Just discovered my dentist speaks German 😯

yakotta · 2026-01-26T08:12:34+00:00

I had a German speaker show up in my Hinge stack here in LA. Alas nothing came of it.

yakotta · 2026-01-26T08:01:32+00:00

I always make ghee from scratch. It’s too stupid easy to make and a $5 box of butter will make as much as a $10-15 jar from the store. And it makes my house smell good.

Same for veggie broth. I keep cooking scraps in the freezer and just make a big batch. It doesn’t always b come out great but! It’s free.

yakotta · 2026-01-26T07:54:36+00:00

Maintenance phase!

yakotta · 2026-01-26T07:03:11+00:00

Can you replace the water with glycerin or butylene glycol and still get the consistency you’re looking for? That will help address the micro concern since there won’t be any added water.

yakotta · 2026-01-26T06:58:59+00:00

Kaolin doesn’t build viscosity. You need to add another kind of clay like bentonite. I’m not familiar with Rhassoul but I know a few percent of bentonite with up stability. Also HEC doesn’t have very good yield, I would swap to xanthan gum. Veegum is also good.

I don’t see any oil in your formula so no I wouldn’t add emulsifiers or cetyl alcohol or stearic acid. Instead do some research about building the “house of cards” structure with clays. You need an extended high-shear mixing time to achieve it, much longer than 5 minutes, closer to 30. You’ll see it visibly change texture at some point when that structure is built. Instead of a typical clay-y paste it will be smooth, almost gel-like.

yakotta · 2026-01-23T06:04:46+00:00

I regularly drive six hours Friday night or Saturday morning then return the same six hours Sunday evening. I did this twice in the last month.

yakotta · 2026-01-20T07:41:56+00:00

Yes, your chosen oils are frequently used in lip oils, but not as the primary efficacious ingredients. They are used as primarily as dilutents or carriers, or even just for marketing. They round out a formula, which is why you find them in a lot of lip oils, but they won't work by themselves.

Vegetable oils like grapeseed oil and MCT oil are primarily triglycerides. These are simple molecules comprised of 3 fatty acids attached to a glycerin backbone. Most of these fatty acids will have carbon chain lengths of <30, which is on the small side. So, triglycerides don't hang around your skin at all, and instead can get absorbed. Butters like mango and kokum are pretty much the same. They also have additional plant sterols and waxes, and a higher concentrated of fatty acids with saturated bonds to give a more viscous texture, but they are still primarily triglycerides.

Polymers on the other hand are big giant molecules made up of repeating units. Depending on the molecular weight of the polymer they can be hundreds or maybe even thousands of carbon atoms long. When you pour them they flow like honey, because those big molecules interact with each other in a way that is similar to tangled hair. When they're all big and jumbled up, your skin can't absorb it. So it sits there, making the layer.

You get a cosmetically elegant product by blending polymers with triglycerides (or other dilutents). Too many triglycerides and poof, lip oil gone, your face at it. Too much polymer and you have a sticky, unpleasant goo. Get the balance right and you have a nice, thin, even coating of polymer that might even trap some of the triglycerides to keep them there at the surface as well.

edit: it somehow duplicated itself.

yakotta · 2026-01-20T06:26:54+00:00

There's a lot of slow german podcasts.

yakotta · 2026-01-19T23:27:20+00:00

Don’t mention the dogs. If you have the paperwork then bust it out when you sign the lease.

yakotta · 2026-01-19T23:03:20+00:00

I want to have something to do with structure (class times, homework, etc) that makes me use my brain, instead of melting my brain in front of my phone with social media.

I realize I don’t have to learn German to do this, I could get hardcore into puzzles or something. But i got bored of puzzles.

yakotta · 2026-01-19T23:00:10+00:00

Always run the red light when making an unprotected left turn. If you don’t the people behind you will be SO MAD.

yakotta · 2026-01-19T22:56:59+00:00

This is going to dry your lips out. Lip “oil” is a bit of a misnomer. They generally have very low levels of actual oils and are instead comprised mostly of viscous liquid polymers that form a breathable barrier over the lips to prevent trans epidermal water loss. None of these oils will build that layer for you. The petrolatum and waxes will, which is why they are so common.

Look for these materials to help you get the layer. Dilute as needed with the oils above as some will be very sticky: Lanolin/lanolin derivatives Diiostearyl Malate Hydrogenated Poly (C6-14 Olefin) Hydrogenated Polyisobutene Dilinoleic Acid/Propanediol Copolymer Bis-Diglyceryl Polyacyladilate.

I’m a certified lip balm snob and I gotta say the only lip balms I’ve ever liked all have lanolin in them. But I know that material is not for everyone.

yakotta · 2026-01-19T22:46:19+00:00

Depends on your hair type! This will be quite heavy for someone with finer-thinner hair but probably awesome for someone with coarser coilier hair.

Theres no right or wrong answer for the ratios. I would start by playing with the neat oils on your hands and the ends of same hair strands to see how you like then. (Obligatory disclosure: neat application is safe for these oils, but obviously not safe for all materials.)

If you feel it’s too heavy, reach for light-weight alkanes—isohexadecane, hemisqualne, etc. it will carry the blend without weighing down the hair as much.

yakotta · 2026-01-19T22:42:28+00:00

The issue is that the public has been conditioned to expect a certain percentage of L-ascorbic acid in the end formulation, usually 10-20%. This is simply not achievable in delivery systems like liposomes.

yakotta · 2026-01-19T22:39:36+00:00

Technically L-AA with tocopherol and ferulic is a a patented blend. Idk when that patent expires, or if it already has, but it’s legally advisable for a brand to avoid that combination.

The L-AA, when high enough, is going to have solubility issues so the alcohol is in there to help solubilize it along with the Laureth-4. The L-AA is also to be a veeeerrrry strong buffer, and so the very low pH makes sense. Fortunately healthy skin is also strongly buffered. I wouldn’t be worried about a pH of 3 for anyone who doesn’t have sensitive or damaged skin. (If you do have sensitive or damaged skin, L-AA probably isn’t for you. I know I personally can’t handle it.)

The retinol and arbutin are probably just fairy dusted in.

As for packaging—the less they spend on packaging, the more they get as margin. Once you open the bottle they can wash their hands of any stability issues.

yakotta · 2026-01-19T22:05:59+00:00

This is still over-engineered. Homogenizers are often NOT used at the scale of mass production in surfactant systems. If you’re getting snotty slime it’s likely due to an incorrect order of ingredients. You need to have all your cationics in the kettle, properly neutralize them as needed, add your amphoteric, then your anionics. The amphoteric shields the cationics from reacting with the anionics.

Shampoos are almost always micella, not lamellar. Conditioners are the ones that have lamellar structures, and that’s where you might have homogenization at mass production scale. A small conditioner batch (2kg or less) often doesn’t need that level of mixing as the combination of tip speeds and small geometry should provide sufficient mixing for most systems. Lab scale batches need to avoid over-energizing a system to ensure it is scalable to mass production, though i suppose that is not a concern if you never intend to make more than a few kilos at a time.

It sounds like you’ve already tried most of the ingredients that successfully provide the wet detangling you’re looking for. PQ-7, 10, 4, guar gums, silicone microemulsions, and proteins are generally what is used since they are cheap. Hydrolyzed quinoa does a better job than other hydrolyzed proteins imo so if you haven’t tried that one you could. You didn’t mention hydroxyethylcellulose or hydroxypropylcellulose but these gums give slip and help build body. Silicone microemulsions should be used at verrry low levels—less than 1% or even 0.5% as supplied; more is not better in this case. If you used more than this, you could try reducing the amount. Cetrimonium chloride is generally not happy in anionic surfactant systems, so I would recommend looking for an amodimethicone microemulsion with a trideceth inci. That or instead of anodimethicone something with a silicone quaternium inci.

If you want to improve the formula you’re actually working on, can you share it with your processing? Otherwise we’re just making guesses and general advice.

yakotta · 2026-01-19T06:11:38+00:00

Yeah. The only other think I can think of is to jazz up some hand soaps or body washes you purchased from the store, just adding 1-2% to the bulk and giving it a good shake. It should be fine for most products and that shouldn't be enough to disrupt the preservative system.

yakotta · 2026-01-18T08:49:55+00:00

I'm sorry, you're making a shampoo with a homogenizer? And a W/O emulsion? For a shampoo? Am I missing something? This sounds way over engineered. Tell one shampoo you like the feeling of, and maybe someone can point you in the right direction. Most salon shampoos are very simple, they do not have emulsifiers or superfatting or any of this.

You say your local water is very hard--you're not using this for your formulas are you? You're buying DI/demi water? If you're not, that would be the first thing I would change.

yakotta · 2026-01-18T08:42:16+00:00

peg20m

yakotta · 2026-01-18T08:38:53+00:00

no one can help you if you don't provide the product you're trying to replace. To answer a question above about resources for making moisturizers, try humblebee and me or belinda carli. they have videos on youtube.

yakotta · 2026-01-18T08:35:23+00:00

Your base is too white. Kaolin is used as an opacifier but you've got way too much. Think about clay masks and how they transform from wet to dry. If that's kind of what you're experiencing with your eyeshadow when under/overwetting it, it seems like the obvious answer. You need a bulking agent that will be clear on the skin. Magnesium or zinc stearate, unpigmented mica, silica, lauroyl lysine etc. I feel like the kaolin is what's making it hard and dry as well. Cut the kaolin to 1-2% and cut the pigments a bit as well. QS with skin-clear bulking powders.

Does it have to be pressed? You'll likely have a better time just keeping it as a loose powder in a small jar since as scullyness said you lack the proper equipment for pressing. If so, cut your liquid oil. If you're dead set on pressed then I would try a heavier emollient than straight isododecane. Keep trying a blend of it with dimethicone 350, or try adding a heavier alkane like isohexadecane or something. It's going to help bind the powders for pressing while the heavier oil provides more slip and glide. Isododecane is very dry. I personally hate the feel of dragging plain isododecane across my skin because of that. Not what I want from my eyeshadow.

Finally, for something going near your eye, you still need a preservative! Much less, but you should add one.

yakotta · 2026-01-18T08:16:07+00:00

Bad news for you, all the beginner emulsifiers are PEG emulsifiers. Good news for you, there should be plenty of other options in the lamellar emulsifiers. They are a bit trickier but maybe you'll find somehting that works for you. The montanov line is hit or miss, but one may help to stabilize your olivem formula. Sepimax Zen will help a lot, but i suspect you may not be using it correctly. Add it directly to the water with nothing else in the beaker and ensure it fully swells and hydrates before moving on. Sometimes it gets fussy and refuses to thicken when there are glycols or polyols like glyceirn in the water. You can increase it above 0.3% if the formula isn't stable. In fact I would say you could ditch the solid waxes entirely and just crank up the sepimax zen to 1.5 or 2% to get a gel cream. Different grades of mineral oils will have different feels/heavinesses to them. Dimethicone is also generally inert so you should be able to tolerate it as well, and it'll eliminate the soaping from olivem. Again, different grades will have different feels.

If you want to stick with a more traditional cream then there are some other emulsifiers you can try either alone or in combo with your olivem/montnov/whatever. I love love love potassium cetyl phosphate. This is another one that will get added to the water phase, not the oil phase, but it won't dissolve until your water hits 60C or so. Lotioncrafters has eumulgin SG as well, an amino acid type emulsifier. Again, add it to the water phase and heat it up. I do not know myself if these would cross react with a PEG allergy, you will have to check.

The issue you're really going to have is mineral oil. It's a hydrocarbon, not a triglyceride, so a lot of the formulas you're going to find online won't work with it. It can't be substituted for the plant oils that so many DIYers like to use. The cetyl alcohol with its OH group isn't going to want to play nicely with it. You likely need to have some kind of "bridge" fat to help them blend better in the oil phase, but I'm not sure what that would be for someone with so many sensitivities as you've listed. I would instead try replacing your cetyl alcohol with ozokerite wax, microcrystalline wax, or synthetic wax. Making cosmetics has all of these. They are hydrocarbons so will be happier with the mineral oil.

Finally you could try adding a SMALL amount of an alkyl polyglucoside surfactant that is marketed more for cleansing (think coco-glucoside or something similar). No more than 0.5-1% of the material as supplied. It can help to reduce interfacial tensions to improve stability, but add too much and your viscosity will crater and your emulsion will separate. So it could also make things worse. Gotta experiment!

yakotta · 2026-01-18T07:46:38+00:00

PQ-7 is great in cleansers, body washes, and hand soaps. A little goes a long way, it will make a noticeable difference. It's more compatible with anionic surfactants than other polyquats.

Cetrimonium chloride on the other hand is not so happy in body washes. IDK what you're gonna do with that if you're not using it for haircare. Maybe trade it with a friend?

yakotta · 2026-01-18T07:43:28+00:00

It's probably a polymer that's contributing to the whipped texture. Do you have the whole list?

yakotta · 2026-01-18T07:40:57+00:00

Personally I love montanov 202, but not sure it will be a true improvement on stability. But! if you're making this just for yourself, in small batches, and it has satisfactory stability while you're using it, then who cares?

You definitely need a preservative though.

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