BASIC KNOWLEDGE & UNDERSTANDING OF HOW TO MAKE EMULSIONS

Feb 17
5 min read

Updated: Jul 21

Emulsions are made with water. Emulsions improve the sensory feel of products. Anhydrous products tend to feel too greasy. All the information given here pertains to emulsions (lotions, creams, body butters, etc.), not anhydrous products that do not contain water.

To form emulsions, you’ll need the following:

WATER PHASE

Water to 100% after all other ingredients are added up

Glycerin 3-5% Total, more than this can feel sticky/tacky

Xanthan Gum .1-2% Total

Disodium EDTA .2-.5% Total

chelating agent that binds to metal ions, preservative booster. This is an essential part of the preservative “system”

OIL PHASE 10-20% Total

depending on how thick you want your emulsion

You need 2 thickeners/stabilizers.

Cetyl alcohol at least 2% up to 4% to make it rich/buttery.

Xanthan Gum is the other but, put that into the water phase, mixed w/glycerin to avoid agglomeration (fish eyes). This does NOT count as part of the oil soluble ingredients but it is one of the thickener/stabilizers that you need for an emulsion.

Choose oils that have at least 1 year shelf life

For oily skin, choose these oils: hazelnut, jojoba, squalane, macadamia.

For normal skin, choose these oils: squalane, fco, rice bran, sweet almond.

For dry skin, choose these oils: apricot kernel, rice bran, meadowfoam, avocado, cocoa butter, shea butter.

For face oils, don't use butters, it's a bit too greasy.

When formulating face creams specifically for oily skin: Use 6% oils

When formulating face creams specifically for normal skin: Use 6-10% oils

When formulating face creams specifically for dry skin and also body butters/lotions: Use 10-20% oils or even higher for extremely dry skin.

Emulsifiers: Use these at 25% of your oil phase. Simply add up all the oil soluble ingredients (this includes oil soluble ingredients in the cool down phase, not just the oil phase) and divide that total by 4 to give you 25%. So, if you have 20% oil soluble ingredients, you’ll use 5% total emulsifiers. The minimum emulsifier % you should use is 3%, max % you should use is 7%, regardless of your total oil %. Don’t go below or above those %. If you get a total that’s below 3%, round up. If you get a total that’s above 7%, round down to 7% because that’s the max usage rate on emulsifiers.

You need at least 2 stable emulsifiers OR a blend like Natragem EW, CreamMaker Wax 118 or Ewax NF.

Beeswax and Cetyl Alcohol are NOT emulsifiers, they are thickeners.

If you want to use Ewax instead of Natragem EW or CreamMaker, make sure the chemical makeup has at least Cetearyl Alcohol (and) Polysorbate 60 in the inci.

All ewaxes are not the same.

Vitamin E: 0.1% Total goes into the oil phase, not the cool down phase. Vitamin E is an antioxidant, NOT a preservative

Don’t use Lecithin as a thickener/emulsifier as it can deactivate some preservatives & has some stability issues.

COOL DOWN PHASE 5% Total

This includes fragrance oils, essential oils (that are considered oil soluble so you would count this % along with your oil phase or oil soluble ingredients), volatile/sensitive ingredients, penetration enhancers, preservatives.

For the scent .3% Total for facial products, 1% Total for body products. Please check the IFRA for each individual scent (EO or FO)

Volatile Ingredients include peptides, anti aging, antioxidants, liposomes, vitamins, extracts, some AHA’s, hydrolized proteins, heat sensitive oils (those w/iodine values higher than 100). Some examples would be apricot kernel, black cumin, black currant, borage, camelina, chia see, cottonseed, cranberry seed, cucumber seed, elderberry, evening primrose, flaxseed, hempseed, grapeseed, kiwi seed, kukui nut, passionfruit seed, perilla seed, pomegranate seed, poppyseed, prickly pear, pumpkin seed, raspberry seed, rosehip, safflower, sea buckthorn, sesame, soybean, strawberry seed, sunflower, tomato seed, walnut, wheatgerm.

Preservative: protect against gram -, gram +, yeast, mold & fungi. Natural preservatives aren’t effective. One preservative “system” would include a chelator @ .3% + phenoxyethanol @ 1% + sodium benzoate @ .3%.

ALL 3 need to be combined for them to work efficiently. PH has to be reduced to 4.5-5 ph for the sodium benzoate to work properly.

In order to eliminate obstacles in the way of your preservative reaching the water to protect it and do it’s job, DON’T use milks, fruits, botanicals, lecithin, hydrosols, teas, mineral water, honey, aloe vera, extracts, protein powders, starches, and especially clays. These are all VERY hard to preservative. If you use them at all, use them at a very low % like 0.1%.

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Using the above information as our guide, here’s a sample of a basic emulsion (lotion) for Normal Skin

WATER PHASE:

Water 74.23% (we added all ingredient totals, subtracted that # from 100, what was left is your water amount)

Disodium EDTA .2%

Glycerin 5%

Xanthan Gum .2%

OIL PHASE (13.1% oil soluble ingredients, included are the oil soluble EO’s in the cool down phase):

Rice Bran 4%

Sweet Almond 6%

Vitamin E .1%

Cetyl Alcohol 2%

Emulsifying Wax NF 3.27% (25% of 13.1 oil soluble ingredients)

Remember if our calculation for the emulsifier fell below 3% we would round up to 3%. If our calculation went over 7%, we would round down to 7%. Emulsifier(s) should be no less than 3% and no more than 7%. That pertains to stand alone emulsifiers as well as individual(s) that make up the emulsifying portion of the oil phase.

COOL DOWN PHASE (5% total):

Orange EO .2%

Sandalwood EO .5%

Rosewood EO .3%

Phenoxyethanol 1%

Sodium Benzoate .3% effective in pH up to 5.5

Hydrolyzed Silk Protein 1.9%

Chamomile Extract .1%

1% Hyaluronic Acid Stock .7% (this gives you 0.07% of actual HA in the product)

Method:

1) Add disodium edta to water in a heat safe beaker. Weigh entire beaker with those ingredients. Write down that number so that you can add more water back into the water phase.

*tip I heat/hold extra water while I am heating/holding my main water. I will include any water amount that was lost due to evaporation, before combining water/oil phase, as I really don't know how much I'm going to lose in evaporation. Alternatively, you could add 10% more water to the beaker right at the start and then adjust later if necessary. Don’t skip this step, you WILL lose water to evaporation.

2) Mix xanthan gum with glycerin to make a slurry. Set aside.

3) Combine all ingredients in Oil Phase in a heat safe beaker.

4) Place the Water phase into a water bath 1st because you’ll want to heat to 176° and hold for 20 minutes. Roughly 12 minutes into heating/holding your water phase, place the oil phase into the water bath to melt all ingredients.

It is suggested that you don’t allow the beakers to touch the bottom of the pan. Use a trivet or metal cooling rack or even a small towel (that you don't mind getting wet/hot) on the bottom of the pan for the beakers to sit on top. Ensure your water level goes above the ingredients inside the beaker(s).

5) After water and oil phases have heated up/melted, remove from water bath. Re-weigh water beaker and add more water up to the amount you wrote down earlier on the piece of paper. This is the amount of water you’ve lost due to evaporation

6) Add the glycerin/xanthan gum slurry to the water phase and mix well.

7) Combine water phase and oil phase. Using high sheer, bring to emulsion.

8) Allow mixture to cool to below 120°

9) Add cool down ingredients 1 at a time.

10) test pH, adjust accordingly to pH of 4.5-5.5. Optimal pH is 4.8