[Herbnerd]

All I can do, it track this in my spreadsheets.

I have a database of the ingredients I use and have fields to track ingredients in every regulatory jurisdiction we operate in. One sheet is just the ingredients and the data; another is where I track all formula, the last is where I cut and paste the formula and using Index-Match-Match I can cross reference any formula and copy into a bunch of pre-made templates for each jurisdiction.

Although we don’t operate in Europe, it seems the EU regulations have more or less been copied (in part or in full) by ASEAN and China. Japan and Korea do their own thing. Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand have their own regs but both seem to align in part with EU. With USA MoCRA – I doubt anything is going to happen for a long time. We have been tracking and following up for a while. I doubt anything will progress under their current administration.

[Herbnerd]

My first cosmetic product (at least before I understood the regs – I know now in New Zealand at least, depending on what you say, it can either be a medical device or a cosmetic product) was a flavoured lube and I was commissioned by a dominatrix to develop it for her.

It never got to market – her idea was payment in kind; and I’m really not into that!

[Herbnerd]

There are a couple of ways you can tackle this.

First way – make sure both part are the same osmotic tonicity – this will help prevent the colours migrating between the two phases.

The simpler way, rather than using water soluble dyes, use aluminum lakes – they colour by dispersion and should (*should*) not migrate between the two phases.

[Herbnerd]

Calcium carbonate exists in two common forms – one is aragonite the other being calcite. Calcite is the most common form of precipitated calcium carbonate (PCC). Chalk, being a ground calcium carbonate (GCC) also tends to be calcite.

There are a couple of suppliers of PCC that are a mix of aragonite and calcite – which when I tried to substitite the expensive aragonite/calcite product to a generic PCC composed of calcite, we were unable to do a straight swap – it appears that the original material provided a lot of the viscosity and structural integrity of the toothpaste – meaning to reformulate to use a cheaper material, we needed to increase the viscosity modifiers.

In reality, the calcite and aragonite both provide abrasion; but almost all the PCC & GCC commercially available will be calcite. The main thing you need to consider is the particle size rather than shape.

[Herbnerd]

In all honestly, not very much. There will not be a significant amount to really do anything. Too much and the toothpaste looks oily, so really unlikely to be more than 1-2% in the formula. Lauric acid doesn’t work as a surfactant on its own – hence being reacted with glucose to create lauryl glucoside.

Coconut oil is a trending ingredient, and marketing love to latch on to random trending ingredients to sell toothpaste (I spent a while developing fruit flavoured toothpaste because Marketing wanted it – we have zero orders. no one wants it!). I have heard these ingredients referred to as “Sprinkles” because they look good on the packaging, but in reality do very little.

[Herbnerd]

I have done a number of liquid nutritional products such as an emulsified fish oil (rather unkindly referred to as a fish oil mayonnaise – which, I guess it was).

As with any emulsion, you will still need a preservation system – we used citric acid to bring it down to pH 2.7 (mandatory requirement under local regulations) along with sodium benzoate and potassium sorbate. We used d-alpha tocopherol and rosmarinic acid to try to prevent the oil oxidation.

Not knowing the oils you are using it is hard to make further suggestions.

[Herbnerd]

I am not industry qualified in anything I do. I am not a cosmetic chemist, I am not a pharmacist and I am not a food technologist. I originally trained as an accountant, and then as a naturopath – but there are a ton of transferable skills you will have that will be useful in many industries and I have worked in all of these industries – from formulating pharmaceutical products, I have formulated infant formula, I have developed UHT beverages, and currently developing toothpaste and other cosmetic products.

The transferable skills you will have are probably a lot more than you think. You are likely to have an analytical brain – you will be able to formulate many foods using cosmetic knowledge – many foods (sauces, icecreams etc) use emulsification technology. The process is similar, the ingredients different. You could transition into QA; or perhaps ingredient sales. There is loads you could do.

[Herbnerd]

I suspect this is a https://www.kolortek.com/ material. Seems a lot of re-sellers buy and re-pack their materials. I do also use some of their mica-based products in clear gel-based toothpastes.

I have samples of all of their products. Some are synthetic pigment based; but I have been surprised at some of the colours they have achieved useing mineral based pigments.

If you contact them, they will supply you the CoA/TDS/SDS. The couple I tried to click on said the documents are being updated.

kolortek.com

Kolortek – Pearl Pigment, Mica Powder

Kolortek – Pearl Pigment, Mica Powder

[Herbnerd]

It’s pretty common for competitors to take inspiration from other top selling products. An example from my own industry, toothpaste, I have seen this many times.

For example, HiSmile starts selling expensive, but interestingly flavoured toothpaste (fruit flavours, chupa chup flavour etc) where everyone else is pretty much sticking to the usual mint flavour.

HiSmile is clearly selling very well and starts taking market share, so competitors who previously hadn’t considered that not all people want mint flavour decide to jump onto the bandwagon – and start selling their own fruit flavoured toothpaste.

The reality is, the people buying the original often prefer to stick with the original. It is often the casual purchaser who buys the ‘inspired’ product.

[Herbnerd]

Half of my job is developing dietary supplements – and it is easy enough to develop supplements that could be used along side cosmetics.

However, none of these are cosmetics – they are just supplements; and, depending on your jurisdiction and the level of claims you want to make; or ingredients (and sometimes quantities of ingredients) you want to make, these could be classed anywhere from food to pharmaceuticals.

[Herbnerd]

I find the amount you need to use depends very much on the taste of the finished product and also how much it foams and adjust the amount accordingly.

If, you are using essential oils to flavour, you may require more SLS/CAPB – the oils seem to knock the foaming back a bit, you may find you are using too much if you use a commercial flavour.

Also, if you are going for fruity flavours (or non-mint flavours) you may find the flavours of the SLS/CAPB come through a bit more and you may need to adjust.

[Herbnerd]

I develop toothpaste for another company. We meet Natrue & ISO 16128-1 and we do not have any preservatives in most of them.

Our toothpaste has been tested by independent labs to show that our toothpaste is not only stable and resist microchallenge & log count testing, but we have proven that our toothpaste is not only stable for the 3 year shelf life, and we have tested our toothpaste to 5 years too – with only a decline in flavour.

The toothpaste preservation is a combination of low water activity (Aw <0.2), and to some degree the use of various essential oils used as flavouring. We have used Totarol as an antimicrobial; but have found that we do not even need to use it.

We have tested to BP/USP micro standards and also ISO 18415. One of our kids toothpaste using commercial flavours failed BP/USP stability testing, but passed ISO 18415. Whilst we know we would be apparently safe selling it, we have used potassium sorbate as more of a belt & braces approach and we know this has passed BP/USP micro testing.

We use no special packaging – just a standard toothpaste tube.

I hope that helps.

[Herbnerd]

Can’t edit the above – but I forgot we also tested to ISO 11930.

[Herbnerd]

most likely, it is a reaction to the remaining, yet undisclosed, ingredients.

[Herbnerd]

Retinyl palmitate is oil soluble, so you should just be able to mix it in with no problem.

But, I would assume if you are having trouble mixing it in to oil, then perhaps you have a dry vitamin A encapsulated onto starch or glucose rather than the oil form.

[Herbnerd]

I doubt it. If you have two different formulae on paper, you will need two different manufacturing documents then they would two different formulae. If the proportions of the materials are different it could even have the same INCI. They would still different formula.

[Herbnerd]

Perfect for polishing, but you could also use a proportion of Albacar (same product has different names in other parts of the world) as an abrasive to remove plaque – varying the proportions can increase or lower the RDA/PCR of the finished product.

[Herbnerd]

We do know the gut microbiome is affected by foods, medications, drugs. Some affect the microbiome for the better, others can seriously disrupt the microbiome – as in the case of antibiotics. But what we do know, some commensal (Lactobacillus, bifidobacteria) gut organisms release various bactericidal compounds that can kill or slow the growth of pathogenic organisms. Some of these chemicals are short chain fatty acids such as butyric acid.

These short chain fatty acids are metabolised from dietary fibre, polyphenols, flavonoids from dietary sources.

However, the transit time in the gut is longer than the contact time in the mouth. I do know of a company using chlorhexidine hountwashes to strip out all organisms in the mouth, and supply Streptococcus salivarius – but that is just one of the organisms found in the mouth. There are hundreds of them, not just in the mouth, but in the body as a whole. Many cannot be cultivated commercially.

[Herbnerd]

In short – I don’t know.

Whilst the microbiome is important, we have to remember not all organisms are friendly to teeth and can lead to dental decay. Even brushing alone with water and perhaps some sodium bicarbonate or salt will also disrupt the microbiome to some degree. Adding surfactants, flavours, humectants and the like could also further impact the microbiome.

But whatever damage toothpaste does to the microbiome; it is not as severe as various mouthwashes. I don’t use mouthwash either. Personally, I find mouth odour increases horrifically when using it. I have seen some mouthwashes using chlorhexidine, but I understand listerine uses a blend of methyl salicylate, thymol and eucalyptol have antibacterial action, which also disrupt or destroy the microbiome.

[Herbnerd]

Thanks for your comments. It is pretty much what I suspected.

[Herbnerd]

Thanks for that – it is the same as I had found. Because fragrance allergen was supposed to be next to be published – and that is now 7 months behind schedule, I was beginning to wonder if the act had been repealed; or just further delays.

[Herbnerd]

The ‘beauty from within’ trend has been increasing over the last 10-15 years. Most now are just based on bovine collagen with a few other nutritional ‘sprinkles’ thrown in.

[Herbnerd]

I know it is very wordy, complex and very long (spread across four pages).

I am keen to see examples of how others prepare the manufacturing documents, because I am sure it could be so much simpler.

[Herbnerd]

Absolutely agree with you – but as before, ours are far too complex.

[Herbnerd]

Agreed re standard tube being protective packaging; I was thinking more of the airless pumps and other more fancy packaging options that are also being used for packaging toothpaste.