Pharma
Forum Replies Created
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Did some thinking: Aloe vera gel is composed of glucomannan and acemannan. Why is this important? Glucomannans such as guar all show synergism with xanthan gum and in fact, I quickly found a publication showing synergism between aloe vera gel and xanthan.You’ve got a bunch of synergies with xanthan in your gel. That’s going to be tough.What I also thought about: Synergies with xanthan rely on “saccharide-saccharide stacking” which is independent of calcium. It could be that the added sodium alginate serves mainly as rheology/consistency modifier. It might impart (just another educated guess) smoothness and softness to the gel. Hence, an alginate free version of your gel is probably having a “harder” ratio and not a “slimy” one.A third idea I had: The 1% line is maybe just after aloe vera gel. In other words, nearly everything in the composition might be in random order. Alginate is probably the most expensive gellant and hence possibly a minor one just added for a finishing touch whereas the cheaper ones (guar and methylcellulose) act as synergists with xanthan and generate the basis of the gel.Did you dry the benchmark product to find out the amount of water added (well, including aloe vera gel but that problem is solvable)? This dried product is likely to be not dry and give you an idea on how much glycerol is inside. Else, flocculation of the gellants followed by filtration and drying could be attempted to better separate the ingredients.Also, addition of EDTA or citric acid would destroy an eventual calcium-alginate interaction: A strong drop in viscosity is likely to prove that calcium has actually been added and that there’s quite a high percentage of alginate in there.And a last one for tonight: Alginate gels, from my kitchen experience with an attempt at molecular
cuisine tell me that they need to be hydrated and become crystal clear,
whereas methylcellulose, I used that cellulose derivative only for tapestry and back in the day as student, are always opaque. But higher concentrations of glycerol can turn an opaque methylcellulose gel crystal clear. -
I just found out that guar also shows some synergy with methyl cellulose. Dam, I hope you’re up for some mixing 🙂 !
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Cool! Learned something new today, thanks!
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Probably they mistake calcium alginate for sodium alginate?BTW guar gum and xanthan have a very strong synergism! Used at the right proportions (try something between 3:1 and 1:3), you can create anything firm, nearly brittle, free standing gels ro more sticky, smooth or soft versions.Guar and xanthan come in a variety of qualities, some are more opaque than others.
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Why BHT? Apart from traces of Tween 20, the formula is fairly “natural” and and skin-friendly whereas BHT is a potential allergen and one of the “bad guys” of these days. Why not add tocopherol (tocopherol acetate is not an antioxidant) and ascorbyl palmitate (ascorbyl phosphate is not an antioxidant as well)? This synergistic combination is more efficient than BHT regarding anti-rancidity. Or use rosemary extract.A natural alternative to EDTA would be phytic acid and, less efficient, citric acid.
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Sprayable 22% zinc oxide, not bad 😮 ! Did you use nanoized or standard ZnO?
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That’s not enough…1% alginic acid requires up to 0.57% calcium chloride hexahydrate for full gelling and sodium alginate requires about 0.5%. Partial gelling is possible with less calcium whereas more is useless or even counterproductive.
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It won’t work with a dispenser, too thick/firm consistency ;( .
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You’re welcome.That’s the reason why preservatives have recommended usage ranges/concentrations instead. These, however, are usually well above the MIC.
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I worked with lecithin or rather the purified research grades from Cayman and Avantilipids. I loved to work with these very expensive compounds, they are great and you can do fancy stuff with it like making liposomed and mixed micelles with ascorbyl palmitate (I’ve even written a publication using phosphatidylcholine derivatives as enzyme substrate CLICK).Well… now that I have to content myself with standard lecithin, de-oiled lecithin and homemade PC enriched lecithin, I’m getting disappointed. Can’t do the cool stuff anymore ;( . Especially liquid lecithin sucks (it’s just 50% and the rest is soy oil) and doesn’t do what it’s supposed to do (meaning what I want it to). Ordered some hydrogenated one recently and will get some granulated lecithin and lysolecithin sometime soon. In my experience so far, it requires co-emulsifiers and works better for microemulsions (-> ultrasonic emulsification) and liposomes (which, again, require ultrasound or organic solvents and a lab equipment).
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Unfortunately, refining not only removes dirt, microbes and other impurities but also colour, scent (depending on the degree of refinement, coconut and shea may no longer smell at all!), and most of what you call goodies ;( . That’s the trade-off for a clean, stable, and safe product.p-Anisic acid is used alone and in aqueous systems at up to 0.2%. In your case without water and with glyceryl caprylate, personally, I wouldn’t go above 0.1% but certainly use more than 0.01%. In the end, it all depends…BTW there’s sunflower oil available from high linoleic acid cultivars which is lower in oleic acid (and cultivars the other way round, too).IMHO pots and cans are only for glam and shine whereas good products and even more so products for injured skin come in tubes, (airless) dispensers and the like.
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Perry said:…Speaking of MIC, do you know a source listing the MIC of common ingredients?I know, it’s an older thread but you might still appreciate an answer.There is not ONE MIC for a certain compound. Every antimicrobial has a one (or several depending on how it was determined) MIC for every microbial species or even every serovar/cultivar. Unfortunately, this means that there is no reliable listing. You’ll find short list for antibiotics against common pathogens, though.
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Did you actually make and try it?If I had to put a bet (I’m not much of a gambler and you didn’t list amounts, not even mentioned whether the ingredients are in weight order), I’d say it won’t remove makeup very well (especially not waterproof one), likely struggle with sunscreen, and won’t clean pores. It might however remove sebum and greasy night creams quite nicely.
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First, you have to produce a sample and see how it performs and what could be better, then we can talk about further steps.Formulating cosmetic is a mix of empirical science and (personal) experience. There’s so many factors coming together that it’s virtually impossible to accurately predict a formula. There’s always a chance that a minor difference makes it all flip and behave in an unforeseen manner.Spoilage is already greatly reduced by not using unrefined raw ingredients. I’d say that your current formula has a shelf life (in a tube) of easily 6 months, likely 12 or even more. In the end, it depends on your customer profile, batch size, retailers stocking it etc.
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You’ve got some calcium in the extracts…Why not try it by adding some? Alginate as far as I know is only used as real gelling agent together with calcium salts.
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The solvent is simply diluted too strongly and that’s why salicylic acid falls out.
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With castor oil, it will likely become way more tacky and thicker. Since it’s for baby butts and not a face cream, it might be okay and even increase its stick to the skin. Refined almond oil is probably the standard oil in baby/pregnancy skin care though it doesn’t offer that much IMHO. Here around, refined sunflower oil is getting popular because of an allegedly better fatty acid profile. For a better occlusion alternative, peanut oil would be something to consider. On the other hand, your formula will likely be very viscous, even tough to apply before the butters melt; the more liquid grapeseed oil acts as a counter player here.@MarkBroussard: What do you think about adding p-anisic acid (as acid, not sodium salt)? It should result in a better coverage of mould and yeast and, unlike GMCY, actively kill microbes. It might even act as mild disinfectant because diaper eczema are often confronted with microbes such as yeast.
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Glyceryl caprylate alone, no.Tried makingcosmetics.com and lotioncrafter.com? Several sites in EU ship to UK.
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A site or table? Use molecular weight!AA is water soluble and depending on pH even a charged molecule whereas the aforementioned derivatives are fat soluble and charge neutral. Hence, these still small molecules are better in penetrating skin than free AA. On the downside, they have to be metabolised to become active. In theory, this is a great strategy. In reality… IDK (never read any paper bout this).
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MarkBroussard said:… if you want to stay all natural, use Acai Sterols as a direct replacement for the Bentonite Clay…I like the idea of sterols in a diaper balm! Have never seen it before but seems worth a try.@PetalPoppet2309 Now the tag is gone… I was already wondering
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As a beginner, I would consider using refined shea butter and coconut oil and leave bentonite out of it. There are a lot of natural baby products out there; we here in Switzerland sell a lot from Weleda. Nice natural products, skin feel, theology, and all that sucks though…Hmmm…. it says you’re a pharmacist? Then you should know all these things!
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Ask Antaria, according to their homepage they have a list of retailers.
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It’s a soap, it’s supposed to foam, whatcha expect?Try to mix it without producing foam/bubbles or work under vacuum. Sometimes spraying ethanol or the like onto the foam helps bursting all the bubbles but then you’ve got alcohol on/in your soap.
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Why bentonite?That one might actually be/become a problem, less for the balm but more for baby skin. Bentonite is often a paradise for microbes and it’s sometimes difficult to get rid of them. Should you heat treat it, do so with the zinc oxide too as this one might also be contaminated (less likely but since the oven is already running…).
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You did actually make it or not? How did it turn out? If you haven’t, then you should do it, get some more experience and learn something!Formulating cosmetics is an empirical science and probably more of an arcane art than actual chemistry.IMHO your formula is off, too low HLB, wrong choice of emulsifiers for low oil content o/w emulsion.What kind of oil do you use and with what do you plan to preserve your cream?