Chemists Corner   /     Day 22– Using patents to find test methods

Welcome to Day 22 of the 30 Days to Become a Better Cosmetic Chemist series

This 30 day challenge is all about giving you lessons and basic exercises that will improve your abilities as a cosmetic chemist. 

Get your copy of the Become a Better Cosmetic Chemist workbook

In this episode

In today’s program we cover Cosmetic product testing and research. Specifically, you’ll learn of a way to use information found in patents to help improve your formulation efforts.

In this episode you’ll find:

• The reality of test methods in the cosmetic industry
• How foam testing is really done
• The different parts of a patent and what you can learn from them
• How to read a patent
• Where to find cosmetic patents
• How to get starting formulas and test methods from patents

Today’s challenge

Go to the Google Patent page and find a test method or formulation that you can use in your lab. Focus on finding something that will help you in your prototyping work today. If you work on hair care products, look for a new way to measure some aspect of hair that you hadn’t thought of before. If you work on skin products, search for ways to demonstrate the product makes skin look or feel better.

After you come up with your method, post a link to the patent you used and let us know what you found there.