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Susan Barclay-Nichols 
Original post shared 2009. Slowly updating it for 2023 with new information and diagrams. This is definitely a work in progress as there’s so much more to share! At one time or another, we’ve all experienced epic lotion failure and asked ourselves what we did wrong. We call it separation, but do you know why...
If you’ve spent any time on the blog, you’ll know how much I love love babassu oil! Let’s take a look at this gorgeous solid oil! Yes, babassu oil (INCI Orbygnia Oleifera (Babassu) Seed Oil) is a semi-solid, white oil that’s solid at room temperature, but melts at 24˚C (76˚F), which which means it will...
Cranberry oil – INCI: Vaccinium macrocarpon (cranberry) seed oil – is an interesting oil. With 3 to 6% palmitic acid (C16), up to 2% stearic acid (C18), 22 to 26% oleic acid (C18:1), 30 to 38% linoleic acid (C18:2), and 20 to 38% linolenic acid (C18:3), you’d expect it to have a short shelf life...
You can find the home page for the Guerbet ester series by clicking this link! I’ll update it every time we meet a new ester! I’ll be referring quite a lot to the the combining emollients series in which we learned how properties like viscosity, surface tension, saturation, molecule size, molecule weight, molecule shape, polarity, and...
Isopropyl palmitate is related to isopropyl myristate (IPM), the difference being IPP is derived from palmitic fatty acid (C16) and IPM is derived from myristic fatty acid (C14). (Click here for the chemistry of esters!) Since we’re a little more familiar with IPM, we’ll end up contrasting and comparing the two at some point, so...