Forum Replies Created

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  • Zoya

    Member
    July 1, 2024 at 4:03 pm in reply to: Issues in emulsion

    It’s difficult to give proper solution without knowing the formula… But here’s a few tips you can try: either adding Glyceryl Stearate or Cetyl Alcohol (0,5-2%) - keep in mind, it does change the viscosity of the product- or changing the compositon of your oil phase. I also wouldn’t use that many emulsifiers, usually 2 is enough to have a stable emulsion.

  • Zoya

    Member
    July 1, 2024 at 3:50 pm in reply to: Serum formulation

    Hello. There are a few things I don’t really get: why having that high level of tocopherol in your formula? Niacinamide or Vitamin C? The two behave quite differently. Did you run a stability test? Especially with Vitamin C (it’s not that easy to stabilize). What is your final pH? I would strongly advice adding a good chelating agent. Can you back up the claims for the Serum with appropriate testing? The overall effect of any product on the skin depends on the harmony of all ingredients, and without having it properly tested , it’s difficult to tell.

  • Try adding some Lauryl Glucoside and lower the amount of decyl glucoside you use or keep your formula but use a good grade of xanthan gum instead of salt. Here’s What I would try: Drop the decyl, lower the glycinate to ~ 13%, add some SLSA (~0.5-2%), maybe increase the CAPB if needed, and may add a little extra Lauryl if needed (~1-5%). Recalculate the ASM and adjust the formula to the desired ASM.

  • Zoya

    Member
    May 28, 2024 at 9:46 am in reply to: About Proteol APL

    Usually anionic surfactants foam the best -such as Proteol APL, so one possibility is to reduce the amount of anionic surfactant(s) you use. Another way is to reduce the total ASM. If you use Lauryl Glucoside, it has more stable foam then other nonionic surfactants, therefore it needs more time to wash it off - in that case, you might use less from it or change the nonionic. As Perry said, without the full ingredients, all of theese are general ideas, nothing specific can be said.

  • Zoya

    Member
    May 28, 2024 at 9:32 am in reply to: Need help formulating a clear gel face cleanser

    Hello. It seems to me that you have way too much lamesoft PO, I’m also guessing that Glyceryl Oleate from Lamesoft PO and Hempseed Oil cause the issue. Try samples without them, if those look fine, try lowering the amounts of oily ingredients in the formula. I might suggest a good grade of xanthan gum instead of siligel, in my experience, in a wash-off-product, you can’t really tell the difference between a fancy gum like siligel and a cheaper one such as xanthan.

  • Zoya

    Member
    April 17, 2024 at 9:44 am in reply to: Deodorant stick dries slowly on skin

    Thank you! Around what percentage propylene Glycol should work better? 50-60%? Could I replace it with water or do I need something else?

  • Zoya

    Member
    March 2, 2024 at 1:33 am in reply to: Clear gel formulated with aristoflex silk being sticky

    You might need to adjust the percentages of your ingredients. If one formulation works well with one viscosity modifier, it doesn’t mean that the exact same formulation would work as well with another viscosity modifier. High input of Aristoflex, Glycerin and Xylitol can also leave a sticky feeling on the sikn, so I would start with a knock-out test, cut down on the inputs of theese ingredients, one by one and see how it works. Sometimes only a small change can have a big impact on the overall feeling. If nothing helps, you can change the ingredients or add low amount of sodium Pca, sodium lactate-Lactic acid, etc. to help reducing the tacky feeling.

  • Zoya

    Member
    March 2, 2024 at 12:47 am in reply to: Thickener recommendations for acidic products?

    Sepimax Zen, HMW Hyaluronic Acid, Xanthan (there exist good grades which don’t leave a sticky feeling on the skin), Solagum AX (combination of xanthan and acacia for better skin feel), Caesalpinia Spinosa Gum, to mention a few. 🙂 Sepimax Zen is synthetic, has really great texture and skin feel and can handle low pH and even small concentartion of electrolytes. The others fits well into ‘natural’ formulations, also have great skin feel, they make different textured products than Sepimax. Try them out and see how you like them! 🙂

  • Zoya

    Member
    February 29, 2024 at 11:58 am in reply to: BEST GELLING AGENT FOR BHA SERUM?

    Hello!

    HMW HA, Xanthan Gum (try Xanthan Soft, it doesn’t feel sticky at all) and Sepimax Zen would be your best friends, all of them can handle low pH.

    Have a nice day!

  • Zoya

    Member
    October 14, 2023 at 3:35 am in reply to: Niacinamide Crystals?

    Azelaic acid is poorly soluble in water and with the formula above I’m suspecting it is the one you see crystallizing. As recommended above, make a knock out test, one formula with azelaic acid, without niacinamide, and the other with niacinamide, without azelaic acid. Then, you will be able to tell which one causes the problem. With azelaic acid you probably have to use potent solvents to dissolve it in the water phase or incorporate it in a higher oil-phase containing, more robust emulsion.

  • Zoya

    Member
    October 10, 2023 at 7:35 am in reply to: Disinfectant

    Hello.

    As Phil mentioned, check your country’s regulation and take your other ingredients under consideration, as they may reduce the efficacy of your product . Otherwise, this may be useful: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7132458/

    but there are plenty more articles on this topic.

    Higher concentrations usually sting when applied to a wound, but you probably need higher content of ethanol for proper efficacy, if this is the only desinfectant in your formula.

  • Zoya

    Member
    October 10, 2023 at 7:16 am in reply to: What is this called?

    Hello.

    I’m not completely sure about it, but maybe you are thinking of positive displacement pipettes. ?

  • Zoya

    Member
    October 9, 2023 at 12:31 pm in reply to: Critic my sunscreen formula

    It looks fine to me. Yes, polymerics can be on the pricier side and yes, decreasing them in the emulsion may reduce the stability of the emulsion, but you have to test it, it’s difficult to answer without testing it properly. Sepimax zen has a fresh sensation on the skin, while sepinov emt is ‘more greasy’ in high concentration, in my experience. Reducing them also affects product viscosity, so you should also take this under consideration. Have you also tested it for SPF?

  • Zoya

    Member
    October 5, 2023 at 5:46 am in reply to: How to reduce stickiness of Sodium Hyaluronate in toner.

    Hi,

    If I understand well, nothing else changed in your base formulation which doesn’t stick, neither raw materials nor suplliers or percentages, so you are sure, what you feel is caused by HA.

    In that case: Sodium hyaluronate mol.weight < 10 kDa is less sticky, than higher mol.weights (10-50 kDa, 800-1500 kDa,…). If the CoA doesn’t tell what molecular weight yours is, you better ask the supplier. The smaller mol.weight HA usually pricier. You can change the mol. weight of HA or adjust the percentages of other components in the base for better skinfeel.

  • Zoya

    Member
    August 29, 2023 at 2:14 pm in reply to: Difficulties in working with dispersed pigments

    Hi Lab,

    You may find this useful:

    https://www.ulprospector.com/knowledge/6458/pc-settle-down-factors-that-influence-pigment-settling-and-stability/

    Good luck! 🙂

  • Zoya

    Member
    August 20, 2023 at 6:20 am in reply to: increase viscosity

    You can always try to play around with percentages but without changing raw materials your formula probably won’t function well. As ketchito said, you don’t have enough lubrication without adding esters (or oils). I would switch up at least a part of cetyl alcohol to a waxy ester like cetyl palmitate and also add a little ester in liquid form to reduce rigidity even more (and have Conditioning effect). Cetyl alcohol in 5% gives too much rigidity to your formula and can also lead to stability issues.

  • Zoya

    Member
    June 24, 2024 at 1:59 am in reply to: Salicylic acid mild face wash

    in my experiences, for building viscosity of a Salicylic Acid system, the best option is xanthan gum. Most of the polymers and many of the gums don’t stand that low pH for a long time period. Also, if you increase the pH of your system, they wouldn’t stand the electrolytes. I’d skip the acrylate and use xanthan gum alone. I’d also change the isethionate to another surfactant that can stand low pH, as it’s usually not stable under pH 5.5, as mentioned above. Try something like sodium cocoyl glutamate, if you don’t mind that it can’t build viscosity with CAPB and salt, but can stand this low pH and can be paired with xanthan gum. You can also use Sodium Lauroyl Sarcosinate at this low pH or Glucosides combined with amphoterics.

  • Zoya

    Member
    June 22, 2024 at 5:31 am in reply to: Preserving botanical extract

    Thank you very much, Phil! I’ll just skip it then and do the tests without.

  • Zoya

    Member
    June 22, 2024 at 5:14 am in reply to: Preserving botanical extract

    Hello Phil. Thanks for the quick answer. 🙂 The solvent is Propylene Glycol which contains ~2% water. Nothing else is added (except the preservative that I would like to incorporate at 1%).

  • Zoya

    Member
    May 28, 2024 at 2:39 am in reply to: Precipitation and gel incompatibility salicylic acid serum

    Hello Mark! Could you please tell me what’s the reason of the incompatibility between HMWHA (~1000-1500 kDa) and Xanthan Gum and how should it look like? I’m curious, because I have used both of them in different tests and they seem to be fine together, but maybe it needs some more time to show and more testing. I’ve also used this combination (HMWH/xanthan gum) in a low pH formulation, and that was the only time I saw that something wasn’t right, beacuse most part of the serum became thick, jelly-like after a few months, and there was also a little part of liquidy something at the bottom of the container. The pH stayed constant though through the whole testing. I’m suspecting the HA and starting the knock-out tests now. Any explanation or idea would be appreciated. 🙂 Thanks!

  • Zoya

    Member
    May 28, 2024 at 1:49 am in reply to: Deodorant stick dries slowly on skin

    Thank you, Matt! I definetly try your suggestions. I think maybe decyl glucoside was the reason I needed more Sodium Stearate (because it can make the formula thinner). I’ll play around with the PG/water ratio and leave out the glucoside.

  • Zoya

    Member
    March 8, 2024 at 4:50 am in reply to: Distributor for Sodium Stearoyl Glutamate (EU)?

    Thanks for the tip graillotion, I check it out! 🙂

  • Zoya

    Member
    March 8, 2024 at 12:22 am in reply to: Distributor for Sodium Stearoyl Glutamate (EU)?

    Thank you so much, ozgirl. 🙂 I actually ordered from them a few times, but the shipping cost is a bit high to me, that’s why I’m searching for possible alternatives (all I could find in EU yet is 10 kg MOQ which is too much for me)

  • Zoya

    Member
    October 9, 2023 at 12:35 pm in reply to: Alcohol soluble fixatives (for perfumes)

    Thank you Chemicalmatt. 🙂

  • Zoya

    Member
    October 5, 2023 at 7:24 am in reply to: Alcohol soluble fixatives (for perfumes)

    Thank you, fareloz 🙂

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