Forum Replies Created

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  • Perry44

    Administrator
    November 19, 2023 at 8:07 am in reply to: Salt variety for thickening a surfactant

    I agree. It doesn’t make a difference.

  • Perry44

    Administrator
    November 19, 2023 at 8:03 am in reply to: Formulating Cosmetic Bases

    I don’t think there are any general rules as what you can do to a formula depends on the chemical composition of the blend you are using. I think these bases are designed to be finished formulas to which you just add a little more water. You are also able to add small amounts of extracts for marketing purposes. They are not meant to be used for significant modifications.

  • Perry44

    Administrator
    November 19, 2023 at 7:49 am in reply to: Thickening of Carbomer in Witch Hazel water with ethanol and methyl paraben.

    You don’t use a homogenizer with Carbomer. You don’t want to use Sodium Hydroxide as the sodium can interfere with the working of the carbomer. You need to use something like Triethanolamine or AMP to neutralize the carbomer.

  • Perry44

    Administrator
    November 19, 2023 at 7:44 am in reply to: The fragrance doesn't smell much

    When we have this problem in industry we just use a different fragrance. Well, what we actually do is to tell the fragrance supplier that the odor is not “blooming” well enough and that they need to make adjustments so it is compatible with our formulation. They do this and the problem is fixed.

    But if you don’t have that kind of power over a fragrance house, the only solution is to use fragrances that don’t have this problem.

    It’s just a reality that some fragrances don’t work in some systems.

  • Perry44

    Administrator
    November 19, 2023 at 7:42 am in reply to: new formula for natural cosmetics

    What you have heard is incorrect. Herbal products are not better for skin or hair. They are not safer. They do not work better. They are not even more environmentally friendly. They often contain ingredients that actually cause irritation to human skin (e.g. poison ivy).

    Foaming problems are fixed with surfactants. Odor problems are fixed with fragrances.

    There are numerous entities on the Internet that benefit from tricking people into falling for the natural fallacy. Don’t fall for this trickery.

  • Perry44

    Administrator
    November 9, 2023 at 6:15 pm in reply to: Predictive analytics

    I don’t think the programs are good enough to replace chemists quite yet but it’s not too far away. We’ll still need people to put formulas together though. AI can’t make a batch & robotics is much farther away. AI is not yet good enough to make a formula that you can go right to production

  • Perry44

    Administrator
    October 27, 2023 at 12:16 pm in reply to: Beneficial % of Vitamin E acetate and Tetrahexyldecyl ascorbate in serums

    In truth, whether you have the vitamin E in the formula or not, you are unlikely to notice any difference. I agree with your Chief Scientist, you don’t need any more than 1%.

    And putting 2.5% Vitamin C seems like a waste to me also. That is a lot of material and it is simply going to oxidize when it is sitting on the store shelf. You will get no therapeutic benefit from it.

    I answer this question as a scientist and I realize that as a product marketer, you might see things differently. In my opinion, Vitamin E & C are simply marketing ingredients that have little noticeable effect when delivered from topical cosmetic products. None of the evidence I’ve seen has convinced me otherwise.

    I do realize that others might disagree. What evidence convinces you that you need such high levels of these ingredients in the formula?

  • Perry44

    Administrator
    October 17, 2023 at 8:07 am in reply to: Need professional advice on this one.

    There are a number of things that could be happening. Without knowing the amounts of ingredients it’s hard to give specific, helpful advice.

    But in general…

    1. Your preservative system has salts in it which can destabilize emulsions. You don’t have a stabilizer like Xanthan Gum so the micelles might be separating more quickly.

    2. You didn’t mention what oils you’re using but the emulsion system you have might not be good enough. Try including also some Glyceryl Stearate maybe? Like I said, it’s hard to know without knowing the oils you’re using.

    If it were me, I’d get rid of the preservative system you’re using and use parabens instead. They are much less likely to cause stability problems.

  • Perry44

    Administrator
    October 17, 2023 at 7:56 am in reply to: Can a call an ester of oil in ads?

    The term “oil” is pretty flexible in the cosmetic industry, at least when it comes to marketing language. If we want to get technical Jojoba Oil isn’t really an oil (it’s a liquid wax) but the industry is fine with calling it an oil. I’d say pretty much anything that is not soluble in water might be referred to as an oil in advertising even though, scientifically speaking, it wouldn’t be considered an oil.

    There was a lawsuit going around claiming just that. Saying that anything that isn’t soluble in water is an oil. Of course, it was dismissed so from a legal standpoint just being insoluble in water is not enough to consider something an oil. https://www.cosmeticsandtoiletries.com/regulations/claims-labeling/news/22262614/oilfree-cosmetics-suit-vs-target-dismissed-mostly

  • Perry44

    Administrator
    October 13, 2023 at 8:44 am in reply to: What airtight containers do you use for stability testing?

    I agree with @PhilGeis Stability testing should be done in the final packaging. If you are not using air tight packages with your consumer, the test would be almost meaningless.

    We used simple 4 or 8 ounce glass jars with twist on caps. They weren’t “air tight” but they were good enough for stability testing. However, we also ran every formula in the package that they were going to be sold in. These were the samples that we used when deciding whether the product was stable or not.

  • Perry44

    Administrator
    October 13, 2023 at 8:41 am in reply to: Quaternized ingredients for claim

    I suppose you could put Guar Hydroxypropyltrimonium Chloride in it or even Polyquat 7 or 10. But the more important question is, what ingredients do your consumers find compelling? If an ingredient is for claims purposes, your consumers need to know the ingredient to be impressed with the claims.

  • Perry44

    Administrator
    October 9, 2023 at 1:44 pm in reply to: Tap Water and Chelator

    Well, that depends on the quality of the tap water. You might be able to use it, but you might not be able to use it.

  • Perry44

    Administrator
    October 9, 2023 at 7:31 am in reply to: What is this called?

    ChatGPT says it’s most likely a micropipette. If it is not that, it could possibly be a Pasteur pipette or dropper pipette. How is the device you are talking about different from a micropipette?

  • Perry44

    Administrator
    October 9, 2023 at 7:11 am in reply to: Critic my sunscreen formula

    It looks like a reasonable formula to me. What kind of feedback were you looking for? Without having samples available there is not much advice people can give. Does it remain stable? Do consumers like the feel? To me, there is nothing obvious about the formula that is lacking just based on the ingredient list.

  • Perry44

    Administrator
    October 7, 2023 at 7:57 am in reply to: Why it frizzes my hair ?

    If that is the case then the product is not causing frizz, it is just not solving it. I think the main problem is that you don’t have the best coating ingredients in there. Try adding something like Dimethicone.

  • Perry44

    Administrator
    October 7, 2023 at 7:54 am in reply to: Organic hair gel with gummy residue on hands

    They are called “gums” for a reason. If you don’t want the gummy effect, use a synthetic polymer like PVP.

  • Perry44

    Administrator
    October 7, 2023 at 7:49 am in reply to: Learning Best Formulation Technologies and Techniques

    Cosmetic formulating is very much trial-and-error. You mix stuff together and see what works or doesn’t. It just takes practice and a willingness to fail.

    Now, it helps to know some chemistry and to keep water soluble stuff together and oil soluble stuff together (mostly). And then find the right emulsifiers / stabilizers to blend the different materials.

    But there are very few general rules. Each system you work with will be a little bit different.

    What specifically is the goal you want to achieve?

  • Perry44

    Administrator
    November 5, 2023 at 9:04 am in reply to: Comments on New forum design / software

    Yeah those things annoy me too. Trying to get the publisher to fix it

  • Perry44

    Administrator
    November 2, 2023 at 3:20 pm in reply to: Comments on New forum design / software

    The problem is, AI is creating the spam and able to get past captcha

  • Perry44

    Administrator
    November 1, 2023 at 6:55 am in reply to: Comments on New forum design / software

    Working on it! I’ve deleted all I can find this far

  • Perry44

    Administrator
    October 27, 2023 at 10:14 am in reply to: Being a Cosmetic Chemist or Formulator.

    Yeah, I don’t agree either. There really aren’t cosmetic chemists working in industry who don’t also have to do formulating (unless they have been promoted to manager and have technicians that work for them).

  • Perry44

    Administrator
    October 17, 2023 at 7:58 am in reply to: What airtight containers do you use for stability testing?

    Yes. We always made batches to put stability samples up in both glass and the final packaging. It may have been over-kill but it’s generally helpful to know whether a formula is stable without interference from the packaging.

  • Perry44

    Administrator
    October 9, 2023 at 3:46 pm in reply to: Tap Water and Chelator

    The company I worked for regularly used city tap water for batches but it was usually filtered. But in the lab we always used deionized water.

  • Perry44

    Administrator
    October 9, 2023 at 1:43 pm in reply to: Critic my sunscreen formula

    You might be increasing the price by including both polymeric and standard emulsifiers. However, if a formula is stable you generally don’t want to mess with it. Also, if they ask you for a reduced cost version, then you can experiment to get the most optimized formulas. Until then, I’d just leave it alone.

  • Perry44

    Administrator
    October 7, 2023 at 7:52 am in reply to: What is a better surfactant?

    You didn’t identify any specific synthetic surfactants in your post. Which are you referring to and what do you mean by toxic impact?

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