Home Cosmetic Science Talk Formulating What raw materials should I use for an alcohol-free hand sanitizer?

  • What raw materials should I use for an alcohol-free hand sanitizer?

    Posted by summerstar on November 5, 2015 at 12:13 am

    Hi everyone, hope all is well with you and yours.

    I need to make an alcohol-free hand sanitizer that would be in the form of a gel type formula for my client’s order. My client does not want any intoxicating alcohols in the hand sanitizer but has allowed fatty alcohols and also denatured alcohol. I also want to use a very sweet smelling fragrance for this sanitizer. Can you please advise me on what are the most appropriate raw materials I should use for this formula with strictly no alcohol (intoxicating) derivatives?

    ozgirl replied 8 years, 4 months ago 7 Members · 7 Replies
  • 7 Replies
  • bobzchemist

    Member
    November 6, 2015 at 2:56 pm

    What research have you done on your own to answer this question? If you tell us where you’ve looked, we’d be happy to make some suggestions of additional resources.

    Additionally, you’ll need to talk to a fragrance house about the fragrance - we can’t help with that.
    Lastly, someone has given your client bad information about alcohol. Why didn’t you explain the differences to him?
  • belassi

    Member
    November 6, 2015 at 5:22 pm

    Sounds to me as if summerstar’s client is a member of the “religion of peace”. Thus the ‘non intoxicating’.

  • chemist77

    Member
    November 6, 2015 at 8:58 pm

    @summerstar we generally use Alcohol Denat. only so why don’t you stick to the usual formula of carbomer, alcohol denat. and glycerin or any other humectant. Dont forget to use an alkali to neutralize carbomer.

    @Belassi this is a multi-faith and multi-cultural forum and you are a very respected member of it, I am sure you have better things to share with all of us. 
  • bill_toge

    Member
    November 6, 2015 at 9:50 pm

    plus, in any case you’d only ever use denatured alcohol in a hand sanitiser - the sheer scale of legal wrangling that would result if you tried to use potable alcohol for this purpose, and justify it, would be enough to put anyone off

  • bobzchemist

    Member
    November 7, 2015 at 3:10 am

    I guess what I meant is that no one in their right mind would ever even attempt to use potable alcohol in a hand sanitizer, but also that the only difference between potable/intoxicating alcohol and denatured alcohol is a very tiny bit of a very bitter chemical added to make it undrinkable by most people.

    Someone who was actually concerned about avoiding ethyl alcohol would insist on isopropyl alcohol insted - denatured alcohol can still be consumed and will make people drunk - although shortly afterwards, they will be very sick.
  • Chirag

    Member
    November 11, 2015 at 7:21 am

    hello everyone, I got a recipe for Hand Senitizer based on carbomer which is listed below ;-

    water DI                    34.65 w/w
    carbomer                       .25
    ethanol                      65
    aminomethyl propanol     .10
    as far as i could get it, I think this formula doesn’t include any surfactant. can someone make me clear why the formula lists Ethanol ?
    thanx in ahead of time.
  • ozgirl

    Member
    November 11, 2015 at 9:30 pm

    The ethanol is the active sanitizing ingredient. You would use a denatured ethanol here.

    There is no surfactant included because it is not required. The ethanol is soluble in water so does not need to be solubilized.

    Have a look at Lubrizols website for lots of information about hand sanitizers.
    https://www.lubrizol.com/PersonalCare/Formulations/CleansingHand.html

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