How It's Made: Skin Cream
Vocab level: C1
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The easiest way to treat dry skin is to spread on some skin cream.
It rejuvenates the skin cells and acts as a protective barrier.
This is particularly important in the winter
when cold outdoor air and indoor heating suck the moisture out of your skin.
If you have dry skin, it's wise to keep a good supply of skin cream on hand.
It's not just dry air that makes skin flaky and itchy.
Cancer treatments can also dry out the skin,
along with other medical conditions like diabetes.
The first ingredient is stearic acid.
It's a wax derived from palm tree oil.
The next ingredient is refined lanolin.
It's blended with isopropyl myristate,
a natural oil that helps soften the stearic acid.
These ingredients make up what's called the oil-soluble phase of the recipe.
Workers heat the stearic acid until it liquefies.
Then add the blend of lanolin and isopropyl myristate and keep heating.
While the oil phase is heating, they prepare the water-soluble phase of the recipe.
The first ingredient is glycerin, derived from a vegetable source such as corn.
They heat and mix it, then add purified water.
They continue heating the mixture to just below the boiling point.
Add a floral fragrance.
Then pump the oil phase into the bottom of the tank.
It blends in with the water phase while naturally rising to the top.
They gradually lower the temperature.
This makes the mixture creamy and bright white.
After an hour of mixing, the skin cream is ready.
They pump it out of the mixing tank to supply tanks that feed the filling line.
This company packages its skin cream in jars for body cream and tubes for hand cream.
Workers unpack boxes of plastic jars
and line them up on a conveyor belt that feeds the labeling machine.
Each jar passes a photo eye sensor.
This sensor triggers the machine to spin the jar at the same speed as the adhesive label coming off the roll.
Workers place the labeled jars onto a turntable that feeds the filling machine.
Two single-file lanes each lead to three nozzles.
The machine fills up to 125 jars per minute.
Depositing 12 ounces of skin cream into each jar.
The two lanes of filled jars merge as they approach the capping machine.
The caps come down a chute to the machine's carousel.
A device called a timing screw correctly positions each jar to receive a lid.
The lower part of the machine holds the jar steady as an arm secures the lid in place.
The next station on the line applies an adhesive label onto the cap.
The jars of body cream are ready for sale.
This factory also packages hand cream in a tube
that you can keep in your purse or pocket.
A mechanical arm places the tubes on a turntable cap-side down.
The bottom of each tube is open and ready for filling.
A nozzle squirts two ounces of skin cream into the tube.
Then the machine heats the open end to soften the plastic.
clamps it shut, then cools the plastic to a solid state,
When you rub the cream on your skin,
the key ingredients glycerin and lanolin pack a one-two punch.
Glycerin is hygroscopic, meaning it draws water from the air to the skin.
Lanolin smooths the skin, forming a protective film to lock in the moisture.
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