I have ordered from that other company as well. The one claiming DMI is not necessary, so I think the best thing to do is: using a DMI version on one side, a non-DMI version on the other one, to see if it makes some difference.
The ones selling LMC say adding 10 ml to 190 ml of water is ideal. They claim using 10 percent instead of 5 won't make a difference, but I'm going to try it anyway on eyebrows or something.
They all say you won't see results after three to four months and as I saw first results after two months, it all sounds logical and acceptable.
Today I mixed 10 ml of the product with 10 ml of DMI and 80 ml of distilled water.
I measured the PH level and it was 4. I had heard it should be around 6 to work. Is there anything I can adjust?
You can adjust the pH of the solution.
Try looking in your local pet store (fish department) for liquid pH adjusters. You'll want pH Up, and an incredibly small amount at that.
Another alternative is to add a solid alkaline to your mix. Baking soda should work ok for this, and hopefully won't affect the consistency. You can find out online a variety of different alkalines that you may have lying around the house!
Start off small when adding the alkaline, most are very potent and will take it from 4 to 10 in a couple drops. Testing the pH should be done after the solution has been mixed and left to stand for a few minutes.
Tom
-- EDIT]
I've striked out part of this as I'm not entirely sure adding Potassium Hydroxide to a cosmetic product is a good idea! I'll leave it there for people so future posts don't look odd.
Thanks, Tom. You say "hopefully" won't effect the consistency, so you're not sure about this one? I emailed Winkey.
I'm also waiting for another order from the US. They told me no DMI is needed for their LMC product.
"
PS Answer from Winkey]
You can use Triethanolamine (TEOA) to adjust PH if you need.TEOA is one kind of cosmetic ingredients
PS I added a small spoon of baking powder and now the PH is 6. Don't know if I should measure it again every day.
"
Not familiar with TEOA myself, and don't have much free time to look into it. Although it'll mean sourcing it, which could be problematic/expensive.
Thinking about what I wrote earlier, its probably a good thing you didn't go with my first suggestion. Using potassium hydroxide in a cosmetic product wouldn't be wise - baking powder will be fine as a temporary measure, though.
Test it again tomorrow and then perhaps every few days/weekly; depending on how many test strips you're willing to use. There may be slight variance but it shouldn't be defined enough to pick up with strips.
I still have around 90 strips left. So testing it tomorrow and every couple of days would be fine.
I'm using 80 ml of water, 10 ml of DMI and 10 ml of the melitane from Winkey.
I'll get the product from another seller probably this week. In a few months time I'll know what works best.
The other company said DMI is not necesarry. It's a big cost, so I'll test that one without the DMI, to see if it makes a difference or not.
That's good! If you test it every few days you'll know how stable the pH is. For the next batch you make, if you make it identical, you can assume that mixture is stable too.
If you modify it with TEA you'll have to make sure that doesn't alter it.
Not sure if you answered earlier, what's the consistency like? Would be useful to know for anyone else following
I use strips and noticed the green color was a bit transparent and when adding the powder it got back to medium green. You couldnt really tell if it was the PH or a bad strip. Most of the time the PH is around 5-6. Too early to tell about results.
Either way it's sorted now! Probably won't be worth investing in a digital reader, the cheap ones are inaccurate and the more accurate ones are still a decent bit.
PH levels are stable today. It's still a bit frustrating that I couldn't finish the experiment I started in June.
I remember many eyebrows came in darker, and just a few lashes but I think I've only done it twice a day for six weeks and then a few weeks once a day.
Looking at those pale lashes now, I think]I wonder if it's normal that it starts with a few hairs darkening up which would mean the rest is about to follow?
I'm also a bit insecure about not using the DMI on some parts ( the American seller told me it's not necessary) but I don't know. I'm probably an impatient person.
I wonder if it would make a huge difference with or without the DMI, it's just too expensive to experiment with and if you only experiment with DMI you'll never know how well it would work without it.
I've also heard it's a gradual process, that should mean the initial darkening would get deeper after a while I suppose.
seems like the one with added DMI remains stable at a PH level of 6 ( the darker green in the pic)
checking the PH level of the one with added baking powder, it goes from 5 to around 6 right after adding the powder, but after three days, it gets back to lighter green. After three weeks it's too early to have results but would that imply that DMI is more important than we thought?