Perry44
Forum Replies Created
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Hello Susan - it must not work because I didn’t receive a message from you. Best is to send a message through the forum or the most direct way is to email me perry@chemistscorner.com
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Zinc oxide & titanium oxide (as a blend) can be the basis for sunscreen actives. But as @PhilGeis says, formulating them should focus on efficacy, not on minimalism. These are drugs in the US and it’s important to create functional products that have been tested for efficacy.
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It never really impacted my formulation of shampoos or body washes. The level of surfactant you use is a balance between performance and cost. CMC doesn’t have much to do with it. It’s interesting academically, but not practically
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Hello Jamie - no, the course does not feature step-by-step making of products like the video you posted. The course is more about the science of cosmetics, the things you do as a cosmetic chemist in industry, and descriptions and breakdowns of various formulas. It was created with industry cosmetic chemists in mind. There are a couple videos showing step-by-step how a formula is made, but that isn’t the focus of the course.
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It’s not usually done mostly because it leads to air getting trapped & it makes it harder to mix.
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I use them all but ULProspector is first mostly because they have been around the longest & have a good number of suppliers listed. Specialchem has been around a long time too but they always seem less organized. The search function on special hem is just not very good. Knowde has the best search function. But they don’t seem to have the extensive catalog of ULProspector.
Honestly, I use them all until I find what I need.
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The term “hydration” is a marketing term with multiple meanings. What do you specifically mean when you say provide hydration? Hydrolyzed proteins can work as humectants and attract water to the surface of hair. But Glycerin can do that much more efficiently and for a lower cost. So for that effect, companies use a high level of glycerin and a tiny drop of protein so they can make the claim. Again, the protein isn’t doing much.
A combination of a silicone and a cationic surfactant like BTMS should work best at taming frizz. You could also try a lower molecular weight ingredient like Cetrimonium Chloride.
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There is so much marketing stories in hair care that it’s hard to keep up. Hair masks are nothing more than thickened conditioners. They don’t actually do anything different. Protein has very little impact on hair and the notion of “protein overload” is just made up too. There is no scientific evidence that it is even a thing. I’m sure there is lots of anecdotal evidence but you can’t demonstrate it in the lab.
In your formula, you’ve got Dimethicone and Polyquaternium 7. With those two ingredients the protein will have no noticeable impact on hair.In truth, in the industry we add protein to hair care products because consumers believe that it does something and marketers like to talk about it. But if you try to demonstrate there is an effect, it’s just not there. At least, for rinse off products. Leave-in products can get a film formed but again, if you have dimethicone in there the protein film is irrelevant.
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Yes if you want any helpful answers you’ll need to list your ingredients
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At 4% surfactant and wax you are not going to get much foam. Try getting rid of the wax and increasing the surfactant level. You might try doubling the levels you have.
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No problem! Thank you for participating. The forum was really set up for people just like you who have an interest in formulating, in chemistry, and a desire to know what is true versus looking to confirm what they already think is true.
Thank you also for the great work you do communicating what you learn on your various social media channels. Keep up the great work!
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Yes, we have a list of potential suppliers. However, raw material availability depends on where you are located in the world.
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No. Cosmetics don’t require sterilization in manufacturing. Having said that, ingredients are tested to ensure they have low/no microbe counts & you shouldn’t use ingredients with obvious debris floating in it.
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It’s turning thick and white because you’ve reached the temperature below the cloud point of your solution. When the temperature drops below the cloud point, the solubility of some surfactants or other components in the formulation decreases. This reduced solubility leads to the separation and a cloudy appearance. This used to happen to some of the VO5 Shampoo formulas I worked on.
There are a bunch of things you can try like adding a hydrotrope (sodium xylene sulfonate), reducing surfactant level, adding some non-ionic surfactants, adjust salt levels, pH levels, etc. Every system is different so no one answer will fix it.
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Now if they could just do something about removing the fire from candles! I hear that stuff can be really harmful.
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Well most important is to put in a preservation system. Next, you’ll have to test stability over time.
Then you need to determine the claims you’re going to make & how you will prove what you say about the product is true.
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So a mouse study shows a correlational effect of hair loss and using these products? No controls? No human subjects? Seems suspect.
The problem is that it would not be hard to add some proper controls and get some good information. That would be really interesting if these products actually caused hair loss while other products (that use pretty much the same ingredients) don’t.
The whole endeavor seems sketchy.
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No. These are the only allowed color additives for cosmetics in the US.
https://www.fda.gov/cosmetics/cosmetic-ingredient-names/color-additives-permitted-use-cosmetics -
For price and performance, Glycerin wins.
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Looks like they were mostly microbial contamination problems. Don’t really expect that from big companies like L’Oreal but it can happen to anyone I guess.
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Without a list of all the ingredients in your formula, it is difficult to give you any answer.
My blind guess is that your product is contaminated with bacteria.
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They just accept a lower foam production formula and accept a cleanser that doesn’t work as well as it should. People mostly can’t tell much difference.
But if a consumer wants a good waxing result, waxing should be put on after cleansing. -
You should be able to thicken the system with Sodium Chloride (salt).
As far as getting foam but also providing a wax film, that doesn’t really work. The more wax you put in a system, the less foam you are going to get. So, if you want more foam, you have to remove the wax (or significantly increase the detergent).
You can’t really create a good cleanser and have it deliver wax or a coating to the hair. Cleanser are meant to remove things, they are not meant to leave things behind. This is why adding wax is typically done after the car has been cleaned.
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See what @fareloz said
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Well, there are no obvious answers. However, I’d suggest you do a simple knock-out experiment to isolate which ingredient might be causing the problem. A knock-out experiment would simply be a series of batches each of which is missing one ingredient. You would replace the missing volume with water. So, if your batch normally calls for 1% HA, you would add 1% extra water instead. Then see which batch turns pink.
It could be lots of things. Metal ions in your water, oxidation of ingredients, some unknown contamination in your ingredients, etc.