Bobzchemist
Forum Replies Created
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For home formulating, first get a glass muller and frosted/etched glass plate to grind your pigments into oils on, then you also need an Osterizer and a mini-container for dry blending. (You can use other blenders, but they don’t work quite as well)
Isoeicosane (Permethyl 102A) is a fine ingredient to work with. What you’re seeing is titanium dioxide flotation, which may go away if you grind better.The websites makingcosmetics.com and pvsoap.com should give you most of what you need otherwise.If I were doing this, I’d try to add a pigment mix to an existing makeup, or buy a pre-made base, rather than try to formulate from scratch. Why re-invent the wheel?What physical form of makeup are you trying to formulate?The rest of the info you’re asking for, I’m afraid, crosses the line into things you’d have to pay a consultant to find out, if you didn’t want to do the research on your own. -
I’m not sure that this problem has a solution at all. If, as I suspect, you’ve managed to encapsulate/absorb a liquid foundation, I don’t think that there’s a way around the dry/draggy problem - the very ingredients that make it a powder are fighting against you.
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For a starting point, try searching for “dry water” (Yes, it’s a real thing)
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Mark, I think that you’ve hit upon the perfect answer to questions of this type.
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There’s a very simple rule - if you are selling something commercially, you ALWAYS need to have a PET run. No exceptions.
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This is a textbook example of iron oxide pigments not being de-agglomerated/milled enough.
Applying makeup to skin actually exerts a tremendous shear force on the product. If your pigments have not been de-agglomerated enough, when they are applied to skin, the shear force will de-agglomerate them, making the color on skin darker.You can reduce/eliminate this effect by doing one or more of the following:1) Milling/grinding/dispersing your pigments for a longer time/more intensely, so that they are down to their primary particle size, eliminating all agglomerates.2) Adding a chemical dispersant, so that your existing process is capable of taking pigments down to their primary particle size, eliminating all agglomerates.3) Adding particulate ingredients to your formula that will prevent the dispersed pigments from re-agglomerating. -
If you are not using emulsifiers, your oil levels are too high for long term stability
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Do some patent searches, then.
The very old way of formulating them was as a beeswax/borax/ammonia emulsion - but achieving modern-day results like smudge-proof and quick-drying will be nearly impossible.Every ingredient in those formulas has a purpose. Mascara is not an easy product to formulate, and consumer safety has to be your highest priority. -
“I am using high levels of each ingredient.” I would not recommend this concept, and most especially not without extensive safety testing, including RIPT.
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There’s not nearly enough information here for us to give you any really helpful information. As Perry said, we need to know a lot more about your formulas.
I will point out, however, that the procedure you’re using is primarily for w/o emulsions. These have drawbacks as far as stability and aesthetic appeal are concerned. If you’re actually making an o/w emulsion, you might want to re-think your procedure. -
I’d have to agree with voting not being all that helpful, especially since it changes the order of the responses. Chronological order makes it easier to understand the discussion.
The problem I have is that it’s getting harder to distinguish between lazy people who want us to just hand them answers so they don’t have to do any work themselves, and professionals/dedicated hobbyists who genuinely need help. This is made worse, I’m afraid, by people who don’t speak English fluentlyThe point about just ignoring posts is well-taken. I’ll do that more in the future.@Chelsea78, most companies that sell natural raw materials to commercial clients are also able to provide sample/starting formulations, To find a supplier who can help, first go to a certifying organization, like the NPA, then get a list of suppliers, and then start checking websites/making phone calls. A large number of these formulas are compiled at HAPPI, SpecialChem, and Prospector. -
For certified organic surfactants, aside from soaps and plant extracts, I think your only choices are the ones from Earth Supplied Products (ESP) made from Sucrose Cocoate, like Safe-Surf SC-Pro.
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If it’s not for commercial use, after you heat to 40C and are mixing very slowly, you can gently spray some ethyl alcohol onto the surface of the shampoo.
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You need to ask a fragrance house.
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The type of management skills you need for a mostly technical position like Senior Formulations Chemist or a Senior Team/Group Leader in a R&D position aren’t at all the skills you’ll get from an MBA. Director or VP of R&D? Then they would apply. If I had to pick, I would actually say that project management certification would be more helpful than either degree in terms of actually acquiring skills and knowledge that you’d need to do either of those jobs. (And yes, I have had both of those positions during my career.)
But…getting an additional degree is at least as much about perception as it is about acquiring skills. The question you need to ask the boss who’d promote you really is: If a position as a Group/Team Leader opened up next month, and you were considering me for the job, would you see me as lacking technical skills, managerial skills, project management skills, or something else? Then, unless the boss says that the only thing you’re lacking is experience within the company, you want to find out what sort of credential would most enhance your chances of getting that position. -
Mascara is a very, very difficult product to formulate. Try these starting formulas:
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@Dennis, Please start a new discussion for this.
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Not really something that has any relation to cosmetic chemistry
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If you like the formula as-is, just use these tubes:
https://www.thesage.com/catalog/products/Slim-Stick-Tubes.html
If you make a larger batch, you can use one of these for blending (with an Osterizer) -
Problem 1: Your batch is too small to get adequate mixingProblem 2: Your powders and your oils are not mixed together well. This will leave air pockets that can harm the strength of your sticks.Problem 3 Beeswax and Magnesium Stearate are not strong enough by themselves to ever keep a lipstick from breaking.What you’ve made isn’t really a lipstick - it’s actually a lipgloss (even though it’s matte) Package it in a supportive lipgloss tube and you’ll be fine.Remember, don’t ever give or sell an untested product you’ve made to anyone else.
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That’s a very disturbing, possibly dangerous result from a shampoo. The answer, I’m afraid, is for you to hire a professional formulator/chemist to formulate a shampoo for you before you hurt someone seriously.
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I would tell both of them that you need to see who’s requesting this information from your client, and why. Then, as Kirk suggests, contact them directly, and let them know that trade secrets are involved in the formulation and manufacturing that you do not want to disclose to your customer. Most organic certifiers and regulatory agencies will respect this. But…I would also absolutely require a very strong NDA (Non-disclosure Agreement) from both of your clients covering all your formulations, including the one you already revealed - with penalties built in for revealing the info to anyone..
My next suggestion may be trickier to deal with - I’d suggest that the price of revealing this information to your customers is a contract with a long-term commitment and substantial fees for breaking it, or a one-time payment for them to purchase the formula/IP/testing data from you. ChicoB is exactly correct - many, even most, companies in this industry will think nothing of taking all your hard work and just giving it to any other contract manufacturer who promises to save them money- and most contract manufacturers will accept the information without a second thought. You HAVE to protect yourself - no one else will do it for you.