Home Cosmetic Science Talk Formulating Cream/Lotion formulation help

  • Cream/Lotion formulation help

    Posted by Daniel3359 on March 21, 2019 at 5:54 pm

    Dear Forum,

    I want to create a cream/lotion for my personal use, can you please help me with the amount in grams for each ingredients as I don’t have a clue how much quantity to use for each ingredient
    Water (infused with calendula and chamomile flowers)
    Organic honey
    Silk powder 
    Colloidal oatmeal
    Cocoa butter
    Coconut oil
    Monoi oil
    Emulsifying wax ( emulsimulse)
    Germall plus
    Frankincense essential oil
    Myrrh essential oil
    Sandalwood essential oil
    What is your expert opinion on this formula?
    What is the safest broad spectrum preservative I can use in this formula?
    Do I also need to add an antioxidant? If so which one to use?
    Thank you for your help
    Best regards 
    Daniel
    Daniel3359 replied 5 years, 5 months ago 6 Members · 23 Replies
  • 23 Replies
  • ngarayeva001

    Member
    March 21, 2019 at 7:36 pm

    1) Thou shalt not measure formula in grams.  Download this:

    http://makingskincare.com/recipe-calculator/

    2) To understand how much of each ingredient to use and how to formulate in general read this:

    http://makingskincare.com/how-to-formulate-like-a-pro/

    3) Germall plus - great choice.  And it is safe if used as recommended by the supplier. To understand how much read this:

    http://makingskincare.com/preservatives/

    4) Water infused with whatever nonsense, silk, oatmeal and all other “tasty-sounding” goodness - bug food. They do not add anything to the formula, just add glycerin or any other humectant. A good moisturiser should have i) humectants ii) emollients iii) occlusive agents. 
    5) Yes, you do need antioxidant unless you are willing to replace your oils. Why did you choose those oils?
    6) Essential oils… Not so good for skin, but if you insist that it should smell nice (I would say why if you don’t sell it?) keep it as low as possible (.3% max).

  • OldPerry

    Member
    March 21, 2019 at 8:22 pm

    @ngarayeva001

    1. Not exactly. Formulas should be measured in grams. Maybe you’re thinking that they should be first calculated in percentages?  When you’re making a batch, grams is what should be used. Maybe I’m misunderstanding what you’re saying.

  • ngarayeva001

    Member
    March 21, 2019 at 9:10 pm

    I probably should have explained it better. I meat to use % to write initial formula, that should be equal to 100%, then convert to grams. I shared a link to a free calculator that does it, but I personally prefer working in Excel.

  • belassi

    Member
    March 22, 2019 at 12:40 am

    You modern people with your grams and so on. Here at P&P we use only traditional, ‘natural’ measures: We know that one gill is equal to two jacks, and there’s 32 jacks in a pottle. 

  • Microformulation

    Member
    March 22, 2019 at 12:42 am
    Is that an English pottle or a Metric pottle?
  • belassi

    Member
    March 22, 2019 at 12:51 am

    English pottle of course. We’re hoping to scale up to big black pot.

  • Dr Catherine Pratt

    Member
    March 22, 2019 at 3:06 am

    Seriously are you guys still using pounds in the US?

  • ngarayeva001

    Member
    March 22, 2019 at 11:05 am

    @Belassi, this is not a true old school. A true old school is to measure by the price, like “get 3 pence worth of borax..”

  • Microformulation

    Member
    March 22, 2019 at 12:20 pm

    Seriously are you guys still using pounds in the US?

    No self respecting Scientist uses anything but metric in the Formulation process. We will deal with English units (pounds, ounces) sometimes, but really only in the respect that the final product is often sold by the ounce or the pound.

  • OldPerry

    Member
    March 22, 2019 at 12:33 pm

    @Microformulation - @DrCatherinePratt - In production, pounds & gallons are still used. It often caused confusion between metric lab formulas and non-metric production formulas.

  • Dr Catherine Pratt

    Member
    March 22, 2019 at 12:49 pm
    Yes the conversions also brought down planes!
    I thought metric was compulsory now, like animal classification- genus and spp name so everything is constant worldwide?
  • Microformulation

    Member
    March 22, 2019 at 2:57 pm

    Honestly, I will do all my Formulations and Production Runs in metric and simply convert the units at the end. It seemed that Sales wanted to sell in gallons and pounds, based upon the number of retail units the client was purchasing (5000 pieces of a 4-ounce lotion).

  • Dr Catherine Pratt

    Member
    March 23, 2019 at 7:13 am
    Belassi a true old school is to trade! I give you spices, what do you have for me? I have warm bear coat, yes this is good trade!
    You have come a long way my friend, you can stay for food and you are welcome to my wife…..
  • Daniel3359

    Member
    March 23, 2019 at 2:29 pm

    anyone can help on my formula? :)

  • Microformulation

    Member
    March 23, 2019 at 6:40 pm

    Honestly, you have a Product development concept more than a Formula. The Formula presumes that it is much further along. No offense please, but the scope of the information you are requesting (percentages, preservation, anti-oxidants, etc.) are paid work for most consultants. It is a hugely broad question.

  • Dr Catherine Pratt

    Member
    March 23, 2019 at 10:53 pm
    I agree @Microformulation, you forgot to mention that it needs lots of changes to become Natural Haaa! 
    sorry Daniel just having a joke..
  • Dr Catherine Pratt

    Member
    March 23, 2019 at 11:18 pm
    Daniel have a look at some of the DIY sites like Making Cosmetics or Lotioncrafter, they have formulas and they will have all the ingredients you want. They are both in the US.
    Is it for the face or body? the one thing I will say is that you need to be careful with how many grams of Essential Oil you put into your formula.
    For face =  0.2%, body products = 0.5%
    The regulations of Essential Oils have changed, it would be beneficial if you looked up the FDA rules for EO’s and also which compounds are considered toxic since they are not pure, they are made up of hundreds of molecules. Be careful of using certain EO’s if you intend on getting pregnant soon as well.
    Whereas chemists work in pure compounds.
    Its sort of like turning it all upside down. The Organic movement say that Essential Oils are pure as they have come from a tree, but we say that it is really impure and can be loaded with insects and hundreds of compounds. So we purify them as much as we can. Hope that makes sense.
    Other than that you have the ingredients there, just have a look at the formulas and after that post it with the concentrations and then we can tell you if have a winner!!
    or you can do what Microformulation said, hire a cosmetic chemist.
    Hope this helps!
  • Microformulation

    Member
    March 23, 2019 at 11:44 pm

     Err, what?

  • Dr Catherine Pratt

    Member
    March 23, 2019 at 11:45 pm

    What is up, did I not give you enough naturals?

  • belassi

    Member
    March 24, 2019 at 1:22 am
    Water (infused with calendula and chamomile flowers) - Not well specified. We specify the % of extracts individually. Since these are claims ingredients with no real effect use 0.1% of each.
    Organic honey — bug food, no value, omit.
    Silk powder — purpose of this is? 0.2%
    Colloidal oatmeal — is this an anti-itch cream? maybe 0.2%
    Cocoa butter — 2%
    Coconut oil X capric caprylic triglycerides 3%
    Monoi oil — eh? Try a better claims ingredient eg evening primrose oil 0.2%
    Emulsifying wax ( emulsimulse) — never used anything like this so I have no idea. Glycerol monostearate + cetearyl alcohol + Tween 80
    Germall plus
    Frankincense essential oil 0.0.7%
    Myrrh essential oil 0.07%
    Sandalwood essential oil 0.1%
  • Daniel3359

    Member
    March 24, 2019 at 4:44 am

    Belassi said:

    Water (infused with calendula and chamomile flowers) - Not well specified. We specify the % of extracts individually. Since these are claims ingredients with no real effect use 0.1% of each.
    Organic honey — bug food, no value, omit.
    Silk powder — purpose of this is? 0.2%
    Colloidal oatmeal — is this an anti-itch cream? maybe 0.2%
    Cocoa butter — 2%
    Coconut oil X capric caprylic triglycerides 3%
    Monoi oil — eh? Try a better claims ingredient eg evening primrose oil 0.2%
    Emulsifying wax ( emulsimulse) — never used anything like this so I have no idea. Glycerol monostearate + cetearyl alcohol + Tween 80
    Germall plus
    Frankincense essential oil 0.0.7%
    Myrrh essential oil 0.07%
    Sandalwood essential oil 0.1%

    Many thanks!

  • ngarayeva001

    Member
    March 24, 2019 at 9:00 am

    I provided several links in the very first comment and addressed what is wrong with your formula. You have to read if you want to learn. This forum is for helping with something you cannot find online. Read the knowledge base, update the formula and you will get more help.

  • Daniel3359

    Member
    March 24, 2019 at 9:11 am

    I provided several links in the very first comment and addressed what is wrong with your formula. You have to read if you want to learn. This forum is for helping with something you cannot find online. Read the knowledge base, update the formula and you will get more help.

    Thanks, will check those link out!

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