Techniques

Let’s talk about temperature: How cold affects our ingredients and products!

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A collage of four photos. Upper left shows the temperature is -17°C. The upper right shows a bottle of yellow body wash. The lower left hand photo shows three bottles of lotion with different coloured cap with a thermometer. The lower right shows two bottles upside down, the contents frozen.

We talk a lot about the importance of heat in our products – Get a bloody thermometer already! Equipment review – but let’s talk a bit about the impact of the cold! It’s so cold!  It’s super cold where I live right now – -17˚C (1.4˚F), but with the wind chill, it feels like -26˚C (-14.8˚F)...

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Why do we wait until products are cooled before packaging? Evaporation, contamination, volume, viscosity, and more!

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I’m sure you’ve seen it in all my formulas – after making the product, wait until it cools to room temperature (20˚C/68˚F) before packaging – but why is that thing? Let’s take a look at a few reasons why we should wait to bottle! I definitely know how tempting it is the package an emulsion...

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It’s the most wonderful time of the year! Getting ready to sell or gift products by year end? A few ideas and suppliers! (Updated for 2023)

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It might surprise you, but the August is the busiest time of the year for our suppliers as everyone stocks up for markets or to make soap that has to cure for weeks before giving or selling it at Christmas. If you’re thinking about making products for upcoming holidays, you might want to consider making...

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Tips & techniques: You don’t need to test and alter the pH of an emulsion with a few exceptions…

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Welcome back to another instalment of tips & techniques! I thought I should create a separate and updated post on this topic because I see people going through all the work to test and alter pH for emulsions that are just fine on their own. As you’ll see, most emulsifiers are designed to create formulas...

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Tips & techniques: Don’t wash your packaging before use!

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A quick tip for you: You don’t need to clean your packaging before you use it. Putting your bottles and jars into a dishwasher before you use them for products can introduce contamination. Using dishwashing soap and a bottle cleaner can leave residue. There may be water in places you don’t expect and that can...

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