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Welcome to the forum Sofia!

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Argan is related to mamey and I have found mamey to be a very heavy oil in creams. With the amount of lipids you have in there, I would expect it to be quite a thick cream, possibly almost like a butter.

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It depends on the nonpolar ingredients and emulsifiers. By using no solids and choosing an appropriate emulsifier system you can do cold process emulsions easily enough. 

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I mixed for a total of 19 minutes with 1 minute breaks interspersed for the hand mixer’s motor to rest.

From Akzo Nobel: “While the biopolymer is tolerant to shear, it should not be extensively homogenized due to potential
degradation of the starch.” This of course only applies if you did all that mixing after adding the starch. As for me, I don’t think you have sufficient emulsifier.

 

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Just go to any supermarket and buy one that seems ergonomic to use, preferably with a 400 watt (or larger )motor. That’s good for batches of up to say 5 Kg.

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Well it surely is “natural”!

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Stirrer? Usually what you want is high shear, try a stick blender. It’s hard to say more without any idea of what’s in it.

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I’d like to register my interest in that too, although the vegan customers might all run away screaming…

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Some would like to believe that. I don’t. Pretty dubious using salicylic acid too, it is regarded as a therapeutic i.e. anti-acne etc. I would have thought. There are perfectly effective preservatives available that qualify as entitrely natural under European regulations.

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Glycerine isn’t a preservative.

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Sounds good. Obvious market segment is for those wanting to supplement with omega 3 but not animal sourced.

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Well, I made some into a cream and it is super nice

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You’re in unknown territory. You will have to challenge test it repeatedly until it fails.

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Obtaining lactic acid is as difficult as obtaining lactates.

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Buy one and try it.

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I did the replacement trial today. Same formula except I replaced the SHS ester with Myritol 318, and replaced the mamey oil with chia oil.

The new version does not leave an occlusive film. It absorbs twice as fast. Quite different. I really like it.

One strange feature: I left some in a small beaker. Cooled to room temperature, it will (very slowly) pour out of the beaker, leaving the glass surface clean and dry.

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Thanks for that!

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McKernan if you are in the USA

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@manstra thanks for the interesting information. There appear to be two possible suppliers in Mexico, I suspect both suppliers deal with the food industry.

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Interestingly, this emulsion seems very forgiving. I re-heated the remaining part of the test batch, and added 5% of hydrosol actives such as cassia angustifolia. I stirred this in with a plastic spoon (it was only 300 mL) and it rapidly reformed as an emulsion, no separation problems later.

Overall: this has terrific sensorials. Very cushiony and great slip/glide, long play time. Absorbs in about 5 minutes but does leave an occlusive film, probably the SHS. Velvet after-effect with intense hydration. I think this is too rich by far for a face cream but it will make a great intensive care lotion for dried-out, damaged skin.

Development now finished on that one. There will be one more test, removing the SHS and replacing it with a light ester, Myritol 318 (capric/caprylic triglycerides) with the aim of removing the occlusive film and producing a matt finish day cream.

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Buying RO water in 20L containers gives me a cost of approx. 7c per Kg of product. That might not seem so much but it represents 40c of the sale price per Kg of product. 

For an anti-wrinkle cream that might not be much of the price, but for a base shampoo, it might be way too much of the price. Worth considering installing a Deioniser column? A mixed-bed column produces water well suited to cosmetic production.

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Carbomer can sort-of act as an emulsifier but technically I think it isn’t an emulsion but a suspension.

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I tried using Silsense DW-18 at quite low % to see if it was a good film-former, because film forming is pretty useful in conditioning as it improves combability and shine. As far as I recall I found that as little as 0.1% was quite effective. It ‘dissolves’ in water, yielding a clear solution, no need to use solubilisers.

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To be honest, I don’t know why you have half of those ingredients present. I’d remove these:

Cetyl Alcohol (good in a conditioner but not in a shampoo)

Cetearyl Alcohol (ditto) 

PEG 40 Castol oil

Caprylic Capric Triglycerides

Polysorbate 20

I spent forever trying to develop a conditioning shampoo. I understand that there is an industry-typical combination and one of the chemists who is familiar with that will no doubt advise. 

My own solution came in the form of a PSEUDO QUAT, a condensed resin that acts like a conditioning quat but is compatible with anionic systems like yours. The one I use is called Polyquart H-81. You could also try a water-dispersible silicone ester.

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Ah, this is a leave-in product?