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Aloe Vera Gel Carbomer Choice. Help
Aqua 67.58Sodium Metabisulphuite 0.10Disodium EDTA 0.10Aloe Barbadensis Leaf Juice 200x Concentrate 0.5Carbopol Ultrez 20 0.80Sodium Benzoate (and) Potassium Sorbate (and) Aqua 0.80Glycerin (and) Butylene Glycol (and) Aqua (and) Centella Asiatica Leaf Extract 0.10Aqua (and) Avena Sativa (Oat) Kernel Extract 0.10Glycerin (and) Water (and) Camellia Sinensis Leaf Extract (and) Potassium Sorbate (and) Sodium Benzoate 0.10TriethanolamineCitric AcidI am formulating a ~100% Aloe vera Gel but the polymer is not providing adequate clarity and viscosity build. Kindly suggest better formulation tips.
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5 Replies
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What pH is your formulation at?
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5.8
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Carbomer is not a great choice for this kind of system because it will function best (in terms of clarity and viscosity building) at pH closer to neutral. Even the ultrez grade is still not very electrolyte tolerant and you have plenty of salt sources. Check out the lubrizol website or UL prospector if you have access.
Additionally, your preservation system will see huge drop off inefficacy as pH increases. Those salts should really be used for systems where pH is <5.
Your system doesn’t add up to 100% by quite a bit, is there a typo or are you excluding ingredients? Either way if your water phase is really only ~60%, you cannot make a “100%” aloe gel, the aloe can only reconstitute in the available water. There’s also some debate about the labelling (at least in US) if you can really list your INCI as Aloe juice when what you intentionally added is Aloe powder.
So you may want to either choose a new preservative system that works at neutral pH so you can keep carbomer- you’ll still likely need excess because of the aloe, or a different rheology modifier (xanthan gum for example, the grade you get will impact the final appearance greatly but it can handle lower pH and salt)
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Your formula will need Polygel HG from 3V Sigma USA to obtain best clarity, even at pH 5.8, but more of it than 0.80% for all the reasons @EVchem states. Loose the salt preservatives and add nonionic ones, then you may get this closer to pH6.5.
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This is all great insight, thanks a lot.
I am planning to shift to euxyl PE 9010 (PE+EHG) at 1% while changing carbopol to ultrez 21 at 1% as it offers higher clarity and viscosity build. Any thoughts on that.
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