It’s New Year’s Eve!

I thought I’d take a look at the resolutions I made last year and see if I made any headway on my plans. And no, this picture has nothing to do with my resolutions – this year I plan to chew more monkeys? – but I think my dog is adorable! Get organized: This went...

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Saponins

With all this talk about natural emulsifiers and surfactants, I thought we’d get into a little chemistry about sapogenins and saponins!  Saponins are steroid or triterpenoid glycosides that have amphiphilic or amphipathic features. They are grouped together by having “soap like foaming qualities they produce in aqueous solutions” – in other words, when you put...

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Terpenes

So what the heck are terpenes? We see them mentioned a lot in information about essential oils, but what are they and do they benefit us as bath and body formulators in any way? Terpenes are organic compounds, the major building blocks within nearly every living creature. For instance, steroids are derivatives of the triterpene...

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Experiments the workshop: Using disodium cocoamphodiacetate & decyl glucoside

Sorry, I didn’t get around to formulating with the emu oil as I’ve been running around testing everything with my pH meter, and got into the surfactants bin in the workshop! I’ll have some posts on emu oil shortly!  My husband has started calling me “magpie” because I’m easily distracted by shiny things!  Now that...

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Emu oil

Voyageur has recently started carrying emu oil (INCI Emu Oil), so I thought I’d try it out. So what’s the big deal with this oil? It’s reported to be a good anti-inflammatory, skin cell regenerator, anti-bacterial, and non-comedogenic oil. Are these claims all true? Interestingly enough, there haven’t been a ton of studies on this oil...

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