Journal of Topical Formulations

Sites Worth Seeing
by Rosemarie L. Coste

Makingcosmetics.com, sponsored by Somerset Cosmetic Company, is a valuable resource for anyone seriously interested in learning about cosmetic ingredients. For each ingredient in their catalog, they provide detailed supporting information describing its constituents, attributes, and uses. They also identify the ingredient's Chemical Abstracts Service (CAS) number and International Nomenclature of Cosmetic Ingredients (INCI) name, reducing the confusion that sometimes occurs when seaching among similarly-named ingredients. The example below, for cocoa butter, demonstrates the format of the initial information on each ingredient sales page:

This main ingredient page is a high-level summary of key information about the ingredient. It compresses the content of the Fact Sheet, one of the three detailed information sources to which hyperlinks are provided in the "More Information" section:

The Material Safety Data Sheet (MSDS) is a standard document, in a format familiar to scientists and safety personnel world-wide, which provides safety-related guidance related to the ingredient.

The MSDS is not at all concerned with how the ingredient might be useful. It might be an emollient, or a fragrance, or a preservative, or a thickener; in the scope of the MSDS, none of that matters. Instead, the MSDS addresses how people and the environment should be protected from the ingredient's possible harmful effects. What if it gets into someone's eyes? What if it spills? What if it catches fire? The MSDS addresses these and other worries about safe handling of the ingredient.

Click the screenshot at the right to read the full-size PDF.

MSDS for cocoa butter; click to link to full-size PDF.

The Fact Sheet describes the ingredient from the perspective of its potential uses: how it looks and smells, how it melts and dissolves, its usual concentrations (3-6% in a cream), and its general properties and customary uses ("excellent skin softener & conditioner, film-forming agent, non-gelling thickener, anti-wrinkle effects, moisturizer, restores skin flexibility").

Very importantly, the fact sheet recognizes that a "single" botanical ingredient such as cocoa butter is naturally composed of many other materials, in this case "oleic, stearic & palmitic fatty acids, contains also flavors (eg. vanillic acid), sterols, tannins, pigments".

Click the screenshot at the right to read the full-size PDF.

Fact sheet for cocoa butter; click to link to full-size PDF.

The Sample Recipe is a nice bonus gift. It explains how to combine this ingredient with others to create a usable cosmetic, in this case a body butter. For each ingredient, a weight and percentage is specified. A method of combining the ingredients is described, as is the expected result.

Click the screenshot at the right to read the full-size PDF.

Recipe for cocoa butter; click to link to full-size PDF.

The collection of "More Information" is not complete (the entry for coconut oil, for example, is missing its Fact Sheet and Recipe, although hyperlinks are provided for both), but it is extensive and useful. Makingcosmetics.com is a good place to spend some time learning about ingredients, how they should be handled, what they are made of, and how they can be used.