, do you think adding Optiphen o

2021/05/21

And, do you think adding Optiphen or some other preservative would solve the problem? I would be happy to get just a few weeks, non-refrigerated. curlmix archinard mskay I suspect it is made in a cosmetics formulating lab, which is a very controlled environment.A broad-spectrum preservative is best for longer shelf lives. I wanted to let you know I did figure it out and in case someone else has the same issue I wanted to post what happened!

Thank you! If you were making it as a cosmetic product, it requires the highest recommended amount of a preservative that is compatible with anionic ingredients. Could you advise me? Hello,I admit I've never commented on a blog/youtube before. Keeping your gel of the light (all light- store it in a dark place) will help the preservatives work best. Even rinse out your bottles with alcohol or bleach - and then rinse them clean with distilled water or tap water you've boiled and then cooled. How would I go about preserving this and which would be best? Rosemary oil?Yours,Dali. If you are making a total of 100 grams of gel and you're using 1g of preservative, to assure the full 1% preservative concentration, you would use 99 grams of gel + 1 gram of preservative.But when you're dealing with such small amounts and simple formulas, using 100g of gel with 1 g of preservative won't move the total percentage of preservative all that much.But let's say your product had 30 grams of "other ingredients." Of course I always refrigerate it. Here is a link to a post about cleaning bottles for your homemade gel. Contaminated flaxseed gel has the advantage of becoming cloudy at low contamination levels. Those do not need to be listed on the label. Flax gel with herbal extracts and gelatin is an extreme challenge for preservation because all those ingredients will go bad easily. These compromises are never taken lightly.The most gentle (to the eyes) preservative in this blog post, Polyaminopropyl biguanide, 0.5%, does not work in flaxseed gel, it turns it cloudy- and when you see an interaction like that - you must assume the preservative has probably been inactivated.0.2% Potassium sorbate + citric acid + 0.2% EDTA (+ Vitamin E if you use oils in the product) may give you a 2, maybe 3 week shelf life if all utensils are sterilized and is not too likely to cause skin problems unless one has a sensitivity to Potassium sorbate. I like hair spray now and then. Like "Silverion 2400" from Lotioncrafter. "-Usually additives are added when the hot phase has cooled below 110F. Hello again,I was a faithful user of the old Aubrey B-5 Design Gel, and mixed it as needed with Dr. Bronner's styling creme. And make it last outside refrigerating for a week or in the refrigerator.

Of the two above - keeping products in the dark - opaque bottles or out of light will help the preservatives work best.Pronunciation cannot be an issue. Updated May 2016 Low porosity hair is not necessarily difficult hair or problem hair. vitamin E and 33% grapefruit seed extract (and just read on your blog that neither of these is particularly effective). Those can benefit from stabilizers like EDTA, but there are others like Sodium gluconate. http://www.lotioncrafter.com/silverion-2400.html You use just a several drops for an 8 oz bottle of gel - so you would need very little for your mini-batch of hair gel. I want to be able to make my own leave in conditioner and hair gel to sell to customers at my zero waste website. I make FSG with distilled water & keep in the fridge. Hello D,In the US, you can buy Sodium Hydroxymethylglycinate or "Suttocide A" online from Ingredients To Die For, Essential Wholesale, Florida Natural Supply. Has a low EWG rating.Thanks so much for your advice! A very high proof ethanol will work for sterilizing also. Test kits can be purchased (Makingcosmetics.com sells one), and some cosmetic formulating labs can test that for you. I cant make it last I need to add preservatives so my question is what preservatives can I use for my gel that is gentle enough children. Hello! Is minimally processed.3. The use of EDTA, which chelates metallic ions can therefore be of assistance in the inhibition of benzene formation. If you want to add preservative, a really simple one is Silver citrate + citric acid. Trish, Essential oils and teas will contain some of the same "active ingredients" - but probably in very different concentrations because for an essential oil - the oils are extracted from the plant. Once a product is dry in the hair, bacteria that can't survive drying out are no longer a problem. Your best bets are probably Phenoxyethanol, Caprylyl Glycol and Sorbic Acid (sold as Optiphen Plus or Phenoxyethanol SA), or Gluconolactone and Sodium benzoate (usually sold as a combination product) for what you are hoping to achieve, using preservatives that don't score too high with websites like EWG.The more "natural" you go with preservatives, the more preservatives you'll need to combine to get a good shelf-life and the more ingredient interactions you'll likely run into. A gel you plan to sell to customers must include a broad-spectrum preservative for safety's sake. Not sure why they discontinued that one (the B5 design gel) but this one looks pretty good too. Ingredients: filtered water, organic flax seed, organic aloe vera juice, gluconolactone SB.If it's 1 what pH do you think the product should be to not crystalized. If your homemade natural hair gel becomes cloudy, changes color, changes odor or viscosity (thickness, texture), throw it out! If you want to preserve your flax-based or gum-based gels, there are some safe, easy ways to do this. For really sensitive skin, you might try this combination (from the post above): Citric acid (1/8 tsp), potassium sorbate (0.2%), vitamin E (0.2-0.3%), EDTA (disodium or tetrasodium EDTA) at 0.2%. I need the gel to last 1-2 yearsis that even possible with Flaxseed Gel? Any change in smell, texture, separation (separation is a BIG giveaway that your preservative has failed, even subtle separation like a little watery patch), change in clarity is telling you not to use this product. However, because of the potential to form benzene, we recommend that NeoDefend not be used combination with L-Ascorbic Acid (Vitamin C). If you are giving products to other people or selling products, you need to list the ingredients in their full ingredient names so people know exactly what is in there to manage your liability. I made it with gum arabic and xanthan gum. I have some questions if you don't mind:*What's the best way you would recommend to blend flaxseed gel and the preservative in order to prevent any pockets of un-preserved gel? It is very detailed and helpful :) thank you!! (Blender, hand mixer, hand blender etc)*Does using a blender and tools like that change the consistency of the gel permanently? Some brands try to make their products sound more natural by not using proper ingredient names or leaving them out all together. Hello Melissa,I'm going to answer you in the form of links to ingredients. Hello Judy,The preservatives I mentioned are currently used in products made for children commercially. Thanks for the info. I was thinking about using rosemary and thyme essential oils instead of the 'tea' from the herbs. The presence of ascorbic acid and benzoates alone does not lead to the formation of benzene. If you added oils, vitamin E might help them stay un-oxidized. I, also, add about 20 drops of the Neutral Protein Filler to this recipe for added protein (as my hair craves it). A preservative is critical to preventing bacteria or mold growth in liquid products because all that water in the product is necessary for those microbes. Thank you so much. Having said. Sometimes they work because of the preservatives added. And if you make a product to give a friend or family member - please use a preservative. in cream) and my skin doesn't tolerate well preservatives.Also, I have Dehydroacetic Acid, Benzyl Alcohol mix, but when I used it at the concentration of 0.75% in my cream, small whiteheads appeared. Bacteria or fungi can grow, using the sugar and nutrient-rich gel for food, also excreting their metabolic wastes into the gel causing cloudiness, fermentation, changes in thickness and texture and odor. Every bit of our bodies is permeated with bacteria and other critters and without them, we would be weak, sick, malnourished and completely different than we know ourselves to be. But dont count on the preservative in there to protect your product. Also I used a tablespoon of Dr. Bronner's styling creme, which has worked in combination with hair gel for me in the past. What do you recommend? I began with 2 bases, one was flaxseed gel with agave nectar and hydroxyethylcellulose, the other had olive oil added as well. Both should not have any interactions with your ingredients.Your formula will require using the preservative at the higher end of the recommended use because you have multiple challenges to preservation - herbal "tea," and flax gel. W. Hi,Thank you. If the Aloe gets some crystals in it alone - that might be the problem. I dont get that part. Coat the Hair? But others may not be if you just pour hot water over herbs and let them steep. Can I actually preserver the gel 1-2 years?2. Sometimes it would be hours later before I would get back to my product and add the preservative. It is used in very small amounts, but should be compatible with flax gel as long as you do not add any cationic ingredients like hair conditioner. Is this safe? Like up to 6 months? I hope to produce Flaxseed Gel commercially but I am running into a few problems. For 2-3 months, Optiphen Plus with EDTA would be the way to go. I used 15,000 I.U. (38b, lavender), aloe barbadensis leaf juice*, chenopodium quinoa seed extract*, alcohol*, astragalus gummifer gum, leuconostoc/radish root ferment filtrate, xanthan gum, panthenol (vitamin B-5), rosa rubiginosa (Rosa Mosqueta) seed oil*, fragrance, alcohol, citrus grandis (grapefruit) extract, salvia hispanica seed oil* (chia), ascorbic acid (vitamin C), camellia sinensis leaf extract (black tea), hibiscus sabdariffa flower extract, aspalathus linearis extract (rooibos tea), camellia sinensis leaf extract (green tea), citrus limon (lemon) peel oil, rosmarinus officinalis (rosemary) flower/leaf/stem extract*, salvia officinalis (sage) flower/leaf/stem extract*, equisetum hiemale extract (horsetail), tussilago farfara (coltsfoot) leaf extract, aesculus hippocastanum (horse chestnut) extract. I've been looking into making my own detangler out of the following ingredients: marshmallow root, slippery elm bark, aloe Vera juice and an oil of choice. When youre done with your gel, if you wish to re-use the container, wash it well with soap and water (and a bottle brush if you have one), then use diluted bleach or rubbing alcohol (or un-diluted white vinegar) to sterilize. I appreciate it.

I can't remember what these translate into (in percentages) but somewhere between 1/4 and 1/2 teaspoon per 8 oz gel is enough to add a bit of hold and thicken the gel without too much flaking. I'm just getting into the DIY hair care and find it to be a delight. It will be exposed to light and not refrigerated. to mess with your preservation. It may break up the stretchiness a little, but the gel stays pretty thick and viscous.-I have not used Germall Plus with flaxseed gel, so I cannot comment on that.- It's best to let the alcohol dry and evaporate. If your nose is particularly sensitive to the odor of flaxseed gel - adding a fragrance would help also.If your gel isn't made with sterilized equipment (and your hair takes a long time to dry) - then it may be harboring something smelly.It might be worth trying some time when you have nowhere to go to use no products at all in your hair and see how it smells with nothing in it, too. Silver citrate and citric acid (sold as SIlverion) is another option for a "natural" preservative. Thank you! Or does the fridge temperature somehow deactivate the preservative? Keeping the tools and ingredient as sterile as possible assures as little bacteria and mold gets into the product as possible - that helps your preservative have the longest shelf life. If you must "fudge" and use measuring spoons (approximate measurements, you will probably not get exactly this percent using a measuring spoon): Ideally, we subtract the weight of each additive from the total when formulating products (add one gram preservative, subtract one gram gel). W, Howdy,I also want to say thank you for replying to everyone's comments I have found them as informative as the article! Best wishes - WS. You want to use as little as necessary for preservation to avoid skin irritation. Also just wondering if you had heard of this problem. I have the following questions:A) is adding all the additional ingredients a bad idea (is it too much? (I add the gelatin and xanthum gum after it's been strained, and started cooling down. Questions: 1. And as much as you need to keep your product preserved. The Vitamin E can help prevent the oil from going rancid (oxidation), but the gel will spoil at the same rate as without any of these additives - honey might even speed up spoilage, it is also food for bacteria. The water-soluble "ingredients" are not. "Optiphen Plus" is a good choice too, but for such a small batch it could be difficult to weigh out (or measure) just the right amount. Optiphen Plus, Gluconolactone and Sodium benzoate are examples. If so, can you recommend a broad spectrum preservative that won't make flaxseed gel stringy? Today I am having issue with my product crystalizing over time and clogging the trigger sprayer that applies the product.

But, what do you think? Hello I have a questions I just started making my own DIY hair gels for my 1 1/2 year old curly haired son. If you didn't subtract those 30 grams and you added them to the 100 grams of gel (new total =130 grams), the 1g of preservative that was supposed to equal 1% would be present only at 0.75% and in some cases, that could cause preservative failure. It could be a coincidence, but I'm afraid of test it again :PAnyway, maybe mix both of them at smaller concentrations would be better and milder to the skin? After it cools for a while more, I then blend it up to make it a smoother consistency) Thank you for any feedback you can provide. It needs to be compatible with anionic ingredients (check the label).Kinky Curly probably used commercially prepared herbal extracts which are pre-preserved and concentrated. Is a combination of the fewest ingredients possible.5. But it depends on what the problem is. "Extracts" are usually water-based ingredients.Rosemary essential oil (not extract) has antimicrobial and antioxidant activity, but essential oils are not thought of as preservatives. Check out all the "broad spectrum" preservatives and see what the specs are and if they might work for your product. Sodium benzoate is in soda - in aluminum cans, so I'm not sure that's the problem. The color and smell are still good, but I don't dare use it.I have some dermatitis, so I'm wondering what preservative would be the gentlest. If your product goes funky because the measuring was off - don't say I didn't warn you. The aluminum bottles IIput the product in is reacting with something. I'm interested in doing a flaxseed gel with both argon & olive oil. I usually put 4oz in a pour out clear bottle, and then freeze the remainder until I need it. Let me get up on my soapbox for a moment. Leave the bleach or alcohol in there for 20 minutes, shaking several times during the interval. Hello, Once a gel is dried in your hair, it's unlikely that it will be attacked by bacteria or molds and therefore go bad and smell.

Other things to do are store the product out of the light and use bottles with flip-tops so you are not putting your hands into the product to use it. Copyright Wendy MS. Ethereal theme. I don't know whether these ingredients would be available locally, my guess is not - unless there is somebody who makes soaps or lotions locally who might sell some. In my head, I jumped to the conclusion that you were planning to sell the flaxseed gel - that requires a lot more stringent testing because one's liability is higher. Usually when I need to be certain my hair will stay in place - whether up or down. Here is the list of what's not allowed. I prefer to store gels in clear bottles so I can see into the gel - but cover them with dark paper or aluminum foil to keep the light out.If you're putting any oil in your gel, you might add Vitamin E also to keep it from turning rancid. ~W. The previous blog post included information about how oil pre-shampoo treatments work. Vitamin E is an anti-oxidant for the oil phase only.Good luck! Here's what I know and what I think about pH and hair products. Best wishes - Wendy, Howdy! -Blending up the gel does not change the texture permanently. http://www.lotioncrafter.com/neodefend.html. If not, can I use water soluble shea butter and no emulsifier? I like the idea of natural (ie rosemary oil) but saw elsewhere that perhaps rosemary oil was insufficient. W. I know this blog was awhile ago. When diluted in a product, it may not do that - but you'd need to observe the product carefully for that effect when you put it in the 'fridge. Hello,Citric acid adjusts pH, so it may help preservatives work better - most preservatives have a pH range in which they work best. I want it to be organic, cruelty-free, vegan and parabens, sulfate, silicon & chemical-free and and I want it to smell marvelous. I think I looked into that and that's how I got sidetracked. Ascorbic acid is there - but that's quite different. Or can i just add the preservative without subtracting anything?. I have some more in-depth information about using hydrolyzed protein in your hair on this blog - like here and here . Thank you so much for your response! I wanted the gel to function both as a styling aid and as a light leave-in conditioner. Protein 101 - Lots of Basic Information About Using Protein in Hair Products, Oil Pre-Shampoo or Pre-Wash (And how to make it work for YOUR hair), Film Forming Humectants - What They Are and Why You Need Them. * OrganicNatural isolate blend sourced from essential oilsIf you don't mind, can you tell if anything else in that formulation is working in concert with the Leucidal as an antimicrobial or preservative? The product was good stored in the bathroom for a week, but now it has started to create gas and grow like The Blob! I work from home and don't have a lab, I see that the flax-seed gel works great for all types of curly hair and was wondering how I can develop this gel into something that my customers can buy. If you use ingredients such as prepared protein additives, these are pre-preserved. Rancidity can happen to oils (aka oxidation) if you use them. Apologies if this post is a duplicate. We need them to be carefully processed so the active constituents are concentrated and present in exactly the amount it says on the label of the raw ingredient. Therefore, a product containing ascorbic acid and benzoates will not necessarily contain any detectable levels of benzene. Oils Which Ones Soak In vs. I make flaxseed gel using commercial gel. Hello! I haven't tried this product - it's fairly new. I have to order them from hundreds of miles away too.You'd need to sterilize absolutely everything that touches the product with rubbing (isopropyl alcohol 70% or greater) or bleach solution to kill bacteria. And can you please tell me at what point to add a preservative to my process? I hope they will be, otherwise, copy and paste.Make sure you use distilled water (not "spring water" and not tap water). The new gel doesn't work for me particularly well. Grapefruit seed extracts have not been demonstrated to be true preservatives. Good luck - W. Hi. Good luck! If you're adding a conditioner base - you need something compatible with cationics too.Citric acid is a pH adjustor. I recently started making my own flaxseed gel and I absolutely love it. I mean, when I add the preservative at the end, it's hard to mix it, because the gel is thick already.Or should I add more of it - 1%? You can freeze the preserved gel. A word of caution: this preservative is a potential formaldehyde releaser and may irritate skin which is sensitive to formaldehydes. I would like to add a preservative so I can leave on the my bathroom counter. Even with refrigeration to slow down the growth of bacteria and fungi, the mixture will probably start to "go bad" within a week or so.Preservatives only work in products that have very little bacterial or fungal contamination already, they probably can't preserve herbal teas unless 1) all herbs are boiled for 5-10 minutes, 2) All the utensils you use are sterilized in alcohol or bleach solution and 3) you use the maximum recommended (maximum safe level) of preservative. The preservative is reacting with something. My concern is about homemade FSG without preservatives going "bad" on the hair itself. Some of the newer, natural preservatives require 3 preservatives used together to achieve preservation, and you might not want to mess with that.Storage is a concern. Preservative: Optiphen Plus (Phenoxyethanol, Caprylyl glycol and Sorbic acid, 0.5%): This preservative may not work well if you use hydroxyethylcellulose in your gels (it may be rendered less effective). They're diluted, but still working to some extent. If it could inhibit bacteria, it will only inhibit the ones it's in contact with - not throughout the gel.If this sounds like too much work - you can freeze your product in an ice cube tray and thaw a single use (1-2 cubes).