Q&A quickies: Why do we have to allow the product to cool before packaging?

Why do we always say to package your product when it’s reached room temperature? Because we don’t want all that condensation in the bottle or the cap, which can happen when the product is even slightly warm. Before you know it, you have mold and other nasty things growing in the cap that’ll end up...

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Tips & techniques: How to use a foamer bottle with diluted soap or surfactants

Someone shared this video from Aromatics International with me of someone showing you how to use a foamer bottle with liquid soap, and I thought maybe I could share some of my thoughts and a formula for diluting castille soap in one of these containers. Foam pump or foamer bottles were designed to create more foam...

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Q&A: De-ionized or de-mineralized water? Substitutions for liquid surfactants for oily hair? Corn starch in Neal’s Yard Products?

I’m working my way through the August Q&A now, but it’s hard to answer in short paragraphs when I see all the wonderful things you’re asking that send me off down rabbit holes! In the August Q&A, Melanie asked, I used to be able to buy distilled water easily, now it is almost impossible where I...

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Formulating tips & techniques: Substituting oils, butters, and esters for other oils, butters, and esters

In this post, Let’s formulate: Chamomile & aloe botanical summer time body butter (formula), Andrea asked: Can I leave isopropyl myristate (IPM) out (don’t have any) and add a different oil? Or just leave it out? The short answer is yes, you can substitute it. The longer answer is that unless I indicate otherwise in...

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Discussion: How do you handle your large (and growing) inventory of formulating ingredients?

In the July Q&A, Marta asked, I was wondering how you handle your large (and growing) inventory of formulating ingredients. Do you truly discard them when they are beyond the stated shelf life? Perhaps you just know which ingredients you can store for longer than recommended. Or, perhaps everything is refrigerated (seems impossible). In knitting we...

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