Chemistry

Chemistry Thursday: Reviewing what we’ve learned about triglycerides so far and how that affects the melting temperature and potential for grains in oils, solid oils, and butters, part 42

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Welcome back to this introduction to cosmetic chemistry course! We took a break for the month of December because I know how busy everyone gets, so let’s pick it back up for 2026! Let’s start with a review of what we’ve learned so far and why it’s important when formulating products! An important note about...

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Chemistry of our oils: What are tocochromanols, the category in which we find tocopherols or tocotrienols? How do they work as great anti-oxidants? 

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As I’m writing up my scarily huge oils, solid oils, and butters reference e-book and working on individual emollient profiles, I’ve realized I need to define a few things, so let’s take a look at tocochromanols, the category of compounds in which we find tocopherols and tocotrienols and other lovely anti-oxidants. Before we start, here...

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Chemistry Thursday: Triglycerides – how they pack together to create different kinds of crystals and the impact on melting point, part 41

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Welcome back to this introduction to cosmetic chemistry course! Let’s continue our investigation into triglycerides with part 41 by looking at how triglycerides pack together and why that’s important. An important note about this series – it’s here for life. It isn’t going anywhere. If you want to take a break or take a few...

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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 –...

This content is for Foundation, Formulation, and Innovation members only.
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