hair serum

Formulating

hair serum

Posted by IBHC on March 18, 2020 at 2:38 am

I am trying to incorporate different ingredients into a formula for a hair serum. I am not using vitamin A or Vitamin E in the formula. I am trying to add in buriti oil and an oil-soluble vegan ceramide np. I’m not sure how much to add to the formula with respects to the other ingredients or if I should tweak the amount of the other ingredients as well in order to add these ingredients. any tips greatly appreciated. I am really trying to get an understanding on how to formulate with oils so any tips on that is useful as well. below is the formula from making cosmetics that I am using. as well as a link to the pdf if needed. it is the first product on the list

https://www.makingcosmetics.com/Conditioner-Formulas_ep_91.html

Phase A

Marula Tetradecane (Sclerocarya Birrea
(Marula) kernel oil, tetradecane) 20 percent

Repair VITA Oil Helianthus Annuus
(sunflower) seed oil, Macadamia
Ternifolia seed oil, Chenopodium Quinoa
seed extract, Cocos Nucifera (coconut)
oil, Gardenia Taitensis flower extract,
tocopherol, Rosmarinus Officinalis
(rosemary) leaf extract)10 grams

Squalane Light (C13-15 alkane)58 percent

Vitamin E Acetate (dl-alpha tocopheryl
acetate) 1 percent

Aloe Vera Palmitate (aloe vera octyl
palmitate)10 percent

Vitamin A (retinyl palmitate) .5%

Fragrance Sweet Orange Essential Oil .3%

Lavender Essential Oil (Lavandula
Hybrida [Lavandin] essential 0il ).2%

Fragrance Natural Rose Fragrance.1 percent

Method

Add ingredients in order and blend well.

OldPerry replied 5 years, 3 months ago 2 Members · 1 Reply
1 Reply

OldPerry

Professional Chemist / Formulator
March 18, 2020 at 10:07 pm

The problem is that you have no idea what effect any of the ingredients are having on the final formula. And you don’t know what characteristic you want to change. So, there is no way to tell you how much to add.

Fragrances have an odor so you can probably tell exactly what effect they have. Adding more or taking some away will change the formula in a meaningful way. So, for your fragrant ingredients, you can experiment.

Vitamin A & Vitamin E are unlikely to have any noticeable difference in your formula. You can test this yourself. Make a product with those ingredients then make one without. Then do a blinded test to see what effect they have on your formula. Similarly, Aloe Vera Palmitate is unlikely to have a noticeable impact.

My suggestion is this. Start with the following formula…

Squalane 79%
Marula oil 20%
Fragrance oils 1%

Then use it on hair and figure out what you want to improve. What characteristic? wet comb, dry comb, detangling, feel, shine? Ideally, you’ll have some way to measure these characteristics.

Once you figure out what you want to improve, then you can start experimenting.

Make your next formula…

Squalane 69%
Marula oil 20%
Aloe vera palmitate 10%
Fragrance oils 1%

Then try your testing again. Have you improved things? Have you made them worse? Or are they the same? If it’s better than that’s your new “base” formula. If there is no improvement or it is worse, go back to the first formula & leave out the Aloe Vera.

Take this same type of approach with all the other ingredients. I would use the maximum recommend level of any ingredient suggested by the supplier. Once you get something that works, then you can cut back to lower levels.

Just blindly adding ingredients without a target or notion of what you are trying to improve, is not going to get you to an optimized formula.

If you don’t want to take this approach, then just add 1% of your new ingredient. I’m sure it will work fine. It probably won’t have any noticeable effect, but it probably won’t destabilize your product either.

OldPerry