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Essentials for a face cream
Hi everyone,I am a home formulator with a few years’ experience making products for my own use. I have learned a lot from reading this forum and as a result plan to make changes to a formula I have been using for a face cream.ORIGINAL FORMULADemineralised water – 24.5%Aloe vera – 20%Rose water – 20%Glycerine – 3%Hydrolised wheat protein – 2%Allantoin – 1%Avocado oil – 6%Mango butter – 5%Squalane – 5%BTMS 50 – 4%Cetyl alcohol – 3%Dimethicone – 2%Panthenol – 2Chamomile extract – 1%Vitamin E – 1%LG+ - 0.5%PROPOSED FORMULADemineralised water – 66%Hydrolised wheat protein – 2%Sodium lactate – 2%Polyquaternium 7 – 2%Allantoin – 0.5%Mineral oil – 10%Olive esters – 5%BTMS 50 – 4%Cetyl alcohol – 2%Dimethicone – 2%Panthenol – 2%Chamomile extract – 1%Vitamin E – 1%LG+ - 0.5%I am trying to take @Perry’s advice to use only one ingredient for each purpose, so I suspect your advice might be that I don’t need both the sodium lactate and allantoin. I have changed to mineral oil because my skin tends to be dry. Specifically, could you advise:1. Are there ingredients that add little if anything to this formula?2. Is the percentage of mineral oil appropriate, and would you remove/replace the olive esters?3. Is the PQ7 doing anything (I read it’s good for wrinkled skin!)4. Is there anything in the original formula that should be put back (e.g. the dimethicone as a barrier ingredient)?Thanks as always. I learn so much from the experience in this forum.Mel. -
10 Replies
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Depending on what you are trying to formulate and what kind of reference product you are using for reference, the barebones or essential ingredients can vary, for example, a standard cream formulation would minimally contain:
- Water
- Emulsifier
- Lipid
- Humectant (Some medical active creams may contain propylene glycol instead of glycerin)
- Preservative
The rest of the ingredients, you can use them for added extras. Though to answer your questions in general, I’d recommend to patch test them separately to see if they actually do anything for your skin before deciding to add them to your formulation. For example, normally if i’m trying out if an ingredient works or not, i’d be applying my usual moisturizer, plus that ingredient formulated separately in a different form, such as a gel. This way i can see if they do anything for my skin at specific percentages over a few applications.
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Allantoin still exceeds what can be solubilized in the water you have. If I recall, .54% of water…not .54% of formula.
Monumental step forward from first formula.
Now just make a small batch…evaluate and correct.
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jemolian said:Depending on what you are trying to formulate and what kind of reference product you are using for reference, the barebones or essential ingredients can vary, for example, a standard cream formulation would minimally contain:
- Water
- Emulsifier
- Lipid
- Humectant (Some medical active creams may contain propylene glycol instead of glycerin)
- Preservative
The rest of the ingredients, you can use them for added extras. Though to answer your questions in general, I’d recommend to patch test them separately to see if they actually do anything for your skin before deciding to add them to your formulation. For example, normally if i’m trying out if an ingredient works or not, i’d be applying my usual moisturizer, plus that ingredient formulated separately in a different form, such as a gel. This way i can see if they do anything for my skin at specific percentages over a few applications.
What lipid/s would you suggest to take the place of an oil phase of about 20%? Other than plant/mineral oil and butters.
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@ifamuj normally for my formulations i use esters such as Isononyl Isononanoate. I rarely use plant oils, butters, waxes, and mineral oils.
The type of lipids largely depends on your requirements such as cost, skin feel, brand philosophy, product and marketing requirements.
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jemolian said:i use esters such as Isononyl Isononanoate.
Just curious…the US repackers don’t seem to carry Isononyl Isononoate…so I have always had to use Isoamyl laurate (mixed in with a few other things). I’ve always wondered what I was missing….can you or anyone compare them for me?
I’ve never requested a sample of ULP….cus I did not have a place I could ultimately buy it.
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@Graillotion i bought mine from china as per usual, but then in terms of skin feel wise, Isononyl Isononoate’s profile is very fast spreading, silky and relatively fast absorbing even up to 20%.
You can see some of the info on performance here ->
https://www.dropbox.com/s/mpv0hbaaq91etct/DOC%20FICHE%20DUB%20ININ.pdf?dl=0
https://www.dropbox.com/s/nc5xfxi2dwpx22e/Lanol%2099.pdf?dl=0I can’t compare too much since i normally use esters that are not sold in the US, such as Cetyl Ethylhexanoate or Triethylhexanoin, but they are all relatively very light esters, so in terms of performance wise, they are quite close. If the ones you have are light esters or lighter than Capric / Caprylic Triglyceride, i think they would be quite similar.
I’ve been testing with some of the thicker, more emollient esters like Di-PPG-3 Myristyl Ether Adipate, Pentaerythrityl Tetraisostearate, Diisostearyl Malate.
Just bought some Hydrogenated Polyisobutene, so hope to test it when it arrives.
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jemolian said:@Graillotion i bought mine from china as per usual, but then in terms of skin feel wise, Isononyl Isononoate’s profile is very fast spreading, silky and relatively fast absorbing even up to 20%.
Just bought some Hydrogenated Polyisobutene, so hope to test it when it arrives.
Thank you…. I went ahead and order samples from ULP… I have a repacker whom I can sometimes twist their arm into getting specialty products.
I just started with the polyisobutene last week….in a very lite lotion package…and it definately enhanced the durability of the humectants. So plan on trying it again tomorrow with a little higher rate of hydrolyzed Jojoba esters, to make it feel like a lite weight, but moisturize like a heavy weight. I can usually get that effect by raising the HJE’s up in that 3% range.
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I saw you mention the Hydrogenated Polyisobutene so i went ahead to order some from china, with the trade name PARLEAM, which is roughly similar to Squalane in terms of profile. Wanted to try the 1200 version from Making cosmetics but it’s out of stock
Still working on increasing the emollency of my moisturizer with the heavier esters, though Isononyl Isononoate works relatively well in skin softening, and moisturization in the short term (perhaps up to 4 to 6 hours in more drying conditions).
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jemolian said:@Graillotion i bought mine from china as per usual, but then in terms of skin feel wise, Isononyl Isononoate’s profile is very fast spreading, silky and relatively fast absorbing even up to 20%.
You can see some of the info on performance here ->
https://www.dropbox.com/s/mpv0hbaaq91etct/DOC%20FICHE%20DUB%20ININ.pdf?dl=0
https://www.dropbox.com/s/nc5xfxi2dwpx22e/Lanol%2099.pdf?dl=0I can’t compare too much since i normally use esters that are not sold in the US, such as Cetyl Ethylhexanoate or Triethylhexanoin, but they are all relatively very light esters, so in terms of performance wise, they are quite close. If the ones you have are light esters or lighter than Capric / Caprylic Triglyceride, i think they would be quite similar.
I’ve been testing with some of the thicker, more emollient esters like Di-PPG-3 Myristyl Ether Adipate, Pentaerythrityl Tetraisostearate, Diisostearyl Malate.
Just bought some Hydrogenated Polyisobutene, so hope to test it when it arrives.
What do you think of Capric / Caprylic Triglyceride? How do you think it would work at 20% in a O/W emulsion?
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@ifamuj my CCT has a smell that i don’t really like that much by itself, but other than that, i prefer to use at max at about 10%.
At 20%, you need to test if you like the skin feel or not, so i don’t think it’s something that i can comment too much on because it’s a personal preference or formulation requirement to the lipid selection.
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