As
a beginner cosmetic formulation student, I have started buying tools and
equipment for my homebased cosmetic laboratory. My mini laboratory is still an
ongoing project as there are items in this list that I don’t possess yet.
However, if you are serious about being a cosmetic formulator, then here are
the essential tools and equipment that you can start adding to your artisan
cosmetic lab.
1. Laboratory Glass Beakers
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| Image Credit: Labotech Trading |
High
quality beakers made from borosilicate glass are essential in any cosmetic
laboratory. Being heat resistant, they are the perfect vessel to use when
heating raw materials with high melting point. It’s great to have glass beakers
of various volume to suit different batch sizes. In my case I have beakers in
50ml, 100ml, 250ml and 500ml.
Where to buy: Labotech Trading
2. Digital Weighing Scale
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| Image Credit: Raw Essentials PH |
In
cosmetic formulation, we measure raw materials by weight instead of volume. That’s
why it’s a must to invest in an accurate digital weighing scale. Two important
things to consider when buying digital scale are precision and capacity.
In terms of precision, you can either buy a scale with a precision of 0.1g or
0.01g. I actually recommend the 0.01g scale especially if you’re working with
smaller batch size and you need to weigh raw ingredients in tiny amount. On the
other hand, the capacity of your scale depends highly on your batch size. In my
case, I only use 500g capacity scale since I only work on smaller batch size.
Where to buy: Raw Essentials PH
3. Stirring Tools
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| Image Credit: Raw Essentials PH | Labotech Trading |
Stirring
utensils are the most often used item in my DIY toolbox. Especially when you’re
making lotion and cream, you’re going to do a lot of stirring. I like switching
between a glass stirring rod and a stainless spatula depending on my mood.
Where to buy:
Glass
stirring rod – Raw Essentials PH
Stainless
spatula - Labotech Trading
4. Digital Thermometer
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| Image Credit: Raw Essentials PH |
When
you’re making an emulsion (e.g. lotion) using a hot process emulsifier, you
would normally need to heat both water and oil phase at a certain temperature
(e.g. 75C). For this purpose, you will need to use a thermometer with broad
temperature range and not just ordinary thermometer that measures body temperature.
You may either use a laboratory thermometer or a digital food thermometer.
Where to buy: Raw Essentials PH
5. Disposable Pipettes
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| Image Credit: Labotech Trading |
I
normally use disposable pipettes for essential oils and other liquid raw
materials. I know that disposable pipettes are not environment-friendly but
they’re the perfect tool to avoid cross-contamination among your raw materials.
However, one trick you can also do is to designate a pipette for each liquid
raw materials you are using. This way, you can both avoid raw materials cross-contamination
and disposing pipettes every time.
Where to buy: Labotech Trading
6. pH Strips & pH Meter
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| Image Credit: Labotech Trading |
Whenever
you formulate a product that contains water (e.g. toners, lotions, shampoo,
etc.), you are required to measure its pH so that you can adjust the pH accordingly
to make the cosmetic product safe for the skin or hair. Also, if you’re using
natural preservatives (which are more pH sensitive), then you also need to
adjust the pH so that it is within the range of the preservatives used, which
in turn makes the cosmetic product more stable.
As
a beginner formulator, it is sufficient to just use pH strips. As you gain more
experience, you can invest on a good quality pH meter to get more accurate pH
readings. Take note though that pH meters are more expensive and require
calibration.
Where to buy:
Digital
pH Meter – Labotech Trading
pH
Strips - Labotech Trading
7. Immersion Blender
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| Image Credit: Sonifer |
Immersion
blender is an indispensable equipment when making an emulsion (e.g. lotion,
cream, etc.) which requires high shear mixing. It speeds up the process of
making a stable emulsion as compared to manual hand mixing.
Where to buy: Sonifer
8. Magnetic Stirrer
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| Image Credit: FashionLiving.Ph |
Magnetic
stirrer is a laboratory device that makes use of a rotating magnetic field to
move a stir bar that is immersed in a liquid. The movement produced by the stir
bar enables liquid sample to be mixed thoroughly at a faster pace. This is the
reason why magnetic stirrer is very useful when hydrating or dispersing
cellulose gums (e.g. carboxymethyl cellulose) and polymers (e.g. carbomer)
which require longer stirring time.
Where to buy: FashionLiving.Ph
9. Personal Protective Equipment (PPE)
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| Image Credit: Indoplas | Raw Essentials PH |
Even
if you’re formulating cosmetic products at home, it is still very important to
follow Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP).
Part of GMP is to make use of Personal
Protective Equipment (PPE) not only to protect your products from
contamination during manufacturing but also to protect yourself from possible
chemical accidents (e.g. accidentally spilling undiluted essential oils to your
skin). As a minimum PPE requirement, I normally wear disposable gloves and
safety googles. When working with fine powder raw materials, I also wear face
mask to avoid inhaling the fine particles.
Where to buy:
Disposable
gloves – Indoplas
Safety
goggles - Raw Essentials PH
Face
masks – Indoplas
10. Coffee Grinder / Herb Grinder
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| Image Credit: Sonifer |
If
you’re into mineral makeup formulation, then you know how hard it is to manually
hand mix pigment powders homogenously so that there wouldn’t be any white
streak. In this case, it is better to use a coffee grinder or herb grinder (for
smaller batch) when mixing your pigment powders. Make sure that you have a
dedicated coffee grinder or herb grinder for your DIY cosmetic projects.
Where to buy:
Coffee
Grinder – Sonifer
Herb
Grinder – Dehonest.PH
Do
you use other DIY cosmetic formulation tools and equipment not on this list?
Share them on the comment section below J
P.S.
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Disclosure: This post contains
affiliate links, which means that if you click on one of the product links and
purchase the products, I’ll receive some commission.
