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Colloidal oatmeal/avena sativa in skin care.
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Colloidal oatmeal: That reminds me of vegan milk alternatives which I regularly use for my protein shakes (I’m not vegan but milk gets “sour” in my shakes). These, not just the ones with oats but also rice, almond, soy etc. are colloidal suspensions. Out of convenience, I’d simply use one of those drinks if I felt like putting delicious food on my skin
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Colloidal Oatmeal is actually regulated as an OTC skin protectant Active ingredient in the US. So, any product containing it would be classified as an OTC drug product, particularly if you want to make Eczema claims.
The easiest way to incorporate it is to disperse the colloidal oatmeal in a portion of the water phase, stir this well to create an “oatmeal slurry” and then gradually add it to your cream at cool down. If you don’t first make a slurry you’re going to get oatmeal lumps in your cream that no amount of homogenization will reduce.
It also tends to thin emulsions so you want to add it in small increments with vigorous stirring when your cream has cooled down to 40C or less.
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@Pharma
Hey! I see that familiar Plumeria. Long time no chat! I do miss and think of you often behind this screen. And I do often re-read, re-think, and re-research WTF I asked you and what you shared with me. It is because with more and more data I gathered, more and more I learn/learnt, the more you share/shared, the more I communicate with other people, the more I “believe” that “pharmacists” like you are truly crazy about chemistry related to all things human. Only in my chemistry journey did I know that there are physical chemists, organic chemists. Ugh, the many chemists that I did not know before this!Assuming pharmacists know their shit, that is. Pharmacists here, where I live, are stupid AF and I never consider them “chemists” (or apothecarists) as what pharmacists were traditionally/archaically known as. They (the idiots here) do not compound their own drugs. I’m not a pharmacist but I know and do a lot more science than they do.
Anyway, I decided to not use colloidal oat after learning that it is rather troublesome as it needs to be hydrolised.
Errr, I mean not a must to be hydrolysed, probably is my perfectionism acting out. Hydrolysing it does make oat extremely ‘fine’ (and gel-ish) without using oat powder; I use instant oats and let 1M NaOH do its magic.
Since @MarkBroussard says colloidal oat is actually an active skin protectant which I safely assume that it is not a claim thing, I might try colloidal oat just by itself without hydrolysing it. And also as what you mentioned, simply slap and slather that colloidal everything right from the carton/tin, why bother the extra steps!
I will presume preserving that much organic matter will be painful. However, I do know that DMDM Hydantoin is the best preservative as it is not sensitive to any substances. nothing deactivates it, not temperature and not pH sensitive, covers the headspace. I am not selling my products so should be exceptionally fine using DMDM Hydantoin.
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I managed to hydrolyze oats (whole finely ground) in water by grinding/ boiling it for several days/grinding and regularly testing for colloidal nature. I used a huge amount of water to give the simmer time to break down the molecules using heat and water (no NaOH required).
I am currently making lotions and creams with the liquid colloidal oats without issue. They are smooth and silky when used at the correct % (under 2%). I used a broad spectrum preservative which seems to be holding its own in the laboratory. I am storing the oats at different temperatures just for kicks to see if it is really stable. Honestly it is a lot of work for such an inexpensive raw ingredient. Having said that I also plan on freeze drying some to see if that process breaks down the oats even further.
I also made hydrolyzed glutenous rice and used a weak NaOH solution and it turned out brilliantly! Just remember to readjust the pH and use a preservative.
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I am intrigued by this product, which is a fine, debranned oat powder
https://oatcosmetics.com/oat/oat-silk/@JenSpice, does it add to the “matte” characteristic on your products, as well?
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Yes, my DIY colloidal oats are not readily felt until the product dries. There are no lotion blobs or texturing like you get when the particles are too large. Since it is whole oat, (fiber is intact and not chemically changed) my final leave on products leaves that soft, silky powdery texture that is so characteristic of oat.
I am not familiar with the product you attached in the link , so I could not say.
If you want to try making a wider range of products with your DIY colloidal oats I would suggest freeze drying the liquid oat mass. As a liquid it really only has one application, one where you have a water phase.
When I get around to testing whether or not freeze drying opens up storage options, I will update this post. I really would love to see how home processed oats hold up in makeup applications and other dry products.
Here is a picture of a product I designed for Baraka Shea Butter using the oats and some of their raw ingredients.
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@MarkBroussard Hi Mark! I enjoyed your Q&A webinar last week. Question about OTC status of colloidal oatmeal: a product is considered OTC only if it is making skin protectant or eczema claims, correct? But if these claims are not made, then a product can contain colloidal oatmeal without being OTC.
I see so many non-OTC products with colloidal oatmeal. Even more so, a company called Eczema Honey has Eczema Honey Nourishing Lip Balm & other products with colloidal oatmeal, that are not OTC (they don’t have drug facts sheet on their packaging). They also have National Eczema Association Seal. This is super confusing, as I would think having “eczema” in the company / product name would automatically be putting you in OTC category? Thank you!
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