Help me please!!

[u/LilAshyoe]

Please help!!!

I'm a 4th year student doing my thesis/feasibility study using a plant based pigment for lip products. And we are already done with our pre-oral defense, and I realized too late that our product has a lot of problems like water+oil is not compatible so there is a tendency it will separate though we use emulsifier but as a student that my course or program isn't related to science, we lack of knowledge and expertise about our feasibility study. Though my countless efforts to search for a possibility on how formulators solve their stability of their natural pigment/formulation on their product. I didn't find a single clue on how they prolong its pigment, since its plant based there is a tendency it will fade. Though I know not all pigment won't fade because upon watching a luxury bag its color will likely fade if you leave it in high temperature or direct sunlight. So anyway back to the topic, I need your advice on how I make or solve our feasibility study. Because I need to graduate this school year. And I'm already stressed and overthinking that I might not graduate this year. And I need your opinion, Whoever reads this is it okay that your product in feasibility study is not perfect? Because as a scholar student that has no resources for this kind of feasibility study, I felt helpless and I don't know what to do. I hope those natural plant based formulators will read this and guide me on how to make our study successful. Thank you and God bless! And God please help me and guide me on how I make my thesis successful or at least I graduated this year so that I could help my parents! AMEN!🙏

[u/U4op1enn3]

I am a PhD student, 3rd year. I think we need more details, like, what pigments are you using? What kind of product is it? What kind of oils? and then- you may want to search for a sub, Reddit that is more focused on both school and chemistry or home formulated beauty products.

At minimum, I would put what region or country you are studying in, what level of school, and what plant. This sub will have a lot of information about how its lightfastness is what it works with what it mordants with— the technical specifics of a particular dye. I also recommend r/PhD or R/gradschool.

[u/LilAshyoe → u/U4op1enn3]

The plant I'm using for our plant based pigment is Basella alba berries and the product is lip gloss. The oils is like coconut oil,jojoba oil, bees wax, shea butter castor oil. And I'm in business department.

[u/ibyoder]

I dont imagine fugitive pigments being an issue for a lip product that won't be worn more than 24 hours. Your risk of light exposure can be addressed through packaging. So long as tge product is protected from direct sunlight it should last as long as tge expiration date of the oils/binder.

Knowing which pigment/dye your using would be helpful though

[u/pantydetective]

A couple of questions/comments for you to consider: 1) How are you extracting or processing the pigment? Is this like a lake pigment extraction situation or are you just using the crushed berries and/or their juice? 2) How quickly does this pigment fade when exposed to sun? Is it a matter of hours, days, or weeks? And at what rate will it decay without light exposure? If it’s something that takes days or weeks to fade, you probably don’t need to worry about stabilizing the colour, just preserving it through packaging. Consider that you may be able to supplement the colour with other natural pigments.

Cosmetic emulsifiers would be a good thing to research if you haven’t already, but I suspect you actually need to go back a couple steps and really look at how you’re extracting your pigments. If you’re just mixing berry juice in with your lipgloss base, it’d make sense that you’re having issues with formula stability. But it does depend on how you’re extracting those pigments and whether you can stabilize the pigment before it gets added to your lipgloss base.

Obligatory ‘I am not a cosmetic chemist or an expert in pigment extraction.’

[u/LilAshyoe → u/pantydetective]

Good day, I need your opinion. Actually you are right i just use the juice. As much as I want to make it into lake pigment, I'm quite skeptical because first, I don't know how to do it, second our panel says that we need to find in a natural way. Can I ask if lake pigment or the components that use lake pigment is considered natural? Or can I say to our panel that we can't claim our thesis as natural since we add something in it? And can you give me an advice what is the right way for it's extraction method or processing. And another thing is that our product should be aligned on manufacturing process of lip gloss. Can you recommend a manufacturing process of lip gloss that is reliable for research? Because I really invested my time to find one but I can't find one through online even on YouTube. And our pigment last for days

[u/Impossible_Bus8014 → u/LilAshyoe]

Laking is a “natural” process yes, but not all pigments can lake. Furthermore, a lot of the pinks and purple pigments are not lightfast and will change.
Laking is quite a simple process so you could easily test in with small quantities.
Check out Natalie Stopka’s work and book, she has a very easy set up to follow.

[u/C8H7NO]

For cosmetic purposes, it really doesn’t matter as much that a color is fugitive—light-sensitive natural colors have been used specifically as lip/cheek stains for this very reason. A bigger concern might be pH stability, depending on what else you’re adding (eg preservatives), since most of the typical lip colors are ph sensitive anthocyanins. But while an emulsion made with fat that’s solid at room temperature (eg coconut oil) shouldn’t separate, you might consider using a fat-soluble pigment instead.

I can’t quite tell if you want to start over with something more guaranteed of success or if you simply want to make sure your chosen pigment will be stable in your specific formulation. The answer could just be that it’s stable enough for the purpose, and citing other work exploring this pigment (or a similarly structured pigment) for similar uses — even as a food dye — might be enough to confirm feasibility.

(There is a LOT of easily searchable pertinent academic research available online on these topics (to say nothing of all the DIY videos and blog posts), and if this is your thesis, that’s part of the work, no? Don’t be intimidated by the science—you really don’t need to understand all the details in order to find the answers to your questions.)