How do I work out what the percentages are of each of the ingredients in my product.

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How do I work out what the percentages are of each of the ingredients in my product.

Posted by bbc2014 on March 21, 2015 at 6:25 pm

Good afternoon everybody, firstly please excuse my what may seen to be a very naive request but as making a cosmetic product is a million miles away from my field of expertise. I am trying to bring to market a male grooming product and have requested a safety test to be carried out. The company have requested a list of the ingredients, but they have also requested the percentage of each ingredient in the mix. Not a problem to a cosmetic chemist but to me it’s a challenge. My question can any body advise me on how I calculate the percentage of each of my ingredients which are fluid and solid based products.
Kind regards
bbc14

OldPerry replied 9 years, 1 month ago 10 Members · 20 Replies
20 Replies

belassi

Member
March 21, 2015 at 10:43 pm

% of an ingredient = (mass of ingredient/total mass) * 100
bbc2014

Member
March 22, 2015 at 10:14 am

Thank you very much for your response. That has helped emensly. Kind regards bbc14
braveheart

Member
March 26, 2015 at 8:19 am

Just to add an extra line to @Belassi‘s tip: Create a spreadsheet with columns for the ingredients, mass, from there calculating the % would be easy.

But then, how did you make the product without all these in the first instance.
Bobzchemist

Member
March 27, 2015 at 2:21 pm

to elaborate on braveheart’s tip - create a spreadsheet for your formula. Perry actually has a good one already done, or I can send one, or you can do it yourself.

Column A has ingredients - use 1 row for each ingredient.

Column B has the weight(mass) of each ingredient that you used. Do not ever use volume.

Column C will be for your % calculations

At the bottom of column B, total the weight of all ingredients.

For each row, in column C, put in the formula (Value in Column *(100/(Total Weight)
OldPerry

Member
March 27, 2015 at 2:40 pm

Here’s a video on how to do it.

https://chemistscorner.com/useful-formulating-spreadsheet/

And here is a link to the spreadsheet template.

https://chemistscorner.com/wp-content/uploads/Formula%20template.xls

Useful Formulating Spreadsheet
CosChemFan

Member
March 27, 2015 at 4:09 pm

I love the worksheet @Perry cooked up. I use it every time. I made a few chances here and there, but it’s a pretty solid tool as is.
Bobzchemist

Member
March 27, 2015 at 6:05 pm

Perry,

Can I get you to post a version of your spreadsheet I added a few features to?
Bobzchemist

Member
March 27, 2015 at 6:11 pm

Or should I just post a link?
belassi

Member
March 27, 2015 at 7:15 pm

When you use a spreadsheet, it is convenient to calculate the water % automatically. That way when you adjust or add a component the water % is recalculated so you immediately have the new formula. Basically:

List the ingredients with their percentages.

SUM those.

Subtract the sum from 100 and that’s the water percentage.

Then you can put a column in which you simply enter the required batch weight, and the spreadsheet produces a column with all the ingredient weights listed.
OldPerry

Member
April 3, 2015 at 7:59 pm

@Bobzchemist - if you email it to me I can post a direct link here. Send to thejoggler@gmail.com
NVaughn

Member
April 11, 2015 at 3:18 pm

Humbled again. I created one for my own use but never thought to have the water percentage self adjusting nor did I add the cost columns.
@bobzchemist - I hope the repeated humbling keeps me from reaching the peak of Mt. Stupid.
How does your spreadsheet version differ from Perry’s?
Bobzchemist

Member
April 12, 2015 at 5:14 am

Perry’s does something odd with the math. I think mine is easier to understand. Also,mine does more cost analysis - per pound, per kilo, per unit, etc.
Bobzchemist

Member
April 12, 2015 at 5:17 am

I guess the odd part is the water self-adjusting. I just use sum, and then recalculate the entire formula in another column.
heraklit

Member
April 12, 2015 at 6:45 pm

Why I see in many formula spreadsheets, ingredients in percentages with many decimal digits?
Examples:
http://msdssearch.dow.com/PublishedLiteratureDOWCOM/dh_08d4/0901b803808d4a98.pdf?filepath=personalcare/pdfs/noreg/324-00452.pdf&fromPage=GetDoc

https://www.ulprospector.com/documents/1038145.pdf?bs=804&b=121313&st=1&sl=33118556&crit=RGVjeWwgR2x1Y29zaWRl

Why use 29.31% Coco Glucoside and not 29.3% or just 29% ? Or Perry gave to us a shampoo formula with 32.143% ALS!
Maybe because this counts at huge batches?
Bobzchemist

Member
April 12, 2015 at 11:51 pm

It’s mostly because Accounting needs the precision.
ledude

Member
April 13, 2015 at 12:04 am

@heraklit - most formulas can tolerate a bit of rounding. Never understood why people go to the trouble of saying a product needs such a specific number, when most of the time the guy compounding is just going to round up or down anyway.
belassi

Member
April 13, 2015 at 5:47 pm

Probably forgot to go “format -> cell -> number -> 1 decimal place
OldPerry

Member
April 14, 2015 at 3:26 pm

I’m not sure which formula had 32.143% ALS but 32% would have been fine. It may have been to get a specific % active.

Anyway, I often had fun including a ’44’ somewhere in my formulations. It was like my artistic signature. So in some Tresemme formulas you might find an ingredient like an extract at 0.044% instead of 0.05%. Or I’ll have SLS at 25.44% instead of 25%.

I figured in production these numbers rarely got measured accurately anyway.
Chemist77

Member
April 14, 2015 at 5:34 pm

@Perry Is that the reason we see Perry, 44 always?????
OldPerry

Member
April 14, 2015 at 7:55 pm

It’s just my favorite number and I try to weave it into my life wherever I can.