One percent crude coal tar, with and without polysorbate 80, was incorporated into a variety of commercially available cream and ointment bases. The observation was confirmed that mixing 0.5% polysorbate 80 with crude coal tar prior to its addition into the ointments caused the coal tar particles to be evenly dispersed and to be of uniform size. However, when crude coal tar is incorporated into a cream the particles are evenly dispersed without the use of a surfactant.