[Pharma]

Depending on which type and which quality of clay you use, compaction can be caused by different effects. Clay is a funny stuff with a set of interesting behaviour, under others shrinkage/expansion.

Without knowing anything useful about your formula, I can only guess… One such effect might be circumvented by adding some more water/vinegar (not much!). If you’re lucky, it works, if not, compaction leads to a water pond on/beside your product. Else, you could consider changing clay type/quality or adding certain salts (clay reacts to different alkali and alkaline earth metals with shrinkage or expansion, respectively) to the water/vinegar; if you’re lucky (again), you can put your clay product in a constantly compacted or expanded stage.

BTW I completely zapped that you also add powdered herbs… These can worsen the shrinkage of clay (large plant particles surrounded by small clay particles are perfect for vibrational compaction) and, more likely, worsen contamination. A common and for a loooong time neglected problem even for pharmaceuticals with clay and herbs is bacterial contamination. Pharmacists still recommend tea bags for eye compresses (that’s idiocy but the believe in these is so deeply engrained in us…). You can easily have 1 million CFU in a gram of good quality clay or a single tea bag. Since clay has an extremely large surface area and good adsorption, I think it’s absolutely possible that you can have several weight-% of bacteria in your clay without even noticing their presence; unlike granny’s strawberry marmalade showing fungi on its surface, clay is like a kitchen sponge harbouring & hiding microbes in its cavities. If the product is for animals, in most countries it will likely be regulated as “tightly” as furniture polish… IMHO that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t consider proper (= cosmetic/pharmaceutical) microbial testing (do you at least heat-sterilise your clay prior to mixing?). Unless your clay mask is used as “Fattening & plumping spa treatment for pig butts” .

[Pharma]

@Dtdang Try it. Given that these are two of the most common ingredients I doubt that they work, they must have been tried more than once before…

[Pharma]

What’s about shipping in bubble wrap or styrofoam flakes?

Your problem is settled bulk density versus compacted bulk density. Unless you get rid of your clay, the product will be prone to that effect . Or you compact it before shipping…

[Pharma]

Benzoyl peroxide works. Here in CH, only up to 5% are allowed and considered as drug requiring registration. On the other hand, I’ve seen 20% creams being sold in supermarkets on Sri Lanka.

[Pharma]

Use tubes .

[Pharma]

Belassi said:

…One of the intractable things I have not yet been able to fix with any degree of success is acne rosacea…

You’re not the only one, big pharma hasn’t either . Seriously, science does neither know what exactly causes rosacea nor why or how in detail. Amongst the more efficient treatment alternatives are antibiotics (mostly metronidazole) and as of late insecticides (ivermectin) since (anaerobic) bacteria and demodex mites, respectively, are key factors. Because rosacea often has its origin not on the skin but elsewhere or is caused by factors not only affecting facial skin, local treatment options are obviously bound to fail more often than not.

You might want to concoct a cream which contains plant extracts with good antibacterial, insecticidal/acaricidal, antihistaminic, and anti-inflammatory effects.

[Pharma]

@MarkBroussard Are you intentionally avoiding a clear answer to @Majman‘s question? The way I understand his/her question is whether or not it actually reduces pigmentation. Your answer is simply agreeing that it is marketed for said effect.

I don’t know if glutathione (GSH) really works topically. In theory it is a good antioxidant and it reduces oxidised ascorbic acid forms in vivo. On the other hand, GSH is a large molecule with several charges and hence unlikely to penetrate deep enough (even oral bioavailability is piss poor). It seems a legit assumption that, if GSH is intended to be used for chemical reactions rather than pharmacological ones (i.e. involving living cells and a functional redox metabolism), a replacement with the smaller, cheaper and less charged N-acetylcysteine will give improved effects for less $$. Label-wise, “NAC” instead of “glutathione” just doesn’t sound as fancy and might even cause people to wonder since NAC is a common (though not very effective) cough medicine. An additional consideration should be the source of GSH because often enough, the product is actually the oxidised form GSSG.

[Pharma]

@ngarayeva001 You’re welcome!

[Pharma]

As @Doreen mentioned, occlusion is the reason why.

Although, this line of thoughts is not always true and depends for example on the solubility of the actives in the base as well as in skin. This is because the preparation serves as reservoir which needs to create a concentration gradient to push the active into the skin. Completely undissolved active doesn’t do anything and a super well solubilised one prefers staying in the product rather than passing into adjacent skin. Hence, best skin penetration is (again a rule of thumbs) achieved when using an occlusive preparation (a cling film works wonders, too) in which an oil soluble and/or non-ionic active is dispersed. As mentioned, said active should be slightly/poorly soluble in the used preparation too. For example a salicylic acid suspension/partial solution in vaseline/petroleum gives great skin penetration (systemic effect!) whereas salicylic acid dissolved in a polar oil or alcohol or, even worse, salicyate acid/salt in an aqueous preparation will only result in superficial penetration (good enough for exfoliation) or a film of “inactive” salicylic salt on top of the skin, respectively (okay if salicylic acid is used as antifungal preservative).

Occlusion and penetration enhancers make skin “loose/porous” (urea is probably the standard showing that effect), the former also avoids drying out of the preparation (e.g. no useless salicylic acid crystals forming on the skin) whilst the latter may help keeping actives dissolved during their passage trough skin (DMSO is a prime example).

@em88: You’re right, Lanette N. Lanette SX is the version with SLES. ‘t was late and a long day at work.

[Pharma]

@em88 That’s about the same than Lanette SX, a standard pharmaceutical emulsifier (BTW they perform better when combined with a Span or Tween depending on HLB). Lanettes generally perform well for their intended purposes but, I’m all with @Doreen, these and other pharmaceutical semisolid preparations are anything but pleasant to apply. They’re 100% function oriented = do the trick (occlusion, cooling, anti-itching, dissolving actives and so on), are stable, versatile, low in drug incompatibilities, easy to preserve, often do fine with very low shear force (mortar & pestle) etc. etc. All in all, they’re “drugs” rather than beauty products. Certainly a plus is that such pharmaceutical preparations often follow the rules (or rather, the rules have been created based on them -> HLB, phase inversion temperature emulsification, zeta potential, just to name a few) and hence, they’re a good starting point to learn the scientific/theoretical basis of emulsions and formulations. Alas, they don’t make you a cosmetic chemist, let alone a good one, they just make you sound smart :blush: .

[Pharma]

@Gunther Thanks. Though that’s a Japanese publication which is slightly older than I am. I doubt that the observed effect is ubiquitous and depends on oil phase composition but it would explain why cetylstearyl alcohol is more often used than the individual alcohols.

[Pharma]

Do you know the brand Weleda? 100% natural and 100% terrible rheology and 0% acceptable skin feeling. The renewable trend is just whitewashing so industry can sell better performing stuff (than 100% unadulterated nature) to all those who realised that pure natural doesn’t do the trick but still want something that they can call “natural”. Nonetheless, I support that trend (though for other reasons).

[Pharma]

I don’t know why one would use 5% chelating agent and it’s impossible to say anything about this formulation since the ethoxylate is unknown.

Whether or not it will be useful depends on the intended use .

[Pharma]

What is poly7? Polyquaternium 7?

100g glycerol in approximately 20 kg product… why/what for? Is it part of the preservative blend you’re using?

[Pharma]

smok said:

…the tool that disperses the iron oxide…

Stick blender?

[Pharma]

You mean like THIS?

[Pharma]

Phenyl what?

[Pharma]

@Gunther: Do you have any evidence for that claim?

[Pharma]

It’s not about surfactancy/emulsification but simply adding a negative charge to the oil droplets = strong negative zeta potential = way better emulsion stability. Though that doesn’t matter if it’s a w/o emulsion, lamellar phase or similar. Adding a few drops dishwash liquid whilst nobody’s watching is a very old trick to make emulsions work. You could take nearly any ionic emulsifier/surfactant for that job, like glyceryl stearate citrate but SDS, like Tweens and Spans, was and still is one of the things that was usually at hand during my professional life and hence my “preference” for these emulsifiers.

[Pharma]

Can’t register, it doesn’t accept my mail addresses. I didn’t try with the “real” work address because that wouldn’t work out since it is a “public” mail visible for all employees, we simply keep our private ones for personal stuff. Unfortunately, none of the three I have are accepted: “It looks like this is a private address”. The form doesn’t even realize that the @protonmail.ch address is an actual mail address… that’s not what I understand under “Worlds best encrypted and most secure mail” ;( .

[Pharma]

JonahRay said:

… it being in everything at the moment is precisely the problem.

That’s true for about any preservative (or rather anything we get in contact with): The more it’s used, the likelier it is that more people start having adverse reactions to it. It’s not just because more get in contact with it but also the longer/higher exposure is, the higher chances get to develop an allergic or sensitivity reaction.

[Pharma]

For me, a blend of sorbitan monostearate with Tween 20 (HLB adjusted ratio) with a few % of anionic surfactant (sodium lauryl sulfate  but SLES might likely perform even better) are the go-to but it’s not my favourite since I’m on that “all natural base hype” since it not even really started. Not saying that stuff from renewable resources is better or anything (I sill like silicones and in some cases vaseline is unbeatable) but I just love it (truth be told, my opportunistic skin flora also loves it and thrives when I’m using creams rich in biodegradable ingredients *urks*!).

[Pharma]

The label reads “Alcohol Free Disinfectant Spray” and contains isopropanol… great marketing! It’s likely added for reduced surface tension and somewhat to boost antimicrobial efficacy of the quat. I wouldn’t hesitate to use a higher % IPA unless flammability is of great concern.

Furthermore, it states “Literally Spray & Go” but for that, given it’s used on utensils which shouldn’t be slippery, me personally, I wouldn’t use a quat in there.

I think the advice of @Gunther to use an ethoxylated surfactant instead of SLES is a very good one.

Since the spray will be in contact with plastic parts such as soft handles, I’d use a lot less fragrance since that one can “wear them out”, making them brittle or gluey/sticky.

[Pharma]

Therese said:

Hi, I was wondering if I could get a little feedback on the usage of Blackseed oil, in a facial serum. I have read that people with cancer (Me) breast cancer, should not use Blackseed oil unless they talk to their doctor? Can I ask why? And also what’s the harm. I am not a chemist, just like making homemade products. Thanks in advance Therese

Probably because having cancer requires talking to a doctor instead of eating stuff which allegedly cures cancer??? Otherwise, I wouldn’t know of any reason why someone with cancer shouldn’t eat it. Lapacho was prohibited in Switzerland because health authorities feared that patients would drink lapacho tea instead of taking their meds and undergoing chemo/radiation.

Putting it on your skin is certainly safe!

@Perry: It contains unsaturated fatty acids and other substances which under others help against allergies and related disorders (that’s mainly based on observations & traditional use and we have no real scientific understanding why black caraway does that and why it’s better than other comparable oils). Whether or not it works topically in this regard, I do not know but it seems likely that it may help against inflammatory related skin conditions (like any of the “healthy” oils). I can imagine that the smell of it might be disturbing in a facial product and, obviously, it gets rancid easily. Also giving it’s high cost, eating it seems like a better use for black caraway .

[Pharma]

ngarayeva001 said:

Silly question (I haven’t done it because instruction says to clean it with a special liquid and I am too scared to break this monster) but what if I just soak it in isopropyl alcohol? Will it die? :smiley:

No, it will not die. Although, it won’t love it either. It is simply VERY important to soak/equilibrate it real well in KCl solution (the storage solution where you keep the glass electrode immersed in whilst not using your device).