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Solubilising essential oils
I need some help with a formula. This will be a magnesium spray with 7% essential oils. The formula has 30% magnesium chloride, and 7 essential oils. I am using polysorbate 20 to solubilise and tried various percentages but feel if I go over 7% the formula gets too sticky. The balance is water. I have added 10% denatured alcohol as well as the polysorbate, and it is still seperating and cloudy. Is there anything I can do to get this amount of essential oils into the formula or do I just need to add a ton more alcohol, which I don’t really want to do?
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8 Replies
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I should clear up my post….Its 7% essential oils in the formula and 7% polysorbate 20, which I know is the incorrect ratio, but find any higher % of the polysorbate its going to be sticky
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7% is a bit high and you may have some safety issues. You may want to check IFRA guidelines.
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You may want to try using PEG-40 HCO. I find that with high levels of essential oils, PEG-40 HCO is a better solubiliser than polysorbate 20.
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Thank you for your suggestions, and I agree that 7% seems very high. I will check the IFRA guidelines. If the concentration is excessive, we can look at dropping the EO content down. Unfortunately the formula needs to be PEG free.
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While I agree 7% essential oil is way too high. I highly doubt this will fall within the IFRA regulations
You can try Symbiosolv clear plus MB -
PolySugaMulse D9 from Colonial works great.
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Hi all, I have tried the Polysuga Muls, as well as Symbiosolv, I think I hvae tried it all now! Nothing seems to dissolve the EOs fully, so there is always a film at the top. I am going back to make another sample today with less of the EOs, I think a total of 4.5, and then re-asses the efficacy of the above solubilisers
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First of all kudos to Mark Fuller: D9 from Colonial works the best - totally agree. There are three physical chemistry problems you are up against: even the best solubilizers such as D9 require a ratio of 3:1at minimum and with EO that rises to 6:1, so you already are up to 30% solids just to incorporate 4.5% EO, even if you extend it with PG caprylate/caprate. This leaves very little water to dissolve your 30% MgCl2 with. Then, considering the EO/solubilizer combo is actually a microemulsion, all that Mg salt will certainly prevent it from ever being stable if forming at all in the first place! My question then is WTF do you need all that MgCl2 for? What purpose is magnesium chloride serving in skin-care? Wherever did all this “magnesium oil” nonsense start?
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