Realize Beauty

Come with me on a 40-minute meander into the world of plant chemistry.  We'll start by exploring the wonderfully high-tech world of plant stem-cell science before diving into some plant chemistry.  Ever wondered how a plant stem cell extract compares with your regular extracts?  We'll have a chat about that.  This journey ends where we began, back with stem cell science and a ponder over where the future might take us.  The future is here and it's very, very green by the looks of it. 

The last seven months have been very hard for me personally and in response to that I shrunk my consulting responsibilities and took down my website. While there have been a number of reasons for my struggles, a large part was how I responded to finding out that I'm autistic.  Discovering such a fundamentally important truth about myself at the ripe old age of 40-something proved to be a lot to process.  Throw a business and my financial responsibilities into that mix and I quickly found myself slumped in a deep and confusing mental mess from which there was only one way out - processing all of it. 

Today just happened to be the day I felt recovered enough to re-publish my website and start looking forward and so I thought it was only right and proper that I shared that with you.

The other week I was made aware of a new ‘rule’ that’s making its way around the virtual hallways of cosmetic school (which one, who said what and why doesn’t matter), the rule being that you should not homogenise Carbomers. Now I’m not sure of the wider context of this truth or how it was originally meant to be taken but it was clear that in this case the statement had been taken as literal truth and that was causing a problem which I just couldn't help but investigate. 

You would think that the rise in people with qualifications in cosmetic formulating would be closely mirrored by a rise in formulating competency and (one would hope) a rise in scientific literacy but that’s not been my experience. I dive into the world of Cosmetic Education and come up with some interesting and confronting truths that point the finger of blame right back at me. Ouch!

In this week's podcast, I explore the unwritten rules that have shaped the Global Cosmetic Industry and made it what it is today.  We look at how you, the outsider can help broaden and deepen the narrative in a way that feels right for you, your target market and your business objectives.  This podcast episode is also explored on my Realize Beauty blog for those who prefer to read rather than listen. 

In this 34 minute podcast, I'll introduce you to the Somatosensory system paying particular attention to the role of our sense of touch.  As a cosmetic chemist, everything I make is designed to go on, around or near to the skin.  It's impossible to become a successful cosmetic chemist without a thorough appreciation for the importance of a product's tactile aesthetic. However,  it is possible, maybe even probable that most of us have got a long way without fully appreciating just how deep, multi-faceted and nuanced our sense of touch really is.  

Hi, Amanda the Chemist here and in this episode I explain what makes castor seed oil different from the rest and give you a few tips on the lab work you could undertake to investigate this!

This episode is also available as a blog post: https://realizebeauty.wordpress.com/2021/07/26/castor-oil-is-not-like-other-oils/

Hello, Amanda the chemist here from Realize Beauty and in this podcast I take a closer look at Glyceryl Stearate and talk you through the reasons why this isn't always what you might think it is.

This episode is also available as a blog post: https://realizebeauty.wordpress.com/2021/07/25/the-curious-chemistry-of-glyceryl-stearate/