[belassi]

I you add around 1% of a refattener such as Lamesoft you can get even better foam plus better skin conditioning.

[belassi]

With pH <= 4.5, potassium sorbate or sodium benzoate work fine in my experience.

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Our customer base is 25-45 mainly middle-class females. Glad you liked the label idea!

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The formula is given as 15% gl. acid, 20% ethanol and 10% urea, water q/s (55%). 

Preparation at 80C, I assume due to solubility issues.

[belassi]

There appears to be quite a few skin creams based on urea. However I am only going to use it in the initial tests of the hair removal system.

[belassi]

Yep. Sent an email. I’m going to begin parallel developments with these raw materials. I found a few examples in forums of people who had tried it by duplicating the original experiment and I noticed that they all reported a remarkable improvement in their skin condition. So my first step will be to test solubility in a wide range of possibles, e.g. squalene, DMSO, hot glycerol distearate, propylene glycol, and so on. Then I’ll be able to think about the best carriers for it.

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Thanks for that, Bill. I’ll pursue that in the morning.

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Bill, I wouldn’t know where to begin. I don’t think we have such things. There are some basic commodities that I have huge trouble with. For instance I simply cannot find sorbitol in Mexico. I’m sure that cake companies use it but they deny all knowledge of it.

[belassi]

Great suggestions! Thanks!

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Thanks Ruben. Unfortunately I can’t obtain either of those. I suppose I will have to investigate agricultural suppliers. What a nuisance.

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I am going to try to put this as nicely as possible, but bear in mind I am one of these Aspies that has no emotional intelligence:

If you want to try to copy Lush’s Roots Hair Treatment, please don’t insult us by pretending this is some formula you have come up with. I suggest that if this is your route, you’d be best off checking Swift’s blog, which has various articles on how to knock off a commercial product. And having said all that, is Lush the best you could come up with?

[belassi]

Get in touch with your Lubrizol rep. for samples. Try 940 versus the Ultrez-20 . They both have quite different sensorials. 940 is harder to work with and not recommended for the E.U. market. You could also try Aqua SF-20 but I personally haven’t taken to that.

[belassi]

Just the smell, nothing to do with chemical problems, although since you mention it that would be a concern too. I’d want to do some research into egg yolk and its breakdown products. And someone said on a forum: “I’m always terrified to try hair masks with eggs in them because the first and only time I did that, I forgot about the egg and when I hopped in the shower and turned on the hot water, THE EGG COOKED IN MY HAIR”

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The last one: L’Oreal Ever Pure?

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I take it that this is a Sephora product? 

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Well, 0.6% fragrance is still not a lot - I use 1% in my shampoos - so that seems a good idea.

The smell, due to the fact that eggs have a lot of sulphur, I can’t see it working with florals, you’re going to have to go herbals I think. As for preservation, you’re going to have to use all the routes; beginning with a suitably low pH. I think I would want the customer to sign a disclaimer regarding shelf life.

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Thanks Galina for the update. I am waiting for a delivery of konjac from Thailand. I’ll test it in sulphate-free shampoo and report back.

[belassi]

First, you have to remember that many formulators choose to use “multi-ingredient” products in their own product. It’s probable that the list of oils is all in one or two commercial items. For instance, Trichogen LS8960 contains (INCI): Citrulline, Ornithine HCl, Niacinamide, Zinc Gluconate, Calcium Pantothenate, PEG-12 Dimethicone, Polyquaternium-11, Hydrolyzed Soy Protein, Arctium Majus, Acetyl Tyrosine, Arginine, Panax Ginseng, Aqua, Glucosamine HCl, Biotin. 

- and this is a shampoo ingredient by the way (I’ve tried it and the testers reported zero effect).

Probably the entire content of all those oils added together is no more than 0.5%

It looks like it might be a nice shampoo. The oleate will give a refattening effect (probable usage 1%) and the salicylic acid will act to keep the scalp clear. The surfactant mix appears to be very mild.

[belassi]

Great idea. I have several different silicone products in stock, some powder some liquid, and they all give different sensorials.

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None of those is an emulsifier that I know of, except possibly the glycolic acid, of which I have no experience.

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It’s got 19 user reviews. Here’s the Facebook page. It’s only $30 after all…

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http://www.amazon.com/Thermochromic-Pigment-Changes-Color-Temperature/dp/B009E9NH5S

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@Iaskedbetter: excellent. Thanks.

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Exactly. Plus, it is a quite variable product especially in terms of pH.

[belassi]

I’ve spoken to the BASF rep and their Arlypon TT thickener is only an import item and I’d need to import a 200Kg barrel of it, which is rather more than I need …

So, I am stuck at the moment, except that I have, thanks to Mark’s advice, a little over half a kilo of konjac root powder on its way from Thailand. When that arrives I will experiment with it and report the results.