One of our best lines is sulphate-free shampoo. Unfortunately the cost of the thickener (Glucamate VLT) has gone through the roof and I use it at around 4%. I don't want to remove the original thickener entirely because it has great hand-feel and also improves preservation, but I am looking at using an alternative lower cost thickener so as to be able to reduce the VLT to say 1%.
Today I came across some PEG-150 Distearate so I bought some. Have any of you used this thickener and if so would you like to comment?
Comments
the reasons being that it's difficult to disperse (it's only soluble in hot surfactants, and it dissolves very slowly), and that the viscosity it imparts is extremely sensitive to temperature variations; a product which is acceptable at 20°C becomes water-thin at 35°C and thickens to jelly at 10°C
as a direct substitute I'd suggest using Antil 120 Plus or Antil 127 from Evonik/Degussa, if you can source them
http://www.stepan.com/uploadedFiles/Literature_and_Downloads/General_Lit/Market_Segment_Specific/StepanSulfateFreeSurfactantSolutions.pdf
We swapped to Versathix over a year ago and have found it to work very well in our shampoos (some with sulfate and some that are sulfate free).
See website for details www.desertinbloomcosmeticslab.com