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Shampoo too thick
Hello, I am new to this group but I happened to stumble across some threads and decided to join. I make products that are for afro-textured hair and contain natural ingredients. I have finally gotten the nerve to attempt a shampoo and was hoping that I could get some help. These are my ingredients:
55 g water
20 g decyl glucoside
10 g coco betaine
.5 g aloe
3 g glycerin
.5 g guar
4 g cetearyl
2 g cetyl
.5 g avocado
.5 g babassu
3 g Moroccan clay
1 g panthenol
1 g oat protein
.25 g tea tree
.25 g lemongrass
1 g Optiphen
I basically found a formula and tried to personalize it. I added aloe which I’m going to remove because it is difficult to work with. I decreased the oils because the original fórmula is 4 g oil. It also used 5 g BTMS 25 and 1 g cetyl which I changed as well. And I added the clay
The original recipe was watery and the emulsion didn’t hold and now with my changes, it’s too thick. I want it to be a moisturizing shampoo that doesn’t strip the hair of all its oils.
I appreciate any feedback.
Thanks
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14 Replies
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I’m thinking the cetearyl alcohol and cetyl alcohol may be whats making your product super thick. With only 1.5 % oils do you need that much emulsifier / stabilizer ? You can also try dropping the guar gum to 0.3 % … Also what is your process for incorporating the guar gum?
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Hi! Thanks so much for responding! I mixed the guar gun with the glycerine before adding it to the water phase.
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SashaHayz said:I’m thinking the cetearyl alcohol and cetyl alcohol may be whats making your product super thick. With only 1.5 % oils do you need that much emulsifier / stabilizer ? You can also try dropping the guar gum to 0.3 % … Also what is your process for incorporating the guar gum?
Hi! Thanks so much for responding! I mixed the guar gum with the glycerine before adding it to the water phase.
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Csears said:
Hi! Thanks so much for responding! I mixed the guar gum with the glycerine before adding it to the water phase.
Let me know how it goes. I make products for afro hair as well. I’m also working on a natural shampoo but my issue is the opposite its too thin.
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Here’s my opinion:
Remove the oils and clay from the formula. The job of a shampoo is to remove oil and dirt from the scalp and adding oils to a shampoo will only reduce the efficacy of the surfactants.
Remove the glycerin, panthenol, and oat protein. These will simply be washed off and rinsed down the drain. They will not have an effect on your hair in a shampoo.
Remove the cetearyl and cetyl alcohols. They are making your shampoo too thick and are also not necessary in a shampoo.
Your revised formula would look something like this:
- Water - 68%
- Decyl Glucoside - 20% (might consider a better option)
- Coco Betaine - 10%
- Optiphen - 1%
- Guar Gum - 0.5%
- Tea Tree - 0.25%
- Lemongrass - 0.25%
Active Surfactant Matter: around 13.6
Also, when sharing your formula, I recommend using percentages, rather than grams. 🙂
If you want to add a conditioning element to your shampoo, consider polyquaternium-10 at 0.5%.
I also recommend swapping out decyl glucoside for a different (perhaps anionic) surfactant, as I personally did not like using it in my experiments. See how you like it, first.
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Camel said:Here’s my opinion:
Remove the oils and clay from the formula. The job of a shampoo is to remove oil and dirt from the scalp and adding oils to a shampoo will only reduce the efficacy of the surfactants.
Remove the glycerin, panthenol, and oat protein. These will simply be washed off and rinsed down the drain. They will not have an effect on your hair in a shampoo.
Remove the cetearyl and cetyl alcohols. They are making your shampoo too thick and are also not necessary in a shampoo.
Your revised formula would look something like this:
- Water - 68%
- Decyl Glucoside - 20% (might consider a better option)
- Coco Betaine - 10%
- Optiphen - 1%
- Guar Gum - 0.5%
- Tea Tree - 0.25%
- Lemongrass - 0.25%
Active Surfactant Matter: around 13.6
Also, when sharing your formula, I recommend using percentages, rather than grams. 🙂
If you want to add a conditioning element to your shampoo, consider polyquaternium-10 at 0.5%.
I also recommend swapping out decyl glucoside for a different (perhaps anionic) surfactant, as I personally did not like using it in my experiments. See how you like it, first.
Thank you so much for your response. I will try these suggestions. ????
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Csears said:Camel said:Here’s my opinion:
Remove the oils and clay from the formula. The job of a shampoo is to remove oil and dirt from the scalp and adding oils to a shampoo will only reduce the efficacy of the surfactants.
Remove the glycerin, panthenol, and oat protein. These will simply be washed off and rinsed down the drain. They will not have an effect on your hair in a shampoo.
Remove the cetearyl and cetyl alcohols. They are making your shampoo too thick and are also not necessary in a shampoo.
Your revised formula would look something like this:
- Water - 68%
- Decyl Glucoside - 20% (might consider a better option)
- Coco Betaine - 10%
- Optiphen - 1%
- Guar Gum - 0.5%
- Tea Tree - 0.25%
- Lemongrass - 0.25%
Active Surfactant Matter: around 13.6
Also, when sharing your formula, I recommend using percentages, rather than grams. 🙂
If you want to add a conditioning element to your shampoo, consider polyquaternium-10 at 0.5%.
I also recommend swapping out decyl glucoside for a different (perhaps anionic) surfactant, as I personally did not like using it in my experiments. See how you like it, first.
Thank you so much for your response. I will try these suggestions. ????
I tried an experiment similar with Coco betaine and decal glucoside I found that over night the guar gum formed a clump in the bottle. Any idea why ?
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SashaHayz said:I tried an experiment similar with Coco betaine and decal glucoside I found that over night the guar gum formed a clump in the bottle. Any idea why ?
Can you share your procedure for making the product? Decyl Glucoside (and other glucosides) can be quite difficult to thicken and I would recommend using an anionic surfactant instead.
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@Csears, reducing the thickeners like the clay will help. Keep in mind that you need to adjust the PH to 5, I also recommend a chelator. Last, silicone is not natural, but I read that it performs well for Afro-textured hair.
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Syl said:@Csears, reducing the thickeners like the clay will help. Keep in mind that you need to adjust the PH to 5, I also recommend a chelator. Last, silicone is not natural, but I read that it performs well for Afro-textured hair.
Agree with the recommendation of a chelator.
@Csears, look into disodium edta or sodium phytate (for a more “natural” option but it will cost you significantly more).
They are used at very low percentages but are quite important in the preservation of your product.
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Syl said:@Csears, reducing the thickeners like the clay will help. Keep in mind that you need to adjust the PH to 5, I also recommend a chelator. Last, silicone is not natural, but I read that it performs well for Afro-textured hair.
Thank you. I used apple cider vinegar to adjust the ph in my trials. But I will be purchasing some citric acid. Thank you so much for your suggestions.
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Camel said:SashaHayz said:I tried an experiment similar with Coco betaine and decal glucoside I found that over night the guar gum formed a clump in the bottle. Any idea why ?
Can you share your procedure for making the product? Decyl Glucoside (and other glucosides) can be quite difficult to thicken and I would recommend using an anionic surfactant instead.
I disperse the guar gum in glycerin then add to the water phase then i mix. Then a add my surfactant phase and mix. Then i adjust the pH and bottle it. Overnight I see clumps or fish eyes in the product. I had the same issue using polyquaternium 10.
Decly Glucoside 14 Coco Betaine 13 Castor oil 0.5 PEG 7 Glyceryl Cocoate 2 Water Phase Water 53.2 Aloe Vera Juice 10 Glycerine 2 guar gum 0.3 Additives Liquid Germal Plus 0.5 crothix 3.5 Panthenol 0.5 Fragrance 0.5 -
@Csears If you’re using cationic guar, then it needs an acid pH to completely swell….but decyl glucoside actually makes pH more basic, and that might explain the clumpping. I’d add cationig guar at the beginning, and after some mixing, add either citric acid or edta (they both help bringing pH down). This will help cationig guar to swell properly. Then, you can add your surfactants.
@Camel I don’t think it’s always a waste to include fatty alcohol (or other type of oils) to cleansers. There are actually few nice patents (and research) from P&G and L’oreal using this type of technology. Sometimes, a cleanser is not just a cleanser.
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ketchito said:@Csears If you’re using cationic guar, then it needs an acid pH to completely swell….but decyl glucoside actually makes pH more basic, and that might explain the clumpping. I’d add cationig guar at the beginning, and after some mixing, add either citric acid or edta (they both help bringing pH down). This will help cationig guar to swell properly. Then, you can add your surfactants.
@Camel I don’t think it’s always a waste to include fatty alcohol (or other type of oils) to cleansers. There are actually few nice patents (and research) from P&G and L’oreal using this type of technology. Sometimes, a cleanser is not just a cleanser.
Thank you so much! This is very helpful. I will definitely be giving this a try. I do want to retain some oils because all of the commercial products that I have used contain some oils in the shampoo.
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