Better crafting through chemistry: Stearic acid (updated for 2025)

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Stearic acid in a tin plate, which is a white flaky solid.

Oh, stearic acid, how we love you as a thickener! Inexpensive and multi-functional, you make a lotion become a decadent cream! Stearic acid is a saturated, long chain fatty acid with 18 carbon molecules, which is to say it is a chain of carbons and hydrogens with a carboxyl group (that COOH you see at...

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Chemistry Thursday: Triglycerides – working with iodine values, then creating our own reference charts, part 40

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A white weighing boat contains off white chunks of murumuru butter. It sits on a brown coffee table.

Welcome back to this introduction to cosmetic chemistry course! Let’s continue our investigation into triglycerides with part 40 by looking a bit more at iodine values and what we can learn from them, then we’ll create some reference charts based on all the things we’ve learned so far. An important note about this series –...

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Important note on not using Pyrex jugs for products with extreme temperature changes, like we might do with emulsified scrubs or whipped butters! 

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A large Pyrex jug sits on a brown counter with various ingredients and bottles nearby. The Pyrex jug contains a coffee butter emulsified sugar scrub that has been whipped and looks quite lovely.

I’ve shared formulas here on the site – like emulsified sugar scrubs or anhydrous whipped butters – in which I tell you to melt the ingredients to above 70°C (158°F) or to liquid, then pop it in the freezer to solidify before mixing. And I’m here to warn you away from using Pyrex jugs we’d...

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Welcome to November 2025!

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A collage of dogs in Halloween costumes from my dog Sasja's day care.

Welcome to November! I know Halloween was yesterday, but I had to share this photo of Sasja’s friends at day care in their costumes. (Sasja is the middle left in her orange pumpkin shirt.) Aren’t they adorable? Oh my gosh, I think broke an another record for how many words I published last month – … Read more

Formulating Friday cold process emulsifier series: SEPILIFE™ NUDE and SIMULGEL™️ EG – increasing the viscosity by increasing the emulsifier and making different emollient choices (part 6 with formulas)

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Two lotions on white plastic plates on the metal plate of a digital scale, both using SEPILIFE™ NUDE emulsifier. One is the sugared lemon body yogurt, the other a honeyed body custard. Both are white and thickened.

Welcome to part six of this series/course – Formulating Friday cold process emulsifier series – in which we’ll look at how to increase the viscosity of the formula by increasing the emulsifier and making different emollient choices (part 6 with formulas) Are you playing along? Have you made anything yet? What did you think? What...

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