Bill_Toge
Forum Replies Created
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if you know how to make cosmetics, and can show prospective employers some examples of your work, that will count for a lot if you’re going for a technical role
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a contract manufacturer will have a minimum batch weight required for manufacturing and filling to be physically feasible and financially worthwhile; this will depend on their equipment
as colour cosmetics tend to have very low fill weights, the minimum order quantity tends to be high, unless they can reliably and consistently make production-quality batches in the lab
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@Bobzchemist, there is a professional certification available in Europe, the SCS diploma:
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in my last job we had a major issue with opacifier stability at one point, and we had some analysis done on our formulas by a third-party lab with a TurbiScan machine, which did help predicting suspension/emulsion properties
it is an incredibly sensitive device, and it does give you an advanced warning of instability long before it is visually evident
however, although they could be very useful if you’re constantly working to tight deadlines, my view is that the cost and maintenance requirements would be too excessive to warrant general use
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hello
I work for a UK-based contract manufacturer, with experience in developing these products
have you got a business plan, and customers to sell your product to?
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you get the same effect with any type of salt; whether it’s magnesium sulphate or sodium chloride makes no difference
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that looks like the product’s been filled cold, and the non-fluid nature of the product (hence, uneven filling) has led to air cavities being formed
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you’ve probably not had any responses because the way you’ve written your question makes it hard to understand
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@thebrain I have, and I would say your precautions are more than adequate; our precautions consisted of a dust mask and safety glasses for large-scale dispensing, which is standard for all bulk powders
@Belassi the other questions are: at what dose is it fatal, and at what particle size? also, how does this compare with the actual material?
over the years I’ve found that MSDSs are not always helpful in themselves, as materials with very dissimilar hazard profiles are often lumped together under the same category
as a recent example, we used hexylresorcinol in a plant trial, which turned out to be irritating and extremely unpleasant when inhaled (even with a dust mask!), but it was given the same precautionary statements as many other more benign substances
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the filling cost depends very much on the process
if it’s automated, and runs at a fairly high speed, the filling cost per unit will be negligible compared to that of the materials
if each unit is filled and/or sealed by hand, the filling cost per unit will be high!
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1. that HLB value you’ve quoted for GMS is for the non self-emulsifying grade; the S/E grade contains sodium stearate (anionic), and because it’s ionic it has no HLB value
2. by the same reasoning, any HLB value quoted for sodium stearoyl lactylate is meaningless because it too is anionic
3. switch the phases of GMS and SSL, i.e. put SSL in your water phase and GMS in your oil phase; as it stands neither of them will mix properly
4. try experimenting with a few different levels of GMS and SSL, starting with a 1:1 ratio, and see what works best
good luck!
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my money’s on the cocoa butter
we recently produced a range of lip balms that had exactly the same problem; they were perfectly fine if they were cooled rapidly (e.g. put in the fridge), but turned out gritty if they were cooled slowly (e.g. in production) because the cocoa butter went through a crystalline phase during the cooldown
they used a much larger amount of cocoa butter (30% w/w), so crystallisation was very noticeable!
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I have on several occasions, both in the lab and on the plant; never had a problem with it
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doped zinc sulphide (the pigment originally used in glow-in-the-dark paint, now generally superseded) is phosphorescent and has a recognised INCI name, though it’s not listed on Annex IV, and you’ll struggle to find a cosmetic grade
there are also a few dyes and lakes which are fluorescent under UV lights, mostly the xanthene type, though interestingly, at least one of them (fluorescein) has been explicitly banned from hair dyes - see Annex II/1332
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one instance in which “free from” claims have real potential to be misleading / confusing is where hair colorants claim to be PPD free
oxidative (permanent / demi-permanent) colorants with this claim usually use toluene-2,5-diamine, a close but less allergenic relative of PPD, which is fair enough
however, I’ve also seen this claim on many direct colorants, which would never have used PPD in the first place - because PPD is colourless until it undergoes oxidative polymerisation
in this case the claim is factually accurate but nonsensical in the context of the product; in terms of food, it’s like salt that claims to be gluten-free
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Merck/EMD supply a range of cosmetic pigments with this effect
if memory serves, the range is called Xirona
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as it’s the most abundant material and it has the lowest melting point, the IPM will be what’s keeping the melting point of your formula down; have you tried decreasing the level?
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in which case, a good first step would be to apply to the Personal Care Products Council for a new INCI name
secondly, is relevant toxicology data available?
(this is not a legal requirement, but without it, you’ll have trouble convincing safety assessors that it’s suitable for use in cosmetics)
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does it have a recognised INCI name?
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that’d be your Nutrilan I; unless they’re extremely pure, collagen/keratin derivatives are terrible for causing discoloration
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@celine13009 the best way to change the solidification point is to replace some of your ceteareth-25 (i.e. the material that forms the gel) with another ethoxylated alcohol that has a lower degree of ethoxylation - steareth-2 for instance, or oleth-5
the catch is that you’ll lose some of the transparency!
@charmer just out of interest, how did you mix the ceteareth-25 and the water phase together? I found it almost impossible unless the ceteareth-25 was blended with another materials; otherwise it would just form a solid lump that took a very long time to disperse and filled the product with air, no matter how hot the water phase was
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one of the first things I learned when working with these type of products is to disregard the written ingredient list completely and formulate by comparison with a known standard (if possible); or failing that, start again from first principles
this is simply because so many of them, particularly the ones made in China, have ingredient lists are incomplete or just plain wrong - and this problem affects branders both big and small!
yes, I agree the whiteness is likely due to the ceteareth-25
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besides, if it’s oil based then it won’t have a pH, regardless of what the probe says
the pH of a solution is a measure of how many hydrogen ions are present in it, or (more accurately) what proportion of the solvent exists in its protonated form
oils are not protic solvents, hence they can’t be protonated; also, their electrical permittivity is far too low to support stable ions of any kind
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antimicrobial = kills or prevents the growth of microorganisms
antioxidant = reacts with oxidising chemicals
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this is a problem I’ve come across myself not too long ago
having done many days of experimentation, I don’t think it is possible to have a formula which is both crystal clear and contains a resin; any resin in the formula (and I tried more than 20 of them) seems to interact with the ceteareth-(N) micelles and cause the formula to go cloudy