So what you’re forming is
your carboxylic salt, which is your soap
and glycerol.
Make note of what you observe.
We are judged based on
how we look, how we smell
and so our makeup or the cosmetics that we use
defines us in a lot of ways.
My name is Dr Sunita Thyagarajan
I am a senior lecturer in the Chemistry Department.
This course is called
Cosmetology 101: The Chemistry of Beauty Products
The goal here was to
introduce the students to the science and chemistry
behind creating beauty products
as well as what the role of the different chemicals are
that are in beauty products.
In today’s lab they’re making soap
out of canola oil and sodium hydroxide,
which is also called lye.
We’re also making shea butter moisturizer
as well as an organic body scrub.
This is something that they can go back home
and test it themselves or
come up with their own do-it-yourself recipes
But the goal behind doing it here
was to show them that organic products *are* chemicals
and also try to understand a little bit about
the science about how they mix together as well.
When you look at a label,
you’re looking at a whole bunch of chemicals
just listed on that label
and if you can identify the molecule
and know what its structure is, saying
Okay so they’ve added this, this, this and this,
for these reasons,
it gives us a better understanding
of the overall cosmetic product.
It is really really important to understand
that what we put on ourselves
does affect our body chemistry
because all of us are unique and
our skin interactions with chemicals are also unique.
To me the most exciting part is when
students have this ah-ha moment
and they’re like "Oh yeah, so that's how it works!"
They’re already on their way to a better understanding.
