[belassi]

I just had a quote of $83 per thousand, for a strip label, standard 60g cosmetic pot size. However, I can do better than that here in Mexico, I am pretty sure.

[belassi]

You might get lucky. You might not. I have bought ingredients from China (glycyrrhizic acid) and had no problems with quality. However, I have to say, the supplier certified the powder as something else entirely, because its export is actually controlled due to shortages. So it was risky.

[belassi]

Damn. I suppose this means Bob won’t be able to help me with my nail varnish hair conditioner. 

[belassi]

Well, what to say. It is possible to include a silicone in the body wash, but it will likely be pretty expensive since it will need to be a water dispersible silicone. For instance I have Silsense DW-18 here and it really is a nice item, but it isn’t cheap. 

I really don’t think the petrolatum idea will fly.

[belassi]

It won’t work at all. The pH of natural soap destroys all organic compounds. Waste of time. If you want to do that you will have to go synthetic.

[belassi]

I don’t regret eliminating animal products from my designs. I once made soap using lard. It was disgusting, it had a piggy odour!

[belassi]

It is a salt, an ionic compound. Ionic compounds are very stable, usually, and I see no reason why this one should be anything other.

[belassi]

Way cool Matt. Thanks for the explain.

[belassi]

Perhaps it is in reality some ferment product they have that just happens to contain a mix of those three sugars. I think sometimes we tend to read too much into an LOI.

[belassi]

Many years ago I discovered, in a completely different type of business, an important fact:

There are some customers that would be better for your business going somewhere else. In general: stay away from one-off productions, the possible revenue invariably doesn’t justify your time and costs.

[belassi]

My next steps will be to choose the look we want (in broad terms) eg clinical, natural, homely, etc etc and provide our brand designer, who is in Honduras, with three existing examples of similar “look”. That’s for the logo and colour scheme.

Then we’ll ask our printer to print a new label set for all the existing products.

I already have the domain but I still have to find a host, and get the Web site designed. I’ll use a local design house for that, we have some of that talent in-house.

I’ll also have to make the social media sites active and begin marketing activities.

And build the Amazon store.

Quite a lot to do and we haven’t even begun retail yet.

[belassi]

I’m just glad they (Lush) haven’t arrived yet!

[belassi]

Madness.

Clay is a perfect breeding ground.

The domestic fridge is heavily populated with sources of fungal and bacterial contamination including some very nasty organisms.

You’re looking for trouble.

[belassi]

If we dont put in oils at all and want to replace it with other conditioning ingredients, would U please suggest me any option.. 

I already did.

[belassi]

Isn’t the urea going to react somewhat with the HA and LA? I seem to recall some kind of insane buffering when I tried something along these lines, but I was using around 3% urea I think.

[belassi]

Well Dove is really really complicated stuff. I just can’t imagine. It has several different solid and liquid synthetic surfactants. It has sodium tallowate, and also sodium cocoate from coconut oil. In fact it sounds to me as if someone took some standard fairly crude hot process soap and chucked in a lot of synthetics to radically improve its performance and shelf life and so on. Titanium dioxide is in there for whiteness. It has CAPB, LSI, all sorts.

[belassi]

I am surprised you had trouble finding safety information. Two minutes with Google found this:

http://www.who.int/ipcs/methods/Nonylphenol.pdf

Considering it is reported as having effects on reproductive systems, I myself would not want to use it or be exposed to it.

From the PDF intro:

The calculated oral No Observable Adverse Effects Level (NOAEL) for repeated dose for
humans was 15 mg/kg/day based on the endocrine disruptive effects in rats. Data from modeling
suggest that there are concerns for human health with respect to local exposure, based on low
margins between modeled exposures and the N(L)OAELs for repeated dose and reproductive
toxicity.

[belassi]

It will be ok I’m sure. A rough test would be the solubility. 1g dissolves in 1.4g of boiling water, so you could boil some water, add sufficient powder so that there is an excess after dissolving as much as possible; rapidly filter the solution or use a separation funnel to remove the excess solid; measure 14 mL of the solution into an evaporating dish of known mass; place in dessication chamber; weigh the dried mass; it should be 10g within experimental error (plus or minus 5% or less if you’re any good in the lab!)

[belassi]

It’s probably the sodium tallowate, which in simpler words is soap made by boiling beef fats with lye. It’s remarkable how many veggies, vegans etc will happily use Dove soap.

[belassi]

I don’t think sodium benzoate is likely to “expire” unless it’s been exposed to damp, UV light, etc.

[belassi]

I wish I could comment further but I have very little experience with SA. If you want something even more difficult try glycyrrhizic acid!

[belassi]

If you have a temp controlled oven you could test to see at what point it forms crystals. I suspect that you are making what’s called a supersaturated solution.

[belassi]

Excellent point. That will rule out the emulsion systems then, but I still have the carbomer creams. I’ll have a go at formulating one I think, just for fun, I have plenty of pigments.

[belassi]

Are you sure that “over time” all the alcohol is not evaporating away?

[belassi]

I avoid the use of alcohol completely except as a temporary solvent. Apart from anything else, once in the package, unless the package is airless and the consumer never has to open it, the acohol quickly evaporates and leaves the product useless.