Home Cosmetic Science Talk Formulating Please help with this lotion

  • Please help with this lotion

    Posted by Oladoo on February 10, 2021 at 4:33 pm

    Hello, I have this SIMPLE lotion formula. What do I need to add, remove or increase to make it have a more professional feel?

    Water:75%
    Liquid paraffin: 15%
    Emulsifying wax: 3%
    Stearic acid:2%
    Cetyl alcohol:4%
    Fragrance
    Preservatives

    Thanks

    Graillotion replied 3 years, 10 months ago 8 Members · 12 Replies
  • 12 Replies
  • Paprik

    Member
    February 10, 2021 at 6:39 pm

    So do you want to have SIMPLE lotion or more professional feel lotion? 

  • Oladoo

    Member
    February 10, 2021 at 8:44 pm

    More professional. Thanks

  • Pharma

    Member
    February 10, 2021 at 9:39 pm

    @Paprik was spot on and very professional. No kiddin’!

  • ngarayeva001

    Member
    February 10, 2021 at 11:10 pm

    write ‘polymeric emulsifiers’ the search box of this forum and go through old materials. You will find the answer there.

  • Paprik

    Member
    February 11, 2021 at 12:20 am

    Pharma said:

    @Paprik was spot on and very professional. No kiddin’!

    Oooh, from someone like you, it reaaaally flatters me. Thank you :) 

  • Abdullah

    Member
    February 11, 2021 at 2:18 am

    Add some glycerin

  • Graillotion

    Member
    February 11, 2021 at 2:49 am

    Add as little stearic acid as you can get by with.  Add some dimethicone to reduce soaping.

    Review the basics….

    What is your:

    emollient
    occlusive
    humectant (as mentioned…glycerin…or others)
    emulsifier/s….and how will it make my product feel?

    Build off of that.  Once you have those fundamentals in place, substitute in better pieces until you have the feel you want.

    Note: I just finished a cream that started out pretty elaborate right out of the gate…and took 41 iterations to get it where I was happy.

  • TheSocksTooBig

    Member
    February 11, 2021 at 3:15 am
  • jemolian

    Member
    February 11, 2021 at 7:52 am

    Looking at the percentage of the thickeners it looks more like a cream, so you might want to work on that. Would also recommend a humectant if required. 

    Though you might want to define what you mean by “professional” in terms of the texture, skin feel, look of the end product you want. 

  • Paprik

    Member
    February 11, 2021 at 7:48 pm

    It’s a good practice to also include some stabilizing agent - gum/polymer.
    So basically 🙂
    Water (solvent), some humectant, water compatible gum/polymer, primary emulsifier (an anionic, waxy), co-emulsifier (non-ionic, high HLB, waxy blended), lipid/oil, some added extras as actives, fragrance, antioxidants broad spectrum preservative. :) 

  • Oladoo

    Member
    February 12, 2021 at 6:17 am

    Thank you all. Your responses are quite useful

  • Graillotion

    Member
    February 13, 2021 at 8:31 pm

    Look at a lot of INCI’s of products you like the feel and performance of.

    You can see…they are not often very simple.  Then do your research, and figure out why they added each of those components…what they do…how they change the feel…etc.

    If you don’t like a component…figure out what the alternatives are.

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