Home Cosmetic Science Talk Formulating General Glycerin into oil?

  • Glycerin into oil?

    Posted by Bee606 on January 18, 2021 at 10:09 pm

    I am trying to formulate an oil for hair/body that is mostly oil based but with some other water soluble ingredients like glycerin. I have tried using polysorbate 20 as a solubiliser but it does not work and the ingredients obviously seperate. I have an emulsifying wax on hand but I do not want a white emulsion rather a “body oil” type end product. 

    I am new to creating formulas so please be kind haha

    Located in Australia, so some ingredients are difficult to get. But any help is greatly appreciated. 

    Also I have noticed a few other “oil” products on the market, and when looking at their ingredients I cannot find an emulsifier or solubiliser used, but has obvious water soluble ingredients… So I am completely stumped.. 

    ngarayeva001 replied 4 years, 5 months ago 2 Members · 1 Reply
  • 1 Reply
  • ngarayeva001

    Member
    January 18, 2021 at 11:00 pm

    Facts:
    - polysorbate 20 isn’t designed to solubilise a small amount of water in oil it is designed to solubilise a small amount of oil in water. Lecithin might work.
    - commercial body oils with water-soluble ingredients and no emulsifiers are either wrongly labelled or have such a negligible amount of water that it can be ignored.

    Personal opinions:

    - hair doesn’t benefit from applying oils. hair likes silicones or maybe super light esters. Most of those commercial hair oils with “organic argan oil” are 95% silicones and 5% claim ingredients (although I am probably being generous with 5%)
    - even if we assume hair benefits from oil, glycerin in this type of formula won’t add anything noticeable.
    - body oil either should be made from very light esters with dry feel (IPM, coco caprylate etc), or it will feel greasy and rather unpleasant.

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