Home Cosmetic Science Talk Formulating shimmer spray suspension

  • shimmer spray suspension

    Posted by Stanley on September 13, 2018 at 2:39 am

    working on a shimmer spray. My problem is over time the shimmer starts to fall.  I tried increasing the aqua SF-1 to 8% it but then its too thick for the inexpensive sprayers. It skeets out with force and not in a round pattern. What is a secondary stabilizer or thickener I could use. should I expect a pH of this?

    Water -               40%
    Aqua SF-1-          7.5%
    glycerin -             2%
    alcohol     -        45%
    NaOH-                 0.4% 
    phenoxyethanol -0.75%
    The rest is shimmer, fragrance

    Chemist5000 replied 6 years, 2 months ago 7 Members · 13 Replies
  • 13 Replies
  • ZivBA

    Member
    September 13, 2018 at 6:50 am

    You can try to use XanthanGum-0.3-0.5%

    Try to use - LAPONITE- Nano particles of synthetic hectorite, give you transparent Gels,

    Or even try- Optigel.

  • Chemist77

    Member
    September 13, 2018 at 7:13 am

    @Stanley are you trying to copy a benchmark here?? I have been there but honestly had the same issues which you are facing now. Eventually I just gave up, even the customer  couldn’t provide me with a benchmark. 

  • OldPerry

    Member
    September 13, 2018 at 12:19 pm

    It looks like your polymer level is too low for proper suspending.
    https://www.stobec.com/DATA/PRODUIT/2175~v~data-sheet.pdf

    The supplier recommends 8 - 10%. You could probably experiment with adding a small amount of salt to reduce the viscosity.

  • Chemist77

    Member
    September 13, 2018 at 1:26 pm

    @Perry here the issue is change in spray pattern from the nozzle. Because of the cohesive property of this polymer, the spray properties are absolutely undesirable.

  • belassi

    Member
    September 13, 2018 at 2:30 pm

    I recently discovered that gellan gum produces high yield but low viscosity, you might try that.

  • Chemist5000

    Member
    September 13, 2018 at 3:21 pm

    This is a similiar issue I am having.   I like the idea of trying salt to reduce the viscosity.  

  • Chemist5000

    Member
    September 13, 2018 at 3:27 pm

    what percentage of salt should I try -0.5%

  • Microformulation

    Member
    September 13, 2018 at 3:57 pm
    I have knocked off this entire product and it was easier than you may believe. I can’t of course share a Formula, but the INCI is “Alcohol SD40B, Water, Fragrance, Acrylates/C10-30 Alkyl Acrylate Crosspolymer, Aminomethyl Propanolol, Calcium Aluminum Borosilicate, Silica,  Blue 1 (CI 42090), Ext. Violet 2 (CI 60730), Yellow 6 (CI 15985), Mica, Titanium Oxide.”
    Abandon going “natural.” Research the INCI names and you should able to see what each ingredient does and with a study, reverse engineer it yourself. I am trained, but I recall the entire formulation process took me less than 10 hours to complete from start to finish with testing. It is surprisingly easy.

  • Chemist5000

    Member
    September 13, 2018 at 5:47 pm

    How long should shimmer be expected to stay suspended?  Should a better sprayer be used to keep the fine mist of the spray?

  • Chemist5000

    Member
    September 13, 2018 at 7:26 pm

    @Microformulation  that is cool!!! 
    Instead of using the Aqua SF-1 I was going to use Ultrez 20 and neutralize with NaOH. 

    I am assuming you are using more alcohol to avoid using a preservative?

    Do you mind me asking what is you final pH range?   

    When the packaging from BBW says “diamond dust”  what exactly is that?  I understand a mica or glitter but is that indicative of a particle size that won’t clog the sprayer?

  • Microformulation

    Member
    September 13, 2018 at 8:23 pm
    No, I used that much alcohol since it was going to be used as the base of a fragrance. The initial standard was a Victoria standard fragranced shimmer spray.
    Why did I use the other materials? I won’t tell you simply because you will gain more reading up yourself.
    The final pH range was about 5.0
    I would never use alcohol as a primary preservative unless there was an over-riding reason, usually being solubility of some material or the presence of alcohol due to another ingredient.
    Research the materials. As I said, this was an easy project to find documentation and starting formulations.
  • Chemist5000

    Member
    September 13, 2018 at 8:49 pm

    @Microformulation Thank you so much!  I have learned alot from already..I assume it the “finer details” that I am looking for that come from experience that I am curious about.  I have looked up the chems.

    The reason why I asked the question about alcohol is I was told that if you have less than 30% water the need for a preservative is minimal.  I am sure there may be different schools of thought on this…that is why i asked. :)

    It wouldn’t hurt if my pH was a little higher than 5?

  • Chemist5000

    Member
    September 14, 2018 at 3:51 pm

    Ok folks up!!!  I used Ultrez20 and a little tweak here and there and it came out really cool.  I did put it in the 55C oven last night and it did not suspend the glitter.  I am going to do the 40C overn over the weekend.  But over all I am very happy with the results.  What is the expectation on suspending the mica?

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