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Which % did you add and what else is in said solution?

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sheamoisture.com . My wife loves those products (she’s white as can be but her hair is afro (type 3C). She treated it like “white” hair her whole life and was always disappointed with the outcome till she went to a coiffeur married to an African husband with kids with African hair. That woman told her to treat it like “black” hair and *abracadabra*, she has real nice and healthy hair since.

[Pharma]

It was even higher (a lot) in the early days of HA, back when it had to be isolated from rooster combs. The marvels of biotechnology!

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Selenium disulfide can be incorporated as suspension by preference as micronised powder. You won’t get it into solution without changing its chemical nature (i.e. oxidation/degradation).

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@Gunther Learned something new today, thanks!

Actually, I learned two things: Spironolactone seems to help against hormonal acne. Apropos spironolactone, this is also a newer off-label drug against hairloss, likely by inhibiting DHT. Unfortunately, it’s not very stable in solution.

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 @Sponge Hmmm…. that reminds me of coupling reagents aka coupling agents = compounds which react with substrates to speed up or enable a chemical coupling reaction such as esterification or amid bond formation.

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Aluminium sulfate is an adstringent, mild disinfectant, and somewhat deodorising agent. It’s less aggressive than aluminium chloride and used at lower %. Adstringents (synthetic, natural, or mineral) help against itching due to inflamed skin conditions (e.g. stings, rashes) which tend to produce exudate or feel wet due to increased skin porosity. Calcium salts (acetate is one of the few highly water soluble ones) serves as a traditional anti-itching and vasoprotective agent (for example as calcium dobesilate wherein dobesilic acid greatly contributes to the effect); they also help to speed up blood clotting. Dextrin and maltodextrin may be fillers, honey replacements, humectants, structural agents… nothing special.

PS If it’s “similar to cortisone” than it does contain a drug such as a cortisone derivative, an mTOR inhibitor, or the like. Though usually, such creams are not “similar to cortisone” but “like a cortisone cream without cortisone” = just a cream.

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@Gunther I honestly don’t know. As a guess (knowing the numbers would be better, obviously), I think BHT should be fine. I know that, as an example, a combination with ascorbic acid is used to stabilise hydroquinone creams.

I had a long day at work (11 hours, as long as usual, but felt like 20) and my brain is fried right now… so no deeper insights possible at the moment ;( .

[Pharma]

Personally, I would add it late or together with/right before the compounds to protect such as hydroquinone.

Given the rather widespread use of sulfite in foods, the comparatively high prevalence of sulfite hypersensitivity (SH) seems obvious (no concrete numbers available and probably SH was a hype like today’s coeliac disease or lactose intolerance). Like with other similar preservatives (similar regarding frequent use = frequent allergies), it’s now less often used (or has to be declared on the label if used >10 ppm) than back before ~1980. SH occurs mostly after ingestion of sulfite treated foods and drinks, is more prevalent in asthmatic people (up to 10%!), and the most common symptom is urticaria (skin rashes -> obviously a scare factor for cosmetics) whilst the most problematic reactions are respiratory symptoms. There are even a few cases of reported deaths as a consequence of ingestion of sulfite-treated food. Apart from that, sulfite antioxidants are highly efficient and versatile . One of the main advantages they have is colour preservation or discolouration prevention and another is that sulfites also act as preservative. However, they shouldn’t be used as sole antioxidant (radical formation with air, something that I didn’t know till very recently).

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JackDerrington said:

…
Sweet Almond Oil, Avocado Oil, Jojoba Oil, Emu Oil, Sunflower Seed Oil, Hemp/Seed Oil, Vitamin E Oil.
…

Unsuspicious…

[Pharma]

Belassi said:

Could it be ostwald ripening?

Unlikely because the observed effect is too fast. More likely to be creaming, coalescence or flocculation but then, the cream would/should separate at one point. What about some sort of phase inversion or at least change in emulsion type? Given the roughly 50:50 oil-to-water phase… I was thinking about a microscope or centrifugation to test for emulsion stability.

Though that effect does look to me more of a “molecular” issue such as that weird behaviour of shea like @Zaf describes.

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For disinfection, a certain amount of water is required. Nearly anhydrous alcohol shows some activity against flue viruses but apart from that niche use, everything above 70% is wasted money IMHO.

[Pharma]

Which oils do you use?

Some ingredients such as stearic acid and waxes can change crystal structure and/or crystal organisation. This takes about a day or two and may result in a weird “gritty” structure which gets destroyed upon mixing but can reform after some time (similar to bentonite).

You could prepare only your oil phase and let that sit for a day or two and see what happens. Doesn’t always work, though.

[Pharma]

Zaf said:

…
I’m looking at changing the emulsifier (Cetearyl Olivate/Sorbitan Olivate @ 2.65%) with Glyceryl Monostearate (perhaps also Glyceryl Oleate). Glyceryl Monostearate has a *sellable* “purpose” (idk, they say it’s good for reducing post work-out fatigue/ache? Who knows if that’s even true… maybe I just like trying out new ingredients?).
I was also looking at replacing the wax @ 1.76% with Boswellia Sacra (Frankincense) Resin - sounded like this was the safest form of Frankincense and there’s not really any information to suggest it causes irritation or allergy but I kinda feel like this is a bit high?

…

pH came out to 5.5… just perfect but I’m not sure if more essential oils will throw that off (each one will be no more than 0.5%)

…

can something like triglycerides or glycerol monostearate be used to improve the stability of anhydrous recipes during shipping

…

Cetearyl olivate is not an emulsifier, it’s “synthetic” wax similar to jojoba oil.

Glyceryl monostearate (sometimes called glycerol monostearate) might do that if eaten. In the skin, it’s just a low HLB emulsifier and an emollient.

Boswellia resin is not a wax but a resin and it will feel different. Might add to the grittiness (depending on quality). Shouldn’t cause irritation but rather reduce it (good anti-inflammatory activity). Although my guess is that zinc oxide causes grittiness. Use higher speed or a three roll mill (probably just use zinc oxide with 3-4 parts of one of your butters in the mill for easier handling or spread it out on a glass plate to obtain a fine, homogeneous paste).

Essential oils don’t affect pH. They might however affect rheology/viscosity.

Hydrogenated oils (=solid triglycerides) or glyceryl monostearate (BTW food grade is usually >95% pure whilst cosmetic grade is often ~40% monostearate and ~55% distearate) at sufficient levels act as oil gelling agents and hence may increase zero shear viscosity and ergo shipping stability without reducing spreadability too much. But that highly depends on % and composition.

PS I like your recipe .

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Rule of thumbs:

>20%: Microbes stop growing

40-70%: Microbes die

>70%: Useless

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Thanks @EVchem !

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For 70% ethanol, only PVP comes to my mind (though my mind isn’t working properly, it’s been a long day at work).

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Microformulation said:

Arginine.

Unfortunately, most sold arginine is arginine HCl or other salts tough several suppliers don’t mention that or only on the small prints on the back side of the package. Haven’t found a source for small quantities of free base ;( . Apart from that, arginine is a very good and, for an organic molecule, pretty strong base (actually the strongest one nature has to offer).

[Pharma]

Herbnerd said:

…to calculate the amount of capsicum to use…

Just to make sure: Capsicum = chili peppers = highly varying amounts of capsaicin between pods even from the same plant and also varying concentrations within different portions of a single pod.

“Normal” commercial capsicum extract = hot sauce = roughly estimated levels of capsaicin based on published Scoville units of the used chili variety (if the maths has been done correctly, which isn’t always the case) = absolutely not reliable or useful unless a deviation of factor >10 is okay.

Pharmacopoeia and other standardised capsicum/chili extracts are commercially available and calculating the required amount is a cakewalk.

[Pharma]

You really use truffle oil?

What are Kerestore and Hydrosoy?

Just as a free advice (besides the one about using INCI): Don’t bite the hand that’s feeding you or you won’t get much help.

[Pharma]

Use a standardised capsicum extract. That’s what we use in the pharmacy for capsaicin creams (though we commonly use 0.025-0.075%).

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HERE

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Good point @CriticalMicelle ! Although, both are constituents of plant oils. I do not know % in olive oil but now that I think about it, squalene might really be present at higher amounts than squalane.

[Pharma]

There’s usually an abundance of air e.g. oxygen dissolved in water. LAA does react with it but it’s not very efficient compared to metabisulfite (which is safe if you’re not allergic to sulfite and allowed at low concentration in cosmetics -> forgot how low).

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Surfactants have a so called critical micelle concentration (CMC) above which they form micelles and solubilise oil, grime, and dirt. Below, all molecules are in true solution though they may still reduce surface tension and hence foam more or less but they won’t stabilise oil droplets any longer. Therefore (in theory) a concentrated shampoo can hold a lot of oil and “drop” it once diluted enough. Sure, such a product won’t cleanse well either unless used pure on wet hair/skin = above CMC = cleaning and then rinsed off with a lot of water = deposition of oils (and grime and dirt…). Well, probably a good part of the grime and dirt will stay afloat and not deposit back onto hair/skin.