Bobzchemist
Forum Replies Created
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Also, the FDA registration process is very confusing and difficult to navigate without help. It may be more cost-effective to hire a consultant to register you than it would be to learn how to register.
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I would add some liquid caprylic alcohol to inhibit crystalization without changing skin feel. (INCI may be Caprylyl Alcohol.)
KAO, P&G, and Sasol North America all make this material.Alternatively, using Behenyl Alcohol instead of cetearyl should work better.This lit may help: -
Sorry, my computer seems to change fonts at random. Is this better?
Generally speaking, we say saponified (reacted into a soap) when the reaction is conducted in-situ, i.e., in the process of making the product. In that case, you have the option of declaring the ingredients that went into your product (oils and/or fatty acids PLUS sodium or potassium hydroxide) or the reaction products that are the chemicals actually existing in your product (potassium cocoate, potassium shea butterate, for example)The ingredient listing you posted is WRONG for a US product.If you buy a soap as a raw material, on the other hand, which is saponified by the manufacturer, you have NO CHOICE about how you list the ingredient. Sodium stearate, potassium cocoate, etc. is the ONLY correct listing. -
The purer the fatty alcohol is, and the tighter the carbon chain length distribution is, the more it will develop crystals in an emulsion. The interaction between/among crystals is what causes the viscosity to increase in the way David describes it.Mixing cetyl and stearyl alcohols will inhibit some, but not all, of that crystal formation. There are ingredients that will completely inhibit crystallization.
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You could always just make your own…
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slow crystal formation at RT
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Generally speaking, we say saponified (reacted into a soap) when the reaction is conducted in-situ, i.e., in the process of making the product. In that case, you have the option of declaring the ingredients that went into your product (oils and/or fatty acids PLUS sodium or potassium hydroxide) or the reaction products that are the chemicals actually existing in your product (potassium cocoate, potassium shea butterate, for example)
The ingredient listing you posted is WRONG for a US product.If you buy a soap as a raw material, on the other hand, which is saponified by the manufacturer, you have NO CHOICE about how you list the ingredient. Sodium stearate, potassium cocoate, etc. is the ONLY correct listing. -
Degussa fumed silica - Aerosil 200 or 300
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@ELDEskin,
It’s been said (over and over) that it is impossible to tell if a preservative or preservative system will be adequate by looking at potential ingredients on paper.If you gave us the entire formula, with percentages, an experienced chemist could make an educated guess about the likely success or failure of your preservative system. BUT…there are so many variables, including the cleanliness of your manufacturing system, the micro burden in your raw materials, etc. that the ONLY way to tell for sure is to run the challenge test.Also - without a challenge test results on file, it is possible that a FDA audit could determine that your company has not adequately proven the safety of your product. This could have a number of consequences, all of them bad, but some are extremely bad. -
There are lots of different ways to structure fees.
If a customer is limited by a small budget, royalties are one way to reduce the up-front costs for the client, and this also ties his compensation to the success of your project - if you don’t sell much, he won’t get paid much. This kind of relationship also helps insure that the consultant will be responsive to calls for help if something goes wrong.If you are bothered by the royalty concept, you could get the same work done without the royalties, but in that case the consultant’s fee would be 2, 3 or more times what he is you charging initially - it wouldn’t surprise me to hear that he wants 50% of the total R&D figure he quoted you. Typically, once the project is completed, any further assistance you’d need from the consultant would cost extra in fees, and if he is involved in another project, he may or may not be able to help in a timely manner. -
When I try to fix a formula that is slightly unstable, one of the first questions I ask myself is “What would be synergistic with the existing ingredients”
Carbomer is not synergistic with clay, and doesn’t play nicely with zinc oxide either.Magnesium aluminum silicate (Veegum), as @milliachemist suggests, is both synergistic and stable. Veegum HV or Veegum Plus is what I’d suggest looking at first. Also try Laponite.Gums would be my other suggestion. Xanthan or CMC.Reducing the water probably won’t fix the instability. -
Not unless you have reason to believe that they are contaminated, or unless your products’s preservation system is on the edge of being inadequate.
You could swab a random sampling of packaging and send the swabs out for micro testing if you had concerns… -
There is a caveat here, though.
BASF, or a consultant, or a private label company, etc. can produce a SPF formula, do ALL the testing, provide the test results and data to you, and then license the formula to you. In that case, then as long as you do not change a single thing about that formula, you do not have to repeat the tests. When the FDA comes to inspect, you can show them the test data, etc. that has been provided to you.But, as Perry says, you can’t just point to a published formula and say “I did it just like that” and have the FDA be OK with it - you have to be able to show that, even if you didn’t perform or contract the testing yourself, it was done on your behalf. That’s why licensing the formula is a key point. -
Packaging should arrive already clean at your facility. The first thing you should do is complain to your packaging supplier.
To remediate dirty packaging, I would suggest wiping/spraying with ethyl alcohol. If that is not sufficient to get it clean, or if that adds too much labor cost to your cost of goods, you should reject the packaging and return it to to your supplier. -
Not in the US, at least not without testing the in-vivo SPF yourself.
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Look for food preservatives instead.
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It is very unusual to see oil levels above 0.1% total in commercial formulas. Marketing hype to the contrary, most oils in shampoo formulas do nothing except interfere with cleaning. (Silicone oils being the exception)
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@Kfox,
@pma is correct. All three of your choices will depress/destroy foaming ability, with the severity being concentration-dependent.Foam is usually enhanced or boosted only by surfactants, or materials that have some surfactant characteristics. -
Since Organic Food Chain is an Australian-only organic certifier, and as far as I know there are only a few raw material manufacturers in Australia, if you are looking specifically for OFC certified preservatives you are probably not going to find much, if anything.
If you are able to use US and/or EU organic certified products, you will find a much greater variety.In the US, products are certified to meet the USDA’s NOP standards. (United States Department of Agriculture National Organic Program (NOP)). A number of so-called third-party certifiers are permitted to certify products - the government sets the standards, but it’s private companies that actually issue the certifications. As near as I can tell from a brief look, Organic Food Chain is the Australian equivalent of a US third-party certifier - they are not affiliated with the Australian government, but they certify to government standards.In the EU, the organic certifiers I’m aware of are the Soil Association and Ecocert. -
We need a FAQ…
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For antioxidants, BHA/BHT are still preferred chemically. For natural products, not so much…Tocopherol is probably your best bet for a natural antioxidantFor chelating agents, EDTA and EDTA salts are still preferred chemically. For natural products, also not so much…Try:
- Sodium phytate/Phytic Acid
- Itaconix DSP 2K -
Also try holding them hot for a while and then cooling very slowly while stirring.
Typically, a grainy feel is a result of imperfect solubility, but make sure it’s not a processing issue first.Then, contact technical serviceTel: +1 800 526 5294 -
Bentonite is composed of clay platelets - nothing short of HF can remove them from your formula. The few small molecules of chelating agent will form a complex with the iron contaminates in the bentonite - nothing gets removed through that mechanism either. I don’t know if I can communicate the size differential properly - think of a pencil eraser compared to Mt. Everest, maybe that will help.
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I’d bet that with enough chelating agent, this would stop being a problem…
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Croda
Resources of Nature
Lucas Meyeralso,plain lecithin.