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Retinol sourcing: Buy < 1kg quantities?
Retinol ain’t cheap, I’ve found it for $1500/kg at 50% concentration in polysorbate-20 from a US supplier. Retinol palmitate and acetate is more readily available, but inferior to Retinol with a lower effect/sideeffect ratio from my analysis.
Anyone know ways to get less than a kg e.g. 500g for a pilot batch or two? -
9 Replies
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Would makingcosmetics.com’s Vitamin A Microcaps suffice? It’s $564 for 33.6 oz.
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Possibly, I’m not sure it’s better or worse than using regular retinol, but it’s quite expensive: if using the IU value they give at 17000IU per gram, then it’s 5% concentrated. 33.6 oz would contain 48.5 grams Retinol. If using their activity measure of 1% retinol, then we’re down to 10 grams!
1 oz of product with 0.5% retinol would require 0.15 gram retinol, 48.5 gram would be enough for 323 units so the cost of the retinol alone would be $1.7/unit. If going by their activity measure then it’s $8.5/unit and that gets prohibitively expensive!
Wheres buying 1 kg retinol in polysorbate-20 for $1500 would give you a per unit cost of $0.45. -
Are you planning to encapsulate your retinol formula later?
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Not originally, figure It’s not necessary for my formulation.
Just heard back from Makingcosmetics btw, they say that 5% is correct, not 1% and they’ve updated their listing
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Is makingcosmetics.com’s formula cost-effective for you now?
Typically, retinol is unstable and doesn’t tolerate heat very well, so you may want to think about encapsulating it. Adding chelators would also help, as long as they don’t conflict with the other parts of your formula.
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Well, it is a little suspicious that the MSDS still says 1%. Long term stability is not currently an important goal.
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Have you considered Retinol Liposomes … you can purchase at FormulatorSampleShop in as little as 2oz. Or, contact Ross Organics, they can provide you samples of BASF Retinol … it comes in various formats.
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Thanks @MarkBroussard
I’l ask FormulatorSampleShop about the retinol concentration of their liposome product, a little disconcerting that they don’t state it and there’s no data sheet to be found.Right now trying to find something bridging the sample to 1 kg stage, seems there aren’t any great options. -
FormulatorSampleShop said it’s 1% retinol, making it cost prohibitive.
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