HOW TO CHOOSE THE RIGHT EMULSIFIER

 

HOW TO SELECT THE RIGHT EMULSIFIER?

Water and oil, the indispensable pair in cosmetics, do not mix with each other as you well know. However, since the 1920s, our emulsifiers have been keeping water and oil components together to create emulsions. The R&D process for emulsion-type skincare products begins with these questions: Which ingredients should I use? What is the right emulsifier to create a stable formula? Having multiple emulsifier options at the hands of R&D experts is a major advantage, while at the same time it makes selection quite complex. If you are among those experiencing this dilemma, you can get out of this confusion by making the right emulsifier selection with the guidance of our expert team. In our distribution portfolio in personal care, Evonik offers approximately 100 types of emulsifiers in the cosmetics market, which can be polyglycerol-based, cationic-based or organo-silicon-based. Through the intoBeauty® [intobeauty.evonik.com] platform, where you can connect by creating your own code, you will be directed to an emulsifier suitable for the criteria you have selected. You can create documentation for your selected emulsifier from the CareTain® Toolbox platform, and from the Sensory Kaleidoscope platform you can experience the desired skin feel in your formulations.

Our Products and Innovations

In addition to all these resources, as different textures emerge and sensory expectations increase, newly developed products with advanced technology gain importance. Among our silicon-based nonionic W/O emulsifiers, ABIL® EM 180 offers you impressive textures with its high temperature stability and extraordinary performance in challenging systems. The new O/W emulsifier ISOLAN® 17 MB, produced with the latest technology, aims to develop your natural cosmetics product formulations with its high performance. TEGO® Care PBS 6 MB, an O/W emulsifier, is a favorite among formulators due to its high performance in stabilizing UV filters, natural content and moisturizing properties. It is suitable for hot and cold process product manufacturing in various forms such as creams, lotions and sprays. Symbio®muls GC MB from Dr. Straetmans products added to our portfolio is an O/W emulsifier blend that is PEG-free, RSPO certified and enables the development of market products by contributing to the reduction of preservative levels in the formula. It is suitable for manufacturing products with light and silky skin feel in various viscosities such as creams, lotions and body butters. In addition to the products mentioned above, Table 1 showing the molecular weight and HLB values of all our emulsifiers is a very important and practical resource that can guide you in emulsifier selection. The increase in the molecular weight of the emulsifier is the most important indicator of increased stability performance. The shapes and colors around the numbers in Table 1 indicate the structure and content of the emulsifier. At the same time, depending on the type of finished product you want to make (e.g., cream, lotion, spray), you can easily find which emulsifier you should choose in this table.

Table 1. Emulsifier Selection Guide

New & Natural Emulsifier from Evonik: Push Your Boundaries with ISOLAN® 17

ISOLAN 17, a natural-content liquid emulsifier suitable for both cold and hot process types that allows the design of cream, lotion and spray applications, can be used by various production equipment in different production facilities. As you will see in Table 1, while silicon-based emulsifiers are more successful in stability, ISOLAN® 17 offers a natural alternative solution to silicon emulsifiers thanks to its high molecular weight. This emulsifier, compatible with all types of cosmetic oils, is able to tolerate difficult components such as high amounts of oils, urea, natural preservatives and electrolytes in the system. At the same time, it successfully disperses inorganic pigments and UV filters, enabling the design of formulations with high-content inorganic pigments and UV filters. In the comparison shown in Table 2, ISOLAN® 17 demonstrates extraordinary performance by outperforming all other tested oleo-based emulsifiers. Didem Ayşe Alabaz - Technical Product Specialist - Ravago Chemicals Turkey

Table 2. Performance comparison according to oleo-based criteria in challenging systems.

In the comparison shown in Table 3, ISOLAN® 17 gave similar results to some other silicon-based emulsifiers tested. From this we can understand that ISOLAN® 17 is a natural alternative solution to silicon-based emulsifiers.

Table 3. Performance comparison according to silicon-based criteria in challenging systems.