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PEG-40 as Solubilizer Oil in Water
Dear All,
My friend advice me to use PEG-40 to solubilize oil in water for my shampoo formulation intead of Polysorbate 20 or 80 without telling me the exact ratio of usage, some one please tell me what percent of PEG-40 for my 1% of oil ?
Please advice and thank you so much
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3 Replies
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I wish there was that simple answer. Every oil is different and needs a bit different amount of solubiliser. I would start at ration 1:1 and try it out .. into pure water. If it gets cloudy, increase the ration 2:1 (solubiliser : oil). You can go up to 10:1 sometimes.
PS. You can also stick to Polysorbate 20 in my opinion
PSS. What is the purpose of the oil in your formula?
Happy formulating
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@halimzhz I usually use 4:1 ratio, just to guarantee, but as it was said, it really depends on the type and % of oil you are using.
If it’s a shampoo formulation you can try to solubilize the oil in the surfactants, like cocamide dea or cocamidopropyl betaine… this would save you from using another ingredient. For me this works pretty well with preservatives and fragrances.
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A note - if I understand it correctly you are solubilising preservatives?
I would say this is not great, use more “water-loving” one, do not solubilise it. It needs to be available for the whole products, not being “trapped in the micelles”.
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