We use chemicals a lot in our everyday lives, but how do we know which chemicals are the right ones to use? This article will talk about the importance of choosing safe chemicals, and how to choose the best chemicals for your purpose.

Why Should I Worry About Chemical Quality?

In general, the higher the quality, the purer the chemical. This is helpful because it ensures that you’re only working with the chemical you’ve bought, and not with any unexpected add-ins. Chemical impurities can not only impact the efficacy of any reactions performed with them, but could also result in potentially harmful byproducts. Using low-quality chemicals in things like personal care or ingestible products can put the health of the consumer at risk. High-quality chemical ingredients also ensure a high-quality product.

What Chemicals Should I Choose?

The easiest way to pick a suitable chemical is by learning about chemical grades. Simply put, these are a measure of a chemical’s purity. There are many different levels, but the one most useful for people interested in making safe products at home are food grade chemicals. This category includes chemicals that are safe for consumption (like citric acid) as well as chemicals that are safe when ingested in trace amounts and therefore suitable for things like cleaning cookware and kitchen surfaces.

It’s important to note the distinction when purchasing a product- for example, food grade hydrogen peroxide is okay to clean countertops, but absolutely cannot be ingested!

USP grade chemicals are high quality and normally used in pharmaceutical products. They are the gold standard for what to use in skincare and medicinal products, but can be more expensive than food grade chemicals and natural food grade and organic solvents. It’s always important to consider what your intended purpose is, and whether you think higher quality chemicals are worth budgeting for. If you’re making at-home skincare products, it might be worth going for the higher grade; if you just want an eco-friendlier cleaning solution, food grade would probably work just fine!

Useful Chemicals For The Household

LabAlley stocks many chemicals that have common uses at home. For example, chemicals like ethanol and hydrogen peroxide are commonly used both in cleaning as well as making extraction solvents. These chemicals can be bought at high concentrations and diluted down for various purposes- this is generally more economical than buying pre-diluted chemicals.

For people interested in using chemicals for making their own personal care products, skincare products or herbal tinctures, keep an eye on this blog for more specific details on chemicals useful for those purposes! For example, check out this article on hydroquinone powder, or this one on using organic ethanol for skincare products.