Imagine you are blowing bubbles. The air you breathed out floats away in a wrap of soapy water. Emulsifiers act just like that layer of soapy water. When oil, water and emulsifier are mixed together, the emulsifier rushes to the oil droplets and covers them. Because emulsifiers actively go straight to the surface of droplets they are called surface active agents or surfactants. According to the Boulder School in Condensed Matter, surfactants give emulsions even more stability by making the droplets repel each other.