Nan needs knowledge: Hi my name is Nan and I go to einstien middle school and I need a expert for science and were doing a project and I’am doing lipgloss and I need to go know if they have bacteria in them and which type of lipgloss melts faster? and I hope you can reply back! Thanks!
Sarah Bellum Says:
Hi Nan! I love to get science questions from students. I always wish I had gotten to do science experiments on beauty products when I was in school.
Buggy bacteria
First, you should read the post that the brainy Right Brain wrote about how lip gloss works. That explains the different kinds of ingredients in lip gloss. If you click on the links in that post you’ll find ingredient lists for a bunch of lip glosses like Bonnie Bell, Revlon, and Philosophy. And you’ll see they contain chemicals with names like methylparaben and propylparaben. These are preservatives that stop bacteria and mold from growing in cosmetic products. So to answer the first part of your question, no, lip glosses and other cosmetics do not normally contain bacteria. (There are exceptions. Like the time in the school locker room when I got mad at Trixie Yeagle and spit in her shampoo when she wasn’t looking. But that’s a story for another time…)
Messy melting
The second part of your question is a tricker. If you want to know which lip gloss melts the fastest you’ll have to get a few different kinds of lip gloss for a little experiment. The liquid-gel type lip glosses melt at very low temperatures (you could even say they’re already melted.) So you’ll want to get some of the waxy kinds that are sold in little pots or the stick types melt at much higher temperatures.
If you have a science lab at your school you can work with your teacher to heat the lip glosses and use a thermometer to measure their melting temperatures. But if you don’t have a lab, you can have your parents help you experiment at home. You could try dropping small amounts of lip gloss in hot water and watching how fast they melt. (Remember though, that if you do this in water you’re probably really measuring how fast they dissolve, not melt.) Maybe a better way would be to put a little dab of each gloss in a frying pan or skillet, turn the heat on VERY LOW and watch to see which one melts the fastest. Be VERY careful you don’t burn them! Just make sure you have a parent to help so you don’t set the kitchen on fire!
The Beauty Brains bottom line
Kitchen science can be fun, as long as you play it safe and ask your parents first. So, good luck! I hope these ideas are helpful for your science project. Please write back and let us know how it turns out.
What do YOU think? Does anyone else in the Beauty Brains community have any other ideas on how Nan could melt lip glosses at home?