Home Cosmetic Science Talk Formulating Hair Polysorbate 20 keeps clay pomade fluid. Does not thicken!

  • Polysorbate 20 keeps clay pomade fluid. Does not thicken!

    Posted by KingRoland78 on February 25, 2019 at 6:22 am

    I’ve always had an issue with my clay pomade formulas during the cool down phase.  It would always thicken too fast and I would end up scooping it into the jar.  Now that I have introduced polysorbate 20 to my formula at 1.5%, my clay pomade doesn’t thicken at the final stage of cooling.  So much so that it doesn’t even thicken the next day.  I can litterlay pour it out.  Do I need to use less polysorbate 20? Or perhaps less water?  

    Water

    63.00%

    Kaolin Clay

    7.75%

    Ceteareth 20

    6.00%

    PEG-8 Beeswax

    5.75%

    PEG-40 HCO

    4.00%

    PEG-7 Glyceryl Cocoate

    3.00%

    Dead Sea Clay

    3.00%

    Cera Bellina

    2.75%

    Polysorbate 20

    1.50%

    Almond Oil

    1.00%

    Silica

    0.50%

    GelMaker® Style

    0.75%

    Phenoxyethanol SA

    1.00%

    belassi replied 5 years, 1 month ago 3 Members · 2 Replies
  • 2 Replies
  • Dirtnap1

    Member
    February 25, 2019 at 5:47 pm

    Without tween 20 it was too thick? Now introducing tween 20 it is too thin?
    What is the purpose for addition of tween 20 when you have Peg 40 HCO as a solubilizer?

    I’ve never used Gelmaker, is there an INCI for the specific ingredient? 

    You can try increasing the wax phase 10% and see if it helps to thicken. 

  • belassi

    Member
    February 26, 2019 at 1:59 am

    The PEG-7 GC is functionally similar to the Tween-20; you already had 3% of that without causing your current problem. I would try eliminating the Tween-20 and increasing the PEG-7 GC by first 1% then 2% and see what the result is like.

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