Basics of Cosmetics

Learn how cosmetics are defined as chemical mixtures applied to skin, hair, or body to clean, beautify, or protect with mild effects, covering skin, hair, body care, and makeup.

Explore cosmetic ingredients and skin care raw materials, focusing on water-based and oil-based bases that account for 70%–90% and the surfactants that blend them. Learn functional ingredients and stabilizers.

Explore oil-based materials in cosmetics, including waxes and liquid oils. Learn how fatty acids, triglycerides, esters, and higher alcohols influence texture, viscosity, stability, and emollient effects.

Explore water-based materials and humectants that moisturize skin, influence texture and stability, and can preserve formulas, using polyols, saccharides, biological polymers, and amino acids like glycerin, PEGs, and butylene glycol.

Explore oil-based cosmetic materials, including plant fats like shea butter, carnauba, beeswax, hydrocarbons, and synthetic esters such as hemisqualane and squalane, noting melting behavior, emolliency, viscosity, and color variations.

Explore how surfactants lower interfacial tension to enable emulsions, dispersion, foaming, and washing in cosmetics. Understand nonionic and ionic types, including anionic, cationic, and amphoteric, and the role of HLB.

Explore how surfactants enable emulsification of water and oil, creating milky lotions by adjusting water–oil ratios. The demonstration shows how surfactants are essential raw materials for cosmetics.

Explore functional ingredients in cosmetics and their moisturizing, anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, and anti-aging benefits. Identify sources like plant extracts, natural moisturizing factors, vitamins, and oil-soluble derivatives such as NIKKOL VC-IP.

Explore stabilizers and thickeners to control viscosity, texture, and spreadability, and see how carbomer, PVA, PVP (synthesis), cellulose derivatives (semi-synthesis), and xanthan gum (natural) influence emulsion stability.

Explore thickeners like xanthan gum and carbomer to enhance stability and spreadability, with typical usage 0.1–0.3% and a 0.2% aqueous solution, viscosity rising when neutralized with alkali.

Explore how stabilizers maintain cosmetic quality and safety through pH buffers, antioxidants, chelating agents, and preservatives, with citric acid, sodium citrate, tocopherol, vitamin C, and disodium EDTA as examples.

explore cosmetic technology and formulation through solubilization and emulsification with surfactants, comparing oil-in-water emulsions and water-in-oil emulsions and their stability in lotions, creams, sunscreens, and foundations.

Learn to make a moisture toner and moist hand cream by formulating water and B phase, solubilizing fragrance, emulsifying at 80°C, and cooling to 30°C.

Master a one-minute guide to chemical-navi in cosmetics, offering a concise overview of essential concepts from the basics of cosmetics course.