Ancient pharmacological and cosmetic recipes usually include very few detailed instructions. When I started recreating ancient cosmetics I was expecting to face insurmountable difficulties. However, I quickly obtained rather satisfactory results. Wherefrom did my understanding of ancient processes come? Was it from my experience as a cook? Or maybe from several years spent reading ancient recipes, and somehow developing a way of reading between the lines? Or was I simply choosing the simplest recipes to recreate? In this paper, I ask whether modern scholars have put too much emphasis on secrecy, tacit knowledge, and broken chains of knowledge in their study of ancient pharmacology. I will illustrate my argument with samples of my products.