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natural shampoo with essential oils
Hi, I am trying to make a shampoo (my first one) following an existent formula.
The formula contains essential oil and a natural preservative which is not soluble in water (glyceryl caprylate and glyceryl undecylenate) which are mixed with Lamesoft po65 and then added to the shampoo. The problem is that the final product is not clear and looks like more a conditioner. I tried also to use coco glucoside. The product is clearer but the amount I need is too high and glucosides are irritating, not sure about the maximum amount I can use.
Any suggestion is really appreciated. Thank you -
7 Replies
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If you want useful help you’ll need to provide your formula. The best advice you’ll get from this description is…
1. Don’t use the essential oils
2. Use a different water-soluble preservative -
If your formulation can handle ph 4.5-5 I’d recommend the organic acids as a “natural” preservative system, but as Perry says more detail on the formulation will let us give better answers. Generally speaking as well, preservatives that aren’t at all water soluble won’t perform brilliantly at preserving systems with a lot of water in, like shampoos
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Hi, thank you for your messages, the formula is the following:
sodium Lauroyl methyl isethionate 12%
coco glucoside 5%
betaine 3%
NaCl 3%
citric acid 0.3%
Essential oils 0.5%
Sodium Bicarbonate to adjust pH
preservative 1% (caprylhhydroxamic acid/glyceryl caprylate/glycerin)It supposed to be a natural product.
I couldn’t find any natural water soluble preservative that works at neutral pH. -
@Michelle76 Can I ask why you need a neutral pH?
The pH of the skin is around 5.5, and most conditioners have a pH of 3-4 to help conditioning agents bind to the hair.
You may also find that solubilising a preservative like that won’t have a great effect - if you think about it, the solubiliser is bound to the preservative, so it doesn’t have the same surface area it would if alone, and therefore may have lower activity. Please do challenge testing to make sure it’s sufficient.
Also be careful with which essential oils you use - I understand you’re trying to make a natural product, but lots of essential oils come with sensitising effects which could irritate the scalp.
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klangridge said:@Michelle76 Can I ask why you need a neutral pH?
The pH of the skin is around 5.5, and most conditioners have a pH of 3-4 to help conditioning agents bind to the hair.
You may also find that solubilising a preservative like that won’t have a great effect - if you think about it, the solubiliser is bound to the preservative, so it doesn’t have the same surface area it would if alone, and therefore may have lower activity. Please do challenge testing to make sure it’s sufficient.
Also be careful with which essential oils you use - I understand you’re trying to make a natural product, but lots of essential oils come with sensitising effects which could irritate the scalp.
thank you for your message, really helpful and appreciated. I would like to keep the pH neutral because it is a shampoo for dogs and I read their skin has a more neutral pH. Conditioning agent won’t work at a neutral pH?
Th explanation you gave me for the preservative makes perfect sense and I haven’t think about this. What natural preservative I can use? I could not find any natural preservative working at neutral pH.
After your advice I have checked on essential oils and they actually seem worst then fragrances.
Thank you so much for your advice. -
This is just my opinion: Studies in humans have shown that our skin rapidly restores its normal pH level after being washed with either more acidic or even alkaline products (soap has a pH of around 9.5 - 10) so I see no reason why dogs shouldn’t. I use a human shampoo, pH 5.5, on my dogs and the results are definitely better than dog shampoos, many of which - see the consumer campaign against Harz - are highly injurious.
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3% of NaCl? That looks very high. Also iselux isn’t very responsive to salt.
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