Home Cosmetic Science Talk Formulating General How do you test for product oxidation?

  • How do you test for product oxidation?

    Posted by RKB on June 20, 2018 at 10:17 pm

    Is it possible to test for product oxidation in the home? If so, can it be done in any way other than letting something sit on the shelf and monitoring changes over several months?

    dr-catherine-pratt replied 5 years, 9 months ago 4 Members · 3 Replies
  • 3 Replies
  • Sal

    Member
    June 30, 2018 at 2:49 am

    What product is this for? When u say oxidation check, do you mean product stability and things like microbial growth etc?

    if you want to check the stability then it depends on the type of product.  Looking forward to hearing about the type and i may be able to suggesst somethin

  • gunther

    Member
    June 30, 2018 at 4:06 pm

    Letting it sit in a shallow, wide pan gives more surface area for oxygen to attack it.

    Conceivably, you can let it sit inside a closed bottle full of Oxygen:

    A. Either buy or rent a small Oxygen tank or Oxygen concentrator, “pour” some Oxygen in the bottle with a hose and quickly cap the bottle.

    B. A large bottle or vessel with separate but contiguous container full of Hydrogen Peroxide so it releases Oxygen on decomposition (along with water, so its moist atmosphere might skew results a bit).
    Don’t pour Hydrogen peroxide directly on the sample, though.
    You can even add some Manganese Dioxide, Silver or Platinum shavings to the Hydrogen peroxide container, as it reportedly speeds up its decomposition.
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydrogen_peroxide#Decomposition

    Something like this

    only with no cap in the inner bottle, it being filled with Hydrogen peroxide
    surrounded by the sample to test in the larger bottle.

  • dr-catherine-pratt

    Member
    July 1, 2018 at 10:54 am

    If there is no EDTA, the cream will turn a rusty colour as spots? I suppose that is oxidation of the metal ions that EDTA usually mop up?

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