Home Cosmetic Science Talk Formulating Skin Making a safe body spray

  • Making a safe body spray

    Posted by belassi on March 20, 2017 at 8:19 pm

    After reading the horror story about creams based on paraffin I realised that my proposed body spray deodorant isn’t safe because I used a high percentage of ethanol to get it to dry very fast.
    Reducing the alcohol level to a safe percentage is going to result in a product that doesn’t dry fast enough.
    I was thinking of making a mixture of ethanol and isopropyl alcohol but the latter has a flash point even lower than ethanol and is also inflammable.
    How to get past this problem?

    johnb replied 7 years ago 7 Members · 14 Replies
  • 14 Replies
  • bobzchemist

    Member
    March 21, 2017 at 12:02 am

    Volatile dimethicone/cyclomethicone?

  • oldperry

    Member
    March 21, 2017 at 12:59 am

    What @Bobzchemist said.  That would be my first suggestion. 

  • drbobverdient-biz

    Member
    March 21, 2017 at 2:37 pm

    problem with silicones is they do mt dry very fast,Why don’t you make an aerosol spray?

  • belassi

    Member
    March 21, 2017 at 2:53 pm

    Can’t go pressurised, that’s only for big companies!

  • drbobverdient-biz

    Member
    March 21, 2017 at 3:01 pm

    got it —good luck —guess as Bob suggested you could try D4 or D5 

  • bill_toge

    Member
    March 22, 2017 at 8:22 am

    isododecane is another good one, it’s typically my go-to option for anhydrous products where a dry finish is required

  • chemist77

    Member
    March 22, 2017 at 10:03 am

    http://www.scientificspectator.com/documents/silicone%20spectator/Silicone_Spectator_December_2008_Supplement.pdf

    Check out the evaporation rate of 0.65 CPS Dimethicone, gone in 24 hours completely. 

  • belassi

    Member
    March 22, 2017 at 4:48 pm

    Thanks - but I want something that dries in less than a minute, not 24 hours.

  • chemist77

    Member
    March 22, 2017 at 5:23 pm
  • belassi

    Member
    March 22, 2017 at 5:43 pm

    What I want is a simple hand-spray bottle that people could use in a gym, for instance, to spray on a mist that dries in seconds. Can’t have people “waiting to dry” I don’t think that would be an attractive product. I will conduct some tests to see at what percentage ethanol is a flash-fire risk.

  • belassi

    Member
    March 29, 2017 at 5:21 am

    What I found was, that there’s no absolute cut-off point. 70% ethanol is pretty fiery and a film sprayed on a surface will ignite. 35% ethanol still shows a bit of fire if sprayed into a flame but it doesn’t persist at all, and a film of it on a surface will only ignite if the surface is pretty hot, eg cooking temp.
    30% seems a reasonable compromise.

  • johnb

    Member
    March 29, 2017 at 7:58 am

    You ask in your header if the flammability of ethanol is a problem in body sprays. Your comparative of the flammability of creams is invalid as the circumstances between the two situations are completely different.

    The problem in using silicones, and dilute alcohol (with or without IPA) or isododecane is the solubility - or otherwise - of other components, particularly fragrance, in the spray. I think you will find that isododecane quite flammable as well.

    The best thing to do is check marketed sprays already on store
    shelves and see what is the most commonly used carrier in this type of
    product. In most markets it will be alcohol (ethanol).

  • chemist77

    Member
    March 29, 2017 at 1:00 pm

    Agree with @johnb, just don’t use it while cooking near the stove. Will keep safe surely. 

  • johnb

    Member
    March 29, 2017 at 2:16 pm

    :) As the product is designed to be used in a gym there ought not to be any stoves in the vicinity and if you’re worried about smoking (tobacco or other “substances”) then that doesn’t fit with attending a gym either.

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