Exploring the Utility of Diffusing Wave Spectroscopy (DWS) as a Novel Tool for Early Detection of Stability Issues in Cosmetic Emulsions

In the current cosmetic and personal care industry, it is of great importance to have a technique that detects instabilities quickly and effectively, as consumers are demanding more innovative and sustainable ingredients. Diffusing wave spectroscopy (DWS) is a potential solution as it is a modern optical technique that can measure the spatial movement of particles or droplets in an emulsion—i.e., the mean square displacement (MSD), as a function of time. In the current investigation, systematic visual and diffusion behavior emulsion stability studies over a 3-h period on jojoba and avocado oil emulsions containing varying equal percentages of cocamidopropyl betaine (CAPB) and sodium lauryl ether sulfate (SLES) were conducted. The turbid emulsions studied had differing stabilities with unknown instability mechanisms to further explore if diffusing wave spectroscopy can offer a fast and early identification of problem cosmetic formulations. It was observed that, for emulsions displaying instability from 4 to 123 h, the greater the change in the MSD values over a 3-h period, the greater the instability of the emulsion. For all systems, the MSD values lowered and shifted to the right from hour 0 to hour 3. We conjecture that the emulsion droplets began to aggregate, potentially growing and giving rise to larger particles. The increasing particle size was the cause for the slowing down of the dynamics and thus diffusion, giving rise to the lowering of the MSD values. Our findings indicate that by testing an emulsion over a 3-h period, it is possible to determine whether it will be a problem formulation using DWS. Studies into this technology should be continued on a wider range of emulsions with known instability mechanisms to further our understanding of using DWS as a vital emulsion instability detector