Home Cosmetic Science Talk Formulating Advanced Questions Can I incorporate this retinol product (easily) into a toner?

  • Can I incorporate this retinol product (easily) into a toner?

    Posted by suswang8 on April 8, 2023 at 11:37 pm

    Hello, all.

    I purchased a retinol product from Making Cosmetics, and it has the following INCI: Water (and) Pentylene Glycol (and) Lecithin (and) Alcohol (and) Retinol (and) Polysorbate 20 (and) Potassium Phosphate.

    Making Cosmetics provides scant usage instructions, other than to say “Dispersible in water and oil (liposomal dispersion).” I thought I might be able to incorporate it into a simple toner-type product, but after I decided to blend it in using my homogenizer, it immediately produced a layer of yellowish foam on top of the aqueous solution, so I assume this was a big fail?

    Because the product only contains 2.5% retinol, it has to be used at fairly high quantities (e.g., 3% or so), so I cannot just put it into something like polysorbate 20 unless I wanted to use a large amount of that.

    Any other suggestions for how it could be used in a toner? (I realize it can be used in emulsions, but I am trying to see if I might be able to put it to use elsewhere, including in a facial oil, perhaps.)

    Thank you.

    BetaOneChem replied 1 year, 8 months ago 4 Members · 5 Replies
  • 5 Replies
  • Graillotion

    Member
    April 9, 2023 at 3:43 am

    The product you have is called: ROVISOME Retinol Moist Pro from Evonik. You might try and dig deeper on it….via the mfg, Evonik.

    Their presentation on ULP was pretty vague as well…but ONLY mentioned using it in emulsions.

    When you see an ingredient like Polysorbate 20 in a mix like that….that is ONLY for solubilize the product within itself….not into future mixes.

  • Perry44

    Administrator
    April 9, 2023 at 10:53 am

    I haven’t done it but based on the ingredients, yes you can probably incorporate it into the formula. That’s not to say there will be any benefit to it. The vesicles will likely break open, the retinol might leak out and then degrade while it sits on the shelf. But if you mix it in water it will likely be compatible.

    • BetaOneChem

      Member
      April 27, 2023 at 6:04 am

      How do I reach you? Or contact you? Its urgent please. Check your inbox

  • suswang8

    Member
    April 15, 2023 at 10:17 pm

    Thank you.

    I did know it was Rovisome Retinol Moist, but I didn’t want to mention the name as I believe some of the resellers are sensitive for whatever reason. I tried contacting Evonik previously, but they didn’t seem eager to help since I was not really a client. Making Cosmetics said they did not have additional information, and I also just noticed from a technical document from the manufacturer that you need to (1) warm the product to room temperature and (2) shake it before using it — neither of which was mention on the MC packaging.

  • suswang8

    Member
    April 20, 2023 at 11:46 pm

    So the story gets better:

    I contacted Making Cosmetics, and they said their product is *not* Rovisome Retinol Moist, adding that just because I found the usage instructions I mentioned above, that does not necessarily mean those instructions are applicable to the Making Cosmetics variant, as these are two different (albeit similar) products.

    I then wrote back to say that the Rovisome was the only product I was able to locate online that had the same INCI as the Making Cosmetics item, and that if it is not Rovisome, what product is it? They then came back to say that they will not tell me which product it is. =|

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