Home Cosmetic Science Talk Formulating Brainstorming: What are your favorite fragrance emulsifiers?

  • Brainstorming: What are your favorite fragrance emulsifiers?

    Posted by Gunther on October 29, 2018 at 7:00 pm

    Can you guys and girls please tell me about your favorite fragrance emulsifiers for 
    water
    alcohol
    and cyclomethicone
    based formulations (each one used separately as the solvent)?

    Thanks in advance.

    Gunther replied 5 years, 5 months ago 7 Members · 16 Replies
  • 16 Replies
  • OldPerry

    Member
    October 29, 2018 at 7:20 pm

    It depends on your fragrance. I’ve had success with Polysorbates and Oleth-20 / Oleth-40

  • Chemist77

    Member
    October 30, 2018 at 2:39 am

    I am rooting for Poly Sugamulse D9, the old workhorse PEG-40 Hydrogenated Castor Oil works as well and as Perry mentioned, a lot depends on your fragrance components.

  • ozgirl

    Member
    October 30, 2018 at 3:03 am
    I find a blend of PEG 40 Hydrogenated Castor Oil and Polysorbate 20 works well in a water/ethanol blend.
    I would love to try Poly Sugamulse D9 unfortunately is not approved in my country.
  • erickafalves

    Member
    October 30, 2018 at 2:28 pm

    I also use PEG 40 Hydrogenated Castor Oil and Polysorbate 20 in a water/ethanol blend. It works well for me, however I never used ciclomethicone in it.

  • Gunther

    Member
    November 2, 2018 at 1:41 am

    @Perry how did Oleths compare to Ceteareths?

    @Chemist77  @ozgirl  @erickafalves
    May I ask how much PEG-40 HCO and Polysorbate-20 do you use?

  • ozgirl

    Member
    November 2, 2018 at 2:39 am
    It depends on the fragrance and how much fragrance. I usually start with 10 - 15% ethanol and 5% total solubiliser for 1% fragrance (water qs) and work my way from there.
    Unfortunately some fragrances require much more solubiliser.
    This application was largely room sprays so if you are looking at body mists it may vary.
  • Chemist77

    Member
    November 2, 2018 at 9:42 am

    As @ozgirl points out, the nature of fragrance will decide the dosage of solubilizer. At times 1:1 ratio works, other times it might go multifolds higher. 

  • OldPerry

    Member
    November 2, 2018 at 12:46 pm

    @Gunther - Ceteareths are blends of cetyl & stearyl alcohols. Since they are solid until about 60C they don’t make good solubilizers. Oleths (since they have a double bond in the hydrocarbon chain) melt near room temperature which makes them more appropriate as a solubilizer.

  • erickafalves

    Member
    November 2, 2018 at 2:57 pm

    It depends on how clear do you need your formula to be and the VOC content allowed. For ~1% fragrance, I have used from 3.5%  to up to 9% PEG-40 HCO and Polysorbate-20 (combined). And the ethanol content was ~2%.  
    I would recommend you to try Ternary Phase Diagram to find the optimum amounts of solubilizers, fragrance and surfactants.

  • Gunther

    Member
    November 5, 2018 at 6:28 pm

    Which ones do you use for a crystal-clear formulations?

  • Dr Catherine Pratt

    Member
    November 6, 2018 at 10:21 pm

    I really like Caprylyl  Capryl Glucoside and start at 5% and fragrance 1%. This is a natural solubiliser.

  • Gunther

    Member
    November 7, 2018 at 10:51 pm

    Polysugamulse D9 looks interesting

    it seems to emulsify most essential oils with just 3-5 times the oil weight.
    https://www.colonialchem.com/fullpanel/uploads/files/poly-sugamulse-d9-tds-00003.pdf

  • chemicalmatt

    Member
    November 8, 2018 at 8:40 pm

    PolySugaMulse D-9 hands down the best. Use ratio ~3:1but as everyone here said: all depends on what. Cyclomethicone? Yeesh! 

  • Dr Catherine Pratt

    Member
    November 13, 2018 at 4:56 am

    Polysorbate 20 wins hands down, it is used as the standard, but not if you are going natural.

  • Gunther

    Member
    November 17, 2018 at 4:20 am

    Thanks a lot guys 
    appreciate it.

  • Gunther

    Member
    November 22, 2018 at 7:43 pm

    PolySugaMulse D-9 hands down the best. Use ratio ~3:1but as everyone here said: all depends on what. Cyclomethicone? Yeesh! 

    May I ask what’s wrong with using cyclomethicone?
    Is that because it’s restricted in the EU?

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