MarkBroussard
Forum Replies Created
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The polarity of oils is variable depending on the chemical structure of the oil. Alkanes … straight-chain carbon molecules that are fully-saturated are non-polar. Fatty alcohols would be polar. Generally, if its a plant-derived carrier oil, it will be relatively non-polar. Yes, Olive Oil would be relatively non-polar, MCT would be relatively polar. Oils are not homogeneously comprised of a single molecule, but a mixture of different molecules.
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If you are using Petrolatum as a base for an ointment the easiest approach is to use oil soluble ingredients. If you want to use it in an emulsion, melt the Petrolatum with your oil phase and proceed as usual.
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Stearyl Glycyrrhetinate … nope. It will just get washed off when you rinse off the cleansing oil with water. Polarity of oils … just Google and you’ll find some information.
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Clean At Sephora is only a starting point. Sephora has made it easier for consumers to pick products that do not contain ingredients that they don’t want on their skin. If the product does not perform, Clean At Sephora does not do that much for you.
It is very easy to develop high-performance products that comply with Clean At Sephora or any of these standards. As a product developer/marketer, I’d much rather be in a defined market segment such as Clean At Sephora as opposed to having to try to gain consumer’s attention without any defined market segmentation.
The consumer purchase decision is my more involved than just buy Clean At Sephora as there are multiple options in the same product category for consumers to choose from within Clean At Sephora.
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The data is plentiful on what consumer’s purchase preferences are and is available from numerous sources. Sephora and Ulta have each approximately 40 million unique customers and they slice and dice the purchase data every which way to understand consumer preferences and buying behaviour. But, outside of the major chain retailers, you can get data on consumer searchs on Amazon, for instance. For one of my clients we developed their entire line of products based on top Amazon searches and it is a very successful line because we gained insight into what consumer were searching for and actually purchasing.
There’s nothing really unique about the Clean At Sephora “banned” ingredients list … it’s pretty much the same list everyone uses. Very little has changed in that regard since the evolution of the concept of Clean Beauty.
The greater emphasis is now focused on understanding what consumers want as opposed to what they don’t want since what most consumers of Clean At Sephora products already know what they don’t want. That’s why they purchase Clean At Sephora brands.
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You are assuming you know what consumers do and don’t know and what their desires are. Clean At Sephora is not scare mongering chemophobia … it’s providing a specialty section where consumers who don’t want certain ingredients in their skin care products a convenient way to shop for products without having to read the ingredient labels of thousands of random products. The demand for this comes from the consumers, not Sephora proactively trying to scare consumers into purchasing certain products.
You grossly underestimate the intellect and knowledge base of consumers who have done their research and know what they don’t want in their products. Sophisiticated companies like Sephora do extensive market research to understand their consumer’s wants and desires. “Push” marketing is generally ineffective and practiced by mass market brands who focus on consumers driven primarily by price. You’ll find those products at the supermarket, not in a specialty section at Sephora.
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DHC actually has two stories. There is the brand story under the tab “Our Story” and also a product story specific to their cleansing oil product on the product page.
It sounds as though you are looking in your cupboard and trying to determine what ingredients you have in stock that you can throw into a cleansing oil product. That is a recipe for failure since you are focusing on what ingredients you have in stock as opposed to what ingredients you can incorporate into a cleansing oil that would be competitive in the marketplace and then purchasing the ingredients you don’t have in stock.
I would suggest you try to make a version of the DHC cleansing oil, but using different oils. Using products highly regarded by consumers and reviewers as development models is a good way to learn how to formulate superior products.
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You’re going to find that the only hydrosols that actually smell like the source plant material are Peppermint, Eucalyptus, Tea Tree, Rose and Lavender. Most all others smell like hay. For instance, your Neroli is highly likely to barely resemble the scent of Neroli.
You’ll need something on the order of 20% hydrosol to get a good scent out of it. Good as a base for Toners or Mists, for instance.
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“Clean” is nothing more than a marketing shorthand to inform consumers that the products do not contain certain specific ingredients and the concept was developed in response to consumer demand for such products … what exactly is wrong with that?
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“What ingredients are Clean At Sephora products formulated without?” is followed by a list of specific ingredients - that’s the definition. The question is not the defnition in and of itself without also including the list of specific ingredients.
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This won’t go anywhere. Sephora has a specific list of ingredients that are excluded from being incorporated in products to get the Clean designation. The client is alleging that her understanding is that Clean At Sephora means a product does not contain any synthetic ingredients. Sephora is not responsible for her not reading what Clean At Sephora means and interpreting it as meaning something it does not.
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In developing cosmetic products you often have to formulate around widely believed myths that are not factual.
Most comedogenicity ratings were determined over 50 years ago by rabbit ear assays as opposed to testing on human skin. But, many people believe the comedogenicity ratings so even if the rabbit ear assy is not an accurate model for human skin, they believe the ratings to be valid. No point in including oils in your cleanser that many people consider to be comedogenic regardless of whether or not that is factually correct.
No one oil is going to be any better an ingredient in an oil cleanser than any other oil … the surfactant will do most of the work. But, you will notice that Olive Oil and CCT are included in a couple of popular products, so that’s a good place to start.
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Very few cat breeds like water and those that do are not that common as pets. As others have stated … domestic cats self groom. A cat shampoo is simply a bad idea. Why subject the cat to the stress of water and the application of surfactants to their coat and skin?
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Comedogenicity: Scientifically, this is a very flawed concept in the way these comedogenicity lists are determined. But, it is a marketing issue you need to be concerned about. Just stay away from oils that are commonly considered to be comedogenic.
For instance, you could use a combination Caprylic/Capric Triglyceride, Squalane and Marula Oil. Read the markting claims other companies make about Squalane and Marula Oil to craft your marketing story. The two “right” oils are the ones that sell, so pay heed to what is used in oil cleansing products that have lots of positive reviews and appear on multiple “best of” lists by product reviewers. As @Pattsi mentioned, lots of companies have already proven this market and consumers have expressed their preferences so you have some guidance as to what sells. The issue is how can you stand out to grab some sales.
Polysorbate 80: This is an open forum with people of all levels of skill set posting comments. Most are not formally educated in cosmetic chemistry and don’t formulate cosmetic products for commercial sale, so you have to take some comments as well-intentioned, but not necessarily accurate, nor actually researched. So, rely on your own research much more so than a comment someone made on a blog.
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I don’t think you benefit any from more than 3 carrier oils and Caprylic/Capric Triglyceride should be one of them. For the other two select oils around which you can build a marketing story. No, you don’t need a thickener for a cleansing oil … to what benefit? Polyglyceryl-3 Diisostearate and Sorbeth-30 Tetraoleate are good surfactants/emulsifiers of a cleansing oil. I would not use Polysorbate 80 for this application.
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The first rule to formulating new products is that there are not really any rules, per se. You can put as many or as few oils and emulsifiers as you like. Your best bet would be to survey the best selling cleansing oil products to understand what consumers are purchasing and what reviewers are recommending. This will guide you to the proper mix of oils and surfactants that are proven to be liked by consumers.
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The only way to know for certain is to test your product. Not knowing what else is in it … I am assuming you are using a chelating agent?
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It could be, by why take the chance by not adding a preservative?
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You’ll have better results using Cocamidopropyl Dimethylamine as opposed to Polysorbate 20. Also, you don’t need both EDTA and Sodium Citrate, Sodium Citrate alone will function both as a chelator and help prevent recrystallization. Finally, why use an ionic/salt preservative … Sodium Benzoate? Better to go with Phenoxyethanol or Phenoxyethanol/EHG that won’t salt-out with the salicylates. As you have learned, your glycols need to be in the 30% to 40% range.
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Your problem is that you are using Glyceryl Caprylate … it blows the viscosity of emulstions. You can replace it with Sodium Benzoate and keep the Plantaserv A … that will give you good preservation coverage.
Also, if you are using Glyceryl Stearate Citrate, you will get viscosity build from the emulsifier. If you are using Glyceryl Stearate SE, you won’t get much visocisity build
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Yes, you will need a co-preservative (Sodium Benzoate) to address fungi, yeast & mold to complement the PE9010.
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Your problem is either the stearic acid or emulsifying wax. I would suggest that you try a sample in which you eliminate both stearic acid and emulsifying wax and use only beeswax as your structuring agent.
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The problem is that you are mixing a high load Cacao Butter that has a low melting point relative to Beeswax and Stearic Acid and Cacao Butter fats separate out when heated and the Cacao crystallizes. I’m assuming you’re trying to make a balm?
Refined cacao butter =1.50%
Beeswax = 20%
sunflower oil= QS to 100%
carrot oil=3%
vitamin E=2%
Try this mixture and see if you get what you are looking for. -
You can use Leucidal SF Max and Amticide Coconut for label appeal, but they are quite unreliable as preservatives. I have experienced a 50% failure rate when clients want to use these as preservatives. So, if you go that direction, you can supplement with Sodium Benzoate + Phenoxyethanol (and) Ethylhexylglycerin.
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Yes, if you have AOS-40 and Cap Glucoside, give them a try. They should work just fine.
I would not discount the impact of pH in either rinse-off and leave-on products … the less you disrupt the skin barrier, the better. It is easy enough to adjust the pH of a concoction to 7.0 to 7.5.