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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...
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...
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...
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...
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...