Making Lipstick.

Seems as though it makes no difference how much time elapses, moods regarding looks, and fashions relating to makeup evolve, but lipstick does not appear to change much. Pigmented waxes, mixtures of oils, used to create a stick blended smooth enough to apply to ones lips, and stay where it is applied. It is quite a project to create such a blend, and it is certainly not easy of cheap to accomplish. Perfection is the goal at hand. Color, fragrance, moisture against dryness. All must be thought of and figured out to create an amazing lipstick good enough to have a following, and popular enough to return the investment as well as generate future profits for those creators. Hundreds, maybe thousands of attempts are made in labs worldwide to create something special. A gold medal cosmetic.

Prior to formulating a batch of lipstick, the key recipe ingredients must be chosen and obtained. Coloring, essential oils, and the appropriate waxes are what make up the basics when making lipstick. Several other ingredients, many that would be kept secret, are used to create a glossy look, give pleasant fragrance, and offer a durable, long lasting stick. Alcohol, oils and waxes that have natural scents, and scent cancelling items will be added to the mix in an effort to create a desirable end product. There is a fairly common technique for the manufacture of lipstick that we can talk about for a minute here in this post, just to offer an example of such a process. Usually a four step process would be entailed.

The first step in the process would be the pigment milling. That is where the choices of the required coloring would be made. Either a color or a blend of pigments would be used to create a very special mix and final color for the cosmetic. After that, the final coloring is then to be blended with oils and subjected to milling via a three roll mill. The idea here is to be sure that every particle is ground down to a level of no more than 20 microns in size. Usually the balance of pigment to oil is 1 to 2 in ratio.

The second step in the process is to combine the milled pigment with a base wax. This is done by the mixing of the substances in a kettle that has an agitator with one propeller. Mixing to a conclusion, the results are once again subjected to the previous milling process discussed at step one. Just as in step one, the desired result is to maintain a particle size no greater than that of 20 microns.

The third step in the process would be the molding process. This process is quite important as it uses various temperatures to achieve the goal of removing unwanted substances from the product. Fast cooling for example, is used to remove what are known as cold marks from the stick. Very unsightly blemish to the stick, and must be dealt with. The lipstick is heated and then poured into slanted molds and quickly cooled, along with the gases being vacuumed out to avoid bubbles of air forming. The product is then cooled down, removed from the slanted molds, and subjected to a flaming so that a sweet layer of glossy finish will be created around the lipstick’s tube. Makes the product gorgeous, and protects from spoilage.

The final process is to have the item labeled and properly put in to packaging.