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To achieve consistent viscosity of a lotion
Hello,
I am getting a problem which I think obvious due to presence of a waxy thickener but am struggling to find out a solution. :'(I made a lotion with this :- 80% water- 15% mixture of FCO (fractionated coconut oil) and some Essential oils (~2%)- ~4% Emulsifying wax (Cetearyl alcohol and Ceteareth-20)- ~0.5% PreservativeActually I am trying to get my lotion formulation to have consistent viscosity in summer as well as in winter.After proper mixing and cooling to room temperature (~35 degC) the lotion gets its normal viscosity and remains fluid as it should be for a lotion but as I cool it down to around 20 degC (to check the consistency for Winter) it gets thickened and turns out to a cream. Here if I lower the EW content a little then it gives good fluidity for cool weather but on the other side goes runny for Summer! 😮What should I do here? Replacing EW by any other thickener/emulsifier or adding something else?Please help me out….
Thanks,Kamal -
5 Replies
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Either make a carbomer cream using Carbopol to stabilise it, or you will need to replace some of the liquid lipids components with solids eg stearic acid, cetyl alcohol.
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A pemulen/carbomer combination will be the easiest way to do this.
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@Bobzchemist - is addition of the combination pemulen/carbomer really leading to a more constant viscosity in the above mentioned temperature interval? If so. that is valuable information!
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The problem with carbomer is that it’s another process stage to have to do, plus the possibility of fish-eyes if you’re not very careful, plus the fact it makes it more difficult to package since the flow is no longer so variable with temperature. Before going that route I suggest reducing the FCO (is that the same as Myritol 318?) from 13% to 5%, and instead add 5% shea or mango butter, 2% stearic acid and 1% cetyl alcohol. In addition the high % of EO will definitely NOT be helping, reduce to 1% and replace by another 1% cetyl.
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@Belassi is right - see if you can fix your formula before trying to replace your emulsifiers. If that still doesn’t work, then try Pemulen.
He brings up another very good point, which I had forgotten - most of the time, we exploit the lower viscosity at higher temperature property of formulations while filling our products into containers. It is much, much easier to fill a liquid than it is to fill a cream or a gel. Switching to a formula that is thicker at high temperatures will very possibly lead to huge headaches when it comes to packaging your products.
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