Home Cosmetic Science Talk Formulating Formulating Salicylic Acid in a Facial Cleansing Toner

  • Formulating Salicylic Acid in a Facial Cleansing Toner

    Posted by pepe on March 3, 2015 at 10:02 am

    Nowadays facial cleansing toner that contains salicylic acid is my new born project…As all we know it is alcohol soluble and in water it precipitate…Is there any trick of formulating salicylic acid with water-alcohol mixture…

    Thank you in advance
    Doreen replied 4 years, 11 months ago 9 Members · 17 Replies
  • 17 Replies
  • MarkBroussard

    Member
    March 3, 2015 at 9:09 pm

    Well, I’ve found that is generally is most stable at a pH between 3.5 and 4.0.  But, you simply dissolve the SA in whatever alcohol you’re using and run experiments to figure out the alcohol/water ratio that keeps the SA in solution.  You’ll generally need at least 20% alcohol, perhaps closer to 30%.

    What I do is make a stock solution of 10% SA in alcohol and slowly add this stock solution to water to get the concentration of SA that I am targeting … usually in the 1% to 2% range.
    You can also eliminate this by using an encapsulated SA or natural salicylate extracts that are water soluble, but they are substantially more expensive than Salicylic Acid.
  • Chemist77

    Member
    March 6, 2015 at 4:40 am

    Yup try propylene glycol and little surfactants. Does help a lot as I was able to keep it clear nd solubilized.

  • belassi

    Member
    March 6, 2015 at 6:49 am

    If you dissolve 1% sodium citrate in the water, I think you might find that solves your problem.

  • belassi

    Member
    March 6, 2015 at 6:50 am

    See the Sulfate-free Facial Wash Gel
    with Salicylic Acid
    US-00536-80-44 on UL Prospector. It’s what you’re looking for.

  • Anonymous

    Guest
    June 12, 2019 at 7:12 pm

    Can someone tell me how to formulate an organic face wash with salicylic acid? 

  • belassi

    Member
    June 12, 2019 at 7:44 pm

    Yes. If the formula I suggested isn’t organic enough, first you will need to hire a chain saw and find some willows. Near water, they are, usually.

  • ngarayeva001

    Member
    June 13, 2019 at 6:03 am

    @Diadem, lookup in the free formulas section on the chemistcorner website (not the forum). Most of people here create formulas as their main job and charge for it. 

    You can post your formula that doesn’t perform as you want and ask for a piece of advice but you cannot ask someone to write it for you.

  • ngarayeva001

    Member
    June 13, 2019 at 6:09 am

    A bit of topic, SA dissolves in PG at quite a high concentration if you heat it to 70C. I managed to dissolve 30%. The trick is to cool it down and then add to water very slowly (if making a toner). Is there a reason why SA shouldn’t be heated? 

  • Pharma

    Member
    June 13, 2019 at 7:09 am

    Is there a reason why SA shouldn’t be heated? 

    No, none. SA is very stable.

  • ngarayeva001

    Member
    June 13, 2019 at 11:58 am

    Thank you @Pharma!

  • akatsmith

    Member
    June 14, 2019 at 12:53 am

    I dissolved 15% Salicylic acid into 1 ,3-propanediol with 7% Glycine Betaine (Beta vulgaris (Beet)) Sugar Extract. Now, when I tried to add it to water all of the salicylic globbed up, not sure why, I’m not that far into my experiments and learning yet but would love any insight.


  • Pharma

    Member
    June 14, 2019 at 8:19 pm
    The solvent is simply diluted too strongly and that’s why salicylic acid falls out.
  • ngarayeva001

    Member
    June 16, 2019 at 7:54 am

    Is it cold? I added 30% SA (70% PG 30% SA) to water. It should be done very slowly and both water and SA/PG should be room temperature (20C)

  • akatsmith

    Member
    June 17, 2019 at 1:43 am

    @ngarayeva001 yes, all of mine were room temperature. Need to play with it more, wondering if it would work better in an emulsion and I’ve seen 15% SA solution with only Propaneidol at a couple of online sellers so thought it should work.

  • ngarayeva001

    Member
    June 17, 2019 at 6:20 am

    It will work but the texture isn’t very pleasant in my opinion.

  • sven

    Member
    June 17, 2019 at 8:43 am

    @Belassi   :D chainsaw  imagine

  • Doreen

    Member
    June 21, 2019 at 9:21 am

    Belassi said:

    Yes. If the formula I suggested isn’t organic enough, first you will need to hire a chain saw and find some willows. Near water, they are, usually.

     :D  :D

    @ngarayeva001
    Why room temperature? I always heat the salicylic acid mixture to 70C and also add it to the water phase at 70C. After that I raise the pH to at least 3-3.2 when it’s still hot. If I wait too long with adjusting the pH in the cool down, the SA starts to precipitate. Later at room temp I do the final adjustment.

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