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How do you store your powdered ingredients? And do you always use desiccants?
Amateur here, and I am curious to hear how people store their dry ingredients.
-1- Do you typically keep them in the zippered plastic bags they so often come in, or do you transfer them to another vessel, such as a glass jar?
-2- Many resellers do not include desiccants. Do you often add one into the container the dry ingredient came with? (Skinchakra for example packages many dry items in a “double” zip-lock bag, with the larger/outer zip-lock bag containing the desiccant sack.) -
7 Replies
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Normally i store my powder ingredients that are prone to clumping in an air tight container with a large bag of desiccant / silica beads.
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I live on the wet side of Hawaii…and always have 90+ percent humidity. I add a desiccant the moment the bag is opened! Otherwise, it is soon garbage.
Especially important with things like betaine, L-Proline, carbomers, and polymerics.
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We get samples for each and every project specifically and maintain very little stock. With our relationships with the Distributors, we can get samples generally in 99% of the cases within 7 to 10 days max.
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I recommend the following methods for all ingredients. They are:
- Like the previous commenter mentioned, some re-sellers (aka Essential Wholesale or Making Cosmetics) use really cheap packaging that should not be used for long-term. You should have an SOP (or a strategy if you don’t have SOPs) for how/when to transfer the contents if you receive product that has low quality packaging. I prefer air-tight container, desiccant, as previously recommended, making sure the material is compatible and opaque.
- Ensure you have clear separation from R&D ingredient batches (meaning, commonly opened, exposed to air but only used for R&D), and bulk ingredient storage (for manufacturers this will be manufacturing ingredient storage) which has stricter protocols for use. Here, what I recommend is pouring an appropriate amount of an ingredient for R&D into a secondary container, use this and refill as needed from the bulk. This way the bulk of the materials are not constantly being exposed to the environments.
- Store ingredients at recommended temperature and humidity, away from light.
- Lastly, a great thing to do is to install electronic humidity and temperature monitoring in key areas, ingredient storage. This helps ensure that if the temperature or humidity rises, there is a documented history of any humidity issues. Amazon has really cheap options.
These recommendations may be too much for an enthusiast, and are more appropriate for manufacturing facilities or for those who wish to operate more like a cGMP facility.
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A few questions, please:
-1- Do you feel desiccants are essential for all dry ingredients (including crowd-pleasers like niacinamide, xanthan gum, and salicylic acid) or just certain categories of ingredients, as outlined above?
-2- Is there concern that adding a desiccant packet to the actual vessel contributes microbes? (Or is that overthinking things?)
-3- Does anyone have recs for small airtight glass containers? I assume standard spice jars are not going to cut it?
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suswang8 said:A few questions, please:
-1- Do you feel desiccants are essential for all dry ingredients (including crowd-pleasers like niacinamide, xanthan gum, and salicylic acid) or just certain categories of ingredients, as outlined above?
-2- Is there concern that adding a desiccant packet to the actual vessel contributes microbes? (Or is that overthinking things?)
-3- Does anyone have recs for small airtight glass containers? I assume standard spice jars are not going to cut it?
1) No….I have a number of ingredients, that do not draw water to themselves…and do quite well without the desiccants. Obviously if a dry ingredient is a humectant….well …. do the math.
2) I think this falls into the category of not sanitizing packaging before you add your product. You build some of this into properly preserving your products….to take on all comers. Obviously, most desiccants are going to come from China….so there is SOME concern.
3) I like anything Pyrex….I have a couple of these that I store high end extracts that I make. (You’ll go broke in a hurry if you need a bunch!)
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Looks like you want to be a reseller, or you are already a reseller.
1) I buy all my chemicals (Edible or not. ‘Food grade’ or otherwise) from resellers. Of course, I choose reliable resellers. Sadly, some resellers although are reliable, their data are from suppliers/salespeople.
Those chemicals do not come with desiccant. No clumping or ‘sweat’ issue. Even extremely deliquescent ones are nice and dry when they arrive to me.
They can do it because they do it in air-conditioned room. They are not foolish enough to keep getting return, and refund people. Depending on where you sell, your personality as a seller, or where you buy those chemicals. I buy at Lazada. Lazada offers 7 days refund, excellent after-sales, and it has many well-behaved sellers (because they are forced to be well-behaved! LMAO!). Shopee is the worst in all things that I do not bother buying at that site.
2) I live in Malaysia, a tropical country. I was battling against high relative humidity for few years since I started DIY cosmetics madness. I lost, of course. Hahahah!!
The use of Silica gel, Calcium Chloride, Calcium Oxide, and any other chemicals to drying stuff is futile when the relative humidity is very to extremely high daily.
Absolutely too expensive to use and to regenerate Silica gel, Calcium Oxide, Calcium Chloride. (Good luck to you if you try to regenerate Calcium Chloride). I learnt the hard way. Expensive lesson.
I cannot afford to keep buying and throwing chemicals. The most expensive chemical I bought and threw is Carbomer. I used only once, merely 0.1g of it, the whole thing hardened. I bought, used only 0.1g, and threw. This is the reason why I am forced to using Xanthan gum instead.
Resealable bag or whatever ‘airtight’ is useless. Vacuum works very well, and I thought I was clever. I may win the battle but I lost the war. The reason is that every time the container/bag is opened, moisture gets in.
I could make concentrated Carbomer solution, another clever way. I tried. But still not possible for me to use all up at once. I think maximum of a few % Carbomer can be dispersed in water at low pH. Even so, it poses its own new problem.
Back to Carbomer versus water in the air.
You literally see Carbomer (powder) changing right in front of your eyes as soon as you expose to air. No amount of super human speed can escape from ambient humidity the same ways as no one can escape from ambient temperature. Deliquescent chemicals such as Sodium Hydroxide, Magnesium Chloride, Calcium Chloride, and Fructose sweat and melt before your very eyes. That proves how high relative humidity over here is.
I know for sure air-conditioner can bring down relative humidity. Same reason why temperate climate generally has low relative humidity. I eventually bought a portable dehumidifier. Modern air-conditioner has dehumidifying mode but I ditch the idea due to financial reason/s.
First time using dehumidifier and I metaphorically yelled with happy tears. I could finally work with almost any chemicals which are super sensitive to ambient humidity. Not very dry because I deliberately set it to keep relative humidity at approximately 50% to 55%. Dry enough that my skin itches and dry enough that I could leave deliquescent stuff exposed to air long enough for me to do what I need to do with them. Because I am not rich, “enough” will prolong the compressor’s life. Like using 1% to 3% Glycerol is enough to see and feel the effect. Increase that Glycerol to 20% to 60% causes unnecessary issues. More is sometimes not better.
Short-term expense is high buying a dehumidifier, yes. But saves me money in the long run compared to me keep buying new or regenerating desiccants.
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