Home Cosmetic Science Talk Formulating Mica pearlizer in Shampoo

  • Mica pearlizer in Shampoo

    Posted by manstra on December 28, 2016 at 10:46 pm

    Hello everyone.
    Does anyone have experience in stabilizing mica in shampoo products in order to prevent sedimentation after several days? Are there several raw materials that I should consider ? Consider a simple shampoo formula without the use of salt and a viscocity of 3500 Brookfield. Thank you in advance.

    ashish replied 7 years, 2 months ago 11 Members · 21 Replies
  • 21 Replies
  • bill_toge

    Member
    December 29, 2016 at 12:30 am

    you need to include a surfactant-tolerant polymer to suspend particles in a product like this - in my experience, Carbopol Aqua SF-2 and Aculyn Excel do the job very well

  • belassi

    Member
    December 29, 2016 at 12:42 am

    ^^ what Bill said - I recommend you try them both without mica first, to see if the sensorials are acceptable.

  • chemist77

    Member
    December 29, 2016 at 3:45 am

    Check Dettol shower gel,  they have suspended polyethylene terephthalate using Aqua SF2. Works well and stay suspended. 

  • johnb

    Member
    December 29, 2016 at 8:28 am

    Far easier to use a glycol ester pearlising agent.

  • manstra

    Member
    December 29, 2016 at 10:39 pm

    Carbopol aqua sf-2 requires vacuum during production?The production line does not have vacuum

  • belassi

    Member
    December 30, 2016 at 2:34 am

    No vacuum, bubbles inevitably get trapped. I tried this about 3 years ago. I still have the mica colours sitting on the shelf and some decomposing sf-2

  • chemist77

    Member
    December 30, 2016 at 1:16 pm

    Agreed on that persistent aeration,  rather go by john’s suggestion. If you have hot process, EGDS & cocomonoethanolamide gives a very beautiful pearlizing effect. Around 1.5% of each approximately. 

  • manstra

    Member
    December 30, 2016 at 9:27 pm

    If I increase the viscocity will this cause a buoyancy effect on the mica particles?Unfortunately the pearliser has to be mica otherwise I would have used distearates. Thank you all for your feedback and suggestions.

  • belassi

    Member
    December 30, 2016 at 10:02 pm

    If I increase the viscocity will this cause a buoyancy effect on the mica particles?
    Don’t bother wasting your time. The short answer is, NO.

  • chemist77

    Member
    December 31, 2016 at 4:39 am

    Gravity will always be in action whether you increase buoyancy or not. Even the addition of polymers and thickeners only delays the fall to the bottom. In absence of a suitable polymer it would be comparatively faster. There are certain Aculyns from Dow, aeration will be much less compared to Aqua SF2 but the final pH adjustment is little on a higher side comparatively. 

  • johnb

    Member
    December 31, 2016 at 7:32 am

    Unfortunately the pearliser has to be mica otherwise I would have used distearates.

    Why?

    I can never understand why people make life so difficult for themselves.

  • bill_toge

    Member
    January 1, 2017 at 4:34 pm

    the aeration depends on the level of polymer used - when neutralised and back acid thickened, both polymers I mentioned are effective suspension agents at very low levels

  • david

    Member
    January 5, 2017 at 8:34 pm

    buoyancy is related to density - not to viscosity

  • diycosmetics

    Member
    January 9, 2017 at 8:19 pm

    Most of the Suppliers such as Cognis have very good surfactant based pearling agents that work very well using small amounts. Possibly one of the smaller suppliers like Lotioncraft sell one of them. I think that is a better option over mica.

  • bobzchemist

    Member
    January 10, 2017 at 5:02 pm

    Check with the thickener manufacturers. The key to suspending particles is to increase the yield value, not the viscosity. (the viscosity may rise anyway, but this is incidental).

    The other thing that may help is using mica that has the highest possible aspect ratio.

    But…remember that gravity always wins. Pretty much the best you can hope for is a two year shelf life before the mica starts to sink to the bottom .

  • oldperry

    Member
    January 11, 2017 at 12:50 am
  • Dilfre

    Member
    January 13, 2017 at 2:34 pm

    Happy new year for cosmetic people! Perry,  May I ask how much carbopol 2020 do you recommend as starting point?

  • johnb

    Member
    January 13, 2017 at 2:46 pm

    There is a sample formulation offered on the data sheet given by Perry.

  • Dilfre

    Member
    January 15, 2017 at 2:41 pm

    Thanks john, the site has a welcome with a banner that asks for the prefered language and then get frozen.

  • johnb

    Member
    January 15, 2017 at 2:52 pm
  • ashish

    Member
    January 19, 2017 at 6:13 am

    Using carbopol like Ultrez 20 is best suspending agent for Mica particles. Specific gravity of Mica particles is also playing imp. role here.

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