Lipid Oxidation and Degradation Products in Raw Materials: Low‐Fat Topical Skin‐Care Formulations

Topical skin formulations with a lipid content below 15% were stored for 6 months at 5, 20, or 40 °C or for 2 weeks at 50 °C in darkness or at 20 °C with exposure to light for 6 months. The volatile lipid‐oxidation compounds formed during this storage period were compared to those formed in the raw materials during 3 months of accelerated stability storage at 40 °C.

The volatile compounds were collected by dynamic headspace and analyzed using gas chromatography–mass spectrometry. It was possible to link eight out of nine volatile compounds detected during storage of topical skin formulations to the raw materials. In addition, a possible link between the appearance of butane nitrile and the decomposition of an initiator used for polyacrylate crosspolymer‐6 production was observed.

The polymer may originate from texture modifiers added to the topical skin formulation or from plastics used for packaging of topical skin formulations. Furthermore, six well‐known lipid‐oxidation and nonenzymatic browning products were suggested to originate from the two raw materials, tricaprylin/tricaprin and coconut oil.