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Does anyone have experience with Colloidal Oatmeal Lotion formulation for eczema?
I’m interested in making a product similar to Cetaphil’s Baby Eczema Soothing Colloidal Oatmeal Lotion. I looked through the forum and still had a couple questions before I tried formulating. I appreciate any help you can give. The goal would be to make an OTC lotion for adults that can help relieve eczema flare ups.
Here are the ingredients for the Cetaphil lotion:
Active Ingredients:
Colloidal Oatmeal 1%
Inactive Ingredients:
Allantoin, Arginine, Behenyl Alcohol, Butyrospermum Parkii, (Shea) Butter, Caprylic/Capric, Triglyceride, Caprylyl Glycol, Ceramide NP, Ceteareth-20, Cetearyl Alcohol, Cetyl Alcohol, Citric Acid, Cyclopentasiloxane, Dimethiconol, Disodium EDTA, Disodium Ethylene, Dicocamide PEG-15, Disulfate, Glycerin, Glyceryl Stearate, Glyceryl Stearate Citrate, Helianthus Annuus, (Sunflower) Seed Oil, Niacinamide, Panthenol, Pentylene Glycol, Sodium Hyaluronate, Sodium PCA, Sodium Polyacrylate, Sorbitol, Tocopheryl Acetate, Water
1. If I were to use this as a template to make my own lotion, what ingredients should I start with to make a bare bones lotion with moisturizing and occlusive effects? I would want to omit the marketing ingredients and just make a simple lotion that incorporates the colloidal oatmeal, glycerin, silicones, emulsifiers, and oil phase.
2. After reading through the forum the plan is to make a slurry of the colloidal oatmeal and water then add that to the cooldown phase of the main solution. Does anyone have a better method or any tips? Or any advice on working with colloidal oatmeal?
3. I have seen data sheets with Colloidal Oatmeal usage levels up to 10%, some say 5%. What is a level that has shown results for you in the past? I would want to make this product more effective than what is on the market, it’s going to be for personal use only.
I’m interested in @Abdullah and @Belassi ‘s opinions on this as they had comments on a few eczema discussions.
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31 Replies
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I forgot to ask
4. What preservative system would be good to use here? I would want it to be good enough to preserve the colloidal oatmeal but not possibly irritating.
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Unfortunately i don’t have experience with oatmeal.
If you want to make a product that is more effective than top products in the market, you cant make it.
Your goal should be first how to make an emulsion and then how to provide a benefit from it.Phenoxyethanol+ IPBC+ EDTA + pH 4-4.5
or phenoxyethanol+ parabens +EDTA+ pH 4-4.5 -
Colloidal Oatmeal 1%
Allantoin, Butyrospermum Parkii, (Shea) Butter, Caprylic/Capric, Triglyceride, Ceteth-2, Ceteth-20, Cetearyl Alcohol, Dimethicone, Niacinamide, Panthenol, Phenoxyethanaol, Ethylhexylglycerine, Tetrasodium Glutamate Diacetate, Water
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Abdullah said:Unfortunately i don’t have experience with oatmeal.
If you want to make a product that is more effective than top products in the market, you cant make it.
Your goal should be first how to make an emulsion and then how to provide a benefit from it.Phenoxyethanol+ IPBC+ EDTA + pH 4-4.5
or phenoxyethanol+ parabens +EDTA+ pH 4-4.5I would disagree. I am by no means an expert in this field but i’ve been experimenting long enough to where i routinely make stuff that is more effective than some top products on the market. Sometimes the top products aren’t the best, and they may have to make sacrifices for cost or other reasons that you do not if you’re just making stuff for yourself as a hobby. Keep experimenting and your formula will get better and better!
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Off course you have experience and make good product and it may be more effective and less expensive than most of market products.
In my opinion top products are made by top chemists in the industry.
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MarkBroussard said:@AdamnfinemanColloidal Oatmeal 1%
Allantoin, Butyrospermum Parkii, (Shea) Butter, Caprylic/Capric, Triglyceride, Ceteth-2, Ceteth-20, Cetearyl Alcohol, Dimethicone, Niacinamide, Panthenol, Phenoxyethanaol, Ethylhexylglycerine, Tetrasodium Glutamate Diacetate, Water
Interesting choice of preservative (9010) for an eczema product, as you have discussed your research in regard to the irritation of many of the preservative systems to compromised skin.
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Abdullah said:
In my opinion top products are made by top chemists in the industry.
Top chemists…are often hamstrung by costing chemists.
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(Purified Water Acrylamide/Sodium Acrylate Copolymer (and) Paraffinum Liquidum (and) Trideceth-6)
Heat to 75C(Stearic Acid Cetearyl Alcohol (and) Polysorbate 60 Cetyl Alcohol Glyceryl Stearate) (Glycerin Petrolatum Shea Butter Mineral Oil Dimethicone Glycereth-26)
Cool down to 50C( 20% Water 1% Colloidal Oatmeal USP) (Sodium PCA (and) Wheat Amino Acids (and) Panthenol (and) Glycerin (and) Sodium Hyaluronate (and) Hydroxyproline 0.5% Phenoxyethanol (and) Ethylhexygycerin Triethanolamine) I made a batch with these ingredients and got a nice feeling moisturizing cream that felt very similar to cetaphil’s product. It was thick enough to put in a jar and covered the skin nicely but didn’t feel too heavy. I added the ingredients one at a time but I put parentheses around the ones I added in back to back quickly. I’ll see how the eczema reacts with the Euxyl PE 9010 and might change it later.
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*pH was 5.87
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Graillotion said:MarkBroussard said:@Adamnfineman
Colloidal Oatmeal 1%
Allantoin, Butyrospermum Parkii, (Shea) Butter, Caprylic/Capric, Triglyceride, Ceteth-2, Ceteth-20, Cetearyl Alcohol, Dimethicone, Niacinamide, Panthenol, Phenoxyethanaol, Ethylhexylglycerine, Tetrasodium Glutamate Diacetate, Water
Interesting choice of preservative (9010) for an eczema product, as you have discussed your research in regard to the irritation of many of the preservative systems to compromised skin.
Yes, I am currently working on an Eczema suite with Colloidal Oatmeal. PE9010 was the best tolerated preservative of all that we tried. I told my client at the beginning of the project to go with PE9010 … virtually all of the best selling competitive products were using PE9010, so there had to be a good reason for that. Could have saved a lot of time if my client had listened to me.
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@MarkBroussard That’s a bit of a relief then. I’ve heard of the studies claiming sensitization and irritation but we use PE 9010 in a lot of products so I trust it too.
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Oatmeal products are difficult to preserve. Can absorb oils so important to understand stability even if preservation initially effective.
9010 by itself is not enough - suggest chelator addition, and you’ll need addition with antifungal efficacy.What package design do you anticipate using?
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Graillotion said:Abdullah said:
In my opinion top products are made by top chemists in the industry.
Top chemists…are often hamstrung by costing chemists.
Yes but quality will never be the same.
The products i produce are i think the highest quality i my market compared to my competitors, even those from big brand’s ( because here they are all fake).
Even doctor’s are recommending my skin and hair products
. I did purchase some Pantene shampoos from UAE (because here they are all fake) to compare myself to it. Pantene was much much better compared to what i make.
Then i decided that i should only compare myself to low quality local producs. -
@PhilGeis I forgot to mention in my comment but I homogenized for 15 minutes at 6000rpm after adding the oatmeal slurry to help the emulsion stabilize. Would disodium EDTA or sodium phytate work best to chelate here? How can I tell if the PE 9010 isn’t enough without sending it off to a lab?
This was for personal use so I just used one of the 8oz glass jars we use for stability tests. I know pumps would be the safer packaging but it would also lead to wasted product. This would be used up quickly if there aren’t any issues with irritation.
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Graillotion said:MarkBroussard said:@Adamnfineman
Colloidal Oatmeal 1%
Allantoin, Butyrospermum Parkii, (Shea) Butter, Caprylic/Capric, Triglyceride, Ceteth-2, Ceteth-20, Cetearyl Alcohol, Dimethicone, Niacinamide, Panthenol, Phenoxyethanaol, Ethylhexylglycerine, Tetrasodium Glutamate Diacetate, Water
Interesting choice of preservative (9010) for an eczema product, as you have discussed your research in regard to the irritation of many of the preservative systems to compromised skin.
What is the problem with 9010 for eczema?
I use 0.6% phenoxyethanol in my lotion for eczema and I think it is the mildest preservative for bacteria that is a real preservative.
What is the alternative of phenoxyethanol that is milder than phenoxyethanol for eczema?
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Adamnfineman said:
(Purified Water Acrylamide/Sodium Acrylate Copolymer (and) Paraffinum Liquidum (and) Trideceth-6)
Heat to 75C(Stearic Acid Cetearyl Alcohol (and) Polysorbate 60 Cetyl Alcohol Glyceryl Stearate) (Glycerin Petrolatum Shea Butter Mineral Oil Dimethicone Glycereth-26)
Cool down to 50C( 20% Water 1% Colloidal Oatmeal USP) (Sodium PCA (and) Wheat Amino Acids (and) Panthenol (and) Glycerin (and) Sodium Hyaluronate (and) Hydroxyproline 0.5% Phenoxyethanol (and) Ethylhexygycerin Triethanolamine) I made a batch with these ingredients and got a nice feeling moisturizing cream that felt very similar to cetaphil’s product. It was thick enough to put in a jar and covered the skin nicely but didn’t feel too heavy. I added the ingredients one at a time but I put parentheses around the ones I added in back to back quickly. I’ll see how the eczema reacts with the Euxyl PE 9010 and might change it later.
We are saying 1% 9010 is not enough broad spectrum preservative and you are using 0.5% of it. It is a guaranteed preservative failure. Be careful with it. I am telling from my experience.
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You should design a system for broad spectrum efficacy and test to confirm. Phenoxy has little effect vs fungi and ok but not great vs Gram positive bacteria.
Phytate is pretty good as is EDTA.
Open jars are risky but if it’s for personal use - it’s your risk only. -
I’ll make the next batch with an antifungal and a chelator to be safe. So far no irritation on the non-eczema affected skin I tested. I’ll try again on a couple eczema patches and see how that goes.
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Parabens or IPBC are best - you could try Caprylhydroxamic acid.
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For fungi, parabens or IPBC are best - you could try Caprylhydroxamic acid.
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I just checked and we have these in stock right now:
What combination of either of these would you recommend using?
Spectrastat
G2 Natural MB - Caprylhydroxamic Acid (and) Glyceryl Caprylate (and) GlycerinTeraStat N - Caprylyl Glyceryl Ether (and) Caprylhydroxamic Acid (and) Propanediol Saligerm G-2 - ropylene Glycol (and) Diazolidinyl Urea (and) Methylparaben (and) Propylparaben Sharomix DMP - Diazolidinyl Urea (and) Methylparaben (and) Propylparaben (and) Propylene Glycol Germaben II - Propylene Glycol (and) Diazolidinyl Urea (and) Methylparaben (and) Propylparaben -
I like any of the three to the left
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GeorgeBenson said:Abdullah said:Unfortunately i don’t have experience with oatmeal.
If you want to make a product that is more effective than top products in the market, you cant make it.
Your goal should be first how to make an emulsion and then how to provide a benefit from it.Phenoxyethanol+ IPBC+ EDTA + pH 4-4.5
or phenoxyethanol+ parabens +EDTA+ pH 4-4.5I would disagree. I am by no means an expert in this field but i’ve been experimenting long enough to where i routinely make stuff that is more effective than some top products on the market. Sometimes the top products aren’t the best, and they may have to make sacrifices for cost or other reasons that you do not if you’re just making stuff for yourself as a hobby. Keep experimenting and your formula will get better and better!
I agree. Years ago, I stopped using cosmetics from big companies because they were not effective enough for me. For example, big companies use ingredients with known and proven effects, such as glycolic acid or retinol, but I don’t think I’ve seen a 1% retinol product from a large company. Glycolic acid? I saw only 5%. This can be due to many issues, such as cost or minimizing irritation, but for me the most important thing is effectiveness and visible results.
Abdullah said:Graillotion said:Abdullah said:In my opinion top products are made by top chemists in the industry.
Top chemists…are often hamstrung by costing chemists.
Yes but quality will never be the same.
The products i produce are i think the highest quality i my market compared to my competitors, even those from big brand’s ( because here they are all fake).
Even doctor’s are recommending my skin and hair products. I did purchase some Pantene shampoos from UAE (because here they are all fake) to compare myself to it. Pantene was much much better compared to what i make.
Then i decided that i should only compare myself to low quality local producs.@Abdullah
Why do you assess that your product was worse? Just curious. -
@grapefruit22 Pantene shampoo that i purchased from UAE had better conditioning effect when hair was wet & dry compared to my shampoos.
Maybe it is how different do dimethicone and Amodimethicone feel from Shampoo. I use Amodimethicone and Pantene had dimethicone.My shampoos are better than almost every local shampoo that i have tested.
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Pantene SH has a formula with very simple ingredients, but with a unique type of LGN (anionic surfactant-fatty alcohols) and equipment to manufacture it. You could still match its performance, but that’ll take you more money (than what they have for their formula) and testing.
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