Stability studies of cosmetic emulsions prepared from natural products such as wine, grape seed oil and mastic resin

An attempt was made in this study to use diluted wine as the aqueous phase and grapeseed oil as the oil phase for the preparation of oil-in-water cosmetic emulsions. Two monovarietal wines of Hellenic origin were used in this study; a red one from Sangiovese grapes and a white one from Muscat of Samos grapes. The oil-to-water ratio in the emulsions was 20:80 (v/v) and the wine concentrations in the aqueous phase were in the range of 5-100% (v/v). Glycerol monostearate was used as emulsifying agent. The only extra additive was mastic resin from Pistacia lentiscus var. Chia, which is reported to have healing and antibacterial properties. The study of the emulsion stability involved droplet size determinations and viscosity measurements for a period of sixty days. It was found that the optimum percentage of wine (red and white) in the aqueous phase of such emulsions is 20% (v/v) and of the mastic resin 2% (w/v).