There are 1001 ways to disperse and incorporate a gum in a formulation (well not exactly that much but there are several ways) and there is no absolute right or wrong method. There is always the best way that enables us to get the most from the gum or to spare time or to improve performance and that "best way" may vary depending on the gum, the formulation, the instruments you are using or the batch size. It seems really disappointing when the answer to your question: "what is the best way" is a completely non-satisfying "it depends" but it is really so and the method that may perfectly work for one gum may completely fail or at least not be that great for another gum.
We have been working on different methods on gum dispersion (again) during the last week and have shared some of our experiments on social media.
Today, we chose to create a barrier protection emulsion with avocado oil and to try another gum dispersion method. If you have followed our tutorials you have seen that we usually disperse the gum in the warm or cold water phase (again, it depends on the gum and process) and let it hydrate for something between 20-45 minutes (you guess : it depends on the gum). But in this certain formulation and in this tutorial we have dispersed a blend of the gum+glycerine directly in the hot emulsion right after homogenization. This spares us a lot of time without any negative impact on the stability or the viscosity (stay tuned for the report about our experiments). The formulation is almost KISS and the procedure is straightforward yet the emulsion has an outstanding skin feel and with all the goodies such as
and murumuru butter it nourishes and hydrates the skin and protects the barrier.
You certainly can prepare the formulation and disperse the gum directly in the water phase or in the oil phase. The outcome will however slightly be different. I recommend you try different methods of gum dispersion in a KISS formulation and compare the results. Often you can distinguish the difference even without a viscometer.
Formulation:
| Phase A | Dosage |
|---|---|
| Distilled or deionized water | to 100,0% |
| Aquaxyl | 2,0% |
| Chelator PA3 | 0,1% |
| Na-citrate | 0,5% |
| Phase B | |
| Natural emulsifier GSC POF | 5,0% |
| Avocado oil | 13,0% |
| Olive squalane | 2,0% |
| Green silicone alternative | 1,0% |
| Murumuru butter | 3,0% |
| Triheptanoin | 2,0% |
| Tocopherol | 0,3% |
| Phase C | |
| Glycerine | 3,0% |
| Solagum AX | 0,4% |
| Phase D | |
| D-panthenol | 1,0% |
| Cross-linked hyaluron | 2,0% |
| Phase E | |
| Bakuchiol | 0,5% |
| Liq vit C | 0,5% |
| Phase F | |
| No-Kons PA20 | 1,0% |
| Green mandarine oil | 1,0% |
| Lactic acid | to reduce the pH |
Procedure:
Procedure:
1- Blend phase A and B in separate heat-proof beakers
2- Heat phase A and B in a water bath between 82-85 C
3- Emulsify the oil phase in the water phase
4-Disperse the gum+glycerine in the still hot emulsion
5- Start cooling down while stirring
6- When the temperature reaches under 50 C add the sensitive phases (Phase D and E)
7- When the emulsion reaches the room temperature prepare a 10% dilution and measure the pH. In our case it was 6,8.
8- Reduce the pH by adding lactic acid. If you are making this formulation for the first time add the lactic acid gradually and measure the pH in between.
9-Add the preservative and the essential oil.
10- Prepare another dilution of the emulsion and measure the pH. In our case it was 5,27. We are aiming for a pH between 4,9-5,5.
11- Take the stability and micro kit samples and fill the rest in a suitable container
You can watch the video here
