Forum Replies Created

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  • OldPerry

    Professional Chemist / Formulator
    February 6, 2020 at 1:32 am in reply to: Would you buy chemicals online?

    @derekmorgen9 - I reviewed the website. I don’t exactly get it. Where do you search for chemicals?  What are the minimum order quantities? What information do you have about raw materials?

  • OldPerry

    Professional Chemist / Formulator
    February 5, 2020 at 10:03 pm in reply to: How is it possible to make and sell shampoo with no Presevatives?

    Many surfactants are supplied with preservatives in them. There are some companies who neglect to list these out of ignorance or willful breaking of the regulations. You can tell that this company doesn’t follow the rules - putting Purified Water even in parenthesis is breaking the rules. 

    My guess is that they just don’t list the preservatives. Also, some people use Grapefruit extract as a preservative. This is known to frequently be spiked with parabens.

  • OldPerry

    Professional Chemist / Formulator
    February 5, 2020 at 5:01 pm in reply to: Shampoo & their emollients

    Emollients in a shampoo have a negative impact on cleaning and foam and just get rinsed away.  Tips: find ones that have marketing appeal and use them at minuscule levels (0.1% or less)

  • OldPerry

    Professional Chemist / Formulator
    February 5, 2020 at 1:50 pm in reply to: My Clay Pomade Came Out Clumpy

    Yeah, >3% PVP seems pretty high. Try 1%

  • OldPerry

    Professional Chemist / Formulator
    February 5, 2020 at 1:23 pm in reply to: MCT vs CCT

    Could you type out what the acronyms CCT and MCT mean?

  • OldPerry

    Professional Chemist / Formulator
    February 4, 2020 at 10:38 pm in reply to: Optiphen Plus 1% in 99% water creates weird goo ball

    Yes, I wouldn’t think just Optiphen plus and water would result in that.

  • OldPerry

    Professional Chemist / Formulator
    February 4, 2020 at 4:24 am in reply to: Why preservatives matter! Natural isn’t necessarily better.

    @shechemie - yes, grapefruit seed extract really just has parabens hidden in it.

  • OldPerry

    Professional Chemist / Formulator
    February 4, 2020 at 3:09 am in reply to: Why preservatives matter! Natural isn’t necessarily better.

    @Belassi - I don’t think consumers turned against parabens. It was marketers and consumers just followed. In truth, I don’t think consumers care about the topic. They just keep getting the message thrown in their face to make them think it is a thing. I think eventually parabens will be back in favor. They are just too beneficial, effective and safe for them to be gone from cosmetics. 

    The ferment filtrate is the liquid in which the radish root is fermented. 

  • OldPerry

    Professional Chemist / Formulator
    February 4, 2020 at 1:56 am in reply to: Why Sulfate free Shampoo changes color?

    You’d have to list your formula ingredients if you want any good suggestions.

  • OldPerry

    Professional Chemist / Formulator
    February 3, 2020 at 10:29 pm in reply to: Ethanol

    @LuisJavier - No. The important thing is “below acute toxic levels.”  

    Calling something a “carcinogen” means nothing without also talking about the level of exposure. 1 molecule of acetaldehyde is not a carcinogen.

  • OldPerry

    Professional Chemist / Formulator
    February 3, 2020 at 9:52 pm in reply to: Is Borax not allowed at all in natural non-toxic cleaners?

    Why would you want to use something that is toxic in a non-toxic cleaner?

  • OldPerry

    Professional Chemist / Formulator
    February 3, 2020 at 7:41 pm in reply to: Why preservatives matter! Natural isn’t necessarily better.

    Given enough effort and tinkering, you may be able to get “natural” preservatives to pass a preservative efficacy test. So, it’s not surprising that sometimes people can get it to work in their system. The Leucidal manufacturers certainly have been able to get systems for which it protects the formula 

    But the whole idea of a preservative is that it should work under the most extreme conditions the product might be exposed to by a consumer. Simply passing a test once doesn’t mean that the product is safe to use. I’m highly skeptical of any preservative that hasn’t had a couple decades of testing under its belt.

  • OldPerry

    Professional Chemist / Formulator
    February 3, 2020 at 7:00 pm in reply to: Why preservatives matter! Natural isn’t necessarily better.

    Yeah, the standard preservatives have been in use for a long time for good reason.

  • OldPerry

    Professional Chemist / Formulator
    February 3, 2020 at 6:04 pm in reply to: Is ‘sulphate free’ still a thing?

    @Dtdang - I’m not sure about your question. I do not know the reasons but here’s some thoughts.

    1.  Sulfate free has been growing since 2004 because consumers have developed the notion that sulfates are bad for hair. This is perpetuated and reinforced by marketers who sell sulfate-free products. 

    2   Sulfate free is flat because it’s a pretty mainstream claim now and consumers aren’t impressed with it. There has also been enough time where consumers have tried sulfate free products and discovered for themselves that they don’t work as well as good ‘ol sulfate formulas.

    But that’s just my guess.

  • OldPerry

    Professional Chemist / Formulator
    February 3, 2020 at 1:33 pm in reply to: Is ‘sulphate free’ still a thing?

    In the last year or so, interest has mostly been flat but you can see the trend has steadily grown over the years.  
    https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=all&geo=US&q=sulfate%20free

  • OldPerry

    Professional Chemist / Formulator
    January 31, 2020 at 3:38 am in reply to: Feedback on a Basic Shampoo Formula

    The isododecane & caprylyl methicone are not a good choice for a shampoo.
    Sodium benzoate isn’t a particularly good preservative either.

    And of course things depend on the levels of these ingredients.

    Also, you can get conditioning by adding a cationic polymer like Polyquaternium 7 

  • OldPerry

    Professional Chemist / Formulator
    January 31, 2020 at 1:33 am in reply to: Why so many shaving creams and gels still contain soap instead of syndet?

    I don’t know the answer but perhaps synthetic surfactants haven’t provided a significant benefit over the most popular product. 

    On the other hand, this popular brand here in the US uses Stearic Acid and Sodium Lauryl Sulfate.  https://barbasol.com/collections/shaving-cream/products/barbasol-original-thick-rich-shaving-cream-7-oz-pack-of-6

  • OldPerry

    Professional Chemist / Formulator
    January 30, 2020 at 8:21 pm in reply to: Loss of viscosity

    I would guess because the Spectrastat (Caprylhydroxamic Acid (and) Caprylyl Glycol (and) Glycerin) is partly acidic (anionic) which is interacting with the Cationic surfactants in your system.  That changes that structure of the system and results in lower viscosity.

  • OldPerry

    Professional Chemist / Formulator
    January 29, 2020 at 8:30 pm in reply to: Ingredient Labelling

    @EVchem - we always got the information from our suppliers if we were using an ingredient that was going to go over 1%.  Ultimately the point of the legislation is to list your ingredients in order of concentration. If you know part of the blend is less than 1% in your formula, then you can list it wherever you like after the 1% line.

  • OldPerry

    Professional Chemist / Formulator
    January 29, 2020 at 5:40 pm in reply to: C12-15 Alkyl benzoate in face cream

    There is no plant in the world that produces C12-15 alkyl benzoate so if you’re a stickler for what’s natural, it’s not.

    On the other hand, if you believe anything that is not supernatural is natural, then it is.

    Notably, 
    It’s banned from use as an ingredient by Whole Foods
    It’s not certified by COSMOS although the EWG gives it a 1 score which means they think it’s fine.

    But as @ngarayeva001 alludes to, there is no such thing as an official “approved to use in natural cosmetics.” It just depends on what you think (or more importantly your consumers) is natural.

  • OldPerry

    Professional Chemist / Formulator
    January 28, 2020 at 11:45 pm in reply to: Knowde for raw material searches

    @chickenskin - Sure. Although I have actually talked to some people over there previously. But that was probably a year or so ago. If they want to connect again, I could do that.

  • OldPerry

    Professional Chemist / Formulator
    January 28, 2020 at 6:58 pm in reply to: Ingredient Labelling

    The rule actually makes sense. Without that rule someone could take an extract, put a few drops in water and call that their main ingredient. Listing by % Activity is the most useful to consumers. 

  • OldPerry

    Professional Chemist / Formulator
    January 28, 2020 at 6:25 pm in reply to: Ingredient Labelling

    You are supposed to label things by concentration based on % Activity.  So, if you use 5% Lauryl Glycoside that is a 30% solution, you actually only have 1.5% in the formula. In your example, Glycerin would come first.

  • OldPerry

    Professional Chemist / Formulator
    January 28, 2020 at 4:33 pm in reply to: Difference between Laureth and Ceteth

    Ceteth is made with a reaction of primarily C16 (cetyl alcohol)
    Laureth is made with a reaction of primarily C12 (lauryl alcohol)

    It may not matter in your system. The only way to check is to try the substitution and then see if there are any performance or stability changes.

  • OldPerry

    Professional Chemist / Formulator
    January 28, 2020 at 1:52 pm in reply to: Polysorbate 80

    Your ratio is off. You need to do something more like 4:1 ratio of solubilizer to oil. You might try Oleth-20 or a different polysorbate. But the first thing to do is get your ratio right.

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