erindlea
Forum Replies Created
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This website is a good resource for safe use concentrations of various essential oils. https://ifrafragrance.org/safe-use/library
You can also google “lime essential oil IFRA concentration,” for example, and the PDF showing IFRA standards for lime oil will come up.
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Optiphen Plus is really sensitive to temperature. I have had emulsions break when it was added at 40C. You might try cooling to 37-38C just to be on the safe side.
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I would add stearic acid to thicken and phenoxyethanol/ethylhexylglycerin or phenoxyethanol/caprylyl glycol to preserve it.
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I use citric acid to adjust my deodorant’s pH to around 9. This is a perfectly suitable pH for my sodium stearate based stick. It’s stable, effective, and non-irritating.
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@johnb and @CarrissaDowdy, I failed to mention that the addition of sodium chloride also helped with stability of my deodorant stick. NaCl, along with the aforementioned components, actually stabilized my emulsion and solved the syneresis problem that I had with my sodium stearate/propanediol based deodorant.
Below are links to a couple of patents for deodorant stick formulas that incorporate fatty alcohols and sodium chloride.
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To prevent syneresis, you need an emulsifier/emulsion stabilizer like behenyl alcohol, cetearyl alcohol, glyceryl monostearate, or some combination thereof. And definitely a decrease in glycerin will help.
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Thanks for the tip on the ethylhexylglycerin, ozgirl. That’s a bonus!
Mark, I’ve never had problems with crumbling. The deodorant glides on well and has a firmness and texture similar to most commercial stick deodorants. It is one of my best sellers. My original wax-based formulations were sticky and transferred oily residue onto clothing, so that’s not an option for me.I think I will reduce the glycerin and increase the kaolin to see if this helps. -
My sugar scrub formula has almost the exact ingredient list as yours, but I use more sugar and less glycerin. My goal when formulating this particular scrub was to have a solid to liquid ratio that was high enough to prevent a liquid layer from forming above the sugar. The end result looks similar to this: http://bathhousesoap.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/Lavender-Body-Scrubs.jpg
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Sodium stearate is a sodium salt of stearic acid, which is a soap. It is not volatile, but its dissolution in hot water (or alcohol) is quite an onerous task. Having tried the same approach myself, I discovered that saponifying stearic acid and palm oil in the process of making the deodorant is much easier. I dissolve sodium hydroxide (1% of my total formula) in the heated (>= 157F) water phase of my formula, and I add melted stearic acid/palm oil (7% of my total formula) to the lye solution with shear mixing. Because the lye is dissolved in such a relatively large amount of water (as compared to the ratios used in cold process soapmaking), the addition of the fatty acids creates a viscous liquid that can then be made less viscous and more workable by the addition of a glycol (I use propanediol). I am therefore able to avoid the difficult task of dissolving sodium stearate.
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Essential Wholesale offers a variety of lotion bases to which you could add your essential oils. http://www.essentialwholesale.com/category/14/lotions
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Thanks, guys. I like Bobzchemist’s blend-off or new product idea. I definitely don’t want to change the labels to include a new ingredient, and I don’t want to alter the feel of the product since I have a loyal following for my original formula. I may blend off part of it and experiment with the rest using some sodium polyacrylate that I have on hand.
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Lightoceane is a brown algae extract (INCI Halidrys siliquosa extract) that reduces melanin synthesis.