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Formulating with petrolatum jelly
Hi, I am considering experimenting formulations with petrolatum jelly. I know it is a synthetic material and I am unsure how it plays with the oil and water phases of formulation.
If one were to use petrolatum jelly as the base for an ointment, how can (if even possible) the oil/water phases be incorporated? Can water soluable ingredients be used? Or only oil soluable? How can an oil/water emulsifier be incorporated?
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15 Replies
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This are very basic questions and I highly recommend that you first do some reading.
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Synthetic?
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@PhilGeis It’s a petrochemical and these are commonly considered synthetic. Technically, petroleum jelly isn’t chemically altered but a purified residue from crude oil distillation and hence might be considered as derived from natural resources. However, the definition of ‘natural compounds‘ as used in sciences such as chemistry, pharmacy, or biology does not apply to mineral oil and similar fossil compounds because these have been ‘synthesised’ through processes involving heat, pressure, and time rather than metabolism of living organisms. It also doesn’t matter here that the educts were, once upon a time, living creatures. ‘Synthetic’ may not be an appropriate term but ‘natural’ is even less so and for 99% of the people, the expression synthetic is a good enough term for a sufficiently well description (using the word ‘non-natural’ might be better but given the ambiguity and frequent misuse of the word ‘natural’ would make things even worse). Guess most people can live with the not super correct term ‘synthetic’ better than with ‘aliphatic hydrocarbons of fossil origin’ or ‘carbon footprint positive non-renewable resource’ (yea, I know, many of the renewables aren’t yet and might never be ‘carbon negative’, let alone sustainable… cosmetics will probably never be neither sustainable nor friendly to the environment and the choice might not be if we want to kill our planet but how and when).
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Right - more natural than most of the ingredients claimed to be so.
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Touché :smiley:
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If you are using Petrolatum as a base for an ointment the easiest approach is to use oil soluble ingredients. If you want to use it in an emulsion, melt the Petrolatum with your oil phase and proceed as usual.
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@Pharma - from a volume standpoint, there are many other things in society that are much worse for the environment than cosmetics. When we kill the planet it won’t be because of how much skin lotion people used.
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MarkBroussard said:@jackleon80s
If you are using Petrolatum as a base for an ointment the easiest approach is to use oil soluble ingredients. If you want to use it in an emulsion, melt the Petrolatum with your oil phase and proceed as usual.
Thanks for your response. So from my understanding petrolatum would behave like an oil. If it can be emulsified with the water phase, I am wondering which properties the end product would have? I am unsure if I ever seen a petrolatum based emulsion.
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Yes, treat Petrolatum like an oil in an emulsion. The Petrolatum will function as a barrier film former when the emulsion is applied to the skin.
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MarkBroussard said:@jackleon80s
Yes, treat Petrolatum like an oil in an emulsion. The Petrolatum will function as a barrier film former when the emulsion is applied to the skin.
Is there an emulsifier that is more suitable for petrolatum, that is one that will preserve most of its physical properties, and not turn it into a cream? Thanks again
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jackleon80s said:MarkBroussard said:@jackleon80sYes, treat Petrolatum like an oil in an emulsion. The Petrolatum will function as a barrier film former when the emulsion is applied to the skin.
Is there an emulsifier that is more suitable for petrolatum, that is one that will preserve most of its physical properties, and not turn it into a cream? Thanks again
There are many emulsifiers. It is dependent upon the Formulation. No offense, but you are asking questions that can/properly should be researched more in-depth and are properly a “topic” of study.This issue is why many Chemists will say “show the entire Formula” so that they may weigh-in. -
@Perry I wouldn’t make cosmetics if it were so :blush:
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jackleon80s said:Is there an emulsifier that is more suitable for petrolatum, that is one that will preserve most of its physical properties, and not turn it into a cream? Thanks againA: There are emulsifiers which are more suited for this or that kind of oil phase but it all depends on what you’re planning on mixing and creating therewith. Should you formulate with PEG-based emulsifiers and use the HLB system therefore: petrolatum has an exceptionally low HLB requirement for o/w emulsions = even more hydrophobic/lipophilic emulsifiers can give stable emulsions. This also means that it’s harder (in theory) to create stable w/o emulsions with it… but I guess that’s the point where you trash HLB and use other means.B: Yes and no. An emulsifier will not ‘preserve the physical properties’ of the inner phase but most can (but don’t have to) maintain the properties of the outer.C: An emulsifier is meant to turn two immiscible phases into an emulsion; an emulsion is often a cream. Whether or not that cream feels & looks like one of its ingredients depends on the type of emulsion more than the emulsifier.
No offense, but again, please get yourself a book or two about the basics of cosmetics and then ask questions if you don’t understand enough. -
Take a look at Aquafor and CeraVe products … you will find both creams and ointments that contain Petrolatum … that should give you some insight.
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MarkBroussard said:@jackleon80s
Take a look at Aquafor and CeraVe products … you will find both creams and ointments that contain Petrolatum … that should give you some insight.
I’m trying to achieve something like Neosporin, its consistency is still somewhat like petrolatum, however I do not think it is emulsified with a water phase. It may not be possible. I will check the ingredients.
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