[chemicalmatt]

Perry is correct in that BTMS renders CETAC redundant. The larger alkyl chain quat always displaces the lesser one, so delete. I know an ingredient you can obtain that will resolve the drying effect of post-chemical treated African hair: petrolatum. Cheap and totally effective. Also, @Mel55 you are wise to employ 350cst dimethicone. Good call there: that is the most versatile of all the dimethylpolysiloxane chain lengths for personal care. 

[chemicalmatt]

@MapX steers you well there @SlingerD in suggesting a rheology stabilizer, not only for stability but suspending that TiO2 otherwise it will eventually find its way to the bottom of your bottle. I’ll add though that what you observed is not so bad. The condensate was bound to happen inside a closed system heated by the sun and a little water exit post-freezing is not unusual. Add a little glycol either BG or PG and you may see that disappear.

[chemicalmatt]

Man did this question go off the rails! To answer your original inquiry @ETcellphone: best use of either BG or PG is to “de-tack” stickier humectants and water-borne ingredients such as glycerin, sorbitol, xylitol, HYA and on and on… butylene glycol works best, but propylene glycol is less expensive. Both also decrease the freeze point which helps with freeze-thaw. As for these other uses, such as antimicrobial value: please ignore. As for renewable-grade propanediol: why waste money on that? Only 0.001% of the market cares where it came from.

[chemicalmatt]

Better than either: acrylates copolymers, many of which are drop-ins already neutralized such as RapidGel EZ1 (3V Sigma).  Also not all carbomers are same, you get varying properties and rheology outcomes and most formulators either don’t know this or forget. BTW, xanthan gum is anionic too, an aspect largely ignored. Make a xanthan gum dispersion then drop in CETAC or another cationic surfactant and see the mess you get. Xanthan is more electrolyte tolerant however. Can’t beat it there. 

[chemicalmatt]

I dunno’ ’bout all that, but @Zink should try it in skin-care. Lower your cost by using iQuat BTMC from Cosphatech (now Kimika LLC) or Maquat BTMC from Pilot-Mason, never from Croda (perhaps where @natzam44 went wrong?) Half the price for same material. Nice powdery after-feel  - which admittedly can be achieved by other means - but as @Cafe33 mentions, emulsifies dimethicone like nothing else does.
 

[chemicalmatt]

Comedogenicity is only a factor when the ingredient is used at high concentration, and isodecyl oleate is not a high comedogenic material, nor is cetyl alcohol. Go forth and formulate my friend.

[chemicalmatt]

I think you answered your own question there: yes. I’ll add here that lactylates do bind to keratin and the main effect is hydration from their humectancy, not true “hair conditioning”, which is better served with alkyl quats.

[chemicalmatt]

This has been a strong topic over the years and thanks to both @Pharma and the always informative @PhilGeis for the intel here. I had learned years ago that kaolin adsorbed (thanks again Pharma) preservatives too, so that it is advisable to always add all preservatives as early as possible in the process stream if you are adding clays of any kind. I’ve always wondered whether that was true or not. Can either of you weigh in? Should preservatives be added before or after clay addition?

[chemicalmatt]

I’ll second Perry’s comment: these polyquaterniums are very robust, heat will not affect the,. However I recommend always dispersing these cellulosics, not just the polyquats, to cold water first then heat to effect hydration. Same with guars and the other polysaccharide resins, otherwise you are guaranteed the fisheyes Perry mentions. Those plug up your vessel’s transfer valves and make your compounders really crabby and resentful. We only want happy, smiley compounders.

[chemicalmatt]

On the other hand @Dan and @ozgirl you can save time and money using Synthalen W600 (Acrylates Copolymer) from 3V Sigma USA. No need for back-acid adjustment and high yield value too. (Beats those Lubrizol prices.) Being anionics, these are compatible with xanthan gum, guar too. Pumice, huh? I love  it - that’s Old School formulating. 

[chemicalmatt]

@RDchemist15 I’ll second that thanks. I always formulated the beta-hydroxyacid desquamators to pH 5 just to prevent the scorching effects on skin at the lower pH, but falsely believed - not any more thanks - that efficacy was diminished as it is for the glycolic acid peels. The 2% SalAc product at pH 5 - 6 is safer with time-release function: a win-win. Also easier to solubilize I might add.

[chemicalmatt]

This is a moving target, so better to begin your reading here:

Regulatory Policy Information | Sunscreen Innovation Act | FDA

[chemicalmatt]

@Naveed please define “TDS” since most of us reference “technical data sheet” to those initials.

[chemicalmatt]

I’ll also mention Microbiology Testing Lab - Accugen Laboratories, Inc. (accugenlabs.com). They do outstanding work and inexpensive too.

[chemicalmatt]

Weirdly, the bentonite and PEG-40 HCO might  just hold this together for a few weeks. Good ‘ol bentonite! Colloid workhorse. Back to @Paprik statement: a preservative is highly advised and lots of it with kaolin involved. 
  

[chemicalmatt]

@domicanica there’s too much to go into here. You need to read up on surfactant chemistry a bit more. Some basic advice: salt does not thicken all surfactant systems, and has little to no effect on those with APG glucosides. As for HEC, that will usually gel out in these systems, especially with all of those $#!#! glucosides. You need to use hydroxymethylcellulose or just methylcellulose. You’ll feel better then.

[chemicalmatt]

@Benz3ne mentions a must-have: EDTA. Without it you’ll be rinsing for a long time trying to get rid of soap film (“deposits”) Good advice on adding CAPB too, though not so much for the mildness as for the hydrotrope synergy. @Pattsi has a good point too: SLS is good & cheap & plentiful.

[chemicalmatt]

@zetein is correct on both counts. @Perry is correct when the emulsion is o/w though, or when acrylate rheology modifiers are used.

[chemicalmatt]

The answer is affirmative, as long as the primary package is inside a secondary display carton for retail sale. You may print most of your label content on the carton, less on the bottle/jar/tube as long as it is comprised by the same SKU. Alternatively you can have your label formatted in a pressure-sensitive accordion-style like the Rx drug products use. These triple the label space, but have high MOQ, work well and are no harder to machine-apply than the common p-s labels.

[chemicalmatt]

@Zink  Vevy is distributed here in the USA by Independent Chemical Corporation (Glendale, NY), @”Dr Catherine Pratt” not sure, and they keep it proprietary, but the scent is mainly the terpenes with nicer second notes. You can always throw a little triethyl citrate into there to fix. 

[chemicalmatt]

Use cetyl alcohol as a builder along with GMS (not SE). Stearic acid in a cationic  system? Fuggeddaboddit.  

[chemicalmatt]

Yeesh! With lactic acid at 8.0% you’ll be working in the pH 2.5 range. No acrylate thickener - doesn’t matter how “Zen” - will operate at that pH.

[chemicalmatt]

Got anything against PEG-esters? Plenty of them and most will accomplish your goal.

[chemicalmatt]

The Hydroessential line of essential  oil hydrosols from Vevy Europe are powerful even at 0.10% so you get a lot of bang for your buck or whatever currency you may be using. Fragrance-free all day too.

[chemicalmatt]

@changing_man, I think what @Pharma was trying to tell you is that “poly-” anything will have an unobtainable HLB value. You can approximate it but why bother?