Home Cosmetic Science Talk Formulating Foundation balling up when applied

  • Foundation balling up when applied

    Posted by chickenskin on May 9, 2019 at 7:19 pm

    Anyone have any idea or know why my foundation would be balling up from the friction of application?  Applied a dime size amount to skin, begin to rub it in, during rub in the foundation starts to ball up like if you were rubbing dried glue off your skin.  Any ideas of what that could be?  Thanks!

    chickenskin replied 4 years, 11 months ago 3 Members · 7 Replies
  • 7 Replies
  • gld010

    Member
    May 9, 2019 at 8:20 pm

    It could be your gellants/thickeners, it could be silicones, it could be pigment coating. We can’t say more unless you post a formula.

  • chickenskin

    Member
    May 10, 2019 at 4:02 am

    @gld010 I apologize I thought that it might be a common issue, and didn’t need to provide a full formula.  I’ll fiddle around with it and see if I can’t find the cause.  Thanks for the response!

  • gld010

    Member
    May 10, 2019 at 1:05 pm

    Its a pretty common problem but it’s also caused by many, many issues ranging from how you apply the product to the formula! If you are using a lot of silicone elastomers/crosspolymers I’d reduce them, when I worked in color cosmetics we used a lot of silicone materials like that and using too much will cause the silicone to stick to itself.

  • ngarayeva001

    Member
    May 10, 2019 at 1:21 pm

    Is it balling by itself or you applied it on top of a moisturiser/other products?
    My guesses: any sodium polyacrylate based thickeners, xanthan, hyalurinic acid, some elastomers (as mentioned by the previous commentator).

  • chickenskin

    Member
    May 10, 2019 at 7:01 pm

    @ngarayeva001  Thank you for the kind reply.  It is balling up when applied and not in its sample jar.  When applied to the skin it seems to spread great but then when more friction is applied it starts to get tacky and ball up like wet dough trying to get off your hands.  Thank you!

  • chickenskin

    Member
    May 10, 2019 at 7:02 pm

    @gld010 you’re awesome thank you!

  • chickenskin

    Member
    May 12, 2019 at 3:52 pm

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