Home Cosmetic Science Talk Formulating Advanced Questions Amodimethicone, silicones and no-no words in marketing skin care

  • Amodimethicone, silicones and no-no words in marketing skin care

    Posted by Anonymous on December 16, 2019 at 1:13 am

    Hey guys. Im curious what you all think of this guy. Im making an eye cream, facial moisturizer, and face masks (probably 2 with diff functions to start). I am curious if there are specific reasons why you would or would not use this in any of these product types (facial). I ask this question with both chemistry and marketing in mind. On one hand you gave a silicone in your product could reduce the perceived “healthiness” the product has to the customer. 

    Cafe33 replied 4 years, 3 months ago 5 Members · 5 Replies
  • 5 Replies
  • jemolian

    Member
    December 16, 2019 at 3:13 am

    It largely depends on how educated the customers are and how you do your marketing for your products / ingredients. With the supposed “no no” ingredients, it depends on how you educate the customers to be able to accept them if required.     

  • EVchem

    Member
    December 16, 2019 at 1:47 pm

    Silicones feel nice, performance is unmatchable in my opinion.  They prevent soaping. 

    My understanding is that the silicone fear in part comes from D5 (cyclopentasilxoane) because it is bio-accumulative and bad for the fishies. It’s volatile so if on the skin long enough it’ll evaporate and pose less of a hazard, but for rinse-off products EU has banned it. It also comes from them not being ‘natural’ (though no one bats an eye at most of the technology in daily life that does not grow on trees).

    Silicones are much ‘cleaner’ in my opinion than some natural oils. Silicones are made up of one molecule with potential minor impurities, but plant oils can have a huge variation of molecules that can be more sensitizing.  They are not made from animal parts or palm or petroleum so you can appeal to people who value that. They are more sustainable than picking exotic native-mountain-berry oils  to make your lovely essential oil full of known common allergens.

    I’ll try to find some good sources and link them here

  • ngarayeva001

    Member
    December 16, 2019 at 2:57 pm

    Silicones are amazing and almost impossible to replace. I think formulators who don’t use silicones really limit themselves. 
    D5 is amazing and is used in makeup and hair care a lot. The restrictions are only related to rinse-off products.

  • gunther

    Member
    December 16, 2019 at 3:21 pm

    In my opinion stay off from ‘free of’ claims
    most customers don’t know and don’t care about chemicals like parabens or silicones.

    About the only customers that complain are usually the loud and broke ones who have too much time to spare.
    They aren’t likely to pay top $ for your products.
    Time is the most valuable commodity and they are wasting theirs by reading stupid internet scarmongering blogs. They aren’t worth it. They will always find something to complain about.

    If you want to advertise your products as safe, then you can get your products tested in a lab, usually using chromatography devices to test for chemicals that are proven to be harmful like traces of dioxins, formaldehyde pesticides, etc.

  • Cafe33

    Member
    December 18, 2019 at 1:16 am

    Personally, I believe silicones have reached a point of categorization in line with parabens and sulfates. We love silicones in our own personal products but we dont add it into our hair care formulations. We thought we might have some issues with Silicon Dioxide since it is close to the word Silicone but we educate on that point. 

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