Home Cosmetic Science Talk Formulating SHAMPOO SURFACTANTS

  • SHAMPOO SURFACTANTS

    Posted by Anonymous on June 14, 2019 at 8:19 am

    Hello Everyone,

    I have been reading this forum about a half a year now
    and I got so many useful informations. I thank you all for your contribution.

    Today I need (and I kindly ask you for) your help. I have
    no cosmetic/chemist background.

     

    My formula for NORMAL TO DRY hair has  around 13%  surfactant total active matter :

    Disodium/Sodium Cocoyl Glutamate 8% , (anionic)

    Disodium Cocoampodiacetate 3%, (amphoteric)

    Decyl Glucoside 1%,  (nonionic)

    Lamesoft PO65  1%. (aniconic?)

    Could this be call a mild shampoo? I read somewhere the
    sum for shampoo surfactants should be 10-15% of total active matter. Is it
    true? Total surfactant per weight in my shampoo is  44,5 % 
    which  seems to me somehow high.  Could this be (theoretically ) OK or have I
    failed somewhere in my calculations?

    My sufractant formula for NORMAL TO OILY hair has about
    16,5 % surfactants total active matter, using the same surfactants in different
    %:

    Disodium/Sodium Cocoyl Glutamate 8,8

    Disodium Cocoampodiacetate 4,7

    Decyl Glucoside 2,7

    Lamesoft 0,35

    Since this is out of  recommended 10-15% sum of AM, would it be to
    harsh for scalp? I also read that for oily hair one should use mild
    surfactants. Is my mixture mild enough to be able to claim this?

    I am thickening both shampoos with xantan (0,4 -0,5%) ,
    premixed with glycerin (3%). To this I pour  water with
    Pantheol and Betaine and the surfactants blend. Then I let it sit for 4-5 hours.
    Only then I add  Essential oil blend (around
    1%) and Geogard 221 preservative (0,8%). I mix it well by hand. At the very end I also
    add citric acid solution to lower Ph to 5-5,5. The consistancy remains too thin
    and it seems like the xantan mixture is not evenly dispersed.  If I go to 1 % of xantan it becomes somehow  unusable due to a kind of a snoty constistancy.
    Is there any better procedure or a natural ingredient to fix this problem? It
    is all at the room temperature procedure.

    Would also  like to
    get your opinions on surfactants selection for both types of shampoo. (I need
    the shampoo to be Cosmos/Ecocert aproved).

    belassi replied 4 years, 9 months ago 4 Members · 9 Replies
  • 9 Replies
  • oldperry

    Member
    June 14, 2019 at 4:04 pm

    The term “mild shampoo” is a marketing term. You can define it however you want so you can use 15%, 40%, 4%…it doesn’t matter. You just need to justify it if challenged in your claims.  If you sell a normal formula with 16% surfactant, you can sell a mild formula that has 15%.

    I’m not sure what you mean by “Total surfactant per weight in my shampoo is  44,5 %”  It looks like your surfactant level is 13%

  • Anonymous

    Guest
    June 14, 2019 at 6:08 pm

    Perry said:

    The term “mild shampoo” is a marketing term. You can define it however you want so you can use 15%, 40%, 4%…it doesn’t matter. You just need to justify it if challenged in your claims.  If you sell a normal formula with 16% surfactant, you can sell a mild formula that has 15%.

    I’m not sure what you mean by “Total surfactant per weight in my shampoo is  44,5 %”  It looks like your surfactant level is 13%

    Thank you very much for your answer Perry. Sorry for the confusion about %.  Let me put it this way: total surfactant (Active Matter) is 13 % as they are mostly in liquid form. But when I weigt by grams this means that in a bottle of 100 g of final product there is 44,5 g surfactants and the rest are other additives and added destiled water. Am I doing it as it should be done?

    Any suggestions about chosen surfactants?

  • oldperry

    Member
    June 14, 2019 at 7:39 pm

    The surfactant active matter is what matters. The rest of the volume is just water in the surfactants. For example, if you use 50% of a 30% active SLS, you are really using 15% SLS with the remaining 35% being water.

    As for your surfactants, that depends on what your customers expect in terms of performance. I don’t think your selection will make a particularly foamy, nice feeling product but that’s just my taste.  I would use Sodium Lauryl Sulfate and Cocamidopropyl Betaine.  Versions of these are approved in the COSMOS standard.

    http://www.cosmos-standard-rm.org/verifmp.php 

  • Anonymous

    Guest
    June 17, 2019 at 6:10 am
    Thank you for your answer.
    Sls is not very appealing so I will try some other  anionics.
  • ngarayeva001

    Member
    June 17, 2019 at 6:32 am

    You are using mild surfactants but they are very difficult to thicken. Consider using crothix.

  • Anonymous

    Guest
    June 18, 2019 at 7:44 am

    You are using mild surfactants but they are very difficult to thicken. Consider using crothix.

    Thank you for your suggestion, but crothix is not acceptable for Ecocert/Cosmos. Would switching to Sodium Coco Sulphate instead of Disodium/Sodium Cocoyl Glutamate change anything regarding thickening issue if all the others ingredients stay the same?
    Does anyone know if  there is any other Cosmos acceptable thickener beside xantan and guar gum?
  • ngarayeva001

    Member
    June 18, 2019 at 3:33 pm

    It should  thicken with salt but you are suggesting to replace mild surfactant to a harsh one. The product won’t be the same.

  • EVchem

    Member
    June 24, 2019 at 4:40 pm

    @CAMPESINA there is EXCEPARL® LM-LC INCI Lauryl Lactate.  The brochure says valid for ECOCERT. Never used it before so I can’t speak to performance

  • belassi

    Member
    June 24, 2019 at 8:05 pm

    Does anyone know if  there is any other Cosmos acceptable thickener beside xantan and guar gum?
    Yes there are, but $$$. Are you intending to market the product? Do not lose sight of what competing products are selling for.

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