Emulsions are present in the most diverse industries, from food, pharmaceutical, cosmetic and even crude oil. Studying them is important because their characteristics and applications are useful for different processes. For the petroleum industry, for example, oil-in-water (O/W) emulsions can be very useful to reduce the viscosity of heavy crude oils, facilitating their transport. However, water-in-oil (W/O) emulsions can be seen as a problem, as they can increase the viscosity of the oil, increase the chances of corrosion, etc., leading to increased costs of transporting and processing the oil. In this sense, understanding the formation process and the stabilization mechanisms of these emulsions is very important. In this work, eight model W/O emulsions were formulated with the objective of understanding the stability of crude oil emulsions, using less complex systems. Formation and stability studies of the model emulsions were evaluated as a function of time and the presence of salts in the aqueous phase. The emulsions were studied using different methodologies, including microscopy, droplet size distribution, and stability analysis.