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  • chemicalmatt

    Member
    September 8, 2016 at 6:42 pm in reply to: W/O Emulsion tips please

    IF you keep your mixer speed/shear rate low while adding your water phase, you shouldn’t need to homogenize much; and I did mean after both phases are combined and your batch is at ambient temperature by “at the end”. That’s enough NaCl by the way.

  • chemicalmatt

    Member
    September 7, 2016 at 5:26 pm in reply to: W/O Emulsion tips please

    Here’s more relevant advice, regarding this Evonik formula:  you must always add the water phase (internal) to the oil phase (external) slowly drip-wise for at least the first 65% of your phase addition, and only at very low shear.  Also, double the amount of salt in this formula - better yet triple it.  They always short the salt ( like some food recipes) in inverse-phase emulsions; and the electrolyte is critical to stability. Finally, do NOT over-homogenize at the end or you’ll lose it and ruin everything you just successfully achieved. Try this and you may find much better results with that formula.

  • chemicalmatt

    Member
    September 7, 2016 at 5:15 pm in reply to: The effects Of Silicones In nail polish

    Negative, Zolveria. Dimethicone will not dry it faster and likely will not be compatible with the acrylics and other nail polish ingredients. Silica not same as silicone.

  • chemicalmatt

    Member
    August 18, 2016 at 5:14 pm in reply to: Is more cosmetic regulation needed?

    I’ve said many times to many people here in the U.S.: had the investment banking industry been as competently self-regulated as the personal care products industry has been over the past four decades, there would never have been a crash, a bailout and a recession in 2007. 

  • chemicalmatt

    Member
    August 12, 2016 at 3:03 pm in reply to: making handmade liquid soup milder

    How about just adding a good amphoteric hydrotrope like disodium cocoamphodipropionate or sodium lauroamphoacetate.  These products reduce skin irritation, stabilize your barely soluble alkali soap, build foam, etc. Also, why are you adding glycerin when some is being made in situ already in this saponification reaction; and glycerin does zilch in your formula unless you really can’t stand suds?  All these “natural” formulators use it in cleansing products - just madness!

  • chemicalmatt

    Member
    August 9, 2016 at 7:35 pm in reply to: New Contract Manufacturer?

    Hi Bob.  I’m thinking that plant in Solon is the former Matrix plant, occupied by L’Oréal for a spell.  If I’m right it was one well-equipped manufacturing plant already.  Score one for the South Koreans. The Variblend device is pretty cool, but not unique.  I remember working on a dual-chambered product in the early 1980’s called Dial-A-Tan for Beecham, in a dual chambered LDPE tube. It had SPF 25 in one chamber, SPF 4 in another; you then dialed in your tanning range. LOTS of gas chromatography work to validate it.  Bad marketing killed it. Too bad.

  • chemicalmatt

    Member
    August 9, 2016 at 7:16 pm in reply to: Lamellar gel article

    Hi Belassi. You are right it is; I read this today also.  Deckner managed to pare this down to 3 or 4 paragraphs when the actual science could take up many pages.  For the record, I’ve always had the best result in forming stable lammelar liquid crystalline gels using cetyl alcohol, glyceryl stearate or a combination of both, 4:1. Easy on the GMS though, or you will see that viscosity creep he writes about.

  • Young, I’ve found in most cases that petrolatum is the better material to use over petroleum jelly.  Ask for petrolatum white USP grade, never have a problem again.  Petroleum jelly, sometimes referred to as “mineral jelly”, is indeed a mixture of mineral oil, paraffins and microcrystalline waxes, all from the same white oil cut from crude petroleum. Your supplier obviously did some black-art chemical mixing to produce something close to the commercial product, then took it to market.  $15 per kg! Man, I am SOOO in the wrong business.

  • chemicalmatt

    Member
    July 12, 2016 at 9:41 pm in reply to: W/O Emulsion

    I will second Bill Toge’s question regarding your conundrum: what else is incorporated here?  It is doubtful, if not impossible, for an emulsion based on (neutralized) Pemulen to invert to w/o. There must be another factor, or your empirical observations with Finsolv TN are throwing you off (and I am a big fan of Finsolv TN as everyone knows.)  

  • chemicalmatt

    Member
    July 8, 2016 at 6:10 pm in reply to: EU INCI

    Alcohol, Denatonium Benzoate.  You may list the latter way down in the order, just as long as it is there.

  • chemicalmatt

    Member
    July 6, 2016 at 9:23 pm in reply to: Does Sodium Lactate exhibit keratolytic property?

    Pretty sure that is in there only as a buffering additive, jvic.  These organic acids work as keratolytic desquamators only in the acid pH range, as stated above.

  • chemicalmatt

    Member
    July 6, 2016 at 9:19 pm in reply to: Sheet mask manufacturing

    Natural, these are made with die-cut cellulosic film, which is then cut/formed/inserted into a form/fill/seal pouch, then liquid formula injected into pouch, then pouch sealed. Voila - facemask.  Our firm (we are the pouch kings of the New World) has looked into it, given our equipment and skill-set, but the die-cutting equipment and retro-fitting needed to fit our nonwoven wipe insert line is expensive. Unless someone approaches us with a solid order in the millions of mask units, it will remain on the drawing board for now. Try Taiwan in the meanwhile.

  • chemicalmatt

    Member
    July 6, 2016 at 9:08 pm in reply to: Stearamidopropyl dimethylamine as conditioner emulsifier

    Bart, partly charge-mass ratio granting greater emulsifier range and cationic conditioning on the hair; but mostly because it’s much less expensive.  Croda has enough money already, don’t you agree?

  • chemicalmatt

    Member
    July 5, 2016 at 8:28 pm in reply to: Stearamidopropyl dimethylamine as conditioner emulsifier

    Actually Glam, SD is a very good emulsifier - only when acidified into a tertiary amine salt to about pH 5 -  but especially so when used in conjunction with alkyl quats such as CETAC, STEARAC and BEHENTAC, etc.  Be advised you will obtain sharply different viscosity and stability outcomes depending upon the organic acid used.  If you can afford glutamic acid that will work best, but good old inexpensive lactic acid 88% works nicely too. Regarding dimethicone emulsification: the SD/behenyl quat (use the chloride not the TMS analog) system you are trending toward is perhaps the best vehicle to use for that ingredient, even with the 10,000 CST DMC.  Happy trails. 

  • chemicalmatt

    Member
    July 5, 2016 at 8:02 pm in reply to: How to improve the toner’s absorption?

    Joanne, use ethoxydiglycol for absorption enhancement of water-borne additives like those you describe. For oil-soluble materials, I’ll recommend dimethyl isosorbide.

  • chemicalmatt

    Member
    June 10, 2016 at 6:34 pm in reply to: Formulating with pigments

    Natural, I will suggest trying a w/o (inverse-phase) emulsion since your pigment wetting agents and extenders are mainly aliphatic and aromatic esters, correct? Oil suspension can use silica if that is needed. This will also afford better payout of same when applied.  You can go high water activity or low, depending on the desired outcome and w/o emulsifier.

  • chemicalmatt

    Member
    March 23, 2016 at 8:22 pm in reply to: Moisturizing effect in Dove after washing

    I will posit it is none of the above - though I do like the Marks’ Elyssian fields touchy-feely cruelty-free vegan-safe scenario, once I’ve consumed the contents of my bong. Unilever is using encapsulated oils in that soap.  This uses that spherite dendritic surfactant thingy that Rhodia (now Solvay) came up with several years back. Pretty nifty: I made up a prototype that encapped 5% dimethicone inside a standard anionic-amphoteric system. Never did make a sale with it though. Guess you have to be Unilever..

  • chemicalmatt

    Member
    March 17, 2016 at 9:53 pm in reply to: heat and hydrolyzed wheat protien

    Hayle, if you are a SCC member you may search the archives for research papers published in their journal.  These will not be considered ‘clinical trials’ so much as substantivity assays. We tend to leave the word ‘clinical’ out of the lexicon of cosmetic science.  Commercial sources may be of help also, TRI-K Industries does great protein work as does Solvay (see: Gluadin products).

  • Swabu, “expertise” will generally be defined by the market requirements within which a professional works. Bob Z. has made a good reference to this. My career path here in Chicago has been nearly an immersion in African-American (and African, for that matter) and multi-cultural (read: Hispanic, Asian) product formulation. My running joke for over 25 years in this biz has been: I know more about black hair and skin care than a guy with blonde hair and blue eyes has a right to know. So there you have it. Now, as for color cosmetics: I don’t hardly know where to start there, yet some guy in southern California or France likely does.  See what I mean.

  • chemicalmatt

    Member
    March 15, 2016 at 9:28 pm in reply to: Ethnic natural hair chemist needed

    Chicago is the Silicon Valley of ethnic (read: African-American) hair and skin care, in case you did not know already. I’ll second Uyi Wogherin. If you need manufacturing - or a second opinion - contact me through this blog.

  • chemicalmatt

    Member
    March 15, 2016 at 9:20 pm in reply to: potassium alum as deodorant/antiperspirant

    What I’d like to know is how all the marketers of these potassium alum salt stick deodorants are feeling about themselves by claiming “aluminum-free” on their labels?

  • chemicalmatt

    Member
    March 15, 2016 at 9:15 pm in reply to: Disulfide Bond restructuring product - Olaplex

    FYI - I witnessed their large loud presentation at ABS in Chicago yesterday.  “7 patents, 300,000 salons, 23 countries..” yada, yada, yada.  Though mainly sold & used for oxidative hair coloring techniques “to restore disulfide bonds”, they also claim it works with alkaline relaxers, which results in lanthionization, so like my esteemed colleague Randy S, I am skeptical. Also, they did warn of the need to use less, not more.  My read on that: this big molecule will displace/inhibit the smaller dye intermediate molecules during the dying process, resulting in less dye uptake.  But, it DOES sell like crazy. These guys are minting money with this product and it shows up in numerous salon technique procedures now.

  • chemicalmatt

    Member
    March 15, 2016 at 8:37 pm in reply to: Hydrogenated Castor Oil

    HCO is quite safe to use mayiknow - don’t believe what you read in internet posts that associate it with the poison Ricin, which is derived from castor oil. By itself it is not an emulsifier however - you CAN believe that. It will be miscible with most polar oils. Historical note: PEG-40 Hydrogenated Castor Oil is thought to be the first ethoxylated nonionic emulsifier introduced to industry, by BASF back in the post-WWII era.

  • chemicalmatt

    Member
    January 14, 2016 at 10:37 pm in reply to: Polyvinyl alcohol mask formula

    Cool, Belassi. Thanks for the update. A vinyl cleaner - who knew?

  • chemicalmatt

    Member
    January 14, 2016 at 10:32 pm in reply to: How to keep body butter fluffy for long time

    You may want to add a little foaming surfactant to create more fluff in the first place, though with no water in your formula you don’t have many options. Any other lipophilic builder or foam stabilizer will put you outside the vegan world. Can you deal with modified hectorite clays?

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