I know I am asking strangers, but maybe I will get lucky.
What I am trying to do is emulsify mineral oil with alcohol (95%) isopropyl or denatured. I don't know what to search for to learn the chemistry of this. My searches keep directing me towards water and oil which is not what I am trying to do. I am trying to mix alcohols and oils.
The reason is that when working with leather dyes, it dries the leather out normally. If I mix an oil with the dye this issue is eliminated, the oil also pulls the dye into the leather better. (there are multiple different oils I can use, but I am keeping with mineral oil for this thread)
If I use "oil" based dyes, the mixtures are fairly stable. Hours or days. Enough to work with. "Alcohol" based dyes, this mixture splits within minutes unless I keep the container on the stir plate. This is what I had to do to see if oil the technique works with alcohol based dyes, and it does. So, the dye being oil or alcohol based both perform better when used with more oil to pull it into the leather. Unfortunately this can't be a workaround for the alcohol based colors because I can't air brush with it needing to constantly restir every few minutes.
I tried using polysorbate 80 to emulsify the alcohol into the oil, and while this did work a little bit, it didn't work well. It works better with water which isn't what I am going for. The oil based dye has oleic acid in it according to the MSDS, which polysorbate 80 is derived from. Now I am wondering if that might be the key difference why that one is more stable. But, I am throwing things against the wall and seeing what sticks. I would like to learn more to be more targeted with my formula.