RE: Help w/powdered hand cleaner

[Guest guest]

Elaine,

Cutting to the quick here, use household bleach in a dilute solution to

remove the acid dyes. The active in bleach is sodium hypochlorite. It is in

an alkaline solution to keep it stable and from releasing the oxygen.. You

should also look at keeping your percarbonate or perchlorate solutions

alkaline for increased stability.

Young

KY Labs

Innovators of Fine Personal Care Products

www.kylabs.com

Help w/powdered hand cleaner

I am trying to formulate a specialized hand cleaner. I do a lot of

textile dyeing with acid-class dyes for wool, silk, and other protein

fibers. Even though I use rubber gloves, invariably my fingers and

hands end up stained with dye by the end of the day.

I've been using a commercially-available paste hand cleaner for years.

It removes the dye very well but it really dries out my skin. I can

feel the effects for days. I recently found the ingredient list and saw

that it contained, among other things, SLS, Cocamide DEA, and a harsh

dye-stripping agent that normally we work hard to keep from skin

contact when using. I was quite surprised to see it in this ingredient

list!

I thought if I could substitute different surfactants and another

dye-reducing agent that isn't so potent, I could make a gentler product

that won't do such a number on my skin.

I started out making a paste of SCI noodles, Sodium Lauryl

sulfoacetate, and Hydrogen Peroxide that I bought in the drugstore. It

didn't work very well. The Peroxide from the drugstore is pretty weak

(3% solution) and didn't strip the dye from my skin. But the

surfactants foamed nicely. It was a start.

Then I made another paste with the same surfactants but substituting a

tiny amount of Sodium Percarbonate (a.k.a. Oxy-Clean) for the peroxide.

(I checked the MSDS and it looks okay for occasional skin contact.) It

stripped the dye well, so I put the rest of the paste in a malibu tube

and left it by the sink over night.

The next morning, I had quite a surprise. I opened the lid and POOF!!

The thing practically exploded like a volcano. Cleaning paste

everywhere. I looked at my can of Oxy-Clean and saw that they

recommended not storing mixed solutions in closed containers because it

continues to release oxygen which can build up pressure... Okay, so I

had first hand proof that they were right.

Then I thought, perhaps I could mix up all the dry ingredients into a

powder and then sprinkle it onto wet hands when needed. I tried that

last night and indeed, it works nicely. So now, I want to refine the

product. Here's my crude formula so far:

1 part Sodium Lauryl Sulfoacetate

2 parts SCI noodles

1 part palm wax beads for scrubby-ness

1/4 part Sodium Percarbonate

Squirt of EO (for fragrance and to help reduce the flyaway powder

effect of the surfactants)

Questions:

1) There's too much surfactant. The foam is too thick and doesn't rinse

easily enough. I'd like to " dilute " it with another powdered substance,

but I can't figure out what would work well as a filler.

2) It still is somewhat drying. Much less than the commercial

formulation, but I'd like to add a moisturizing agent/humectant of some

sort. Any suggestions for a dry, water-soluble ingredient that could

work here?

3) Any other suggestions for alternative surfactants, conditioners,

dye-reducing agents?

Thanks a lot for your help,

Elaine

[Guest guest]

> Cutting to the quick here, use household bleach in a dilute

solution to

> remove the acid dyes. The active in bleach is sodium hypochlorite.

It is in

> an alkaline solution to keep it stable and from releasing the

oxygen.. You

> should also look at keeping your percarbonate or perchlorate

solutions

> alkaline for increased stability.

,

Thank you for the suggestions. I hadn't realized alkalinity would

stabilize the reducing agents like bleach and sodium percarbonate solutions.

That

is very good to know.

The problem is that I have eczema on my right hand and it is severely

exacerbated by contact with bleach and heavy alkalines (to the point of the skin

cracking open and bleeding within minutes of contact). The percarbonate looks

like it

might be a less irritating ingredient, although I need to try it for more than

one

sample handwashing!

So let's say, for the sake of argument, that I wanted to make a

powdered handcleaner... A simple, normal powdered handcleaner. Forget the dye

removal function. What would one use for fillers if you didn't want to use

surfactants for the full volume of solids? And are there powdered moisturizers/

conditioners that could work in such a formula?

Thanks again,

Elaine

Elaine Benfatto (Cambridge, MA)

elaine@...

http://www.urbanspinner.com/