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evchem2
Forum Replies Created
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Just as a disclaimer- personal lubricant does not fall under US cosmetic definition, you need 510(k) clearance which involves pre-market approval of safety (if you are selling to US market).
Personally I would avoid ‘functional ingredients’, unless you have strong evidence of the safety of each component individually and as a combination for the specific areas of application.
Are you actually getting any viscosity build from the PQ-7 in polyols? What is ‘stabilizer’?
Glycerin can produce a mild warming effect when it comes in contact with water- this requires the formula to be mostly anhydrous to start though. I’m assuming the PQ-7 is a solution so you are adding water already, and I’m not aware how safe a polyquat is for vaginal tissues, haven’t seen a polyquat in lube before.
I have tested methyl nicotinate before for a different application- it certainly produces warming. I would start with a low amount (0.1-0.5%), I’m not sure how well it will be solubilized in a polyol base.
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evchem2
MemberJanuary 17, 2025 at 8:19 am in reply to: Scalp serum (O/W emulsion) FAIL! PLEASE HELP!I would recommend adding xanthan and acacia earlier in the process, ideally before you add anything else- you are adding them after salts and that can inhibit full hydration. I’d reduce your tocopherol to 0.1% as well, it’s too high. You can also try adding just your oil phase to water (without the salts and polymers) and see how quickly that mixture separates. If it’s pretty fast you might need additional solubilizer or emulsifier- I’m not sure the walnut oil can be solubilized by the symbiosolv.
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I work for a manufacturer of xanthan gum (not TIC). For us the difference between cosmetic grade and food typically comes down to micro spec- lower for cosmetics than it is for food. There may be some additional tighter specifications but the bioburden is usually the main concern and cost is higher as a result. We also sell a ‘smooth flow’ xanthan that has reduced stringiness that @Herbnerd is mentioning- this is a slightly different polymer from the standard xanthan, but it’s still xanthan overall.
What works ‘best’ will come down to your processing/application needs. Xanthan can have variance on the properties that can be produced for certain conditions -some are more salt tolerant, some have high thickening efficiency (usually at the expense of appearance/ stringiness), some grades we ensure are cellulase free which is beneficial in toothpaste if you are also using CMC, etc. Feel free to DM me or provide more detail on what ‘best’ means to you in this case.
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evchem2.
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evchem2
MemberJanuary 6, 2025 at 7:34 am in reply to: What is RSSL( relative surface silicone deposition level)I’m not familiar with this term but if it’s relative it may be an index range compared to some standard. Can you cite the paper you are reading so we can get more context?
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You can look into the society of cosmetic chemists and ask your local chapter if they know of any openings, or search their careers website.
https://careers.scconline.org/
You can also look for large brands and check their linkedin for potential internships, for example Henkel is currently looking for an intern in laundry development.
https://www.linkedin.com/jobs/view/4080266210/?capColoOverride=true
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What region of the world are you selling to? In the US there is no FDA definition of natural for cosmetics. Many brands choose to use ISO 16128 as a standard way of making these calculations, and this would include calculating the Natural Origin Index, giving you what percentage of the product is from natural origins. https://www.iso.org/standard/65197.html
I’d also suggest looking at competitor’s products who make the claims you are interested in and try to find out how they substantiate their claims.you can look into third-party certifications from organizations such as COSMOS and NATRUE as well but these may have additional requirements about your facility
iso.org
Cosmetics — Guidelines on technical definitions and criteria for natural and organic cosmetic ingredients — Part 2: Criteria for ingredients and products
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What’s the order of addition with the Aristoflex- do you add that in prior to all the acids or after? and what is the final product pH?
Your polymer is meant to interact with the hydrophobic phase but your largest portion of that is silicone, you may need to incorporate a silicone-based emulsifier. Otherwise you can try and add additional aristoflex to boost viscosity.
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evchem2
MemberNovember 13, 2024 at 7:29 am in reply to: Strange phenomenon in hair conditioner formulationmy guess is related to the fact you mixed a polymer that has potential to be anionically charged (ultrez 20) with cationic surfactant and polymer. The first trial you hadn’t neutralized the polymer so it didn’t provide viscosity but also didn’t interact with the cationics. The second trial had neutralized carbomer so the carboxylate groups were able to interact with the cationics and form some kind of complex/precipitate.
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evchem2
MemberNovember 11, 2024 at 7:22 am in reply to: Seeking Advice on Washing Machine Liquid Formulation IssuesDo you know which kinds of soils specifically ( ex particulate vs grease vs grass/wine/tomato) or was this across the board?
Fragrance longevity could be improved by using encapsulated fragrance along with oil, but you will need to ensure your system can uniformly suspend the encapsulates either from the nature of the system or including an additional suspension aid.
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what kind of formulation is this- where is it intended to be applied? do you have any limitations on product appearance such as clarity, or avoiding certain ingredients for claims positioning?
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evchem2
MemberSeptember 23, 2024 at 7:30 am in reply to: Alternatives to glycerin for dissolving Xanthan Gum or CMC?The other comments have already made some good points. You could maybe try this with an iota carrageenan as well- if you add a suspension of that material into water in the presence of salt (preferably divalent like Calcium) you can get a thicker texture. It won’t be very smooth, but maybe using it in combination with xanthan or CMC would help.
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Definitely agree with trytryagain, are you based in the US? If the listing looks as you wrote it I wouldn’t feel comfortable using the product. Ethyl acetate is normally used in nail polishes and as a component of fragrance/flavor mixes. I’ve never seen it listed in a product for the face, let alone as the second most predominant ingredient!
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agree any polymer is going to give you issues with fine spray unless you get a nozzle to overcome some of that or reduce the level. You could try diutan or gellan gum though- diutan is more shear-thinning than xanthan and you could likely use it at ~60% your xanthan use level. Not sure the pH of a product like this but if you are heating the formulation you could try ~0.1% or less of high acyl gellan (hydrates at ~85C) or use low-acyl gellan gum at a a similar concentration (there are some other processing considerations with that though such as presence of ions).
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Can’t speak for all xanthan manufacturers, but I think in theory you could use cosmetic grade xanthan in food.. it would be more expensive ketchup compared to just using food grade. For our food grade SKUs we ensure they comply with necessary regulations in a given country/FCC standards for example. Different grades of xanthan have different specification ranges & unique tests based on the final application. Hope that answers your question
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glad to help! And yeah I agree with giving your preservatives the best chance to work by limiting incoming microbial burden wherever possible.
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sorry my wording was unclear 🙂 Less microbes allowed for the cosmetic grade since the shelf life is usually longer than food requirements. For example, one of our food grade xanthan gums has a spec of <2,000 cfu/g bacteria. The equivalent cosmetic grade is <1,000 bacteria cfu/g, and we have customers who request even lower levels.
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I hope it’s okay to ask here but are there not any issues or complexing concerns when combining carbopol (anionic polymer) with the polyquats? Does it come down to the ratios or charge density?
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^This is basically what it comes down to. If you’re going to use a dispersant, general recommendation is to use at least 3:1 ratio dispersant to gum. Glycerin is a bit more viscous than some other options like propanediol that may be easier to mix. You just want to ensure there are no dry clumps of xanthan, it should all be coated in dispersant. I would not recommend adding any water to the premix if you go this route, and you may not want to leave the premix sitting out for too long or it could pick up moisture from the environment.
If you have high shear mixing capability, you can skip glycerin since it’s probably not benefitting your shampoo to have it. Just sprinkle in the xanthan gum to the water directly and mix vigorously, you could also heat slightly to help hydrate the gum (and slow mix to help get out any air you may incorporate).Process should be: xanthan (premixed with glycerin if using)> add to water, let mix (anywhere from 5-15 minutes is my guess)> add preservative/surfactants
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evchem2
MemberNovember 13, 2024 at 1:25 pm in reply to: Strange phenomenon in hair conditioner formulationI guess it’s possible some of the ultrez had negative charge, but my guess is not much. if you look at the material structure (attached from harry’s cosmeticology 9th ed) the carboxylic acid group is what you are neutralizing when the pH is raised. so when the pH is lowered enough the carbomer shouldn’t have a charge, it will just revert to the acid form.
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It’s not, though I technically can’t see what the components of the scentARC are
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~27% water
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it’s ~4.5, I dilute it 50% with DI water to get a reading since the product is a solid gel otherwise
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The info I got is a specific ingredient was plated with certain topical resident microbes in vitro and showed some vague positive results (promotion of some ‘beneficial’ bacteria, reduction of some others associated with malodor). Now I’m being asked to develop a formulation for further testing to show if the claim can be substantiated for a full product.
Do my selected preservatives (benzoate, methylheptylglycerin, pentlyene glycol) seem adequate to cover whatever may still grow?
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evchem2
MemberOctober 24, 2024 at 9:00 am in reply to: Questions about coacervation, complexing, polymers and salt thickeningYour question was answered by ketchito and their response is a great starting point if you are serious about trying to use coacervation technology
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evchem2
MemberOctober 1, 2024 at 8:26 pm in reply to: Questions about coacervation, complexing, polymers and salt thickeningI’m definitely not a coacervation expert but I’d expect D-panthenol not to deposit very well because it’s so water soluble. From my understanding (hopefully someone can educate me if any of the below is wrong), you may get some interaction with a charged surfactant-uncharged polymer, but the systems which are more typically used and have most dramatic results are oppositely charged polymer-surfactants systems. So a cationic-functionalized cellulose could perform better, and as a bonus if you use a positively charged polymer you should get better binding to keratin of the hair which is negatively charged. Also, adding salt affects the coacervate region of precipitation (generally decreases coacervation because of salt shielding- it also changes when the system ppts). These systems are complex and there’s lots of literature on this topic (you can look at anything by Goddard or Ananthapadmanabhan)