Forum Replies Created

Page 3 of 3
  • Duncan

    Member
    December 11, 2013 at 7:45 pm in reply to: Keratin fiber supplier

    http://buyers.personalcarecouncil.org/jsp/SupplierDtlPage.jsp always a good bet

    http://www.freemanllc.com/cosmetic.html appear to have keratin that isn’t hydrolysed

  • Duncan

    Member
    December 11, 2013 at 7:27 pm in reply to: Triclosan Alternatives

    Chlorhexidene does have drawbacks. The one that I hear about on a regular basis is in laundry for care homes. If you are in a region where sodium hypochlorite bleach is used in laundry on a regular basis (Mainly the US and Canada) this can interact with Chlorhexidene residues and give a rather nasty stain that won’t come out in the wash.

     

     

  • Duncan

    Member
    December 11, 2013 at 7:22 pm in reply to: Which is the best inventory management software to use?

    For a formulation database http://www.creativity-software.com/index.html

    is quite popular for those people who don’t have the time, knowledge or patience to use things like access. It’s more designed for formulation work, rather than stock control

     

  • Duncan

    Member
    December 11, 2013 at 5:59 pm in reply to: Cosmetic science forums

    There are parts of any industry that can get a bit like that at times. I think sometimes the worry is getting the balance right between getting interest and the ball rolling, and not doing consultants out of their bread and butter work.

    That said, If someone bats a few ideas here and gets a better vision of what they want to do, they’ll get better value out of a consultants time by being able to ask appropriate questions

    Swings and roundabouts?

  • Duncan

    Member
    December 11, 2013 at 9:16 am in reply to: Mixer/Emulsifier from China

    Half the price for things like Ultra turrax mixers or Silversons is the fact that they still supply parts and service for stuff 20 odd years down the line. They are also designed to take 8-10 hours a day abuse in commercial labs - And I do mean abuse

     That would be my only worry about a no-name cheapy off ebay if you are using it on more than an infrequent basis

  • Duncan

    Member
    December 10, 2013 at 1:37 pm in reply to: Lead in lipstick…. how to detect it (innovation inside !)

    It’s brown, It steams, it comes out of Cowes, It isn’t the Isle of Wight ferry and is the same in any language

    There are at least  10 of these going around, and the usual rate of return is every 6 months at least

     

  • Duncan

    Member
    December 9, 2013 at 3:42 pm in reply to: Welcome to the forum

    Waves at Robert. Need a bit of time to get used to the new handle

  • Duncan

    Member
    December 5, 2013 at 3:32 am in reply to: Sunscreen formulation with Avobenzone

    If those are skincare products with “Added UV protection” but no hard claims about a measured (or measurable) SPF they probably don’t bother

  • Duncan

    Member
    December 4, 2013 at 6:17 pm in reply to: Sunscreen formulation with Avobenzone

    Before the patent situation became less fraught, the combo of OCR/BMBM and EHMC was not that common over here in the UK. 4-MBC was used instead, howver, from what I remember the FDA hasn’t approved this active, and is unlikely to. It is these days a somewhat out of date active

  • Duncan

    Member
    December 1, 2013 at 7:17 pm in reply to: Issues with Colour Stability in Body Wash

    0.1% should do it Vitamin E Acetate wise.

    pH: Sorbates and Benzoates tend to be more optimum at slightly lower pH’s thsn thst spec. Might be worth tweaking it down to 4.5 - 5

  • Duncan

    Member
    November 28, 2013 at 8:11 pm in reply to: Source for Natamycin (Pimaricin)?

    Depends what you class as a large order. If for a product like that you are unlikely to be using more than say 1lb of material in a couple of years if it works, you might not garner much interest. If the potential offtake is several tonnes, then people suddenly take notice and you become their new best buddy.

    Most manufacturers are happy to sample to formulators if they can see a potential sale in it. Failing that you could always try a lab supply house such as Sigma Aldrich if you don’t mind paying an arm, leg and left nut for it

     

  • Duncan

    Member
    November 28, 2013 at 8:04 pm in reply to: Best way to start in the cosmetic industry?

    All valid points above.

    My 10p worth as an addition

    If you are looking to get a foot in the door, don’t forget to look at the private label sector. No they don’t have the “Brand Cachet” of say L’Oreal or Avon, but they don’t have the rigid structure either.

    Private label has the advantage that you get a much broader experience of cosmetic products, than just say one sector such as haircare.

    Also raw material suppliers need formulators to knock together example formulations. With your background I can see manufacturers of marine based actives, or algal derivatives taking you very seriously indeed

  • Duncan

    Member
    November 28, 2013 at 7:42 pm in reply to: Issues with Colour Stability in Body Wash

    That’s interesting. Fading in the dark can be down to a couple of things. Either an oxidation reaction going off in there, or a preservative system that isn’t quite as biocidal as it should be.

    For oxidation reactions an antioxidant such as BHT (or Vitamin E Acetate if BHT is verboten) can help, as can some of the Tinogards.

    Has the formulation passed a challenge (PAT) test. I had a foam bath that had a lot of royal jelly in it. A spore rich natural material. That needed both kathon and another preservative in there to keep it’s colour. Without the second preservative although the product would have a TVC <10, there was a residual microbial activity in there. Spores would activate, bugs would grow, and get killed quickly. They would however eat the colour out before they died.

    Another question: Are you using regular dyes such as (for instance Red 33, Blue 1 etc) or are you using natural food dyes such as say Copper chlorophyll. The latter are notoriously unstable, and will not have a good shelf life in product without precautions.

    An idea of the formulation you are trying would give us a better idea

  • Duncan

    Member
    November 28, 2013 at 1:40 pm in reply to: Glycerin vs Glycerin?

    what’s the strength?

    USP is usually 99.9% (ish) , there are other grades out there that are as low as 85% - perfectly good as food grade, but the extra water may cause a problem.

  • Duncan

    Member
    November 28, 2013 at 1:38 pm in reply to: Issues with Colour Stability in Body Wash

    Is the colour dropping off due to light exposure, or just disappearing in the dark as well. If the latter the Benzophenones won’t really help

  • Duncan

    Member
    November 28, 2013 at 1:36 pm in reply to: Help with defoamer

    There are exceptions to the “If you can eat it you can wear it” rule such as Cinnamon powder being used in lip balm - causes swelling and irritation, see also Chilli’s, but they are few and far between. Food grade antifoams are fine

    One observation about Simethicone emulsion, that is sold in capsule form for gas relief. Do not ingest more than the recommended dose. It can have Ahem “Unfortunate results” on the human digestive tract, which leaves it very clean indeed*

    *Use your imagination. My wife used to work in a plant where they encapsulated this stuff. One of the compounders got coated in it, didn’t wash his hands properly then ate his lunch. He ended up ingesting way more than the theraputic dose. His colleagues didn’t see him for the rest of the day, but they could hear him.

  • Duncan

    Member
    November 28, 2013 at 1:26 pm in reply to: Allantoin Recrystalization

    Allantoin hs been associated with wound healing. The evidence is inferred by the fact that maggots exude it, and maggots are very good at cleaning up septic wounds. It’s even a proper recognised medical therapy for bed sores. (How the diet going ?) :D

    I’ve usually gone to lower concentrations than 0.5%, typically 0.1-0.2% not had any problems with recrystallisation. (I know that the data says that 0.5% is soluble, I’ve found it difficult to get that all into a hot water phase - YMMV)

    At 0.5% I did see one very old product have crystals in it. Came in as a glass complaint. The product was at least 3 years old, not seen the problem since

     

  • Duncan

    Member
    November 23, 2013 at 1:43 pm in reply to: Welcome to the forum

    Welcome back Perry

Page 3 of 3
Chemists Corner