Home Cosmetic Science Talk Formulating Adding 50% of water phase after emulsion is made, is it ok?

  • Adding 50% of water phase after emulsion is made, is it ok?

    Posted by abdullah on January 15, 2022 at 1:41 pm

    In order to make lotion making process easier i wanted to make add 50% of water phase after the emulsion was made.

    I made a 500g sample with
    3% Polyglyceryl 4 Laurate

    4% petrolatum
    0.3% xanthan gum
    0.2% EDTA 
    1% phenoxyethanol+caprylyl Glycol
    Water
    I first made the emulsion with 50% of water phase when it was above 60°c and then added the remaining water at room temperature to cool the batch easily. The emulsion that formed was grainy and not properly made. This emulsion was made with stick blender.

    I then made a 10kg batch the same way with homogenizer and it was property made and stable.

    My questions  are,
    1. Is it ok to add 50% of water face after emulsion is made in order to Make the cooling process easier?

    2. Does adding 50% of water phase after the emulsion is made has any effect in emulsion stability? 

    abdullah replied 2 years, 2 months ago 3 Members · 6 Replies
  • 6 Replies
  • ketchito

    Member
    January 17, 2022 at 12:41 pm

    @Abdullah As you experienced, that high amount of water should be better added using a homogenizer. 

    Adding some water to speed cool down is a common practice, uually around 20-30%. Now, to know if your process went well, the only thing you can do is to test the stability (4 weeks at 45°C might give you a first look into it). In theory, adding that much water could cause phase inversion, but that depends also on the emulsifier you are using. 

    Checking with a microscope could also be useful, but at the end, it’s your stability testing the one that matters more. 

  • abdullah

    Member
    January 17, 2022 at 3:18 pm

    ketchito said:

    @Abdullah As you experienced, that high amount of water should be better added using a homogenizer. 

    Adding some water to speed cool down is a common practice, uually around 20-30%. Now, to know if your process went well, the only thing you can do is to test the stability (4 weeks at 45°C might give you a first look into it). In theory, adding that much water could cause phase inversion, but that depends also on the emulsifier you are using. 

    Checking with a microscope could also be useful, but at the end, it’s your stability testing the one that matters more. 

    @ket@ketchito will 50% water in cool down cause phase inversion or 20-30% can cause too? 

  • oldperry

    Member
    January 17, 2022 at 4:17 pm

    It depends on the system.  Yes, you can do this.  We used to do this when making a hair conditioner that required heating and cooling. Production times went from 6 hours a batch to 2.5 hours a batch.

    But we also conducted numerous stability tests to ensure that the production change resulted in a stable product that behaved the same as the standard procedure.

  • abdullah

    Member
    January 18, 2022 at 12:51 am

    Perry said:

    It depends on the system.  Yes, you can do this.  We used to do this when making a hair conditioner that required heating and cooling. Production times went from 6 hours a batch to 2.5 hours a batch.

    But we also conducted numerous stability tests to ensure that the production change resulted in a stable product that behaved the same as the standard procedure.

    Thanks  

    Were you adding room temperature water or cold water? 

    Also, how much water were you adding?

  • oldperry

    Member
    January 18, 2022 at 2:14 pm

    Room temperature.  We added about 25% of the water for the cool down

  • abdullah

    Member
    January 19, 2022 at 1:48 am

    @Perry thanks.

    One more question

    Recently i have experienced that in emulsion if i add the polymer (0.3% xanthan gum) after the emulsion is made, it speeds up the homogenization process a lot because both phases would be water thin and the inline homogenizer can work better. If add 25% water at cool down phase, would it be better to add xanthan gum befor adding this cold water or after it? 

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