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Jan 22 •
Welcome to Lab Notes Society!
Welcome to Lab Notes Society 🌼 If you're new here, this is how things work. I'm currently building out the community, so you're getting in early. Content and training will be added as we go, and you'll see everything develop in real time. 🔬What you'll find: - Tested formulas I'm currently developing (with full explanations and troubleshooting) - Training on specific formulation techniques - Q&A where you can ask questions about your own formulations - Feedback from other formulators working on similar products 💬 How to participate: - Introduce yourself below - tell us where you're at with formulation and what you're working on - Let me know what you'd like to see here - what formulas, what training, what questions you need answered - Ask questions when you're stuck on something - Share your formulas and testing results if you want feedback - Help others when you can 🧭 Where to find things: - Classrooms: Formula tutorials and training modules - Calendar: Live Q&A sessions and troubleshooting calls (as things get established) - Community feed: Daily discussions, questions, and updates Jump in whenever you're ready. Looking forward to seeing what you're making.
Feb 27 •
Formulation Feedback Friday
Here's how it works: you drop a formula, a product idea, an ingredient question, or something you've been quietly puzzling over, and I give you proper, specific feedback. Not "looks great!" but actually useful input you can do something with. It can be the shampoo from the Abbey Yung series, something completely unrelated, or a question you've been sitting on for a while and weren't sure was worth asking. There are no silly questions here, genuinely. Post it below, and I'll work through them over the course of the day.
2d •
Foam ≠ clean. Do you actually believe it?
Most formulators know this in theory. Foam doesn't equal clean(s)ing power. A surfactant can cleanse perfectly well without producing a dramatic lather, and some of the harshest surfactants make the most impressive foam. But here's the honest question: do you actually believe it when you're the one using the product? I ask because I notice it in myself sometimes. I'll test a gentle cleanser bar that I know is working at a good surfactant percentage, pH is right, micelle formation is fine, and everything checks out. And yet if the lather isn't satisfying, there's a small part of my brain that questions whether it really cleanses. It's consumer psychology working on the formulator. We're not immune to it. Quick poll — when you use a low-lather cleanser, do you: Tell me in the comments, too. I'm genuinely curious whether this changes with experience level.
Poll
6 members have voted
12d •
What's your starting surfactant when you're building a cleanser?
When I sit down to formulate a new cleanser, whether it's a liquid wash, a solid bar, or anything in between, there's almost always one surfactant I reach for first to kind of anchor the formula around, and then I build from there. I'm curious whether you have a default starting point too, or whether you approach each formula differently depending on what the product needs to do. My own starting point has actually changed over the years as I've worked with more surfactant types, which is part of why I find this question interesting to ask. It doesn't matter whether you're at the early stages of learning surfactant systems or you've been working with them for a while. Any answer is genuinely useful here. What's the first surfactant you reach for when building a cleanser, and what made it your go-to?
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14d •
Coffee hour delay
Sorry, gang, I need to move today's coffee hour to next Saturday (May 2nd). If you can make it, please let me know what time would work for you. I can do it all day until 7 pm (UK time), so it doesn't have to be evening time. Looking forward to chatting with you.
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