................. 161
Day 24: Career – Creating Your Profile - Online and Offline....................................................... 171
Day 25: Cosmetic Science – How do Moisturizers Work?.......................................................... 177
Day 26: Raw Materials – What to do with Samples................................................................... 182
Day 27: Formulation – Reducing Formulation Cost.................................................................... 191
Day 28: Testing – Personal Evaluations of Products................................................................... 197
Day 29: Marketing – Natural Cosmetic Trend............................................................................. 204
Day 30: Career – Becoming an Expert........................................................................................ 212
What Now?................................................................................................................................. 218
Preface
For the first season of the Chemists Corner podcast we focused mostly on interviewing other
cosmetic chemists. This was done to give you a sense of the type of jobs and people that you
find in the cosmetic industry. And we’ll continue to do interviews in the future but I had this
idea for a podcast series focused specifically on teaching. I call it 30 Days to Become a Better
Cosmetic Chemist. This is the companion workbook for the series. To listen to the series you
can go to the following link, 30 Days to Become a Better Cosmetic Chemist.
The way it works is that each day I’ll pick a topic related to cosmetic formulating and do two
things. First, I’ll do a little teaching around that topic. The topic will be related to one of six
subject areas including
• the cosmetic industry

• raw materials
• formulation
• cosmetic science
• product testing
• cosmetic science career
Then at the end, I’ll provide you with a challenge. This challenge will help reinforce the lesson
and teach you more about whatever particular subject we are covering. Most of the challenges
will be something you can do rather quickly but you don’t necessarily have to do it the same
day.
While the series was designed for you to do a new lesson each day, you can take more time to
go through the lessons if you want. The lessons will be here for when you’re ready to do them.
I just encourage you to really listen and do each challenge. If you do, I guarantee you’ll be a
better formulator than you are right now.
4 30 Days to Become a Better Cosmetic Chemist

How to use this book
This book is a collection of the teaching and tasks that cosmetic chemists can go through to
improve their formulation skills and their value as a scientist in the cosmetic industry. It is
broken into 30 days or tasks, each with two main sections:
Lesson
This section introduces the area or idea we’ll focus on for the day. Lessons are focused on
6 main areas including the cosmetic industry, raw materials, formulation, cosmetic science,
product testing, and your cosmetic science career.
Challenge
This section explains the day’s task in step-by-step detail and gives you examples when relevant.
Completing these challenges are the key to using this workbook to become a better cosmetic
chemist.
While this book was designed to be done over the course of 30 days, feel free to proceed at
your own pace. You might complete a few challenges in one day, or take your time and do one
or two in a week. It’s up to you how you use this book.
I do however hope you attempt the challenges provided and use this work to become a better
cosmetic chemist.
Audio version
If you would like to hear a recorded version of this book, listen to our 30 days to become a
better cosmetic chemist podcast or you can go to the online notes for each lesson by clicking on
the lesson title.
30 Days to Become a Better Cosmetic Chemist 5

DAY
1
Product Categories
in the Cosmetic Industry

DAY 1
Product Categories in the Cosmetic Industry
Today we’re going to focus on an introduction to the cosmetic industry.
Most people who work in the cosmetic industry for large to medium sized companies specialize
in one type of cosmetic product. Usually, 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 and formulas, 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. Since you can’t learn how to
formulate all types of cosmetics without knowing what they are, it makes sense to start our first
lesson exploring the main cosmetic categories and the products within each. Let’s begin with
cosmetic product categories.
Before I interviewed for a job at a company that specialized in making shampoo, I didn’t even
think about the cosmetic industry or the fact that they would hire chemists. I got a degree in
chemistry but didn’t know what I was going to do with it. And when I learned that shampoos
were part of the cosmetic industry I was confused. I thought cosmetics were things like lipsticks,
nail polish, and eye shadows and things like that. I didn’t know that nearly all personal care
products are considered cosmetics. But it turns out they are.
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.
It is interesting to note in the US anyway that soap is not actually considered a cosmetic
even though it falls in line with the definition of cosmetics as described in the Food Drug and
Cosmetic Act that provides the regulatory framework for cosmetics. Back in the 1930’s when
this act was being implemented the soap makers of the time were able to exempt themselves
from regulation so soap is not a cosmetic. Of course, the definition of what counts as soap is
very narrow and if you make any cosmetic claims about your soap it then becomes a cosmetic
and is regulated by the cosmetic rules.
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 qualify as over-the-counter drugs and include anti-dandruff shampoos, anti-lice products,
and even 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 standard every day rinse-off
conditioners but there are also intensive conditioners, protein packs, hot oil treatments, serums
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 help with the appearance and control of
hair. The largest segment of these products are styling products including hair sprays, mousses,
styling gels, putties, pomades and more. There are also leave-in conditioners which would fall
into this sub-category. Of all the hair care product types, styling products are the most diverse
taking on a vast array of formulations.
A final hair product category is reactive hair products. These are formulas that chemically
change the structure of hair thereby changing the way it looks. For straightening hair there are
relaxer products. For making hair curly there are perms. And for changing the color of hair there
are permanent, semi-permanent, and temporary hair colors.
Color Cosmetics
Speaking of colors, that brings us to our next cosmetic category, color cosmetics. For most
people these are the types of products that they think of when you say the word cosmetic.
Color cosmetics or make up comprise about 20% of the worldwide cosmetic market. This group
includes products that remain on the skin and change the color and appearance. It includes
products for the face like foundations, lip sticks, lip gloss, blush, eye shadow, eye liner, and
mascara. You could also include products for the nails such as nail polish, gloss, and all the other
products related to nail care. Color cosmetics are the most regulated of all cosmetics because
governments around the world restrict the types of ingredients that can be used for colorants.
It turns out that some of the coloring ingredients that were used prior to the creation of the
modern cosmetic industry were quite poisonous.
Fragrances
Our next major category of cosmetics is fragrances. Fragrances and perfumes have been part of
the cosmetic industry since before the 1600’s. These types of products are meant to be put on
to change natural body odor. They make up about 10% of the cosmetic market. This category
includes perfumes, colognes and body splashes. And this group also includes body sprays which
are aerosol versions of colognes.
Personal Care Products

And then there are general personal care products. This last category of cosmetic products
makes up approximately 15% of sales in the market (depending on what products you include).
These include oral care products like tooth paste, mouthwash and whitening products. It also
includes deodorants and anti-perspirants although I suppose you could make a case that these
could be classified as either skin care products or fragrance products. But for our purposes let’s

just consider them a separate group.
So there you have it the 5 main categories of cosmetic products. They include skin care, hair
care, makeup, fragrances and personal care products.
OTC Drugs
One thing I should mention though is that throughout this show I’ve mentioned over-the-
counter (OTC) drugs. This is a special category of cosmetic-like products that is more tightly
regulated at least in the US. You see cosmetics are not allowed to treat a disease or otherwise
interact with the skin metabolism. According to the law they are only allowed to temporarily
change the appearance of skin and hair. So any product that actually treats a disease is actually
a drug. In the US the FDA has created a list of such products and each of these has a monograph
which dictates the active ingredients, the levels, and the claims that can be made about the
products. These products are not technically cosmetics although they seem like they are. This
includes things like sunscreens, anti-dandruff products, anti-acne products, anti-perspirants, and
anything else that might be considered treating a disease.
DAY 1 CHALLENGE
Analyzing the market
If you want to become a more well-rounded cosmetic chemist you need to learn the technology
behind all of these types of cosmetics, not just the ones that you work on every day. Don’t
allow yourself to get pigeonholed into one type of product category without learning about
all the other categories. It’s ok to specialize in one area and most companies you work for will
require that. But don’t limit your knowledge to a single specialty. Having a broad knowledge
about all the cosmetic product types and categories will improve your career options, improve
your formulating skills and make you more innovative. So to that end I’ve come up with today’s
challenge.
For today’s challenge I want you to pick one of the five product categories and review as many
types of products in that category as you can. Make a list of at least 10 different types of
products that you can find. If you’re reviewing hair products see if you can find 10 different
types of shampoos. When I say different I mean in how they are named. For example, there
could be Baby shampoos, dry shampoos, moisturizing shampoos, volumizing, etc. Find 10

different types of whatever product type you want to explore. And for each one, write down
the main claim they make and the first four or five ingredients. See if you can figure out what
main consumer problem they are trying to solve. If you have samples of the products, write
down what the products look like. Are they clear or opaque. What do they smell like? Fruity,
green, floral?
Doing this exercise will give you a much better sense of the types of products available to
consumers in that category. Just doing this exercise will literally make you more knowledgeable
about that category than the majority of cosmetic chemists out there. It also may give you an
idea of whether there is some way in which the products could be improved.
I would encourage you to look outside your own area of expertise if you have one and focus
on some category that you don’t know as well. Also, you can do this exercise right from your
computer. Go to a website like Drugstore.com or Ulta.com.
See this example spreadsheet to get you started.

DAY
2
Functional Cosmetic Raw Materials

DAY 2
Functional Cosmetic Raw Materials
There are many ways to look at raw materials but I prefer to categorize them by their purpose
in the formula. Using this approach there are only three primary categories of cosmetic raw
materials. These include Functional ingredients, Aesthetic Modifiers, and Claims ingredients.
That’s it. Just three types of ingredients. Of the more than 15,000 raw materials available for
cosmetics they each fall into one of these three categories.
Now, there is some overlap and 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 was a biology major and always found it
helpful to think about different animals and plants in terms of how they were related to each
other. I thought the same would be helpful in learning for cosmetic raw materials.
Today, I’m going to focus on functional raw materials but before doing that let me cover the
basic definition of each of the three main categories.
Functional Ingredients
The first category is functional ingredients. These are ingredients put into formulations to
have an effect on the appearance or the feel of the consumer’s skin or hair. You cannot
make a useful cosmetic product without including at least one functional ingredient. But you
could make an entire cosmetic product using just one functional ingredient so in that way
functional ingredients are unique. A good example of a single ingredient cosmetic is a product
like Vaseline petroleum jelly. It is a huge brand and the primary product is a tub of 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. Unfortunately, the number of significantly different functional
ingredients has not increased in many years. This probably is a result of the fact that it’s hard to
create a really new functional ingredient.
Aesthetic Ingredients
The most common and abundant types of cosmetic raw materials in a formulation are 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. Things like
solvents, thickeners, preservatives, pH adjusters, and more are all aesthetic modifiers.
When you look at the ingredient list of cosmetics, most of the ingredients are aesthetic
modifiers. Since these ingredients don’t have any functional benefit to the consumer,
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 what they do and how to use 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 for a wide variety of reasons
but one of the most important is 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 listing the ingredient name on the label. This includes
ingredients like natural extracts, vitamins, proteins, biotechnology, and fanciful made-up
ingredient names. They are not put in the formulas to have any measurable effect and almost
invariably they don’t. However, most consumers need a story to believe when they buy their
cosmetics so these ingredients help support that story. Brands that don’t include claims
ingredients are generally less successful in the marketplace.
Alright, that gives you an overview of all the different types of cosmetic raw materials. Let’s
look at functional ingredients in more detail.

As I previously said, functional ingredients are those whose main purpose in the formula is to
deliver a benefit to a consumer. They might have some secondary effect like improving the feel
of the product when it’s applied or stabilizing the formula, but the primary reason functional
ingredients are added is for the effect they have on skin, nails or hair. There are basically 7 types
of functional ingredients. We’ll go through each of these now.
Cleansers
Our first type of functional ingredient are Cleansers. Cleansers 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. Typically, surfaces coated in dirt look less appealing than those that
are perfectly clean. That’s the function of cleansers. The most common types of cleaners are
surfactants, but also things like exfoliants and solvents can clean surfaces.
Conditioners
The next functional raw material type are Conditioners. These ingredients actually change the
way the skin or hair feels. Unlike cleansers which are removed from the surfaces, conditioners
typically need to be left on the surface to have a significant effect. The most common type of
conditioning ingredients are cationic surfactants, polymers, occlusive agents, humectants, and
emollients. Generally, conditioners are composed of hydrophobic molecules that make the
surface feel more slippery, softer, and look more shiny.
Colorants
Colorants are the third functional ingredient category we’ll consider. These ingredients are used
to impart a color to the skin or hair surface. There are a wide range of molecules that can do
this including synthetic ingredients and ones derived from natural sources including minerals,
plants and animals. Colorants are the most highly regulated of all cosmetic ingredients and
if you are formulating in the US any colorant you use must be approved by the FDA for such
purposes. The EU and other regulatory agencies around the world have similar restrictions
on the ingredients that can be used as colorants. These extra restrictions were a result of
legislation enacted to protect consumers from dangerous colorant that were formerly used in
cosmetics. Colorants which contain lead and mercury at toxic levels were frequently used by
pre-regulation formulators. A number of consumers got sick, went blind or even died from toxic
colorants which prompted the creation of the FDA. Now, cosmetics are much more safe than
they used to be.

Fragrances
Our fourth type of functional ingredients are Fragrances. These ingredients are added to
formulas for two reasons. From a functional standpoint they are used to change the odor of any
surface to which they are applied. It turns out that people have things they like to smell better
than human body odor. Fragrances are the main functional component products like colognes,
perfumes and body sprays.
It should be noted that both Colors and Fragrances are frequently used as aesthetic ingredients.
Fragrances are often added to formulations in order to cover the odor of the other chemicals in
the product. And colorants are usually added to improve the appearance of the formulations.
Without a colorant many liquid formulas would be a dull, yellow color which is much less
appealing to consumers.
Film Formers
Film formers are the fifth category of functional ingredients. When used in hair products, these
raw materials can change and hold the shape of hair. They are the main functional ingredient
found in hair styling products like hair holding sprays, gels, or putties. When used in skin
products that make a uniform film on skin which can hold colors or sunscreens evenly on the
surface. Film formers are typically polymeric materials and can be effective at low use levels.
Reactive Ingredients
Our sixth category of functional ingredients are ones that I call Reactive Ingredients. While
most cosmetics do not involve chemical reactions, there are some that do. Some chemicals are
put on hair to chemically break down the protein bonds holding hair strands together and then
reformed to change the shape of hair. These are the main functional ingredients in chemical
treatments like relaxers or perms. Other reactive ingredients are used to break down the hair’s
natural colorant (melanin) and replace it with a polymeric colorant. There are also reactive
ingredients like dihydroxyacetone which can temporarily change the color of skin protein.
And there are reactive raw materials that can be used to remove hair such as the functional
ingredients in depilatories.
Drug Actives
The final category of functional raw materials are Drug actives. Of course, this class of
functional ingredients are technically not cosmetic products. If your product contains a drug
active then, at least in the US, 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.
DAY 2 CHALLENGE
Identifying functional ingredients
Alright, there you have it the seven types of functional cosmetic ingredients. As you develop
in your career as a formulator, it is helpful to think of any new raw material you come across in
terms of its purpose for being included in a formula. Is the raw material a functional ingredient?
Is it an aesthetic modifier? Or is it a claims ingredient? To become a better cosmetic chemist you
need to know which ingredients are functional and which are not. In reality of the thousands of
ingredients used in cosmetics only a small percentage provide an actual functional benefit in the
formula.
For today’s challenge I thought I would give you an exercise that will help you start to identify
the types of raw materials that are in various formulations. Today, I want you to go over to
Drugstore.com or Ulta.com or just use 3 or 4 different cosmetic products, and get the list of
ingredients. Copy those lists into a spreadsheet and see if you can identify which of the raw
materials are providing the main functional benefit in the formula.
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
This formula lists a whopping 31 ingredients! But how many of those are actually functional?
That is to say, how many actually make the product work?

The first thing to consider when figuring out which are the functional ingredients is to
determine what this product does. It is a moisturizer so there will have to be functional
ingredients to moisturize skin. It also is a product designed to change the color of skin so there
will have to be some type of functional ingredient to do that. First, let’s consider moisturizers.
This product has numerous conditioning ingredients or moisturizers. It includes Glycerin,

Mineral Oil, Petrolatum, and Dimethicone. There are other ingredients that could be
moisturizers but these are the main ones.
For changing the color of skin this product incorporates Erythrulose. This is an ingredient that
chemically reacts with skin proteins to create a browning (or oranging) effect. This self-tanner
ingredient is the functional ingredient for the color change.
So, there you have it. Of the 31 ingredients in this formula only 5 are actually functional.
1. Glycerin
2. Mineral Oil
3. Petrolatum
4. Dimethicone
5. Erythrulose
The other are important of course but they are not having any significant impact on the
functional benefit of the formula.
Alright, now it’s your turn. Find a 3 or 4 ingredient lists. Write down the main function of the
product and see if you can identify which are the functional ingredients that provide that
benefit. After you are done go to the comments in the show notes and list the results of your
exercise. First list the product you looked at, the main functional claim, the ingredient list, and
the ingredients that you think are the main functional ingredients.

DAY
3
Best Formulating Books & Resources

DAY 3
Best Formulating Books & Resources
This is day 3 of our series 30 days to become a better cosmetic chemist. Today, we are going to
focus on Formulating. Specifically, we’ll cover the best books and resources for formulators.
There is so much to learn about formulating that it is impossible to learn everything and very
difficult to remember everything you learn. That is one good reason you should have a library
of formulation books. I know it is said these days that people are turning more to electronic
resources but I find it hard to beat the convenience of having a book close to you in the lab.
Over the years I’ve learned a lot from various books. Here are some of the books that I think
every cosmetic formulator should have on their formulation book shelf.
Beginning Cosmetic Chemistry

I understand it might be a bit much to include my own book on a list like this, but it continues
to be 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 no longer just “my book.” For people just starting out, I haven’t
found a better book. I may write one myself since there are a few shortcomings in this book
such as a lack of detailed formulation but this is still an industry standard that every cosmetic
lab should have.
Chemistry and Manufacture of Cosmetics

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. I like this
book because it is filled with starting formulations and lists suppliers for the raw materials. It
also provides good background information about the cosmetic market and a little history. It is
probably most lacking in scientific explanations but it is definitely a practical and useful series.
The price is high which is typical of industry specific books. My biggest complaint about this

book is its lack of a good index. It can be nearly impossible to find specific information if you are
just looking it up.
Harry’s Cosmeticology
Another book that every formulation lab should have is Harry’s Cosmeticology 9th Edition
The first edition of this classic book on cosmetic science was first published in 1940. It is now
in its 9th edition and is one of the most comprehensive tomes on the subject. It has been
completely re-done in the 9th edition and now spans over 2200 pages in three volumes. The first
volume focuses cosmetic marketing, regulations and the biology of skin and hair. The second
volume is all about ingredients and the third volume talks about formulations and applications.
You’ll find all aspects of cosmetic formulating covered in this book. It is a great reference.
However, I have to admit that I’m a little disappointed in the 9th edition because it lacks the
formulation examples you can find in the 8th edition. Also, the 8th edition is a little easier to
have in your lab since it’s single book rather than three books. There is a searchable digital
version of the 9th edition so that is probably worth getting. Despite the criticisms however, as
a formulation chemist, you will find Harry’s Cosmeticology an indispensable resource that you
frequently reference.
Handbook of Cosmetic Science & Technology

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.
I should say that this book does lack specific formulations and it tends to skimp on some
subjects while getting highly detailed on others. However, the information it contains makes it
well worth the purchase price in any professional cosmetic laboratory.
Apply Topically – A Practical Guide to Formulating

Topical Applications
A book that I recently received about formulating is called Apply Topically – A Practical Guide to
Formulating Topical Applications. This is a formulation book that promises to give you practical
information for created cosmetic products. It includes sections on preliminary work done before
you formulate, the formulation process, testing methods, stability and preservation, and a

couple specific sections on color cosmetics and sunscreens. The information in the chapters is
great and the illustrations are great. However, many of the chapters seem much more advanced
than I would expect from a book claiming to give practical information. There is actually a lot
of technical information and beginners will have a hard time deciphering how to apply much
of what they read. But if you already have a good base knowledge of formulating, then Apply
Topically will be a great addition to your formulation library.
A Short Textbook of Cosmetology

I don’t know where I got the book A Short Textbook of Cosmetology 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. If you can find this book it is well worth having.
Surfactants in Personal Care Products

and Decorative Cosmetics
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, if there is anything you
want to know about the science and biology of hair, you need go nowhere else but this book. It
explains all aspects of human hair and is based on the latest research. In the hair care world, the
book is so ubiquitous it is simply referred to as “Robbins”.
Physiology of the Skin

And if you are a skin care chemist you’ll want to have a copy of Physiology of the Skin, Third
Edition. This book is written by a couple of dermatologists and covers the biology of skin and
the science of treatments for specific conditions. Since this was compiled by dermatologists it is
a little more difficult for formulators to get direct useful information from however, this is one of
the best books to help you understand the skin and the effect that both chemical and medical
treatments have on it.

So, those are the main books that I would suggest if you are getting started. These days there is
so much information published online that you can practically learn anything you want to about
formulating by spending a few hours Googling. Of course, it is much easier to learn when you
can find the information in one single place which is why Chemists Corner and our Practical
Cosmetic Formulating course is so useful. But beyond our website there are a number of other
places you can go to keep up on the latest developments in cosmetic formulation industry. Let’s
go through a few of those.
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. The cosmetic industry is no different.
So here are some of the most useful trade journals for cosmetic chemists about the cosmetic
industry and cosmetic science.
Cosmetic Industry Magazines

There are a number of free cosmetic industry magazine. These 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. I particularly find their buyers guide and formulary useful.
GCI Magazine — This is Global Cosmetic Industry magazine. It 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 & candle plus 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.
There are also some great online magazines including CosmeticsDesign.com, CosmeticsDesign-
Europe.com and Cosmeticsbusiness.com.
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. Also, there
is the IFSCC journal which is produced by the International Federation of Society of Cosmetic
Chemists. This one covers similar topics as the SCC Journal.
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 dollar for it too.
Subscriptions run ~$2300 per year. But they do have an RSS feed, so that’s worth signing up for
even if you don’t buy the magazine.
Perfumer and Flavorist — This is another publication from the folks at Allured focusing on
the fine fragrance and flavor industry. If these subjects are the type of cosmetic chemist that
you are, P&F is a better choice than Cosmetics & Toiletries. They are both excellent magazines
however.
Women’s Wear Daily — This daily newspaper is the proclaimed authority on the news and
happenings of the beauty and fashion industry. I found it a great source of ideas for new
products. It also is an excellent way to keep an eye on what your competitors are launching and

how they promote it. Being deluged with a paper every day is challenging but they’ve got an
online version which eliminates that problem.
Chemical & Engineering News — This publication comes to you for free with your membership
to the American Chemical Society. It isn’t specifically focused on the beauty industry but it
does have valuable information about the latest developments in chemistry and the chemical
industry which can affect the cosmetic industry. It also features personal care product issues a
couple times a year. It’s a great resource for new product ideas too.
There are other magazines but these are the big players. If you are able to keep up with some of
these journals, you’ll definitely be ahead of your industry colleagues.
There are numerous other places you can find excellent cosmetic formulation information.
cosmetic resources.
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. Looking for PDFs is one of the key techniques.
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.
Another option is to try searching for the term ebook as in “cosmetic formulating ebook.” When
you do that 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.
Of course, don’t forget to remember the authors. As I mentioned, although 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. In fact, in researching this show I discovered that someone has taken my free ebook
and is selling it for $18! Geez. I hope they kept the links in the ebook at least.
Downloading free information from the Internet financially hurts me to some extent, but on the
other hand 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.
DAY 3 CHALLENGE
Start a cosmetic science library
Today’s challenge is relatively easy. It is all about building your own cosmetic science library. Go
to Amazon or another online book retailer and put a few of these books on your wish list. Next,
go to all the magazines linked in the show notes and sign up for all the free publications. If you
find that you are getting too much mail and can’t keep up, you can cancel any time. Or just sign
up for the digital version of magazines. I like to have paper copies but if reading online works for
you, do that.
After you’ve gotten a few issues of free magazines, consider getting one of the paid publications.
Since you are already a member of the SCC (you are, aren’t you!!) you will get the JSCC every
quarter. You also qualify for a free copy of the IFSCC journal. Perhaps the most useful thing
would be to purchase a subscription to Cosmetics & Toiletries but you might want to try out
their free version first.
Lastly, web links were included for all of the magazines and many have RSS feeds so you can
keep up with the headlines without getting the paper subscription. This is highly valuable and
will make it easier to keep up with all of the latest news and science in the cosmetic industry.
When you’ve completed this challenge you should have a good start to the creation of your
own cosmetic formulation library. If during your searches you find books, magazines or other
resources that you think are helpful, be sure to leave a comments on the show notes page.

DAY
4
Biology of the Skin
– Skin Problems to be Solved

DAY 4
Biology of the Skin – Skin Problems to be Solved
Most people who are in the cosmetic industry have backgrounds in chemistry and didn’t take a
lot of biology. And even if you did take biology it’s such a broad subject that I’m sure you didn’t
spend much time discussing the inner workings of human skin. I was actually a biology major in
college, until I discovered there were a lot fewer jobs for biologists and switched to chemistry.
However, I did take a human physiology course which went through all the human body systems
and organs and how everything worked. Unfortunately, we didn’t get into too much detail about
skin. That is something that I had to learn after college.
Anyway, knowing about the biology of skin has a

number of benefits for cosmetic formulators. First,
you’ll get a good idea of how and why your skin
products work. When you know this you have a
much easier time figuring out how to improve your
products. Next understanding skin biology can spark
some new product ideas and innovative approaches
to improving skin look and feel. This knowledge
will also help you understand the latest published
research on new topical treatments and can help you
figure out if they are worth using to solve consumer
problems. Finally, knowing skin biology will help you
know the problems that consumers experience with
skin and can give you ideas of how formulators attempt to solve those problems.
Today, we are going to briefly cover the most important aspects of skin biology that formulators
should know. You don’t have to have knowledge equivalent to a dermatologist, but you should
have a solid understanding of skin structure, composition and how the skin grows.
First, let’s talk a little about the structure of skin. The skin has two primary layers relevant to
cosmetics including the dermis and the epidermis. There is also the subcutaneous fat layer below

the dermis in case you were curious. The dermis is the lower layer of skin where all the new
skin cell growth happens. It’s also where hair growth happens in follicles but we’ll save that for
another episode. The epidermis is the protective, upper layer of skin.
Since cosmetics are designed to work primarily in the epidermal layers of the skin, we’ll look
into this a little more deeply. The epidermis is further subdivided into four distinct layers. These
layers from bottom to top are the stratum basale, the stratum spinosum, stratum granulosum,
and the stratum corneum. The presence of a fifth layer, the stratum lucidum, can be seen in
thicker areas of the epidermis like the soles of your feet.
Of these layers the ones that formulators should know the most about are the stratum basale
(also called the basal layer) and the stratum corneum. The basal layer is where the cells of the
epidermis known as keratinocytes, originate. This layer also contains the melanocytes, which
are cells that produce the pigment melanin, one of the main contributors to skin color. The
primary function of melanin however is to protect skin from UV radiation from sunlight.
Throughout the epidermal layers you also find Langerhans cells, which are part of the skin’s
immune system. These cells help detect foreign substances and defend the body against
infection. But they also play a role in the development of skin allergies to ingredients found in
cosmetics.
The outermost epidermal layer, the stratum corneum, is where cosmetics are applied. It is
relatively thin and waterproof and can protect the body from most bacteria, viruses, and other
foreign substances by preventing them from entering the body. It’s actually quite difficult for
things to penetrate the skin beyond this layer which is why claims that 60 – 100% of cosmetics
are absorbed into the body are just patently false. This is also why claims that ingredients
in cosmetics can stimulate collagen and elastin production are false because even if these
materials could stimulate cell metabolism (which is illegal for cosmetic products in the US),
almost none of them can penetrate the epidermis to get to the dermis where the skin cell
growth is happening.
The dermis is a thick layer of fibrous and elastic tissue made up mostly of collagen, elastin,
and fibrillin that gives the skin its flexibility and strength. This is why cosmetic marketers often
mention collagen and elastin in their skin marketing product materials. The dermis contains
nerve endings, sweat glands and oil glands, hair follicles, and blood vessels. It also contains the
skin stem cells responsible for skin growth which we’ll talk about next.
Now that we know the relevant structure let’s talk about the composition of skin and how it
grows. As I mentioned previously Keratinocytes are the main type of cells in the epidermis.

They begin their life as living skin stem cells located in the dermis. These cells migrate up to
form the layers of the epidermis. While doing this they undergo many changes in which they
flatten out, die, and become keratin rich corneocytes before ultimately being shed. So cells in
the dermis are living and cells in the epidermis are dead tissue.
During the progression of cells through the layers of the epidermis, lipids are released into the
spaces between cells and the skin’s own natural moisturizing factor (NMF) is generated. These
lipids form a barrier to water loss and help retain the skin’s NMF. Disruption of this lipid matrix
and subsequent loss of hydration can lead to dry, flaky skin. The fact that the NMF gets exposed
to the environment or washed away is why you need to use moisturizing products.
The process of skin cell migration from the dermis to the epidermis and then off the body is
continuos. In fact, the skin cells completely turn over within 6 to 8 weeks. That means the skin
you have right now will be completely different in about 2 months.
Alright, that is the basic science of skin and when things work perfectly, skin stays in pretty good
condition. But, fortunately for cosmetic formulators, things don’t work perfectly. There are a
number of problems that happen thus creating the need for skin products. The problems are
many but here are the main consumer skin problems for which they buy cosmetics.
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 more extreme
conditions. The problem should be treated by a doctor, but cosmetic scientists can help to
alleviate the symptoms through the creation of moisturizing creams and safe soaps.
9. Psoriasis
This is another chronic skin condition and is characterized by red scaly patches. It is an
autoimmune disease and, as such, is more in the realm of doctors than cosmetic chemists.
However, topical treatments are one way to relieve the symptoms. If you can make a treatment
that is more effective and longer lasting, you could dominate the market.

10. Unwanted Hair
The only thing worse than not having hair is growing hair in the wrong places. Since those
wrong places are typically on the body in places other than the head, it makes unwanted
hair removal one of the top problems in skin care. Right now solutions focus on hair removal
through harsh chemicals. Creating a gentler way to get rid of unwanted hair would be a great
invention.
Honorable mentions….
Stretch Marks
Cellulite
Cold Sores
Of course, some of these conditions are things that can only be treated with drugs so it might
be more difficult for cosmetic formulators to address them.
DAY 4 CHALLENGE
Skin problems being addressed
Now that you’ve gotten a short lesson on the biology of skin and the problems that consumers
are trying to solve, here’s a challenge you can try to further improve your knowledge of the
cosmetic skin care market.
I want you to take a look at 5 to 10 different skin care brands and see what kind of claims they
are making with regards to the skin. You can go to drugstore.com, find some skin care products
and review their claims. Compile a list of 10 to 20 claims that are being made about the skin.
Make note of which of the top 10 consumer problems they are trying to address. Or are they
trying to address a problem that is not one we discussed above. After looking at the claim see if
you can guess what ingredient in their formula is being used to address the skin problem. What
are the main functional ingredients? Start a list of these
After finishing this exercise you will have a good sense of the skin product market, the claims
that are being made and even the technology that is used to address the problems. Keep this
list and continue to build on it.

DAY
5
Cosmetic Product Testing
– Stability Testing

DAY 5
Cosmetic Product Testing – Stability Testing
Creating a cosmetic formula is a lot like the kind of experiments you do in an organic chemistry
lab. You get raw materials, weigh them and mix them together in the specified manner. If
you’re good you’ll end up with a functional new product when you’re finished. But there is one
huge difference between a college organic chemistry lab versus a cosmetic formulation lab.
In an organic lab, you mix chemicals together and hope something happens. Ideally, you get
the chemical reaction you expect. But 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. In fact, when you have a reaction, that usually means you have a
problem.
Since raw materials often do react (or otherwise change) you need some way to test your
formulas to see how much change they will experience over a certain length of time. This type
of testing is called Stability Testing and is something that cosmetic chemists spend much of their
time doing. If you want to be a better cosmetic chemist you need to know the ins and outs of
how to do stability testing. In today’s episode, we’ll go through a brief description of stability
testing and suggest when, why and how it should be done.
Let’s first begin by talking about what is stability testing. Stability testing is basically an
experiment you conduct to predict how long your formula will maintain its proper function and
quality when exposed to different environmental conditions. In practice, a stability test is simply
a procedure 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. The
longer your product maintains its starting specification values, the more confident you can feel
that your product will remain functional for your consumer.
At set 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 confidence that when the formula is shipped to stores and ultimately gets in the hands
of consumers, it will 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 might occur. This is vaguely based on the Arrhenius equation which
suggests there is a relationship between reaction rate and temperature. A handy rule of thumb
is that a sample stored at 45C for 8 weeks is equivalent to one stored at room temperature
for one year. This isn’t an exact predictor, but is good enough for the purposes of cosmetic
products.
Alright, now that we have the basic principle behind stability testing, let’s go through instances
when you need to run stability tests.
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 are some instances when you will need to conduct a
stability test.
First, there are new prototypes. Whenever you make a new formula and are satisfied with the
way it performs, you should do a stability test to ensure that it will stay together. You don’t
need to test all of your prototypes because many will not work out how you want, but for the
formulas that perform the way you want, you should test them. There isn’t much use creating a
great cosmetic formula that won’t remain stable for the months or year that will be required for
your consumer to get and use the product.
Next, there are 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 raw material source (or supplier) you’ll
want to run a test. Remember that just because a raw material has the same INCI name that
doesn’t mean it will have the same impact on your formula. Raw materials vary widely in terms
of residual materials. Even the composition can be slightly different despite the ingredients
having the same name. Stability testing is the only way to be sure that your raw material will be
compatible with your formula.
Whenever you have a new manufacturing procedure you should do a stability test. Since your
manufacturing department is always trying to find faster ways to make formulas, they may

change some order of addition or shorten mixing time. Whenever changes like these happen,
it could affect the stability of your formula. Conduct a stability test to ensure the change is
acceptable.
Finally, you should conduct a stability test when you are switching to new packaging. Cosmetic
products change their look almost yearly so packaging is constantly being modified. Whenever
you get a new package, you’ll have to determine if the formula continues to be compatible. And
this will be done using stability tests.
There are a number of other times you’ll have to run a stability test. For example, you’ll want
to do when after the first production run of your product. You’ll also want to do one whenever
you use a contract manufacturer to make your formula. You can do stability testing on cost
savings formulations, on consumer research products, and a whole bunch of other instances. I
think when I first started formulating about 30 – 40% of my time was spent doing some aspect
of stability testing. It can get pretty dull collecting samples and running all the tests on them but
it’s a necessary part of the formulation process.
Speaking of process this is an excellent time to talk about how you conduct a stability test. You
should know upfront that there are no set rules on how you must conduct a stability test for
cosmetic products. Of course, for cosmetic OTC products like sunscreens, AP/DO, or dandruff
shampoos the FDA has specific stability test requirements that you have to follow, but for
cosmetic products there are no such requirements. The PCPC has published guidelines as has
the EU cosmetic regulators on which the following procedure is loosely based.
To conduct a stability test you need all the materials and equipment to make your batch but
you’ll also need some additional equipment. To test the pH and viscosity you will need a
viscometer and a pH meter. These are the characteristics you measure before starting the
stability test. Next you’ll need equipment for storing your samples. This includes a couple ovens
that can be held at a specific temperature for a long period of time, a freezer or refrigerator and
a light box or window with partial sun exposure. If you have this equipment you can start your
stability test.
So here is a basic 6 step format you can follow for conducting a cosmetic formula stability test.

Step 1 — Make your batch. You need to calculate out how much of your formula
you need to make based on the number of samples you’ll be using for the test. I typically made
30-40% more of a batch than I needed because my marketing group or manager wanted a
sample or one of the test samples was damaged during the testing. Having extra material for
more samples will save you a lot of time later.
Step 2 — Fill your samples. Ideally, you’ll have the correct packaging but don’t
count on it as often your marketing or packaging group won’t have made a decision about
the final packaging. When appropriate, fill glass jars with the product along with the finished
package. In stability testing, you want to do both glass and packaging if possible. The number of
samples you fill will depend on how much testing your doing but at minimum you should have 2
samples for each storage condition.
Step 3 — Take specification readings. After you finish you batch you take
initial specification readings. Pour off a sample and test it for all the characteristics you’re going
to evaluate later. The exact tests depend on the product but minimally you’ll want to record
notes about the appearance, color and fragrance. You’ll also want to take pH and viscosity
readings. For aerosol products you will test spray patterns.
Step 4 — Put samples at different conditions. Stability testing requires

different temperature and light conditions. Some standard temperatures include 50C, 45C,
37C, 25C (RT), and 4C. You’ll also want to conduct a freeze/thaw stability test which involves
cycling your product through 24 hours of freezing then 24 hours of thawing. Different lighting
conditions involve a fluorescent light box and a natural light box (to simulate sunlight).
Step 5 — Evaluate the samples. Samples should be evaluated at the following

intervals. 2 weeks, 4 weeks, 8 weeks, 12 weeks, and 52 weeks. Evaluating the samples means
conducting all the tests that you did when you started the test. So that would normally be pH,
viscosity, odor, and appearance. Record any changes. Typically, only the RT, 37C and 4C samples
are evaluated at the one year mark. The highest temperature samples and the light exposed
samples only need to be evaluated for the first three test intervals.
Step 6 — Determine stability. Typically, after 8 weeks you can confidently decide
whether your formula is stable or not. Nearly all products will exhibit some change so it will
be up to you (and your boss) to decide whether the product passed or not. If you have the
time it is better to make a final decision after 12 weeks of testing but this is rarely available (or
necessary).

Early in your career, stability testing will be one of the most common activities you’ll do. If you
can create a system that you consistently follow, you’ll avoid burn-out and be able to confidently
communicate when a product is appropriate to launch.
DAY 5 CHALLENGE
Conduct a stability test
Having a challenge related to today’s podcast is difficult since not everyone in the audience will
have access to the equipment required to do the test. But I wanted to come up with some way
that everyone can see some changes to help you understand what happens to samples over
time. So, if you have no lab equipment you could do a stability test something like this.
First, either make a batch of some product or go to the store and purchase a few bottles of
identical shampoos or body washes. A colored product that is either green or blue works best.
Next, pour the products into a single container and mix so they are all blended. Record your
observations about color, appearance, odor. If you have the ability record pH and viscosity too.
Also note any other characteristic about the product that you can.
Then pour the samples into glass jars. The jars can be 2 ounces or so. For a standard stability
test you typically used 4 ounce jars but this is just a mini stability test.
Put the samples at different environmental conditions. For example, you could put one in a
refrigerator and another in a freezer. You can put one in a window sill and one on the counter-
top. You may also put one in an area that is heated like around a heating vent. Just be sure to
note the temperature and other conditions that you are storing the samples.
After a two weeks, take a look at the samples and see if you can notice any changes. If it is a
well formulated product you shouldn’t notice any difference. If it is poorly formulated you might
see a color change or smell an odor difference. You can put the samples back and check them
again in another two weeks.

When you’ve completed this exercise you’ll have a good understanding of what is involved in
testing the stability of your formulations. Certainly, there is more to it than this because we
didn’t even mention testing for microbial contamination (which you should do when you start
the stability test) or testing for sample weight loss but the procedure I outlined above covers
most of the important topics of stability testing. If you know this procedure you will be on your
way to becoming a much better cosmetic formulator.

DAY
6
Career – Non-Formulating Skills
– Networking

DAY 6
Career – Non-Formulating Skills – Networking
I know this is a cosmetic science podcast and for the most part we’ll be focusing on the science
side of creating cosmetic products. However, many of the people in my audience are aspiring
cosmetic chemists or they are already formulators in the industry and that means they already
do or probably will be working for someone. And if you’re like most people, you’re going to
want to advance in your career.
If you want to succeed in the cosmetic industry, it typically requires more than knowing raw
materials and being a brilliant formulator. Success in any company will also require a general
knowledge of business and perhaps most importantly, good people skills. In today’s show we’re
going to go over five of the most useful non-science based skills that every cosmetic scientist
should spend time developing. You won’t be able to do your best work if you’re unsatisfied with
your job and career.
1. Getting along with ALL people

As far as career success goes there is nothing, and I repeat nothing, more important than
learning how to deal with other people. In truth, the people who succeed best at a job (even
cosmetic formulating lab job) are the ones who know how to get along with as many different
people as possible. This means you do everything in your power to avoid making enemies with
anyone at your company.
I know, there will be plenty of people that you may not like, but never let that be known. Don’t
even tell co-workers with whom you are friends. The best thing you can do for your career is
to actually get along with everyone you work with. Never let anyone know that you don’t like
them. 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.
Of course getting along with everyone is much easier said than done as sometimes you just
naturally clash with certain co-workers. Some people are lucky to be blessed with the natural

ability to do this. I was ok at it but I got much better when I started following these two general
principles.
First, never complain. The truth is that no one wants to hear your complaints. It makes you
less likeable and harder to get along with. Certainly, your complaints are probably valid but
ultimately complaining to people, especially if those complaints can get back to your boss, is
just not a good idea. Better is to figure out a way to fix the thing you are complaining about and
work to institute your idea.
For example, when I was working in the lab we only had a couple of mixers and my department
was not inclined to get more. I had to share mixers and often my lab partner who had worked
at the company much longer than me, just assumed her projects got priority. Rather than
complain to my boss, I talked to the manager of another group and was able to borrow their
spare mixer when I needed it. This had the dual benefit of me avoiding conflict with my
coworker and improved my relationship with a manager outside of my particular lab group.
Eventually, I went on to work with this other manager and it was great for my career.
Another tip is to never criticize anyone. Even if you’re right, criticizing someone will not be
appreciated. It will make your job more difficult. It will make you less likeable and could hamper
your career development. Nobody...I mean nobody wants to be criticized. Even if they agree
with you and your criticism is correct, they won’t likely be able to fix the thing for which you
criticize them. So don’t do it. I know it can be difficult to avoid criticisms but do the best you can
never to make one.
But if you do have to criticize someone (sometimes it’s not avoidable) be sure to start with a
compliment before you give them the bad news. This has the effect of making a criticism more
palatable and more likely that it can help fix a behavior in the future. And don’t be insincere
about your compliment either. Start with a genuine compliment.
The classic book How To Win Friends and Influence People is an excellent primer on this topic. I
know it’s a bit old fashioned but it really is the best book on the subject that I’ve ever read. It is
filled with useful, practical advice about getting along with people. I recommend you read it. Or
listen to it. Audiobooks are a great thing to listen to while you commute to work.
2. Learn to Motivate People

The second non-science skill you need to master to advance your cosmetic industry career is
figuring out how to motivate people to do things you need to get done.

It’s inevitable that when you work at a company or even for yourself you will not be able to get
everything you need to get done by yourself. You will not have the skills or the knowledge the
equipment or even the time to do everything yourself. No one can do everything they need to
get done.
And that means you’ll have to work with other people in your company to make things happen.
So, you’ll 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. And certainly if you are new in
your career you also won’t have any managerial influence over them.
Fortunately, there are ways to get people to do things even when there is no obvious reason
that they should. The book I mentioned above has some great information about motivating
people and there are a number of other sources on the Internet that give proven tips. But the
most basic idea is that before you ask someone to do something for you, you should figure out
what they want first. Ask questions. Be genuinely interested in what they say and what they
want. If there is a way you can help them get what they want offer that up...with no strings
attached. People appreciate those that can help them get what they want. And they will be
much more likely to help you out.
Thinking about what other people want and doing what you can to give that to them will take
you a long way towards getting you the things that you want.
Again, this isn’t the kind of thing that you’ll learn in college science courses or really any college
course for that matter, but it is the kind of knowledge and skill you need to develop to thrive in
a career in the cosmetic industry or really any other kind of industry.
3. Develop Clear Succinct Writing.

As a formulator you will have numerous instances in which you will need to communicate with
other people in your company. You’ll have to tell them about experimental findings, the status
of your projects, and hundreds of other daily emails and messages that will crop up. While the
phone used to be the primary way to communicate in business it has been largely replaced by
email and text messaging. That’s why it is crucial you learn how to craft a useful email that gets
right to the point. People don’t have time to read a rambling message or a block of long text.
You need to develop the skills to communicate your message in a short number of words. 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. And only send messages to people
when you really need to send them a message. Face to face communication is usually better

than written communication so if there is a quick question you have, go talk to the person, don’t
send an email.
However, if you are going to send an email (as you often have to) I recommend you follow a
format that has worked well for me ever since I learned it. I learned the method at an all-day
seminar we had at work once, proving that those all day seminars are not always a waste of
time.
Alright here is the secret formula for writing a good business email. Follow the MADE formula.
MADE is an acronym for
Message
Action
Details
Enclosures
So in the first part of your email, you should write your core message. It should answer the
question why are you writing this email? This should be short and to the point. For example if
you are submitting a project status update to your manager your opening line can be something
like...
Hello manager
Here is an update on the project that you asked about.
Very simple and direct. Whoever is reading it will know exactly what to expect in the rest of the
email.
The next part of your email should be the Action. This tells the person exactly what you want
them to do after reading this email. Which means you should always have an action in mind
when you’re writing an email.
So to continue our example with your monthly report, the next sentence in your email could be
something like this.
Please review the report and let me know if you have any comments or questions.
It’s pretty straight forward and gets to the crux of the matter very quickly.

The next part of the email is the Detail part. Here you can give any kind of relevant information
that will help set the context of your message or explain any gaps or whatever. For a monthly
report email like this you could say something like....
This report covers the work that I did on project X from the dates of then and now. We are
making significant progress towards finishing our development and we don’t anticipate any
problems. All of the information you need is in the attached report.
You can put as much information in the detail section as you want, but stick to the 5 Ws, Who
What Where When and Why and maybe How and How Much. But keep it short. No one wants
to read long emails.
Finally, the Enclosure section is next. And these are just more detailed attachments that go
along with the full email. Sometimes you’ll have an Enclosure and some times you won’t. In
the case of a project update you can certainly have a much more detailed report attached to the
email.
So follow this system and get good at writing in a clear and concise matter. It will do more for
your job performance than most any other communication skill you can develop.
4. Develop a knowledge of the cosmetic industry

The fourth non-formulating skill you should work on is developing a knowledge of the cosmetic
industry.
While having a thorough knowledge of 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 on
the raw materials but also in the different brands and products against 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 become familiar with the top brands. Look at the formulas they make
and the technologies that they use.
You want to become an expert in the industry. So follow beauty blogs and beauty trends. Read
the industry trade journals and consumer magazines that are dedicated to the beauty industry.
Follow websites like GCI and Cosmetics Design and Happi. Keep up to date by following
cosmetic industry people on Twitter. There is a ton of information out there that is free and
readily available. Become a resource for your company on all things related to your industry.

Read as much as you can. And make sure people know that you know about the industry. This
will make you a much more valuable employee and will be beneficial to your career growth.
5. Learn to Network
The final skill we will cover in today’s show is Networking.
As we said before you can’t everything alone, so it’s helpful to gather a group of contacts with
expertise in things that you can’t or don’t know how to do. Building a useful network of people
will make you more productive and successful. It can also ensure that you are never without
work.
First, let’s talk about how a network can help you get things done. There are a number of things
that cosmetic chemists need done that aren’t always easy to do. And some things are not even
your job. For example, you often need to get samples of raw materials. This can be made much
easier if you have a reliable network of relationships with the raw material supplier community.
So when a salesperson asks you to lunch, take them up on that offer. Build relationships
with as many raw material companies as you can. It will only help make getting samples and
information much easier. You can also get these suppliers to do other things like conduct
performance tests or do microbial tests. Having a network of suppliers is extremely helpful.
You can also expand beyond raw material suppliers. You should have a contact for things like
lab supplies, equipment and packaging. Also, develop contacts for product testing houses. You
often need to farm out your product testing and having a relationship with a few testing houses
will be useful. An excellent way to find and develop these relationships is to go to industry trade
shows and meet representatives from the various companies that service the cosmetic industry.
They want to meet you just as much as you want to meet them. Remember in a networking
relationship both parties should benefit from the relationship. You are able to get information
and samples more quickly. In turn they have a chance to make a sale. Whenever you are
networking try to develop a win-win situation.
Another reason to develop a solid network of industry relationships is that you must know that
ultimately you work for yourself. Now some company may give you a paycheck every couple
weeks but a cosmetic chemist can not rely on that company to always be around. In fact,
the company I worked for for over 16 years is gone. It’s disappeared. They were bought by
Unilever and subsequently shut down after a few years. While the management insisted that
the likelihood of the company being sold was very low, it happened. And it happens a lot in the
cosmetic industry.

This is another reason you need to develop a network of relationships in the industry. It is much
more likely that you get another job or another opportunity through someone you know than
through any other method. People in your network will think of you whenever they hear of
opportunities that might not even be publicized. I know a number of my friends who are in jobs
right now because of a networking relationship. They got jobs that were not even advertised as
open.
To ensure that you aren’t caught scrambling for a new job if your company ever gets sold or you
don’t get along with your boss or your job is just quote Job Eliminated unquotes, you need to
build a network of individuals in the industry to help you out. Joining groups like the American
Chemical Society or the Society of Cosmetic Chemists or even your local IFSCC chapter is a great
way to meet people and develop your network. Going to trade shows and industry events is
another great way as is using a website like LinkedIn.com. In a future episode we are going to
focus specifically on developing your online profile and LinkedIn will certainly be part of that
discussion.
So there you have it. I hope you now know that there is definitely more to being a successful
cosmetic chemist than just learning how to formulate. Spend some time focusing on developing
these skills and you’ll be on your way to a becoming much more successful and better cosmetic
chemist.
DAY 6 CHALLENGE
Developing your cosmetic
industry network
For today’s challenge you’re going to have to do a little planning. We covered 5 different skills
but we’ll just focus on one that is the easiest to get started and will really help any cosmetic
chemist in their career. Essentially, what I want you to do is to start developing your network of
industry relationships. And the main way for you to do that is to find an industry event, go to
that event and make it a point to interact and collect business cards or contact information from
as many people as you can.
For the cosmetic industry you can find events located near you by going to the website of the
local chapter of your Society of Cosmetic Chemists (or Scientists as the call it in the UK). Find

a meeting or trade show or some other event that you can attend in person. Be sure you have
a good supply of business cards that have your company name, phone number and email on
it. This should have all the information anyone would need to get connected or otherwise
contact you. If you have social media accounts like Twitter or LinkedIn be sure to include that
information on your business card.
When you get to the meeting, interact. For some people, this is easy. For others it’s not as easy.
You have to figure out something to talk about which can sometimes be a challenge. But the
best thing you can do is to ask questions. Get the other person talking as much as you can. Ask
who they work for, what they do, where they’re from, what they are interested in and anything
else you can think of. Remember you should not be the one dominating the conversation. I
laugh at myself now when I think of how I was when I was younger. Whenever I walked into a
room I usually thought I was the most interesting person there. This is a terrible way to meet
people and network. You may have the most interesting stories and experiences but people
don’t really care. Most people want to talk about their experiences. They want to share their
stories. And they want an audience of interested people to tell them to. So, when you’re at
these events ask lots of questions.
Perhaps the most important question you can ask is to find out what the person’s biggest
challenge is. Figure out what they are having the hardest time doing. Ideally, this will be some
work issue since this is an industry event but it might not be. Make it a point to remember
what that is (write it down on their card if you have to) and think about how you might be able
to help them accomplish or solve whatever problem they are experiencing. Even if you can’t
personally solve the problem it would be helpful if you could connect them with someone who
can.
So there’s your challenge. Find an industry event. Go to that event and begin creating your
network by interacting with as many people as you can, collecting as many business cards as
you can and learning from as many people as you can what the biggest problems they are facing
and how you might be able to help them.
If you start building or expanding your network now, you’ll be in a much better position for
whenever you need to reach out for help in the future.

DAY
7
Cosmetic Science
– The Biology of Hair

DAY 7
Cosmetic Science – The Biology of Hair
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, chemical engineering or even others.
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. Since we already
discussed skin in day 4 of this series, today we’ll cover hair. Knowing the basic biology of hair
can help you create better cosmetic formulas.
Of course, you don’t have to know every detail about hair biology to be a good formulator, but
there are some basic facts that every formulator should know.
First, we’ll begin with the basic structure of hair.

It’s difficult to describe the structure without a
picture so I’ll be sure to include a diagram in the
show notes. However, the important thing to
know is that all hairs growth begins in the follicle.
The follicle is a tiny indentation in the skin that
goes deep into the dermis. This is where the hair
growth begins and we will return to that topic
shortly. Right now I want to focus on the structure
of the hair fiber because this is what cosmetics are designed to affect. Products that affect hair
growth are considered drugs in the US and around the world so they are a little outside the
realm of cosmetics.

Hair is made up of keratin protein. This is the same protein that makes up our nails and animal
horns and hoofs. And although hair is composed of keratin there is clearly a difference between
hair and nails. That comes down to the difference in the way the keratin is structured in hair.
Hair fibers have three main structural layers including the cuticle, the cortex and the medulla.
The cuticle is the outer layer of the hair and it looks a bit like shingles on a rooftop. So they
are like flat flakes that cover the surface. These shingles help protect the hair shaft. They are
also what gives the hair shine and the feel of softness. When the cuticle gets damaged, which
it often does, hair can look dull and feel dry. This is why most hair products are designed to
improve the appearance of the cuticle.
The cortex is the inner layer of the hair shaft. This bundle of keratin proteins is responsible for
giving the hair strength. When you make hair products you try to get ingredients to penetrate
into the cortex so that they can help boost the strength and flexibility of the hair fiber. When
you get your hair treated with color or relaxer, it is the cortex that gets most damaged.
The third structural element of hair is the medulla which is the inner-most core of the hair
fiber. It is spongey or even hollow and it’s exact function is not really know. It is thought in our
evolutionary past it could provide insulation.
Alright, now that we’ve covered the hair structure, let’s talk a little more about the chemical
composition of hair. As I said hair is mostly keratin protein but there are other natural
components. For example, there are lipids in hair which come from sebum excreted from glands
in the hair follicle. Additionally, you’ll find some fatty acids like 18 MEA, cholesterol and other
waxes. These natural components help give hair a natural flexibility. These are also easily
washed away by surfactants in shampoos so that’s why restoring these components or the
function of these components is often the goal of hair products.
To finish up on the composition, hair also has a small amount of water trapped in the fibers,
anywhere from 8 to 14% by weight. The exact amount depends largely on the humidity of the
hair’s environment. Hair anti-frizz products are designed to combat this humidity since hair
behaves differently depending on how much water is in it.
Let’s return to hair growth since hair growth products are frequently something cosmetic
chemists are asked to make. In reality, there are NOT a lot of active ingredients that can make
hair grow and if you found one the product would be a drug not a cosmetic.

As I said hair grows from the living cells in the hair follicle which are located at the bottom of
the hair bulb. These cells produce the keratin protein which eventually turns in to the hair on
your head. Also in this area are cells called melanocytes which inject the natural hair color into
the fiber.
The way that the hair works is that these cells constantly produce protein which gets pushed
out the channel that is the hair follicle. As the growing fiber approaches the surface it is coated
with sebum. But by the time the fiber gets to the top of the head, it is just dead protein.
This is important to know. Hair is not living tissue. Hair is dead protein. Hair is as alive as a
shoe lace. That’s why it always amuses me when I hear companies claim to give you healthy
hair. Your hair can not be made healthier. It can be made to look healthier but there is nothing
you can do to affect the actual health of hair. It’s dead tissue.
There are three phases of hair growth that every follicle goest through. At any given time
the follicles on your body are at different phases of the hair growth cycle. Which phase they
are in depends on the genetics of each follicle. There is the active growth phase called the
anagen phase. During this time period hair is actually getting longer. After some genetically
pre-programmed period, the hair stops producing keratin and the follicle enters a dormant or
telegen phase. This can last for a number of months or years. Many hair growth actives are
designed to stimulate hair follicles out of the telegen phase. Finally, there is the catagen phase
in which the cells start to produce keratin again. At this time the old hair is pushed out and
shed. It’s interesting to note that you lose about 50 to 100 hairs each day.
Some other facts about hair. Normal hair grows about 0.5 inches or 1 centimeter a month. So if
you didn’t get your hair cut for one year, you can expect it to be about 6 inches longer.
Another fact about hair is that the natural color of hair is correlated to the number of hairs on
your head. People who are naturally brunette typically have a large number of hairs (say about
125,000 - 130,000). Natural red heads have fewer hairs with as few as 80,000. All things being
equal, the exact number of hairs on your head depends on your genetics.
Just a quick note about the shape of hair. Some people have naturally curly hair while other
people have super straight hair. This is directly a result of the shape of the follicle on their head.
People with really straight hair will have nearly circular follicle shapes. People with wavy hair
have slightly flattened follicles. And people who have kinky, curly hair will have very flattened
hair follicle openings.

Some other hair notes, the texture is a result of the combination of hair diameter and the total
number of hairs on the head. Also, there is no direct link between the natural color of hair and
texture. But if you get your hair colored, it can give your hair the appearance and feel of more
texture / body. This is why many consumers have these treatments done.
Finally, as a formulator you should know that the hair on people’s head is colored by melanin,
the same pigment that colors your skin. All natural hair colors are a result of two types of
melanin. Eumelanin which gives shades of brown and black and pheomelanin which gives
shades of yellow-blonde to red. Of course, we cosmetic formulators have figured out how to
give people lots of other colors so consumers are not limited to the hair color they were born
with. One final thing about hair color, grey hair is actually a result of hair that has no color in
it. Hair becomes grey because the melanocytes which typically inject color into the fiber stop
working.
There is much more you can learn about hair biology but knowing these basic facts will help you
in future formulating efforts.
Perhaps the best book about the biology of hair for cosmetic formulators is the Chemical and
Physical Behavior of Human Hair. It’s an excellent reference for all things about hair biology.
Let’s now turn our attention to the problems that consumers report which are the targets for
new hair product formulations. As a cosmetic scientist your job will often involve coming up
with a formula that satisfies the desires of your Marketing department. Usually, those desires
are 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.
This is unfortunate 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.
There are still unsolved problems in many areas of cosmetics and 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. Of course,
any solution you come up with will be a drug however, the pay-off could be huge.

2. Unwanted hair growth
This is the opposite problem of hair growth but not any less important. Nearly everyone has
hair in places where they wished it wouldn’t grow (legs, faces, underarms, etc). 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 of 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 without resorting to damaging chemical treatments like perms and waves.

9. Shine
Everyone claims they can give it to you but in reality, no product delivers a significant
improvement in hair shine. Find a way to make hair shine so much it sparkles like a diamond.
This would be a truly innovative product.
10. Time to Style

Last but not least is time. Some people take over an hour to get their hair into the style and
shape they want. This is primarily caused by their lack of styling skill and the speed at which the
hair dries. You may not be able to teach them to style faster but a scientist certainly should be
able to figure out how to get hair to dry more quickly.
There you have it, some real consumer product hair problems to solve.
DAY 7 CHALLENGE
Technology for solving hair problems
Now that you’ve gotten a short lesson on the biology of hair and the problems that consumers
are trying to solve, here’s a challenge you can try to further improve your knowledge of the
cosmetic hair care market.
I want you to take a look at 5 to 10 different hair care brands and see what kind of claims they
are making with regards to the hair. You can go to drugstore.com, find some hair care products
and review their claims. Compile a list of 10 to 20 claims that are being made about the hair.
Make note of which of the top 10 consumer problems they are trying to address. Or are they
trying to address a problem that is not one we discussed above. After looking at the claim see if
you can guess what ingredient in their formula is being used to address the hair problem. What
are the main functional ingredients? Start a list of these
After finishing this exercise you will have a good sense of the hair product market, the claims
that are being made and even the technology that is used to address the problems. Keep this
list and continue to build on it.

DAY
8
Cosmetic Raw Materials
– Aesthetic Raw Materials

DAY 8
– Aesthetic Raw Materials
Today, we are going to turn our focus back on cosmetic raw materials. Back on day 2 we covered
functional raw materials so today we will go over Aesthetic raw materials.
As I said in the previous episode on raw materials, the most common and abundant types
of cosmetic raw materials in formulas are aesthetic modifiers. These ingredients help make
delivery of the functional ingredients more acceptable. They help functional ingredients spread,
make them more stable, and improve the look and feel of the overall product.
Since aesthetic ingredients have little functional benefit to the consumer, formulators try to
minimize the number 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 you to have a thorough knowledge of what
they do and how to use them.
The primary types of aesthetic raw materials in cosmetic formulas include Solvents, Adjusters,
Preservatives, Thickeners, Fragrances, Fillers, and Special Effect ingredients. Delivery Systems
would also be included in this class of ingredient. All of these ingredients have an effect and
function in a formula but they are added to improve the aesthetic of the formula not necessarily
the functionality.
I should mention that colorants could also be included as aesthetic ingredients but we covered
them in the functional lesson. Also, fragrances are covered as aesthetic ingredients but in some
formulas, like perfumes, they are the functional ingredients.
Solvents
The first type of aesthetic ingredient to know are solvents. These are nearly always the most
abundant ingredient in your formula. They are used to dilute the functional ingredient which

improves functionality, makes them less irritating, and more aesthetically acceptable. Solvents
are the primary aid in delivery of the functional ingredients and they also are relatively
inexpensive. In fact, the solvent that you use should be low cost to ensure that the formulation
is low cost. Fortunately, water, the most common solvent is also an inexpensive ingredient. For
most people it will be the most inexpensive cosmetic ingredient you can get. Other solvents
include Alcohol, Mineral Oil and Propylene Glycol. You might remember that mineral oil and
propylene glycol were also listed as functional ingredients since they can be conditioners.
It’s helpful to use a material like this in which you can get multiple functions from a single
ingredient.
Formulation Aids
Another type of aesthetic ingredient is formulation aids. These ingredients are added
specifically to allow for adjusting characteristics like pH and viscosity. They are also included to
make other ingredients go into the formulation more easily or work better.
The most common ingredients used to adjust the pH include acids such as Hydrochloric Acid,
Citric Acid, Lactic Acid, or Phosphoric Acid. To increase the pH alkaline ingredients like Sodium
Hydroxide, Potassium Hydroxide, or Triethanolamine are used. For viscosity control in a charged
surfactant systems, a salt like Sodium Chloride or Ammonium Chloride is frequently added.
Chelating agents are ingredients like Tetrasodium EDTA which have the ability of binding to
free metal ions that are present in most water sources. Using aesthetic ingredients like these
can improve the function of surfactants and also improve the efficiency of preservatives. Most
aqueous formulas could benefit from the inclusion of a chelating agent.
Finally, there are solubilizers. Whenever you use an oily material like a fragrance there is a
possibility that it is not compatible with the solvent you are using. Typically, this will result in a
cloudy sample. To avoid this problem a non-ionic surfactant solubilizer like Polysorbate-20 or
Oleth-40 are used.
All of these formulation adjustment ingredients are used at low levels and can be extremely
helpful during production when the formula can inadvertently out of the range of specification
for pH or viscosity. Having a way to adjust pH and viscosity can be the difference between
saving a batch worth thousands of dollars or throwing it away.

Preservatives
The next type of aesthetic modifier is preservatives. These are some of the most vilified
ingredients in cosmetics but they are also some of the most important things to include.
Cosmetic preservatives are ingredients added to formulations to prevent the growth of
microbes. In the food industry antioxidants are also considered preservatives because they
prevent a change in product taste, however these are not typically considered preservatives for
cosmetics. Remember, cosmetic preservatives are ingredients that stop the growth of microbes.
If an ingredient does not inhibit microbial growth, it is not a cosmetic preservative.
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, this could lead to
all kinds of problem. Bacteria like Pseudomonas can cause various health problems such as
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.
There are dozens of ingredients that are used as preservatives but there are a limited number
of classes of molecules. Parabens are the most commonly used preservative in cosmetics. They
are derivatives of p-hydroxybenzoic acid and go by names like Methylparaben, Propylparaben,
and Butylparaben. 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 preservatives.
It’s interesting to note that while the safety of parabens is a constant source of confusion, the
ingredients have been reviewed by independent scientific groups and determined to be safe
when used at the levels found in cosmetics.
Formaldehyde derivatives are the next most common preservative after parabens. These
compounds are effective against bacteria, fungi, and mold and are effective at low levels in
a wide variety of formulation types. 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 and
Imidazolidinyl Urea. They are most often used in surfactant systems.
Other important preservatives include phenol derivatives like Phenoxyethanol. This is one of
the most commonly used “natural” preservative ingredients so typically when people try to
formulate avoiding parabens or formaldehyde donors, phenoxyethanol is used. Unfortunately,

phenol derivatives are not as effective as the previous ingredients so their use is limited.
Other common preservatives include quaternary compounds (or quats) like Benzalkonium
Chlroide. Ethanol is also a great preservative but you need to use it in high levels and it faces
significant environmental restrictions. Synthetic compounds like Methylchloro- Isothiazolinone
and Methyl-Isothiazolinone are effective at incredibly low levels. There use has been stymied
however, by at least one study that suggested it could cause skin sensitization.
Various other compounds are used as alternatives to traditional preservatives but all face some
limitations not experienced to the same extent as the previous ingredients discussed. Some
of the most important include Sodium Benzoate, Chloracetamide, Triclosan, and Iodopropynyl
Butylcarbamate. Pyridine derivatives like Sodium pyrithione and zinc pyrithione are used to kill
the bacteria that causes dandruff.
The most important thing to remember is that your formula MUST be adequately preserved.
It’s ok to try out new, alternative preservatives but understand that you are taking a risk. The
alternative preservative may not work as well, may break down over time, and may have some
unknown health risks. If product safety is your most pressing concern, you should stick to
traditional preservatives.
Thickeners
The next type of aesthetic ingredient is thickeners. 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 have to figure out a way to control the viscosity (or thickness) of your products.
There are a number of ingredients used for this purpose each of which has applications to
different formulation types. The primary types of thickeners include lipid thickeners, natural
polymer derived thickeners, acrylic acid thickeners and mineral thickeners. Of course you should
also remember that acids, bases, and salts can be thickeners in a surfactant systems.
Lipid thickeners are materials 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.
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, Locust Bean Gum, Xanthan Gum, and Gelatin are other
examples. 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 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.
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. 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.
Fragrances
The next type of aesthetic ingredient to know are fragrances. Although some people show
allergic sensitivity to fragrance ingredients, fragrances remain a standard product found in
nearly all cosmetics. The most simple reason is because people would rather buy cosmetics
that have fragrances than to buy unfragranced or scent free products. People just enjoy a nicely
scented product better than an unscented one. And the reality is that without fragrance most
cosmetics would smell like melted crayons which is not something most people want to put on
their bodies.
Fragrances are used in cosmetic formulas to improve the scent of either the formula or the
surface to which they will be applied. In this way, fragrances can be thought of as both an
aesthetic modifying ingredient and a functional ingredient. We’ve discussed them here because
unless the cosmetic is specifically a perfume or cologne, fragrance is added to the formula
simply to modify the aesthetics of the formula.
Just a note about fragrances and the list of ingredients. When you use a fragrance in a
formulation you are only required to put the word “Fragrance” or “Parfume” to represent the
ingredient. As you realize however, different fragrances can be made up of vastly different
compounds. So putting the term “fragrance” on the label doesn’t give consumers much

information about everything that is in their product. Since there are some ingredients in
fragrances that are known allergens there is the requirement in the EU (and many companies in
the US do this too) that you list those known allergens if they are in your fragrance. This allows
people who know they are allergic to a material to stay away from a specific product. But this
requirement to only list Fragrance to represent all fragrances has led some to push for new
legislation that lists all the ingredients in the fragrance. I’m not sure if that would be helpful to
have more than a hundred ingredients on a cosmetic product label but we’ll see what happens
in the future.
Fillers
We will leave fragrances now to move on to just a few more aesthetic modification materials
which we haven’t covered. The first type are fillers which are primarily found in powdered
makeup products. The idea of fillers in liquid or emulsion cosmetics does not really make
sense. The “filler” ingredient in these products is just the solvent. In fact, fillers can actually
be thought of as powdered solvents because they have nearly the same effects as solvents.
Namely, they are used to dilute the powdered colors used to create makeup. As we previously
discussed just a small amount of colorant can produce a great deal of color. By using a filler
the color can be diluted and more easily spread on the surface. Some common fillers found in
cosmetics include Talc, Mica, Kaolin, Bismuth Oxychloride, and Calcium Carbonate. If you see
these ingredients in a formulation you now know why they are added.
Appearance modifiers
There are some miscellaneous appearance modifiers that are added to significantly change
the appearance of your cosmetic formula. Pearlizing agents like Glycol Stearate or Mica are
added to give the formula a swirly or pearlized look. They are often used to make clear body
wash or shampoo formulas look more opaque. This creates the image of moisturization which
consumers like.
Another type of appearance modifier are encapsulated beads. These are tiny gelatin beads
which are suspended throughout a formulation to make it appear as though there is some time
release capsule of active ingredient in the formula. Or the beads may be added to provide
something like an exfoliation effect. They are a bit gimmicky but people also like them.
Texture Modifiers
Finally, there are texture modifiers which can be added to formulas to make them feel a
little different during application. These are ingredients like crushed walnut shells or matrix
polymers. They also can have an exfoliating effect but their main appeal is they make the

formula feel different.
In an effort to make your product stand out from your competitors sometimes you have to add
ingredients just to give yourself an edge.
Certainly, there are other types of aesthetic ingredients but these are the primary categories.
If you are familiar with these types of ingredients along with the functional ingredients you will
know nearly all the most important ingredients found in cosmetics.
DAY 8 CHALLENGE
Identifying aesthetic ingredients
Alright, there you have it all the main types of aesthetic cosmetic ingredients. As you develop
in your career as a formulator, it is helpful to think of any new raw material you come across in
terms of its purpose for being included in a formula. Is the raw material a functional ingredient?
Is it an aesthetic modifier? Or is it a claims ingredient? To become a better cosmetic chemist
you need to know why ingredients are added into formulas. In reality of the thousands of
ingredients used in cosmetics only a small percentage provide an actual functional benefit in the
formula.
For today’s challenge I want you to repeat the exercise from day 2 of this series but instead of
looking at an ingredient list for the functional ingredients, scan through the list of ingredients
for the aesthetic ingredients. So go over to Drugstore.com or Ulta.com or just use 3 or 4
different cosmetic products, and get the list of ingredients. Copy those lists into a spreadsheet
and see if you can identify which of the raw materials are providing the main aesthetic benefits
in the formula.
To go back to an earlier example, let’s look at the Jergens Natural Glow Revitalizing Daily
Moisturizer again. Of the 31 ingredients listed in the formula, how many are aesthetic
ingredients? We’ll include the full ingredient list in the show notes.
When you are trying to figure out aesthetic ingredients, it’s most helpful to cross off all the
functional ingredients. As we saw when we did the exercise the first time with this product
of the 31 ingredients only 5 were actually functional. For this exercise most of the remaining

ingredients are aesthetic ingredients including the solvent, emulsifiers, preservatives, fragrance,
thickeners, etc. In fact, it is easier just to cross out the claims ingredients and figure the rest are
aesthetic modifiers. Doing this gives us 6 more ingredients to cross off leaving 20 ingredients
that can be considered aesthetic ingredients.
Alright, now it’s your turn. Find 3 or 4 ingredient lists. Write down the main function of the
product and see if you can identify which are the aesthetic ingredients. After you are done go
to the comments in the show notes and list the results of your exercise. First list the product
you looked at, the main claims, the ingredient list, and the ingredients that you think are the
main aesthetic ingredients. We’ll look through them and see how you did.

DAY
9
Formulating
– Essential Lab Equipment

DAY 9
Formulating – Essential Lab Equipment
A cosmetic lab is a bit like any other science lab. But the equipment used in making cosmetics
is often more similar to the kinds of things you find in a kitchen rather than that in an organic
chemistry lab. Breaking it down to the bare basics, there are only 5 types of equipment you
need to set up a cosmetic lab. This includes weighing equipment, mixing & storage containers,
mixers, temperature control equipment, and testing equipment. We’ll cover each of these
types and also discuss some of the lab supplies you need for your cosmetic product lab.
Weighing Equipment
We’ll begin with weighing equipment. To make cosmetic products you will be measuring
out specific masses of raw materials. In a kitchen measurements are typically done using
measuring spoons and measuring cups. These are volume measurements and they are not
appropriate for cosmetic formulating. When you are creating cosmetic products all of your raw
materials measurements should be done in terms of mass (or weight). Also, all your cosmetic
formulations should be written in terms of mass too so all your ingredients should be listed
in terms of grams of that ingredient rather then fluid ounces, or cups, or tablespoons. It’s just
much more reliable to use weight measurements rather than volume.
For that reason you need to have a proper balance or scale for measuring ingredients in your
cosmetic lab. In the old days there was the triple beam balance which consisted of a large plate,
an arm and a hook where you could place different mass weights. Fortunately, technology
has advanced and today most balances consist of a single plate with a digital readout. For a
cosmetic lab you’ll want to have a balance that can measure as small as 0.01 grams and as much
as 1000 grams. You want these ranges because the batch sizes that you most frequently will
make will be 1000 grams or less. It is actually helpful to have a balance that can measure larger
quantities say up to 5000 gram (5 kilograms). The problem with these scales is that the more
mass you can measure the less accurate the will be for smaller measurements. In an ideal world
your cosmetic lab would have a scale that measures from 500g down to 0.01 gram and another
scale that measures up to 5000 grams.

There are a wide variety of brands when it comes to picking out scales. I used scales from
Mettler Toledo and Cole Palmer such as the ones that are listed in the show notes. The prices
of scale range anywhere from less than $100 to over $3000 (US). The less expensive devices
will have a number of deficiencies as compared to the more expensive models. In general, less
expensive scales will be less accurate, less durable, and will need to be replaced more often.
However, there is a limit at which the price of the scale does not match the additional benefit
you can get. I would estimate that most small labs could get away with purchasing a scale that
is anywhere from $200 - $500. Less than that won’t be of a high enough quality and more than
that is just extra that you don’t need.
While the scale will be your largest expense when it comes to weighing equipment there are
also supplies you’ll need in your lab related to weighing ingredients. Other weighing equipment
you’ll need includes disposable pipettes to help when measuring liquids and weigh boats
to help in weighing out solids. The most commonly used weigh boats are made of either
aluminum or flexible polystyrene. Small metal spatulas are also useful when making cosmetic
batches. Finally, you’ll also want to have a good supply of lab grade paper towels or Kimwipes
for cleaning all of your equipment.
Containers
Another essential piece of equipment are containers in which you make and store your batches.
The most common container you’ll use to make a cosmetic formula is a beaker. Things like
Erlenmeyer flasks and graduated cylinders that were so frequently used in other chemical
labs are rarely used in a cosmetic lab. For formulating you’ll need a variety of beaker sizes to
accommodate all the different sized batches you’ll make. Be sure to have a number of 500mL,
800mL, 1000mL, 1500ml and 2000mL beakers. In my opinion, 400 g batches are really the
smallest size you should make and they fit nicely in a 500 mL beaker. Beakers are also useful
for measuring out larger volumes of liquids, so it’s useful to have on hand a number of beakers
ranging in volume from 10 mL up to 2000 mL.
The beakers you get should be made from borosilicate glass which are able to withstand
the high temperatures you will sometime expose them to when making batches. These are
relatively inexpensive and you can probably get the full complement of beakers that you would
need to start your lab for less than $100. In the show notes I’ll provide a link to a set of beakers
that will work for most anyone. These are the same type of beakers I used in my formulation
lab.

For larger batches, say ones over 2 kilograms in size, you should get some stainless steel
containers. These are durable and can be exposed to a wide range of heat without concern.
The main problem is that some of the ingredients used in cosmetic formulations can interact
with the steel and cause problems so you can not store product in them for any length of time.
It’s great to have a couple of containers like these but you will mostly be creating batches in
beakers.
Another type of contain you’ll need for a cosmetic lab are storage containers. Often, you’ll
make a batch of a product for some type of testing and you’ll have extra product left over.
Instead of disposing all of this material it’s useful to store it for later use. Storing product in glass
containers is the best option. Also, you’ll need glass containers if you are going to conduct any
type of stability test. Unlike the mixing containers however, these containers can be made from
standard thick glass. The most common sizes that we used in our lab are 2 ounce, 4 ounce, 8
ounce and 1 liter straight sided jars. Having a wide-mouthed jar makes it easy to pour into the
container and also allows you to make viscosity measurements right in the jar.
There are some lab supplies that go along with mixing containers. You should have a good
supply of plastic wrap and aluminum foil while you create formulas. The plastic wrap is used
to cover the top of the beaker while you’re making the batch (this prevents some water loss)
and the aluminum foil can be used for the same purpose. When you are done with a batch but
want to leave it in the beaker over night before you take measurements on it, covering it with a
double layer of plastic wrap and aluminum foil is typically done.
Mixers
The third type of equipment every formulation lab needs are mixers. These are the devices
you’ll use to properly blend your formulas and get the results you need. In college chemistry
labs, you most frequently used a magnetic stirrer to mix your creations. These are rarely used
in a cosmetic lab. They just aren’t strong enough. And for many DIYers or homecrafter cosmetic
formulators a stick blender or hand held mixer is used. These devices are ok for hobbyists but
if you want to create a professional lab, you’re going to need proper mixers and homogenizers.
The things used in the kitchen are just not durable enough or strong enough to mix the
ingredients you use in cosmetic formulations.
For mixing, you’ll want an industrial type, overhead mixer. These mixers provide a fast way to
make formulations in a wide range of sizes. They have variable speeds and blades so a single
mixer can be used to make a wide variety of cosmetic formulation types.

There are a number of things to consider when you are picking an overhead mixer for a
cosmetic lab. First, know the viscosity or thickness of products that you are going to most often
make. If you are making thick gels you’ll need a higher speed mixer than if you are just making
solutions formulas like shampoos or body washes.
Second, know the size of samples you’ll be most frequently making. You typically can’t use the
same mixer for a 5 gallon batch as you can for a 1 kg batch. For a cosmetic lab, focus on getting
a mixer that can handle batches 2kg and smaller. If you need to make larger batches you can get
a second mixer or work with a contract manufacturer to make your products.
The third consideration is mixing speed. Mixers typically have a range of speeds from 20 to 3000
RPM or higher. Most batches that I made in the lab were done in a mixing speed range from 200
to 500 RPM. There are a number of good brands out there and if you search around on Amazon
or eBay you can find less expensive options. Figure for a good, professional grade mixer you’re
going to have to spend $1500 or so for a new one. However, you can probably get a decent
mixer for $500. It really depends on what you can find. I’ll include links to a few mixers that
have the right specifications for a cosmetic lab.
In addition to the mixer you’ll need a proper mixing blade. The most common types used in
cosmetic labs are paddle blades. These are rectangle-shaped, steel mixers that have the middles
cut out. They provide adequate mixing for both solution and emulsion type formulations. You’ll
also need a range of sizes of the mixer blade to accommodate the different batch sizes you’ll be
making. I’ll also include links in the show notes for the proper mixing blades.
Finally, you’ll also need a stand to hold the mixer. The stand should be sturdy, durable and allow
for you to adjust the height and position of the mixer.
Temperature Controls
So you have your mixers, containers and weighing devices, but you still need a way to heat and
cool batches. For this you need temperature controlling equipment, and the most common of
these is a hot plate. The hot plates used in cosmetic labs are pretty much the same as the ones
you use in any chemistry lab except they tend to be larger. The type of hotplate you get again
depends on the types of batches you most frequently make however, here are some things you
should consider when getting one.
Size – you want one that has a plate that is large enough to accommodate any batch size you
are making. A 5inch by 5inch to a 7inch by 7inch platter size is good for most applications. If you

are going to make larger batches you can get an even larger platter size.
Temperature range – most hot plates will range from 50C to 500C and this is more than
adequate for any cosmetic formula you might make.
You might also wonder whether you should have the magnetic stirrer option that comes with
many hotplates. In truth, cosmetic formulators don’t use magnetic stirrers. The raw materials
we work with are too viscous for magnetic stirrers to be useful. However, if you happen to get
a hot plate with a magnetic stirrer you can use it for making solutions of things like salt, dyes,
acids, and bases so it isn’t completely useless.
For cooling batches most of the time we just remove the batch from the hotplate and use air
to cool it down. But for products 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.
I actually recommend that you always use a water batch even when you are heating your
batches. The way this works is you have a pan of water that gets put directly on the hot plate.
Then you put your beaker for your batch in the pan of water. As you heat it up you limit the
speed and maximum temperature to which you can heat your batch. It sometimes happens that
batches get overheated because the temperature of hot plates is difficult to control. When you
are ready to cool down your batch you can just replace the hot water with ice water. It works
great and gives you much better control of batch temperatures.
One other thing you’ll need related to heating and cooling is a way to measure the batch
temperature. There are a number of options. Using a waterproof, digital thermometer is a great
option as is a thermometer with a detachable probe. When I was formulating we had a number
of stainless steel cheesemaking thermometers that were quite handy. You could put them in the
beaker and monitor the temperature the entire time.
Testing Equipment
Finally, the last pieces of equipment you need to properly outfit your cosmetic lab is testing
equipment. Taking measurements and keeping records of the results of your batch are not only
helpful activities to ensure you are producing high quality products, they are also a requirement
for following Good Manufacturing Procedures as recommended by the FDA. After you’ve
finished any cosmetic formulation, you need to test it to ensure that it meets specifications
and expectations. For this, you’ll want to have a pH meter and a viscometer (for measuring
rheology).

The pH meter you get does not have to be expensive but don’t waste your time with the pH
strips. Those are just not accurate enough for a professional cosmetic lab. They really aren’t
accurate enough for any lab really. Better is to get a pH meter which has a probe and a digital
readout accurate to at least 0.01 pH units. These don’t have to be expensive either and you can
get a reasonably good one for less than $20. However, if you are going to be making a lot of
batches and conducting stability tests it will be worth investing in a more accurate and reliable
pH instrument like a device from BlueLab. This can run you up to $200.
The other standard measurement that you need to make is viscosity and there is no better
device than a Brookfield viscometer. You’ll need to get something that can measure formulas
with a viscosity up to one million centipoise. That’s probably overkill for cosmetic products
but it’s better to be able to measure a really thick solution than not. A viscometer can cost
anywhere from $200 to $1500.
There are numerous other testing devices you can buy but if you have a pH meter and
viscometer that will cover most all your needs starting out.
Of course no cosmetic lab would be complete without a good stock of cosmetic raw materials.
Which of these you have keep on hand will depend on the type of formulas you make. Everyone
will want to have a supply of deionized water. Most of you will also want to have a stock of
common preservatives, acids, bases, and dye solutions.
So that is it. If you get all of the equipment listed in this episode you’ll have a completely
functional cosmetic laboratory. If you already 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.

DAY 9 CHALLENGE
Get the equipment for a cosmetic
laboratory
Now that you know all the equipment needed for a cosmetic lab, it’s time to get started building
your own. For today’s challenge I want you to go through and make a list of all the pieces of
equipment that you have and the ones that you need.
To help you do this, we’ve made a equipment checklist that you can get at our website in the
show notes. Go get the checklist and write down the equipment that you have now and what
you still need. If you have already purchased equipment feel free to leave a list of what you are
using in the comments section so everyone can learn from your experience.
This isn’t a very involved challenge but it is something everyone can do. Eventually, you are
going to need all this equipment if you want a fully functional cosmetic lab.

DAY
10
Cosmetic Testing – Claims Testing

DAY 10
Cosmetic Testing – Claims Testing
Being able to create functional formulations is not enough to be an excellent cosmetic chemist.
You also need to know how to support the claims that your company wants to make about your
products. Today, we’ll be talking about claims testing. Specifically, we’ll cover the role that the
formulator has in claims support and give you some tips on how you can support claims.
Before we begin the main part of today’s lesson it would be helpful to talk about why cosmetic
formulators should care about claims. There are three main reasons, differentiating your
products, spurring innovation, and keeping your company out of trouble.
Let’s talk about how claims help you differentiate your product from your competitors. The
reality is that most of the cosmetic products on the market right now work well for what they
do. And 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 that you can
make about your products. Claims are where products differentiate themselves. The claims are
the things that your advertisements can talk about. They are the things you can demonstrate in
videos. They are the statements about your product that gets people to buy them. Don’t get me
wrong, you need to produce good formulas. But once you get to a point of being good enough,
it will be your claims and marketing that get people to buy your products.
Another benefit of learning about claims and how to support them is that it can spur
innovation. When I was working on supporting a claim we wanted to make, I made a discovery
that lead to my first patent. I developed this method for quickly washing hair and it turned out I
stumbled on a technology that made hair more resistant to losing color. Only through my claims
investigation would I have found that technology.
Finally, learning how to support claims will help keep your company out of trouble. In the US
and around the world it is illegal to make false claims. Whenever your company wants to say

something about your products and how they work they rely on their cosmetic chemists to
provide them with the supporting evidence. As a product developer you are expected to be
able to come up with reasonable tests which demonstrate that your company’s advertising is
truthful.
Now that you know why it is important for you to learn about claims and how to support them,
it makes sense to clarify our terms by going over exactly what we mean by “claim”. In general,
a claim is any statement related to the product’s identity, function or performance. Claims are
made to inform your consumer what the product will do for them and also help differentiate
you from the competition. Often, the company with the best claims about their products will be
the one who does the best in the marketplace.
There are essentially seven categories of claims and we’ll go through each of them. This includes
claims about the product’s physical & chemical properties, safety, and efficacy claims. There are
also subjective claims, cultural claims, implied claims and endorsements.
Claims about the physical and chemical properties of your product are ones in which the
advertising emphasizing something about the product that will impress the consumer. Claims
like “pH balanced” or “concentrated formula” are examples. Another common example is when
cosmetic manufacturers give consumers extra bonus product such as “40% more.” These types
of claims are relatively straightforward to support. You simply take the pH of your formula to
support pH balanced or determine the mass of your product to support 40% more and record
your data.
Safety-related claims are those that prove the product is safe. For example, claims like
Hypoallergenic, tear free, or “formulated for sensitive skin.” Claims like these have been around
for a long time and there are well-established human clinical tests that companies can run to
support the validity of the claim. Research continues in this area and now there are some in-
vitro tests that are acceptable for supporting safety claims.
Objective efficacy claims are those related to the function of the product and how well it works.
The specific claims depend on the type of product you are formulating. Products for skin make
moisturizing claims, products for hair might make conditioning claims. When you see the SPF
number on a sunscreen, this is also an efficacy claim. Like safety claims, there are some industry
established tests that can support the claims you might want to make. These can be both
instrumental and human subject tests. Animal testing is avoided.

Next are subjective efficacy claims. These are claims related to how people perceive your
product is working. For example, claims like “the product smells fresher” or it “leaves the skin
feeling softer” are all subjective. The support for claims like these really just require a group
of human subjects to give you their feedback. You will often see in commercials disclaimers on
claims like these indicating how it is supported. If you ask the right question or pick the right
control you can get some impressive claims.
The fifth category of claims are what I call cultural claims. These are claims that appeal to a
specific group of consumers. Usually, the claims are not related to performance but rather
about the impact of the product on the environment or society. So claims like “not tested on
animals”, “biodegradable”, or “uses fair trade ingredients” are all examples of this.
The sixth category of claims are implied claims. These are statements that imply a type of
functionality that may or may not exist. These claims rely on the consumer to already have
some impression about the ingredient that is being called out. For example, you frequently see
products that claim to be “formulated with moisturizing aloe” or “made with vitamins.” The
aloe or vitamins in these formulas may have zero measurable impact on the performance but
just putting them on the label is enough to convince people that there is an effect. Support for
these claims just require that you actually put some of the ingredient in your formula. You can
also use published literature to support the implied claim.
The final category of claims are endorsements. These claims use a perceived authority to
endorse the quality of your product. They are much like the implied claims in that no testable
statement has to be made. This is pretty effective in the cosmetic industry which explains
why there are so many celebrities who are associated with beauty products. In addition to
celebrities, endorsements may also take the form of dermatologists, doctors, beauty bloggers,
or anyone else that your company might believe would be useful for helping to communicate
the quality of your product. There really isn’t much you need to do to support these claims
beyond actually having the support of the person giving the endorsement.
As I said earlier your product claims help you stand out from the competition. To do this
companies often will make comparisons. There’s a range of comparisons that you can make and
some are easier to support than others.
The easiest type of comparison to make is a general claim compared to not using the product.
These claims refer to what the product does and are relatively easy to support. The next level
of comparison is to make a claim versus an older product. Typically, companies compare their

product to their former product. For example, “made with x% more conditioner” or “great new
fragrance.” These are easy to support too since you’re comparing it to a product you previously
made.
Harder comparison claims are those made against a competitor but these are some of the most
compelling. Essentially, you need to run some kind of test that demonstrates in whatever area
you are claiming that your product is better. This was famously done in the late 1970’s when
Pepsi demonstrated that their product was preferred to Coke. This type of claim is difficult to
make and even worse is that the company you compare yourself to will likely take you to court.
This is why we don’t see these comparison claims much in the cosmetic industry.
Finally, there are also absolute claims that can be made about your product. For example you
might see something like “the best skin moisturizer in the world” or “the greatest hair styling
product.” As you can imagine these claims are extremely difficult to support so you don’t see
them made much. To validate them you would have to compare yourself to every other product
out there.
However, sometimes claims like these are made and they are so exaggerated that they count
as “puffery.” Puffery is a term used to describe claims that are so outlandish that no reasonable
person would be expected to believe them. Or they refer to claims that use words which have
no defined meaning. For example, claiming that your product is “natural” requires almost
no support because the term natural means nothing. Anyone can support a claim that their
product is natural since nothing supernatural has ever been demonstrated to exist.
As a product developer your main tasks as related to product claims is twofold. First, you’re
going to be asked to come up with claims about your product. And second, you’re going to be
asked to support the claims that your company wants to make.
There is no magic formula for coming up with compelling claims about your product. Companies
spend lots of time and money trying to generate the perfect claim. However, there are a few
things that have worked. You can generate new claims through personal brainstorming. Think
about your product and come up with things you can say about it. You can also generate new
claims by searching through scientific literature looking for new technological discoveries. You
can also participate in consumer research interviews to get consumers to come up with new
claims for your product. Finally, you can see what type of claims your competition is making and
figure out if you can make an even more impressive version. At most companies the Marketing
or Advertising people are responsible for the product claims but as a formulator you are in a

good position for coming up with technologically based claims.
While generating claims will not be your main job, supporting or substantiating them however,
will be. To get better as a cosmetic chemist you will need to learn how to support most claims.
The reality is there are no specific rules about how you substantiate your claims. It will vary
depending on where you are making the claim and what the claim is. For example, supporting a
claim on your packaging will be much easier than supporting a claim on a television commercial.
This is because your claims support will have to be approved by the regulatory people who
work for the television network. But the over-riding rule about claims is that it is illegal to
promote false advertising. If you are making a claim about your product, you have to be able to
demonstrate that it is true.
As I said earlier there are many well-established methods for substantiating common claims in
the cosmetic industry. You should learn how to do all of the tests related to whatever product
you are working on. However, many of the most novel claims will not have standard support
methods and you will have to devise a test for yourself. This is where you can be creative and it
can actually be a rather fun aspect of the job.
You could take an entire course on substantiating claims so we can’t cover everything here
but I want to finish this show with an example from my career of substantiating a claim.
I was working on a hair care line for which our marketing group wanted to claim that the
product made hair X times stronger. Now there are many ways to look at hair strength but one
characteristic of strong hair is that it would be more resistant to breakage. So we figured if we
could show a difference in the number of hairs that are broken during styling, we would be able
to substantiate the claim that hair was technically stronger.
One method of testing this would be to treat the hair, comb tresses and count the number of
broken hairs. If the treatment had less broken hairs than the control we could make a strength
claim based on the difference. The problem with this was that it would be extremely difficult
to control the force of each combing stroke through the hair. That’s when we got a robotic
comb. We were able to program the robotic comb to comb a tress a certain amount of times.
We arbitrarily picked 100 strokes. When we ran the test comparing a number of tresses treated
with our shampoo and conditioner system versus a simple shampooed tress we found that the
control tress lost about 100 hairs while the treated tress lost only 10 hairs. That lead to the
claim “10 times stronger.”
Of course, there were a few questionable aspects of this method. For example, is hair breakage

actually a fair definition of hair strength? Our lawyers thought it was reasonable. Also isn’t
it obvious that a conditioner treated tress will result in less breakage than a non-conditioned
tress? Yes, it is obvious and any other brand could have made the claim but they weren’t so our
company got to do it first. We did provide a disclaimer explaining the support for the claim was
versus shampoo treatment alone which is pretty common in the hair care segment.
But that is the way claims substantiation goes. You try to be scientific in the way you do things
but don’t fool yourself into thinking the testing would pass for good science. It usually isn’t.
But claims substantiation is more like proving things in a court of law not like proving things in
scientific journals. You should always keep that in mind when viewing someone else’s claims and
coming up with support for your own claims.
Finally, here are some tips to follow when coming up with claims support tests. Don’t fool
yourself, this isn’t hard science. Always use adequate controls. Make sure your tests are blinded
so you don’t bias the results. Be aware of any holes in your experiments and arguments. And
finally, never fudge the data no matter how much your marketing people want to make a claim.
Always be a scientist.
DAY 10 CHALLENGE
Analyze a competitor’s claims
As we’ve discussed 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. In today’s
challenge I want you to pick a product and analyze the claims. Specifically, you should first
identify the unique claims then come up with ideas on how they might have supported them.
Remember every claim on a package or in advertising has to be truthful.
When analyzing claims you’ll want to follow a process. Here is a simple procedure.
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

Here is an example of how you might analyze a shampoo. I first go to Drugstore.com to get all
the information about the product. They almost always have a list of ingredients and the claims
from the label copy from the bottles.
“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 Keratin aftercare
products help prolong and improve the results of Liquid Keratin 30-day Straight Smooth Strong
& Long Treatment.
All aftercare products are paraben and sodium chloride free.
It’s also helpful to have the ingredient list which I’ll provide in the show notes.
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
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.
These are all relatively easy claims to support because they don’t make any incredible claims.
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 used for any personal care product. Yes, it’s “gently”
cleansing compared to hydrochloric acid.
3. This claim is supported by having keratin proteins in the formula. And indeed they do…Keratin
right there on the ingredient list.
4. This is a subtle claim where the consumer might think that the keratin is going to improve
strength, shine, and manageability but that is not exactly what the claim says. It says that the
shampoo cleans…for improved strength, shine and manageability. You can support these claims
for any shampoo using standard tests like the Diastron for strength, and trained panalists for
shine & manageability. In truth, these claims for shampoos are so ubiquitous people often just
skip doing the supporting tests.
5. Making a moisturizing claim from a shampoo is as easy as just including some moisturizer in
your formula. They could point to any number of ingredients but the Polyquaternium-10 would
support it. This ingredient is a conditioning polymer that will moisturize hair.
6. Here’s a claim which I’m hard pressed to figure out how they support. Typically, you would
put some kind of sunscreen in the formula and just say that is what is providing the protection,
but I don’t see one in their list. How they do it is a mystery to me.
7. Pretty much any conditioning shampoo is going to smooth out frizzy hair. They don’t quantify
the term “smooth” so it’s easy to support. The addition of the Polyquat-10 will definitely help.
8. This claim is simple to support because it refers to what the company was thinking when they
created the product. No extra support is required.
9. This claim just means that it works with one of their other products. Again it is supported in
the same way that the previous one is. The support is their intention.

10. And this “free from” claim is easy enough to support. They don’t add those ingredients and
they are not listed on the ingredient list. Support is simple.
Going through the claims of a competitive product is a helpful exercise that will build up
your ability to create and support your own claims. This particular product did not have any
extraordinary claims so it wasn’t too hard to support everything they wanted to say.
Now it’s your turn. Find a product, list the claims and write down how you might support the
claim. If you want, go to the comments section of the show notes and post your analysis of the
product claims. I’ll give you my thought too.
Remember this is an exercise you can do over and over and learn something new every time. I
encourage you to give it a try.

DAY
11
Cosmetic Industry – Companies
in the Cosmetic Industry

DAY 11
Cosmetic Industry – Companies in the
Cosmetic Industry
Today the focus is on increasing your knowledge about the beauty industry. 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. In this episode we’ll take a look at the companies in the cosmetic industry and
who owns some of the biggest brands.
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.
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, as I said in a previous episode you ultimately work for yourself and often you’ll be faced
with finding a new employer. Knowing the cosmetic industry can be incredibly helpful when
researching for interviews. 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.

Alright, let’s talk about the top 10 biggest companies in the cosmetic industry. You may already
or someday will be working for one of them. At the very least you will be competing against all
of them. These companies often have the best technology and the best performing products.
It’s great to learn from them by studying how they are putting together their formulas.
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 I would encourage you to go search for the latest
listing in case you are listening to this in the future and the companies have changed. The
information I got for this show was taken from Beauty Packaging magazine and is accurate as of
2014. 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.
Top 10 largest companies in the cosmetic industry
10. LVMH Möet Hennessy Louis Vuitton 

This beauty company based in France has yearly sales of $5.1 billion and concentrates on high
end products including perfumes, cosmetics and skin care. Among its most popular brands are
Christian Dior, Givenchy, and Benefit. This company also owns the Sephora retail beauty stores.
9. Kao corporation
This company headquartered in Japan has yearly beauty sales of $5.4 billion. It sells products in
most all cosmetic categories including color cosmetics, skincare, facial and body cleansers and
hair care. Popular brands from this company include Bioré, Jergens, John Frieda, and Goldwell.
While based in Japan, they have a significant presence in Cincinnati.
8. Beiersdorf
This German based company had sales of over $7 billion in 2014. They have a wide range of
personal care products including skincare and body care brands. Some of their most important
include Nivea, Eucerin, Labello, Florena, and La Prairie.
7. Avon
This iconic direct sales company is headquartered in New York and had beauty sales of $7.4
billion. They sell all types of color, fragrance, skincare and personal care products and distribute
them primarily through door to door salespeople. Their main brand is Avon but they also
have Clearskin Professional, Anew Clinical, and Anew Genics, along with a number of celebrity
branded fragrances.

6. Shiseido
Another Japanese based company makes our top ten list with sales of just over $7.4 billion. This
company makes all types of personal care products including skincare, fragrance, hair care, sun
care, body care and makeup. Some of its popular brands include Shiseido, Za, Senka, Anessa,
Sea Breeze, Nars, and Bare Essentials.
5. Johnson & Johnson

Although they are primarily a pharmaceutical company J&J had beauty product sales of over
$7.6 billion. This includes products for baby care, skin care and oral products. It’s most famous
brands include Johnson’s Baby, Neutrogena, Aveeno, and Listerine. The company is located in
New Jersey, USA.
4. Estee Lauder
This New York based company has annual sales of about $10.9 billion. They have a number of
prestige brands in the main cosmetic categories including color cosmetics, skin care, hair care
and fragrances. Their well-known brands include Estée Lauder, Bobbi Brown, La Mer, MAC,
Smashbox, Clinique, Origins, Ojon and more. If you work on more expensive beauty products
the products from this company are good ones to emulate.
3. Proctor and Gamble

Now we’re starting to get into the big numbers. This huge company had annual beauty product
sales of over $20 billion. Located in Cincinnati, Ohio, USA they hold dominant positions in the
skin care, hair care and color cosmetic markets. They spend the most money on advertising
so it’s not surprising that they have a number of well known brands including Cover Girl, Max
Factor, Olay, Old Spice, Safeguard, Secret, Head & Shoulders, Herbal Essences, Nice’ n Easy,
Pantene, and more. Recently they have sold off a number of their beauty brands so it will be
interesting to see where they rank in the coming years. I’ve heard that P&G only wants billion
dollar brands so they have sold off many brands that don’t meet that threshold.
2. Unilever
The second largest company in the beauty business is located in London. It has annual sales
of $24.9 billion and much like P&G has a number of well-known mass market brands. They
sell products in every cosmetic industry category and have some of the best selling in them.
Popular Unilever brands include Axe/Lynx, Dove, Lifebuoy, Pond’s, Close-Up, TRESemmé, Suave,
Sunsilk, and Vaseline. This is the company that purchased my former company, Alberto Culver.
Fortunately, I was gone before they shut it down.

Alright, and the number 1 beauty company in the cosmetic industry is...
1. L’Oreal
L’Oreal has annual beauty product sales of over $31.6 billion dollars. They are based in France
and sell products in color cosmetics, skincare, hair care, sun care, and fragrances. Their most
important brands linclude L’Oréal Paris, Garnier, Maybelline New York, and Softsheen. They
also sell luxury brands like Lancôme, Giorgio Armani, Yves Saint Laurent, and Kiehl’s. They have
professional hair care products such as Kérastase, Redken, Matrix, and Pureology. Finally, they
also own beauty product distributors such as The Body Shop. You don’t get to generate over $30
billion in sales without having a number of streams of revenue!
So there you have it, the top 10 beauty companies in the world. Make it a point to learn about
them as you may find yourself working for or with them at some point in your career.
DAY 11 CHALLENGE
Deep dive into a large
cosmetic company
Today’s challenge is one of the easier ones. In this challenge you are going to pick one of the
companies on this list and do a deeper dive into the products they make. Choose on of the
companies who makes the type of products that you work on (for example hair care, skin care,
or color cosmetics). Go to the company’s website and write down all the brand 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? Or are the brands vastly
different from each other? Look at the product offerings. Are they the same? Or do they offer
completely different products among their brands? You might be interested to find how similar
some of these products really are. 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.

DAY
12
Career – Different Jobs in the
Cosmetic Industry

DAY 12
Career – Different Jobs in the Cosmetic Industry
Today we’re going to focus 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.
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. Back before the Internet was
so large you used to look through newspapers to find jobs in your area. I enjoyed biology and it
was great and all but after college I needed to make money to pay off those loans. I accidentally
stumbled into the cosmetic science field and have enjoyed it as my chemistry career.
Let’s begin with chemistry majors because a lot of people who visit our website and listen to
this show have chemistry degrees. 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.
We’ll go through the different types of chemistry majors and explain which jobs would be most
suitable.
Chemistry Majors
Organic Chemistry - If you liked mixing things together in the lab during organic chemistry class
then you’re well-suited for a job in a cosmetic laboratory. Here are just a few of the jobs you
would like.
Formulation Chemist – They are responsible for creating product formulas. You actually
have to come up with the product recipes.
Synthesis Chemist – They are responsible for synthesizing new raw materials for
formulation chemists to use.

Basic Science Researcher – These chemists are responsible for doing basic research on
skin, hair, or surfactants. This is a pretty cool job but unfortunately, there are not a lot of
jobs like this out there. Also, you probably need a PhD to get one.
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 – In this job you run samples through instruments like GC, Mass Spec,
IR to test raw materials, formulas, and insure quality. It can be a little repetitive and you
don’t leave the lab much but some people like that kind of work. It’s also the kind of job
in which most new chemists start.
Analytical chemist – In this job you use instruments to come up with the methods for
the tests that QA/QC scientists to run. Also, solve complicated production problems &
assist product development group. This job is a bit more creative than a quality control
job.
Physical Chemistry - Although this is one of the toughest classes chemistry major have to take if
you enjoyed it you might also enjoy the following cosmetic industry jobs.
Process Engineer – Responsible for scaling up formulas from beaker sized batches to
thousands of gallons tanks. Also, assist in picking batching equipment.
Claims Substantiation Scientist – This job requires you to develop tests that help support
cosmetic claims made about your products.
General Chemistry - If you didn’t specialize in any specific area of chemistry these jobs might
appeal to you.
Technical Services – Responsibilities in this job involve evaluating raw materials and
finished products to see what they can do. It is a supporting job for the sales people.
Sensory Scientist – Develop and conduct tests which will predict consumer response to
formulas.

Cost Savings Chemist – This job involves taking existing formulas and figuring out how
to make them less expensive. This was actually the first job type that I got. Eventually, I
became a formulation chemist however.
Regulatory Scientists – They ensure that the formulators are not infringing on patents,
using banned ingredients or otherwise getting themselves into legal trouble with the
formulations. In reality, there tends to be tension between the regulatory group and the
product development group.
Other Majors
Not everyone in the cosmetic industry is a chemistry major. There are lots of biology majors. If
proteins, genetics, plants and animals held your interest, there are a few jobs in the cosmetic
industry you can do.
Microbiologists – In this job you are responsible for ensuring finished products are not
contaminated with microbes. Also, formulators look to you for recommendations on
what type of preservative system they should use.
Sensory Scientists – These scientists develop and conduct various tests which can
predict consumer response to formulas. This job requires lots of patience and creativity
to come up with useful, repeatable data.
Corporate Structure
While those are the main types of jobs, there are also different grades within these job titles.
Depending on the size of your company and the number of scientists they hire, you can expect a
hierarchy of jobs something like the following.
Technicians – These are entry level positions usually filled by people with associate science
degrees or those fresh out of college with a BS but no experience. You don’t get a lot of
autonomy and don’t make many decisions but you get to make a lot of batches and conduct
numerous tests. You also rarely get credit for anything. That typically goes to the scientist for
which you work.
Associate Scientist – People with college degrees just entering the cosmetic industry will often
fill these roles. Or this is also the position that technicians can get promoted to. You don’t have
much more responsibility than a technician but you have a little more independence and you
make more money.

Research Scientist – Scientists with 2 to 7 years of experience are most often found in these
positions. People with Masters degrees will often start at this level. You get your own projects
and the pay is not too bad. Typically, you will not have anyone working for you.
Senior Scientist – These are scientists who usually have over 7 years of experience. Sometimes
a PHD will enter the industry at this level. The senior scientist will often have technicians and
maybe an associate scientist who reports to them. They lead multiple projects and make a good
salary.
Principle Scientist – These jobs are usually held by someone who has a PHD with relevant
experience or someone who has worked 15+ years in the industry. They typically have a half
dozen or more people working for them and handle multiple projects.
Research Fellow – This kind of position is typically held by a 20+ year veteran who has managed
to stay relevant and convince the people around them she is smart. There really aren’t a lot of
these jobs out there. But it’s a cool job if you can get it. Usually, the research fellow works on
blue sky projects and avoids the day to day project management.
There are other chemist career avenues in the cosmetic industry. While I’ve outlined one
path that takes your career through the lab, there are others that are likely more lucrative for
science majors. These would be the Sales path (you sell chemicals to these scientists) and the
Management path (you tell these scientists what they have to work on). Another popular path
is the Entrepreneurial path. This one can be the best option as you get to create and sell your
own product line. It can also be the most difficult in which to find success.
DAY 12 CHALLENGE
Figure out your dream job
Today’s topic makes it a little difficult to offer up a challenge in you are already employed in the
cosmetic industry. However, since this show was all about your career one of the best things you
can do is to keep an eye out on jobs in the cosmetic industry. Take a look at the job descriptions
to see if there might be something you would rather be doing. Also examine the job background
requirements and see if you have the qualifications to take the job.

Finding jobs specifically in the cosmetic industry is not exactly easy since there is no single
source for all the job listings. However, here is a link to a listing of cosmetic science jobs posted
on the various SCC chapter websites. 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.
Even if you are happy in your current job and not looking to move, it’s good to keep an eye
on what else is available. At any time your company may get bought out by someone else and
you’ll find yourself looking for employment elsewhere due to no fault of your own. Keeping your
interviewing skills sharp and your eye on what else is available will help protect your cosmetic
science career.

DAY
13
Cosmetic Science – Basic Chemistry

DAY 13
Cosmetic Science – Basic Chemistry
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.
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. And many working cosmetic formulators haven’t been exposed
to some of the concepts we’ll go over in this episode in quite some time so it will be a good
refresher.
Today, we’re going to remind you of some basic concepts in chemistry that will make learning
formulating easier to understand. 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.
The concepts we are going to cover today include
• Elements
• Types of molecules
• Chemical reactions
• Phases of matter
• Solutions
• pH
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. Everything that is matter
is made up of one of the elements on the periodic table. Everything you’ve ever touched,
eaten, worn, lived in, or put on your body is composed of these elements. A single unit of

these elements is an atom. You are composed of 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
chemicals. Water is a chemical. Pretty much anything you can touch is a chemical.
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 such as 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 of these elements, including materials like 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 made up of 1
proton, 1 neutron and 1 electron. In cosmetic formulating we primarily work with elements in
the top 4 rows of the periodic table.
Types of molecules
Although some types of elements are able to exist as single atoms, they are most commonly
found bound together in nature in the form of molecules. Molecules are simply a collection
of multiple atoms. So water, which has the chemical formula H2O is made up of 2 atoms of
Hydrogen bonded to one atom of Oxygen.
Molecules are formed when 2 atoms get physically close enough to each other to react
and form a chemical bond. There are many different types of chemical bonds but the most
important ones to cosmetic formulators include
• Covalent bonds
• Ionic bonds
• Hydrogen bonds
Covalent bonds are the strongest atom to atom bonds. These are not easily broken so the part
of the molecule made up of covalent bonds rarely changes in a cosmetic formula. Ionic bonds
are ones in which a positively charged atom combines with a negatively charged atom. They

are the basis for things referred to as salts. When you put a salt in a solvent like water, it can
dissolve into the separate ions. For example, table salt (Sodium Chloride) is made up of one
atom of sodium and one atom of Chlorine. When put in water the sodium separates from the
chlorine and they both exist by themselves as charged ions in the solution. This has implications
for thickening in surfactant systems.
The final important bond is a hydrogen bond which is a weak bond between the Hydrogen on
one molecule and an atom on another molecule. Hydrogen bonds are the reason that water is
liquid at room temperature.
States of Matter
Let’s move off bonding and talk about another important aspect of molecules is their state of
matter. You probably know the three main states of matter including solid, liquid and gas. There
are some other states of matter but we’ll focus on the three mentioned as they are the most
relevant to formulators.
The state of matter depends on its chemical structure and the environment that the substance
is in. It is affected by things such as temperature, pressure, and volume. A material in a solid
form has a fixed volume and shape. The molecules are held so tightly together that they are
unable to freely move except to vibrate. Liquid materials have a fixed volume but not a shape
and will adapt to whatever container they are put in. The particles are closely packed together
but they are able to freely move. Gases have neither a fixed volume or shape.
Almost all molecules can be made to take on a different state of matter. For example, water
can be solid (ice), liquid, or gas (steam). It just depends on the temperature and pressure. The
temperature at which a solid turns into a liquid is the Melting point. The temperature at which
a liquid is turned into a gas is the boiling point.
When working with cosmetic raw materials they are supplied as either a solid or liquid. Solids
have different forms including powders, pellets, and blocks. These generally have to be heated
above their melting point to incorporate them into your formulation. This is one reason
emulsions and creams require heating. It is also a little easier to get ingredients to combine
when the formula is warmed slightly.
Chemical Structure
The next basic topic we’ll discuss is chemical structure. In chemistry you work with a number
of different types of substances. For this reason chemists had to come up with a way to

communicate the identity of different compounds. To do this, they came up with molecular
formulas. A molecular formula is easy enough to read, they are made up of the atomic symbols
and numbers. Chemical raw material suppliers often provide this information for formulators.
So...
NaCl is the chemical formula for sodium chloride. You will not find the number 1 in a formula as
it is just implied.
H2O is the chemical formula for water. Two atoms of Hydrogen and one atom of Oxygen.
NaC12H25SO4 is the chemical formula for sodium lauryl sulfate. This just means there is one
atom of Sodium, 12 atoms of Carbon, 25 atoms of Hydrogen, 1 atom of Sulfur and 4 atoms of
Oxygen.
As you can imagine, these molecular formulas can get incredibly complicated. Fortunately, you
don’t really have to memorize many of these formulas as a cosmetic chemist. These formulas
are much more useful for chemists in other fields, not so much for formulators.
In addition to the chemical formula each molecule also has a chemical structure. We are not
going to cover that today but it is useful to know because when you meet with a chemical sales
person or are reading about raw materials, they will almost always show a chemical structure
to give you an idea of how the atoms are arranged in the molecule. It’s important to know that
the arrangement of atoms is what is responsible for the properties of the substance. In fact,
two compounds can have exactly the same molecular formula but have different properties
because of the arrangement of the atoms. Glucose and Fructose have exactly the same
molecular formula but they behave differently. These are known as isomers.
Chemical Reactions
Our next subject is chemical reactions. One of the biggest differences between formulating and
college chemistry is that when you are in college you spent a lot of time combining substances
and hoping you see some kind of chemical reaction. In this way you turn one substance into
another. However, as a formulator you put chemicals together and you typically don’t want
them to react. You want them to retain the properties of the substance when it is on it’s own.
As I said chemical reactions happen when one atom or molecule gets close enough to another
atom or molecule to trade electrons. Depending on the nature of the substances they will react
strongly, weakly or not at all. It is through chemical reactions that ingredient suppliers create

compounds from starting materials to produce new raw materials for cosmetics. For example
coconut oil will chemically react with sodium hydroxide to create soap. And you know soap has
vastly different properties than both coconut oil and sodium hydroxide.
There are also polymers which are long chains of molecules strung together like beads on a
necklace formed by polymerization reactions. In cosmetics polymers find many applications like
thickeners, film formers, conditioning ingredients and more.
Chemical Mixtures
Now that we’ve discussed atoms, molecules and chemical reactions, it makes sense to move
on to chemical mixtures since most of the cosmetic formulas you make will be combinations of
multiple ingredients. When ingredients are put together in the same container a couple things
can happen.
1. There can be Reactions – That’s when ingredients interact and form new materials.
2. A non-uniform mixture can happen - they just mix together in a non-uniform way.
3. Or A homogenous mixture– Here the ingredients mix together in a uniform way where
minor ingredients are evenly distributed throughout the primary ingredient.
When you are making powdered cosmetics, you are creating non-uniform mixture. The solid
particles are mixed together but are not evenly distributed (even though to your eyes they may
appear to be). Your goal is to get them to mix together as evenly as possible but it is difficult
with large sized particles.
When making most other types of cosmetic however, you will be creating homogenous
mixtures. When the particles are large, say bigger than 500nm, these mixtures are referred to
as suspensions. Paint is an example of this. You have to shake it to get it to disperse evenly.
When the particles are smaller say 2 – 500 nm, they create a colloid mixture. These particles
are small enough that they don’t easily fall out of solution. Creams, also called emulsions, are
examples of colloid mixtures. Making these stable is one of the most important tasks of the
cosmetic formulator.
Mixtures with particle sizes smaller than 2 nm are referred to as solutions. In college chemistry
you spend much of your time talking about solutions and the chemistry that happens with
them. But colloids and emulsions are much more significant in cosmetic formulating.

However, it is important that you understand some basic principles of solutions. First, there
is the components of a solution. The highest concentration material in is called the Solvent.
It is the material that does the dissolving. The ingredients that get dissolved in a solution
are known as the Solute. So when you put sugar in water, the water is the solvent and the
sugar is the solute. The amount of a compound that can be dissolved in another compound is
dependent on the nature of the raw material and the temperature of the solution. For example,
you can dissolve a lot more sugar in hot water than you can in cold water.
Solubility of Ingredients
Next, let’s talk about solubility and how it impacts your formulating efforts.
First, a definition of solubility. Solubility refers to the ability 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 do cosmetic formulators need to know this? 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 able to formulate faster and better.
As we said earlier, 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. I’ll
review those now.
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 water solubility 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
So, if you keep these rules in mind you will be able to get a sense of whether a material is water
soluble or not just from its chemical name.
We’ll move on to temperature effects. As you can imagine, the temperature of a system 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.
Then there is pressure. This has a big impact on solubility but only for gases. It has very little
impact on solids and liquids so as a formulator, you don’t have to think about it much. Unless
you are making aerosols of course.
pH of solutions explained
Another important chemistry concept that you should understand when formulating is pH.
pH is simply a number that represents the concentration of the hydrogen ions in an aqueous
solution. If you were to take the pH of pure water at 25C, the pH would be 7.0.
So there are a few things that affect the pH of a solution. These include the solution
temperature and the other molecules in the solution. While pure water has a pH of 7.0, if you
add an acid you reduce the pH. If you add a base or alkaline material, you increase the pH.
When formulating cosmetics, the pH is important for both helping determine the quality of the
batch and for product functionality. Some products work better at a lower pH. For example,
hair conditioners work better at a pH of between 4.0 – 5.0. Regular shampoos work better at a
pH between 5.0 – 6.0. Of course, it depends on the specific formulation but I hope you can see
that pH is an important concept.
Here is the main thing you should know about pH.

If you increase the number of Hydrogen ions in a solution, you reduce the pH.

If you decrease the number of Hydrogen ions in a solution, you increase the pH.
Low pH numbers are acidic, high pH numbers are alkaline or basic.
Also, pH generally refers to aqueous solutions. Taking a pH of a non-water based formula is a

waste of time. It may not even be advisable to take the pH of a water in oil emulsion but it is
done frequently in the cosmetic industry.
Just remember, low pH numbers are acidic, high pH numbers are alkaline or basic.
Alright, we are going to wrap up this introduction to chemistry lesson. In this show we covered
Elements, Atoms, Molecules, chemical reactions, solubility, solutions, and pH as it relates to
cosmetic formulating. I hope you can see that chemistry for formulating does not have to be
complicated and even if you don’t have a chemistry background, you can learn enough to be a
successful formulator.
DAY 13 CHALLENGE
Learn basic chemistry
I’ve only gone over the very basic level of these topics and much more can be said about
them. However, everyone is at a different level of familiarity so today’s challenge will be a little
different for everyone. There is an excellent website called the Khan Academy. I’ll put a link in
the show notes. I love this website because it provides college level training on a wide range of
topics for free. The information on basic chemistry is excellent.
For today’s challenge I want you to go to the Khan Academy and watch one of the lectures on
basic chemistry. Ideally, you’ll pick a subject on some topic of which you are less familiar. If you
have no degree in chemistry you can actually get quite advanced by learning through these
lectures. Having a more solid background in chemistry will help your formulating efforts.
So go to Khan Academy and start learning today. It’s free to join and the information is
excellent. You can even learn other topics useful to formulators including math, organic
chemistry, biology, and entrepreneurship.

DAY
14
– Claims Ingredients

DAY 14
Cosmetic Raw Materials – Claims Ingredients
Back on the second day of this 30 day series we explained how all the cosmetic raw materials
can be grouped into three categories, functional, aesthetic, and claims. As you’ll remember
functional ingredients are ones that make the cosmetic product work and aesthetic ingredients
are ones that make it look and feel better. Claims ingredients are added to formulas specifically
to support the marketing story.
Most people outside of the cosmetic industry are unaware that claims ingredients exist.
When they see ingredients featured on the label or in advertising, they firmly believe that
those ingredients are important to the functionality of the product. But these consumers are
wrong. There are lots of ingredients added to cosmetics that have no function other than
to support the marketing story. These ingredients may (or may not) have some theoretical
functionality but are usually not superior in function to other materials in the formula. They
are also expensive ingredients which makes it cost prohibitive to add levels that might exhibit
that function. Nearly every cosmetic company uses claims ingredients because they help
differentiate their product from a competitor.
But the main reason claims ingredients are added is because consumers like story ingredients.
They like products that contain feature, or claims ingredients. They buy products that contain
feature ingredients. Right now the hottest ingredient in hair care is Argan oil. Consumers are
clamoring to buy products with argan oil in them. However, if you look at those formulas they
are filled with silicones with just a splash of actual argan oil. Claims ingredients move products.
But I’m getting ahead of myself. Let’s go back to our definition of claims ingredients, talk about
how they are used then finish with some examples of claims ingredients. I’ll also talk about how
you can figure out for yourself if an ingredient is just a claims ingredient or it has some actual
function in your formulas.
Claims ingredients (sometimes called fairy dust) are ingredients added to a formula at a low
level for the primary purpose of listing the ingredient name on the label. Typically, they are

used in formulas at levels of 0.5% or lower. It’s actually more like 0.01%. In the US there is no
minimum amount of an ingredient you have to put in your formula before you can claim that it
is in there. As long as you actually put some of an ingredient in your formula, you can list it on
your label. And that’s why these ingredients are in the formula in the first place, to be listed on
the label.
Types of Claims Ingredients

The types of ingredients that serve as claims ingredients can vary but the ones that make the
best are ones that a recognizable by consumers or sound good to them. The most common
claims ingredients are natural extracts, vitamins, proteins, biotechnology, and fanciful made-up
ingredient names. They are not put in the formulas to have any measurable effect and almost
invariably they don’t.
Vitamins
Let’s talk about these ingredients a little more in-depth. We’ll begin with vitamins.
Of all the marketing ingredients, Vitamins are the best known and liked by consumers. Most
consumers already believe that vitamins are good for their health so it is not a stretch for them
to believe that vitamins in their cosmetic products are a good thing. Unfortunately, with a few
exceptions vitamins have not been demonstrated to have a significant impact on the condition
of skin or hair. They just don’t. They are primarily added to formulations to support marketing
stories. And at that, they are effective. In fact, I’ve been in consumer focus groups where the
simple addition of the phrase “with vitamins” turns a low scoring product concept into a high
scoring one.
The main vitamins used in cosmetics include Vitamins A, B, C, D, and E.
While most vitamins have almost no impact on the performance of a personal care product
there are a couple of exceptions. Vitamin A is one such exception. Vitamin A is derived from
beta carotene and is part of a more general class of ingredients called Retinoids. This includes
ingredients like Retinoic acid, Retinaldehyde, and Retinol. These retinoids have some function
on skin but the most functional is Retinoic Acid. In fact, it is so good at treating skin conditions
that in the US it is classified as a drug and you need a prescription from a doctor to use it at
effective levels.
Other retinoids have demonstrated some minor effects with reducing wrinkles and removing
age spots however, they are not nearly as effective which is why they are considered claims

ingredient. Consumers believe that Vitamin A works so many cosmetic companies put a low,
non-functional level of it in their formulas just to be able to make the claim that Vitamin A is in
the formula.
The next type of vitamin commonly used in cosmetics is Vitamin C. It is a proven anti-oxidant
who’s chemical name is Ascorbic Acid. Vitamin C has definite health benefits when ingested in
food but it’s effects when topically applied are less proven. Since it is so well known consumers
find it easy to believe that Vitamin C has beneficial effects in their cosmetic formulations. And
indeed there is some evidence it can reverse UV damage caused by sun exposure.
However, Vitamin C is a water soluble ingredient that quickly oxidizes when placed in a water
based formula. If you are using a water-based cosmetic with vitamin C, you can be certain that
it is not functional by the time it gets to the store shelves. The fact that it is non-functional by
the time a consumer buys it makes it a claims ingredient.
Vitamin E is another commonly used vitamin. It belongs to a class of compounds called

tocopherols and is a potent anti-oxidant. While there is some evidence that when applied
topically it can have some beneficial effects on skin like moisturization, increase skin softness,
and increase skin smoothness, it doesn’t work better than standard moisturizing ingredients like
Petrolatum or Mineral Oil. But consumers like the vitamin E better than petrolatum so both are
used. You get the functional benefit from the latter while getting the marketing punch from the
former. Claims ingredients at their best.
The final vitamin we will cover is Vitamin B5, also known as Panthenol. In the lab you can show
that this ingredient works as a moisturizing ingredient. It is a humectant and has the ability to
absorb a good amount of water. But there are other ingredients that can do that even better
so formulators use those ingredients and include a small amount of Panthenol to market the
products.
I remember when I was formulating I had a 4 ounce jar of powdered Panthenol which was a
pretty expensive ingredient. We used it as a claims ingredient in one of our formulas. Anyway,
I wondered just how good a formula would be if I used 5% panthenol. So I did a test. I made
a condition batch and to a small portion of the batch I incorporated 5% pathenol. It went into
the formula fine as the ingredient is water soluble. Anyway, when I tested the two formulas on
a blind basis I didn’t notice any differences. That exercise convinced me that as far as making a
noticeable difference in performance, panthenol did nothing.

There are a number of other vitamins we could mention but the story with these is pretty
much the same. There is some weak lab evidence they have an effect but they don’t have any
noticeable difference when applied topically from a formula.
Botanical Extracts
Perhaps the most common of these types of marketing ingredients are botanical extracts. It
makes sense because consumers generally have a positive view of plants and there is a lot of
folkloric information supporting their use. Unfortunately, there is very little scientific evidence
that these ingredients have beneficial effects when used in products like skin creams or hair
products. While anecdotal evidence for their effectiveness abounds, there are very few
botanical extracts that have been shown to do anything beyond moisturization. This effect can
be nice but from a formulation standpoint it makes more sense to use an ingredient with best
moisturizing effect in the most efficient way and then add a small amount of a botanical extract
to support the marketing story. This is what most often happens. If ingredients could be shown
to be more effective than other ingredients, they would get more use. But so far, the evidence
is just not there.
An herbal extract of pretty much any plant you can imagine is available. 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.
Proteins
Another kind of popular claims ingredient found in cosmetic products are proteins. Most
commonly are hydrolyzed proteins derived from plants. Proteins are incredibly versatile
ingredients and are the primary construction of all living things. They are complicated polymers
made up of amino acids. When in their native state they can create structures like hair, lungs,
the heart, or blood. However, when they are used in cosmetics they are typically chemically
hydrolyzed to break down their natural structure. This leaves straight chains of amino acids
and essentially removes any kind of activity the protein had. Hydrolyzed proteins work as
humectants and emollient ingredients but that’s about it. There may be some lab evidence that
certain proteins may help to increase the strength of hair or nails but it is weak. Formulators
should not expect proteins to have a significant impact on the way that their products function.
They are typically added to the formula because they look good on the ingredient label.
Biotechnology
While vitamins, extracts and proteins have been used in cosmetics for a long time the
incorporation of biotechnology is relatively new. Brands are now featuring things like Superoxide

Dismutase, recombinant proteins, growth factors, epigentics and even stem cells. Unfortunately,
this represents some of the worst in cosmetic marketing. For example, I recently 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.
Staying on the topic of stem cells, you might wonder how I can say that with such confidence?
All you have to do is know a little about the science of stem cells and you’d know that stem cells
(whether plant or animal) are not going to remain viable in any cosmetic formula. It’s hard to
keep stem cell cultures alive let alone cosmetic formulas with no environmental regulation or
food source!
The reason companies put biotechnology in cosmetic is because it impresses consumers. One
article called it “scienceploitation” and they are right. Unfortunately, you can blind consumers
with science.
Evaluating Raw Materials

As a formulator this is unfortunate but we generally have to do what the marketing people
want. On some level it is still up to the consumer to avoid being fooled.
However, sometimes formulators can be fooled too. Raw material suppliers are pretty good
at marketing their raw materials to formulators who are hungry for functional ingredients.
As a formulator, it is your job to sniff out these exaggerated claims and really determine if a
cosmetic raw material works or not. So we will finish today’s show by answering the question,
how do you know if a cosmetic raw material works? Is it a claims ingredient or is it really a new
functional ingredient?
Here are a few suggestions.

First, be skeptical but open minded. It’s hard to make something new that really provides
noticeable benefits. That is why there are so few new functional raw materials. The new raw
material you are presented by your friendly supplier probably doesn’t work as claimed. This
is because it is an easy matter to give only the evidence that supports what they want to tell
you when trying to sell something. So your initial position of any new material should be
one of skepticism. However, you don’t want to filter out too much or you might miss some
great opportunity. If the claims of the new raw material are impressive, by all means test that
raw material. And use it at the maximum level suggested by the supplier. If you can’t see a
difference at that level, it’s unlikely you’ll ever see a difference.

Second, get independent testing. While the test data from a supplier is a good start, you should
never rely on supplier testing to prove a claim. They have an incentive to find information that
supports the product they are selling. I’m not suggesting they make up data. However, they
certainly aren’t going to show you negative data. I like independent data generated in-house.
Third, do blind testing. An important rule of science is to not fool yourself and you are the
easiest person in the world to fool. If you want to believe in a raw material, you’ll find data to
support that belief. Conversely, if you don’t want to believe in a raw material, you’ll find data
to support that. This doesn’t lead you to the truth. When evaluating a raw material for a claim,
you should do a double blind study. To do this, it helps to have a technician who can label all the
samples, do all the testing and give you the data for analysis.
Claims ingredients are important to include in your formulas because they help your marketing
people build a compelling story that consumers are more likely to buy. And while some of these
ingredients may have an effect it is almost always not as impressive as other more common
options. To be certain you need to test ingredients at the highest levels in a blinded fashion and
prove whether they have an effect or not to yourself. You have to be the gatekeeper at your
company when it comes to what really works. And don’t forget, try not to fool yourself.
DAY 14 CHALLENGE
Identifying claims ingredients
Alright, there you have it your introduction to claims ingredients. Since one of the key things
you need to know to get better as a formulator are raw materials, today’s challenge is similar to
the other raw material challenges we’ve done.
In this exercise I want you to go over to Drugstore.com or Ulta.com or just use 3 or 4 different
cosmetic products, and get the list of ingredients. Copy those lists into a spreadsheet and see if
you can identify which of the raw materials are the claims ingredients. Which ingredients could
be left out and the formula would essentially work the same way?
If we go back to our Jergens Natural Glow Revitalizing Daily Moisturizer remember there were
31 ingredients.

Only 5 of those were functional, 20 of them were aesthetic which means 6 of the ingredients
are purely claims ingredients. For the curious they are
Olea Europea (Olive) Fruit Oil,

Avena Sativa (Oat) Kernel Extract,
Persea Gratissima (Avocado) Oil
Simmondsia Chinensis (Jojoba) Seed Oil
Calendula Officinalis Flower Extract
Tocopherol
Alright, now it’s your turn. Find a 3 or 4 ingredient lists. Write down all the claims ingredients.
After you are done go to the comments in the show notes and list the results of your exercise.
First list the product you looked at, the ingredient list, and the ingredients you think are in there
only for the claims. We’ll look through them and see how you did.

DAY
15
Cosmetic Formulation
– Formula Forms

DAY 15
Cosmetic Formulation – Formula Forms
To be a well-rounded cosmetic formulator you need to know how to make every type of product
form in which cosmetics are made. Fortunately, there are really only about 10. In today’s
program we are going to go through the 10 different types of cosmetic formulas give a brief
description of 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).
Forms of cosmetic products

The 10 basic cosmetic product forms include
• Solutions
• Creams / Emulsions
• Lotions
• Ointments / Pastes
• Suspensions
• Tablets
• Powders
• Gels
• Sticks
• Aerosols
Solutions
Solution Cosmetics 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
solvent (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 and Emulsions
Next we have creams and emulsions. The majority of cosmetics use a blend of hydrophobic and
hydrophilic 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.
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. Typically, you have to include
a suspending polymer like Carbomer to prevent the emulsion from separating. Lotions are
generally easier to make because you do not have to worry about the emulsion thickening up as
it cools.
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.
Ointments / Pastes
Ointments / Pastes 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 they are dispersed.
Since these products do not contain water some companies choose not to use a preservative.
I encourage the use of preservatives even in these cases because you can’t know whether the
product would be contaminated with water by the consumer during use. It’s better to be safe
than sorry when it comes to microbial contamination.

Tablets
Another product form that is often used for creating color cosmetics is the tablet. These are
physically blended solids that are held together by being pressed into shape. You’ll need special
equipment to create these products. They are also generally more expensive.
Powders
One of the most common types of product forms for color cosmetics is powders. Powders are
also used for products like baby powder & foot powder. They are just mixtures of solid raw
materials blended together into a fine powder. Some typical ingredients include talc, silicates,
and starch. Special equipment is needed when making these products as the fine powder can
be dangerous.
Gels
Another common form of cosmetic products is gels. These are thick products, typically clear,
and have a property known as “shear thinning”. This means they stay thick until you apply
a force which makes them thin and flowable. Anyone who has tried to get ketchup out of a
bottle knows what we’re talking about. Gels are used for hair products, body washes, shaving
products, and in toothpaste. They are made by using a gelling agent such as an acrylic polymer,
a natural gum or a cellulosic thickener.
Sticks
Sometimes you need to create a product that the consumer won’t necessarily want to touch, for
example, lipstick or underarm deodorant. In these cases you’ll use a stick product form. Sticks
are solid delivery forms that deliver active ingredients through a rubbing action. The way you
create them is by using mostly materials that are solid at room temperature. The ingredients are
heated until they melt, mixed, and poured into either a mold or the final container. When they
cool, they take the shape of their packaging.
Aerosols
These are more of a packaging product form than a specific formulation type. You could
actually create an aerosol out of almost any cosmetic formulation if you have the right can,
propellant, and nozzle set-up. Aerosols are any cosmetic delivered from a pressurized can. They
are composed of a concentrate and a propellant. You first make the formula as you would any
other cosmetic, then fill it into the can. You seal the can and pressurize it using the appropriate
propellant. Recent VOC (volatile organic compounds) regulations have reduced the use of
aerosols in cosmetic products.

DAY 15 CHALLENGE
Identify product forms in the market
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 I want
you to go searching for an example of each of the 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. For example, for a cream form
see if you can identify the ingredients in the water phase, the oil phase and the emulsifiers.
As a reminder, here are the 10 product forms that you are looking for.
Solution
Cream
Lotion
Ointments / Pastes
Suspension
Tablet
Powder
Gel
Stick
Aerosol
When you finish this exercise you will have a much better idea of the types of cosmetic products
that are possible. It would be interesting to see if you find any product form that doesn’t fit into
one of the categories we discussed.

DAY
16
Cosmetic Testing – Required Testing

DAY 16
Cosmetic Testing – Required Testing
Many of you have a desire to create and sell your own product. I’m actually working on a
training program that will show you exactly how to do that but in the meantime I thought it
would be helpful if you knew exactly the type of testing you have to do prior to selling your
product. That way you’ll be able to estimate how much money and time it will require. Now
since I’m based in the US and am most familiar with our rules the information in today’s episode
will apply primarily to US cosmetic products. Other countries follow slightly different rules
however, that is usually a matter of paperwork and specifics. Anyone, anywhere in the world
should conduct these types of tests on their formulations prior to launching (even if they are
not technically required).
There are really just four types of tests that you must do before selling your own product. These
include
• microbial testing
• stability testing
• safety testing
• performance (claims) testing
Microbial Testing
While microbial testing could be classified as safety testing it is so important that I think it
deserves its own category. Whenever you create a new formula that will be put in the hands of
some consumer you need to ensure that the preservative system you’re using is adequate for
preventing dangerous microbial growth. Some people and brands make it a point to advertise
that their products are made “without preservatives.” In my opinion this is dangerous and bad
practice. Products that are not properly preserved can spread disease and make people sick.
Just don’t do it.
There are two primary types of microbial testing you need to do.

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!
To determine whether you have initial contamination, bacteria and fungi counts, sometimes
called Standard Plate Counts or Aerobic Plate Counts, are done. The test is simple, a sample
product is mixed with a neutralizing agent to knock out preservative activity, if present, and
then added to bacterial or fungal growth agar in a petri dish. After that, it is incubated at an
appropriate temperature for 2-5 days and then bacterial or fungal colonies are counted.
The amount of microbes are evaluated to determine whether they pose a consumer risk or not.
Typically, a bacterial count of fewer than 10 per gram is ok since cosmetics are not required to
be sterile to be safe. Your company will decide on what level of growth is acceptable but 10 per
gram is standard in the industry.
Preservative Efficacy Test - 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. The
PET or micro challenge test should be done on your initial samples and on your 8 week room
temperature and 45C stability test samples. This can help you determine the length of time that
your products will remain microbe free.
Microbial challenge tests consist of five basic steps.
Step 1 is evaluating the product for initial microbial contamination.

Step 2 is the initial inoculation into 5 different containers each of which
have a different microbial colony. The initial microbe concentration is determined.
Step 3 is to incubate the samples at room temperature for 7 days.
Step 4 involves counting the microbes to see if there was a change.
Ideally, they’ll all be killed off.
Step 5 is a further extension of the test with evaluations being done at 14, 21, and 28 days.
If the preservative is working, there will be minimal to no microbial growth over the course of
the test.

Stability Tests
The next type of test that you have to conduct on your formula before you launch it is a stability
test. 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. We covered stability testing on day 5 of this series and I’d encourage you to
go back and listen to that for more details.
Safety Testing
The third required testing you need to do before launching your product is safety testing since
it is illegal to sell products that haven’t been shown to be safe. Technically, you could sell such
a product but you would have to put a warning label on your product alerting customers that it
hasn’t been tested for safety. As you can imagine, this would not be good for product sales.
If you do sell your product without doing proper safety testing you open yourself up to litigation
which could pretty much ruin any fledgeling cosmetic company. 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 type and amount of safety testing done depends on the type of product you are selling and
how different the raw materials are. If you are making something that uses standard cosmetic
raw materials, you do not need to do as rigorous a testing protocol. But if you are using a new
raw material (especially something that hasn’t been used in the cosmetic industry previously)
then you’ll need to do a whole host of testing which may even include animal testing.
Incidentally, for many brands animal testing isn’t acceptable so you may have to limit yourself to
only ingredients that have already been previously tested for safety on animals.
Performance Testing
Finally, you’ll have to conduct some performance testing (also known as claims testing) before
you launch your product. The type of performance testing 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 does. If you say your
lotion will moisturize skin, you have to show it does that. There are some industry standard
tests but in many cases as a cosmetic chemist, you’ll have to come up with your own reasonable
test to demonstrate that what you say about a product is true. We did a more in-depth look

at claims testing in day 10 of this series. I’d encourage you to go review that episode for more
information.
Since the cosmetic industry in the US is self-regulated the FDA does not require pre-market
approval of products that you put on the market. In the EU this is different which makes it
a little harder to launch products than in the US. While you need to be able to prove your
products are safe you do not necessarily have to show the results of any of these pre-launch
tests to the government prior to launching your product. However, this does not mean you can
skip testing because the FDA can inspect your facilities and levy huge fines on companies or
even recall products that do not have the proper paper work. Be sure to keep track of all your
testing procedures and results of any product that you sell. Have the paperwork to back up
what, when, how and the results of the testing done.
Testing can be an expensive obstacle to many small cosmetic company launches but it is a
crucial step that you absolutely must do before launching any new product.
DAY 16 CHALLENGE
Determining testing required
For today’s challenge I want you to 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. As an
example, I’ll go through a product on the market to show you what I mean.
Here’s a product listed on Drugstore.com called TRESemme Platinum Strength Strengthening

Shampoo. This is handy to use because I know the formula and some of the testing that was
done before we launched it. I used to work on the Tresemme brand of products.
To start the list I’ll write down the obvious tests that have to be done. First, there is stability
testing. This would include a stability test of the prototype during the development stage and it
would also include a stability test of the first production run. It’s good to have stability data on
the first production run of any product you have out in the marketplace.
Next, there is the microbial challenge tests. You should have a test done on the initial product
and on samples that are stored at 45C for 8 weeks. Plus you should have a contamination test

done to ensure that the product isn’t contaminated when first made.
This product contains standard cosmetic ingredients so no animal testing is really required.
However, there should be some human patch testing done to determine whether the product
will irritate the skin. Eye irritation tests could be done but the level of SLES and betaine in the
formula mean that it should not cause irritation for most consumers. Since there is no “non-
irritating” claim it’s less crucial to do this test.
Finally, there are a number of claims made about the product but only a few of them would
require any kind of testing. One of the claims is that it “Cleanses & Fortifies for Strong Hair.”
The fact that you put a surfactant in the formula is enough proof that it cleanses hair. Fortify is a
puffery claim so there isn’t really a test you have to conduct to demonstrate it. You just have to
explain what you mean by fortify and make a logical argument for it.
A claim that would require testing is the claim that the product “Repairs up to 2 years of
damage in just 5 uses with the TRESsemm Platinum Strength™ system for beautifully smooth,
healthy-looking hair.” I’m not sure exactly how they did this test but you could first quantify
what 2 years of damage means. For example you could comb hair the number of times it would
be combed in 2 years and do a combing test to see how much force it takes to comb through
the hair. Then you could test those tresses with and without the conditioning system and
measure the force. If the results are the same as when you started before the 2 year damage
you have your claim verified. It’s pretty clever actually. Of course, any conditioner could
probably achieve this claim but that’s the nature of claims. If you can figure out a compelling
claim before your competitor, you get to use it first.
Another claim they list is that the product “...protects against future damage.” This again could
be proven via tress testing. I won’t go into the details but you get the idea.
And that about does it. So to launch this product you would need to do stability testing,
microbial testing, some safety testing and a few different claims tests. Ideally, this testing would
be done by an independent lab so your claims support is more robust than just your own
assurances that the testing was done. Independent testing is just more compelling. To find an
independent test lab you can search for labs in Google or go to our forum and make an inquiry
there.
Now it’s your turn. Find a product and analyze the testing that should be done.

DAY
17
Cosmetic Industry – Regulation
of the Cosmetic Industry

DAY 17
Cosmetic Industry
– Regulation of the Cosmetic Industry
Consumer advocacy groups frequently claim that the cosmetic industry is unregulated. This is
false. Governments around the world have developed rules regulating the manufacture and sale
of cosmetics. While the rules are a bit different depending where you are, there are no drastic
differences which means the cosmetics you buy in one place in the world are basically the same
as things you can buy in other places in the world. Of course there are subtle differences but I
can’t go through all the specific differences in this show. However, you can get a good sense of
how regulations work if we look at the way cosmetics are regulated in the US. This is where the
Food and Drug Administration (also known as the FDA) comes in to play.
Drugs vs Cosmetics
The regulatory framework for the cosmetic industry was set up in 1938 with the passage of the
Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act which created the FDA. The agency came about as a reaction to
some real world instances of people being blinded and killed by the use of unsafe cosmetics.
As the name of the bill states the FDA is responsible for regulating Food, Drugs, and Cosmetics.
To do this they had to come up with a specific definition for what a cosmetic is and differentiate
it from drugs. According to the FDA rules cosmetics are defined by their intended use and are
defined as “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” This refers to all the categories of products we discussed in the first
show of this series. So things that are cosmetics include skin moisturizers, perfumes, lipsticks,
fingernail polishes, color cosmetics, cleansing shampoos, permanent waves, hair colors, and
deodorants.
Drugs on the other hand are defined 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.”

This means that cosmetics are technically not allowed to affect the metabolism or function of
any parts of the body. If they do, they are either drugs or illegal. There are some cosmetic-
type products that are actually drugs because they treat a disease or otherwise have a non-
superficial effect. This would include products like Antiperspirants which stop sweating, Anti-
dandruff products which treat dandruff, anti-acne products which treat acne, and sunscreens
which prevent burning. Some of the anti-aging claims you see on supposed cosmeceuticals
are technically illegal. In the US, cosmetics cannot stimulate collagen production or lighten
skin. If they did that they would be illegal drugs. Incidentally, the FDA says that the term
“cosmeceutical” does not have a specific meaning as far as the law is concerned. So pretty much
anyone can use the term for any product.
FDA Regulations
Now that we know the differences between drugs and cosmetics let’s consider the things
about cosmetics that the FDA regulates. First, there are ingredients. The FDA doesn’t restrict
the use of many ingredients however there are some ingredients like bithionol, chloroform,
hexachlorophene, and 8 more that are specially banned or restricted in cosmetics. In the
EU the list of banned ingredients is over 1000 but that is a little misleading as most of those
ingredients wouldn’t be used in cosmetics anyway. The overriding restriction as ingredients
go for cosmetics is that it is illegal to add any ingredient to your cosmetic that would make the
product unsafe.
The other relevant regulations from the FDA related to ingredients are colors. The FDA is very
strict about ingredients allowed for use in cosmetics as colorants. They have a published list
of allowed colorants and if the ingredient is not on that list, it is not allowed to be used in
cosmetics for coloring your product. Color additive violations are one of the most common
reasons for detaining imported cosmetic products offered for entry into the US. You can find a
list of allowed colorant ingredients listed on the FDA website.
Beyond ingredients, the FDA also regulates the way cosmetics are labeled. There are specific
rules about the ingredient lists and the chemical names you have to use. According to
regulations you are supposed to list all of the ingredients used in the formula and the chemical
names must be listed in the International Nomenclature of Cosmetic Ingredients (or INCI)
Dictionary. Often people make the mistake of listing the chemical trade name rather than the
approved INCI name. When this happens your products are misbranded and could be subject
to getting recalled. The INCI names are determined by the self-regulating group of the cosmetic
industry, the Personal Care Products Council (otherwise known as the PCPC). You should get the
proper INCI names from your chemical supplier.

The ingredients also have to be listed in a specific way. For ingredients above 1% in
concentration in the formula you have to list in order of concentration. At 1% and below they
can be listed in pretty much any order. In a future show I’ll go into the list of ingredients in more
detail.
The final thing that the FDA regulates about cosmetics are the claims you can make. In Day
14 of this series I talked about claims more thoroughly and if you haven’t heard that episode
I encourage you to go back and listen to it. The overall message from the regulations about
claims is that it is illegal to make false claims about your product. So anything you say you have
to be able to prove that it is true.
Most important regulations

So the regulation of cosmetics in the US can boil down to two rules.
Number 1 – You can’t sell unsafe cosmetics

Number 2 – You can’t lie to sell your products
And this system seems to work pretty well since the cosmetic industry has an excellent record
of safety. There are people who push for more strict regulations but I’m not sure what benefit
it would have. If regulations did become more strict, how would we measure whether the
products are safer? How many less injuries would there be? How many injuries are caused by
cosmetics now?
But as a formulator you should know that eventually there may be more restrictions put on the
creation of cosmetics. And you have to be able to keep up with these regulations because they
will impact the way you formulate. How you keep up with regulations will be the last part of this
show.
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.

Regulatory groups around the world
The best way to combat this regulatory obstacle is to find the answers yourself. To that end,
here are some key websites that will help you find regulatory information about cosmetics.
The FDA.gov/cosmetics website – Everything you need to know about the rules governing
the sale of cosmetics in the United States is here. You can find information useful to both the
consumer and cosmetic business owner. Every US formulator should take the time to go through
the information on this website.
The European Commission – If you formulate for consumers in the EU, you should know that
cosmetics are regulated by a document called the Cosmetics Directive 76/768/EEC. At the
European Commission 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.
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.
Ministry of Health (Japan) – Although all governments have access to the same science, they
don’t always come to the same conclusions about what is safe. At the ministry of health website
you’ll find out what compounds are restricted in cosmetics sold in Japan. For example, there
are preservatives that are allowed in the US but are not allowed in Japan.
Cosmetic Ingredient Review Board – This one isn’t a governmental agency but an industry
agency that reviews safety data about cosmetic ingredients. They report to the FDA and provide
an excellent guide as to what ingredients you can and can not use when formulating cosmetics.
If you want to know the safety profile of any ingredient you are using you can look it up on the
CIR website and find the information that has been published. Great stuff for formulators.
There you have it. If you have any regulatory questions about the cosmetic industry you can
probably find the answers on one of these websites. I’ll have links in the show notes. Of
course, if you’re still left with questions, no doubt one of the fine industry consultants can help.
Regulations are a specialty for various people in the industry and for good reason. They can be
very difficult to interpret.

DAY 17 CHALLENGE
Study cosmetic regulations
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. Well, the FDA has a
listing for articles that are most 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
After reading these you will have an excellent background on what is expected of cosmetic
manufacturers and formulators. By having a basic background of cosmetic regulations you will
be a more valuable formulator for your company and the industry in general.

DAY
18
Cosmetic Career – How to Further
Your Education in Cosmetic Science

DAY 18
Cosmetic Career – How to Further
Your Education in Cosmetic Science
We get people with a wide range of experience who participate and ask questions on Chemists
Corner. One area that is frequently asked about is education. People want to know what type
of background they need, how they can further their cosmetic formulating education and what
programs are the best to take. We’ll cover that and more in today’s show.
After reviewing today’s lesson you should have a good idea about the things you can do to
improve your educational background to make yourself a more valuable cosmetic chemist.
Education level
Since it’s a question I get asked a lot let’s begin with the question of what education level do
you need to be a cosmetic chemist?
The answer to this really depends on your goal. If it is your goal to become a cosmetic chemist
working in industry then the minimum educational background you’ll need is a college degree in
a science such as Chemistry, Chemical Engineering, or Biology. Of these, Chemistry is the most
relevant and will give you the best chance of getting a formulating job. But if you have a burning
desire to be a formulator pretty much any science degree can get you at least an interview. I’ve
worked with a formulator who had a degree in Anthropology. You do need a college degree if
you want to be a formulator but if you are satisfied to work in a cosmetic lab as a technician,
you may be able to get that position with an Associates degree in Chemistry.
Now if working in industry is not your goal and you simply want to learn how to formulate
cosmetics, then you don’t really need a college degree. There is nothing about formulating
cosmetics that requires a college degree. It’s really a skill that can be learned by anyone with
a desire to learn. Of course, you’ll need a way to obtain chemicals, lab equipment, and an
understanding of how to put formulas together, but these are things you can learn. If your
desire is to make cosmetics yourself that can be learned without a college degree by taking a

program like our Practical Cosmetic Formulating course.
Finally, if it is ultimately your goal to start your own cosmetic line, you don’t even need to
know how to formulate. You can hire people to make the products for you while you focus on
the business of marketing and selling products. Success in the cosmetic industry is much more
about marketing than it is about the how your products are formulated.
Cosmetic Chemists
But let’s assume that you want to be a cosmetic chemist and want to have a job in the cosmetic
industry. As I said, the minimum requirement for this is getting a four year college degree.
However, there are many other options for increasing your education about cosmetic science.
These include programs ranging from four-year university degrees to one-hour online seminars.
For the rest of the program we’ll go through options that are available.
We’ll begin with advanced cosmetic science degrees. Some people ask about getting a PHD
in cosmetic science but as far as I know there are no PHD level programs for cosmetic science.
However, there are a number of Master’s degrees you can get. Here are some of the most
popular.
The University of Cincinnati has a master’s level on-line degree program focusing on
design, evaluation, and control of cosmetic products. It is a nationally acclaimed Master of
Science in Pharmaceutical Science with emphasis in Cosmetic Science. Lectures are offered
asynchronously over the internet to accommodate the work and travel schedules of those who
wish to take courses without distracting from current employment. You can do most of the work
online but the program does require you to visit Cincinnati on a few occasions to take exams.
Fairleigh Dickinson University’s School of Natural Sciences offers a Master of Arts in

Science with a concentration in Cosmetic Science. According to the program’s website, this
concentration, the first of its kind in New Jersey, was started in 1982 with the support and
approval of the Society of Cosmetic Chemists. Today, FDU’s Cosmetic Science program continues
to fulfill the needs of those responsible for creating commercial products in the cosmetics,
toiletries, and fragrance industries. It enables practitioners to learn the latest advances in their
field and helps students to develop advanced skills that can lead to senior assignments in the
cosmetics industry. This is a popular program particularly because of its location so close to
numerous companies that offer cosmetic science jobs.
Long Island University offers a masters of science in pharmaceutics – The graduate program

in cosmetic science provides an appropriate blend of course work in the areas of chemistry,
pharmacology, toxicology, microbiology and pharmacy. These disciplines are coupled with their
applications to the development and formulation of cosmetic products, and will serve to help
the student to function more effectively in the cosmetic industry.
Rutgers (US) – MBS Personal Care Science program – According to them, the goal of the
program is to educate students in the essential skills and tools relevant to the Personal Care
(Cosmetic), Consumer Health Products, Pharmaceutical and Speciality Chemical industries.
Students are taught the fundamentals and applications of personal care chemistry, food
science, process engineering and science and will receive training in finance and accounting,
marketing, communication and leadership, management of science and technology, ethics and
entrepreneurship. Another good choice based on its close locale to hiring companies. Many
students first get jobs then get an advanced degree while still working.
The University of Toledo offers an undergraduate degree program in cosmetic science. This is
a great opportunity for anyone who is starting school and knows that they want to get into the
cosmetic industry.
Outside of the United States there are also a number of other college level programs.
Singapore Polytechnic has a Diploma in Perfumery and Cosmetic Science – The curriculum for
this course focuses on teaching students the fundamentals of chemistry before they embark
on subjects that have strong emphases on applications. Areas of applications such as sensory
training for perfumery, fragrance creation, formulation of cosmetic products, cosmetic science
as well as the marketing and business aspects in these disciplines will be some topics covered in
the curriculum.
De Montfort University in the UK offers a Pharmaceutical and Cosmetic Science BSc (Hons).
The program provides knowledge and skills about formulation, manufacture and evaluation
of products in the pharmaceutical, cosmetics and toiletries industry. It is delivered by a team
of subject experts and the courses are designed in the first year to deliver subjects such as
chemistry, biochemistry and microbiology, which give the scientific background. Formulation,
through a comprehensive course in compounding, and process technology are also introduced.
It requires 3 to 4 years of full time study.
Also in the UK is a program by the London College of Fashion. Here you can achieve a BSc
(Hons) in Cosmetic Science. This is a full-time, undergraduate level program that is designed to

take 3-4 years to complete. This course is good if you wish to enter the industry as a formulating
scientist in research and development, although you will be equipped to pursue a variety
of careers in the cosmetic, toiletry and perfumery industry (e.g., in product manufacturing,
marketing and technical sales). It is sponsored by the Cosmetics, Toiletries and Perfumery
Association.
Monash University (Australia) – Bachelor of Pharmaceutical Science. Learn how to formulate,

design and evaluate pharmaceuticals. The formulation science and chemistry knowledge
graduates gain makes them suited for careers developing, cosmetics, foods, agricultural
chemicals, veterinary products, paints and inks and many such consumer goods.
Somalwar Academy Education Society (India) – Offers a four-year bachelor of cosmetic

technology. The course gives training in Cosmetic Formulation, Manufacturing, Analysis and
Marketing. Industrial training and Educational tour are two essential components of the course.
Graduate in Cosmetic Technology can seek jobs in Production / Marketing / R&D in cosmetic
companies.
EFCM Program (France) – Offers a limited number of students that opportunity to learn
fragrance and cosmetic formulating. 2 year program to achieve Masters of Science in Fragrance
and Cosmetics or an MBA.
Also in France is a program offered by the Institut Supérieur International du Parfum (the
ISIPCA) in perfumery, cosmetics and food flavouring. These courses are in French so that may be
a limitation for some people.
I’m certain that there will be more programs in the future but any of the ones listed can help in
advancing your cosmetic science knowledge.
While a certified university degree may be best for your CV or resume, to learn practical
cosmetic formulation information there are more focused and less expensive options. I’ll cover
some of those now.
First, there are live classroom short courses offered by the Society of Cosmetic Chemists. These
continuing education courses are taught around the United States but mostly focused in the
New Jersey / New York area. Topics include all types of things relevant to the cosmetic industry
including formulation, emulsions, surfactants, regulations, process engineering, etc. I teach
a few courses including Beginning Cosmetic Chemistry, Practical Product Development, and

Natural Cosmetic Formulation. You can see the SCC website for schedule and information.
Next, you can frequently find one day seminars or informative courses given in conjunction with
trade shows. For example, the in-Cosmetics trade show which happens yearly holds seminars,
workshops, and demonstrations for attendees. This is a great place to learn specific, applicable
information. Cosmetics & Toiletries magazine holds a yearly seminar on cosmetic science
specific topics. These one or two day seminars are a great way to further your education quickly.
They are also great places to meet others in the field and network. It’s difficult to find all of the
courses available in this manner but keeping up with our website, the SCC and the IFSCC is a
great place to start.
Of course not everyone can physically attend classes due to time and money concerns so there
are a number of online courses that can help you learn to be a better cosmetic chemist.
There is the Practical Cosmetic Formulation course which is our very own program designed
to introduce students to all aspects of the cosmetic industry with a focus on formulation. This
5-month program includes 9 modules which are done online and can be completed anywhere
in the world. In includes membership to a cosmetic science discussion forum, monthly
conference calls and direct access to the instructor. We also have a course focused specifically
on formulating Natural cosmetics which many people have found beneficial.
There is also the Diploma in Cosmetic Science by Distance Learning. This one is produced
by the Society of Cosmetic Scientists. The course is modular in construction giving a flexible
learning pattern but is expected to be completed within one year, though students may defer
examination until the second year.
In Australia the Institute of Personal Care Science has a offers Diplomas in Personal Care
Development, Promotion and Formulation. According to the institute the programs are industry
approved training for the cosmetic formulators, marketers and personal care professionals of
tomorrow. Diplomas are offered nationwide through Distance Education, so you can study to
improve your career opportunities at a time and place that suits you; with the support of our
industry professionals assisting you all the way.
Specialchem4cosmetics offers e-Training courses – They have a variety of cosmetic science

topics such as Silicones, Natural ingredients, emulsions, make-up, etc. Webinars are typically 90
minutes long with a 30 minute question and answer session. They are also taught by industry
experts who have a number of years of experience.

Then there is the Center for Professional Advancement– They offer cosmetic research and
development training. They have both live classroom and online training options. The courses
run from one- to five- days in length, include discussions, case studies, and group exercises and
are taught by industry leaders who share their knowledge in an enthusiastic, interactive manner.
So there you have it, a number of options for you to advance your cosmetic science knowledge
and career. And while these programs are great you can also learn a lot just by attending
cosmetic science focused meetings like those put on by the Society of Cosmetic Chemist, by
participating in forums like the one on Chemists Corner, and by keeping up with the latest news
in the industry. You should never stop learning and don’t pigeonhole yourself into only subjects
which you directly use on the job. You never know when your job will vanish and you’ll need to
become knowledgable in other formulation areas to get another job. Learn about all aspects of
formulating so you can be a complete cosmetic chemist.
DAY 18 CHALLENGE
Commit to take a continuing
education program
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.

DAY
19
Cosmetic Science
– Basics of Surfactant Science

DAY 19
Cosmetic Science – Basics of Surfactant Science
Surfactants are some 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 the 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 nearly all of the synthetic surfactants
that are most used today were introduced.
Some commonly used surfactants include Sodium Lauryl Sulfate, Cocamidopropyl Betaine, and
Glyceryl Stearate.
Surfactant Chemistry
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 referred 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 and the nature of the other materials in the solution.

Normally, when oil and water are put together they do not mix nicely but instead they stay
separated. You can see this in salad dressings which frequently have two layers. 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 observation is the basis for
the general adage in chemistry that “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.
Surfactant properties
The first use of surfactants in personal care products we’ll talk about is cleaning. Surfactants are
useful whenever you want to make a product that will clean a surface. While water will remove
all of the water compatible ingredients, it won’t have much impact on removing oily materials.
And most dirt is made up of oil. So for the nonpolar parts of dirt and oil, you need a surfactant
to help remove it. When a surfactant is applied to a surface, the lipophilic parts of the molecule
inserts itself between the oily particle and the surface of skin and hair. A number of surfactant
molecules surround the particle and water can then be used to rinse it away leaving a clean
surface.
These cleansing surfactants are called detergents and are found in products like shampoos,
body washes, and liquid soaps. The most common for cleaning products are anionic surfactants
like Sodium Lauryl Sulfate or Ammonium Laureth Sulfate.
Incidentally, surfactants have the added bonus of making foam. This is a visual cue for
consumers that helps convince them of the product’s efficacy. As a formulator you need to be
able to produce foam that feels and looks great.
Cleansing is only one of the function of personal care products. Another is making the skin
and hair look and feel good. To do this we often require materials that are both polar and non-
polar. Since the materials that are useful for cosmetics can be incompatible, we use surfactants
to create a mixture that has both. These mixtures of incompatible materials held together by
surfactants are called emulsions. When surfactants are blended into these mixtures they align
themselves in the solution to create small particles called micelles. Upon mixing, the particles
are dispersed throughout the solution creating an emulsion. Emulsions are the basis for nearly
all creams and lotions.

Another use for surfactants is as conditioning or moisturizing ingredients. Some surfactants can
attach to the surface of skin and hair to improve the look and feel so they are frequently added
to moisturizing and conditioning cosmetics. Hair conditioners and skin moisturizers usually
contain one or more surfactants that have a functional effect.
Surfactants are also added to formulas to modify the formula aesthetics. Typically, people who
use cosmetics want them to be thick or opaque and easy to spread. For cosmetic formulators
to create these effects, surfactants such as fatty alcohols can be used. Surfactants can also be
added to modify the opacity of a liquid formula in the form of pearlizing agents. Surfactants can
also thicken formulas.
Finally, some surfactants have one more characteristic that makes them useful in cosmetic
products. They can disrupt the structure of cell walls which means they are able to destroy
any disease causing microbes that might grow in the cosmetic. This makes them useful as
preservatives.
As you can see surfactants have a wide range of application in cosmetic formulas. The
technology has not changed much since the late 1960’s but cosmetic raw material
manufacturers continue to try to improve. In the future, surfactants promise to be less
irritating, more efficient and produced from more sustainable starting materials.
Types of surfactants
Now, that you know why surfactants are used, it is helpful to know which ones are used and
for what purpose. There are literally 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.
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 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 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.
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 even reduce irritation. They are also used for baby shampoos
and other cleansing products that require mildness. The drawbacks are that they do not have
good cleansing properties and don’t function well as emulsifiers.
The last class of surfactants we’ll cover are the ones that contain no specific charge. These are
termed non-ionic surfactants and are used most often as emulsifiers, conditioning ingredients,
and solubilizing agents. There is no other type of surfactant that is used more frequently than
nonionic surfactants. The primary nonionics used for cosmetics include alcohols, alkanolamides,
esters, and amine oxides.
Alcohols such as Cetyl or Stearyl alcohol are used in creams and lotions to provide body and feel
to the formulas. They also help stabilize the emulsions and can reduce irritation. Amine oxides
like Cocamidopropylamine oxide are used to boost foam in cleansing products. A number of
esters are used to provide conditioning, slip and shine to biological surfaces. Polysorbate esters
are also excellent solubilizing ingredients for fragrances and other botanical oils.
Most of your formulating time will be spent working with different levels of surfactants and
trying to pick out just the right one for your application. This brief overview provides all the
basics that you need to know to get started (and to impress Marketing people with your
knowledge), but it is only the start. You need to work with surfactants, talk with your surfactant
suppliers and experiment with different blends. Only then will you get a better understanding of
these molecules and what you can do with them.
DAY 19 CHALLENGE
Surfactant Science
For today’s challenge, I want you to 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.

Sprinkle the pepper on the surface of the water. Put enough of a layer so you can see them
laying on the surface. The pepper flakes should not sink. Next, dip the toothpick in the body
wash or shampoo and coat a small segment of one end. You don’t want too much on the
toothpick. Then poke the toothpick into the center of the layer of pepper and see what
happens.
If you did it right the pepper should have moved to the sides of the bowl and looked as if it is
repelled by the toothpick. You could actually do this same experiment using your finger in place
of the toothpick.
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.
Also, if you have other experiments that can demonstrate how surfactants work please leave
comments. I’m always looking for real life experiments to demonstrate scientific concepts.

DAY
20
– Dissecting a Cosmetic
Ingredient List

DAY 20
– Dissecting a Cosmetic Ingredient List
Today, we’re going cover 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.
Finding competitive products and creating your own version of these products is a common
practice among cosmetic chemists. If you want to be a well rounded formulator, you’ll have
to learn how to do this. Creating a knock-off of an existing formula is a great way to learn
formulating because you know exactly what the product should look like and how it performs.
You can go from a list of ingredients to a formulation in six steps. Here they are.
Step 1 – Find a list of ingredients

Most cosmetic markets around the world require companies to list their ingredients on their
products. This is done to help consumers know what they are putting on their bodies and can
help them avoid ingredients which they might have negative reactions to.
This is great for consumers but it is also great for cosmetic formulators because it gives you
important clues as to how to create the product.
So, the first thing you have to do is to find the list of ingredient of a product you want to
duplicate. In the age of the Internet this is much easier than it used to be. In the old days we
had to go to the store and hope to find samples of a product. But now you can just go to the
Internet and do a search. My two favorite places to find LOIs is Drugstore.com and Ulta.com
There are other sources but you can find most products on either of these two websites.
For this show I’m going to show you how to duplicate a shampoo formula.

Here is the list of ingredients.
Water (Aqua), Ammonium Lauryl Sulfate, Ammonium Chloride, Cocamide MEA,

Fragrance (Parfum), PEG 5 Cocamide, Hydroxypropylmethylcellulose, Tetrasodium EDTA,
DMDM Hydantoin, Citric Acid, Tocopheryl Acetate (Vitamin E) (Vitamin E Acetate),
Sorbitol, Algae (Seaweed) Extract (Algae), Blue 1 Lake (CI 42090), Green 3
Once you have that you can move on to the next step.
Step 2 - Figure out the important ingredients

After you find your LOI, you need to analyze it to figure out which ingredients are crucial to the
function of the formula and which ones are less important. To do this it is extremely helpful to
know the rules related to labeling cosmetic ingredients.
The most important rule for our purposes is that…
“ingredients must be listed in order of concentration for any ingredient greater than 1%”
This means the ingredients in the formula above 1% are the most important while the ones
lower than 1% are less important.
So, for every ingredient listing there is the 1% line and to duplicate a formula you need to find
the 1% line in any listing. To be able to do this, it takes a certain knowledge of the raw materials,
product form, and the relative percentages. You’ll learn how to do this over the course of your
career. It is something that we go into more in-depth in our practical cosmetic formulating
course.
For the listing in our example, we need to find the 1% line. Since I know that shampoos are
mostly water (85 – 90% water) it’s not surprising that water is the first ingredient. I also know
that the Ammonium Laurel Sulfate is the primary detergent so it is certainly in the formula
above 1%. Scanning through the list I see Tetrasodium EDTA. This is a chelating agent used in
formulas and I know it’s never used at a level of 1%, so the 1% line must be prior to the tetra
sodium EDTA.

This means we can ignore everything from the EDTA and below which gives us a list of the most
important ingredients. These include
WATER
Ammonium Lauryl Sulfate
Ammonium Chloride
Cocamide MEA
Fragrance
PEG 5 Cocamide
Hydroxypropylmethylcellulose
We may be able to pare this formula down even further because it’s unlikely that the fragrance
is in the formula at a % higher than 1% but we’ll assume that it is for the moment.
Step 3 – Guess the ingredient levels based on label position

Now that we know which ingredients are crucial we have to make a guess. If we start with the
assumption that the last ingredient is in the formula at 1% then the rest of the ingredients must
be in at higher levels than that.
Since I know the basic structure of a shampoo I can make a guess as to what the formula might
look like. Here is one such guess.
WATER – 81.3%
Ammonium Lauryl Sulfate – 12%
Ammonium Chloride – 1.9%
Cocamide MEA – 1.5%
Fragrance – 1.2%
PEG 5 Cocamide – 1.1%
Hydroxypropylmethylcellulose – 1%
Actually, for a water based product you can get a more accurate guess for the level of water.
This can be done by weighing a sample of the product, then putting it in an oven to dry it out,
then weighing it again. You keep weighing it until the sample mass doesn’t change any longer.
This could take a few hours depending on how high a temperature you are storing it. The
difference between the stable mass and the initial mass is equal to the amount of moisture in
the formula.

Also, remember that the formula determined in this way is the percent active formula. Some
of the raw materials you buy will not be 100% active so you have to adjust your formula
accordingly. For example, when you buy ALS it is usually about 30% active. That means to get
12% active ALS in your formula you have to use 40% of the ingredient in your formula. I’ll leave
you to figure out the math of that.
Step 4 – Add important secondary ingredients

This formula guess would be a good basis for the first prototype but there were ingredients
we left off because they didn’t reach the 1% level. While these ingredients aren’t important in
terms of function they are often crucial in terms of making a working, safe, and aesthetically
pleasing product.
In this formula there are a number of adjustment ingredients that we should include. These
would be
Tetrasodium EDTA – which is a chelating agent to help in preservation

DMDM Hydantoin – the preservative
Citric acid – to adjust the pH
You could also include the colors if you want to match the color of the product.
The other ingredients in the formula include claims ingredients which are not necessary for
making a function product. Things like Vitamin E and Algea Extract are just added for the story
and not expected to do anything. These can be ignored.
Some approximate percentages of these ingredients would be based on an educated guess are
Tetrasodium EDTA – 0.5%

DMDM Hydantoin – 0.2%
Citric acid – 0.5%
Color – as desired but less than 0.1%
Let’s put it all together and see what the formula would look like. To accommodate the
secondary ingredients we have to adjust the water levels.

So, our first prototype formula would be something like this
WATER – 80%
Ammonium Lauryl Sulfate – 12%
Ammonium Chloride – 1.9%
Cocamide MEA – 1.5%
Fragrance – 1.2%
PEG 5 Cocamide – 1.1%
Hydroxypropylmethylcellulose – 1%
Tetrasodium EDTA – 0.5%
DMDM Hydantoin – 0.2%
Citric acid – 0.5%
Color – as desired but less than 0.1%
Step 5 – Make your prototype

Now that we have all the ingredients figured out it’s time to make a prototype. To do this you
have to figure out the order in which the ingredients are added. Here again is where it is helpful
to know something about the raw materials and how to formulate with them. In this formula as
in most formulas when water is the most abundant ingredient it is added to your container first.
Since Hydroxypropylmethylcellulose is a thickening polymer that requires time to go into

solution, this would be the second thing that is added. Other powder ingredients like Citric Acid
and Tetrasodium EDTA can also be added up front. In general you want to add your powders
sooner in the process than later.
This formula contains Cocamide MEA which is a solid at room temperature so the formula will
have to be heated up past the melting point of that ingredient to get it to go into solution. So
after we have added the powders we begin heating up the formula while mixing it.
As it heats up we can add the Ammonium Lauryl Sulfate.
When the formula gets to the melting point of Cocamide MEA which is about 60 degrees C, we
can add this and let it mix for 10 minutes or so until it is dispersed. It’s good to heat the formula
up to a few degrees higher than the melting point so going to 70C makes sense.
Next, we cool down the batch to below 45C and then add the remaining ingredients.

The fragrance gets blended with the PEG 5 Cocamide which acts as a solubilizer. This blend
is then added to the formula. Finally, the DMDM hydantoin is added and the batch is cooled.
These final ingredients are added when the batch is cooler because they are heat sensitive and
can break down if put in conditions that are too hot for too long.
If you want to match the color you can add color at the end.
Finally, you add the salt. Salt is added at the end because it can have a thickening effect on the
formula. If you add it too soon you will get bubbles in the formula which is not ideal.
Step 6 – Test and refine

Once you’ve finished your prototype you can compare it to the product you are copying.
Compare things like pH, viscosity, and appearance. You should also test functional things such as
how well it foams for shampoo formulas any way.
You’ll probably have to refine the formula increasing the level of ingredients or decreasing them
as needed but this will get you pretty close to start.
The thing I want you to notice about this system is that it is something that anyone with a little
bit of knowledge about the ingredients and basic formulation structure can do.
In our Practical Cosmetic Formulating course you can learn more details including what you
need to know about raw materials, formulation types and structures and how to put it all
together.
Alright, let me just summarize the six steps to going from an LOI to a starting formula.
Step 1 – Get the list of ingredients

Step 2 – Figure out the important ingredients
Step 3 – Guess at a starting formula for the important ingredients
Step 4 – Add important secondary ingredients
Step 5 – Make your prototypes
Step 6 – Test the prototype, revise formula and repeat until you have a match

DAY 20 CHALLENGE
Dissect an ingredient list
For today’s challenge, I want you to repeat this exercise with any product you want to duplicate.
Follow the 6 steps and see if you are able to create a reasonable duplicate. Find your LOI, guess
at what the important ingredients are, guess their levels, make the prototype, and test it to see
how it compares. If you want some help with this leave comments on the show notes page and I
can give you advice as to how you might refine the product. Please be sure to leave the LOI and
your guesses for a starting formulation.
This will be a fun and useful exercise, especially if you choose a product which you like using.
Don’t worry if you don’t have a matching fragrance as this will be the most difficult part of
the formula to duplicate. Also, the easiest formulas to copy are solutions like body washes or
shampoos. But if you want to try an emulsion formula feel free. You’ll just have to modify your
procedure to make the emulsion.
Good luck, have fun and happy formulating!

DAY
21
Cosmetic Formulation – Calculating
a Cosmetic Formula Cost

DAY 21
Cosmetic Formulation
– Calculating a Cosmetic Formula Cost
When you formulate cosmetics you’ll have to stay within the cost parameters dictated by
your company or your customer. It does not make much sense to create formulas that cost
more money to make than you can sell them for. And to make sure you create only affordable
formulas, you’ll have to know how to figure out their cost. Today, I’ll show you a quick four
step process to determine the raw material cost of your formulation. Now, this would not be
the final price of your product because it doesn’t include other costs such as manufacturing,
packaging, or marketing, but following these 4 steps will give you an exact price for the
formulation part of your product. And this is the part that cosmetic chemists have the most
control over.
Step 1 – Start with a consistent formula

We are going to assume that you already have created a formula. See the show notes page
where we’ve included a spreadsheet that I use to create formulas and also calculate costs. The
key is that when you make your formula you have to know the percentage of the ingredients
in your formula. This means you have to equalize your formulas by weight. For example, if
you are following a formula that calls for measurements of 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.
Figuring out percentages is easy enough. You simply add up the total mass of each ingredient (in
gram units as I suggested) to get the total batch size. Then to figure out the percentage of each
ingredient you just divide the amount of any specific ingredient by the total batch size. So if you
were making a batch that was 500 grams and one of the ingredients you were using was 100
grams the percent of that ingredient would be 100 divided by 500 or 20%. You would repeat
this same process for every ingredient in your formula.

Fortunately, the cosmetic formulation spreadsheet in the show notes does this calculation 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 your
company pays. You see lots of companies in the cosmetic industry are able to cut deals on the
prices of their raw materials based on current use or anticipated future use. So, it’s difficult to
say how much any one ingredient costs because it depends on the type of deal your company
has worked out with the supplier.
Anyway, all the costs should be in the same units. Make sure you get a quote for the price in
terms of dollars per pound or dollars per kilogram. Since I formulate in America, we calculate all
the formula 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. Don’t mix a dollars per pound price with a dollars per kilogram.
The conversion factor for pounds to kilograms is 2.205 pounds equals 1 kilogram. So if the price
of a material is $10 per pound, that means it would be $22.05 per kilogram. Also, the final
number that you get will be in the same units as the cost of the raw materials. Just make sure
all the units are the same when doing the calculations.
Step 3 – Calculate out the component costs.

To figure out the cost of each ingredient you have to 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 and you get 0.80. This means the partial cost of that ingredient in the
formula is $0.80. This is what I call the component cost.
Step 4 – Calculating the complete cost

Figuring out the complete formulation cost is now just a simple matter of adding up the
component costs to get total formula cost. Pretty easy (especially if you are using the cosmetic
formulation spreadsheet).
So, let’s review 4 steps to calculating the cost of your formulation. No complicated math
required.

Step 1 – Start with a consistent formula – All the ingredients should be listed as a percentage in
the formula.
Step 2 – Get your raw material costs – These should all be listed in terms of either dollars per
pound or dollars per kilogram. If you’re working with a different currency then use that unit
instead.
Step 3 – Calculate out the component costs – This is done by simply multiplying the formula
percent and cost.
Step 4 – Calculate the complete formula cost – This is done by adding up all the component
costs.
Knowing your formulation cost is useful for every formulator to know. It will help whenever you
make changes. It can also help you find cost savings which is something that every company
wants their formulators to do. But first you have to know how much your formula will cost to
make in the first place.
DAY 21 CHALLENGE
Calculate the cost of a formula
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. Feel free to go to the show notes to get
the spreadsheet and also check out our video showing exactly how to use the spreadsheet. It’s
really quite a handy device that served me well in my formulation career.
While doing this exercise it’s extremely helpful to have a listing of the prices of all your raw
materials. I had a spreadsheet of the hundreds of ingredients we used at my former company
which listed the cost of every raw material we bought. Whenever I needed to do costing I would
simply look up the price on my spreadsheet. I’d encourage you to create your own price list like
this. You should realize though that prices change fairly regularly. So if you do have a list like this
make sure you update it at least once a year. Things change but not that much. The best place
to find the most accurate costs would be in the purchasing department (if you work in a large
company). If you are an independent entrepreneur then you’ll get this information from your
raw material suppliers.

DAY
22
Cosmetic Testing – Creating New
Test Methods from Patents

DAY 22
Cosmetic Testing – Creating New Test
Methods From Patents
When I first got started in the cosmetic industry one of the things that struck me most was how
few sophisticated testing methods there were. I was used to analyzing things using devices like
the Gas Chromatograph, the IR Spectrophotometer or the Mass Spectrometer. If I wanted a
definitive answer about the structure of a compound I knew I could use these devices to get
those answers. I just figured there must be equally sophisticated devices for testing cosmetic
products. So if I wanted to know how much foam a product produced or how thick a product
was I thought there would be some instrument I could just send it through to get an answer.
Unfortunately, I was mistaken. The cosmetic industry just does not work this way.
While there are certainly some instruments useful for making measurements, most of the
methods for quantifying characteristics of your products are developed in-house. They are
customized to the company at which you are working. And companies in the cosmetic industry
tend to be a bit secretive about the way they do things. Certainly, a podcast like this couldn’t
exist if I was still working as a formulator for one of the big companies. Fortunately, I’m not.
Test Method Secrecy

Not only are the test methods largely secret, they are also a bit crude as compared to
the devices used by analytical chemists. For example, here is how we measured the foam
characteristics of our shampoos and body washes. We took a kitchen blender and filled it up
with 100 milliliters of deionized water. Then we added 2 ml of shampoo. I guess someone at
some point figured out that was a good approximation of the ratio of shampoo to water on
the head when someone is taking a shower. Anyway, you would next run the blender for 10
seconds, turn it off, then measure the height of the foam. 10 seconds later you would run the
blender for another 10 seconds, turn it off and measure the height again. You’d repeat this a
third time to get the maximum foam height.
These measurements were then used to quantify the quality of the foam. We did some other

things with the foam to measure stability and creaminess but these too were very crude. It’s a
wonder we got any reasonable data. But as crude as this method was it was effective enough
for helping guide formulation efforts, supporting claims, and supporting patent applications. As
long as you ran enough trials and were consistent enough in your method the data was good
enough.
As a scientist I always found this dissatisfying but cosmetic science isn’t completely science.
There is a certain art to it which is why it will be difficult for robots to take over our jobs any
time soon. But I digress.
Anyway, the method just described was an in-house method we used for measuring foam.
Other companies have their own methods. But if you were looking for a foam measuring
method you would essentially have to create your own version of our custom method. In fact,
for most everything in the cosmetic industry you have to create your own custom version of the
test (unless you work with an outside company who has already done that). Developing these
custom methods can be incredibly time consuming and it can be hard to do.
Fortunately, there are a few sources for finding test methods that other formulators are doing.
Some methods are listed in the books we talked about in episode 3 of this series and other
methods can be found in trade journal articles or websites. One of the most useful sources of
test methods however can be found in US patents. For the rest of the show we’ll talk about
how to read a patent, where you can find test methods, and how to adapt them to your
formulation work.
Cosmetic Patents
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. Fortunately, for cosmetic
formulators, companies still apply for and get patents. I say fortunately because they can be a
great source for information for a cosmetic chemist. Here are just a few things you can learn
from patents.
First, there are starting formulas. In any patent for a cosmetic product they are going to list an
example formula which gets you pretty close to the formula that is on the market. Of course
you’ll have to change the formula if you want to sell it as a product but it’s a great place to
start. Also, it’s a great way to make a competitor’s product if you need to do some comparative
product testing. Finding formulas is a huge benefit for formulators.

Next are manufacturing tricks. Not only can you get starting formulas, you can also find clues
on how to make formulas. If there is a particularly difficult ingredient to get to go into your
formula, you may be able to search the text of patents to find how another company managed
to incorporate the ingredient. Nothing prevents you from doing this too.
Another interesting thing you can find out in patents is the product history of whatever you
are working on. In the background section of all patents you can learn the history of the
development of a formula type. If you follow it back far enough (by looking at other patents it
references) you could get the entire history of the development of any particular technology.
This was a method I used when I was doing a free lance writing project for an encyclopedia
company. Very interesting and helpful information when you want to know the background of a
technology.
But perhaps the most useful thing that you can get from patents are test methodologies. As I
said at the start the cosmetic industry is secretive and most test methods have to be custom
developed within your own lab. Finding test methods in patents can go a long way to helping
you create your own in-house methods. Some of the methods are pretty clever and not things
that are obvious.
Since reviewing patents can be tedious, they are certainly not written in easy to read language,
it is useful to learn how to read them productively. And to do that we should first step back and
talk about where you can find patents.
Sources of 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 official, free information
and is easily searched. It will be the most accurate of any information available. However,
the site I recommend you use 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 which is much more
efficient. Sometimes this is more helpful. Just go to google and type Google Patents to get the
website. You can search by keyword, company, date, or even patent number.
Patent Sections
Now that you’ve found a patent let’s go through the main section of a patent. On the front page
of a patent, the most useful information includes

1. The patent number (which is in the top right corner)
2. The date of the patent (also in the top right corner)
3. The inventors and assignee
4. The Title of the invention
5. The Abstract of the invention – This gives you a quick idea of what the patent is about and
whether it is relevant for your purposes.
Inside the patent, you’ll find a number of key sections.
There are images. If the patent refers to a device of design, illustrations of the invention will
be included before the text. For cosmetic formula patents, these are not usually included or
relevant.
Then there is the Field of Invention – This section is usually just a rewording of the abstract.
The next section is the Background of Invention – This provides a history of the development
of the technology and sets up the problems that the patent is trying to solve. It will cite 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.
Next is the 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, the Detailed Description.
This is the most tedious part of a patent because it includes as much information as the lawyers
can pack into it. It’s written in a way which is easy for the reader 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
Most useful parts

Next comes the most juicy parts of the patent starting with Formula Examples – At the end of
the description section, you’ll find formula examples which may 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. So not only do you get exact percentages you
also get production methods.

Then there is the Test methods section. 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 an eye
out for them. It gives you an idea of how you might test your formulas and also helps indicate
how useful the patent actually is.
Finally, there is the We claim section. – This is the last section of the patent and can be the most
useful. It summarizes all the information that comes before in specific, single sentence lines.
Using a patent
Alright, now that you know the basic parts of a patent it’s time to learn how to read them. If you
already know the basics of the subject and just want to understand what an inventor did, follow
this procedure for reading the patent.
Step 1 – Read through the title and the abstract to determine if you want to know more.
Sometimes in a patent search, especially if you are doing a keyword search, you’ll get patents
that are irrelevant.
Step 2 – Skip to the end and read the ‘We claim’ section to get a sense of exactly what the
invention is about. The first few claims are usually the most relevant.
Step 3 – Next, go back and read the ‘Summary of Invention’ to fill in some of the details.
Step 4 – Finally, go through the Invention Details section to get the complete picture.
Now let’s take a real example and show you how you can get a test method from it. Since there
are limited publications describing how to test hair styling properties, let’s look at a patent
for that type of product. If you want to see the text of the patent the one I’m talking about
is called “Hair gels based on polymers having a low glass transition temperature” and is US
patent number US20050089490 A1. Note that this is not an official patent but rather a patent
application. That is the nice thing about the Google patent search. Not only do you get official
patents but you get ones that are in the application phase too.
Anyway, if you look through the patent in the example section they list the formulations they
tested and the methods for testing. Since we’re focusing on test methods in this show the part
in the text that says “Evaluation of Polyurethane Dispersions in Solutions Applied to Hair” is
most relevant. The authors describe what they did as...
“Hair loops were prepared as described previously [and they give a reference to the JSCC,
47, p73 (1996)]. The authors continue... Then 1% and 3% solutions of Bayhydrol® PR 240 and
Bayhydrol® DLN were prepared by diluting the commercial concentrates with deionized water.

The solutions were applied to hair in an amount of 150 mg per hair tress. The treated hair was
allowed to dry and was tested for flexibility by using a Texture Analyzer (DHSA traces) [And they
give a reference there as JCS, 53, 345 (2002)].” That’s the Journal of Cereal Science where the
method was published.
Anyway, from this patent you learn exactly what they did including the percentage of product
tested, the composition, the amount applied, the length of time it was tested and the
instrument used which was a texture analyzer. This information allows you to create a similar
test. Of course, you may have to get the texture analyzer but you could also contact the authors
of this patent since it is assigned to a cosmetic raw material supplier and you may even get
them to run the test for you on their machine.
This example was just a quick one I came up with but it will work on any type of product you
are working on. Patents from the big companies like P&G, Unilever and L’Oreal are particularly
helpful for finding test methodologies.
After listening this far you should know where to find patents, what are the primary sections,
and how to get information from them useful for formulating. So now it’s your turn which
brings us to today’s challenge.
DAY 22 CHALLENGE
Find a test method from a patent
Today’s challenge is pretty straightforward. I want you to 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.

DAY
23
Cosmetic Industry – NGOs and their
Impact on the Cosmetic Industry

DAY 23
Cosmetic Industry – NGOs and their
Impact on the Cosmetic Industry
Today, we’re going to talk about a topic that will make you better educated about the cosmetic
industry. The topic today is NGOs and we’ll cover what they are, how they affect cosmetic
formulators, and what to do about them.
Let’s start with who and what these NGOs are and how they affect cosmetics and cosmetic
chemists. 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 disallow anyone from the
government to be 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.
There are a number of NGO’s around the world that have an impact on the cosmetic industry.
We’ll first take a look at them and discuss what kind of effect each are having.
The Environmental Working Group or EWG

In the US this is probably the NGO with the biggest effect on the cosmetic industry. As NGOs
go, they are well-funded and have 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. Their
primary purpose according to them is to be standing up for public health when government or
industry won’t.

They claim that their “...mission is to serve as a watchdog to see that Americans get straight
facts, unfiltered and unspun, so they can make healthier choices and enjoy a cleaner
environment. “
Of course, they don’t let science get in the way of their unfiltered, unspun conclusions that
corporate America is evil and cosmetics represent a toxic wasteland putting people lives at risk
every time they rub on a moisturizing lotion.
One of the main ways that the EWG impacts the cosmetic industry is through their Skin Deep
database.
The Skin Deep database is a supposed to be a cosmetics safety database which lists ingredients
in over 41,000 products against 50 toxicity and regulatory databases. The database is intended
as a resource for consumers, who can search by ingredient or product when choosing personal
care products.
Unfortunately, there are some glaring flaws in the database including false information,
incomplete information, and a safety rating system that makes no sense. This can be
problematic for formulators because your consumer may look to the skin deep database to
determine whether ingredients in your formula are safe. In fact, some formulators use the
database as a guide as to which ingredients to use or not. This is a not a good idea because
the database is inaccurate and can be changed on a whim. If you are counting on selling to
consumers who are persuaded by the Skin Deep database, you will be at a severe disadvantage.
Perhaps the worst thing about the EWG Skin Deep database is that they are unwilling to
modify their conclusions when new evidence comes to light. They base their actions on their
beliefs (that industry is trying to harm people) and they use science only when it supports the
message they want to promote. Since they are a politically motivated group, they are unable to
accept new science which might indicate an ingredient is more safe than previously thought. I
could not find a single instance of them changing their stance on an ingredient they previously
claimed was dangerous.
Incidentally, the EWG recently came out with a special seal of approval in which companies
who meet EWG standards (and pay a significant fee) can display on their product package to
presumably communicate that the product is somehow more safe than others.

Why this is bad?
The problem with this database and their seal program is that it is not based on scientific
evidence and it provides consumers with erroneous information giving them the impression
that certain ingredients are inherently bad. This is just not true. The other problem is that
there are people who start their own cosmetic lines and use the EWG database as a guide for
formulating their products. They actually believe that their products are safe because of the
ratings they get on the Skin Deep database. In fact, some of them think that as long as they use
ingredients with a rating of 3 or less, they don’t need to do any safety testing to launch their
product. This is just wrong.
The Campaign for Safe Cosmetics is a group launched in 2004 to dedicated to protecting the
health of consumers and workers by securing the corporate, regulatory and legislative reforms
necessary to eliminate dangerous chemicals from cosmetics and personal care products. They
are dedicated to getting anything they consider “toxic” out of cosmetics.
Their main activities are producing reports warning of toxic ingredients in cosmetics and the
founder wrote a book “Not Just a Pretty Face.” But they primarily focus on getting legislation
passed that would ban certain chemicals from cosmetics. These include ingredients like
preservatives, certain surfactants and anything else they deem toxic. It would add a serious
burden to the selling of cosmetics and could put little companies out of business. One of the
things that they are good at is spreading chemophobia and fear using the tools of social media.
Another NGO that affects the cosmetic industry is Greenpeace. They have been around
since the late 1970’s and started out protesting nuclear power. Now they focus primarily on
environmental issues and toxic chemicals. They have targeted the cosmetic industry because
of the use of things they consider toxic including Phthalates, artificial fragrance ingredients, and
Triclosan. They are more of an International group and one of the most significant impacts they
had on the cosmetic industry was their publication of the Cosmetox Guide. This was a booklet
that went through and explained all the dangerous chemicals in cosmetics then gave a rating to
specific products. Green meant good, Yellow meant ok, and Red meant dangerous.
The David Suzuki foundation is based in Canada and was started by David Suzuki & Tara Cullis.
Their stated mission is to “...protect the diversity of nature and our quality of life, now and for
the future” and their vision is “that within a generation, Canadians act on the understanding
that we are all interconnected and interdependent with nature.”

Their biggest impact on the cosmetic industry was a blog post entitled “The Dirty Dozen
Chemicals to Avoid” This article gets tons of traffic and has been tweeted tens of thousands
of times. They also encourage people to create their own Homemade cosmetics. I guess they
aren’t worried about the danger of microbes.
Interestingly enough, the David Suzuki claims to be a “science-based” organization but the
information and fears stated in the Dirty Dozen article is hardly scientifically based.
Animal Protection
Toxic ingredients are not the only issue that NGO’s have with cosmetics. Another huge issue
is animal testing. There are a number of groups who are working to get the cosmetic industry
to ban any and all animal testing. PETA is one such group and they have been very vocal about
being anti-animal testing since the 1970’s.
Other groups have attempted to be more constructive and have gotten the attention of at least
some cosmetic companies. The Coalitions for Consumer Information on Cosmetics is a group
that was founded by a number of groups dedicated to animal protection. The CCIC promotes a
single comprehensive standard and an internationally recognized Leaping Bunny Logo. They are
working with companies to help make shopping for animal-friendly products easier and more
trustworthy.
The Leaping Bunny program is signed on by hundreds of companies, of course none of these are
big companies.
To join the program you have to agree to...
1. Ban animal testing for finished products and ingredients
2. Work only with suppliers who end animal testing for the ingredients and formulations
supplied to your company.
3. Refuse to do any new animal testing
Now that we know who the main players are, you might be wondering what is their motivation?

Motivation of NGOs
On the face of it some of their motivation is to accomplish their stated goal. For some, it is to
get rid of animal testing. For others, it’s to get manufacturers to remove things they consider
“toxic” from cosmetic products.
But there are also a couple other motivations.
Generating money is clearly a motivator. They raise millions of dollars in donations each year
providing good salaries for their employees. Each of these sites has a section dedicated to
donations. The best of these is the EWG who requests a donation every time you access their
Skin Deep database. The people who run these organizations are professionals in the non-profit
industry and are skilled at generating donations.
If you need proof that money is a motivator, consider the EWG and their Sunscreen guide. The
sunscreen guide presumably tells consumers which sunscreens are safe and which ones are not.
On their website they have a link to all different sunscreens even the ones that they consider
unsafe. But if you click on the link to something they consider unsafe, it links to an Amazon
page for the product for which the EWG gets a commission every time someone buys that
product. So on the one hand they are telling people that the product is unsafe but on the other
hand they are taking a kickback any time someone buys that product. If their primary concern
was to get people to use only safe products, I do not see how they could take money from the
sale of what they consider an unsafe product.
The other motivation is power. The more influence the groups can generate the more power
they can derive. They can use this power to force legislation through, influence leaders, and
manipulate cosmetic manufacturers.
Effect of NGOs on Cosmetics

So, now that we know who they are and what their motivation is, let’s see what kind of effect
they are having. Or at least the effect that they are claiming to have.
One of the most recent stories to come out was the announcement by Walmart that they
are going to require manufacturers to remove 10 “toxic” chemicals from their household and
personal care products. As you know Walmart is a huge customer to almost everyone in the
United States so this will have a major impact on companies that produce cosmetics. Walmart
has already had a big impact with their sustainability initiatives and this is just another hurdle
for manufacturers to follow. Interestingly, they did not yet announce what the 10 toxic

chemicals are. It’s possible that they will be ingredients that most companies don’t use anyway
but we will see.
Another story in which these groups have affected the cosmetic industry was J&J’s recent
decision to reformulate their J&J Baby Shampoo. It was pointed out by the Campaign for Safe
Cosmetics that J&J had a different formula around the world and they claimed that the US
version was much more toxic. It contained Quaternium-15 which is a formaldehyde donor and
the CFSC considers it toxic. Rather than sidestep the negative publicity, J&J gave in to the group
and is reformulating. I’m not sure it was such a great idea but that’s what they decided to do. It
probably gave them new news to talk about so from a publicity standpoint it is a good thing.
P&G just recently announced that they were removing Phthalates and Triclosan from their
products. The NGO groups claim a victory but P&G says they have been working for years to
remove these ingredients from their products. This action will certain spur other big companies
to follow.
Note that neither J&J nor P&G agree with the claim that the NGO’s make that the ingredients
are unsafe. In fact, P&G says “...DEP has been thoroughly studied and found to be safe. But
we understand that DEP can get mistakenly linked to other phthalates in the public discussion
because of its name. So we have been working for several years to eliminate DEP from the
fragrances used in our products. We are 70% of the way there and will be finished by 2014.”
All of this fear is causing consumers to waste money on more expensive products. Typically, big
companies are the target of these fear mongering groups and little companies get a pass. In
fact, in recent legislation that was proposed to overhaul the FDA’s regulation of cosmetics, there
was a special exemption for companies that make under $2 million a year in sales. It doesn’t
make much sense to me that the size of the company should dictate whether they are allowed
to sell (presumably) less safe cosmetics.
Another problem with these groups is that they force manufacturers to stop using ingredients
but don’t offer alternatives. There are not many preservatives that work as well as Parabens
and Formaldehyde donors. When cosmetic chemists remove them from their toolbox, they
have to use alternative ingredients that have not been as thoroughly safety tested. Arguably,
this makes for less-safe products. But NGO’s don’t seem to care much about that.
One of the reasons that NGO’s are effective now is that direct communication to the public
has become much much easier. It used to be that they would have to spend a lot of money on

press releases and advertisements. But now NGO’s have taken to the Internet and used Social
Media to get their message out. The Story of Cosmetics which is a completely misinformed look
at how cosmetic products are made got 1.3 million views! They do an excellent job on Twitter
and rank high in Internet searches for common cosmetic products. The CFSC has over 75,000
facebook likes. These organizations are run by PR professionals who know how to leverage
social media. It doesn’t matter much that the information they provide is skewed or just false.
Their power on social media also spills over into the blogging community and more specifically
the beauty blogging community. There are literally thousands of beauty blogs that look to the
Skin Deep database or repost the press releases from the CFSC without any critical evaluation. It
is downright depressing.
While it is difficult to say that their actions have lead to anything concrete (despite them taking
credit for the actions by companies like J&J and P&G) their effect can certainly be seen when
doing a Google search. On the Internet, they rank high for many cosmetic chemicals and even
terms like “sunscreen.” When consumers search for ingredients they usually find the EWG.
Effect on cosmetic chemists

And that brings us to the main question, why should cosmetic scientists care? There are a
number of reasons that you should learn and care about these groups.
The primary problem is that they are making the job of a formulator much more difficult. Some
formulators are forced to avoid perfectly fine, functional ingredients. And it is reducing your
ability to create innovative products. Restrictions on testing usually lead to the development of
fewer new raw materials.
Another reason to care is that NGOS may be making products less safe. There is less testing
of the replacement ingredients and that could lead to dangerous situations. These groups
also encourage people to make their own cosmetics which can be dangerous if they are not
properly preserved. In fact, one of the most frequent reasons for product recalls is because of
inadequate preservation. Companies avoiding parabens and formaldehyde donors are using less
effective and less safe alternatives. People are literally being harmed by cosmetic products.
So now that you know about these NGO’s and the negative effect they are having on the
cosmetic industry you might be wondering what you can do to fight back against this nonsense.
Here are some suggestions.

Scientists educating the public
To offset the misinformation of these groups we need to start creating the real information.
We need to start telling people what is really true and start putting these things in perspective.
While I would encourage companies to invest some money into doing this, they haven’t really
wanted to as I’ve suggested before. Here is something you as a formulator can do.
Start a Blog – One of the reasons that I started the Beauty Brains was because I wanted to off
set some of the BS that was being produced about beauty products. The blog got me a book
deal and got me on TV and lead to the message getting out that cosmetics are not dangerous.
Participate in social media – Get started with Twitter or Facebook and start spreading a
message of truth. Get more followers and be sure to understand the topic you are writing
about and the things that are being said about your product. Dene Godfry has done an
excellent job on the topic of Parabens in cosmetics. He is tireless in his efforts to combat the
misinformation.
Comment on articles - Leave comments on newspaper articles that are filled with
misinformation.
While these NGO’s are spreading misinformation there is some benefit to cosmetic chemists
and the cosmetic industry.
Often these groups cause your company to reformulate. This is good job security for cosmetic
chemists.
Your company has to come out with new raw materials. A chance for forced innovation.
You have to come up with new formulas with limited ingredients. This could lead to some
innovative formulations.
But despite these positives, it also means that you may be spending time on recreating perfectly
fine formulas and not on making improved products that consumers are going to want. And we
are also teaching people to fear our products and giving up power and decisions to non-science
based groups.
While there are some benefits to the effect of NGO’s on our industry, the negatives far outweigh
the positives in my view.

In the end, I don’t know if these groups are good or bad for the cosmetic industry. I mostly
think they are bad. But it remains to be seen how it effects the industry in the future. If
consumers were better informed, then I have little doubt that these groups would become
ineffective. However, sometimes being better informed only makes you become more convinced
that your wrong opinion is right.
For formulators you will undoubtedly be asked about the issues raised by these NGOs so it is
important for you to have a working knowledge of who they are and what kind of claims they
make. Whether you want to participate in combating the nonsense put out by these groups
is another matter altogether. I would hope every formulator would but I can understand why
some people wouldn’t.
DAY 23 CHALLENGE
Becoming familiar with an NGO
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.
The way to do this is to visit one of the websites we have linked in the show notes and just
review the information they are posting. See if you can find any science that backs up their
claims. See if you can find any science that disputes their claims. Remember the information on
these websites are the kinds of information that your consumers will be reading about. When
your marketing people or friends and family ask you about ingredients in cosmetics, you should
have a good idea of what the science really says. It’s one thing for me to tell you that cosmetics
are perfectly safe, but it’s much better for you to find the scientific studies that convince you.
But to find out what information you need to search, you first have to find out what NGOs are
saying and what consumers might be erroneously believing.

DAY
24
Cosmetic Career – Creating Your
Online Profile

DAY 24
Cosmetic Career – Creating Your Online Profile
Today we’re going to turn our attention to your career as a cosmetic industry scientist. Actually,
the information here will be useful no matter what type of science career you choose but it is
particularly helpful in the cosmetic industry because our industry is relatively small and well
connected.
Have you ever gone to Google and typed in your own name? What comes up? Is it something
about you? Is it someone else? Is it something you are proud of or something that makes you
embarrassed? Whatever it is, you can be sure someone, somewhere in the world, will do this
same search at some point in the future. If you leave what comes up in this search to chance
you could cost yourself jobs, projects, and other opportunities. Every person in every career
should take control of their own online reputation. And Google is the reputation maker or
breaker. In this show we’ll take an in-depth look at how your online reputation or profile is
created, the key sites you can use to help improve it, and the benefits you might get from
having a quality reputation. I’ll give you some specific things you can do to create a better online
reputation than what you have right now.
Why care about your online reputation

Let’s begin with the reasons to should care about your online reputation. There are lots of
reasons but they can all be summed up in these two facts.
1. A good online reputation can lead to great opportunities including jobs, projects, media
appearances and more.
2. A bad online reputation can prevent you from getting jobs, interesting projects, and will
hinder other opportunities you might have otherwise gotten.
And if you care about your career, you’ll want to do what you can to ensure you have a good
online reputation.

Some people think that if they do nothing about this there won’t be any problems but the
reality is you can’t avoid having an online reputation. If you participate in social media, are
tagged in someone’s photo, are quoted in a news article, or otherwise mentioned on the
Internet it’s likely that it will show up on Google. And if someone wanted to tarnish your
reputation, it is much easier to do when someone has a limited presence on the Internet.
The bottom line is that controlling your online reputation is important for any cosmetic chemist
who is serious about advancing in their career. If you do nothing about it, it can hurt you and if
you do something about it, it can help you.
What is your online profile?

Alright, now let’s talk about how you figure out what your online reputation is right now. As I
said at the start one of the biggest components of your online reputation is what people find
when they do a Google search for your name. Ideally, what they will find is information about
your career, things you have accomplished, social media profiles, or other places you were
mentioned favorably.
You should go do a Google search of your name right now and see what comes up. The first
thing that comes up when I search my own name is my LinkedIn page. This page contains
information about my career including past work, publications, a summary, and a list of types
of projects or jobs I’m interested in. This is exactly the kind of information you want to come up
when your name is searched. Think about this in terms of current or future employers. What
will they see? Is that something that makes you proud or is beneficial to you? Is it something
negative?
Other things that come up on the first page when searching my name include my website profile
on Chemists Corner, my Facebook page, my Twitter link, and my profile on other websites for
which I’ve written articles. There are also a number of images that come up which are mostly
professional. You don’t have a lot of control over all the images of you but it is good to have one
shown that you like.
There is much more to your online reputation than this but Google is were the vast majority of
people do their searches so if you manage your Google profile, you’ll be well on your way to
managing your total online profile.

Control your profile
To get control of your online profile the first thing you need to do is to have a good LinkedIn
profile. If you don’t already have a linkedIn account go there and sign up for one. It is free
and can be immensely useful for your career. In fact, my wife has her job today because of my
LinkedIn profile. The way that happened was someone who was looking for a beauty industry
expert contacted me via email with a job opportunity. I knew my wife was perfect for the
position and that eventually led to her getting hired. That would not have happened if I wasn’t
on LinkedIn.
Alright, after you have signed up for your Linkedin account spend time creating your
profile. You can make this as elaborate as you want but make sure you include information
about your employment history, a summary of the things you can do and want to do, your
accomplishments, and pretty much anything else you would include in a resume or CV. LinkedIn
makes it easy. We could actually do a whole show on creating your Linkedin profile but I’ll save
that for another show. For the time being the minimum you should have on your Linkedin
profile includes
1. Your name & location

2. A picture – Something professional - ideally you’ll be smiling.
3. A good summary – List what type of projects you want to work on and things that you
are passionate about.
4. List current and past jobs – Even if it doesn’t seem relevant to what you want to do
now those past jobs and volunteer positions can be helpful for future connections. List
everything you can.
5. List accomplishments – If you have any awards or things like that, they are worth listing
6. Website link – If you have a website or social media account be sure to list that here
You can spend a lot of time crafting the perfect profile and you should do as good a job as you
want. You should also review your profile every six months or so and update it to better reflect
your current situation. I haven’t been so great at this and I certainly need to update it.
After you’ve created your profile begin connecting with people whom you know. These should
be people that you have worked with in the past or that you are friends with or are somehow
connected. Ideally, you’ll start with people that you actually know and some people give the
advice that you should only connect with people you know. Some people think you should
connect with everyone. I’m of the opinion that you should connect with people who are in
the industry that you can imagine working with in the future. There are a lot of spammers on

Linkedin which is why I don’t connect with just anyone.
Just having a LinkedIn account is a good step in the right direction for managing your online
profile. Now, you’ll need to get it to show up when people do a Google search. It may take a
little time but once Google realizes you have a profile up it will likely show up on the first page
if you have an uncommon name. And since Linkedin has such a good reputation with Google, it
may even show up first.
But you’ll want to do what you can to get it to rank higher. There are a number of things you
can do but the easiest thing is to create profiles on other social networking sites and then link
to your LinkedIn page. So, you should create a Facebook account and a Twitter account and
put your basic information there. You don’t even have to use these accounts after you’ve set
them up but having a basic profile that complements the information you have on your LinkedIn
account will help push positive information of your profile onto the front page of Google. That
is the main strategy. Get information that you created on the front page of Google.
Link to your profile

To get it to show up on the front page you need the link to your profile page published in
numerous places around the Internet. So, put the link on all your social media profiles sites
including facebook, twitter, and others. Having a Google account (that is a Gmail account) will
also help you rank higher in Google. I would encourage you to set up a Google account too.
Other things you can do to improve your online reputation include
1. Start a blog and write about cosmetic science

2. Write guest articles on other people’s blogs (like Chemists Corner perhaps)
3. Participate in social media like Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn – This means you update
your status and post links about the subjects you are interested in
4. Leave comments on social media sites
5. Offer to give talks at local SCC chapters – They’ll put a link to your profile on their
website
Basically, to best control your online reputation you need to create content that gets your name
ranked on Google.
And if there are people on the Internet who have written bad things about you or there are
things you don’t want to be on the front page of Google, creating more positive stuff attached

to your name is the number one way to get that removed (or at least pushed off the first page).
Alright, that should get you started. In summary, here is what we covered in creating and
maintaining your online reputation.
First, find out what your reputation is by doing a Google search.

Next, take steps to improve those search results by creating a profile on LinkedIn
Then create profiles on other social networking sites to improve all the pages that show up on
the front page of your Google search.
Finally, take steps to improve what shows up by producing more positive content on the
Internet. This only takes time as most of the online resources are free to use.
Having a positive online reputation will help your career as a cosmetic formulator in both
providing new opportunities for jobs, projects or exposure and in preventing negative things to
be found about you. Everyone should do this.
DAY 24 CHALLENGE
Create your online profile
Well today’s challenge should be obvious. 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.
This is not difficult to do and the rewards you can reap from a good online reputation will be
numerous.

DAY
25
Cosmetic Science – How do
Moisturizers Work?

DAY 25
Cosmetic Science – How do Moisturizers Work?
Today we’re going to 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. Moisturization and skin moisturization in particular is one of the most basic functions of
cosmetic products.
If you recall from day 4 of this series we went through the biology of skin and how everything
works. We even talked about the main problems that skin care products try to solve. What we
didn’t talk about was specifically how those problems are solved. Today, we’ll do that. If you
haven’t listened to episode 4 of this series, I’d encourage you to go back and review that one
first.
Function of the skin

Our skin has many important functions, such as protecting the body and organs from dangerous
chemicals, microbes, and other problematic things in the environment. It also functions to
create vitamin D and give the body shape. But from a cosmetic standpoint the most important
function of skin is the prevention of water loss. Dry skin, or xerosis, is a common problem that
many consumers seek to treat with cosmetic moisturizers. Whether for the face, hands, feet, or
entire body moisturizer formulations are an important part of any cosmetic chemist’s tool kit.

So let’s begin with a quick review of why the skin structure results in conditions where the skin
needs occasional moisturizing. A large proportion of our bodies are made up of water. In fact,
60 percent of you is water. Now due to the laws of physics the water in our body has a tendency
to try and leave our body. It seeks an equilibrium with the outside atmosphere. So when the
weather is humid water loss is slower and when the wether is dry water loss is faster. It is this
loss of water through your skin that results in the negatives of dry skin. Incidentally, a term
you will hear frequently to describe this phenomena is Transepidermal Water Loss or TEWL for
short.

The upper layer of the skin, the epidermis, is made up of keratin rich structures called
corneocytes which eventually get shed. You’ll find lots of this protein under you bed. These cells
are hydrophobic which helps keep some moisture in the skin. But water can still escape mostly
through the spaces between the cells. Fortunately, the body has developed a partial solution to
this problem in a material called the natural moisturizing factor or NMF. This is a layer of mostly
lipids that are released into the spaces between cells. These lipids form a barrier to water loss
and help retain the skin’s moisture levels. Unfortunately (or fortunately if you are a cosmetic
formulator), the lipid layer can be disrupted for a variety of reasons which can lead to the loss of
hydration and dry, flaky skin.
The goal of cosmetic moisturizers is to help repair the lipid barrier and restore hydration.
Moisturization Technology
Although there are some more specialized approaches, like the use of alpha-hydroxy acids or
quaternary conditioning agents, most cosmetic moisturizers improve the condition of dry skin
by utilizing one of three major ingredient types including
Humectants
Emollients
Occlusive agents
Let’s start with humectants. Humectants include ingredients like glycerin, urea, and pyrrolidone
carboxylic acid (PCA). These ingredients have the ability to attract water molecules to them.
Think of them like tiny molecular sponges. When put on the skin humectants work by attracting
water from the dermis below and helping to keep that water bound in the out layer of the
skin called the stratum corneum. Glycerin is used frequently because of its low cost and high
efficacy.
While glycerin works great it also leaves a tacky feel on the skin which is a significant drawback
for an elegant feelings skin product. When creating a skin formulations, you will want to reduce
the negative aesthetic properties of humectants. It takes a lot of experience to get just the
right level. It’s worth pointing out that emollients are typically water soluble so if you include
them in a product that is meant to be rinsed away, they won’t have much effect. The way that
humectants work requires them to remain on the skin.
That brings us to emollients. These materials are typically hydrophobic or insoluble in water.
They provide a slight barrier to water loss but they’re used more because of their ability to

improve the appearance of the skin by smoothing flaky skin cells. They help to fill in the missing
substance between skin cells in the epidermis.
There are many different types of emollients including esters and oils available to a formulation
chemist. Emollients are generally grouped by their ability to spread on the skin. By combining
emollients with the different spread rates you can tailor the skin feel of a moisturizer. You can
test for these differences by using different emollients in a standard base lotion. Additionally,
emollient lipids similar to those naturally found in the skin may also increase the rate of barrier
repair. The most versatile emollient is mineral oil. But natural materials like coconut oil, palm
oil, jojoba oil, and more are also effective emollients. As a formulator you need to find the right
blend of emollients to get the product feel you want. Too much and your products can feel
greasy and they won’t rub in properly. Too little and it can make your skin product feel to dry.
This is where creativity and experimentation in formulating comes in handy.
While humectants and emollients can provide some moisturizing effects, perhaps the most
effective treatment is obtained using occlusive agents. These ingredients increase moisture
levels by providing a physical barrier to epidermal water loss. When you put these on your skin
they actually stop most of the water from escaping in the usual way. Instead of leaving your
body the moisture builds up in the epidermis which results in better feeling, more moisturized
skin no matter what the external environment is. Ingredients with occlusive properties include
petrolatum, waxes, oils, and silicones. Some occlusive agents like petrolatum can leave a heavy
feel so they are usually combined with other ingredients to improve consumer appeal.
Each of these ingredient types has a different mechanism of action and most cosmetic
moisturizers will use a combination of these ingredients to create a synergistic effect and
mitigate certain aesthetic or financial drawbacks. Product claims and skin feel are also
considerations, so don’t be afraid to experiment with your options when creating a moisturizer.
Emulsion Delivery
Since skin care represents the largest market in cosmetics and oil soluble ingredients are often
the best performing skin moisturizing materials, they are usually delivered to skin in the form of
an emulsion.
A skin lotion or emulsion is a pseudo-stable mixture of oils and water. The oils are used to
provide moisturization to skin. As you now know 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.
The ingredients used to make an emulsion include both water soluble ingredients and oil
soluble ingredients. To hold them together you need an emulsification system. An emulsifier is
a specialized surfactant which is both compatible with oil and water and able to hold the two
opposing materials together.
We covered the three types of moisturizing ingredients and you will include each type in your
skin moisturizer formula. Other ingredients are added to improve the aesthetics of the product
by reducing the tackiness or stickiness imparted by the moisturizing ingredients. Things like
cetyl and stearyl alcohols and propylene glycol can all be used. For the emulsifier materials like
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.
So to sum up today’s lesson, skin naturally loses moisture to the environment. This causes the
outer layers of the skin to feel dry which can feel itchy, flaky and turn red. Skin moisturizers
are used to both replace moisture that is lost and to prevent moisture from leaving the skin. As
a formulator it is up to you to pick the right blend of moisturizers to be effective on skin while
simultaneously making a product that feels good to use.
DAY 25 CHALLENGE
Evaluate different moisturizing
technologies
For today’s challenge I want you to 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. If you’re
feeling especially ambitious you can try this science experiment which helps to demonstrate
the moisturizing differences between these ingredients. Take a look at the experiment and run
it.

DAY
26
Cosmetic Raw Materials – What to
do with Samples

DAY 26
– What to do with Samples
Today, 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.
Getting samples
Let’s begin with how you get samples.
Sometimes they come to you. If you work as a scientist at an established cosmetic company
you will eventually get a call or otherwise contacted from a raw material salesperson. You are a
potential customer for their ingredients and striking up relationships with potential customers is
one of the main parts of their job. You actually help them complete their business objectives by
meeting with them and even going out to lunch with them. These meetings can be one of the
perks of being a formulator.
But simply having a meeting is only the beginning. A raw material salesperson’s ultimate goal
is to get you to use their ingredient in your formula. They hope this will eventually lead to your
company making a large purchase of their raw material. And if your product is successful,
they stand to make a number of subsequent sales for years. For this reason a salesperson will
typically steer your casual meeting into a discussion about their raw material and eventually,
they will either ask you if you want one or offer you a free sample so you can try it in your
formula. Most of the time you will be compelled to accept the free sample even if you can’t
immediately think of some place to use it. This is one of the main ways that people get
samples.
Sometimes you have to seek out the samples yourself. Often during your formulation work you
find materials that you want to try in your formulas. You may read about the material in a trade
journal, find it online or see it at a trade show. Trade shows are a great source for samples. In
some cases the raw material suppliers bring samples to the show and hand them out to anyone

who wants them. Or they take your card and send the sample to you later. This reminds me
of a pro-tip, when going to trade shows bring lots of business cards. The suppliers at the show
collect them use them for sample requests and give out prizes. You help them when you give
them your card.
Another source of samples is using an online source like Prospector.com or going directly
through a company’s website. Typically, you put in your contact information and in a few days
or weeks, they’ll send you a sample. If you work for a big company or even a known company in
the cosmetic industry you can usually get these samples for free. If you work as an independent
chemist or small entrepreneur, you might have to pay for the sample. Usually you can get a
small amount like 4 or 8 ounces which is great for lab work. I should mention for chemists who
might be working out of home labs, chemical raw material companies will not send you samples
to a home address so if you want to get a sample, it will have to be delivered to a business
address.
So that’s how you get samples to work with. Next you’ll need a plan of what to do with the
samples once you get them. There have been many times when a sample shows up in the mail
and I have no idea why I ever ordered it. Lots of time there wasn’t any paperwork about the
sample either except for the material safety data sheet of course.
Collect information
Before you even order a sample it makes sense to write down why you wanted the ingredient
or what it is supposed to do. At the very least write down what type of material it is for example
a surfactant, solubilizer, conditioning ingredient, or something like that. That way when you
get the sample a few weeks later you’ll at least have some clue as to why you got it. In most
cosmetic companies you’ll be swamped with projects and evaluating new raw materials won’t
be high on your list of priorities. If you don’t write down why you got a material you won’t know
what to do with it once you get it. The more detailed information you can record about the
material will make it more likely you’ll use it when you have time. Here are some basic things
you should ask the supplier about any material you order. Finding answers to these questions
will also help reduce the number of samples you get since storage of samples can be a problem
in some labs.
First ask what applications the ingredient is 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.?

Next, ask what studies have been done and what the data shows. Suppliers are in the business
of selling ingredients and are not going to show negative data collected but you’ll want them
to show you at least some data. Just be careful that the data you get will be biased. Supplier
data isn’t bad for sparking your interest in a material but you can’t rely on suppliers to give you
claims support for your products. Remember claim support is the responsibility of the cosmetic
company.
Another question to ask is about the recommended use levels. 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. For example, 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
Other questions you can ask are formulating ones. For example ask 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 for you. Find out what it is soluble in? You need to know if the ingredient
type is compatible with the rest of the ingredients in your formulas. Also ask if there are any
known incompatibilities with ingredients. This may save you from formulation problems in the
future. For instance if you’re making a shampoo it’s helpful to know whether the ingredient is
compatible with anionics surfactants.
By collecting information about ingredients before you get them, you’ll be in better shape to use
them once the sample arrives. We’ll now turn our attention to what to do with raw material
samples when you do get them.
Raw Material Evaluation

When you receive a raw material sample it is helpful to have a system of tracking and storing
them. Most chemists have a section of their lab where they randomly put samples they intend
to evaluate when they get a chance. Unfortunately, what usually happens is the material gets
pushed to the back, ignored for a time, and then by the time it’s looked at again, you can’t
remember why it was ordered. To overcome this problem keep a written (or digital) log of all
the samples you receive. Record the date when you got it, and a little reminder of why you were
going to evaluate it. That way when you are going through your samples on clean-up day, you
can remind yourself of why you wanted the sample in the first place.
At this point it makes sense to tell you the strategy I used to evaluate many raw materials
with minimal effort. Instead of having a supplier send you a raw material which you have to

incorporate into a formula and evaluate, ask them to send you the raw material in a finished
product. If the ingredient is supposed to go in a hair product ask for a shampoo or a conditioner.
If it is a skin ingredient ask for a basic lotion. Additionally, ask them to send you a sample of the
formula with and without the ingredient. Don’t put any restrictions on the composition of the
formula except for having one sample with the ingredient and one without. That way you can
determine if you should move forward with your own formulation efforts. If you can’t find any
differences in the formulas that they send you, it makes no sense to continue to look at the raw
material.
Of course, unless you are a big customer your supplier may not want to give you a formulated
sample as I suggested. In this case you’ll have to evaluate the ingredient in your systems. You’ll
eventually have to do this anyway but testing the ingredient in a system the supplier has put
together is a great time saver.
Use a base formula

To evaluate the ingredient yourself one way to save time is by evaluating it from a finished
base formula. This is the same thing you asked the supplier to do except you have to create the
samples yourself. Or if you’re a big shot formulator, you have a technician do it.
To get the most useful information you’ll want to have some standard base formulas that you
always use. A base formula is just basic formulation like a shampoo, conditioner, gel, lotion,
etc. that has the minimum amount of ingredients needed to make a viable product. You may
also use your current formula (without fragrance or color) as your base. This has the added
advantage of letting you see exactly how a new raw material will affect your current formula. I
always had a gallon or two of my base formula available for whenever I had time to test a new
raw material.
When you’re testing a new ingredient use it at the highest level suggested by the supplier.
Suppliers typically overestimate the amount you need since they have an incentive to get you to
use more, but it still makes sense to use their suggestion as a starting point. If you do not see a
benefit using the highest amount suggested, it’s unlikely you’ll see any benefit at any level. And
if you see a positive benefit you can always cut back on the ingredient in future prototypes.
Making your prototypes

To make your prototype, just take a sample of your base formula and add the appropriate
percentage of the new raw material. So, if the supplier tells you that the suggested level for
the new raw material is 5%, just take 95g of your base formula and add 5 grams the new raw

material. You may also just take 100 grams of the base formula and add 5 grams but that will
actually result in the raw material being at a slightly lower percentage than you intend. Either
way the number is going to be slightly off so it doesn’t matter too much.
If the ingredient requires you to melt it or use some heat to help it get into solution then feel
free to warm up your base formula and incorporate the raw material at a higher temperature.
When you do this you might want to consider adding back some liquid preservative as you cool
it down. However, if you are going to evaluate the product soon after you make the sample, this
additional preservative is probably not necessary. Remember these are just crude prototypes
for the purposes of a quick screen evaluation.
While you are making your prototypes be sure to record information about using the ingredient.
For example, note any color or texture changes to the formula after you’ve put it in. Also,
record how long it takes for the ingredient to get thoroughly blended. This information will be
helpful when writing production procedures if you do end up using the material. After you’ve
made your sample take the standard specification readings to see how the ingredient effects
characteristics like viscosity, pH, color and odor. Again this information will be helpful in the
future.
Evaluate performance
The next step is to evaluate the performance of the new raw material. How you test this will
depend on the type of ingredient and type of product you are evaluating. For hair products
you can see how the ingredient effects foam, feel on hair, rinsing ability, combing, or any other
property of a hair product that you measure. For skin products you can measure things like
feel on skin, time it takes to rub in, stickiness, moisturizing effect and more. You should run any
standard test that you typically run on your formula. I also suggest using the product yourself
to see if you notice any differences. The key to evaluating a new raw material is to notice
a difference. If you do not notice any difference, there is no reason to pursue using the raw
material in the future.
Another point about conducting these evaluations. Make sure you do them in a blinded,
controlled fashion. This means that you should always test the prototype with the new raw
material versus the prototype without the raw material. And the person who is conducting the
test should not know which sample is the test and which is the control. When I was conducting
extensive tests on different raw materials I had another chemist create the samples and a
coding system. It was only after I made my measurements or recorded my use impressions that
I found out what sample was what. I also made use of a triangle test in which I would evaluate

three samples, two which were the same (either two test or two control samples) and one that
was different. The goal in this type of testing is to see if you can figure out which sample is the
odd one out. If you could then that suggested further testing of the material was warranted. But
if you can’t, you can pretty much cease further testing.
It’s extremely important for you to do this testing in a blinded fashion! Remember you are
biased to find some difference and it is easy to notice differences that do not actually exist. It’s
very easy to fool ourselves. Only through blinding can you minimize your inherent biases.
As I said the testing you do will depend on the material and the product type, but the main
thing you want to focus on are tests that measure whether your new raw material results in
some consumer perceptible difference. If you can make a consumer perceptible difference in
your formula then you have a real innovation. Unless you are evaluating a material for a cost
savings project, a consumer perceptible change is the most important thing to find.
Of course, it’s difficult to find real consumer perceptible differences. There just aren’t that
many technologies that can make that kind of impact. But even if the material doesn’t make a
perceptible difference it can still lead to impressive new claims if you can show a measurable
difference. This can be done using standard lab tests. For all of your formulas you should have
standard lab tests that are run to determine performance. When evaluating a new raw material,
run your new prototype through these standard tests. If you can show a statistically significant
difference than you might still have an innovative new formula. It’s not as impressive as a
consumer perceptible difference, but it can still lead to a breakthrough innovation.
Most raw materials are not going to have any significant impact and you might be tempted to
just abandon work on them. That’s probably a good idea but don’t forget to record the results
of your evaluations. I liked to keep a spreadsheet of all the raw materials I evaluated, noting
what I did, and what the results were. That way I could remember what I tested (so I don’t
repeat myself) and I had a database of my efforts that could be helpful to someone else in the
company.
Also, this made it easier to report back to the supplier about how my evaluations went. While
you are under no obligation to tell the details of your evaluations to your suppliers, it is a good
thing to do. First, it shows them that you are sincere about sample requests which will make
them more helpful in the future. Plus they might be able to point out some flaw in the way
you evaluated the ingredient or give some suggestions on something else to try. You’re also
helping them with information they can take back to their lab and use while creating future raw

materials.
Screening System
The system of raw material evaluation I’ve outlined in this episode is really more of a screening
system. It’s also not a perfect system as it may screen out some materials that are great even
though you couldn’t notice any real differences. But with dozens of new raw materials launched
every year, it’s very difficult to do extensive testing on everything. You need some method for
screening out only the most promising.
Finally, don’t stop testing. You will never create that truly innovative new product if you don’t
continue to screen every new raw material you find. And don’t rely on what suppliers tell you
their materials can do. There might be something a raw material does in a formula of which you
are unaware. Keep testing and if you do it in a systematic way you’ll increase your chances of
finding something truly different and innovative.
DAY 26 CHALLENGE
Evaluate raw materials
Today’s challenge is to get started with your own raw material evaluation system. To do this
you’ll need a couple things. First, you need to identify and make your base formula. This will be
the product that you use to evaluate all your new raw materials. I found shampoo or body wash
formulas were great for testing new raw materials. A unneutralized gel formula with carbomer
can also be a good starting base for styling products. To thicken the formula you simply add your
neutralizer after adding the new raw material. A standard conditioner formula is also nice for
doing quick evaluations but this typically requires heating to ensure the ingredient is properly
incorporated. Since many of you work on skin care products you can also make a lotion base
formula but this usually requires heating to incorporate any new ingredient. This can result in
stability problems so you’ll need to evaluate these formulas soon after you make them.
In addition to your standard base formula you’ll also want to create a list of new raw materials
to try. Go through and create a spreadsheet listing all of the raw materials you’ll want to try.
I’ll share an example spreadsheet in the show notes that you can download and use yourself.
To populate the spreadsheet you simply have to start record materials you want to try. To find
new materials go to a website like Prospector.com and search for functional materials that look

interesting. And once you have your spreadsheet, start ordering samples for future evaluations.
Having a system to evaluate new raw materials is the best way to create innovative new
products that have consumer perceptible effects. When you start your own system you’ll be on
your way to becoming a better cosmetic chemist.

DAY
27
Formulation – Reducing
Formulation Cost

DAY 27
Formulation – Reducing Formulation Cost
When I was first hired on as a formulator I was brought on as a cost savings chemist. This meant
I wouldn’t be doing any new formulation but rather taking current formulas and finding ways to
make them less expensive with minimal impact on the performance.
My first project was the VO5 shampoo formula which was already pretty inexpensive given that
it only cost about 15 cents a pound to produce. But I experimented with different prototypes
by adjusting the levels of surfactants and fragrances and eventually was able to find a formula
that resulted in over $750,000 a year in savings. When you sell nearly 50 millions of bottles of
shampoo a year, it wasn’t too hard to find a big savings like that.
Too bad they didn’t pay me as a percentage of the amount of money I could save on formulas.
Anyway, that was my first experience as a cost savings chemist. As a cosmetic chemist, creating
formulas that are highly functional and have great aesthetics which please consumers is your
main job. But as a formulator who works for a company concerned about the bottom line,
you will also be asked to make your excellent formulas in a less expensive way. At one time or
another, most formulators are given cost savings projects. Finding ways to reduce costs are not
always obvious so in today’s show we’ll talk about five strategies you can use on almost any
formula to make it less expensive without significantly impacting performance and aesthetics.
Strategy one - Eliminate unnecessary ingredients
As often happens in the cosmetic industry you inherit your formulas from someone who worked
at your company before you. This means you usually don’t know why all of the ingredients
were used and why they were used at the particular level chosen. In reality, there may be
some ingredients in your formula that are completely unnecessary. These represent a great
opportunity for cost savings not only in terms of formula cost but in terms of raw material
storage costs.

To figure out if an ingredient is necessary, you should do a knockout experiment and compare
the formula with and without the ingredient. A knockout experiment is simply a study in which
you make a series of batches of your formula but replace single ingredients with extra solvent
in the formula. In this way you knock the ingredient out and see what effect that has on the
final formula. If you can’t tell whether a missing raw material is in the formula or not, you don’t
need it. This could be a significant cost savings.
Strategy two - Reduce the level of Claims ingredients

Another source of cost savings is the claims ingredients that you’ve put in your formula for
the marketing story. These feature 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 more, you’re probably wasting money. It’s highly
unlikely that a consumer will be able to tell a difference whether your extract is in the formula
or not. Verify it yourself by doing a knock-out experiment. Just make a batch with your feature
ingredients and make one without the ingredients.
On a blinded-basis, see if you can pick out versions of your formulas that both have and don’t
have an 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. You can’t go down to 0% and still list an ingredient in the formula, but you can cut the
levels fairly low. In the US there is no defined bottom limit to the amount of an ingredient that
you have to use. You just can’t list an ingredient on your label that you didn’t put in the formula.
Strategy three - Reduce the fragrance level

In many formulas, fragrance contributes the most to the cost of the formula. Also, it’s
frequently used at a level higher than required. To get a quick cost savings, try cutting your
fragrance level in half and see if a panel of consumers can tell the difference. You will be
surprised how few people will notice even a 50% reduction. If people do notice the difference,
try reducing your fragrance level by only 20 or 10%. You probably have more fragrance than
necessary and when you’re looking for a quick cost savings, that’s an excellent place to look.
Reducing the fragrance was one of the techniques I used to get a cost savings for our VO5 extra
body product. It was the best selling of the line and at the time a 10% fragrance reduction
resulted in over $150,000 in annual savings. This new level was tested with product consumers
and no one noticed a difference.

Strategy four - Find less-expensive alternative ingredients
When we are formulating we frequently use the first ingredient that suits our function. And
while you may think your specialty emulsifier or ultra smooth emollient is great, it’s likely
that you could replace them with a less-expensive but approximately equal alternative. It is
surprising how few differences non-trained beauty product consumers notice. I remember
creating a great two-in-one shampoo formula and then compared it to a basic shampoo formula
that looked and smelled the same. Unfortunately, 14 out of 15 panelists didn’t notice any
difference. To me, the differences were night and day but to most people, they were the same.
So, remember, just because you can tell a difference, your audience may not. This is also a
good time to remind you that whenever you are doing cost savings work you should always do
blinded studies. You are a biased evaluator and you should not rely on your own evaluations
when making decisions.
Strategy five - Increase the solvent level

The last strategy to reducing the cost of a formula is to just add water or increase the solvent.
This only works for aqueous formulas, however, most personal care products are water-based.
When you add water, you reduce the overall concentration of all the other ingredients. This
reduces the cost of the entire formula. Depending on the formula, you can add up to 5% more
water and not notice any difference. This could be a significant cost reduction. A word of caution
with this approach, don’t decrease the level of your preservatives. Adding more water increases
the chance of microbial contamination so you want to maintain a good level of preservation. For
anhydrous formulas you can use this strategy by increasing the level of your main solvent like
mineral oil or propylene glycol as the less expensive diluent.
While creating new formulas that consumers love is a satisfying endeavor for cosmetic chemists,
reducing the cost of the formulas is also an important roll for you at your company. If you can
find hundreds of thousands of dollars in cost savings, you will be a company hero.
One final bit of advice, when you are first developing your formulas, don’t worry so much about
optimizing them. When the product is successful, your marketing or sales group will no doubt
ask you for a less expensive alternative. If you optimize formulas at the start, it will be much
harder to find cost savings later down the road.

DAY 27 CHALLENGE
Reduce the cost of a formula
Since today’s program is all about cost savings it makes sense that the challenge would be to see
if you can reduce the cost of one of your formulas by 10%.
Back on Day 21 of this series we covered the process by which you figure out the cost of your
formula. To do this exercise you’ll first have to pick a formula and figure out the cost of each
individual component. To make it easier you can just choose the same formula you used for that
exercise. After that you need to come up with some different variations which would result in a
10% cost reduction.
Here’s an example. This formula is a fictitious shampoo formula which costs a total of 56 cents
a pound. The challenge would be to create an equally good formula that costs about 6 cents a
pound less or 50 cents a pound.
If you look at the formula there are really only 3 ingredients that contribute the most to the
cost. This includes the fragrance, the cocamidopropyl betaine and the ammonium lauryl
sulfate. The SLES also contributes a good amount to the formula so there is some possible cost
reduction there too.
There are really three approaches we can take to reduce the cost of the formula. First, we could
just increase the amount of water in the formula. If you increase the level of water to 80% then
that gives you a cost savings of 6 cents. Now, you wouldn’t want to do this exactly because this
would also dilute your adjustment ingredients like the pH controller and the preservative. But if
you keep those things constant you can still save nearly 6 cents a pound just by increasing the
water thereby decreasing everything else. The biggest problem with this approach is that it
could lead to a lesser performing product. However, it’s a good place to start.
A second approach you could take is to reduce the fragrance level. If you reduce the fragrance
level to 0.65% from 0.95% you automatically save 6 cents a pound. Now you’d have to test it to
see if consumers notice the change but if they don’t, this would be a great option.
The third approach is to reduce the surfactant levels. This one is a little more complicated
because the formula contains three different surfactants. What you really want to do is to
reduce the level but keep the ratio of surfactants the same. In this case the three surfactants

have a ratio of 15 to 10 to 4. That makes up 29% of the formula. If we reduce this portion to
24% of the formula, the levels of the detergents then become 12.4, 8.3 and 3.3 and the cost of
the formula is now 50 cents a pound for a 6 cent savings. Again, you’d have to test this formula
for performance to see if your change was noticeable in lab tests or by the consumer.
In truth the final formula will typically be a blend of all three of these approaches. But just
getting these formulas on paper and making the prototypes can give you an idea of how you can
significantly reduce the cost of your formula without sacrificing product quality.
Now it’s your turn. See if you can reduce the cost of one of your formulas.

DAY
28
Cosmetic Testing – Personal
Evaluations of Products

DAY 28
Cosmetic Testing – Personal Evaluations
of Products
The number of people I’ve known who work on products that they’ve never even tried has
always amazed me. You miss so much when you 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 is invaluable.
Before we get into how you go about testing products let’s cover the reasons that cosmetic
chemists should be trying every cosmetic formula they work on.
Why evaluate your products

First, you will learn the most important characteristics of the formula. When I first started
working in 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 strong basis for evaluating new formulas allowing
me to know when I made something better.
Remember if you don’t try a formula, you can’t make it better
Another benefit of trying your products is that you 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
these products without thinking Your mind has become dulled to the experience. However,
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. These product characteristics are the things that you have to learn to
control with your prototypes. And if you can’t identify the characteristics yourself, you’ll have a
much more difficult time improving and changing them.
Remember, you can’t make formulas better if you don’t know what to change
Another benefit of trying your formulas is that you are able to 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 typically companies do not like to field consumer
tests with formulas they know will exhibit problems. In most market research your company will
hope that your prototype performs better than the product benchmark. But 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.
The bottom line is that trying a product identifies unseen problems
An additional reason to try your prototypes is learning 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. Every cosmetic chemist should have a standard
“blank” formula which they can incorporate a new raw material in and try it to determine the
effects. This is the best way to learn. Even if the raw material isn’t meant to affect performance,
it can have a subtle impact that you would never notice unless you used it.
Remember the fastest way to learn about a raw material is to use it
And a final reason to try your products is that it can inspire new product ideas. When you think
about products while using them, you may start to notice common problems. For example,
maybe all the skin lotions you use feel too greasy or don’t last long enough. You should write
down these observations and try to come up with new solutions. Product brainstorming while
you’re in the act of using a product leads to much more useful ideas than sitting in an office just
trying to think.

As a formulator, you should take pride in everything you make. And if your formula is not good
enough for you, how can it possibly be good enough for anyone else?
How to evaluate prototypes

Now that you are hopefully convinced that you should try all your products, let’s talk about
how you should evaluate them. 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 critical but expertly evaluating your prototypes is a part of the cosmetic
formulator job that is just as important.
Here is a system that anyone 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. We call this
product a benchmark because it sets the standard for which you are trying to achieve or beat.
This benchmark 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 also 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 removed 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

Once you’ve gotten your baseline skills down, test out one of your prototypes. Ideally, you have
created a prototype in which you’ve changed only one variable. This will make it easier for you
to identify which ingredient can create a significant change. If you continually test radically
different prototypes it will be more difficult for you to get formulating direction from the results
of your test.
Step 4 – Test the prototype alone

Just as you did with the baseline sample, you should test your prototype a few times and then
rate it for the most important characteristics. Be sure to try and forget what your scores are for
the benchmark product. At this point it is not that important to be blinded however, as you’re
just trying to see if your new prototype is worth further testing.
Step 5 – Compare samples

Once you find a prototype that you want to explore further, set up a blinded test and do your
evaluation. The key to a blinded test is that you have no way of knowing which samples are
which. So, if there are color differences keep your eyes closed when evaluating the product.
If there are odor differences try to hold your nose. Ideally, you could match fragrances to
eliminate this variable.
You can give ratings for the samples or you can just decide which you like better. If you like your
prototype better, great! But don’t celebrate just yet. Re-run the test a couple of times to see if

you consistently pick the prototype over the benchmark. If you can’t, then you don’t have an
improvement.
Step 6 – Get opinions from others

If you are satisfied that your testing shows your prototype is better, try it out on a few
colleagues. Give them samples of your prototype and the benchmark and ask them if they
notice any differences. Also, have them pick which they like better. Make it a forced choice.
This data will give you some sense of what an unprimed consumer will notice about your new
formula.
Step 7 – Revise prototypes

Make revisions to your prototype based on the response you get from your own testing and that
of the other people who have tried your cosmetic formulation. You really should try at least half
a dozen revisions before being satisfied with any results.
Step 8 – Performance tests

If you are satisfied with your in-use tests, it’s time to do some laboratory performance tests. The
specific tests you do depends on the type of product you are making. For cleansing products
you’ll want to test foam. For moisturizing products, test moisturization. Color products you test
wear. There are innumerable number of tests you can conduct. Just remember to compare your
new prototype to your benchmark control.
Once your prototype outscores your benchmark, it’s time to move forward and push the
product along to development.
DAY 28 CHALLENGE
Develop product evaluation skills
Today’s challenge is all about getting good at observation while trying products. 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. You may have to repeat this test a number of times until you start to
notice subtle differences.
If you are in the US a great comparison for shampoos would be Suave shampoo versus Pantene
shampoo. Use the products and see what differences you notice.

DAY
29
Cosmetic Industry
– Natural Cosmetic Trend

DAY 29
Cosmetic Industry - Natural Cosmetic Trend
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 green marketing trend is hot. This show will
help show you what people mean when they talk about natural cosmetics and how it affects
formulations.
You can see the impact of green marketing just by walking down the beauty product aisle at
your local drug stores or Super Stores. According to a report by the Kline group, the natural
cosmetic market reached $30 billion globally in 2013. That’s over a 10% increase from the
year before. In case you are curious, the total world wide cosmetic market is estimated to be
about $450 billion as of the recording of this show. The natural cosmetic market represents a
significant & growing portion of the market (about 7%) so companies are launching products to
go after it. It’s important to note however that it still represents a relatively small segment of
the overall market. That’s good news for anyone who wants to launch their own line because
the big companies have not yet figured out how to dominate this market like they do others.
This market is big enough for a new company to enter and make some money but still small
enough for gigantic companies to mostly avoid it.
Natural Cosmetic Market

The natural market has traditionally been one that was the realm of small and local brands.
Lots of home crafters or brands sold at farmer’s markets would tout the naturalness of their
products. Many of them use fear marketing to convince you that their products were somehow
“safer” than the chemical laced ones you can get at the store. This type of marketing can be
effective in the natural market but in reality fear marketing will only get you so far. Remember,
consumers buy products for the benefits they get from them. They won’t continue to buy
products that don’t work even if they think they are somehow more natural.
Natural cosmetic market stayed pretty small until the development of Burts Bees. This brand
gained some traction and got distribution beyond the farmer’s markets. They were able to
build it up to a large enough brand that Clorox bought them in 2007 for right around $1 billion.

Another natural company that started a little sooner was Toms of Maine who focuses on oral
care products. They were acquired in 2006 by Colgate Palmolive for $100 million. We’ll see
which company got the better deal but both of these brands continue to be big players in the
natural cosmetic market.
Defining Natural
Now that you have a sense of the overall natural cosmetic market, let’s turn our attention to
what we mean by the term “natural.” The truth is there is no single definition for the word
natural as it applies to personal care products. From a legal standpoint, anyone can pretty
much call anything they want “natural.” It has no legal definition. Folks with booths at
farmers markets can advertise their products as natural, but so can a big personal care product
companies who use petrochemicals in their formulas. This means the the term “natural” will
have wide spectrum of definition in the marketplace from “taken directly from a plant” to
“synthesized in a lab from petrochemicals.” The naturalness of all products will fall somewhere
on that natural spectrum. As a formulator you will have to decide where you want your
products to be on that spectrum. Incidentally, the practice of using standard ingredients but
calling a product natural is called greenwashing.
The dictionary definition of natural is: existing in or caused by nature; not made or caused by
humankind. As you see what products are on the market you will see that very few are actually
naturally occurring in nature. In the case of most products, mankind had some hand in creating
or modifying it, even if starting with something that occurred naturally.
When you are creating a natural product you have to consider the definitions of natural that all
the important players use. These include regulatory agencies, non-governmental organizations
(NGOs), product marketers, retailers and ultimately consumers. Of these groups, the most
important are the regulatory agencies because they can force you to follow specific rules and
consumers because they are the ones buying your products.
So let’s see what the regulatory agencies have to say about natural. As you may have figured
out there is very limited regulations when it comes to defining natural. In the US the main
regulatory group for cosmetics is the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). On the FDA website
you can find language specifically targeted to organic cosmetic products. The FDA says “The
term ‘organic’ is not defined in either of these laws or the regulations that FDA enforces under
their authority.” Similarly, they do not define natural either.
While the term ‘natural’ not regulated by any government agency the term ‘organic’ is covered

under the USDA National Organic Program. Basically, if you want to use the term ‘organic’ on
your cosmetic product and you are using ingredients derived from agriculture, you’ll have to
comply with the regulations of the USDA.
The other main government body that has published regulations about organic cosmetics is
the California Department of Health. In the US, California tends to lead the way in regulating
chemicals in the environment and they have a whole organic certification program for consumer
products including cosmetics.
Incidentally, while I’ve been focused on US regulations, it is also the case that around the world
governments have shied away from defining natural. You will not find specific regulations about
natural cosmetics in the EU, Canada, Japan, Asia, Australia or pretty much any where else in the
world. This may change in the future but for the moment, governments have been mostly
silent on the definition for natural.
Natural Certification Programs

Since there is no legal definition and this natural market has started to grow and get more
attention, it isn’t surprising that groups formed to create their own definition of natural.
The idea is that these non-governmental organizations (NGOs) could create an independent
standard that can help guide consumers and marketers to know what is really a natural product
and what is a greenwashed product. In this way people will be able to feel more confident in
the naturalness of their purchases. Of course, anyone can start their own certification group
and the potential for making a lot of money is there so lots of groups have arisen around the
world to certify products are natural.
The main natural standards groups in the US and EU include
• National Sanitation Foundation (NSF) - Made with Organic Personal Care Standards
• Natural Products Association (NPA) - who has their own specific standards for
naturalness
• EWG Verify – from the Environmental Working Group
• COSMOS – which is an allied group of a number of European standards
• NaTrue – an EU based group working towards a worldwide harmonized standard
The important thing to know is that these groups have had a hugely influential impact on how
consumers and regulators around the world view natural cosmetic products. Most of them
restrict the use of ingredients like parabens, petrochemical based ingredients, formaldehyde,

etc. This can really affect your formulations.
Although the NGOs provide an independent standard for naturals many brands don’t want to
give up control or pay the money required to adhere to the standards of these groups. For
this reason a number of cosmetic brands have come up with their own standards. This can
be very useful for the brand because it can become part of their marketing story and point of
differentiation.
Another nice benefit of setting your own standards is that there is no certification required
and you don’t have to pay another company to restrict the ingredients you can use and your
methods of manufacture. Also, if your consumer buys into your brand story they will accept
your definition of natural. A number of brands have been highly successful in coming up with
their own standards and convincing their consumers to believe.
If we turn our attention back to the natural cosmetic market we’ll see that there are some
brands that have been able to dominate in terms of sales. The top brands from a sales
standpoint include Burt’s Bees , Aveda, Aveeno and The Body Shop. They all have yearly sales
over $100 million. After that the brands get a little smaller but they still generate tens of
millions of dollars a year in sales.
Natural Marketing Strategies

It’s interesting to note that once a brand gets to a certain size in sales they become more
appealing to giant corporations. As I mentioned Burts Bees and Toms of Maine were sold to
big corporations a few years ago but other brands like Aveda, Aveeno, and The Body Shop were
all acquired by larger corporations. If you are thinking of launching your own natural cosmetic
product line, eventually selling to one of these giant corporations is a reasonable exit strategy.
Let’s look at the story of some of the bigger brands. Aveda makes the promise that at least
50% of everything in their products is from a natural source. Burt’s Bees is also concerned
with natural but focuses on sustainability of their ingredients more heavily. They also mention
packaging in their philosophy where Aveda does not. Marketing companies tend to use what
they want and then base their advertising and packaging claims around words that sound good
but don’t actually mean much, like “natural” or “green”. This is why natural is so hard to define.
A smaller but popular brand is Say Yes To... and Aubry Organics. Say Yes to defines natural
ingredients as those that come from, or are made from a renewable resource found in nature.
This last part of the definition “...made from a renewable resource...” gives them a lot of leeway

in terms of which ingredients they choose to use. It is also acceptable to their consumer.
Aubry Organics makes the claim that “...there is nothing to be found in an Aubrey product that
does not come from nature.” Again they have a pretty vague definition in that they say the
ingredients they use “...come from nature.” This could mean that it starts from nature but can
be chemically modified however they want. Marketers will make a definition that best suits
their needs while still sounding believable to their consumers.
Natural retailers also have some influence on the definition of natural. These companies are
particularly important to cosmetic brands because they can tell you what type of ingredients
they will allow in their store or not. If you want to sell products through them, you have to play
by their rules. This can have a huge impact on how you formulate. Companies like Walmart and
Target and Boots in the UK have come up with sustainability standards which require companies
to keep track and report on the environmental impact of their products. This can make
cosmetic brands rethink the specific ingredients they use in manufacturing their products.
The company leading the way in setting natural standards for cosmetic brands is Whole Foods.
If you don’t know Whole Foods is a large “natural themed” grocery store in the US. It has
created a list they call their Premium Body Care standards. This is basically a list of ingredients
that you can not use if you want your product in their premium body care section. It is the most
restrictive list for personal care and they limit many of the common ingredients you’ll find in
most personal care products, so the formulator has to be creative to meet the standard. Keep
in mind their list wasn’t put together by scientists so there are many aspects of the list that
don’t make sense and are not proper chemical names.
As I said the most important definition of natural is the one your consumers believe. Consumers
develop their definition of natural from a variety of sources. First, everyone has their personal
beliefs around this. Some might think if it comes from the ground, it’s natural even if it’s
petroleum based because oil comes from the ground. Others might be more inclined to believe
only plant based is natural. But the reality is that a lot of people just come up with a definition
of natural based on what they are told by marketers, the media, the internet, or even their
hairdresser. It’s easy to be misled and the definitions will vary widely based on what kind of
content consumers draw from. Ultimately, it’s hard for anyone to really know if they are truly
getting something they think is natural. For most consumers you will be able to convince them
of your natural story with good marketing.
While there are a number of groups that help shape the definition of natural in the marketplace,
ultimately it will be up to you (or your company) to decide what definition you follow. In

creating your own definition of natural you’ll have to decide which ingredients you’ll use and
which ones you’ll avoid. You’ll also have to decide what standards you have for the way the
ingredients are created and processed. Are there some synthetic reactions you’ll accept and
others you won’t? You’ll also have to decide whether the source of a raw material is important
in your definition and what sources are acceptable. Other things to consider is the safety
profile of an ingredient and the environmental impact it has when it is both produced and used.
There are some natural sunscreens that have an excellent safety profile but they build up in the
environment and have been shown to damage coral reefs. If that is an important issue to you,
you’ll want to make sure you avoid these types of ingredients.
Natural Buzzwords
I’ll finish this section of the show by going through some of the buzzwords and concepts that
are associated with the naturals market.
Fair Trade: The term fair trade simply means the ingredients used were bought from a place
where a fair price was paid. Often this applies to producers in third world countries where
wages are extremely low.
Plant Derived: This refers to ingredients that are obtained from plant starting materials. This
term doesn’t mean much because even a small percentage could be from plants, yet this is still
a true claim.
Carbon Neutral: Carbon neutral is often associated with natural along sustainability lines. It
just means they planted trees to offset the emissions caused by making the product, or didn’t
release anything into the atmosphere which would affect climate change.
Green: This isn’t just a color. Green is a term that could have as many variants as natural, but
some define it as simply good for the environment and contains as many natural products as
possible. Technically, something could be green and still made of synthetic ingredients.
Non-Toxic: Non-toxic just means it’s not poisonous or toxic for the body. All products really
fall under this category because if there was something poisoning people, it would be off the
market. In the US it is illegal to sell an unsafe cosmetic product. In the natural product world it
is common to call this out though.
Renewable (Sustainable): Renewable is sort of a part of “green” in that you use something and
replace it 100% by growing something new or making it using non-polluting energy like solar or

wind. The term sustainability means essentially the same as renewable.
Organic: To a chemist the term organic specifically refers to molecules made of Carbon and
Hydrogen. But alas in the natural market world the term organic refers more to a method
of farming which emphasizes the use of more natural pesticides and traditional farming
techniques.
Chemical Free: This is a laughable claim and shouldn’t be used unless you want to make
yourself look silly. Everything is a chemical. Water, Salt, Plant extracts, Proteins, Natural Oils are
all chemicals. Unless someone has found a way to bottle up the vacuum of space in a jar, there
will be chemicals in your products.
In summary, there is no single definition for what makes a product natural. You have many
choices when considering what is going to go in a product you will call natural. You can choose
to follow a standard put out by a government agency or one of the NGOs. Or you can follow
the lead of another marketer or even adhere to the rules of a retailer you hope will sell your
products. Ultimately, it will be up to you to come up with a definition of natural that you can
believe in and one that you can get your consumers to believe in too. The best way to do this is
to take inspiration from all of these sources and listen to your consumer to come up with your
own unique version of what is considered natural.
DAY 29 CHALLENGE
Become familiar with the Natural
Cosmetic Market
For today’s challenge I want you to 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 go to the show notes for this program and report on what you have
found. I’m curious to see what you think of all the different natural brands and positions out
there.
DAY
30
Career – Becoming an Expert

DAY 30
Career - Becoming an Expert
With all the corporate mergers and acquisitions, and companies moving here and there and
hiring and firing people at will, the competition for a career in the cosmetic industry is getting
tougher. It’s true that a number of older cosmetic chemists are retiring but they are holding on
to their jobs for longer and longer.
And if you are a raw material salesperson, it’s tougher too because companies are just not as
loyal to suppliers as they used to be. How do you garner attention in an ever growing sea of
noise when people are so often swayed by price rather than relationships and quality?
Why become an expert

One answer is to become recognized as an industry expert, someone other people seek out for
information. Becoming an expert in the cosmetic industry has a number of benefits for both
formulators and allied jobs in the cosmetic industry.
First, becoming an expert allows you to help people. At some point in your life money and
advancement will be less important than your desire to have an impact on the world. As an
expert you will be in a position to help out other chemists, starry eyed entrepreneurs, and the
cosmetic using public.
Second, being an expert establishes you as an industry leader. This will let you more easily
get your ideas into the marketplace to help shape the industry. And being an industry leader
certainly will help advance your career because you will get invited to speak and meet people in
the cosmetic industry throughout the country and even the world.
Speaking of speaking that’s a third benefit. Becoming an expert can get you in front of crowds
where you can make your thoughts and ideas heard. It can get you invited to interesting and
important scientific conferences. You could travel to Milan or Berlin or China or Las Vegas.
Being an expert can get you interviews in popular magazines, get you on radio shows, and even

lead to spots on television shows. It can even lead to a book deal. If you want to be known and
have a tiny bit of fame, being an industry expert can help make that happen.
Finally, and perhaps most important for your career, as an expert in a subject you will be a go-to
person in the industry. When someone has a question, they want answers from an expert who
knows her stuff and isn’t trying to sell them anything. This will build trust and respect. Then
when they are ready to buy something or hire someone, they’ll be much more willing to work
with a trusted expert.
And if your company happens to sell out to overseas investors and move everything away from
where you live, you’ll be in a good position to start your own company or consulting business.
So, now that I’ve convinced you that you should find some aspect of cosmetic science in which
you can become an expert, let’s talk about how you become an expert.
Becoming an expert
To be an expert in the cosmetic industry there are 3 key things you must do.
The most important part to becoming known as an expert in the cosmetic industry is to know
a lot about the field. The way to do that is to read industry standard textbooks, learn about
all the cosmetic products on the market, discover the basics of how they work, and study the
chemistry of the raw materials. Learn the INCI names and the trade names of raw materials.
And don’t just learn your own or your direct competitor’s...learn everyone’s! In previous
episodes of this series I presented some of the books and magazines that I think are key to read
to start your way on becoming an expert. And taking our course on cosmetic formulating will
also help.
But reading will only get you so far. To really be an expert you have to get into the lab and make
stuff. Make personal care and cosmetic formulas that your company doesn’t sell. If you’re a
hair chemist make skin products and visa versa. Use raw materials that you’re unfamiliar with.
Learn how they mix with water. Learn how they feel on hair and skin. Do the daily challenges
that we have posted in this series. And do them multiple times. To become an expert you need
to get practical, empirical knowledge.
Generalist and Specialist

To be a real expert you need to be both a generalist and a specialist. This means you’ll need to
know a little about a lot and a lot about a little. As an expert you will be expected to answer

questions on a wide range of topics. Be prepared. But realize that you can’t know everything
about everything. There are just too many topics to learn. I know when I have gone on tv
shows, talked to reporters, or even to potential clients they ask a wide range of questions in
which I have at least a little knowledge. When they ask questions about color cosmetics, I can
competently answer. When they ask about hair care I can get much more in-depth because that
is my area of expertise.
But don’t try to pretend you know something when you don’t. You need to be honest about
what you know. Don’t be afraid to say “I don’t know”. An expert can find answers to questions
they don’t know. It’s better to admit you don’t know than to fake it as that can lead to the loss
of trust and respect from associates or people you care about.
So after you get a good general base of knowledge, focus on one or two areas and strive to
become the most knowledgeable person in that area. You can choose any subject area that
interests you such as a formulation type, a raw material category, or anything else that you can
get passionate enough about to dig deep into the topic. Go back to the beginning and learn
from the past. Try old methods. I once had a friend who told me how she rediscovered an old
method for forming emulsions using absorption bases. She’s now probably one of the world’s
foremost experts in the subject. The thing is that there are very few known experts in the
cosmetic industry. This is because most subject experts are in companies who don’t encourage
them to share their expertise with the world. This is the next important thing to do as an expert.
Share your expertise

Being an expert locked away in your lab is not going to help anyone except maybe your
company. To be an industry expert you have to get out and communicate with people. You
can start with people at your company. Whenever you have a chance to educate other people
in your company such as marketers, salespeople or other scientists, take that opportunity. You
need to give talks, swap information at SCC meetings, participate in online communities like
Twitter, Facebook, Blogs, etc. Write articles for industry magazines or newsletters. Publish your
own information. The Internet makes it easier than ever before to establish yourself as one of
the main experts in the industry. Remember, an isolated expert is not productive.
Continue to learn
And the final piece of becoming an expert is to keep learning. When your goal is to be
recognized as an expert you need to always keep learning. If you stop, your knowledge gets old
and some new expert can pass you by. Only a fool would assume knows everything and can’t
learn any more. No matter how much you know, content and ideas are changing, especially in

the scientific field. As an expert, it’s important for you to stay on top of the latest updates.
There are some potential downsides to becoming an expert. You’ll probably be criticized.
When you are in the spotlight there will always be people who will take potshots at you, who
will hope to knock you down. Especially if you hold opinions that conflicts with their beliefs.
You just have to learn to ignore these people.
Being an expert may also make it harder for you to advance at a corporation. While
corporations might say they want scientific experts, they don’t always reward them.
Corporations more often reward schmoozer and good presenters rather than scientific experts.
They just don’t understand technical people and some people even feel threatened by people
who know more than them.
But despite the downsides, becoming an expert in this field is something you should strive to
accomplish. And I’ll end this segment with a quote from Steve Jobs, “Your work is going to fill
a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great
work.” Above all else, an expert should believe they do great work.
DAY 30 CHALLENGE
Become an expert
Our final challenge is an easy one but it will take more than just a day. Today’s challenge is to
pick a subject to become an expert in and start to become that expert. Make a plan. First, figure
out what type of expert you want to be. Do you want to be the expert in formulating natural
cosmetics? Do you want to be an expert in hair care? Or skin care? Do you want to be an anti-
aging product expert? How about being an expert in thickeners or preservatives, or some other
cosmetic ingredient? The range of topics in which you can become an expert is vast. You can go
through this series and see if you can be inspired by one of the shows to become an expert in
that topic.
Once you figure out your topic of expertise, create a list of books, magazine articles, blogs,
patents or anything else that can help you learn everything you can know about the topic.
Immerse yourself in the topic and learn everything you can.

Then start writing about that topic. If you’re looking for a place to publish an article, Chemists
Corner is always looking for new writers or people to submit articles. Or you can start writing on
our forum or on places like LinkedIn. You can start a Twitter account or even your own blog. The
main thing is that you need to start producing articles and content about your subject. Make
people love your subject as much as you do.
And when you feel confident enough, find a place where you can give a talk. Each month there
are SCC meetings around the country who are looking for people to give talks at their dinner
meetings. Get invited, give your talk.
I’d love to hear what topic you choose to become an expert in. So after you have given it some
thought, visit our forum and leave a comment as to what you are going to become an expert in.

What Now?
Thanks for taking part in the 30 Days to Become a Better Cosmetic Chemist. I hope you have
found it to be helpful and that you use the information to improve your skills and career. It
doesn’t have to end here.
The field of cosmetic chemistry is a tightly knit community and to fully reach your potential you
need to connect and interact with as many other cosmetic chemists as you can. Joining a group
like the Society of Cosmetic Chemist is a great way to get started.
But you can also join our online community in the following ways.
Participate in the cosmetic science forum

Connect with us on Twitter at @chemistscorner
Connect with us on Facebook
Connect with me on LinkedIn
And if you are looking to improve your skills even more in the area of formulating and creating
cosmetics consider joining our Practical Cosmetic Formulating course.
Thanks again now,
Go make a difference!

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Chemists Corner

Publication date January 2016

Published by: Perry Romanowski

Graphic Design: Paul Romanowski

©Copyright 2016 Element 44 Inc.

• the cosmetic industry

4 30 Days to Become a Better Cosmetic Chemist

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Skin Care Products

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Hair Care Products

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Personal Care Products

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See this example spreadsheet to get you started.

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Functional ingredients include cleansers, conditioning agents, colorants, fragrances, reactive

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This product has numerous conditioning ingredients or moisturizers. It includes Glycerin,

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Beginning Cosmetic Chemistry

Chemistry and Manufacture of Cosmetics

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Handbook of Cosmetic Science & Technology

Apply Topically – A Practical Guide to Formulating

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A Short Textbook of Cosmetology

Surfactants in Personal Care Products

Chemical and Physical Behavior of Human Hair

Physiology of the Skin

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Cosmetic Industry Magazines

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Anyway, knowing about the biology of skin has a

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1. Dry, itchy skin

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Step 4 — Put samples at different conditions. Stability testing requires

Step 5 — Evaluate the samples. Samples should be evaluated at the following

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1. Getting along with ALL people

10. LVMH Möet Hennessy Louis Vuitton 