Home Cosmetic Science Talk Formulating crystal particles seen

  • crystal particles seen

    Posted by cherri on April 29, 2014 at 9:44 am

    I have seen some crystal particles on my cream.
    I can clearly seen them but once I rub on my skin it disappears. I tried heating up my batch and mix again but still showing up.
    Is it bc of my waxes are not melted enough?
    Any help will be appreciated
    Thank you!

    Bill_Toge replied 10 years, 6 months ago 4 Members · 9 Replies
  • 9 Replies
  • Chemist77

    Member
    April 29, 2014 at 10:39 am

    well I was thinking what to suggest without knowing a single thing about your oil phase let alone the formula. So I think what you are saying about waxes is correct.

  • cherri

    Member
    April 29, 2014 at 11:04 am

    I used below oil phase ingredients:
    CETYL ALCOHOL
    MICROCRYSTALLINE WAX
    MYRISTYL MYRISTATE
    ARLACEL 165
    PETROLATUM

    I heated up my batch but still see crystal particles/granules…. should I try reducing my wax? oil phases?

  • Chemist77

    Member
    April 29, 2014 at 11:20 am

    well obvious culprit seems to be microcrystalline wax only though if i remember an old post of this forum there was a mention of cetyl alcohol too crystallizing out. Why dont you try by working on both one at a time, that way you can analyze correctly.

  • cherri

    Member
    April 29, 2014 at 11:25 am

    @milliachemist thank you so much. so should I make one with reduced quantity? micro wax 5 % and cetyl oh 3 % are both fixed I cannot changed the ingredient list at this time.

  • Avick

    Member
    April 29, 2014 at 11:46 am

    Yeah, I have seen cetyl alcohol crystallize and separate from oil phases… It is pretty polar. The product page for Arlacel 165 suggests that it is for “nonpolar oil phases”. That could just be vague or sloppy language, but maybe it also points to part of the problem? Just supposing…

  • Chemist77

    Member
    April 29, 2014 at 12:05 pm

    @cherri I suppose you have to play with these 2 till you have optimized the ratio to eliminate crystallization though I am not quite sure about the end results. Or you would have to add something extra to prevent waxes from crystallization.

  • Bill_Toge

    Member
    May 1, 2014 at 3:55 pm

    is your oil phase fully melted, and at the same temperature as your water phase (or to within a few degrees) when you add the two together?

    when I’ve seen that happen it’s usually caused by the oil phase rapidly cooling when it’s mixed in to the water phase

    personally I don’t think it’s down to any of your materials, especially given how robust and versatile Arlacel 165 is an emulsifier

  • cherri

    Member
    May 1, 2014 at 5:19 pm

    @Bill_Toge thank you for your reply. Yes I did heat up enough and use sweep mixing for my cooling down process. I think it’s my powder that gets dispersed instead of solubilized well enough.

  • Bill_Toge

    Member
    May 2, 2014 at 6:42 pm

    what powder are you using

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