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dimethicone keeps clumping in C12-15 Alkyl Benzoate and cyclomethicone mixture?
I am a newbie DIY.
I’m trying to mix
dimethicone, cyclomethicone and oil and from a clear miscible solution for a
hair oil.LotionCrafter’s
premixCyclomethicone (and)
Dimethicone and oil would form a cloudy mixture in which the oil would later
separate and float to the top.I thought the oil
might be a problem so I mixed the premix Cyclomethicone and Dimethicone with
Cyclomethicone, and that would also cause what I assume the dimethicone to
separate and settle at the bottom.So I tried C12-15
Alkyl Benzoate in hopes that it would help emulsify just using the premix
Cyclomethicone and Dimethicone and it would form a white thick creamy
dimethicone(?) separated from a clear cyclomethicone and alkyl benzoate.They’re all
Lotioncrafter’s products but the customer support hasn’t been able to give a
product to successfully mix dimethicone, cyclomethicone and oil.Thank you.
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8 Replies
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@frustratednovice That’s weird indeed. I’d expect that at least Cyclomethicone (and) dimethicone and Cyclomethicone would mix without issue. Are you somehow heating the mixture during the process? That could the dimethicone gum, so try to do the process without heat. Also, mix during the process of addition. Are Cyclomethicone (and) dimethicone, Cyclomethicone and C12-15 Alkyl Benzoate the only ingredients in your formula?
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@frustratednovice As I often like to say: what CAN’T Finsolv TN do? (aka C12-15 alkyl benzoate) Well….it can’t solvate dimethicone and certainly not dimethicone/siloxane crosspolymer gums. It is miscible with cyclomethicone, just not the other silicones, and that’s the source of your cloud clump headache. Try Plan B - and I cannot say what that might be.
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I used this trick many times and it always works: mix your oil with alkyl benzoate, add cyclomethicone, add that solution into dimethicone. It must be noted that it only works up to a certain amount of oil. Not more than 2-3% subject to the type of oil.
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You mention oil several times… what oil? How much of each ingredient?Did you try a silicone emulsifier? -
You can’t mix oil with silicone it will not clear solution, but try mix it with ester like IPP and IPM, it good compatibility
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I think the issue here is polarity.
Have you tried finding a list of lipids by polarity? You can search, “chemist corner forum, polarity.”
Polar lipids won’t mix with nonpolar lipids.
If you want to use plant oils in your formulation, I would pick a plant oil that matches the polarity of Dimethicone and Cyclomethicone.
I myself have experienced separation when combining plant oils with cyclomethicone (I believe it was Apricot.)
Can you clarify what you did to get the thick creamy layer? That sounds interesting.. You combined premixed Dimethicone and Cyclomethicone with C12-15 Alkyl Benzoate?
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There’s some information here about polarity. Based on the information in this thread, you might be able to combine Dimethicone and Cyclomethicone with Peanut Oil, Almond Oil, Jojoba Oil, Avocado Oil, Sunflower Oil, possibly Olive Oil.
Dimethicone and Cyclomethicone are nonpolar, and so are the aforementioned plant oils, whereas C12-15 AB is polar.
https://chemistscorner.com/cosmeticsciencetalk/discussion/355/polarity-of-cosmetic-oils
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Or, as mentioned, use a silicone emulsifier to overcome that ‘polarity’ problem (it’s a lipophilicity problem but for non-chemistst this doesn’t matter).
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