Home Cosmetic Science Talk Formulating Silicone in Water Emulsifier

  • Silicone in Water Emulsifier

    Posted by chemwizard on May 13, 2014 at 11:34 am

    Hello,

    I have a high load of Silicones, say 35-40%…..what would be a good SI-W Emulsifier for a thick lotion?

    Thanks

    bobzchemist replied 9 years, 10 months ago 5 Members · 8 Replies
  • 8 Replies
  • Ruben

    Member
    May 13, 2014 at 12:04 pm

    I emulsified 30% silicone in water with 2.5% of Momentive’s Silsoft SF1540 (Cyclopentasiloxane (and) PEG/PPG-20/15 Dimethicone). At the end I got a very nice thick lotion that is easily spreadable.

  • chemwizard

    Member
    May 13, 2014 at 12:10 pm

    Great!

    Was that your sole emulsifier? What % of Silsoft do you recommend?

  • chemist77

    Member
    May 13, 2014 at 12:19 pm

    DC 5225C from Dow Corning, can start with 3% level.

  • chemwizard

    Member
    May 15, 2014 at 2:34 pm

    Will try! Thanks Ruben and Milliachemist!

  • cosmo_girl

    Member
    May 19, 2014 at 7:46 am

    what would you recommend to use for high silicone and oils in an anhydrous system to prevent the oils from kicking out? A palmade product

  • bobzchemist

    Member
    May 19, 2014 at 9:57 am

    You need organo-silicones to couple the synthetic silicones to the organic oils (organic as in chemistry, not agriculture) Phenyl Trimethicone is a good starting point.

  • chemist77

    Member
    May 19, 2014 at 11:24 am

    Just a very naive and stupid idea but maybe you have to be close on the densities as well for both the silicon and organic oils or else you would have two phase product on hand :-)

  • bobzchemist

    Member
    May 19, 2014 at 3:13 pm

    When I’ve worked on similar products, I’ve started with the organic oil, and then determined which organo-silicone it was soluble (not dispersible) in. Then, I would use that mixture to see if it was soluble in silicone. If not, I would add either more of the first or another organo-silicone and try the solubility tests in silicone again. Sometimes it took combinations of three or four solubilizers before I got a stable mixture. 

    I don’t know of any way of calculating this - I’ve always done it by trial and error.

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