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I am trying to solve this mystery...There is this company called 100% pure who makes lipsticks using fruit extracts as their pigments in their formulations. Fruits pigments are water soluble - so, the listed ingredients are the usual oils and butters, wax and all the fruits extracts.

Even if there is wax in the formulation it isn't an emulsion - it's a solid lipstick. How can they bind the oil phase with the aqueous phase without the emulsion? Also if there is a water component you need a preservative which they don't seem to use other than rosemary leaf extract :)

Same thing with a lipstick I bought last week that contains the usual oils and butters, wax, a tincture which has alcool and water in it and honey. It is not an emulsion either - I tried to make a lipstick with honey once and it separated...

I hope you can explain this chemical trick to me because I am truly wondering !?!?

Thanks :-)

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  • $\begingroup$ Just because it is an emulsion does not mean it will not separate. Often phase separation is just a question of time. Such emulsions are called "metastable". $\endgroup$ – Buck Thorn Jan 16 at 19:55
  • $\begingroup$ Thanks for the answers that have been provided - it does open some paths and I will keep researching with this in mind. I am sorry if my question was not that well formulated, I am not a chemist - I studied in Botanics and I am French, also my English is not perfect :-) ! As for the butters used in those formulations, they are plant based not animal - therefore will the plant based butters will act the same way as an animal butter for an emulsion of water in fat ? $\endgroup$ – Eve Jan 16 at 23:52
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Your question is neither sufficiently specific nor detailed to provide a proper answer. However you provide a clue as to how it is possible to disperse the more water-loving components in a fatty matrix without the use of emulsifiers listed explicitly as such in the ingredients list. Assuming that 1) the product is bona fide - the composition is as listed; and 2) the pigments are only of limited fat-solubility; then evidently one or more of the constituents has to provide the required emulsifying activity.

My guess is it is butter, which is an emulsion of water in fat. I would guess the water-loving ingredients are dispersed in the butter before blending in the remaining fatty components, but that is an educated guess.

As for the absence of preservatives, I would guess the low water content would limit bacterial growth. There are available certainly guidelines regarding such matters.

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My explanation comes from this video https://youtu.be/zC99ih56S_8 in this he explains that the water and oil is mixed without emulsion because there is less air in the water due to low pressure hence the whole explanation.

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