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low cost moisturizing formula help
Greetings
Im a curious with almost no experience in cosmetic who want to make a cheap moisturizing, i have read a lot of formulations but im geting mainly 2 problems:
1)they are too expensive, (most of times is cheaper to buy a nive cream for example)
2) i cant find the ingredients in my contry Venezuela.i made a moisturizier ussing this try and error formula
69% water, 23% stearic acid,2.3% glycerin, 0.3% TEA, 3% mineral oil, 0.8% propyleneglicol and 1% cetyl alcoholbut is to expensive because of the stearic accid.
i want help to achive a lowcost emulsion, i have tried several formulas but im getting separation of phases most times i get water at the bottom of the emulsion after a week, i saw a company in my country that uses paraffin wax/oil wich i know are not a good in order to make a good/natural mousturizer, but is inexpensive, im trying to reproduce it but im still getting the same separarion at the bottom.
the best formula i have obtain (i say best because it last over a week to separate) is this:
white paraffin wax 7%.
parraffin oil. 24%
stearic accid. 1%
cetyl alcohol. 1%
borax. 0.5%
water. 65%im assuming that borax works as a emulsifing agent, but no matter how much i add of borax it still separate, same with stearic accid i added as 7% and nothing chance.
i want help to stop the separation, maybe adding another ingredient, or adding more or less of current ingredients, or just saying that is imposible to make that formula
i got this aviable ingredients: TEA, glycerin, cetyl alcohol, borax, stearic acic, propylenegycol, tween80, sles, LAS, carbopol, methylcellulose, cocoamide CAB.
will apreciate any help or advice
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23 Replies
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A place to start is to learn about the HLB system
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Hi david, thanks for your reply, assuming my oils as 100% my required HLB is 10,575, but i have 2 problems:
1) I dont know if Borax can be used as a emulsifing agent
2) HLB system doesnt tell me how much Emulsifing i need to useIm stuck
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Check out this blog (swiftcraftymonkey.blogspot.com) for some basic lotion recipes and plenty of useful information.
Unfortunately you will find that it is not necessarily cheaper to make your own lotion. Large companies have the advantage of being able to buy raw materials in bulk at much cheaper prices.
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Borax is not an emulsifier. And mineral oils are horrible. The minimum cost item you could create would be a formula of water, vegetable oil (eg olive oil or sunflower), an emulsifier such as glyceryl stearate, and a preservative.
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It doesn’t look like your formula has any emulsifiers at all…
Parrafin Oil - Oil/Humectant (Required HLB)White Paraffin Wax - Thickener (Required HLB)Stearic Acid - Thickener (Required HLB)Cetyl Alcohol - Thickener (Required HLB)Borax - Buffering agent (Adjusts pH)The 1 week of stability you’re seeing is likely just steric hinderance (the thickeners are slowing the water droplets movement just enough that they can’t coalesce for ~1 week).Of your available ingredients, tween 80 is the only real “emulsifier” and it is not suitable to be a primary emulsifier in a cream/lotion (at least not to my knowledge). Carbopol can work wonders for emulsion stability (while not technically an emulsifier) so you will certainly need to include that if you are going to find a solution to your problem. I would try the following and see where this gets youPhase AWater - QSCarbopol - 0.3%Glycerin - 2.0%Phase BParaffin Oil - 15.0%Cetyl Alcohol - 3.0%Stearic Acid - 2.0%Tween 80 - 1.0%Phase CTEA - 0.4%Looks like you are lacking for any kind of preservatives so any batch you make should be small and last no longer than a week. Also make sure your beakers, mixers, spatulas, etc. are extremely clean before you make anything. -
Thanks ozgirl for your reply, the main problem with that blog is that he always use polowax, btms-50 or e-wax as emulsifing agent, and i cant use those because there arent available in my country, besides that i know a factory in my country that sells a cheap lotion that contains mainly paraffin oil and wax, but i cant make mines works.
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thanks iaskedbetter, im going to try your formula, so you are saying that i cant make a stable lotion with my current available ingredients?. i have the assumption that something is working on my current formula because the 90% of the lotion stay mixed for more than 3 months, only a little lf water goes to the bottom
I womder how a company in venezuela with my same avaible ingredients can make a lotion.
btw im ussing methyl and propyl paraben as preservative
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@Iaskedbetter Whats yhe function of TEA on the formula?, and which emulsifier do you recommend assuming tween80 as secondary, i also have nonylphenol eythoxylate on my avaible list
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@belassi thanks for your answer, i read that i can make my own glycerl steareate using stearic acid, usp glycerin and vinager, melting all and then filtering, have you heard something of that?, is that posible?, assuming is it possible what are the proportions?, i tried with sun flower oils but they feels too oily and the smells is awful
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If you can provide an ingredients list of the cheap lotion that is made in your country we may be able to help you identify what they are using as emulsifiers.
Is it possible for you to order ingredients from an international supplier that will ship to your country.
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@ozgirl thanks for ur interest and help, in my country we have currency exchange control, that means that i cant buy ingredients, the 98% or so of the lotions that i can find in the market are imported like nivea, ponds, avon, and others, but very expensive, there are a lot of handcraft creams that are available but doenst come with an ingredient list. i cant figure out how they are made, but judging by the prices and my research on my country marked they are ussing mineral oils or/and paraffin
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The formulation suggested by @Iaskedbetter is a perfect one with those ingredients that you have with you. It should give you a good stable lotion, try it and I think you would be pretty close to where you wanna reach.
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@luiscuevasii I guess your initial formulation (69% water, 23% stearic acid,2.3% glycerin, 0.3% TEA, 3% mineral oil, 0.8% propyleneglicol and 1% cetyl alcohol) may be working if you adjust the %%% of ingredients. In formulations like this one the emulsifier is the soap which is formed in situ due neutralization of Stearic acid with TEA. It’s a classical reaction and in such formulations the partly neutralized acid works as emulsifier. In your formulation, I would add more TEA or substitute it with NaOH or KOH. You need more emulsifier (soap) in your system. But even if you succeed with this formulation, it would be barely called “moisturizing”.
You may also make the classical “cold cream”, since you’ve got everything you need for it. The formulations could vary significantly and you can google for those varieties. Here is some updated formulations where you may want to play with %%%% of Cetyl alcohol or waxes.
Water - 19.0%
Cetyl Alcohol - 12,5%
Wax (beeswax or white paraffin) - 12,0%
Mineral Oil (may be partly substituted with Olive oil or any other oil) - 56,0%
Borax - 0,5%
Melt the waxes and Mineral oils, dissolve Borax in the water and heat. Mix waxes and water solution at the same high T (70-80C). Homogenize the mixture till the gel-like consistency appears.
Good luck!
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@luiscuevasii I am sure all of the senior/experienced chemists on this forum have, at one point or another, come across a something that inexplicably worked really well. Conversely, we all come across formulas that are supposed to work, but for some reason don’t. A big part of the formulation process is experimentation. Figuring out what works and what doesn’t and using the results to progress the development of a product.
With that said, I can’t tell you if you have the necessary materials for a stable emulsion (especially because I don’t know what processing equipment you have). The formula I gave you is where I would start if I was in your shoes trying to accomplish what you are asking for (although I do not know how that formula would cost out for you).In addition to what @Vitalys said regarding TEA, it is a strong base (pH) and it is necessary to neutralize the carbopol in the formula I provided. When you add it, you should notice an immediate increase in viscosity.Regarding your stability question, 90% of the formula appears “stable” because the free water molecules haven’t had enough time to coalesce. I’m willing to bet that if you give that formula enough time, you will see a complete separation. -
You have the following: TEA, glycerin, cetyl alcohol, stearic acic, propylenegycol, tween80, carbopol. I have removed the other items that aren’t for skin creams such as the surfactants. You can make an emulsion using the carbopol; even though it won’t be a ‘proper’ emulsion it won’t separate because the gel will hold everything in suspension.
Try this:stearic acid 3%cetyl alcohol 4%“emollient” 5%glycerine 3%propylene glycol 3%carbopol 940 0.4%preservative q/sTEA - q/s to neutralise carbopol to pH=6, I use NaOH so you’ll have to look that up. I’m sure you should be able to find NaOH, that would be 0.2% (solid NaOH)water (the rest)- You will need an emollient at about 5%. This, you will need to source locally. Olive oil should work OK, or could you find a more exotic oil with better properties such as mamey?- You could make green tea and use that instead of just water to get the antioxidant benefits. -
Thinking further about your sourcing problem, I imagine that you will have trouble sourcing ‘actives’ - e.g. botanicals like aloe vera and centella asiatica which can really make a difference to the effect of a skin cream - at least in my humble opinion.
I suggest that, if you haven’t already, you investigate your country’s range of flora. I’m lucky in that I have a Bioextracto plant in Mexico that produces a huge range of extracts, so it’s easy for me to source standardised, purified hydrosols of (eg) aloe vera x10 concentrate, tepezcohuite, calendula, centella asiatica, and so on.If I were in a situation like yourself and had no in-country source such as that, I would go to the yerbolarias and buy dried herbs, and extract the hydrosols myself. Of course it would be a problem to estimate the concentration, but still …Don’t underestimate the benefits of the hydrosol phase. It’s not just about oil in water. You can do a lot provided you’re prepared to do the research. Talk to your local colleges; here, my wife, who teaches biology, won a national competition with her student research team, on the basis of evaluating the microbicidal action of a range of native herbs.Since you are not in the USA you do not have to comply with the FDA, so you will be able to experiment with things such as essential oils, for instance, against acne. In this PDF formulation from Lubrizol for an anti-acne gel, you have everything except the tea tree oil and I should think you have available in-country alternatives for that. -
first of all i want to gives you tanks for everything.
@vitalys how can i calculate the amount of tea that i need to use to neutralize the stearic acid or i can estimate it measuring the ph, whats the ratio and % of steric acid/tea or naoh that i need to ensure a stable emulsion
can you please tell me whats the emulsifier in the cold cream you mentioned
@belassi im going to try your formulation, which procedure can you sugest me to try the stability of a emulsion, im trying the 45ºC temp exposure and tried to centrifuge my creams but in 10ml batch i cant see the separation
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You should find that carbomer-based one perfectly stable. It is very similar to a simple cream I developed early on when I knew even less than I do now about emulsions. Test it with the freeze-thaw cycle, it should pass.
Regarding the preservative, you should find that 0.2% methyl and 0.1% propyl parabens powder by weight, dissolved in the propylene glycol, perfectly adequate in that recipe I offered. -
@luiscuevasii You may neutralize any % of Stearic acid and it depends on what you want to get. ust play with it. Also, please, read this http://cosmeticsandskin.com/aba/vanishing-cream.php
Nice explanation the issues you have including some basic formulations.
Re: Cold creams, please visit http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=4&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0CDQQFjAD&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.kau.edu.sa%2FFiles%2F0007586%2FSubjects%2FCosmetics.pdf&ei=m8OvVO34F8ilNpm8hPAH&usg=AFQjCNGHLawgD_mVcDPrekaTm9w_uBSuww&sig2=iT_Z067Z-vG9Pkijnqa2wg -
I really want to thanks you all, i make the formula given by Iaskedbetter, vitalys and belassi, and all worked i tested they usign the free/thaw proccedure and it seems to be stable.
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Great! Good to hear that. Now do some customer testing.
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Cetaphil cleanser is good moisturizier cleanser. you can try this. Cetaphil gentle skin cleanser buy online at nestpillmart.com
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