Viscosity chemistry formula how to#
Viscosity chemistry formula skin#

For surfactant systems salt can often be used to adjust the viscosity. The exact ingredients to include in your formula for viscosity adjustment will vary with formulations and depends on how you achieved a certain thickness in the first place. The range will depend on your target viscosity but a 10 - 20% value is not unreasonable. When you are creating your formulations you’ll need to set a viscosity specification. Viscosity is a measure of the rheology and thickness of the formula. This is one for which you’ll frequently have problems in production. Viscosity adjustersĪnother important property for cosmetic products is viscosity. When you are formulating a water containing cosmetic be sure to include an acid and a base in the formula. These ingredients won’t have much impact on the product but they will make it easier in production. The acid will allow for adjusting the pH down and the base will allow for upward adjustment.

Viscosity chemistry formula how to#

Since production won’t want to discard the product they’ll come to you for suggestions on how to “save the batch.” This is where adjustment ingredient come in. Sometimes what happens in production is that the pH of the final batch will be outside the specification range. For example, the pH range for a shampoo might be pH 5.0 - 5.5. Typically, you set a pH range of a half a unit. Also, some preservatives will not work outside a certain pH range.

Viscosity chemistry formula skin#

Safety - Products that are too high or too low in pH may result in burns or skin irritation.

For example, hair conditioners work better when formulated at a pH around 4.0

Performance - some products perform optimally at specific pH ranges.

Chemical changes - if there is a chemical reaction going on in your system it may result in a pH change.

The pH of a system tells you a lot of information such as When this is the case pH is a convenient parameter for which to set a specification. Most personal care and beauty products contain water. The most common specification parameters for most cosmetics formulas are pH and viscosity. The exact characteristics and ranges you include in your specifications will depend on the type of formula you are making, its expected aesthetic and performance characteristics.

As the formulator and product creator it is your responsibility to set the specifications for the formula. The first thing to understand is that every formula will have a range of specifications it needs to achieve for quality control purposes. This is why you need to include ingredients in your formula specifically to adjust production variation. However, in production you won’t have such controls. Your finished formula will have the most reliable characteristics in terms of physical and chemical properties. Under this setting you get the maximum control over everything such as mixing conditions, raw material consistency, and ingredient amounts. When creating cosmetic products in a lab it is easy to have control over the final characteristics of your formula.