How to Formulate w/ Magnesium Ascorbyl Phosphate

taralee
6 days ago
5 min read

A while ago I created a post titled Everything to Know About Vitamin C & 7 FREE Vitamin C Serum Formulas + Ecocert / Natural Recipes. As the title says I shared 7 formulas in that post. I don’t believe that post/video got the attention it deserved. I will be reposting 5 of the 7 formulas, that way you are able to search for them more easily. I will also be reposting those 5 formulas on YouTube for search purposes as well.

This specific formula features MAP. Hope you enjoy!

Vitamin C Derivatives

Personally my favorite way to formula with Vitamin C is by using ingredients that are Vitamin C Derivatives.

Vitamin C Derivatives are essentially Ascorbic Acid (Vitamin C) that has been chemically modified to be more stable and also less irritating on the skin. That means Vitamin C Derivatives aren’t as sensitive to light or oxygen which makes them so much easier to formulate with. Luckily there are Ecocert Vitamin C Derivatives. So even if you are trying to stay more “natural” or Ecocert Compliant, there are options for you.

The down side to these Vitamin C Derivatives is that there isn’t as much data backing up the claims to these ingredients. There has been a lot of research done using L-Ascorbic Acid and just because L-Ascorbic Acid has been proven to offer antioxidant protection, help with hyperpigmentation, and help boost collagen, that doesn’t mean the derivatives have.

As I go through the different Vitamin C Derivatives I’ll talk about the benefits each of them offer. As this will help determine if that Vitamin C Derivative would work for the skin concern you are looking to target. I’ll be sure to link my sources below. I got my info about these derivatives from the Chemist Confessions Blog.

MAP (Magnesium Ascorbyl Phosphate)

According to a survey I conducted on my instagram story, this seems to be my followers favorite Vitamin C Derivative to formulate with. Ironically, I actually found it to be my least favorite to formulate with because I ran into some stability issues while using it. We’ll get into that.

But first, MAP has been proven to work as a skin brightener. Also in one study MAP accelerated collagen production and assembly in wound healing. But according to Chemist Confessions Blog, MAP “doesn’t have the best track record getting absorbed by skin.” They also suggest to use it twice a day, consistently.

Formulating w/ MAP (Magnesium Ascorbyl Phosphate)

White to off-white Powder
Water Soluble
Light & Oxygen Stable
pH of ingredient 6-7
May discolor in pH levels below 6, keep final products pH between 6 - 7
Solubility 154g/l at 25C/77F (that's at most 15.4%)
Is stable at 80C/176F for up to 20 hours; so you can add to heated water phase.
Can also be pre dispersed in a small amount of distilled water and added at the end of the formulation.
If having trouble dissolving, heat to 40°C (104°F)
Recommended usage rate; 0.2% - 3%, up to 10%
Not considered Natural or Ecocert

Other important info

I purchased my MAP from LotionCrafter.com, here is some other important information mentioned in the formulating guidelines.

One study indicated MAP might be needed at a concentration of 10% to be effective at inhibiting melanin production
MAP appears to have the same potential to boost skin collagen synthesis as does Ascorbic Acid, but at lower concentrations. For those with sensitive skin or those wanting to avoid the exfoliating effects of highly acidic Ascorbic Acid, MAP may be the preferred choice.

My Experience w/ MAP

I thought this was going to be the easiest Vitamin C Derivative to use because it’s natural pH when dissolved in water is 6-7 and the products final pH needs to be between 6-7. So no pH adjusting is needed, unlike all the other Vitamin C Derivatives I’ll be talking about today. The issues I had with MAP is dissolving it and keeping it dissolved.

My first issue of just simply dissolving the MAP happened, because I poured all of the MAP into my heated distilled water phase all at once. I used 10% MAP in this formula so, that’s a lot going in at once. This caused the MAP to clump up on the bottom. I tried heating it to help it dissolve, and maybe eventually I could have got it to dissolve, but I gave up and tried again.

This time I added in a little bit of MAP at a time into the heated distilled water. This worked great! I got all the MAP dissolved. But the next day I came back and all the MAP was settled to the bottom. So I gave it one more try, this time I only used 3% MAP instead of 10% and I was able to keep it dissolved. It still hasn’t recrystallized, but what sucks is that all the studies done on this ingredient show it works best at 10%, but it’s so difficult to keep the 10% dissolved. I would have done more experiments, but I ran out of MAP.

Here is the final Magnesium Ascorbyl Phosphate Serum Formula

Phase A

88.9% Distilled Water
0.3% Disodium EDTA
3% Magnesium Ascorbyl Phosphate (MAP)

Phase B

1% Euxyl K 900
1% Poly Suga Mulse D9

Phase C

Directions;

In a heat safe container weigh your distilled water and disodium EDTA into a sanitized beaker and heat to 40°C/104°F. Mix to dissolve Disodium EDTA
Once heated, slowly add in a small amount of the MAP at a time while mixing. Wait until the MAP dissolves then add a small amount more and keep doing this until all of the MAP is incorporated.
In a separate sanitized container combine all ingredients in phase B and mix.
Pour phase B into Phase A while mixing.
In another sanitized container combine all ingredients in phase C and mix then pour into phase A/B and mix until everything is well combined.
I let mine sit overnight to fully cool before bottling.
Natural pH was 6.5 so no pH adjusting was needed and I used this bottle to store my serum in. Since MAP is not light or oxygen sensitive you don’t need to use a dark bottle or an airless pump.

How to use Serum;

Massage on to clean dry or damp skin, let dry and follow with your moisturizer. Use AM & PM for best results.

Final thoughts: Overall I think this is an easy ingredient to use compared to L-Ascorbic Acid, but it’s super annoying that it’s hard to keep 10% dissolved in your formula. But it is great that MAP does have some data to back up that it can help with collagen and hyperpigmentation. But since you need to use it at such a high amount for it to be effective, 10%, and it’s so hard to keep that dissolved, it makes this derivatives just a little too annoying for it to be my favorite. So if you do decide to use MAP try to use it as close to 10% as possible and use it twice a day. I’d imagine there are ways to keep the 10% MAP dissolved, I just wasn’t able to conduct enough experiments to figure it out. Let me know what has worked for you.

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