Home Cosmetic Science Talk Formulating learning about % in formulas

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  • learning about % in formulas

    Posted by margi on December 24, 2019 at 12:05 pm

    hey, im new at the whole formulating thing. and i keep messing up with the percentage in my formulas. i always go way to high. and i dont get what ingridients should be in what percentage. any tips on where i can find ore about witcch percentage i should put each ingridient. (tho yes its different from formula to oformula. if i gave the impression that i thought all ingridients was just used at a spesific percentage )

    margi replied 4 years, 3 months ago 3 Members · 3 Replies
  • 3 Replies
  • EVchem

    Member
    December 24, 2019 at 12:26 pm

    To get an idea of how much to use you can:

    1. look at any and all material the ingredient supplier can provide you. Suppliers often provide recommended use levels, even tips on how to incorporate their material.
    2. Look at other formulas and start recognizing trends. You can read off the back of labels you like and start guessing what the ingredients might be at. Perry often links people here
    3. If you are going way too high across the board, you can dilute some products by either adding water or a thinner version of the same product.

    Over time it gets easier to judge what level things need to be at to achieve certain feels/textures

  • markbroussard

    Member
    December 24, 2019 at 2:24 pm

    @Margi:

    General Guidelines:

    Plant Extracts 1% or less
    Emulsifiers 2% to 4%
    Fatty Alcohol Thickeners 2% to 3%
    Gums 1% or less
    Preservatives 1%
    Surfactants 20% for primary, less for secondary surfactants.  Shoot for a total surfactant load of 35% to 45%.

    If you are trying to dupe formulas by looking at list of ingredients, try to find the “!% line” … this will generally be a preservative, but not necessarily so.  Regardless, if you find the 1% line … that is an ingredient most likely added at 1%, then all ingredients below that are added at less than 1% and all ingredients that preceed it are loaded at greater than 1% and are in descending order ranked from highest percentage to lowest percentage.  As to how much of each, it’s an educated guess.

  • margi

    Member
    December 24, 2019 at 9:38 pm

    thank you sooo much, that was help full, genuinly
    EVchem
    MarkBroussard

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