[belassi]

The used oil contained
838 .0 mg/kg Zn, 110.0 mg/kg Pb, 9 . 4
mg/kg Cd and 4100 mg/kg Ba
The lead and cadmium levels are pretty bad. The idea of spreading it on soil to decompose it is crazy because all the heavy metals will persist for ever poisoning the ground.
Even if you could make it into soap, the product would be prohibited from sale because of the heavy metals.

[belassi]

I don’t know, but I haven’t got a source for it anyway. It’s just a curiosity at the moment.

[belassi]

Yes please! What an excellent idea.

[belassi]

I can see it now… 

“SCRUB ‘N TAN”

- Why put TOXIC CHEMICALS on your body when you want to look good on the beach? Our new ALL NATURAL product is CHEMICAL FREE! What could be more natural than COFFEE? So don’t delay, scrub off those dead cells today and be golden, with SCRUB ‘N TAN.
(Safe when used as directed. Do not exceed stated amount)

[belassi]

Hey thanks for the coffee scrub idea. Have to test to see that it doesn’t stain the skin! Although, that would be yet another product…

[belassi]

Cold process soap will never last as long as syndet bars. However I think your recipe needs to be improved. Soapcalc gives 48 out of range 28-54 so your soap is already pretty hard supposedly. However olive oil takes forever to cure to that hardness so …
If you want a harder soap then use solid fats rather than oils. Shea butter makes a very hard soap, I once made a soap of 100% shea and after two months or so you could bang nails in with it. Try 10% of that and 10% beeswax, and replace part of the coconut and part of the olive with palm. You don’t really want more than 30% coconut and 30% olive.

[belassi]

Yes, exactly! Brewed 100% organic Columbian.

[belassi]

I totally agree with what Bob said. But I will give you this: If you multiply your cost per unit by 6 times, that will be a good retail starting point.
1. Cost of packaging, and labelling.
2. Cost of ingredients.
3. Labour cost for purchasing/making/filling.
Add 1,2,and 3 then multiply by 6. Then compare your proposed retail price with the competition. Are you competitive? You will discover that you can’t be competitive in low cost products such as body washes, cheap shampoos, etc. simply because the huge companies access materials at prices a lot lower than you can. So unless you have a USP, you can’t compete at that level.

[belassi]

The marketing is the problem, the formulation is trivial by comparison. For instance, one well-known “no tears” children’s shampoo has nothing more than CAPB in it.
The first question is what is going to be your sales model? 

[belassi]

Best of luck with that. Gums are interesting but in shampoo the sensorials are very poor.

[belassi]

If you price things correctly, you may then be able to sell the products to other local salons
Unfortunately I have to advise caution. Here in Mexico we tried to get hair salons to sell our products. What happens is:
1. They are unwilling to buy even at a large (50%) discount and want to take the products “on consignment”
2. The staff working in the salon don’t get paid any extra to sell your product so they ignore it.
3. Eventually you will have to pick up all your unsold product and either give it away as free samples or destroy it because it will not look brand new.

[belassi]

Claimed caffeine content in EP1396261 is in the range 0.0001% - 30%
range is so large that’s not very helpful. . . I see that that patent has expired anyway. 1 large mug of coffee has somewhere around 100mg, so I suppose approx. 100mg/kilo might be a starting point. Which is around 0.01%
The test batch sold out immediately and we have customers waiting.

[belassi]

THIS one.  $50. Excellent. Cross checked against weights, pretty good. Been using it 4 months.

[belassi]

Since you’re in Europe and not subject to the dead hand of the FDA, I suggest you investigate alternatives to the incredibly old fashioned BP. Think along the lines of:
Reduce sebum production (Sebaryl extract)
Stop inflammation (100% aloe base)
Kill the bacteria (essential oils, Thyme extract)
Heal the lesions (plant extracts)

[belassi]

There should be a group somewhere similar to this, that specialises in applications for use other than personal care. It seems to me that you could get some mileage out of silicones, and a surface modifier such as Polyquart Pro A.

[belassi]

Oh wow. I learn something every minute. Here in Mexico “milk” is reserved for dairy produce so when we tried to market a ‘body milk’ we were politely told to change our labelling with immediate effect.

[belassi]

Next thing we will need “Natural” packaging as well with only biodegradable materials. No don’t laugh I can see it coming.

[belassi]

 Dunning-Kruger effect - yes that was definitely me, 5 years ago. I’ve learned enough to know there are areas I need to avoid. Such as sun protection or peels or colour cosmetics.

[belassi]

See if you can find a local person because sensorials are key and you don’t want to be sending products back and forth by courier. Check the list on this site, first. Obviously what you want is the kind of thing I design all the time but I’m across the border so not a logical choice.

[belassi]

KD SO3 is a blend of ALS, ALES, CAPB and high-purity LDEA, I believe.

[belassi]

What I do is formulate … you’re going to scare any formulator away if you use terms like “non chemical” - everything is a chemical other than a vacuum and even then there are virtual particles. What you describe is a hydration cream, there are many people here who can formulate that. Nothing difficult. If you were looking to use unstable, hard to preserve ingredients, that would be more of a problem.

[belassi]

But, what is “black seed oil”? There are many seeds that are black. Onion seed for example. Anyway what you want is:
1. Hydration
2. Lighten (anti melanocyte)
3. antioxidant
If this is what you need, then providing you don’t need a local supplier, message me. I might be able to provide that.

[belassi]

ALES and CAPB is an excellent combination. Be careful to keep the pH below 6.0
Depending where you are, you may find the blend, Plantaren APB30 or Texapon KD S03, an attractive alternative.

[belassi]

Pearl powder is merely a fancy form of calcium carbonate or chalk. Black seed oil? Which particular seed? Green tea extract is good but anything more than 0.2% gives a very deep colour and the colour depends on pH and oxidation. Sweet almond oil is just a carrier oil.
It would be much more useful to know what you hope to achieve and leave the formulator to come up with ingredients that will get the result. In fact, what exactly is it that you want to achieve?

[belassi]

Pearl powder has no therapeutic value.