Articles

Useful material on cosmetic chemistry, ingredients and growing your business

Why one oil feels light and another feels heavy on the skin

Why one oil feels light and another feels heavy on the skin Two bottles on the bench. The supplier calls one of them light and dry-feel and the other one rich and cushioning. You put a drop of the "light" one on your cheek and half an hour later it is still sitting there with a shine on it, while th

15 min22 Sep 2026

Ingredients

Why does my cream feel greasy, and what to change first

Why does my cream feel greasy, and what to change first You made a cream. It goes on beautifully. Ten minutes later your face has a shine on it, and by the time you have finished the washing-up your fringe is sticking to your forehead. So you do the obvious thing: you cut the oil phase from 12% to 6

14 min22 Sep 2026

Ingredients

Can you call your oil non-comedogenic on a UK label?

Can you call your oil non-comedogenic on a UK label? You have the chart open on your phone. Somebody's comedogenic ratings list, the one that gets reposted every few weeks, and next to your oil there is a 0 . Which is exactly what you were hoping for, because the labels are being printed this week a

14 min22 Sep 2026

Ingredients

Gamma-linolenic oils: borage, evening primrose, blackcurrant, when the premium is justified

The oils you pay for by the milligram Borage, evening primrose and blackcurrant seed oil sit at the expensive end of the price list, and the reason they are there is one fatty acid: gamma-linolenic acid, GLA. This article evaluates the three oils primarily by their GLA content, their cost and the ox

11 min21 Sep 2026

Ingredients

Oxidative stability of oils: iodine value, peroxide value, induction period, and how to estimate shelf life

Predicting rancidity instead of waiting for it Every formulator has smelled it: the odour, which in our experience people describe as crayon-like or cardboard-like, that means a facial oil has gone off, usually noticed in a sample that was supposed to prove the product would last. The smell is the e

11 min18 Sep 2026

Ingredients

Linoleic oils: sunflower, grapeseed, safflower, and the price of their lightness

The light oils, and what they cost you Sunflower, grapeseed, safflower, soybean and maize oil are the oils formulators describe as light. In our formulators' experience they are what goes into a facial oil "for combination skin", a fast-absorbing body oil or a serum that must not feel greasy, and th

12 min15 Sep 2026

Ingredients

Oleic oils: olive, avocado, argan, hazelnut, the workhorses of a formula

The oil you reach for without thinking Every formulator has a default oil: the one that goes into a first prototype before any thought has been given to it. In our formulators' experience that oil is usually oleic. Olive oil, high-oleic sunflower, hazelnut, avocado and, on the border of the group, a

10 min12 Sep 2026

Ingredients

Lauric oils: coconut and babassu, and why they behave unlike everything else

Why coconut oil refuses to behave like other oils A formulator who has learned the trade on sunflower and olive oil meets coconut oil and finds that the rules have changed. The jar that was a clear liquid in the warm kitchen is a white block on the workshop shelf. A soap recipe built around it behav

13 min9 Sep 2026

Ingredients

Plant oils by fatty-acid group: the formulator's map

Why the name of an oil tells you less than you think Ask a formulator why a balm went grainy, why a facial oil turned rancid before its shelf life ran out, or why a cream that worked beautifully with sunflower oil fell apart when the supplier swapped in "high-oleic sunflower", and the answer is almo

13 min6 Sep 2026

Ingredients

Fatty Alcohols

The alcohol in hand sanitiser is a tiny molecule that evaporates in seconds and takes your skin’s water with it. A fatty alcohol is enormous by comparison — and behaves completely differently depending on what else is in the pot.

2 min28 Aug 2026

#emulsions

For beginners

AI Errors in Calculating Cosmetic Formula Concentrations: Where the Neural Network Fools the Chemist

AI errors in calculating cosmetic formula concentrations happen because neural networks analyze a text-based INCI list, not the actual percentages of ingredients. INCI only reflects the order and qualitative composition — the formula never discloses the dosage of actives, preservatives, or surfactan

7 min25 Aug 2026

#AI in formulation #INCI and labels

Ingredients

Why your shea butter acts differently when you buy a new bag

Same seed, same variety, different summer, different oil. Why shea butter from the same supplier whips into a fluffy mousse one month and collapses into a greasy paste the next — and what to do about grainy texture and shelf life.

4 min24 Aug 2026

#oils and butters

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