Cream bases

Cream bases

- Fatty alcohols

Fatty alcohols are important raw materials for surfactants, emollients and emulsifiers. Pure fatty alcohols, mainly cetyl alcohol and stearyl alcohol, are also used per se as consistency regulators and co-emulsifiers in, for example, creams, lotions and hair rinses. The so-culled natural fatty alcohols are obtained by hydration of fatty acid methyl esters. Similar, linear primary alcohols can be obtained from the Ziegler process. The branched types obtained from oxo-synthesis are important as raw material feedstock, but are not used as alcohols perse. Mixtures of cetyl and stearyl alcánois combined with hydrophilic emulsifiers are known as the emulsifying waxes’ of the British Pharmacopoeia. In such combinations the fatty alcohols are self-emulsifying. Common combinations are:

(i) cetearyl alcohol plus sodium cetearyl sulfate
(ii) cetearyl alcohol plus PEG-1000 monocetyl ether
(iii) cetearyl alcohol plus alkyl trimethyl ammonium bromide

As examples for(i) anionic;(ii) non-ionic: and (iii) cationic cream bases. Type (iii) combinations are mainly used in hair-rinse formulations. The fatty alcohol gives texture and body to the formulation and acts as consistency regulator.