Bobzchemist
Forum Replies Created
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Try food suppliers
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OK, but you’re basically assaying for the amount of soap in a product. How much more does this tell you than doing a water content determination would?
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This is really something that you’ll need to hire a consultant for. Get in touch with the SCS for help.
As an alternative, you can purchase privately labelled sunscreens, which would probably work out to be much cheaper - I’ve been told that getting a new sunscreen product through the EU regulatory system costs a minimum of 50,000 euros. -
I’m curious - how is this relevant to the performance of the shaving foam/gel? Also, why can’t this simply be calculated from the formula?
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Use natural chelating agents.
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Instron
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@David and @Perry,
I think that there’s an argument from a technical standpoint here as well. None of the ingredients Perry listed will enhance stability. Since we are trying to solve a technical/stability problem, I think it’s usually a good approach to strip the formula down to the ingredients that are essential to making a stable product, make sure it works and that it fits the parameters you’re after, and only then evaluate each supposed “active” ingredient separately, and in combination with the others.Additionally, there are a lot of very expensive ingredients at high levels in the formula @juliap3 listed. Even if the formula is just for personal use, I think it makes sense to evaluate their use levels to keep from wasting money. -
@Perry?
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Way back in the dim mists of time, when I worked for Estee Lauder, we used Hosokawa hammer mills for all powders. (more advanced info requires consulting fees) The trick is that you have to change screens. Dry powder went through an 0.020 herringbone screen, if I remember right. Wet powder (after binder addition) went through an 0.250 screen.
There are also techniques that will help wet, sticky powder through a hammer mill - it shouldn’t be that hard to figure out.And yes, it is a major PITA to clean the mill after the batch is all done. -
I agree with @Perry. Use a stronger acid, like HCl. Or, you could reduce the amount of basic material in your formula.
Also, you are not using enough suspending agent to keep 2% Zinc Oxide stable for very long. You’re going to need something with a higher yield value than Xanthan Gum.Last but not least, there’s a bunch of “active” ingredients in there at extremely high levels that are unnecessarily complicating your formulating efforts. Get rid of them all, make a stable emulsion at the pH you want, then you can try adding them back (preferably one at a time, so you can isolate the effect thy have on stability) -
The FDA is in a peculiar position, due to the wording of some of the laws governing it.
The FDA has established a definition for what it considers a drug: a product “intended for use in the diagnosis, cure, mitigation, treatment, or prevention of disease,” or “intended to affect the structure or any function of the body.”BUT…there is a loophole, and an “anti-loophole”.The loophole says that in order for there to be a violation of FDA regulations, the company making the product must “claim” (communicate in some way to the user) that its products perform one or more of the functions that would make it a drug. That means that if you use a raw material like Matrixyl, you are OK unless/until you claim it does anything that the FDA considers a drug function (stimulates collagen, for example.)The “anti-loophole” says that there are some ingredients that are so widely recognized as being drugs that even the mere mention of them on your ingredient label is enough for the FDA to say that you are making a drug claim. Penicillin, for example. A skin cream containing Penicillin would be a drug no matter what you said (or didn’t say) about it. -
What do you think is wrong with adding more than 0.5% Citric Acid?
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For lab work, 1-2 kilos, hammer mill dry, drip or spray binder into a double-planetary mixer filled with powder, hammer mill again.
For production, paddle/ribbon/P-K blender or equivalent with sprayer to add binder, then hammer/pin/cone or jet mill.A good resource is Powder & Bulk Solids magazine -
The only place I could find for small quantities is here:
“Hydrogenated Castor Oil” is the correct INCI name. -
No, signing up and membership is for corporations, and is very expensive. No membership is needed to access the buyers guide.
Prospector and SpecialChem provide similar, but less comprehensive resources. They do require signing up, but doing so is free. -
There are 5 suppliers listed in the PCPC Buyers Guide. Are you trying to find a supplier other than those?
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Zinc Oxide has two uses - skin protectant or sunscreen.;Which are you trying for?
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You can adapt the colorimeters used to match paint, but it’s a whole lot of work and a big investment - and even after spending a bunch of money, you still might not get the accuracy needed. A trained color evaluator, using a color booth, is usually better than any program/meter I’m aware of.
It’s less expensive if you are just trying to measure color, rather than having the program color match and adjust for you.When using a machine, though, one of the drawbacks is that you have to be very careful to prepare your samples precisely the same way each and every time. -
Why do you want to use Zinc Oxide in the first place? Why do you want to dissolve it?
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1) No.
2) No. If you adjust the pH down, you will destroy your soap.3) Try one of the sugar-based suractants -
If you don’t want to put in the time to research this yourself, I’d be happy to put you in touch with a consultant.
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Zinc oxide cannot be dissolved in glycerin. Or anything else.
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1) Improve your binder system. Investigate powder binders as well as alternative liquid binders..
2) Both.3) Probably not.4) I would be happy to recomend a consultant that could work with you on this project. -
I don’t even know how I’d charge them. Any thoughts?
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No, centrifuges are mostly useless for determining stability.