[ozgirl]

I am also in Australia

You could try http://www.packmyproduct.com.au/

I haven’t used this company but they were suggested to me when I was looking for perfume bottles.

or http://www.plasdene.com.au/

They have pretty basic glass bottles for personal care / cosmetics but you might find something. I am not sure what there minimum order quantities are but I don’t think that they are very high.

Hope this helps

[ozgirl]

Have you tried Ali express instead of Alibaba. They have heaps of glass cosmetic bottles available with low MOQs. Try searching for refillable glass cosmetic bottles.

Where are you located because that might help people suggest suppliers that are closer to you to help save on shipping costs. 

[ozgirl]

To keep the glycol distearate suspended you will need a reasonably viscous product so you will need to increase your viscosity. As David has suggested above try increasing your surfactant concentration.

Avoid high speed stirring because all you will do is create bubbles.

[ozgirl]

Pearlescent shampoos / body washes need a minimum viscosity and specific gravity to keep the pearlescent suspended. So that might be where the perception that pearlized variants are more viscous comes from.

[ozgirl]

You will probably need to add an ingredient that will help prevent grains forming.

You could consider ingredients such as
Cera bellina (INCI:  Polyglycerol-3 Beeswax),
Lipidthix (INCI Hydrogenated Vegetable Oil) or
Captex SBE (INCI Caprylic/capric/stearic triglyceries)

[ozgirl]

I work for a small company in Australia and have dealt with a couple of fragrance suppliers.

Most fragrance companies will have at least a 20kg minimum per fragrance and may require part or full payment up-front for fragrances especially since you are just starting out.

Have you tried Scott Aromatics in Sydney or CPL Aromas (distrubuted by Brentagg) in Sydney.

[ozgirl]

The Cosmetics Ingredients Review (CIR) and the European Commission both limit the amount of formaldehyde in cosmetics to 0.2%.

http://ec.europa.eu/consumers/cosmetics/cosing/index.cfm?fuseaction=search.details_v2&id=28127

http://online.personalcarecouncil.org/ctfa-static/online/lists/cir-pdfs/PR582.pdf

Hope this helps

 

[ozgirl]

Have you looked at all of the different formulations and information on the Lubrizol website? There are a number of cleansing formulations with Ultrez polymers available on the website that would give you an idea of what might work.

[ozgirl]

Thanks for sharing.

It doesn’t take much more than a single study and/or some misinterpretation of a study to get something on the “bad” list.

[ozgirl]

Try the Ultrez 20 and see if that works. The quick start guide for the Ultrez 20 mentions using cationics so it should be ok.

https://www.lubrizol.com/Personal-Care/Documents/Quick-Start-Guides/CP-34-Carbopol%C2%AE-Ultrez-20-Quick-Start-Guide.pdf

[ozgirl]

Which carbomer are you using? Some are more resistant to electrolytes than others.

[ozgirl]

You can find information about your surfactants at the Cosmetics Ingredients Review website.

http://www.ctfa.org/ingredients

[ozgirl]

@Bobzchemist I have an article with some information on this Lindex system. I can email it to you if you send me a message with your email address.

[ozgirl]

Thanks for sharing! A very interesting article.

[ozgirl]

I have never seen Cocamide DEA used at more than about 2% in this type of formula. You can replace Cocamide DEA with Cocamide MEA.

[ozgirl]

Sorry this has happened to you. I hope you can at least get some of your money back.

[ozgirl]

@ledude

Only organic chemicals (carbon containing molecules) are tested in biodegradability tests and because water contains no carbon it is not included. Similarly sodium chloride would not be included. DOC means dissolved organic carbon and the measurement of this value is used in one of the tests.

The high cost of testing is another reason why smaller companies will often just claim that certain ingredients are biodegradable because the testing has already been done by the manufacturer. You can often get discounts if you test several samples at one time.

[ozgirl]

@EliseCortes I am in Australia and have only had to deal with this once to check the environmental claims on our products when were importing them into Canada.

Here is a link to the Environmental Claims Guide for Canada

http://www.bureaudelaconcurrence.gc.ca/eic/site/cb-bc.nsf/%20eng/02701.html

Section 10.3 deals with biodegradability claims and Annex D has a list of biodegradability tests (ISO,OECD and ASTM methods) that could be used.

Hope this helps

[ozgirl]

The claim “biodegradable” is really just a meaningless marketing term unless it is backed up by testing.

If your product passes one of the standard OECD tests (or equivalent) when tested as a complete product formulation you can claim that the product it is “Readily Biodegradable”. The OECD test results are a pass/fail outcome and are not qualified with a percentage value (even though they must meet a certain percentage of degradation to pass the test). The OECD tests do allow for some non-biodegradable material to be present in the sample so it is possible for your product to pass the test even when it contains some non-biodegradable ingredients.

If you have information from your suppliers that all of the ingredients or one type of ingredient are biodegradable according to the appropriate test then you could make a qualified claim like “Contains Readily Biodegradable Surfactants*  (* All of the surfactants in this product are classified as readily biodegradable according to OECD 301E)”. This claim is often used on products such as washing detergent powders where they consist of mostly inorganic salts.Only carbon containing materials are tested in biodegradability tests so water and inorganic ingredients can never be biodegradable.

I would stay away from claiming anything with percentages and just make claims that relate to test data that you have available. Personally, if I see a claim that 92% is biodegradable I would be thinking what is the other 8% of the product but if I saw a claim that the product was readily biodegradable and mention of a test method I would feel confident that the product would be ok for the environment.

Also, I am not sure where you are located but some countries (eg. Canada) have standards that relate to making environmental claims such as biodegradability.

[ozgirl]

Have you considered a second hand overhead stirrer? You can often pick up good brand names at cheaper prices if a laboratory is shutting down and they are selling off the equipment. Where are you located? Someone might be able to suggest some traders that sell used lab equipment.

If you are looking at no name products compare the specifications with a well known brand like IKA.

[ozgirl]

The company I work for does some contract manufacturing (cleaning products not cosmetics) and I agree with DavidW that larger customers are generally prioritized but that doesn’t mean that smaller customers are forgotten about.

Manufacturers will usually give you a lead time and will try and stick to that. We have never had any sort of incentives or penalties for meeting / or not meeting a lead time. For your first few orders I would build in an extra week or two into your timeline on top of the quoted lead time to allow for any problems and just to see how the manufacturer is with sticking to their quoted lead times.

One thing you will need to consider is if the manufacturer is supplying the raw materials is whether they are a stock item that they use regularly or if they are only ordered to manufacture your order.  If the manufacturer only orders the raw material for your order you could have long lead times because of the lead times on your raw material.

I would usually expect your questions to be responded to within 24 to 48 hours during the week.

[ozgirl]

If you are at home you really don’t need a lot of equipment to get started. There are few options for heating but one of the best for beginners is probably a double boiler setup. I have in the past just used a saucepan partially filled with water heated on my cook top with my stainless steel bowl sitting on top. I personally don’t like microwaves because of the tendency to overheat or not evenly heat the contents.
There is no need to constantly stir both phases when heating them just give them a stir periodically to ensure that they are heated evenly.

A stick blender is great to mix the two phases together.

Check out swiftcraftmonkey’s blog for lots of useful information.
http://swiftcraftymonkey.blogspot.com.au/p/newbie-links.html

[ozgirl]

@Rahma - Perhaps if you tell us what you have tried and what the results were (even failures are results) then maybe we could give you some suggestions of what to try next. Show us your formula and tell us what was unsuccessful about it.

[ozgirl]

Agricultural grade urea will not be of a suitable standard for cosmetics. It often contains small rocks and dirt.

[ozgirl]

The ethylhexylglycerin in your phenoxyethanol / ethylhexylglycerin presevative can cause emulsion instability. Did you include it in your HLB calculations.