Home Cosmetic Science Talk Formulating AHA acids in creams

  • AHA acids in creams

    Posted by billichemist on October 22, 2015 at 9:54 pm

    hello again. I am having a lot of trouble formulating a cream with AHAs (~10%) in it. its a beautiful cream until i add the acids (glycolic/lactic/fruit acids) and the viscosity just goes to pretty much water. 

    can anyone point me in the right direction?
    the emulsifying system is
    olivem1000 (5%)
    Cetyl alcohol (1.5%)
    carnauba wax (0.5%)
    oils (6%)
    potassium cetyl phosphate (1.5%)
    steric acid (0.5%)
    I have also used decyl glucoside in the water phase to give it cleansing ability.
    i am sure i have asked this question before at some point but i am still having trouble :(
    billichemist replied 9 years, 1 month ago 5 Members · 6 Replies
  • 6 Replies
  • ozgirl

    Member
    October 23, 2015 at 12:25 am

    I have made a cream using Multifruit BSC (AHA/Fruit acids). The cream was very thick until we added the Multifruit BSC at 1-2% and then it thinned considerably.

    Maybe try increasing the viscosity of your base cream and lowering your AHA/fruit acids to get a product that meets your requirements.

  • billichemist

    Member
    October 23, 2015 at 12:36 am

    @ozgirl mine does exactly the same! problem is, it gets so thick (before i add the acids) that the tank stirrer struggles! its an incredbily drastic change in viscosity

    :(
  • belassi

    Member
    October 23, 2015 at 1:28 am

    Use a thickener system to compensate.

  • MichelleReece

    Member
    October 23, 2015 at 3:47 am

    Are you willing to use silicon/dimethicone/polymer blends?

  • Microformulation

    Member
    October 23, 2015 at 2:13 pm

    What is the final pH of the product? Many emulsification systems get wonky at a low pH as is common with these products. For a more acid stable system look at some of the Seppic products that are more stable at low pH. George Deckner wrote an article about it recently. If you have access to Prospector, here is the link.

  • billichemist

    Member
    October 25, 2015 at 9:32 pm

    @MichelleReece  unfortunately, client wants nothing to do with silicon/dimethicone/polymers


    @Microformulation  yeh i know about sepigel and have used it. its amazing! but again, clients arent into ‘chemical-y’ sounding INCI names :(

    good article though!

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