The ISO/TR 18811 gives guidelines on how to measure the stability of emulsions and suspensions used in the cosmetic industry. The stability gives an indication if a product maintains its properties during storage and use. The standard does not describe specific tests in detail but gives an overview over possible stability tests and when to use them.

ISO/TR 18811: Application and Use

The stability is an important parameter of many products. It describes how long a product maintains its properties during storage and use. In other words, stability studies can be used to determine the shelf life of products.

The ISO/TR 18811 gives guidelines on how to analyse the stability of cosmetic products, especially emulsions and suspensions. It can therefore be used to choose the appropriate stability test for different products. It does not, however, offer guidelines on how to conduct individual tests.

ISO/TR 18811: Experimentation

The guideline ISO/TR 18811 specifies different areas of analysis. These are:

• Stage/scale of tested batches: when and how many batches to test
• Test procedures and conditions: temperature and humidity, vibration, centrifugation, exposure to light
• Physical, physico-chemical and chemical alterations: description of different destabilisation processes and their specific test methods
• Microbiological aspects: such as microbial count and preservation efficacy testing
• Interactions with packaging: interactions with packaging made out of celluloid, metallic, plastic, and glass materials, as well as pressure vessels

The MS 20 Dispersion Stability Analysis System from DataPhysics Instruments can be used for optical measurements of light transmission and backscattering, one of the specific test methods mentioned in the standard.

The ISO/TR 18811 is in use since 2018.

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