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Thickening agents
I’m making a shampoo with a soapberry concotion. I planned on using xantham gum to thicken since the idea is to make a shampoo with no other surfactant. I heard xantham gum is incompatible with some preservatives. If I’m using caprylhydroxamic acid as the preservative, should I use a different thickener? Guar gum, perhaps?
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13 Replies
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Tauriel - Did you end up using guar gum? I am concerned about separation and was wondering if you have noticed any.
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Hi Kelly
Ooops! I had some unexpected things come up. I did not get around to finishing the project!
From what I’ve read on one of Perry’s blogs(If you’re reading this, I find your blogs very informative btw), xanthan gum is incompatible with some preservatives. I do not know exactly how incompatible and also do not know which preservatives he was referring to.
What did you mean by separation, though? If it’s only water based, I don’t see why there should be separation…… Is there perhaps an oil phase? I’m an amateur so, I could be missing something here… I ‘ll be sure to update when I get results. -
whu you do not use salt?
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Hello smok,
I hadn’t thought of salt. I have only ever used salt to thicken liquid soap and it does work nicely there. Does salt thicken an acidic solution? -
Hello all,
So, I tried salt and turns out it did not thicken. I added about 3-4% salt to the soapberry infusion (which I had previously prepared) over low heat. I stirred for about 10 minutes over low heat and it still hadn’t thickened. I turned off the heat, let the mixture cool, and when I went to check back later, it still hadn’t thickened. I have never had this problem when thickening liquid soap. What did I do wrong?
The ingredients in the mixture are: soapberry, water, glycerin(5%), and the salt. -
sory i have a bad englishbut when add salt duliete in wataer you mixt the lotion until you get texture
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Not every surfactant system thickens with salt. You have to research the chemical designation/class of your surfactant. Also, when we use the salt curve we go far less than 3-4% Salt. If your surfactant system is going to thicken, it will at a lower level. You may have “crashed” the salt curve.Soapberry is difficult to thicken and in my experience not the best primary surfactant. -
Tauriel Use EDTA 0.5% for preservative and salt for thickner.
Xanthan gum is not easily dissolved -
Quimico said:Tauriel Use EDTA 0.5% for preservative and salt for thickner.
Xanthan gum is not easily dissolvedEDTA as preservative?
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been asking that myself??
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Xanthan is very easy to dissolve. It just has to be suspended in glycerin or oil.
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You can try increasing viscosity with maltodextrin
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soapberry and xanthan gum … sounds horrible, I can just imagine the vile snotty sensorials.
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