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Fiber Pomade, what is the job of the ingredients?
We are thinking of actually venturing into fiber pomades but the ingredients elude us. The ingredient list we found that is ideal for what we wish to do goes like so:
Water, Ceteareth-25, Polyvinylpyrrolidone, PEG-40 Hydrogenated Castor Oil, PEG-7 Glyceryl Cocoate, AMP-Acrylates/Allyl Methacrylate Copolymer, Glycerin, Polysorbate-20, Sodium Polyacrylate, Titanium Dioxide, Mica, DMDM Hydantoin, Fragrance (Parfum)
Is there any way you can describe what it is that each of these ingredients bring to the table? Obviously we know what water is but everything else is a bit strange to us.
Please help!
Thank you
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10 Replies
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Please keep in mind that most of us do this for a living, and need to pay our bills. We are happy to give advice and direction, but in the end, if you are looking for this level of information you would need to either research the ingredients, take a formulation class (the owner of this forum teaches some good ones), or hire a consultant.If you choose to do the research yourself, it would be on you to do the work. We can’t help with this unless you get stuck, and need to be pointed at a resource for further learning. This is also helpful because you will learn a lot about the materials and the manufacturing processes. In researching you will gain a great deal more experience than just being “given” the information. -
@Bobzchemist thanks for the input but I wasn’t asking for the actual percentage of each ingredient. I was asking what each of them are (a dumbed down description for the simpleminded such as myself) I notice your comment is copy pasted on some other posts about this, I’ve done a lot of research for our initial formula and was lucky to get a lot of help from non-chemists. Others may be looking for handouts but I’m just looking for a helping hand
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It is a standard response.
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Have to agree with BobzchemistWhat you can do is to use google, e.g.:ceteareth-25 + functionsthis will lead you to the functions of the ingredients.Stay aware that internet is not always a reliable source and double check your info.If you have trouble interpreting the info, e.g. what does an emulsifier do?Then you are welcome to ask! -
I have to agree with the others. This is really too broad of a question to answer effectively in a blog post. Honestly it would take perhaps an hour or so to educate someone on the functions of these ingredients and that is in person. That would grant the most superficial knowledge of the materials.
The short answer would be is that the product contains numerous acrylic type polymers and such, solvents, an emollient, a preservative and mineral type compounds (TiO2, Mica).
Knowing the basics of the ingredients still leaves you a great deal of work before you could even begin to make the most rudimentary efforts at knocking off the product. For example with the polymers they are listed by INCI name. Numerous compounds can share an INCI name but in this case it takes a great deal of knowledge to pick out the proper product. Then even so many of these ingredients require specific processing and can be fickle compounds if not used correctly.
In the end, if this is a product that you would like to add to your line it would be best to hire a Consultant or utilize the internal R&D assets of a contract manufacturer. Alternatively (with some significant searching) you could possibly find a similar product available as a Private Label product. Private Label products are usually good products designed by a Cosmetic Chemist, produced by a manufacturer and then labeled with your companies information. As I said these products are not poor quality. If you are like many, your strengths could be stronger in Sales/Marketing and other Business tasks. Private Label would get you a viable product. As many will attest, it is the Marketing that takes over at this point and makes the product a winner. There is an old adage in Cosmetics, “A middle of the road product with effective Marketing will always outsell a great product with poor marketing.”
Lastly (and please, this is not directed at you) I see a great deal of initial over confidence in beginners as they first start to get into the formulating side of the Business. It really demonstrates a logical failure best described by the Dunning-Kruger effect ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect). This effect (named after the first researchers who qualified the term) is a false unsupportable over confidence by beginners in ANY particular discipline. A great example comes from my College days. It seemed for many after we took Psych 101, we were suddenly psychologists and began diagnosing others.
Many of us have science undergraduate degrees in areas not specific to Cosmetic Science. As many can attest when first thrown into a Cosmetic Lab environment, it was up to 6 month or a year before we could effectively begin to contribute on our own. If I were to take a job tomorrow in the Polymer Industry or Petroleum Industry, I would once again have this transition period as well.
Simply put the take away is “know what you do not know.” Let this be your guiding principle in cases like this. Not grasping this gap in knowledge will be an obstacle in the learning process.
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Is there any way you can describe what it is that each of these ingredients bring to the table? Obviously we know what water is but everything else is a bit strange to us.
There is no way you will ever understand how to combine ingredients until you play with each one to discover its properties. This obviously involves a lot of time and wasted materials, but that’s what cosmetic chemistry is about. For instance I don’t know what Ceteareth-25 is like, but I wouldn’t ask the people here; I would get a sample and begin trying test formulae with it. And then, when I ran into trouble, I would ask why, here. -
I appreciate your input gentlemen. I have scoured the trenches of Google and tried to pinpoint what each ingredient is as well as trying to classify which is going in what phase. I asked a loaded, and vague, question. Having to “test” these ingredients in the backroom of our apartment with a presto pot and a hot plate kind of limits me to using sub par tools. I was able to get our first formula going and it has been working well on my hair so I guess being an apartment chemist is going ok lol I guess I have to see it this way, when a customer comes at us asking “what’s good for my hair?” Its a loaded and vague question lol
I appreciate what you guys do and we shall see if we get the time and money to be home chemists. Hoping my toddler doesn’t get into any of the ingredients, he’s quite the adventurer.
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If you want to know what the basic function of an ingredient is you can try searching at
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My company pays for PCPC. It’s a database where I can look through for vendors of ingredients. ingredient functions, INCI names of ingredients from trade names etc. Whenever I’m researching a competitors formula this is the first place I go if I’m unfamiliar with an ingredient.
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Start with the PCPC Buyers Guide, and look at one ingredient at a time to get tradenames.
Then, look at SpecialChem and UL Prospector for the ingredient. Finally, google each tradename and read the literature that each manufacturer provides for their version.After that, we’d be happy to help if you are struggling to understand something specific.
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