Forum Replies Created

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  • Perry44

    Professional Chemist / Formulator
    June 17, 2023 at 1:13 pm in reply to: Make-up Foundation

    I don’t have any book to recommend you. Sorry, maybe someone else in this forum will.

    As far as Titanium Dioxide goes, the product is made by L’Oreal. They know how to make products and they know how to properly label them. Whatever book you read that claimed you need 20% to get an SPF 20, they are just wrong. L’Oreal knows how to do it with only 1.75%.

  • Perry44

    Professional Chemist / Formulator
    June 17, 2023 at 11:38 am in reply to: Make-up Foundation

    The product claims to be SPF 25. The 1.75% Titanium Dioxide is the active ingredient that gives the product the SPF rating. In the US, sunscreens are categorized as over the counter drugs. So, they have to use an approved sunscreen like Titanium Dioxide to achieve the SPF rating.

  • Perry44

    Professional Chemist / Formulator
    June 16, 2023 at 7:31 am in reply to: Is this ingredient list leaving something out?

    Agreed

  • Perry44

    Professional Chemist / Formulator
    June 14, 2023 at 1:50 pm in reply to: Unscented products

    There’s a market for it, just not a particularly big one.

    Making a good, unscented product is not a technically difficult problem. So, you have to ask yourself, why aren’t there more unscented products on the market?

    The answer…because most people don’t buy them.

    Fragrance is used because MOST people want their cosmetic products to smell nice. They want the experience of a fragrance during use.

    There will always be a niche market for unscented products. It just will never be very big in my opinion. Say, around 10% or less of the total market.

  • Perry44

    Professional Chemist / Formulator
    June 6, 2023 at 7:19 am in reply to: Fine line between cosmetic and “drug” claims

    Yes, anti microbial claims are not allowed for cosmetics in the US.

    Microbiome claims are not likely to be considered drug claims. But I could envision a lawsuit in the future against microbiome claims, so if you’re going to make the claim you should have some way to prove what you’re saying is true. I don’t think these would be considered “puffery”.

  • Perry44

    Professional Chemist / Formulator
    June 6, 2023 at 7:15 am in reply to: Buyer preference: fragrance free vs fragrance

    It’s a difficult question to get useful answers to because I don’t think people actually know why they prefer one odor over another. Sure, they’ll come up with explanations, but those probably aren’t true.

    People have been told that fragrance is bad for skin & should be avoided so that belief gets put into their head. But the body generates positive feelings when encountering certain odors & beliefs are thrown out the window.

    Any brand can launch fragrance free products. If the majority of consumers wanted them, that would be the standard way products are made & sold.

    That most products have fragrance says a lot.

  • Perry44

    Professional Chemist / Formulator
    June 5, 2023 at 6:06 pm in reply to: Buyer preference: fragrance free vs fragrance

    People may say they want “fragrance free” but they still buy products that have fragrance in them. If you have a niche market and looking to only appeal to a specific group of consumers that actually do buy fragrance free, then it’s fine.

    If you want to sell a lot more product and build a brand, use fragrance.

  • Perry44

    Professional Chemist / Formulator
    June 1, 2023 at 3:37 pm in reply to: How to create a perfumed body mist

    Well, Polysorbate 80 might work to solubilize castor oil. Then you would need water and your fragrance materials to make the formula. And a preservative too.

  • Perry44

    Professional Chemist / Formulator
    June 1, 2023 at 8:22 am in reply to: Should Polysorbate 80 solve my separation issue?

    Sure, there are lots of instances when Polysorbate 80 doesn’t solve a separation issue. Why formulas separate and the solution to that problem depends on many factors. The HLB of the oils for one. You can certainly try it but it may not work. Some sort of polymeric associative thickener/emulsifier may be more reliable if the system is appropriate for it.

  • Perry44

    Professional Chemist / Formulator
    June 21, 2023 at 6:17 pm in reply to: Comments on New forum design / software

    We’re working on fixing some of the problems. Thanks for the feedback

  • Perry44

    Professional Chemist / Formulator
    June 21, 2023 at 6:41 am in reply to: Comments on New forum design / software

    Hello Joy,

    Thank you for the notification. Yes, this is a problem for everyone and I’m having my IT guys work on fixing it. Unfortunately, we don’t have a fix just yet but hopefully today!

  • Perry44

    Professional Chemist / Formulator
    June 17, 2023 at 1:09 pm in reply to: Make-up Foundation

    I don’t know.

    Are you typing your message in some other program, then cutting and pasting it into the forum?

  • Perry44

    Professional Chemist / Formulator
    June 17, 2023 at 11:34 am in reply to: Make-up Foundation

    The one from Dr Baki is probably the most appropriate for you, but these are industry books. They are not meant to teach people how to make things at home. Some products (like the foundation you are mentioning) need special equipment to be able to make them. You can’t make some things at home unless you have a proper lab.

  • Perry44

    Professional Chemist / Formulator
    June 14, 2023 at 7:12 am in reply to: Preservatives, IPCS, FB groups

    It does amaze me sometimes, the gullibility of some formulators. I guess I can understand the DIYers, but I even see scientists working in the industry that fall for raw materials supplier marketing stories. Don’t they realize that the BS marketing used to sell their own cosmetics is the same type of BS marketing used to sell raw materials?

  • Perry44

    Professional Chemist / Formulator
    June 14, 2023 at 7:09 am in reply to: Comments on New forum design / software

    Were you able to edit them before yesterday?

  • Perry44

    Professional Chemist / Formulator
    June 13, 2023 at 7:51 am in reply to: Preservatives, IPCS, FB groups

    I think people do not realize that raw material suppliers are marketers first & science is second. So, if they want to sell a “broad spectrum” preservative, they are going to set up their test to ensure it makes any claim they want to make, not false.

    They don’t try to set up their material to fail which is what you would do if you cared about finding what’s true. That means there are lots of ingredients that the suppliers have proven to work under specific conditions but they probably won’t work under other conditions.

    Raw material suppliers are marketers!

  • Perry44

    Professional Chemist / Formulator
    June 9, 2023 at 8:09 am in reply to: Hurdle Technology Approach

    So what makes you think your assertion that preservatives are causing health problems? Without data, isn’t a more rational explanation is that the problems are more psychosomatic & not caused by preservatives?

    It just doesn’t seem that you’ve come to your conclusions based on science. It’s also not something that the independent experts of the SCCS have identified either. The EU has no problem banning anything that’s even a suspected harm inducer. They don’t even require completed studies. Even they don’t support the concerns you are raising about parabens.

    What evidence would convince you parabens are safe?

  • Perry44

    Professional Chemist / Formulator
    June 6, 2023 at 12:22 pm in reply to: Hurdle Technology Approach

    My advice. Find products that work for you & are at a price you can afford.
    Don’t worry about anything else.

  • Perry44

    Professional Chemist / Formulator
    June 6, 2023 at 12:20 pm in reply to: Hurdle Technology Approach

    First, you’d be surprised how little the average consumer thinks about this stuff. For most consumers, if it is sold at a store it’s fine. They really don’t look at the ingredient lists. In fact, paraben remain the most popular preservative used in cosmetics. They’ve dropped a lot in volume but most consumers don’t care.

    But some consumers do care and from a marketing standpoint it’s generally better to cater to consumers that care about a topic because the ones who don’t will just buy whatever is on sale. So, marketers & retailers care more about what you put in than the average consumer.

    In reality, the cosmetic industry is controlled by Marketing departments. The R&D folks make what they are asked to make (if possible). We’ll grumble about being hamstrung & creating products that aren’t as good as they could be, but ultimately, Marketing & Sales can override any R&D complaints. Consumers also don’t really care either.

    There really is little benefit to a company to educate consumers about what is true in the beauty business. Nearly the entire industry is built on fantasy and story telling. Safety, sustainability, natural, active ingredients, antiaging…they’re all just stories needed to convince people to buy products they probably don’t really need. “Truth-telling” also becomes a marketing story that can work for some brands but not others. Chemical fear mongering is just another story telling technique for getting consumers to buy your product rather than your competitor’s.

    In truth, I think consumers should bother worrying about chemicals in their beauty products. Products are safe. Unless you have an interest in becoming a Toxicologist, learning about mutagens, EDs, carcinogens, etc. researching on your own is a waste of time. If you are not an expert, you will most likely be mislead by your personal beliefs. You will cherry pick studies that support what you want to believe & ignore the things that don’t support it.

  • Perry44

    Professional Chemist / Formulator
    June 6, 2023 at 11:33 am in reply to: Fine line between cosmetic and “drug” claims

    The FDA has a classification called OTC (over the counter) Drugs. So, a product can be both a cosmetic and a drug. If you sell an antiperspirant, sunscreen, anti-dandruff product, toothpaste with fluoride, etc. These are all considered both drugs and cosmetics. You have to follow the FDA monograph for the specific product. It specifies the active ingredients you can use (and the amounts) plus the claims you can make. See this post for a full list. Cosmetics that are drugs

  • Perry44

    Professional Chemist / Formulator
    June 3, 2023 at 9:31 am in reply to: Hurdle Technology Approach

    Here are the relevant reports. Lots to read.

    CIR - original paraben opinion
    https://www.dropbox.com/s/oyq0dw1grjxi60i/paraben-report-original.pdf?dl=0

    CIR - re-review of latest data
    https://www.dropbox.com/s/5zwi9k5arwujzij/paraben-report-latest.pdf?dl=0

    SCCS - Opinion on parabens
    https://www.dropbox.com/s/v7a6px5w7nuyx02/SCCS-opinion%20on%20parabens.pdf?dl=0

    While the CIR relies of the cosmetic industry for funding, the group is made up of independent scientists, the FDA, and consumer advocates. They also follow an open process where all meeting minutes, reports and supporting research are available for anyone to inspect.

    But even if you remain skeptical of CIR, the SCCS performs the same service in the EU (reviewing ingredient safety data). They are NOT industry funded but rather supported by the government. They have no conflict of interest. Interestingly, they came to the same conclusions as the CIR. Parabens are safe as used in cosmetics.

  • Perry44

    Professional Chemist / Formulator
    June 3, 2023 at 7:11 am in reply to: PETROLATUM AS AN OCCLUSIVE

    Interesting. It must be related to the method of purifying the petrolatum in production.

    However, this says nothing about whether petrolatum changes skin color. I haven’t seen direct evidence that it does.

  • Perry44

    Professional Chemist / Formulator
    June 2, 2023 at 7:43 am in reply to: PETROLATUM AS AN OCCLUSIVE

    While I can understand that if people are in the sun that their skin turns darker, I don’t think petrolatum has anything to do with it. At least there is no biochemical explanation for why that would happen with petrolatum vs mineral oil or any other oil for that matter.

  • Perry44

    Professional Chemist / Formulator
    June 1, 2023 at 8:23 am in reply to: PETROLATUM AS AN OCCLUSIVE

    Makes your skin darker? I had never heard the petrolatum had any impact on melanin production. Is that what you mean or something else?

  • Perry44

    Professional Chemist / Formulator
    May 31, 2023 at 8:29 am in reply to: Hurdle Technology Approach

    I appreciate your response also.

    Text is really an inefficient way to communicate as it’s easy to misunderstand. Just to clarify…

    I don’t doubt the safety of your products (or Dr Bronner’s). I also don’t think companies are willfully trying to make unsafe products.

    Products like Dr. Bronner’s are based on old technology & quite frankly don’t meet the performance expectations of the vast majority of consumers. While they are beloved by a niche consumer group, at about $200 million in yearly sales they are a tiny sliver of the market. https://www.sdbj.com/retail/dr-bronners-hits-188m-revenue-2020/

    Most companies want to make products that appeal to the greatest number of consumers. You can’t do that with saponification technology. They just don’t perform as well.

    And when a naive entrepreneur or marketer looks at brands that claim to avoid preservatives, they start demanding products that perform like modern technologies without preservatives.

    I think we could both agree, in general, that can’t be done. Unfortunately, this hasn’t stopped some companies from making and selling unsafe products like these.

    As the endocrine disruption goes, I’m not a doctor so won’t comment on anyone’s health conditions. But what I will point out is that Dr Bronner’s sells products with Tea Tree and Soy based ingredients both of which have been implicated in endocrine disruption. A strange thing to do for a company who markets themselves as safer-than-others.

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