[Gunther]

@Belassi was that consignment sales (for the big retailer)?

Did they ask for a discount as to offer products at a lower price than you do in your store?
i.e. nobody has lower prices than [big retailer name here]

[Gunther]

Polysugamulse D9 looks interesting

it seems to emulsify most essential oils with just 3-5 times the oil weight.
https://www.colonialchem.com/fullpanel/uploads/files/poly-sugamulse-d9-tds-00003.pdf

[Gunther]

@Belassi does the 50% discount means that the retailer buys from you at 50% cost, and sells at 100% price
thus the retailer has a 50% gross margin, 100% markup?

Or does that mean that the retailer sells at half of your in-store price, to draw customers? 

[Gunther]

PVP K-30 dissolved fine in 95% alcohol for me.
Just check your local Volative Organic Carbon VOC regulations to see how much alcohol you can use (if it’s meant to be sold to customers)

IDK if PVP K-90 is less soluble than K-30.

[Gunther]

Sodium hydroxide is so alkaline that is easy to overshoot its pH and end up with a corpse dissolving solution instead.

That’s why Calcium and sometimes Lithium hydroxides are used for relaxers. The latter is used in some top brands.
Be aware that Ca and Li hydroxides slowly absorb carbon dioxide from air, so you’d better pack in sealed, single use containers.

[Gunther]

I don’t think vinegar works fine to clean glass 
Glass cleaners often need a volatile solvent so it evaporates quickly
either:

1 ethyl alcohol. It’s percentage depends on your country VOC regulations, and on how quick do you want it to dry.
2 isopropyl alcohol (often smells worse than ethyl alcohol)
3 butylcellosolve

1-3 are solvents and help dissolving grease smears.
you can also add

4 a surfactant in tiny amounts, preferably a nonionic one like glucosides so it doesn’t cling to glass.
5 EDTA
6 a water soluble silicone to prevent fogginh and streaks.

[Gunther]

Which ones do you use for a crystal-clear formulations?

[Gunther]

Neutralized Sulfonic acid is pale yellow, not clear
That’s why colorants are usually added

To increase viscosity you can
increase sulfonate concentration
increase SLES concentration
or add salt to thicken it.

[Gunther]

@Perry what’s the required pH for relaxing hair?

[Gunther]

@Perry how did Oleths compare to Ceteareths?

@Chemist77  @ozgirl  @erickafalves
May I ask how much PEG-40 HCO and Polysorbate-20 do you use?

[Gunther]

You can read the US patent 5338535 (now expired)
about using corn starch with cyclomethicone as the solvent.
Mainly intended for a non-talc body powder.

You can see if it may work for lipstick
expect lots of experimentation to be required for product development.

[Gunther]

For such a short time, 7 days
a paler makeup foundations (or anthing that leaves a paler coat on skin) seems like the only alternative.
It will rinse away upon washing, though.

Hydroquinone is the most effective whitening agent as @ngarayeva001  said

Resorcinol

Main article: Resorcinol

Resorcinol or m-hydroquinone is often used in skin-lightener cosmetics in countries where free hydroquinone is prohibite
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skin_whitening

[Gunther]

Formaldehyde is banned as a preservative.

[Gunther]

True hair relaxers must contain either alkaline hydroxides
or thioglycolic acid.

[Gunther]

@Belassi I got lost, would you mind elaborating on how you got to the 83% figure?

6 times cost = 600%
substracting the 100% cost gives 500% profit, wholly different than 83%

[Gunther]

Organic chemistry has a whole different meaning
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Organic_chemistry
placing an ad looking for an organic chemist, you may get chemists versed in synthesis
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Organic_synthesis
 which isn’t what you’re looking for.

It looks to me like you actually need an organic certification
usually done by labs and not individual chemists as they need expensive equipment like gas chromatography
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gas_chromatography
to test for pesticides and insecticides.

Also, it looks like you need a natural formulating chemist
which is totally different than an organic chemist.

[Gunther]

They claim all that BS
because they won’t say:

“We don’t know how, and it seems to be impossible to make soap acidic enough to be gentle to the skin, without it decomposing back to the free fatty acids, so we hope you believe all this pH 10 is good for you BS”

Is that cold process soap?
Because hot process soap can achieve pH 9, and the harshness difference is clearly noticeable.

[Gunther]

Not avoidable
you have to list every ingredient
that’s the reason you look at some Lists Of Ingredients and they have lots of preservatives
not because they added all those preservatives themselves,
but most were already added to raw materials by the manufacturers.

What specific impurity are you talking about?

[Gunther]

You can get a mild hold and quite a smoothing effect with
a silicone (i.e. dimethicone, dimethiconol, maybe amodimethicone too) dissolved in cyclomethicone

For more hold you’d need a polymer like PVP.

You can increase smoothing by lowering the pH down to 4 or so, so the hair cuticle closes, which makes hair feel smoother
but IDK if citric acid is soluble in cyclomethicone. You’d need to experiment yourself, and try other acids if needed.

You can add CETAC or BTMS for smoothing, but they aren’t directly soluble in cyclomethicone.
The purpose of cyclomethicone is too speed up drying.
CETAC and BTMS seem to be a bit soluble in alcohol.

[Gunther]

Perry said:

Our course also gives a nice overview of the field from the perspective of an industry insider. https://chemistscorner.com/formulating-cosmetics

Great
@Perry do students get a diploma?

[Gunther]

The problem is that if pH is too low (it is too acidic),
soap begins to decompose back to the water-insoluble free fatty acids
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fatty_acid
being insoluble, they separate
usually rising to the top.

You mentioned an odor change
so it looks to me like you are using unsaturated oils which oxidize and decompose
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unsaturated_fat
To avoid that from happening please consider using saturated oils, like coconut.
You can also buy hydrogenated oils.

[Gunther]

Very few universities teach cosmetic formulating
you may need to travel to another state/abroad to take such courses.

So, any chemistry degree helps get a job
but you’d need to teach yourself by making your own formulations.

Consider getting  swiftcraftymonkey.blogspot.com  paid membership,
begin experimenting,
and add your new hands on experience to your resume in a comprehensive, yet easy to read way.

[Gunther]

My bad
I misread it as Sodium benzoate which is a preservative.

Benzyl benzoate is a solubilizer
helps dissolve oily substances in water
IDK if it can completely replace an emulsifier, though.

[Gunther]

Benzyl benzoate is a preservative, not a stabilizer
and certainly not a fragrance specific stabilizer

It’s used at about 0.4% as preservative.

[Gunther]

@Perry are some kind of products attracted to skin?
Like cationics get attracted to hair?