Kicking the crypt: mortars, Phlogel, and 4-Ad grit

[Buff Santa]

Digging back thru to refresh my memory, I came across this:

The mortar, IMO, does not make a difference. Some powders are more difficult than others to compound because of solubility. The best thing to do, IMO is get it as fluffed as possible and use a solvent to make a paste BEFORE adding it to the PhloJel to be compounded. I have found a 1:1 ratio of powder to solvent works about right. Do not use alcohol as it dries to quickly. I would use PEG/Glycol/PEG400 as it does not evaporate. One that works even better is DMSO and it is a PE as well.

EX:

10g 4AD
10ml DMSO
80g PhloJel
100mg/ml

Having experienced plenty of uncompounded gritty 4-ad over the years, I read this with agreement & noted B’s recipe.

As I was preparing to compound, I found my missing suribachi (a Japanese mortar/pestle design), and decided I’d try that, after having failed to produce a gritless mixture with agate & dental ceramic mortars over the past XX years.

The result? An absolutely smooth cream, no grit at all. The entire compounding process took 10 min, the only variation from the recipe being 4ml of DMSO instead of 10 (and only because 4ml turned out to be *more* than was needed). Rubbed in thoroughly in record time, no residue at all; could easily have added twice the powder & only thickened it slightly. So, it turns out the mortar can and does make a difference.

Hope this helps some folks get the results they want

 

[nostrum420]

You're still going to have 4-AD left on the surface of the skin, you've just made it less bothersome for it to be there because the residual powder is a little less course.