How to solubilize Emu oil into a clear liquid product?

Formulating

How to solubilize Emu oil into a clear liquid product?

Posted by DavidW on February 17, 2015 at 3:13 pm

Anyone have any ideas? We are using 0.1% emu oil (I’d like to be able to use more) and have tried separately below:

2% PEG-40 hydrogenated Castor Oil
3% Tween 20
1% each Tween 20, NP9 & Triton X-100

The formula is about 40% SD Alcohol, 45 or 50% water. Some of the above looked clear in the final product but upon standing overnight it clouded up and dropped to the bottom.

Thanks

OldPerry replied 9 years, 10 months ago 6 Members · 10 Replies
10 Replies

belassi

Member
February 17, 2015 at 6:05 pm

What happens without the alcohol? Try some tests with different % of alcohol.
DavidW

Member
February 17, 2015 at 8:19 pm

Thanks but I need the SD alcohol to solubilize Menthol and Camphor in the product. Customer is insisting he needs either Emu oil or Cetyl Myristoleate in there too as an anti-inflammatory. And they want it clear.
Bobzchemist

Member
February 17, 2015 at 8:54 pm

@DavidW, this is specifically where a micro-emulsion is really called for. You don’t need to solubilize the oil, you can just make an O/W emulsion with tiny enough droplets that they can’t be seen.

If you have high enough shear energy available, you can make a micro-emulsion using the same kind of technology/ingredients that are used to emulsify flavor oils into soda.

Otherwise, you’ll need to use enough emulsifier to give your high-shear process a chemical boost towards making the droplets smaller.
ozgirl

Member
February 17, 2015 at 9:41 pm

I have found that when trying to solubilize some fragrances that a combination of tween 20 and PEG-40 Hydrogenated castor oil worked much better than either raw material on its own. Maybe you could try a combination of these to solubilize your emu oil.
belassi

Member
February 17, 2015 at 10:46 pm

Also try combinations with PEG-7 Glyceryl Cocoate. Personally I suspect the problem is between the alcohol and oil content.
DavidW

Member
February 18, 2015 at 1:13 pm

Thank you all for your replies. I will try your suggestions.
galina

Member
February 19, 2015 at 3:41 am

Emu oil is not really an oil, but animal fat. Think of chicken broth and what is forming on the top of it. One of the best solubilisers I have tried is an ingredient called Solubilisant LRI (PPG-26 Buteth 26 and PEG-40 Hydrogenated Castor Oil) from Sensient.
DavidW

Member
February 19, 2015 at 2:39 pm

Thanks Galina !!. Just so happens that I ordered a sample of that 2 days ago.
DavidW

Member
February 19, 2015 at 5:14 pm

Sample came in this morning and we tried it. Did not work much better (if at all better) than PEG-40 hydrogenated castor oil. The thought is appreciated.
OldPerry

Member
February 19, 2015 at 5:53 pm

Thanks for the follow-up. Even negative results are useful information.