Personal care or cosmetic oil in water emulsions include an oil emulsifier
and a combination of a Xanthan polysaccharide and a polyglucomannan
polysaccharide to provide enhanced stability even at low emulsifier
stabiliser levels. The emulsifier stabiliser system provides stable
emulsions without dominating system rheology, particularly viscosity.
Thus, the emulsions can have a low viscosity suitable for formulation as
milks or thin lotions, or can be thickened, desirably by thickening agents
other than the Xanthan and/or polyglucomannan, to provide emulsion creams
or gels. This enables the system to be used very flexibly in end use
applications. The emulsifier is desirably a non-ionic emulsifier and
particularly is a combination of a low HLB and a high HLB emulsifier and
can be formulated with conventional alcohol ethoxylate surfactants or from
non-EO surfactants e.g. sucrose ester high HLB surfactants and citrate or
sorbitan ester low HLB surfactants.
