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Additives

post #1 of 9
10/4/12 at 6:33am
Thread Starter 
I am looking for information about additives for perfumes. When is it recommended to add an antioxidant or a UV blocker? What are the recommended substances, and in what proportion? Do you have any experience on this? I will appreciate your advice.

Also, I feel a bit puzzled when I see the labels of some commercial perfumes. I find some unknown chemicals in their composition, and I have not been able to discern their purpose. Any ideas about the usefulness of Octylacrylamide copolymer, or butylphenyl methylpropional, for example, quite common in midrange fragrances?

Thanks!
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post #2 of 9
10/4/12 at 10:37am
When you want to keep the fragrance good for longer than a few weeks an antioxidant is necessary. When you use a lot of easily oxidised products like citrus oils it is always needed. Note that an antioxidant is added to most essential oils and many aromachemicals already. BHT is the most common one, though tocopherol is also rather popular.

An UV filter is needed when you want to keep your perfume good for a longer time and be able to have it in the sun. When you make a commercial fragrance you don't know how people store their fragrance, so therefor it is safer to add an UV filter. Benzophenone-2 is the most common, I think.

Octylacrylamide copolymer is an viscosity enhancer or film former I think. I suppose it is not very common in fragrances, might act like a fixative.

butylphenyl methylpropional is Lilial, one of the 26 allergens we have to put on the label in the EU.
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post #3 of 9
10/4/12 at 10:53am
Jan, on this purpose, do you know what's the most common concentration of BHT or tocopherol in perfumes?
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post #4 of 9
10/4/12 at 12:29pm
Thread Starter 
Thank you Jan. I will include the antioxidants in my next order for De Hekserij. What is the concentration you recommend?

Do you also know where can I buy a UV filter in small quantities? I don´t see it in your catalog.

Not sure why some manufacturers put the long name of Lilial in their labels instead of the common one. About the Octylacrylamide, I have found it lately in several midrange perfumes (Davidoff, Calvin Klein, etc.) It´s a mystery what it does for them.
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post #5 of 9
10/4/12 at 12:35pm
I guess Octylacrylamide is used to make perfumes somehow "waterproof" i.e. they resist longer when you take a shower.
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post #6 of 9
10/4/12 at 1:02pm
Thread Starter 
Otocione,

I would personally prefer to perfume myself again after I take a shower. I have just tried one of them on my skin, and it seems to create a thin shiny film indeed. Strange.
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post #7 of 9
10/5/12 at 2:22am
Lilial is a trade name used by Givaudan. Other companies making the same chemical may well call it something else. Using the chemical name avoids confusion. Same way that you use the latin name for any animal or plant.

I generally used BHT at about 0.1%.

UV filters are often used if you want to prevent discolouration. I have used a compound called Uvinol in candles. for example.
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post #8 of 9
10/6/12 at 9:38am
Yep 0.1% BHT seems to be the standard in perfumes. For tocopherol I assume an alike dosage.

De Hekserij nor other small scale suppliers I am aware of sell benzophenone-2, probably because it is hard to source in small amounts, only small amounts are needed by the customers an, I assume, it will probably expire in quite a short time. This product or another suitable UV filter is on our longlist.

Lilial is a tradename, but, like Lyral, Calone and Aurantiol these names act like common names for the molecule in many cases now, probably because it is well known and Lilial is much shorter than butylphenyl methylpropional. Because these names always refer to about the same molecule the only confusion will be who manufactured the molecule.
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post #9 of 9
10/9/12 at 7:09am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Javiero View Post

Not sure why some manufacturers put the long name of Lilial in their labels instead of the common one.

Nothing much to add to all the excellent advice already in this thread, but just on this specific point, the reason that Lilial appears on labels as butylphenyl methylpropional is that is what the law requires. It is possible that implementations may differ elsewhere in Europe but certainly in the UK the regulations require not only that you declare the presence of the substance but that you use the name for it defined in the regulations.

This is particularly egregious with Lyral, which is almost universally known as Lyral, but the name that appears in the IFRA list is:

3and4-(4-Hydroxy-4-methylpentyl)-3-cyclohexene-1-carboxaldehyde (HMPCC)

The 3and4 part of which is recognising that there are actually two similar substances involved, with CAS numbers:
31906-04-4
51414-25-6

And yet when you put Lyral into a product you have to declare it on the label, as it is another of the 26 allergens regulated by the EU, but when you do that you have to use the INCI name, which is:
Hydroxyisohexyl 3-Cyclohexene Carboxaldehyde

a name used in virtually no other context. Chemistry is hard, Law is hard, put the two together and the result is incomprehensible to almost everyone!
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