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Blends and Ingredients Lists…
Folks,
As some background… In a few of my posts and others posts surfactant blends were discussed. Because Perry, David and others made some points about using blends I decided that they may not be the best option for me. One point that was raised was that you don’t know the percentages of each of the actives in the blend and that can play havoc with the formulation you are working with. With that knowledge and David’s post mentioning Google Pics, I found quite a few ingredients lists for the type of product I wish to make. In reading these lists and looking at the surfactants I had chosen, several of which come in different forms with actives anywhere from 20% to 80% or more I made the connection with those lists and came to the conclusion that although a surfactant may be lower down on the list of ingredients, we don’t know what percentage the active is for that surfactant if it is something like Sodium Lauroyl Methyl Isethionate which could be in the 31-35% range or as high as 80-85%! So, for me the light went on and I came to the conclusion that although an ingredient may be lower on the list, it’s active may actually make it a primary or a high % secondary surfactant! Now if I were to see CAPB on the ingredients list I think is would be safe to say that the active for this would be around 30-35% making it a bit easier to guess the percentage of CAPB in that formula. To me that would also indicate the same thing when looking at Iselux SFS and seeing the positioning of all four ingredients in its list. So unless some chemical analysis is done it is pretty much a crap-shoot in guessing the percentages in this type of product for the same reason I mentioned above. Two of its ingredients come in several forms with different actives percentages so for me that would be another reason to not use a blend.For some, this might have seemed obvious but sometimes I find myself gaining knowledge through a less obvious path. I feel pretty sure that what I have stated is correct but if it is not or if there are other things I have not considered, please feel free to fill me in. As I’ve said before, I’m here to learn and sometimes it makes it a little easier to admit something you don’t know to get the right answer! Thank for reading this!
Regards, David
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3 Replies
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I prefer to rely on a blend for my anionic type shampoo because
1) I have two different manufacturers available for an equivalent blend.2) It reduces process time.3) The formulators who made it obviously have a hell of a lot more experience than I; their blend is far superior to anything I came up with. They have access to raw matls that I lack; I can’t source high-purity DEAL for instance, nor do I have a source for ALES. -
If the % activity of an ingredient is >1% then it has to be listed in order of concentration on the label. When making LOIs you have to base the list on % activity, not on the amount of the raw material (as supplied) that you put in.
If you use 5% of a raw material that is only 10% active, you’re actually only adding 0.5% of the ingredient and can list it in any order you want. -
Thanks, Perry!
That sheds some new light on things! It appears that my assumption was incorrect and in working with a product such as surfactants that are often available in a solution with water the formulator needs to take that into consideration when coming up with an ingredients list that accurately lists all ingredients placing “water” with “water” then placing the ingredient in the list according to it’s proper place determined by the percentage of the active ingredient. Who knew! I didn’t, that’s for sure!
I would then assume that a blend would also be listed in order of the percentages of the activity when labeled by the manufacturer? If that is the case, then a list of ingredients on a blend should be a little easier to work with and to “guess” as far as the percentages of activity. Is that correct, Perry?
So far, the products I have created, soap, liquid soap, shaving cream did not contain any ingredients that had any “actives” in them so that’s why I didn’t pick this up! This is my first serious attempt working with anything involving surfactants so there’s a big learning curve! Even though I have been “hanging out” at cosmetic chemistry boards for the last 15 years, there hasn’t been as much “activity” (pun intended) involving surfactants! I’m glad there is more of that here and thankful to all for their help! Thanks especially to you, Perry! (that explains why I have been seeing ingredients lists with surfactants near the very end of the list where I would not expect to find it! - all because it’s active is actually below 1%! WOW!)
Regards, David
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