Liquid mud mask, slight separation issue, how to fix?

Formulating

Liquid mud mask, slight separation issue, how to fix?

Posted by Zink on August 26, 2014 at 6:31 pm

Ingredients: Distilled Water, Italian Green Clay, Witch Hazel Distillate (Alcohol Free), Calcium Carbonate, Zinc Oxide, Willow Bark Extract, Leuconostoc/Radish Root Ferment Filtrate, Lactobacillus/Kelp Ferment Filtrate, Vegetable Glycerin, Sodium Lactate, Green Tea Extract*, Hydrolyzed Quinoa Protein, Green Tea*, Panthenol, Niacinamide, Allantoin, Helichrysum Extract.

The separation is watery, slight and stabilizes over time, i.e. it doesn’t get worse after a certain level, but I want the formula to be perfect for aesthetic reasons. I was thinking of perhaps adding a small amount of carbomer, say 0.1%, or just reduce the amount of water?

Zink replied 10 years, 2 months ago 4 Members · 8 Replies
8 Replies

Chemist77

Member
August 27, 2014 at 12:25 am

Carbomer might not be a good choice when you have clay in formula (hoping its the same normal clay that is generally used for face mud masks), maybe you can incorporate magnesium aluminum silicate and see how it works out for you.
tonyh

Member
August 27, 2014 at 6:03 am

@Zink - check out “Cosmetic and Toiletry Formulations, Volume 7” for Purifying Clay Face Mask base formula.
Bobzchemist

Member
August 27, 2014 at 10:22 am

When I try to fix a formula that is slightly unstable, one of the first questions I ask myself is “What would be synergistic with the existing ingredients”

Carbomer is not synergistic with clay, and doesn’t play nicely with zinc oxide either.

Magnesium aluminum silicate (Veegum), as @milliachemist suggests, is both synergistic and stable. Veegum HV or Veegum Plus is what I’d suggest looking at first. Also try Laponite.

Gums would be my other suggestion. Xanthan or CMC.

Reducing the water probably won’t fix the instability.
Zink

Member
August 30, 2014 at 12:58 pm

Thanks, Magnesium Aluminum Silicate seems to make a lot of sense here, I’ll sample it from ulprospector, but does anyone know any regular online formulation stores that carry it?
Zink

Member
September 4, 2014 at 2:39 pm

I have HEC and HPMC thickeners btw, could any of those replace CMC? If there’s a good chance I’ll give it a try/
Bobzchemist

Member
September 5, 2014 at 10:22 am

Ordinarily, I would make you do your own search…

http://www.personalformulator.com/wvss/product_info.php?cPath=28&products_id=1214

See page 11:

http://www.vanderbiltminerals.com/ee_content/Documents/Technical/VEEGUM_VANATURAL_P_C_Pharma_Web.pdf
Zink

Member
September 6, 2014 at 3:06 pm

I did my own search, I always do. But how did you find the personalformulator link? They did not show up when I initially searched for it on google using keywords: “Magnesium Aluminum Silicate” order OR cosmetics OR bulk OR buy.

I reformulated adding 0.2% xanthan gum (low percentage because I want to avoid any gumminess, not a huge fan of gums in general), after 24 hours at 42C I saw the same separation issue.
Zink

Member
September 6, 2014 at 3:42 pm

Here’s a photo of the above xanthan gum sample. The clay also grayed significantly.