Home Cosmetic Science Talk Formulating General Sodium PCA 50% question

  • Sodium PCA 50% question

    Posted by esthetician922 on May 21, 2020 at 4:15 am

    So if my formula calls for 2.5% sodium pca and the one I bought from lotion crafter is sodium pca 50% do I need to add more sodium pca and less water? 

    esthetician922 replied 3 years, 12 months ago 4 Members · 5 Replies
  • 5 Replies
  • letsalcido

    Member
    May 21, 2020 at 5:26 am
    Gotta be careful with wording because of the misunderstandings that can come with it. You don’t add more sodium PCA, you will still add 2.5% of your total weight of actual sodium PCA.
    Here’s a good read on calculating dilutions: http://dilutions.quansysbio.com/dilutions-explanations-and-examples/

    For most basic formulas you’re concerned with C1V1 = C2V2

    However, for cosmetic formulations we do everything by weight (not by volume) so you just need to replace V (volume) with W (weight).

  • EVchem

    Member
    May 21, 2020 at 1:40 pm

    You want to end up with 2.5 % sodium PCA but it comes as a solution with 50% pca.  So if you added  2.5% of your material, you would really only have 2.5*.5 = 1.25% sodium pca

    Following letsalcidos system you would set it up like this:
    (x) what % of your lotioncrafter material to put in multiplied by
    (0.5) 50% concentration of your lotioncrafter material)
    =
    (2.5%) how much pca you want to end up with  multiplied by
    (1) 100% ‘pure’ sodium pca concentration

    x*0.5 = 2.5 *1

    solve for x

  • esthetician922

    Member
    May 21, 2020 at 2:38 pm

    Ok, I think I understand you guys. I also just plugged it into an already set up calculator. And basically it said use double since it’s only at 50% solution so I use 5g instead of 2.5 g (my total was a 100g formula). My question I guess then does the water portion % of my formula change since 50% of the solution is water of the sodium pca solution? Thank you!

  • Pharma

    Member
    May 21, 2020 at 3:17 pm

    Sure, subtract 2.5 g from your water phase and that keeps everything at the amounts it should be.

  • esthetician922

    Member
    May 21, 2020 at 8:47 pm

    Thank you! 

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