Pharma
Forum Replies Created
-
Depending on the regulations within the manufacturing/selling country, food grade xylitol (or calcium carbonate for that matter too) may be as good or even better than cosmetic grade. IIRC @Perry mentioned that the food supplement market in the USA is so poorly regulated that he does trust cosmetic grade more than food grade although, in theory, food grade is of higher quality. It certainly depends on the product you buy, is it easy & worth adulterating or not? Xylitol is not cheap but not pricey enough and in crystalline (not finely ground) form not that easy to water down with cheaper ingredients without the consumer noticing. You might get sugar instead of xylitol if you buy from the wrong people… simply dissolve some in water: if it gets cold, it’s quite likely xylitol. If it also tastes sweet without any flavour, then it is most likely xylitol. You may also use solubility: 200 g in 100 ml water and slightly above 1.2 g in 96% ethanol. BTW it should be colourless. Sure, it doesn’t necessarily give you enough information about contamination (for example with heavy metals) and proper documentation papers (i.e. certificates of analysis and SDS) may not be obtained that easily for food grades should you require those.Me, I frequently use food grade stuff for my personal DIY projects without any concerns. At the pharmacy I’m usually bound to a very limited assortment of locally registered pharmaceutical grade raw materials. -
You’re thinking RGB. The perceived colour space is more than that.A citation form THIS article (one of many) gives you an idea (if you don’t want to read the whole article): Notice, however, how many of these colors, including cyan, brown and
magenta as well as pink, do not exist on the visible spectrum, yet we
perceive them as distinct. It is for this reason that some have opined
that color perception is “not actually a property of light or of objects that reflect light [but rather] is a sensation that arises within the brain.”Another example is a picture of THE DRESS which went viral. I, like many others, perceive it as white and gold, although it’s actually black and blue. We still don’t know why half the people see it this way and the other half that way.And then, unlikely with cosmetics, there are also impossible colours or colours which aren’t colours because there is virtually no light to see such as Vantablack. Back to (off-)topic: the Tyndall effect and other similar effects (for example Quantum dots) are not based on absorption/emission due to chromophores but other causes of interaction with light waves.Bottom line is: I don’t really know why sunscreen looks purple on darker skin. I’m simply guessing. You’re right, sunscreen does mostly absorb invisible UV light but not just that. Also, UV light is absorbed and then emitted at longer wavelengths by quite a few materials and thereby changes colour perception of the surrounding colour. This is how optical brighteners in laundry detergents work.
-
Depends on the manufacturing process. If it’s yellow to brown, it’s probably chemically hydrolysed and smells of soup/bouillon. If it’s white, it’s more likely enzymatically hydrolysed. In which case it starts to have a distinct smell only if it’s so heavily hydrolysed that there’s an increasing amount of single amino acids. ‘Clean’ enzymatically processed polypeptides shouldn’t have any (or only a negligible) smell.
-
Many cosmetic ‘phytosterols’ are rather crude preparations partially enriched in sterol fraction or have been diluted with different lipids to get the costs down. That’s why these are (coloured) liquids/oils and not white powders like pure beta-sitosterol. And that’s also where the big differences between these products come from and not the ration of different phytosterols therein.
-
Bug food and food in general relies always on least available nutrient. In case of microbes in cosmetics, iron, phosphorous, and nitrogen can be limiting factors. Hence, a cocktail of ingredients composed of carbon and oxygen in water will be not much worse than just water. Add lecithin (P and N), clay (trace minerals), and/or plant extracts (everything) turns it into a wonderfully rich nutrient broth.
-
Yes, I would, no hesitation. BTW I like xylitol.
-
Graillotion said:…differentiate a more caring feeling… enhanced occlusiveness…What did I tell you . BTW this effect will likely be even more pronounced in a colder and/or drier climate than yours.Why a high price? Your special island import fee? ;(
-
Abdullah said:…Does it mean they dont help the preservative system anymore?
Correct.
-
IMHO apple stem cell extract is like sterile factory grown apple juice. It requires quite a bit of resources (many of which are petroleum based -> I did work with cell cultures for years, it’s expensive) to grow stem cells and I’d still like to see some number on how much goes into a stem cell culture/extract compared to how much it costs to produce a clean ‘normal’ apple juice which comes from an actual tree on a green meadow… Sure, most apples grow on pedigree trees in monocultures but the fist apple stem cell extract which got the boom kicked off has been invented in Switzerland from an heirloom standard tree apple variety (Uttwiler Spätlauber) which usually grows on mixed culture land or scattered throughout farmland and enriches nature, gives homes to hundreds of species, from insects over birds to mammals. Replacing that with a concrete, steel and glass factory… Who in his right mind could possibly do that and think it’s better or more environmentally friendly, cleaner, and less wasteful than planting real apple trees (better yet, eat instead of cream apples, they’re delicious)?
-
SLS
-
I think the idea of using plants and extracts thereof quite charming… however, as @Perry mentioned, they are mostly added for claims only. If you add more of truly active ingredients, you’ll quickly have a drug and no longer a cosmetic product.Regarding his point N°5: Some of the used materials are actually upcycled waste materials such as extracts from wood or fruit pulp or proteins and phytosterols/waxes from oil pressing and refining, respectively. On the down side, as soon as the consumer realises that, my point of ‘charming’ becomes a dream shattered.Therefore, I use extracts (and pure constituents thereof) for medicinal products but only (fairly) pure constituents such as magnolia extract (magnolol & honokiol) and chitosan or synthetic/fermentation versions thereof like paeonol, anisic and levulinic acid for cosmetics. The latter may have some pharmacological effects but mainly serve the formulation itself (preservative, antioxidant, gelling agent etc.).However, the main reason why I don’t use cosmetic extracts is what @MarkBroussard said: They are mostly just solvents of not well defined composition with an unknown amount of an unknown plant extract of unknown chemical composition. You just buy a (usually haggard or long dead) pig in a poke and sell it for fairy dust and unicorn glitter.
-
Depends.Some combinations may form insoluble salts, especially polymers.
-
A HUGE advantage of phytic acid over carbonic acid based chelates is it’s efficacy at low pH. A lot of things I found on chelates come from industrial applications where pH is often neutral to alkaline.The downside can be that this little molecule may carry up to 12 negative charges.
-
There are hypothetical concerns that EDTA might actually shuttle heavy metal contaminants through skin… in cases where this might be true (injured skin) it will be as true for other chelates as well. So, the only concern is its effects on the environment.
-
Emulsifiers & gelling agents :blush: . That’s about as precise as it gets… every formulation has its own ingredients which are ‘best for’.
-
Unlikely. I think that’s because sunscreen absorbs (and sometimes reflects/emits) certain wavelengths which changes the spectrum or rather has our brain interpret the colour we perceive differently. Pink is a colour which our brain ‘creates’, it’s not a real colour but interpreted due to a gap in the spectrum.
-
Estolides are polymerised fatty acids: These are huge molecules and when theoretically thinking about it, I imagined Meadowestolide EXACTLY the way @helenhelen describes! It should be a good film former though and keep water in the skin longer (vaseline-like)… something your night cream might, at low inclusion rate, actually profit from (and the body it likely gives would set it apart from the day version).On the other hand, higher molecular weight hydrogenated polyisobutene (available also from renewable resources) might be a better option and comes in different grades. Check our Emulgade SUCRO (not sure if the HPI is actually of natural origin or petrochemistry derived) or Vitabiosol S.
-
An extract in that case can also mean oil obtained by solvent extraction (= not native or extra vergine but the really cheap stuff). Often, cold pressed ‘good & healthy’ oil is obtained first and the pulp is then extracted with heat and solvents such as hexane… the process used therefore allows for the term ‘extract’ which sounds better than what it actually is. (How do I post a retching smiley?)
-
For oral care, always xylitol, no matter the origin (and, since birch sugar is an ‘official’ synonym, call it birch sugar no matter the origin ).Xylitol for oral care isn’t just used because it’s sweet but for the whole rest tough it’s sweeter than erythritol. The only upper limit is what you can pack into your jars :smiley: .If you want something against pain and dentine sensitivity, add clover oil, potassium bicarbonate instead of sodium bicarbonate, and/or arginine/calcium carbonate (Pro-Argin Technology by Colgate & Elmex uses 8% arginine). HERE some more reading.@Bill_Toge: Bicarb refers to sodium bicarbonate, a common ingredient in toothpaste. It’s not alkaline but still neutralises acids and is a very mild abrasive. Darn, I just had a look at the LOI, you’re right, she lists ‘elemental calcium’! That can’t be right because calcium immediately reacts with water. On the bright side, that should take care of all the plaque and rotten teeth within seconds, especially if you smoke a cigarette whilst brushing your teeth…
-
I would only mix it with some of the glycols and add that to the water phase or the pre-emulsion.
-
If I really need an oxidising agent for cleaning, I use H2O2 or, should there be some ugly crust, in situ prepared peracetic acid. But that’s seldom the case when making cosmetics and when keeping your equipment clean.
-
If viscosity increases, drop the amount of carbomer
. -
I hope I find the time for this one!BTW, just if not: What about ‘natural’ packaging? The amount of plastic used for cosmetics and toiletry is horrendous and less than 1/10 is recycled (in the US). How much does the packaging compared to the petrochemistry within a product contribute to the overall ‘synthetics’ of a cosmetic product?Did you know that, were we able to replace all plastic we produce every year with plant based materials such as hemp fibres, then we’d have to, at a full conversion ratio of fibre to ‘eco-plastic’, grow hemp on half the agricultural area of whole Europe.If we could for example use canola oil instead of crude oil at a 1:1 conversion ratio, we would have to grow canola on the whole terrestrial surface of earth and moon together to cover annual demands.Apart from this minor limitation (*cough-cough*), I’m all for sustainable ingredients and green chemistry.
-
If you’re looking for something on the more ‘natural’ side, Tego Care PBS 6 could be an option. It’s also compatible with GSC and can handle somewhere between 10 and 30% oil phase (not more than ~20% if it should be a sprayable lotion).
-
Probably isododecane. One thing you could do is changing the casing so one doesn’t see the droplets any longer or switch out isododecane.Do you have any pictures? Did you remove the casing with the drops and let it sit to see if all the oil really evaporates?