r/DIYBeauty

Hello everyone,
I would appreciate an answer from someone with expertise in this area.
How can I prepare a 1-liter emulsion consisting of 200 grams of Dimethicone 350 and 800 grams of water?
What emulsifiers would be suitable for this system, and what amounts should I use for a 1-liter trial batch?
Please note that I have already carried out many experiments using different emulsifiers with relatively high HLB values, but the main problem is that the formulation separates after one or two days.

As a formulator, I'm constantly impressed (and not always in a good way) to see how much time, work, and paperwork goes into every formula.

Monday being Monday, and just found out a bunch of ingredients are about to expire, I wanted to talk about what annoys me (apart from my poor organization skills) with making skincare. What about you?

I've decided to make my own gently exfoliating shampoo as currently no other shampoo is quite satisfying. I'm staying away from fragrance and extracts in skincare, but the frag free hair care products are quite literally bare bones formulas - harsh (sulfates or glucosides), without any antistatic ingredients (hair gets super tangled) or without any acids (my oily scalp needs some regularly). So far im using a toner before washing my hair, but its annoying and unnecessary when I can just make a shampoo that does it all.

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Has anyone worked with LHA (Capryolyl salicylic acid)? It's oil soluble, but supposedly also dissolves in glycols. However, I'm getting contradicting information from different places to buy. In one place it says to not heat it above 40 degrees Celsius and another place says to heat it to 40-50 as it can be hard to dissolve otherwise... It's L'oreal patented ingredient, so from my understanding it should be the same product.

The formulation I had come up with was this:

Water q.s.

CAPB 20% (main surfectant. gentle for my skin)

Propanediol 3-5% (to dissolve the LHA and extra hydration)

Polysorbate 20 3-5% (to further stabilize the LHA and propanediol mix as well as increase the cleansing and rinsing off properties of CAPB)

LHA 0.5% (could match ~2% regular salicylic acid in strength)

Aquaxyl 2-3% (for extra hydration for scalp)

Biosaccharide gum-1 1-2% (thickener and extra hydration)

A Polyquart or Guar 0.1% (for antistatic and softness)

PE 1% (preservative)

Lactic acid q.s. to pH 5-5.5

I am dead set on CAPB as most surfectants dry my skin out, especially SLES and glucosides, and I dont have good experience when formulating with the super gentle kinds - Sodium Cocoyl Isethionate for example. As it tends to leave a weird residue on my hair (low porosity is maybe the reason for that, but I digress) and is quite alkaline, so I have to use ungodly amounts of lactic acid to neutralise it and at that point it ends up being an AHA product, which irritates my scalp.

I'm not dead set on the aquaxyl and biosaccharide gum, but I thought I might as well add some extra hydration for the scalp. Despite my skin being oily leaning, it's dehydrated.

I also have panthenol and saccharide isomerate on hand which supposedly has better hydrating qualities in wash off products, but I have yet to try it out. Oh! And i have HEC (the coated kind) and Xanthan gum as another option for a thickener.

Anything I'm missing? Percentages are off? What are your thoughts, please help!

Hey everyone!

I absolutely loveeee the smells of Dedcool Xtra Milk and the Riddle oil. However, I really don’t want to spend that much money on body oil, laundry detergent, perfume, etc. I’ve been making my own body and home products for awhile and would really like to find a fragrance oil or a combination of fragrance oils that match that same ambery musk scent. Does anyone have any recommendations of good dupes or fragrance oil combinations that would get me close to those smells?

As the title says, what product did you do as your first project in your formulation journey?

Would like to hear some of your insights, might help me as I plan to do formulation projects in the future. TIA

I'm a 4th year student doing my thesis/feasibility study using a plant based pigment for lip products. And we are already done with our pre-oral defense, and I realized too late that our product has a lot of problems like water+oil is not compatible so there is a tendency it will separate though we use emulsifier but as a student that my course or program isn't related to science, we lack of knowledge and expertise about our feasibility study. Though my countless efforts to search for a possibility on how formulators solve their stability of their natural pigment/formulation on their product. I didn't find a single clue on how they prolong its pigment, since its plant based there is a tendency it will fade. Though I know not all pigment won't fade because upon watching a luxury bag its color will likely fade if you leave it in high temperature or direct sunlight. So anyway back to the topic, I need your advice on how I make or solve our feasibility study. Because I need to graduate this school year. And I'm already stressed and overthinking that I might not graduate this year. And I need your opinion, Whoever reads this is it okay that your product in feasibility study is not perfect? Because as a scholar student that has no resources for this kind of feasibility study, I felt helpless and I don't know what to do. I hope those natural plant based formulators will read this and guide me on how to make our study successful. Thank you and God bless! And God please help me and guide me on how I make my thesis successful or at least I graduated this year so that I could help my parents! AMEN!🙏

I typically use sepimax zen when using small amounts of electrolytes, but recently I’ve been introducing heavier electrolyte loads and the sepimax zen doesn’t seem to be able to handle that much. Adding xanthan gum does help, but too much does feel gross. I’ve read that a combination of xanthan gum and sclerotium gum feels nice though. Just wondering what gelling agents you all like to use when formulating with a heavy electrolyte load.

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Distilled water - 1000 grams

carbopol 940 - 1 heaping tbsp

Triethanolamine - 10 ml

Pure glycerin tsp (3 g)

Original recipe said to use (but i can't get it easily at all) methyl paraben 1.5g

It says in the wiki [here](https://www.reddit.com/r/DIYBeauty/wiki/suppliers) that Alibaba and AliExpress have “an extensive selection of raw ingredients but they are sourced from China. There is a chance that those ingredients are adulterated, fake or tainted with lead or mercury.” But how do we know any of the western suppliers are any better? From what I can tell, they all only test the first batch and rely on the CoA from the manufacturer. Well that seems pretty simple to time if one of the manufacturers wanted to send some bad batches. I’m having a hard time placing an order not knowing who it comes from or how legit it is

Does anyone have a favorite vendor for jars and vessels? I’m looking for an elevated amber set with lotion bottles and spray bottles. I love some of the bamboo accented I find on Amazon, but their prices aren’t the best for larger quantities.

I made a sulfonate and betaine shampoo for curly hair but it did not thicken enough with sodium chloride. I would like to thicken it without affecting its performance if possible.

Aqua q.s

Disodium EDTA 0.2%
Guar HPTC 0.3%
Glycerin 1%
AOS powder 92% 5.5%
CAPB 45% 13%

Pq7 10% 2%
PEG7 GC 3%
Sweet almond oil 0.2%
Fragrance 0.6%
Euxyl PE9010 1%
Aloe vera extract 0.1%

Target pH: 5-5.5

EDIT I tried adding 0.3% guar gum and I did not notice any difference

I'm looking for a good emulsifier certified by cosmos and eco etc, I found Lanette N, cutina GMS SE

But I never tried them

What would you recommend ?

I teach special education and we are looking at making some basic skincare stuff during our vocaitional training class. I've been experimenting with homemade body butter, but no matter what I try, it is coming out greasy.

I sourced my ingredients off of Amazon for the initial test, will probably start using Bulk Apothecary as I replenish. Here is my current recipe:

41g shea butter (currently using unrefined, not a fan of the strong smell, so will be switching to refined when I run out)
41g mango butter (the site I used said this is the last greasy of butters)
1/4 cup Jojoba oil (Just ran out, and am considering playing with sweet almond or grapeseed, but from what I read jojoba is the most popular)
2 tsp of arrowroot powder (this is upped form the recipe calling for 1.5 tsp)

Melt shea and mango butters in a double broiler, mix jojoba oil and arrowroot powder. When butters are melted, combine ingredients. I've been using refrigerator/freezer to cool them. I have tried fork whipping and using a mixer. I've been experimenting with different levels of firmness when whipping. I currently have a batch cooling on the counter to see how it does when left to cool overnight, which will probably be the best setup for my classroom anyway as my vocational class is only an hour and a half and it appears to need more time to get to firm but not solid in the freezer/fridge than what the recipe suggests. (And we'll be making much larger batches.)

I want to keep the ingredients list small and the recipe easy. I am working with students with very high support needs and the current recipe is one they could do with very little support once they learn it, which is my goal. I'm not opposed to adding water as it appears the commercially available ones have water, but I have also heard that leads to spoilage/bacteria. I'm not opposed to adding ingredients/preservatives, but want to keep the list small and want to keep the price down as much as possible, we have a limited budget. I am new to this, so any and all tips are appreciated!

this might be a stupid question, but i’m trying to mix vaseline with vollufuline and baby oil, but i can’t figure out to actually mix it all together. i’ve seen people say to melt the vaseline and mix the. freeze, but isn’t this unsafe as of the plastic? can anyone help? thank you!!

I'm a newbie to DIY and I'm trying to make a hair conditioner. I'm wanting to follow this conditioner recipe from MakingCosmetics for sensitive skin.

However, the recipe calls for Isoeicosane which is out of stock at MakingCosmetics, and LotionCrafters doesn't seem to sell it.

Is there an alternative to this ingredient that would work for sensitive skin? If not, would it be fine to leave it out until I can get some in the future? Thanks in advance!

-Just to give you some background these are overnight lip masks attached to a cloth, so these are worn 8 hours overnight. Im worried I over preserved it and with consistent use its going to attach a irritation, here are both formulas:

Formula A:

• Water — 68.37%
• Glycerin — 8%
• Sodium Polyacrylate — 5.5%
• PVP — 4%
• Pentylene Glycol — 3%
• Trehalose — 2%
• Squalane — 2%
• Panthenol — 1.5%
• Sodium Hyaluronate — 1%
• Hydrolyzed Collagen — 1%
• Phenoxyethanol — 0.90%
• Polysorbate 80 — 0.60%
• Sodium Citrate — 0.55%
• Bisabolol — 0.30%
• Tocopherol — 0.30%
• Citric Acid — 0.25%
• Allantoin — 0.20%
• Tartaric Acid — 0.20%
• Disodium EDTA — 0.18%
• Aluminum Glycinate — 0.15%

Formula B:

• Water — 68.02%
• Glycerin — 8%
• Sodium Polyacrylate — 5.5%
• PVP — 4%
• Pentylene Glycol — 3%
• Trehalose — 2%
• Squalane — 2%
• Panthenol — 1.5%
• Sodium Hyaluronate — 1%
• Hydrolyzed Collagen — 1%
• Phenoxyethanol — 0.85%
• Polysorbate 80 — 0.70%
• Sodium Citrate — 0.55%
• Bisabolol — 0.30%
• Tocopherol — 0.30%
• Ethylhexylglycerin — 0.30%
• Citric Acid — 0.25%
• Allantoin — 0.20%
• Tartaric Acid — 0.20%
• Disodium EDTA — 0.18%
• Calcium Gluconate — 0.15%

These are individually packed, so theres no risk of contamination that way, so I feel like I can get away with less preservatives, what do you guys I recommend, and any other way to improve these formulas?

And what do you guys think about in Formula B, using Calcium Gluconate instead of Aluminum Gluconate? Everyone recommended aluminum glycinate but a lot of my friends say ''Remove aluminum or I won't use it''?

Looking for someone who is able to supply organic shea butter. Large quantity needed.