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Hair Conditioner Formula Shrinkage
Hi All. Hoping
to get help with my leave-in hair conditioner. I’m a fairly new formulator (less than1
year).The batch volume I made was 8.82 oz. However,
after 6 days I notice there is about 1/2 inch less product in the bottle. I’m
not sure why there is shrinkage. Below is my formulation:WATER PHASE:
Water - 70%
Cetrimonium Chloride 2%
OIL PHASE:
BTMS 50 - 2%
Caprylic/Capric Triglycerides - 5%
Coco Caprylate Caprate - 4%
Safflower Oil - 5%
Argan Oil - 5%
COOL DOWN
PHASE:Vitamin E - 0.10%
Geogard Ultra - 1.5%
Orange Essential Oil - 1.5%
Chamomile Extract - 3.9%
Heated and held both the water and oil phases, in separate containers, at
70C times 20 mins then combined the water and oil phase. Fully homogenized thoroughly
with stick blender. Mixture cooled to 40C
then added cool down phase. No initial or subsequent separation, stayed fully incorporated
except for shrinkage. Any ideas why shrinkage occuring? Thanks in advance. -
13 Replies
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Addendum:
Geogard Ultra - INCI: Gluconolactone, sodium benzoate, calcium gluconate
BTMS 50 - INCI: Behentrimonium Methosulfate (and) Cetyl Alcohol (and) Butylene Glycol -
You have incorporated air/bubbles when blending with a stick mixer. It is probably just the air/bubbles coming out. Was there any change in weight?
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That makes sense ozgirl. I didn’t check the weight though but I’ll go back and check. Also, would you recommend going forward that I make more product than I need in order to account for the air/bubbles? Thanks for your help
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Cetrimonium Chloride has a safety limit for leave in, and you are way over it. Besides it does the same as the BTMS, i’d remove it. Anyway, I don’t know for how long it will hold that much oil load, but usually leave-ins don’t need that much. Here are 2 guide formulas from Croda and Elementis so you see the difference.
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Yes, I understand what you’re saying. I’m going to revise/remake the formula without the Cetrimonium Chloride and reduce the oil amounts to see if that helps. Will keep you all posted. Thanks so much for your help!
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@heavenly4u Just a thought, Cetrimonium chloride comes as a 30% solution, and considering a dosage of 2%, you’ll have 0.6% of the ingredient in your formula, while the maximum level permitted for leave-on products is 1.0%.
Now, Cetrimonium chloride has a synergistic effect when mixed with Behentrimonium (it has a better performance at neutralizing static charge, I believe due to its higher mobility in solution).
If your issue is the foam, you could use some dimethicone in your formula, and also reduce mixing speed gradually while you cool down so air can be removed before it’s completely cold.
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@ketchito - Cetrimonium Chloride is only allowed in leave-on at 0.25%.
“Three quaternary ammonium salts used as cosmetic ingredients, cetrimonium chloride, cetrimonium bromide, and steartrimonium chloride, were found to be safe for use in rinse-off
products and safe for use at concentrations of up to 0.25% in
leave-on products by the Cosmetic Ingredient Review (CIR)
Expert Panel in 1997.” - from CIR-safety review. -
Thanks so much ketchito and Perry for your help, valuable information. I will let you know how my revised formulation turns out.
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Perry said:@ketchito - Cetrimonium Chloride is only allowed in leave-on at 0.25%.
“Three quaternary ammonium salts used as cosmetic ingredients, cetrimonium chloride, cetrimonium bromide, and steartrimonium chloride, were found to be safe for use in rinse-off
products and safe for use at concentrations of up to 0.25% in
leave-on products by the Cosmetic Ingredient Review (CIR)
Expert Panel in 1997.” - from CIR-safety review.Thank you @Perry! That’s for the North American market, right? I was considering only the european regulation in which CTC can be used in leave-on products for hair at up to 1.0%. They do make a distinction between leave ons, and the ones for face have a lower limit of CTC (0.5%):
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Yes, CIR refers to the US market. Go figure, the US is more strict than the EU.
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I wanted to post this yesterday, but ran out of time. @ketchito already mentioned that. EU is more “relaxed”, haha.
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They seem to be more “relaxed” indeed
. I wonder if these differences are mainly “political”, since both orgamizations review the same studies to set up these limits. -
Hello all, providing an update: I revised the formula to decrease the cetrimonium chloride from 2% to 0.8% for US compliance (.24%). Also, I adjusted my technique for stick blending the formula to decrease risk for air bubbles. It turned out really great and absolutely NO shrinkage so far like I had with the first batch. Thanks to all of you for your help with the “newbie”. I’m learning so much from this community
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