Any such thing as white pumice?

Formulating

Any such thing as white pumice?

Posted by DavidW on July 9, 2015 at 7:19 pm

Has anyone come across a supplier of a white pumice? Those who have told me they have white send a sample and it ends up being grey. I am making a micro-dermabraision cream and the customer insists on having some pumice in there but doesn’t like seeing grey specs in his white cream.

Thanks

DavidW replied 9 years, 4 months ago 7 Members · 11 Replies
11 Replies

Bobzchemist

Member
July 9, 2015 at 9:30 pm

Ouch. David, you have a problem.

Pumice is foamed, volcanic rock - I’ve never seen or heard of any that is any lighter than grey. Personally, I’d use the tiniest little bit of grey pumice, and much more of a white abrasive - that way you can put pumice on the ingredient label and call it a day.
DavidW

Member
July 12, 2015 at 1:44 pm

That is exactly what I was thinking I will need to do. I have seen some that vendors called “white” but when I get samples they aren’t.
Chemist77

Member
July 12, 2015 at 1:50 pm

I have been using pumice but its more of grey and I don’t see too much white as such. We were doing what @Bobzchemist suggested but discontinued as the other abrasive was polyethylene. Still looking for something similar and which can effectively replace PE.
belassi

Member
July 12, 2015 at 6:02 pm

Bentonite works well as a mild exfoliant in about 80 screen.
Microformulation

Member
July 12, 2015 at 6:06 pm

Pumice is traditionally a darker colored abrasive volcanic rock. The white grade is usually grey to off white. I worked on a project with the material years ago. We got more whitening by reducing the initial concentration and adding some Zinc oxide. In the end we further reduced the pumice as it can be more abrasive than some other materials and will cause more exforiation (scraping).
DavidW

Member
July 13, 2015 at 11:42 am

Thank you all.
@chemist77 Try Aluminum Oxide. It is white and comes in different grit sizes. I have a sample from a company called Gray Star LLC. If you need their info let me know.
Chemist77

Member
July 13, 2015 at 4:12 pm

Thanks a ton @DavidW, I would try to find it locally and see if it fits the bill in terms of cost. But a wonderful suggestion and I would bother you if I can’t find locally.
billichemist

Member
July 14, 2015 at 4:51 am

I use Bamboo exfoliant particles from lessonia! theyre white as snow!
DavidW

Member
July 14, 2015 at 2:41 pm

Thanks
Kittykittykitty

Member
July 15, 2015 at 3:46 pm

Caribbean natural products has a small grain pumice that doesn’t grey out too bad, but there’s always grey in pumice. If you, however, go with a fine enough grade, you can do what bobschemist said and go with a white abrasive. I’ve got this funny feeling that fine grade quartz is going to be the next big thing.
DavidW

Member
July 16, 2015 at 1:07 pm

Thanks Kitty. I do purchase from them.