There are a number of places on the Internet where you can get recipes for cosmetic products. We haven’t used all of these, but based on the information provided on the website & our vast knowledge about cosmetic chemistry (ok the Right & Left Brain’s knowledge), these are good places for budding young cosmetic chemists to start.

DIY Cosmetic sites

Creative Cosmetic Company – Former science, chemistry, and art teacher, Joan Brindle founded this company to introduce students to science and teach them to create unique bath and body products such as body butters, foaming soaps, lotions, bubble bars, glimmer sticks, etc.

Could make a fun event if you’re near Seattle, Washington but maybe if you’re not, maybe you can get her to travel.

Make Your Own Cosmetics – If you want to try making your own products at home, this site is a great place to start. It gives both the recipes and a place for you to order the needed raw materials.

This site has numerous formulas which are both good and bad. You have to experiment to find out which are which. Avoid formulas that require refrigeration or at least use them immediately and toss the rest.

Making Cosmetics – If you’re more serious about making the kind of products you could buy in a store, then this site is what you want. You can get surfactants, solvents, preservatives, and all the other ingredients that actual cosmetic chemists use.

The formulas page is a pretty good resource.

DIY Cosmetics – This site focuses on “green” cosmetic formulas, so your options of ingredients will be more limited than other sites. The formulas also won’t perform as well as things you can buy in the store. However, if you want to practice formulating while minimizing your exposure to the most harsh chemicals, this site might be for you.

E-Bottles – This is not a site for formulas but once you’re done with your formula, you’ll want somewhere to put it. Check out ebottles.com to find the packaging you need.

Should you make your own?

Routinely making your own cosmetics is not a good idea for most people. It will be more expensive, will likely not work as well, will take a long time and if you are not careful, you can easily create a contaminated products you shouldn’t use.

But if you’re curious and looking for a fun weekend project, then DIY Cosmetics is worth trying.

Are you a DIY Cosmetic maker? Leave a comment if you have any tips and suggestions.

Meg’s Pondering Sun Protection…I hear a lot about using vitamin C and antioxidants in addition to a high PPD sunscreen to prevent sun damage and aging. Is there truth to this, or is this just something the cosmetics companies invented?

The Right Brain’s reply:
Actually, there is some solid research that indicates antixoidant vitamins can improve sunscreen SPF.

Vitamin boost

We’ve known for a long time that sun protection is one of the best things you can do for your skin. But in the last several years, researchers at the North Carolina Biotechnology Center have also demonstrated that
vitamin C combined with UVB sunscreen can give additive protection against sunburn. Their study suggests that a vitamin C and E combination is optimal. Does this mean you should run out and look for sunscreens that have vitamins on the label? Not really – the vitamins have to be present in the right concentations and must be properly stabilized before they have a beneficial effect. But if we see any super-vitamin sunscreens we’ll be sure to blog about them!

By the way, kudos to Meg for using the term PPD (Persistent Pigment Darkening), which is one of the proposed methods for measuring sun exposure in humans.

What do YOU think? Do you use sunscreen as often as you should? Do you have a favorite brand? Leave a comment and share your sun tips with the rest of the Beauty Brains community.

Heidi’s comment: Shampoos like Pantene, Dove, and the like are using cheaper grade ingredients because…well?… they’re cheaper and they can… they are not different per say… just… cheaper… and larger in molecule size… Some are using the same kind of wax you put on an apple to make it shiney in the conditioner (you thought the shine was natural?)… Its food grade, edible, and naturally derived… Therefore? Legal and acceptable.

The Left Brain retorts:

For those of you who may have missed the discussion, Heidi’s comment appeared in our post on How Beauty Salons Lie to You. While I am appreciative off all the comments from the Beauty Brains community, I do feel compelled to correct inaccurate statements when I have the chance. And although Heidi raises some good points she’s perpetuating a myth when she says that conditioners contain “the same kind of wax you put on an apple.” This is the type of urban legend that has been used to bash non-salon conditioners for years and in reality it’s just not true.

An apple a day…

According to the apple experts (bestapples.com), the natural waxy coating that protects fresh apples from moisture loss is partially washed off when the apples are cleaned after harvesting. To ensure a longer shelf life, a different kind of natural wax is applied to the apples at very low levels.  This wax is usually carnauba or shellac, both of which provide a very durable coating that prevents moisture loss, enhances firmness retention and slows down the apple respiration rate.

(FYI, according to the website “some historians report wax has been used on produce since the early 1920s, but other experts say fruits and vegetables were waxed by housewives long before that to improve storage life.”)

On the other hand, supermarket and drug store conditioner brands like Pantene, Dove, and Tresemme use silicones and cationic polymers to smooth the hair shaft to make it more reflective. These ingredients do coat the hair but they are not like the tough waxy coatings used on fruit. I have NEVER seen a shampoo or conditioner that uses carnuaba or shellac to make the hair shiny.

The Beauty Brains bottom line

If you don’t like silicone containing conditioners because they weigh your hair down, thats your choice. But don’t believe scare tactics that simply aren’t true. Thanks to Heidi for giving me the chance to clear up this misconception (and to learn a little bit about apples!)

Rae Requests…Could you please explain more about sunscreen not protecting hair? I’ve always heard that people with color-treated hair should use a product with sunscreen. Can hair products with sunscreen at least help protect the scalp?

The Right Brain Retorts:
Sunscreens in hair care products don’t really do very much. Read on and we’ll explain, question and answer style:

Does sunlight really damage your hair?

Yes, but not as much as everything else you do. Even if you protected your hair from 100% of the UV damage it sustains, you’d still have more serious damage from combing, brushing, coloring, and, heck, even washing!

Ok, but doesn’t sunscreen help a little?

Maybe, if it was applied perfectly. Sunscreens work best when they’re applied in a uniform film. When you put on sun tan lotion you smear a thick layer on and rub it in, right? If you didn’t put on a thick enough layer, or, if you missed some spots, you’d burn. So, unless you have even coverage, sunscreen doesn’t work. And hair is much harder to cover than your skin because you’ve got 100,000 fibers, or more, that need to be completely covered. Unless you totally soak your head in the product it won’t cover adequately.

But if I rub it in my hair really well will it work?

No, it won’t. Certainly not from a shampoo or conditioner! It’s almost impossible to deposit very much UV absorber from rinse out products. And while there are some sunscreens that are chemically modified so they’ll stick to the hair even after rinsing, not very MUCH sticks, so you’re still left with poor coverage. In theory, leave in products with UV absorbers have a little bit better chance of working.

Ok, but let’s say I AM willing to use a leave in product AND I promise to smooth it through my hair so it’s all covered. Then a hair care sunscreen would work, right?

Not really because no one makes a product that has enough sunscreen active in it to do the job. If you used sun block for skin and rubbed it into your hair, that might work. At least then you could protect your scalp.

Ok, I get the picture. But a sunscreen should give me color protection, right? Doesn’t UV cause fading?

Yes it does, but UV light doesn’t cause as much fading as washing does. If you protected your hair from ALL UV light, your hair would still fade about the same amount just from washing. We could talk about how to protect your hair color from washing, but that’s another post…

The Beauty Brain’s Bottom Line

UV radiation isn’t the worst problem your hair faces. Use a good conditioner before and after spending a lot of time in the sun. But don’t expect a hair sun screen to save you. If you’re really worried about sun damage on your hair, wear a hat.

Cianyde says…I have started wondering if my current fav conditioner ( ‘Jungle’ hair conditioner from Lush ) is as good as I thought it was… The main ingredient is ‘Cocoa butter’ with ‘propylene glycol’ and ‘avocado’ listed later. Is cocoa butter actually a good HAIR conditioner ( I was under the impression that only certain substances like coconut oil and olive oil actually penetrate hair, won’t cocoa butter just slide down the drain?) or , is it the propylene glycol and the avocado that are the only worthwhile ingredients?

The Right Brain responds:

We applaud your skeptical approach to reading your conditioner label, Cianyde! But remember that conditioning isn’t just about penetrating hair because most conditioning occurs on the surface. That’s where ingredients like hydrocarbon oils and silicones actually do a great job of smoothing the cuticle to enhance softness, comb ability and shine. Let’s take a look at the ingredients in Jungle Hair.

Jungle hair ingredients:

Cocoa Butter, Cetearyl Alcohol and Sodium Lauryl Sulfate, Propylene Glycol, Avocado Extract, Glyceryl Stearate, PEG-100 Stearate, Cetearyl Alcohol, Stearic Acid, Perfume, Soya Lecithin, Figs, Bananas, Passion Fruit, Kumquats, Kiwi Fruit, Cetrimonium Bromide, Ylang Ylang Oil, Vetivert Oil, Cypress Oil, Sandalwood Oil, Chlorophyll, Limonene, Linalool

Inside out

Some oils, like coconut, do penetrate into the cortex where they are able to help strengthen the hair.  We can’t find any published data showing penetration of cocoa butter and even if it does penetrate, it’s unlikely to have an effect in a rinse out formula. In a rinse off conditioner the oils are emulsified (in this case by the cetearyl alcohol, sodium lauryl sulfate and glyceryl stearate) and so are more likely to be rinsed away.

Conditioner culprit

It’s more likely that the cetrimonium bromide is the conditioning culprit. This is a classic old school conditioning agent: a fatty alcohol reacted with nitrogen so it’s substantive on the hair. That means it stays on hair even after rinsing to give the slippery conditioning effect that your hair needs.

The Beauty Brains bottom line

There’s nothing wrong with Lush Cosmetics Jungle Hair conditioner but don’t get fooled into thinking that it works better just because it contains some natural ingredients. In fact, we’d expect that it wouldn’t work as well as Pantene or Tresemme. Does anyone want to do an experiment? Try Jungle Hair on one side and Pantene on the other. Let us know which you like best.