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Benzaldehyde Usage Rate
I have looked everywhere to find a recommended usage rate for benzaldehyde and have only found one listing and that is for perfumery usage.
0.08%
Minimum0.8%
Average8%
MaximumI want to use it in my shaving cream at the proper percentage as I am aware there are some concerns of skin irritation. Any info you can provide will be greatly appreciated! Thanks!
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17 Replies
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Generally around 0.8% … I am certain that this is a regulatory maximum or not, but generally that’s the highest recommended amount by preservatives manufacturers.
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Mark, It sound like somewhere between 0.08 and 0.8 might be the safest amount to use but I don’t think that 0.08 is going to offer enough scent strength. I need to narrow it down before I experiment but I’m not sure how much is too much and how much is too little between those two numbers! Thanks for your input!
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David,
I don’t think you’re going to get much of an effect from using Benzyl Alcohol itself directly as a fragrancing ingredient. Preservation for sure … have you explored using BA as a preservative complimented with an Almond fragrance oil?
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Mark, I’m using Benzaldehyde not Benzyl Alcohol.
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Ooops! … My Bad … should have read more carefully.
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No problem!
Any info on Benzaldehyde? -
The problem with benzaldehyde as a perfume component is that it is extremely unstable.
It undergoes the Cannizzaro reaction under even very mild conditions (small deviations in acidity/alkalinity) forming benzyl alcohol and benzoic acid - both of which are effectively odourless. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cannizzaro_reaction
Although the Cannizzaro reaction is usually claimed to require strongly alkaline conditions, that is not always necessary and the presence of a phase transfer catalyst (a detergent or soap in your case) the reaction proceeds apace.
Benzaldehyde is also subject to atmospheric oxidation when it can oxidise with great ease to benzoic acid/benzoate.
Benzaldehyde can be stabilised to some extent as a solution in ethanol or a fixed oil. In the almond nut the presence of hydrogen cyanide is an excellent stabiliser but, of course, the toxicity of the HCN renders this approach unsuitable most end uses.
It is possible to reproduce the bitter almond note without benzaldehyde using, possibly, the dimethyl and/or diethyl acetals of benzaldehyde together with other components to “round off” the almond note. You do need the services of a perfumer to get this right and even then, there is no guarantee that it is possible in your product type (ever seen an almond soap?).
Never be tempted to use nitrobenzene (oil of mirbane) as a benzaldehyde substitute. It is highly toxic.
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John, Would your recommendation be to not use benzaldehyde and switch to an “Almond fragrance oil” from a reputable company? There actually are quite a few almond soaps and shaving creams about including one from Taylor of Old Bond Street who lists this:
A rich and sweet scented shaving cream that creates a smooth and creamy lather for a better shave.
Not recommended for those with sensitive skin.Fragrance Notes:
Almond
fragrance sweetened by marzipan, vanilla and a hint of maple syrup
supported by a heart of precious woods, dry fruit and nuts. Contains:
Cinnamon Leaf oil.Product Code: 01002
Ingredients:
Aqua (water), stearic acid, myristic acid, potassium hydroxide, coconut
fatty acid, glycerine, triethanolamine, sodium hydroxide, benzaldehyde,
benzyl alcohol, Methylchloroisothiazolinone,
methylchloroisothiazolinone. -
The LOI you have given is not complete and, even though benzaldehyde may have been one of the ingredients in the products when it was manufactured, it is very doubful that there is any remaining now. If you doubt what I state, try using the material in a soap based shave cream to test for yourself.
The fragrance used by Taylor of Old Bond Street is much more complex than the LOI suggests. There is no fragrance declaration in the LOI nor is there magnesium nitrate/chloride (which always accompanies isothiazolone preservatives). This alone makes me suspicious about the bona fides of the LOI offered.
The description for the fragrance, as you point out says marzipan, vanilla and maple syrup. Well, there is no vanilla originating from vanillin (discoloration), there is no maple syrup present nor is there any precious wood, fruit or nuts. It does, however reveal cinnamon leaf oil (declared for legal reasons in Europe due to the eugenol content).
It is possible to obtain benzaldehyde free almond fragrances just by using non-aldehyde components, a couple of which I pointed out in my previous post here. There are other materials that will do a similar job.
I strongly recommend you to use the services of a perfume house where you can explain your requirements and who will formulate accordingly.
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Taylor of Old Bond Street is a British company and the LOI is how they list it in the U.K. In the U.S. this is the listing. Note the one ingredient missing from the package sold by a reseller:
“Ingredients: Aqua (Water), Stearic
Acid, Myristic Acid, Potassium Hydroxide, Coconut Acid, Glycerin,
Benzaldehyde, Triethanolamine, Sodium Hydroxide,
Methylchloroisothiazolinone, Methylisothiazolinone”Sometimes scent descriptions describe aspects of scents that are not actually there. I’ve seen Almond scents described as having a “Cherry note”. The cinnamon leaf oil is listed under “Contains” but is not written into the description. This is all odd but apparently it does happen.
I don’t doubt what you are saying but I have used the Benzaldehyde in a shaving cream and it is quite strong after several weeks but it was used at too high a percentage in error. Going over the original formula, I knew I needed to reformulate and questioned the use of the benzaldehyde. I can check with fragrance companies and see if benzaldehyde or any aldehydes are present in there products but I think there’s a good chance that these products from several of my fragrance suppliers are fine to use, otherwise I would have found out before and they probably wouldn’t be selling them. I just have to stop using the benzaldehyde! Thanks for your input! Hopefully this will help someone else in the future for whom this may be an issue!
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I am in the UK and many years ago (about 40) I worked as a development chemist for the company that made shaving cream for Taylors (as well as several other traditional English “Gentlemens” shaving requisites suppliers e.g Truefitt & Hill, Trumpers and more).
The almond product wasn’t around then although in those days the tendency was for the client to purchase unperfumed shaving cream base then to perfume it extemporaneously for each customer - sometimes with perfumes exclusively compounded for that individual.
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WOW! This is quite a pleasant surprise! You certainly must have quite a
background in the Men’s Shaving and Bath and Body products! Thank you, kind sir for your assistance!
I had not heard that they had done custom fragrancing before! If you have any other things to share, I’m all ears! Interestingly enough, there are quite a few formulas from various sources whether it be Cosmetic Chemistry books, Soap making books and other online publications that are quite similar in ingredients and in percentage use of those ingredients. Although the ingredients list is not very long, the balance of all of the ingredients and proportion used is extremely important! For that reason alone, I decided to attempt formulating that type of product. The only new thing about this type of formulation would be the preservative but that’s OK with me and it seems OK with the Shaving community!Thanks again for your information, everyone!
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One point I could make about preservatives in soap in those days (makes it sound like a history lesson - which I suppose it is really).
Remember that this was in the early 1970’s and was before the days of INCI and CTFA names and ingredient declarations.
The preservative commonly used in soap at the company where I worked was magnesium silicate formed in situ by the addition of magnesium sulphate and sodium silicate to the soap mass immediately after formation. Other companies used different preservatives like Colgate added stannous chloride to their soap base. Soaps containing free fatty acids (so called superfatted soaps containg coconut fatty acid) were preserved with Sopanox which was Monsanto’s name for 1-(o-Tolyl)biguanide. You could always tell when Sopanox was being used as it had a very powerful sneezing activity in almost everyone that came near it in its powder form. This was, of course, all trade secrets at that time. Personally, I was unable to understand why this Mg silicate or SnCl2 system acted as a preservative and I did demonstrate, to my own satisfaction at least, that neither method had any real effect.The real preservative was the high pH of the soap itself together with the osmotic pressure exerted by the soap and its strong solutions when sitting in a soapdish drawing water from any contaminating micro-organisms. For information thare are some members of the genus Arthrobacter which are tolerant of these conditions and which are responsible for the black streaks which appear in soap which has been wetted and then allowed to dry and crack. These black cracks are not dirt as many people think.
The factory used two purpose built (with Alfa Laval) automated centrifugal systems for manufacture, not the traditional kettle and was, at the time, one of the most advanced soap making facilities in the world producing 1,000 to 2,000 tonnes of 80/20 soap base per week as well as traditionally made speciality soaps such as we have been discussing here.
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John,
So, did this factory make the Shaving Soaps and Shaving Creams as well? If so, did they have specialized equipment for each of those as well?
I know what you are saying about the black streaks in cracked soap! I remember noticing that many, many years ago but haven’t happened to see that phenomenon since that time. They must have found a way to work around that!
Just curious, do you know how many of products that you were involved in developing are still being offered today? That would certainly make an interesting comparison with what is being currently offered!
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80/20 soap base was the major output of the works but there were numerous other products in addition. The relatively small quantities of shaving soap and shaving creams could not justifiy the use of a dedicated auto process and were made by traditional kettle methods in quantities of between 1 tonne (minimum) and 5 tonne batches. There were also two 50 tonne kettles used mainly for the recovery of out of spec. soap.
The plant also produced glycerine and also used that still to purify glycerine from other soapers. At the time there were only two glycerine producers (rectifiers) in Europe - this plant being one of them.
The second major product (and the one I was mainly involved with) was industrial soaps and detergents. The company was another one of two (the other being Unilever) manfacturers of laundry products in Europe.
Another significant product was bath cubes. These have amost disappeared now but, at that time, about 100 tonnes of cubes per week were made. Weighing in at 45 grams each, you can work out how many cubes that was. These cubes were exported world wide. I remember Max Factor was a customer and they had fruit fragranced cubes. They always placed their order at the height of autumn (fall) for the Christmas market and it was extraordinarily difficult to prevent wasps being attracted to the factory and being squashed into a bath cube.
There was a small(ish) soap finishing plant at the site but the main finishing unit for the company was some distance away. About one fifth of the soap output was used “in-house” the remainder sold to soap finishers in the UK, Europe and Africa.
This now all history. The plant was closed in 2005 and all manufacturing moved the Thailand.
Whether anything of mine is still being marketed - who knows? It was in the 1970’s that I worked there.
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All of that sounds pretty amazing! What sounds interesting are the “bath cubes”! I tried to look them up and found some pictures of old ones available online for sale. Are they bath salts, foaming bath salts, some kind of cube with moisturizers and scent in it?
I decided to look through my hundreds of bottles of fragrance oils that I have in my closets while I was organizing them the last three days and found several example of Almond fragrances from bottles of Benzaldehyde to Almond fragrance oils. I chose one from a company I have done a great deal of business with that has additional Vanilla and woody notes and I mixed it with the floral notes and came up with a scent that is better than the original! I looked up the sources for the Benzaldehyde I had purchased and found these companies aren’t carrying it any longer! What a surprise!
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Bath cubes were/are compressed blocks of an equimolecular mix of sodium carbonate and sodium bicarbonate. This is/was sold as Crex. A double salt of a similar constitution but recrystalised in the form of silky needles is known by the name of Sesqui and comprises sodium sesquicarbonate. Sesqui is the normal form of material for bath salts.
The cubes contained starch and talc as processing aids, fragrance and occasionally colour. They were pressed on specially designed Manesty tablet presses.
Not for the small manufacturer. The presses, being specially made, were stupidly expensive.
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