An aside…cetearyl alcohol

Since my first experiments with cetyl alcohol and stearic acid were a bust, I thought I’d turn to another fatty alcohol – cetearyl alcohol! (And you’ve seen how well the other two ingredients worked out!)  Cetearyl alcohol (also known as cetostearyl alcohol and cetylstearyl alcohol) is a blend of cetyl and stearyl alcohols that we can use...

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Better crafting through chemistry: Sorbitol

In this post on humectants, Aesthete asks: I was re-reading this post on humectants and was wondering if you’ve ever formulated with sorbital? It’s described as having “excellent plasticizing & thickening effects providing viscosity & texture, stabilizes gels & provides good clarity, effective moisturizing properties, good smoothing & conditioning effects.” It almost sounds too good...

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Chemistry: Refractive index

All materials reflect and refract light, which is to say all materials alter the angle of light. The refractive index is a ratio defined as the speed of light in a vacuum (which equals 1) over the speed of light in the material. Light slows down when it enters a substance, so every refractive index...

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Chemistry: Solubilizers, dispersers, and emulsifiers

What’s the difference if an ingredient says it is soluble or dispersible? When something is soluble, it means it will dissolve in the solvent and becomes part of a homogeneous solution. Think of it like salt dissolving in water. If you’ve dissolved it correctly, you can’t see the flecks of salt floating in the water. (The salt is...

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Esters: Olivem 300 (INCI: Olive oil PEG-7 esters or PEG-7 olivate)

As you can tell by the name, PEG-7 olivate is derived from oleic acid, which, in this case, comes from olive oil. It seems that what you’ll find at your supplier is OlivEm 300, a brand name for the product from B&T in Italy. It’s a polyethylene glycol ester, which means it’s considered a surfactant with...

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