Home Cosmetic Science Talk Formulating Salicylic acid tonner

  • Salicylic acid tonner

    Posted by antmagn on September 10, 2018 at 6:32 pm

    I have this recipe that I like. I dissolve the salicylic acid in ethanol and then add propylene glycol and the rest of the ingredients. I get a nice solution but I found that after ten days I get salicylic crystals forming at the bottom:
    2% salicylic
    20% alcohol (90 degrees)
    20% propylene glycol
    2% witch hazel extract
    1% phenoxyetanol
    Rest is distilled water
    What do you think?

    markbroussard replied 5 years, 6 months ago 5 Members · 4 Replies
  • 4 Replies
  • belassi

    Member
    September 10, 2018 at 8:51 pm

    Alcohol is evaporating out and as a result …

  • ngarayeva001

    Member
    September 10, 2018 at 9:43 pm

    You can dissolve salicylic in propanediol. Or propylene glycol if you want to use it. I would say that the combination you made is very drying. I personally think it will be better without alcohol. Also there’s some information that witch hazel is an irritant.

  • Majman

    Member
    September 11, 2018 at 7:09 am

    Can one dissolve s.a in glycerin? Must it be alcohol? 

  • markbroussard

    Member
    September 11, 2018 at 11:45 am

    @antmagn

    Add 1% Sodium Citrate to your mix … that will help solubilize the SA. … if you are still getting crystallization, increase propylene glycol to 30%.  You can also try adding a 3% Methyl Gluceth-20 Benzoate (Finsolv EMG-20)

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