OldPerry
Forum Replies Created
-
From a practical standpoint I never saw any difference in the formulas I worked on (both ALES and SLES). We always used SLES formulas because ALES formulas had the potential for reacting with the steel manufacturing tanks and our production people didn’t like that.
You can also make a perfectly clear SLES formula so clarity is not really an issue. -
I guess you can get from them whatever you want to know. If you are the buyer you should get as much information as you can.
-
Yes, they have some useful information.
-
How about that @Bobzchemist?
-
Good suggestion. Let me see what I can do.
-
At our company we would figure out the % activity of each component ingredient and list them as required by the LOI rules. So anything under 1% in the total formula would be listed in any order. Above 1% was listed in the order of concentration.
-
If it worked, it would be a drug (at least in the US) and wouldn’t be legal to sell.
However, if it did work you could get an NDA and I’m sure it would make millions. -
Yes, if you’re selling the product you can’t add a new ingredient to thicken it unless you change the ingredient listing on your label. Blending off as @Bobzchemist suggested is your best option.
-
I’m not sure. I don’t have that same problem but I’ll check with the tech people to see if that is the problem on our end.
Thanks for letting me know.Perry, 44 -
My first job interview in the cosmetic industry was with Alberto Culver. The interview went fine and I got the job. The hardest question was from one guy who asked me to name an organic compound. That was amusing in retrospect because you pretty much don’t use chemical structures for much of anything in formulating.
I also remember as I left the job I was a bit disappointed because I had gone through 4 plus years of college only to end up working as a shampoo chemist. At that time in my life I thought I should be doing something more important. Of course, I enjoyed the job and over time realized that no one is really doing anything important.The cosmetic industry is a fun place to work with limited stress or exposure to dangerous chemicals. I’m glad I got that first interview and took that first job. -
Yeah I noticed that too. I’ll work on getting that fixed.
-
It’s very difficult to answer this question without any listing of the ingredients that are in the formula. Also, I’m not sure what you mean by the term “gluggy”. Can you post a picture or better description?
-
That’s really interesting. I never thought of buying an established beauty product brand. I wonder why they are selling.
-
Great stories everyone! Thanks for sharing. I’m always amazed at how many people are in the cosmetic industry who just happened to stumble into it.
-
This question prompted me to write a blog post about cosmetic claims. Let me know what you think.
-
You could also use a cellulose thickener like Hydroxyethylcellulose. I also agree more cetyl or stearyl alcohol would help boost viscosity.
-
@head2head - I’m doing a formulating course in April in New York. The SCC will have information on it. http://scconline.org
-
I don’t know how critical it is but having a base formula in which you change the fragrance and color to produce new SKUs is pretty much what all big and medium sized companies do.
If you look at Suave or VO5 they pretty much use the same base formula and just switch out the fragrance, color and claims ingredients.Occasionally you get stability issues but that is one of the main things that formulators who work on these brands spend their time doing…stabilizing versions of a base formula with a new fragrance. -
Every cleanser that has a surfactant is a micellar solution. There is nothing special about these cleansers. You could make any cleanser with a detergent and call it a micellar solution cleanser.
This is completely a marketing gimmick not any special technology. -
It’s mostly marketing. I mean you can’t say dermatologically tested if there wasn’t a dermatologist involved in the testing, but the specific test doesn’t really matter since you’re just claiming it was dermatologically tested.
Usually when something is tested by dermatologist you hire a company to run a moisturization test and a dermatologist either scores the legs or reviews the report and signs it.But just having someone test a product and report back to you wouldn’t be dermatologically tested. Micro challenge testing might qualify as clinically tested if some clinical lab did the testing.***These are the rules in the US. Other places around the world may be different. -
@braveheart - the answer to your question about Sodium Benzoate, etc. really depends on what your consumers think. If your consumers believe Potassium Sorbate is natural just like coconut oil then it is. If they don’t believe it’s natural, then it isn’t.
Groups like ECOCert or NaTru or any of the other standards are just rules made up by those particular organizations. It’s perfectly fine to follow them and you can even get certified and advertise your certification. But if your consumer doesn’t know what ECOCert is and doesn’t care I’m not sure there is any real benefit.For the moment, natural is either what your company thinks it is or more importantly what your consumer thinks it is. Regulations might change this in the future but I don’t see that happening any time soon, at least in the US. -
The EWG is not a reliable source for information and their ratings are not science based. There is not a single toxicologist who works with/for the EWG.
A better source is work done by actual scientists evaluating the safety of ingredients. See this complete report on the safety assessment of DMDM Hydantoin.Of special note…”Based on the available data included in this report, it is concluded that DMDM Hydantoin is safe as a cosmetic ingredient in the present practices of use.” -
If they have the same INCI name then you only have to list it once. Although you have to add together the amount of each ingredient to determine what order to list the ingredient.
So if you have 0.8% of one ingredient and 0.5% of the other, this would be listed as if the ingredient was in the formula at 1.3%. make sense? -
Yep. That’s all we had in our Tresemme and VO5 styling gels.
-
Yeah, fragrance is the most likely culprit.
The fact that you can use one product that contains fragrance and not get a reaction doesn’t really tell you much. Every fragrance is made up of different combinations of chemicals. You have no way of knowing what chemicals are in your fragrance so the ones you don’t react to just don’t have the chemical in them that causes the reaction.You are most likely sensitive to some certain compound that is used in some fragrances but not in others.