Cannot Make Clear Oil-Water Formula with Standard Emulsifiers
Question
Is it possible to create a clear, liquid formula containing natural oil, water, an emulsifier, and a light-texture enhancer using standard formulation methods?
Answer
Regarding your question about creating a clear, liquid formula containing natural oil, water, an emulsifier, and a light-texture enhancer:
It is generally not possible to create a clear, liquid product that contains both oil and water components using standard emulsifiers. Emulsifiers work by creating an emulsion, which is a mixture of oil and water droplets dispersed within each other. This process inherently results in a product that is opaque or translucent, like a lotion or cream, not a clear liquid.
While advanced techniques like adjusting the refractive index can sometimes achieve clarity in oil-water mixtures, these methods are typically complex and require specialized equipment that is not available for general use.
Therefore, if you use a standard emulsifier to combine natural oil and water, the resulting formula will be a cloudy lotion or cream, not a clear, oil-like liquid as you described. Because of this technical limitation with standard methods, I cannot recommend specific emulsifiers or light-texture enhancers that would allow you to achieve a clear formula under these conditions.