Cosmetics and Personal Care Products

The most commonly used carrier systems of cosmetic ingredients, emulsions impart the desired consistency and texture to lotions, creams, make-up, hair conditioners and other products. ROSS High Shear Mixers and Multi-Shaft Mixers are up for the task of providing high speed mixers to accomplish various processing objectives including emulsification, powder wet-out and particle size reduction.

Proper mixing is critical in the production of stable quality emulsions. By investing in a high-throughput mixing strategy that handles a wide range of viscosities and shear requirements, cosmetic manufacturers can gain increased flexibility to respond to ever-changing consumer tastes and market trends.

With ROSS High Shear Mixers and Multi-Shaft Mixers, cosmetic manufacturers enjoy increased flexibility in responding to ever-changing consumer tastes and market trends. ROSS can help you prepare more stable emulsions, smoother dispersions and more consistent batches while reducing excessive foaming, dusting and waste.

• Carbopol Gels - Carbopol resins are a family of water-soluble acrylic acid polymers, available in dry white powder form. It is used in many applications as a thickening agent producing a wide range of viscosities to suspend insoluble ingredients and to stabilize emulsions. Applications in the cosmetic industry include hand and body lotions, sunscreens, skin cleansers, moisturizing creams, shampoo, medicated gels and other personal care products. Although laboratory scale batches of Carbopol Solution can easily be made using bench type agitators, large-scale production of these thickened solutions can present problems. If the white Carbopol powder is not sifted very carefully into a typical agitated vessel, the Carbopol can clump together. The clumps solvate to form a tough outer layer, which prevents complete wetting of the interior polymer particles. This can result in solution defects such as grainy texture, reduced viscosity, or the presence of insoluble particles resembling "fish eyes". The high shear conditions usually needed to break up these agglomerations can also shear the hydrated polymers and result in a permanent viscosity loss. The ROSS VersaMix has been extremely successful at producing consistent, high quality Carbopol formulations. In addition, the ROSS SLIM System, used by itself or in combination with the ROSS VersaMix is a practical solution to preventing fish eye formation.
• Lipsticks - One the largest cosmetics manufacturers in the world standardizes on ROSS Three Roll Mills for their diverse line of lipstick products.
• Powder Foundations - The ROSS PowerMix equipped with a planetary stirrer and four-blade chopper has been tested to thoroughly coat talc powder and titanium dioxide with a blend of water and silicone. These materials are used in the cosmetic industry for powder foundations and sunscreen coatings. The customer's pony mixer displayed inadequate coverage of both the titanium and talc. Problems were experienced with material clinging to mix can sidewalls and unprocessed material at the bottom of the mix vessel. The PowerMix's planetary mixing action and shearing capabilities solved these problems.
• Skincare Creams - The ROSS X-Series Ultra-High Shear Mixer is utilized in various cosmetic plants for final grinding of creams. Product coming out of large mix tanks is passed once through the X-Series to obtain the desired smoothness and optimal particle size.
• Toothpaste - ROSS High Speed Dispersers, High Shear Mixers and Double Planetary Mixers are widely used in the manufacture of toothpastes - from preparation of low-viscosity intermediates to the final paste product.
• Wax Emulsions - Wax emulsions serve as a solubilizer in skin cleaning products or as a gloss modifier in hair care and styling products. Waxes also stabilize the shape of decorative pencils or sticks and adjust the viscosity of creamy products. The ROSS line of High Shear and Ultra-High Shear Mixers, available in batch and inline configurations, are an excellent choice for the preparation of wax emulsions.