The product types that have been covered are either aqueous or have an aqueous phase. Personal care and beauty cover a variety of other product types such as balms, heavy butters, pomades, oils, and make-up (color cosmetics are a different animal). A cool feature of the beauty industry: so many options for whatever you’re looking to buy. As long as the customer wants whatever you make, and the chemistry supports it, Formulators will keep developing.
Many women (and some men) have their favorite anhydrous products. For men that like grooming themselves, a good pomade with a pleasant texture and application, go a long way. For women, color cosmetics that won’t damage the skin long-term, are now being sought after. Balms are used often for soothing the skin or moisturizing a skin surface (i.e. lips) with emollients and occlusives. Heavy butters have all the benefits of an anhydrous product while still delivering some water-based actives to the skin. Last, oils are oils. By far the easiest to make, and with the right marketing, can also be the most profitable. Furthermore, they’re simple to get certified USDA Organic should you seek that highly priced stamp of accreditation. Let’s go into these products some more, exploring what goes into them.
Make-up (color cosmetics really): Lipsticks are simple, yet creative. They’re mixtures of solidifiers (waxes and butters), along with some oils, pigments, and pigment dispersants. The procedures involve heating the the mixture to hot, then rapidly cooling in their containers: Mascaras, eye shadows, foundations, etc. are mixtures of pigments like iron oxides, micas, and others colorants with some fillers. Because of the chemical nature of these powder color cosmetics, they’ve been difficult to replace with natural.
Balms and Pomades: Mixtures of heavy waxes like Beeswax and Carnauba Wax, along with some plant and fruit butters and vegetable oils, a sensorial modifier depending on the application (e.g. hair styling), and fragrance. Some balms might include APIs like camphor, menthol, or methyl salicylate for a pain-relieving effect.
Heavy butters: Not entirely anhydrous, but getting there as these products are heavier on the oil content. While still maintaining their cream form, the oil content can be felt through application. One of their main benefits is that you can deliver humectants and water-soluble actives to the skin through this product type.
Oils: Literally, a blend of oils. The composition will be guided by the application. Body oil? Long-chain oils, with medium-chain oils and a few short-chain emollients. Face oil? Medium-chain oils and a few long-chain oils. Hair oil? Depends on the kind of hair. Fine hair, it’s best to use some medium-chain oils along with some short-chair emollients. Coarse hair, it’s best to use medium-chain oils, with some long-chain oils and a few short-chain emollients. With the right marketing and packaging, they can be heavily marked up.
This is a general list of the anhydrous products out on the market. As the industry evolves, so do the variety of each of these product types. That’s one of the greatest traits of this industry, it’s always changing, always evolving. In a later post, I’ll go over on how to make a balm. Happy Labor Day weekend everyone!
Greengen Labs 