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Precipitate and Separation
Hi, I have a background in research chemistry and chemical engineering, but my work is in environmental applications. My cosmetic chemistry background is limited, so please bear with me if what I am saying comes off as very basic. I’d like some guidance on what I might try to tackle this problem.
I’ve got a detangler that has been likely made by cold mix methods (guessing on this). It actually works very well, it’s not greasy to feel, not a lot of slip, and seems to work by softening. It’s milky and slightly lumpy when in solution. It must be shaken and on sitting for a day or so will result in the solution to separate into it’s oil and aqueous layers, with a precipitate forming in the aqueous layer. The ingredients are deionized water, dimethicone, Argan Oil, petroleum, mineral oil, cetearyl alcohol, pyrus malus extract, c12-15 alkylbenzoate, hydrolyzed silk and corn proteins. I do not know % and I am personally not finding a base that was tweaked to create this. I’d like to do a better job with these ingredients, and fix it to have emulsion properties. Could someone shed some light on what may be going on with this solution? Thank you!
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8 Replies
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Is the product yours? If so, you would need to post percentages so that helpful experts in here could weigh-in.
If it isn’t yours, I would ditch it all (as it seems to be an unstable Formulation) and start from scratch.
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You can make a pretty decent detangler quickly and simply from only three ingredients:
Water………………….97%
Croda Rejuvasoft……3%
Preservative…………..1%I’m actually really surprised that the DIY websites haven’t picked up on Rejuvasoft yet. It’s essentially a pre-mixed, solid conditioner at 6% and a detangler at 2%.
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I do not know the percentages in the mixture. One guess is there is an imbalance with the cetearyl alcohol. And Bob, thank you for the Croda tip. Why I am asking about this mix is it works on major tangles, like in a horse mane.
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there’s no (declared) emulsifier, it’s not surprising it separates
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I do agree. The lack of an emulsifier is what I was obliquely referring to when I said it wasn’t a stable Formulation. Scrap all that and try Bob’s formulation. It will be easier and require less knowledge of the raw materials.
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Thank you so much for your input! And I will try that if I can get over the ULProspector membership hurdle or will call Croda direct.
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I do have a question still and I do understand and appreciate the simpler suggestion. Can someone explain why this mixture would work so well? It works better for detangling than any other product I have tried or other solutions I have experimented with.
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