• Formulating

  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 6 years, 5 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

  Professional Chemist / Formulator

  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)

Log In to Reply