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Filling a Biphasic Product
I have had a client ask me to improve upon an existing Biphasic Cleaner from Lancome. The product separates into 2 phases in the bottle, forming two distinct layers much like an oil and vinegar salad dressing.
The Formula is pretty straight forward as a Water Phase and a silicone/emollient phase.
My concern is that this product will pose significant challenges in packaging and may limit her options for a Contract Manufacturer.
Could anyone with Commercial experience in these products weigh-in? My alternative is more of a “milk” type emulsified product.
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11 Replies
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I was involved in a two phase bath oil some years ago.
The initial plant setup was a constantly stirred mix feeding into a standard volumetric bottle filler. This wasn’t really successful as it was almost impossible to maintain a consistent mix of the two phases and, particulurly as they were different colours, the different levels looked relly bad on a nstore shelf.
What was done was to fill with a double pass, filling one phase to a fixed volume and then the other fixed volume on a second pass.
The company was in the process of setting up a double filler (two filler heads in series) when post Christmas sales went so low that the product was taken off the market.
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@johnb You are definitely confirming my suspicions in regard to this job. The client is a start-up, albeit a well financed start-up and I think they will be unable to deal with a filling process that will eliminate most manufacturers. I am leaning towards the emulsified product even more.
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I’ve worked on these before. It is really tough to get a perfectly clean phase separation after the product has been used a few times. I’d recommend against it.
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@Bobzchemist Thanks as well. I was waiting for you to weigh-in.
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I used to work for a major manufacturer of two-phase mouthwash; each phase was manufactured and filled separately, as it would have been hopelessly impractical to try and fill the mixed product
and, as @Bobzchemist pointed out, achieving a clean phase separation was nearly impossible after the product had been mixed
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What is the purpose of that idea? I regard separation as a failed product.
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They are trendy and common in Make-up removers. Here is a respresentative product, Lancome Bifacial Cleanser. It is hard to see but it isn’t a partially filled bottle, but two separate phases.
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The directions are to “Shake Well” before using.
Here is the ingredient list;
Aqua / Water / Eau, Cyclopentasiloxane, Isohexadecane, Sodium Chloride,
Poloxamer 184, Hexylene Glycol, Dipotassium Phosphate, Benzyl Alcohol,
Potassium Phosphate, Quaternium-15, Benzalkonium Chloride, Parfum /
Fragrance, Citronellol, Geraniol.Essentially you have an aqueous phase and a silicone phase. When you shake it, it becomes a white cleanser type product. In about 30 minutes it returns to the original appearance. I have been shaking it over and over for days now as I fidget and I am still seeing good phase separation. I found a similar starting Formulation which seemed straight forward. I was just concerned with the ability to get it packaged correctly. It is for that reason I have backed out of this type product.
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I did a 2-phase hair conditioner once. While the formulating is quite fun - you can e.g. control the phase separation by adding different amounts of sodium chloride - a bit like a salt curve. Filling is timeconsuming and messy and we also filled the phases separately after trying to fill with constant mixing.
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@David I imagine that in order to have a consistent product, filling the phases separately and by weight is the most efficient and effective manner. I didn’t want to add the additional manufacturing costs to the project so we went a different way.
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Mark, you can fill 2 times or formulate so the phases separate into the amounts you want of each. Then a slow constant mix while filling. We did one of these a few years back.
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