What's going on in our lab this week?

Hey everyone
Hope you are enjoying the October with all its beautiful color shades.

We have been testing an awesome ingredient during the last weeks (even if yo don't hear from us it doesn't mean we are not doing anything) and today I want to introduce it to you

Drumroll!!!!

Here is our PG-4 caprate (Polyglyceryl-4 caprate) and awesome solubilizer/emulsifier which has a NOI of 1 and is palm-free.

This is a colorless liquid as you can see in the above photo and we have been using it to create awesome cleansing balms, peeling balms and bars and bath truffles.

It is the more polar brother of the PG-4 oleate which we have been selling for years and its after rinse skin feel is like magic. It works at a very low concentration (we use is 7-8%) most of the time.

Now with the cold months on the Northern hemisphere, the skin needs more pampering and substantial care and many people with a dry skin turn to cleansing balms instead of cleansing gels and foams and as much as they protect the skin, the after-feel is sometimes really annoyingly greasy. With the PG-4 caprate this will not happen. Apart from the seasonal preferences, waterless (and free from preservative) cleansers are extremely popular these days.

So if you are going to produce lots of cleansing balms and scrubs and bath truffles for the winter and the Christmas (or all through the year), this is the product you need to test and use.

If you are confused about the oil polarity you can enroll to the replay of our masterclass here:

We are going to share some formulations with you in the coming weeks but for today I have chosen this beautiful KISS cleansing balm.

Look how juicy it is. It looks like a scoop of lemon ice cream and has such a lovely, velvety texture above and beyond your imagination.

The formulation is really simple. We are using the Emogreen C69 for its non-greasy skin feel but you can replace it with any heat-resistant oil. The G2B (Glyceryl dibehenate) improves the thermal stability of the balm yet it imparts a juicy texture. It needs however a high temperature for complete melting. The balm reaches its final texture within 3 days so do nut judge the texture immediately. The prolonged process will reduce the risk of graininess which is the nightmare of many formulators.

Procedure:

1- Melt phase A between 85-90 C

2- Blend phase B in another vessel

3- When phase A is completely melted add phase B and start cooling while stirring.

4- The balm reaches the final texture in about 3 days. You can whip it or fill it as it is in suitable containers