[jemolian]

It looks like you have your demographics down. Did you talk to or survey them to get a gauge of the products they will use? Getting to know more will help with getting to know their routine, types of product preference, budget, feedback on products used, things to note for improvements vs competitors’, etc. 

As a marketing person, currently my department deals with cosmetics / skincare as one of the special projects in my department, so when reviewing brands and products, i’m mainly the one to do it. 

In terms of evaluation, normally my preference is to look at potential product performance. Brands already have they vision / philosophy down, so i don’t need to over review that as long as it fits our general criteria. For product performance, ingredients list review and sample tests will be conducted with our staff in our office. I’ll collect feedback regarding all of the aspects of the products, including the price, performance (short & long term), smell, packaging, and other feedback they would like to give including the products that used when testing with the product.  

So no need to aadd things such as vitamin c and hyaluronic acid or green tea extract? Also i have one tiny concern here which is olive oil, wont it clog pores of acne prone skins or oily skins? 

One thing to note would be the budget as it relates to the cost of the product. It affects the potential margin. You can use it to work backwards towards the maximum cost which will affect the choice of materials, unless you are working towards something of a luxury price point, then the cost can increase as long as your marketing justifies. 

For that additives, you can choose to add them later after you decide on the main structural ingredients. Mark has already given you the recommendation of the basic structure, so you can work on that and add in the ingredients for marketing. As a cleansing oil is a rinse off product, i won’t recommend to add too much ingredients that are usually beneficial in leave on formulations as it’s a waste and it increases cost. You can look for those that have some effect for rinse off products if any. 

Comedogenicity varies from person to person. The only way to know is to try it out so there no way to predict. 

thanks a lot for showing me MSR, but they are located in Bangkok and it might take a lot of time to receive the ingredients. 

MSR uses DHL, so it doesn’t take that long. 

Do you recommend adding AHA ( even the most gentle  one)  in the cleansing oil so its acting as a cleanser and an exfoliant? If yes i guess it cant be used near the eyes areas or on the lips?

Will recommend leaving the exfoliation function to another product. 

What should i do so my cleansing oil doesn’t leave a film on the skin once its rinsed off and what should i do to prevent it from causing the vision to become foggy/blurry? What ingredients are responsible for these sensations? 

I’m assuming is the choice of the oil. One of the brand we distributes uses mineral oil for the cleansing balm, so it leaves a film on the skin. I’m fine with it since i have drier skin, but my colleague finds it slightly too oily for preference. 

So in that case no need to use a water-based cleanser cus when water is added its like using a water-based cleanser, is this correct? 

It’s up to the users’ choice, however if they find that the cleansing oil still leaves a film on the skin, they can still chose to use another cleanser. Most people use a water based cleanser on most days anyway, some people use the cleansing oil only as required. 

[jemolian]

Normally i store my powder ingredients that are prone to clumping in an air tight container with a large bag of desiccant / silica beads. 

[jemolian]

For the search function, normally i’d just use “” (quotation marks) if i need to search for a phase. 

[jemolian]

@kivangel i’ve haven’t tried it in anhydrous formulas, normally i use the ones i’ve mentioned in my o/w moisturizer, but i don’t think it would be too difficult or different for anhydrous processing.  

[jemolian]

If you are ordering from TKB, you can try their Tridecyl Trimellitate. 

If you are considering to order from MSR, they do also have Tridecyl Trimellitate, but you can also consider Diisostearyl Malate (mentioned above), Pentaerythrityl Tetraisostearate or Di-PPG-3 Myristyl Ether Adipate (rich but less thick consistency). 

[jemolian]

Perhaps they just treated it as a pure drug product and not as a drug/cosmetics, which the drug/cosmetics should still list the ingredients normally. 

At least i didn’t see anything related to inactive ingredients for my Asean directives for sunscreen guidelines 

Ref 

• https://www.fda.gov/media/76481/download
• https://www.hsa.gov.sg/docs/default-source/hprg/cosmetic-products/guidance/22nd-acsb—appendix-13—asean-sunscreen-guidelines-rev01-may-2015.pdf

[jemolian]

The Sodium Phytate won’t do so well with the Sepinov EMT 10, so you can test the effect of the Sepinov alone with the Sodium Phytate to see what kind of viscosity you get. 

[jemolian]

Normally when creating an emulsion, you’d use the homogenizer first, then use the stirrer. The functionality is different. 

[jemolian]

Looking at the video on the official website, the process and material should be similar to the process used in gastronomy to make caviar, it should be the algin or carrageenan from the ingredients list. 

Other bead manufacturers may use materials like agar. You can refer to biogenics for their beads. 

[jemolian]

I’d assume that Glycerin & Urea potentially could be taken up by the skin, possibly other osmotyles such as Betaine, Inositol, Taurine? 

The other NMF might work as ingredients that help replenish the skin, perhaps the lipids, or help boost the other NMF of the skin via increased synthesis, perhaps the amino acids or carbohydrates / sugars?  

[jemolian]

If you mean like from the Pemulen series, then the downside will be the particle size, it won’t be as small if using a normal emulsifier. You can consider it a suspension. You can look at their formulation guide. 

For making a gel cream, you can just use an emulsifier + carbomer combo. 

[jemolian]

@Anca_Formulator 

For the lanolin replacement, if you can’t get any of the sterols or the Veg-Lanolin, you can just use any paste type emollient that has better water retaining properties. The similarity between all of the mentioned is just that, if you look into the data sheets, you will be able to see. 

For the Isononyl Isononanoate, it largely depends on how much you use really. It’s a light ester, but if you prefer rich and creamy, you can perhaps choose a more medium or slightly heavier ester, or a combination for that effect. 

[jemolian]

For the Hydrogenated Polyisobutene, it can depend on the type used. Normally i use it to replace my Caprylic/Capric Triglyceride in some of the test formulas. 

For the Bis-Diglyceryl Polyacyladipate-2, it’s a lanolin replacement, so other sterols you mentioned would be fine. You can perhaps also consider other lanolin replacements like Veg-Lanolin. It goes by a few names, the INCI is Butyrospermum Parkii Butter (and) Glyceryl Rosinate (and) Olea Europaea Oil Unsaponifiables.

For the Isononyl Isononanoate, other light esters will do, like Coco-Caprylate/Caprate.

[jemolian]

@Squinny if you are using air shipment, then the shipping cost will be expensive since it has been on the rise. 

[jemolian]

To keep it simpler, you can use the ingredient or blend with water & preservatives in a roll on bottle, in cases where the aristoflex don’t work well if there’s any preservatives with electrolytes in the ingredient or blend.

[jemolian]

Not sure what the intention for the 1% is but to marketing it would be a good tool to “deceive” or confuse the customer. 

People often look at the ingredients list and perceive better value for products with marketed / hero ingredients higher on the list. 

One of the reddit post i saw, asked about if the Ceramides in the Cerave Moisturizing Cream had changed in percentages. In the photos shown on the post of 2 packaging, one of them had the marketed ingredients up front, and another had the ingredients in proper descending order. We won’t be able to tell if the percentages had changed but to the customer it would definitely devalue the product to a certain extent.   

[jemolian]

If it’s within the pH range, yes. 

[jemolian]

Ethyl Ascorbic Acid or Tetrahexyldecyl Ascorbate or Ascorbyl Tetraisopalmitate

You can just use normal temperate water for Niacinamide. If you want to use hot water, then just below 70 degree C that you have mentioned if it’s based on supplier recommendations. 

[jemolian]

There’s normally no issues with dissolving Niacinamide in water. 

You can use other Vit C derivatives that is within that pH range. 

[jemolian]

If you want to add the SAP, then the pH of your formula should meet it’s stability requirements unless you are only adding it for marketing / filler purposes. There’s nothing wrong with having the pH at pH 6. If you are concerned about your user’s idea that moisturizers should be pH 5.5 or “pH balanced”, you can always disclaim that assigned pH is for the stability is for the SAP.  

[jemolian]

I think it’s because the FDA don’t mind the use of such INCI formats as long as the common name is there, and also Paula’s Choice is catering to the EU standards since they are also selling here in Singapore where we follow the EU regulations. It’s easier to have the label catering to all the standards. 

[jemolian]

https://www.fda.gov/cosmetics/cosmetics-labeling/cosmetic-ingredient-names

International “Harmonization” of Ingredient Names

Cosmetic companies sometimes ask FDA about identifying botanicals only by their Latin names, identifying color additives only by the “CI” numbers used in the European Union, or using terms from other languages, such as “Aqua” and “Parfum” instead of “Water” and “Fragrance.” Under the FPLA, however, ingredients must be listed by their “common or usual names,” and FDA does not accept these alternatives as substitutes. But FDA does not object to their use in parentheses following the common or usual name in English (or Spanish, in Puerto Rico). Here are some examples:

• Water (Aqua)
• Fragrance (Parfum)
• Honey (Mel)
• Sweet Almond (Prunus Amygdalus Dulcis) Oil
• FD&C Yellow No. 5 (CI 19140)

According to the link, it seems that it’s fine to just use Jojoba Oil / Jojoba Seed Oil, as per the “common name”. Using “Jojoba” alone is not specific enough, i’d say. 

[jemolian]

You can just try a gum + carbomer that is slightly electrolyte tolerant. If the ingredient blend is still being insisted, then gum + sepimax zen. 

Alternatively, combining other amino blends + betaine, without the electrolytes would be a good choice. 

[jemolian]

I think the issue is if there’s any data to show if the skin’s pH is affected by pH 7 products over a period during the day. People can always apply other products to bring it back down if required after cleansing the sunscreen.

Not sure if there’s any data if the performance of the zinc sunscreen will be affected by pH once applied. I believe the pH issue is that it’s self regulating at pH 7 as the product?

[jemolian]

Potentially both can cause the increase in photosensitivity but normally for AHA products, there’s a general warning for increased photosensitivity, so using sunscreen is encouraged. This would be normally labelled on the product depending on country regulations, so you can take this as part of your consideration in terms of that.