Using Solubilizers in Cream Formulations

The products you found, such as Flora Solve™ Clear, Ultra Solve™, and Eco Solve™, are primarily designed to help dissolve oils, including fragrances and essential oils, into water-based formulations to create clear solutions or microemulsions. Their main function is to act as a bridge between oil and water phases in systems that are mostly water.

Regarding their use in cream formulations:

• Effectiveness in Cream: These solubilizers are most effective in water-dominant systems. In a cream, which is already an emulsion (a stable mixture of oil and water phases created by emulsifiers), their primary function of creating a clear solution for oils in water is generally not needed in the same way.

• Can they be used in cream? Yes, they can be used in cream formulations, but not typically for their solubilizing function in the way they are used in clear water-based products. If your cream formula already contains an emulsifier, you can usually add the fragrance or oil directly to the oil phase during the formulation process without needing an additional solubilizer like these.

• Which step to add? If you are adding a fragrance or oil to a cream that already has an emulsifier, you would typically add the fragrance/oil to the oil phase before emulsification, or sometimes during the cooling phase, depending on the specific ingredient and formula. The descriptions for these solubilizers mention mixing the solubilizer with the oil/fragrance first and then adding this mixture to the water phase. However, for a cream, if you are using the cream's existing emulsifier system, you would follow the standard procedure for adding oils/fragrances to that specific cream base.

In summary, while these solubilizers can technically be incorporated into a cream, their main benefit (creating clear solutions of oils in water) is less relevant in an emulsified system like a cream. You can usually add fragrances or oils directly to the oil phase of a cream formulation that uses a standard emulsifier.