Aids for the production of cosmetics
What tools and aids are used in the creation of homemade natural cosmetics? Find out with us.
Before you set out to create your own products, it's good to know what basic tools you need to make cosmetics. Not only will you get an overview of what equipment you need to supplement, but you'll also find out what each cosmetic-making tool is used for and what their other uses are.
COSMETICS MAKING EQUIPMENT
As a beginner, you don't have to worry about needing a lot of new tools and gadgets. Often, you just have to look around your kitchen or workshop and you will find that you already have many of the tools you need to make cosmetics at home. Let's take a look at each category:
COSMETIC CONTAINERS
Every product you make has to be mixed with several ingredients, which is why bowls and containers are essential tools for making cosmetics. Glass bowls that are easy to clean and maintain are ideal. It's a good idea if these cosmetic making utensils are heat-resistant, as many times you will be heating the ingredients in a water bath or in the microwave. If you want more professional cosmetic making equipment, you can reach for chemical glass beakers instead of bowls. This is easy to clean and resistant to heat or hydroxides.
Making soaps from hydroxides calls for containers and utensils for making cosmetics that are resistant to these chemicals. In addition to glass, such materials include stainless steel and plastic. Other metal containers may corrode on contact with the hydroxide. At the same time, metals are easily oxidized by various sensitive compounds used in the production of skin cosmetics, so you should ideally reach for glass or plastic.
Don't forget a larger pot for water bathing or cooling products.
SPOONS AND MEASURING SPOONS FOR COSMETICS
When scooping ingredients, it's always a good idea to have several spoons available just for making cosmetics. It is a good idea to separate the spoons and measuring spoons for making cosmetics from other cutlery. Always keep these utensils handy to avoid contamination of the ingredients, as you will have enough scoops for each ingredient separately.
Again, metal spoons can cause oxidation of some ingredients. Among the more professional tools for making cosmetics are glass stirring sticks. Plastic or metal spatulas will be appreciated when scooping small amounts of ingredients.
For dispensing small volumes of liquids, plastic Pasteur pipettes will allow you to add precise amounts of liquid ingredients, especially when making cosmetics in smaller batches. Plastic pipettes are one of the most inexpensive tools for cosmetics production, and in normal home production they can be reused after thorough cleaning and disinfection.
Funnels are also among the cosmetic making tools that you will appreciate if you are only making small quantities of products. You can also find them in very small sizes, suitable for filling tiny vials and other bottles.
SPATULAS AND STRAINERS FOR COSMETICS PRODUCTION
The aforementioned tools for making cosmetics are surely already in your kitchen. Look especially for silicone spatulas, which allow you to easily get your creams or soaps from bowls into cups and moulds. Strainers are not only suitable for straining herbs or bulk ingredients when making sparkling beauxmb, but they also allow you to evenly disperse powdered colouring agents, such as micas, when making soap.
APRON AND GLOVES FOR COSMETICS PRODUCTION
Preparing homemade cosmetic products almost always involves working with raw materials or dyes, so these cosmetic making tools will come in handy. The gloves will also protect your hands when working with hydroxide, when it is advisable to use conventional disposable latex gloves. Also keep one pair of thicker gloves on hand for handling water baths and hot containers.
Don't forget safety goggles when making hydroxide soap. If you will be handling powdered raw materials that are easily released into the air, wear a face shield, ideally a respirator. The aforementioned cosmetic making aids will help protect your respiratory tract.
COSMETIC WIPES AND DISINFECTANTS
Before preparing any product, all surfaces, containers, packaging and tools that come into contact with the raw materials must be properly cleaned and disinfected. This will reduce the contamination of your products and make them last longer. paper towels or spray bottles for disinfecting are also handy tools for cosmetics production.
As a disinfectant, you can use 70% food grade alcohol, or special products designed to disinfect surfaces (ideally designed for the food industry). Be sure to rinse all cosmetic utensils in distilled water after disinfection or follow the disinfectant manufacturer's instructions.
pH PAPERS FOR COSMETIC PRODUCTION
It is always advisable to check the pH of a product before using it. In a home environment, this is easily done using pH measuring papers. These cosmetic making aids are coloured according to the actual pH of the product, and the pH value is read from the colour scale provided.
For the more advanced, there is the option of getting a pH meter. However, these are already more costly cosmetic aids that also require more complex operation and calibration.
INSTRUMENTS FOR COSMETICS PRODUCTION
A necessity in cosmetics production are also some appliances or instruments that will make the preparation of some products easier. Find out which cosmetic production tools will make it easier for you to work with soaps or make lotions.
COSMETIC THERMOMETER
Thermometers, whether conventional or infrared, are handy tools for making cosmetics that allow you to monitor the progress of your products. You can reach for the classic needle-prick thermometers used in the food industry. However, be sure to disinfect them before use so that they don't contaminate your product. This is also why infrared proximity thermometers have the advantage of being able to tell you the temperature of your product instantly, but the disadvantage is the higher price.
SOAP MAKING MIXER
Animmersion blender is clearly one of the gadgets essential for soap making. Without premixing a mass of fats and hydroxide, it is almost impossible to reach the trace stage without very long manual mixing. Keep in mind that the mixer should be plastic or stainless steel so that the hydroxide will not damage it. Reserve one blender for soaps and cosmetics only, do not use it for cooking.
BLENDER FOR COSMETICS
A hand beater or blender with two whisks is one of the cosmetic making tools that will allow you to createyou can make fluffy whipped butters or mix larger quantities of creams. If you are only making small batches of emulsions or creams, reach for a torch-powered milk frother, which weighsfor larger batches, reach for immersion stick blenders.
SCALES FOR COSMETICS PRODUCTION
Since almost everything in cosmetics is measured in grams, scales are a necessity. Unless you will be making very large batches of products, i.e. by the kilo, reach for both small and pocket scales that weigh to at least one decimal place. These cosmetic production aids allow you to add ingredients with great precision even in small batches, thanks to one or ideally two decimal places (when weighing to grams).
SOAP MOULDS
Soap moulds are an indispensable part of soap production, whether using soap masses or hydroxides. silicone soap moulds are cosmetic making aids available in a variety of shapes and sizes, so you can use them to create different designs. Due to the flexibility of silicone, they are easy to remove the finished hardened products from them.
You can use silicone moulds not only for making soaps but also for preparing other types of cosmetics. These versatile cosmetic making aids are useful, for example, if you are making solid shampoossilicone moulds are also useful for making solid conditioners or solid body balms .
MOULDS FOR FIZZY BOMBS
Due to their plasticity and flexibility, silicone moulds for soaps and cosmetics are not very suitable for making fizzy bombs. Therefore, if you are interested in bubble baths, slightly different devices are used for their preparationthese are rigid plastic moulds for fizzy bombs, which may alternatively be made of metal. These are most often two-part moulds which, when filled and joined, produce a fizzy bath bomb.
COSMETIC PACKAGING
Your finished product must be stored somewhere. This is exactly what cosmetic packaging is for. You can choose from a wide range of plastic, metal or glass packaging in different sizes. Again, remember that metal cosmetic packaging can cause oxidation of some of the product's less stable ingredients (unless the metal is covered with a protective layer). Plastic packaging can also absorb some organic substances. the colour of these cosmetic containers also plays a role. Dark and opaque cosmetic packaging, such as brown glass, protects raw materials more effectively from sunlight than transparent packaging.
COSMETIC PRODUCTION AIDS AND CONCLUSION
Dear friends,
do you have any favourite tools that you can't imagine your creative moments without?
Drop us a link to your favourite tools from our shop in the comments of this post or on Facebook. Let other, less experienced alchemists unlearn and learn something new, too.
Let's help each other and create a creative community.
Do the saponification, my friends.
