• Formulating

  Cetyl Stearyl alcohol

  Posted by crillz on March 29, 2019 at 4:02 am

  Having slightly varied results.

  Should using Cetyl Stearyl alcohol as the sole emulsifier at 6 percent be enough to create a good emulsion for a moisturiser. 

  I generally use 5 percent ceteareth 20- cetearyl alcohol and 2 percent stearic acid. Along with 0.5 percent xanthan gum as thickener

  em88 replied 5 years, 7 months ago 5 Members · 7 Replies
• 7 Replies

• 

  belassi

  Member

  March 29, 2019 at 5:33 am

  No, not really. Try adding say 3% glyceryl monostearate.

• 

  MarkBroussard

  Member

  March 29, 2019 at 12:09 pm

  Your problem is that Cetyl Stearyl Alcohol is not an emulsifier, it’s a thickener and you only need 1% to 2%.  

• 

  OldPerry

  Member

  March 29, 2019 at 12:49 pm

  I agree with @MarkBroussard - those are not emulsifiers. Also, it would help to know what oils are you trying to emulsify.

• 

  crillz

  Member

  March 31, 2019 at 11:25 pm

  Ok, thanks for this info as it prevents me from playing around with percentages of cetyl stearyl alcohol which was the problem in the first place.

  My original list of ingredients for moisturiser was as follows:

  Water             71%
  Witch Hazel   2.2%
  Glycerin         5%
  Xanthan Gum 0.8%

  Cetyl Stearyl Alcohol   7%
  Shea Butter                1.5%
  Caprylic/Capric Triglyceride 7%
  Apricot Kernel Oil      1.5%
  Jojoba Oil                  1%
  Rosehip Oil               1%
  Lecethin                    0.5%
  Lexgard Natural        1%

  Vitamin E                  0.2%
  Fragrance                 0.3%

  So looks as though I will be getting rid of Cetyl Stearyl Alcohol and will try replace it with Ceteareth-20/Cetearyl Alcohol at 5% and also add Stearic Acid at 2%.  I will also bring the Xanthan Gum down from 0.8% to 0.5. Looking at the product and how it resulted I can now see (as mentioned above) how the CSA wasn’t taking in the water phase as a good emulsion does as it is more of a thickener.

  Thanks for the help/info guys, always appreciated. Live and learn. 

• 

  belassi

  Member

  April 1, 2019 at 5:35 am

  You need a low HLB emulsifier as well eg glyceryl monostearate

• 

  crillz

  Member

  April 1, 2019 at 6:27 am

  I may well use glyceryl monostearate. I had Lecithin in there thinking that was my low hlb. 

• 

  em88

  Member

  April 1, 2019 at 7:34 am

  You need a proper emulsifer in you formula, cetearyl alcohol is not an emulsifier.
  Regarding low HLB emulsifiers, other alternatives are sorbitan oleate, sorbitan stearate etc
  If you really want to have cetearyl alcohol in your formulation, use Cetearyl Alcohol (and) Sodium Cetearyl Sulfate (Lanette N from BASF is an example).

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