-
Gelling/Thickening Cleansing Oil - Formula Help
I’d like to make a cleansing oil with a jelly texture or even a balm texture (but more buttery and not waxy like most cleansing balms on the market) and I’m wondering the best way to go about this. The base will be mainly synthetic oils (Cetyl Ethylhexanoate, isohexadecane) and will use PEG-20 glyceryl triisostearate and PEG-10 isostearate for surfactants.
In my research it seems like there’s a few different ways to thicken oils:
-clays
-silica/modified silica
-amino/sugar based
-polymer/cellulose
I really don’t see other products like this on the market (besides sucragel based formulas - I’ve tried these and I don’t like them) which makes me wonder why. Is there a contraindication with the surfactants or something that makes this difficult to do?
What about adding something like cetearyl alcohol?
Any advice would be appreciated!
-
6 Replies
-
I made one with a cationic surfactant. Worked very well.
-
1. “I really don’t see other products like this on the market (besides sucragel based formulas - I’ve tried these and I don’t like them) which makes me wonder why.”
Here are some of the ones on the market https://incidecoder.com/ingredients/peg-20-glyceryl-triisostearate and also Paula’s choice, which sells this https://www.paulaschoice.com/omegaand-complex-cleansing-balm/338-3380.html
You can check further for your other PEG.
2. “Is there a contraindication with the surfactants or something that makes this difficult to do?”- not familiar with PEGs, so can’t help you here.
3. “What about adding something like cetearyl alcohol?”- based on the function of PEG-20 glyceryl triisostearate, adding cetearyl alcohol will make your product more “draggy” and less cleansing. If you’re asking about just oils and cetearyl alcohol, that won’t be a nice product to use, nor it will clean as you’d want to.
-
None of these look like jelly oils but the Paulas choice does look like a good reference for a buttery texture
You may be right about the cetearyl alcohol. I noticed this using the Elemis cleansing balm which contains it. Although consumers seem to LOVE this one. Probably because of the nice fragrance
-
-
We’ve used Oilkemia 5S Polymer (Caprylic/Capric Triglyceride (and) Polyurethane-79) to gel oils in the past. 3% gave a soft gel that could be pumped or squeezed out of a bottle. 5% gave a firmer, jello-like consistency.
I haven’t tried this in conjunction with any surfactants.
-
PEG-20 Glyceryl Triisostearate is lovely to use but it’s not a must.
Use Isododecane or IPM as the main ingredient, add Stearic acid till you get the viscosity you like with a little Ceteareth-20 and/or Polysorbate 80 (at around 3%). All are cheap and safe, they feel great and give you a good rinsability.
-
Interesting formula. How much stearic acid would you suggest?
-
Log in to reply.