goo_mason
Champion barbed-wire hurdler
- Location
- Leith, Edinburgh
Reminds me of King of Shaves Kinexium shave gel with 'magnetic particles' in it to improve your shave. A chemist sent this to them:
"The packaging on your Kinexium gel says it contains Micro-Magnetically Enhanced (MME) magnetic particles in the gel that stick to the blade – thus providing you with an additional layer or protection and lubrication between the skin and the blade.
Is that really true? I can't see anything ferrous in the ingredients except some iron oxide for colouring. While Fe3O4 may be magnetic, it is extremely unlikely that this would impart any 'magnetic' properties to this gel. Seeing that it is last in the list, the concentration will be minimal; plus the particles are so small that they will not move through the gel under any magnetic influence. Also, the oxide would have to be "enhanced" in some way to meet your claims. Finally, given that blades are generally coated steel their magnetic availability must be reduced.
So: does Kinexium gel contain Micro-Magnetically Enhanced (MME) magnetic particles? And what wold they be, exactly?"
They replied:
"The Iron Oxide is the magnetic material and it is in the formulation for that reason. The Iron Oxide does make the product black, but that is not by design, but just due to the nature of the cosmetic grade iron oxide we can buy (the marketing guys would no doubt have preferred a blue or green gel).
We magnetise (enhance) the iron oxide before it is blended into the formulation. The formulation derives its viscosity from a polymer, this polymer also provides the suspension system that keeps the iron oxide dispersed throughout the gel (otherwise it would sink to the bottom). As the iron oxide is suspended in the gel it is always surrounded by gel. So where there is iron oxide there is gel and vice versa.
Although razor blades are indeed coated these coatings are extremely thin and do not appear to overtly affect the way magnetic particles are attracted to the iron content in the steel. During the shave a micro thin layer of shave gel exists between the blade and skin, due in part to the adhesion of the gel to the skin, in part due to adhesion of the gel to the steel. We used the magnetised iron oxide to further enhance the adhesion of the gel to the blades. In this way we have two extremely thin layers of gel, one on the skin and one on the blade to help reduce the drag of the blade on the skin."
which the chemist says is "As expected, semi-scientific drivel. True information, conjecture, and blatant hand-waving carefully woven into star-dust marketing speak.
I'd like to see any actual measurements that show differences in gel-to-blade adhesion behaviour of this vs. normal gel
"
"The packaging on your Kinexium gel says it contains Micro-Magnetically Enhanced (MME) magnetic particles in the gel that stick to the blade – thus providing you with an additional layer or protection and lubrication between the skin and the blade.
Is that really true? I can't see anything ferrous in the ingredients except some iron oxide for colouring. While Fe3O4 may be magnetic, it is extremely unlikely that this would impart any 'magnetic' properties to this gel. Seeing that it is last in the list, the concentration will be minimal; plus the particles are so small that they will not move through the gel under any magnetic influence. Also, the oxide would have to be "enhanced" in some way to meet your claims. Finally, given that blades are generally coated steel their magnetic availability must be reduced.
So: does Kinexium gel contain Micro-Magnetically Enhanced (MME) magnetic particles? And what wold they be, exactly?"
They replied:
"The Iron Oxide is the magnetic material and it is in the formulation for that reason. The Iron Oxide does make the product black, but that is not by design, but just due to the nature of the cosmetic grade iron oxide we can buy (the marketing guys would no doubt have preferred a blue or green gel).
We magnetise (enhance) the iron oxide before it is blended into the formulation. The formulation derives its viscosity from a polymer, this polymer also provides the suspension system that keeps the iron oxide dispersed throughout the gel (otherwise it would sink to the bottom). As the iron oxide is suspended in the gel it is always surrounded by gel. So where there is iron oxide there is gel and vice versa.
Although razor blades are indeed coated these coatings are extremely thin and do not appear to overtly affect the way magnetic particles are attracted to the iron content in the steel. During the shave a micro thin layer of shave gel exists between the blade and skin, due in part to the adhesion of the gel to the skin, in part due to adhesion of the gel to the steel. We used the magnetised iron oxide to further enhance the adhesion of the gel to the blades. In this way we have two extremely thin layers of gel, one on the skin and one on the blade to help reduce the drag of the blade on the skin."
which the chemist says is "As expected, semi-scientific drivel. True information, conjecture, and blatant hand-waving carefully woven into star-dust marketing speak.
I'd like to see any actual measurements that show differences in gel-to-blade adhesion behaviour of this vs. normal gel
"
