Home Cosmetic Science Talk Formulating Suspending Mica in an Anhydrous Silicone Medium

  • Suspending Mica in an Anhydrous Silicone Medium

    Posted by tecnico3vinia on May 25, 2022 at 8:24 pm

    Hi there!

    I’d like to formulate a very simple product with Mica (a serum). It would consist on a blend of Cyclopentasilixonane, Dimethicone and Mica. 

    Is there any ingredient that I can add in this formula to suspend the Mica? In gel formulations (shampoos/liquid soap) I would add some thickener with suspending abilities, but I don’t know what to add in a silicone medium. Maybe Dowsil 9040 Silicone Elastomer Blend (INCI: Cyclopentasiloxane and Dimethicone Crosspolymer) would do the work? Or maybe a higher viscosity grade dimethicone? 

    Looking forward to hear from you.

    Kind regards, 

    tecnico3vinia replied 2 years, 5 months ago 3 Members · 3 Replies
  • 3 Replies
  • evchem2

    Member
    May 26, 2022 at 1:07 pm

    Increasing viscosity can definitely help with suspension even if it just delays the amount of time before you see settling. You could also look to match density of your particulates to the liquid phase, or get even more in-depth and account for size of particulate and an ‘allowable’ rate of separation (the velocity) to figure out what viscosity you need your liquid to be (stokes law)

  • Lab

    Member
    May 31, 2022 at 8:17 pm
    @tecnico3vinia how much mica are you planning to use? I think 9040 would do the job. But you would have to mix it with 245 as far as I know. 
    Also, @evchem2 do you think adding an oil such as Rosehip Oil would break the viscosity?
  • tecnico3vinia

    Member
    June 2, 2022 at 5:48 pm

    evchem2 said:

    Increasing viscosity can definitely help with suspension even if it just delays the amount of time before you see settling. You could also look to match density of your particulates to the liquid phase, or get even more in-depth and account for size of particulate and an ‘allowable’ rate of separation (the velocity) to figure out what viscosity you need your liquid to be (stokes law)

    Thank you so much! 

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