When you search for books to improve your understanding of cosmetic formulation and technology you need to search long. To start with, there are no "formulation" books or "recipe" books except those self-published books and that's OK. You can find reasonable formulations on trustworthy blogs or make your own formulations from scratch. That is why you are a formulator or wanna be formulator at the first place.
There are however books that teach you the principles of formulating, legal requirements, safety considerations, testing, manufacturing techniques or anatomy and physiology of hair, skin and nails.
To help you find your way in the forest of useful and less useful books we are sharing the top 5 books we can recommend with a clear conscience to every formulator and wanna be formulator.
1 thing to keep in mind
These books are written by outstanding scientists and academic or industry experts with a a profound knowledge and experience
BUT
they are mainly old-school scientists still living in the era of paraffins and parabens. If you are a "natural" formulator and want to avoid mineral oil based products or paraffins or ethoxylated ingredients you may be shocked by some paragraphs in these books. Do not close the book or discard it. You can still pick up nuggets of wisdom and extremely useful and helpful from these books and the knowledge of these experts.
Here are our top five books from the last 10 years
Enjoy reading
