Home Cosmetic Science Talk Formulating Salicylic acid powder

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  • Salicylic acid powder

    Posted by Cosmetic76 on October 24, 2022 at 10:49 am

    Hello,

    I haven’t formulated with this acid before and would appreciate some advice. This would be a more advanced formulation technique than I’m used to.

    The supplier recommended reacting the acid powder with sodium bicarbonate to neutralise it into sodium salicylate. What would be the ratio of sodium bicarbonate to water to acid please? 

    Or could you suggest other ways to incorporate this acid into a product? Solubility in glycols seems low to me but I could be missing something completely. The supplier also mentioned using sodium citrate as a helper.

    thank you for any guidance.

    Cosmetic76 replied 2 years ago 2 Members · 2 Replies
  • 2 Replies
  • fareloz

    Member
    October 24, 2022 at 12:19 pm

    If I am not mistaken the next formula is correct for the ratio:
    138.121g of SA + 84.007 of baking soda = 160.11 Sodium Salicylate + other products of the reaction.

    I don’t think there is much profit in using sodium citrate if you gonna neutralize SA.

    Solubility in glycols is IMHO quite high, it low in water+glycol mixture. According to research called “Solubility prediction of salicylic acid in water-ethanol-propylene glycol mixtures using the Jouyban-Acree model” you need a 50%50% mixture of water+propylene glycol to get 2% solubility of SA 

  • Cosmetic76

    Member
    October 24, 2022 at 3:07 pm

     you need a 50%50% mixture of water+propylene glycol to get 2% solubility of SA 

    Thank you for your reply. would you say it’s 2g into 50g glycol then mixed with 50g water? Or 2g direct into a mixture of glycol and water?
    Would you recommend heating to a certain temperature to aid the process?

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