Скачать или смотреть What Are Emulsifiers?

When looking at ingredients on your moisturizing or cream product labels, do you ever see water and oils in them and wonder how all of the ingredients are held together? The answer is emulsifiers! They’re in almost every formula and are a crucial ingredient category when learning to formulate because choosing the right one will determine the texture and feel of your finished product. If you’re just getting started, check out our How To Start Formulating Part 1 post!

Emulsifiers' main purpose is to bind the oils and water and all of the ingredients in your formula together to keep them stable. They not only stabilize but also add their own unique feel to your products. When picking an emulsifier you have to keep some key points in mind

What texture and feel am I going for? Thick? Thin?
Are you using an anionic surfactant? This means you have to steer clear of cationic emulsifiers
What type of product are you trying to make? Serums typically need a thinner emulsifier to keep that light feel you want

How to choose an emulsifier:

There are a couple of common emulsifiers to choose from but the main three we’ll be going into include emulsifying wax NF, BTMS-50, and Olivem 1,000.

Emulsifying wax NF is a great beginner wax that stabilizes and adds decent moisturizing qualities. It’s great at thickening creams and is typically used at 2-25% but we recommend no more than 10% which is perfect if you want a heavier creamy feel. We would recommend this emulsifier with those who have dry skin or want to feel like they have just lotioned.

BTMS-50 is the wax you want to grab when you need something moisturizing that provides slip in your product. This emulfiser is cationic so you can’t use it with anything anionic so keep this into consideration when formulating. You don’t want to have a failed formula! This emulsifier is amazing in hair conditioning products and for dry skin. Its recommended usage rate is at 1-10%.

Olivem 1,00 is an nonionic emulsifier that is considered hypoallergenic. It provides slip and doesn't give a soapy effect that the other waxes give. Soapiness refers to the white streaks that you might encounter when trying to rub a cream into your skin. Olivem 1,00 is used at 3-8% in formulations but you should play around with percentages to see what you like. This emulsifier is great if you have oily or acne prone skin. It has a lighter feel that shouldn’t leave you feeling clogged or greasy.

These choices are totally dependent on personal preferences that you will find with trial and error. Our personal favorite is BTMS-50 but we reach for emulsifying wax NF when working with anionic surfactants. These are the emulsifiers we’ve worked with but there are plenty more below (some of these are also considered solubilizers which we’ll get into at another time)

If you’re trying to make a cream we recommend these emulsifiers to get that creamy feel:

BTMS-25
BTMS-50
Emulsifying wax NF
Olivem 1000
Olivem 300
Polawax
Ritamulse SCG

For a more gel-like consistency we recommend…

GelMaker NAT
Sodium Carbomer
Xanthan gum
Guarcat

Want to learn more? Check out our more in-depth post on our blog! https://brooklynrooftopbotanicals.com...

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