Sanitization and Saftey
Welcome to part four of my Introduction to Cosmetic series. In this post, I will go over the sanitary and safety measures we, as formulators, have to follow.
Sanitization is important for several reasons. One, to be hygienic, most of us make stuff in our kitchen. No matter how clean you think your kitchen is, it is not clean enough. So the cleaner you can get your kitchen, the better! The second reason is that we don't want the preservative to work extra hard, so cleaning your supplies will help the preservative not work as hard. The third reason is we do not wish to introduce contaminants. Contaminants affect the shelf life of the product, or, in other words, its stability. Stability is how long a product can stay effective or stable.
Sanitization Rules: Ensure all equipment has been thoroughly cleaned in the dishwasher (if the piece of equipment can go in there) or in a 5% bleach bath and laid out to dry. To reduce the dry time, you can spray the items with a high percentage of isopropyl alcohol. At least 70% would be fine.
Paper towels are your best friend. Remove the outer layer each time you make something so you get the freshest layer.
Paper towels are great for cleaning up colored cosmetic messes.
Never cross-contaminate your pipettes. For each ingredient, you need a separate pipette. The same rule applies to spoons, popsicle sticks, spatulas (unless it goes into the same container with the same ingredients), or stirring rods.
An example of a spatula would be after you make your emulsion; it does not matter what spatula you use, as it will blend in with the emulation.
Make sure to wash your hands and wear gloves. This is especially important with color cosmetics, as some ingredients will stain the skin.
Keep cosmetic equipment and ingredients away from food and kitchen equipment that comes with food—especially coffee grinders, stick blenders, regular blenders, and measuring cups and spoons.
They should not be used for food in the kitchen. Many of these rules are common sense, but sometimes laziness gets in the way. Cough (speaking from experience ;) ): If you are new to making cosmetics, it is best to start with these habits now.
Safety
Safety Rules:
If it is your first time making a certain product, watch it carefully. Most blogs include time increments to wait. This is a rough estimate; there are variables to consider.
The climate you live, colder place take longer to heat but, faster to cool.
Warmer climates melt ingredients faster but are slower to cool.
The power of your stove or hot plate.
Hot plates tend to heat quickly and are very hot. So, they are not the best option as they increase the chance of scorching your ingredients.
Always wear a dust mask with any powder.
Powdered surfactants especially.
Make sure your hair is up if it is long.
Your chemistry teacher is watching :/
Always do a test patch of new products and ingredients to ensure you are not allergic to them. It would suck to have to throw something away because you find out after you make a 200-gram batch that you can't use it.
These are all the rules that I can think of. Let me know if you don't know any of these or if you would like me to add some.
