Formulating

Retinol Cream Formulation Help

Posted by Yulin on June 16, 2019 at 2:26 pm

Hello,

First of all thank you to everyone who contributes to this forum. It’s an amazing resource. I’m working on duplicating a retinol cream and I can’t quite get it to match. The color, scent and texture are off. My formulation is more pale white and has a flat nutty scent while the the one I’m trying to match is more yellow and has a very sweet almost citrus scent. I think increasing the retinol concentration would get it closer but the concentration is already at a high level where it’s getting to the point where it would be too sensitizing if anymore is added.

Here is my most recent test batch formula. Does anything seem abnormal about this? I basically made a guess on concentrations based on creams I’ve done in the past and free formulas I found in the resource section. Thanks in advance!

Phase 1
Aqua	46.80%
Aloe Barbadensis Leaf Juice	25.00%
Glycerin	2.00%
Sodium Ascorbyl Phosphate (Vitamin C)	1.00%
Xanthan Gum	0.70%

Phase 2
Helianthus Annuus Seed Oil (Sunflower)	5.00%
Isopropyl Palmitate	3.00%
Glyceryl Stearate SE	3.00%
Cetyl Alcohol	3.00%
Stearic Acid	2.00%
Simmondsia Chinensis Seed Oil (Jojoba)	2.00%
Butyrospermum Parkii Butter (Shea)	0.75%

Phase 3
Rovisome Retinol Moist (.3% retinol, inci below)	2.50%
Hyalurosmooth (97% water, 3% Cassia Angustifolia)	2.00%

Phase 4
Panthenol (Vitamin B5)	0.50%
Tocopherol Acetate (Vitamin E)	0.25%

Phase 5
Euxy PE 9010	0.50%

Rovisome Retinol Moist INCI: Water, pentylene glycol, lecithin, retinol, polysorbate 20, alcohol, potassium phosphate

suswang8 replied 1 year, 10 months ago 11 Members · 21 Replies

21 Replies

ngarayeva001

Member
June 16, 2019 at 2:41 pm

Post the LOI of your benchmark. There are several things that may contribute to a non ‘commercial’ feel in your formula.
ngarayeva001

Member
June 16, 2019 at 3:11 pm

That amount of aloe is unnecessary and hard to preserve.
Too much of xanthan.
Glyceryl Stearate SE and Stearic Acid are draggy.
Sun flower oil is prone to rancidity.
I am not sure that .5% of 9010 is sufficient.
I would add disodium EDTA and BHT

Yulin

Member

June 16, 2019 at 4:01 pm

@ngarayeva001 Thank you very much for the reply! Great advice already - I appreciate it. My first test batch had a lower Xanthan concentration but it turned out really thin so I added more to thicken it up. I will increase the 9010 concentration and buy some EDTA and BHT. Here is the LOI as listed on the packaging of the benchmark:

Aqua

Aloe Barbadensis Leaf Juice (Organic
Aloe)

Helianthus Annuus Seed Oil (Organic
Sunflower)

Isopropyl Palmitate

Glyceryl Stearate SE

Cetyl Alcohol

Cassia Angustifolia Seed
Polysaccharide

Stearic Acid

Glycerin

Simmondsia Chinensis Seed Oil (Organic
Jojoba)

Sodium Ascorbyl Phosphate (Vitamin C)

Butyrospermum Parkii Butter (Shea)

Retinol

Panthenol (Vitamin B5)

Tocopherol Acetate (Vitamin E)

Xanthan Gum

Polysorbate 20

Pentylene Glycol

Alcohol

Lecithin

Phenoxyethanol

Ethylhexylglycerin

Thanks again for your help

OldPerry

Member
June 16, 2019 at 5:11 pm

It’s much easier to duplicate a formula by first ignoring all the “marketing” ingredients. Those can always be added later after you’ve got something that matches in terms of viscosity, color, and odor. This is a much easier approach than adding 2 dozen ingredients and trying to figure out which ones have the important effects. So, simplify the formula to only…

Water
Glycerin

Xanthan Gum

Helianthus Annuus Seed Oil (Sunflower)

Isopropyl Palmitate

Glyceryl Stearate SE

Cetyl Alcohol

Stearic Acid

Butyrospermum Parkii Butter (Shea)

Rovisome Retinol Moist (this is potentially just a marketing ingredient too)

Euxy PE 9010
Yulin

Member
June 16, 2019 at 6:29 pm

Thanks Perry - good idea. I’ll simplify and see if I can get a closer match.
Yulin

Member
June 16, 2019 at 7:03 pm

Does the 5% sunflower oil seem high? I know it tends to go rancid but it also seems like a high concentration. I just guessed 5% because of where it is listed in the benchmark LOI.
MarkBroussard

Member
June 16, 2019 at 8:34 pm

@yulin:

5% Sunflower OIl is just fine … If you total up your oils your totaling around 11% which is just where you want to be. Are you using golden jojoba oil or decolorized jojoba oil? … that could account for some of the color differential.

You might want to hold off on adding your SAP to Phase A because it is heat sensitive and it is recommend to add it at 35C or below.
Yulin

Member
June 16, 2019 at 8:54 pm

@MarkBroussard thanks for confirming the oil content is ok. That was one of my primary concerns. I did switch to golden jojoba in my second test batch and achieved more yellow color but still pale compared to the benchmark. The only thing I can think to do is add more retinol because it’s very yellow and also has the sweet scent so that must be what I’m missing.

Great tip on the SAP - I didn’t think about that. The SAP packaging I received from Making cosmetics says to keep it refrigerated so I should have made that connection with the phasing heat issue. I’ll adjust accordingly. Thanks again.
Pharma

Member
June 17, 2019 at 2:37 pm

Why BHT? Apart from traces of Tween 20, the formula is fairly “natural” and and skin-friendly whereas BHT is a potential allergen and one of the “bad guys” of these days. Why not add tocopherol (tocopherol acetate is not an antioxidant) and ascorbyl palmitate (ascorbyl phosphate is not an antioxidant as well)? This synergistic combination is more efficient than BHT regarding anti-rancidity. Or use rosemary extract.

A natural alternative to EDTA would be phytic acid and, less efficient, citric acid.
Bill_Toge

Member
June 18, 2019 at 7:42 pm

Pharma said:

Why BHT? Apart from traces of Tween 20, the formula is fairly “natural” and and skin-friendly whereas BHT is a potential allergen and one of the “bad guys” of these days. Why not add tocopherol (tocopherol acetate is not an antioxidant) and ascorbyl palmitate (ascorbyl phosphate is not an antioxidant as well)? This synergistic combination is more efficient than BHT regarding anti-rancidity. Or use rosemary extract.

A natural alternative to EDTA would be phytic acid and, less efficient, citric acid.

that’s as maybe, but BHT has much less potential for contact dermatitis than retinol itself; it’s also effective at very low levels (ca. 0.1%) and doesn’t make the product smell or discolour
MarkBroussard

Member
June 19, 2019 at 1:54 am

BHT because it is the most effective at stabilizing Retinol.

Tocopherol, ascorbyl palmitate, rosemary extract to prevent rancidity, but BHT for the Retinol. The Rovisome Retinol is essentially liposomal encapsulated Retionol, so that will add some measure of stability, but best to also add BHT.
Yulin

Member
June 19, 2019 at 12:13 pm

Thanks everyone. I’m really glad I posted because I hadn’t thought out the preservative system as thoroughly as you all. This is very helpful. I read through the reviews of the benchmark product online and there are some people who complained of rancid smell with units that were close to expiration so it definitely seems to be an issue with this formula.

I am now much closer to matching texture, color and scent so I’m going to do some research on BHT and probably add some. Thanks again!
Pharma

Member
June 19, 2019 at 1:53 pm

I admit, from a formulator’s point of view BHT is likely the least error prone and most economic alternative.
MarkBroussard

Member
June 19, 2019 at 2:00 pm

It’s more than that … BHT is scientifically-proven to be the most effective stabilizer for Retinol, simple fact … I’m currently doing some work with a university professor who is an expert in Retinol …
Pharma

Member
June 19, 2019 at 4:09 pm

Okay, thanks for sharing!

You don’t happen to have a link to a corresponding publication of his?
jeremien

Member
June 20, 2019 at 2:13 pm

what are the conclusions? no way to formulate retinol withour BHT?
MarkBroussard

Member
June 20, 2019 at 2:31 pm

You can formulate Retinol without BHT, it’s just that you won’t have much retinol in the formula over a relatively short period of time.

The absolute best combination is BHA, BHT, Tocopherol, Sodium Ascorbate and using Liposomal Retinol.
Chemistrygirl

Member
June 23, 2019 at 9:46 am

And packaging in airless pump so the retinol doesn’t loose efficacy.
st_maja

Member
February 28, 2020 at 2:08 pm

Hello everyone. I’m new here, first time poster.
I’ve been formulating for years, but somehow it’s my first post here.
I’d like to ask Yulin where you got this information of retinol concentration in Rovisome from.
Also, not more important ,is this kind of molecule more potent and bio available then equivalent amount of retinol ? Meaning, if it’s correct that 0.3 retinol = 2.5 Rovisome, whether this liposomal form will be more effective and more bio available and hence will it better perform ?
Thanks !
belassi

Member
February 28, 2020 at 11:49 pm

Hyalurosmooth — we tried this and found no discernible effect, just a waste of money.
suswang8

Member
January 2, 2023 at 5:55 pm

I wanted to open this thread up again in light of the question from @st_maja above regarding retinol concentrations and particularly this Rovisome product. In an interesting article elsewhere online, the author said one cannot go by % concentration of retinol in judging a product and must instead look at IU in order to determine potency.

The supplier’s packaging seems to indicate that it contains 3 million IU per gram . . .

However…if I look at the spec sheet (fine print), it seems they are trying to say that the retinol component itself has ~3mn IU in it, but that the overall product has anywhere from 1%-5% of this in it, thus the final ingredient they are supplying to you has anywhere from 30,000 IU to 150,000 IU in it, per gram. Does that sound correct?

(I guess this would explain how — according to their internal studies — they were able to use a 3% cream, twice daily, on study participants.)