Cosmetic Industry

Foaming quality of liquid handwash

Posted by himansh_20 on October 24, 2020 at 2:08 pm

We are formulating sulphate based liquid hand wash and have developed two formulations as given below. The observations and problems encountered are presented for discussion and suggestion for improvement.

Formulation “A”

Ingradients	Quantity	% as active matter
Aqua	149.5 g	QS
Sodium Laureth Sulfate, 27%	64.8 g	7 %
Sodium Lauryl Sulfate, 98%	7.7 g	3 %
CAPB, 30%	16.7 g	2 %
Coco DEA, Pure	2.5 g	1 %
Glycerin, 98%	5.1 g	2 %
EDTA	0.3 g	0.1 %
PQ7	0.3 g	0.1 %
Citric acid	0.3 g	0.1 %
Sodium chloride, 98%	2.6 g	1 %
DMDM Hydantoin	0.3 g	0.1 %
Sodium benzoate, pure	0.3 g	0.1 %
SLES : SLS (As active matter) = 7 : 3 Total sulfates (Active) : CAPB : CDEA = 1 : 0.2 : 0.1

Observation for “A”: Foam is not satisfactory, bubble size is small and poor foam stability.

Formulation “B”

Ingradients	Quantity	% as active matter
Aqua	61.6 g	QS
Sodium Laureth Sulfate, 28%	20.2 g	5.6 %
Sodium Lauryl Sulfate, 85%	2.8 g	2.4 %
CAPB, 28%	11.5 g	3.2 %
Coco DEA, 85%	1.9 g	1.6 %
Glycerin, 98%	1.6 g	1.6 %
EDTA, Pure	0.1 g	0.1 %
Citric acid, Pure	0.1 g	0.1 %
DMDM Hydantoin, Pure	0.1 g	0.1 %
Sodium benzoate, pure	0.1 g	0.1 %
SLES : SLS (As active matter) = 7 : 3 Total sulfates (Active) : CAPB : CDEA = 1 : 0.4 : 0.2

Observation for “B”: Foam is improved as compared to “A” but still less than standard market product, bubble size is small and poor foam stability. Product was sufficiently viscous, hence, sodium chloride addition was not required.

himansh_20 replied 3 years, 4 months ago 6 Members · 12 Replies

12 Replies

himansh_20

Member
October 24, 2020 at 2:09 pm

Please review the formulation and suggest the changes.
ketchito

Member
October 25, 2020 at 2:18 pm

@himansh_20 Just by reducing or removing Glycerin from your formula (since it doesn’t do much in a rinse-off product other than maybe help with clarity) you’ll improve foam. Another thing you can do is adding an Amine oxide, which will improve your foaming behavior. Increasing CAPB and DEA will also imrpove foam density and stability.
belassi

Member
October 25, 2020 at 3:54 pm

The formulations are not expressed in proper percentages. I really haven’t the inclination to do all the calculations for you.
himansh_20

Member
October 25, 2020 at 5:00 pm

Thank Mr Belassi. I am repeating the formulation property for your review and expert opinion.

SLES, acive matter 5.6 % SLS, active matter 2.4 %

CAPB, active matter 3.2%

CDEA, Active 1.6 %

Glycerin 1.6 %

EDTA 0.1 %

Citric acid 0.1 %

DMDM Hydantoin, 0.1 %

Sodium benzoate, 0.1 %

SLES : SLS = 7 : 3

Total sulfates : CAPB : CDEA = 1 : 0.4 : 0.2
himansh_20

Member
October 28, 2020 at 3:33 am

ketchito said:

@himansh_20 Just by reducing or removing Glycerin from your formula (since it doesn’t do much in a rinse-off product other than maybe help with clarity) you’ll improve foam. Another thing you can do is adding an Amine oxide, which will improve your foaming behavior. Increasing CAPB and DEA will also imrpove foam density and stability.
Thank you very much for kind opinion.
himansh_20

Member
October 28, 2020 at 3:43 am

Belassi said:

The formulations are not expressed in proper percentages. I really haven’t the inclination to do all the calculations for you.

SLES (Liquid 28%) 20.4 g

SLS powder 2.8 g

CAPB (Liquid 28%) 11.5 g

Coco DEA (Liquid)1.9 g

Glycerin 1.6 g

EDTA 0.1 g

Citric acid 0.1 g

DMDM Hydantoin 0.1 g

Sodium benzoate 0.1 g

Aqua QS to 100 gram

Mr Belassi, would you please review this formulation and suggest for improving foaming quality.
amitvedakar

Member
October 28, 2020 at 5:33 am

still wrong.

you have to mention how much you add ingredient in 100 gm handwash. (%).
Benz3ne

Member
October 28, 2020 at 2:30 pm

amitvedakar said:

still wrong.

you have to mention how much you add ingredient in 100 gm handwash. (%).

Am I missing something? The ingredients are listed as grams per 100g (denoted by water qs to 100g). Wouldn’t that then be the same as w/w%?
Edit: E.g. SLES.
(w(ingredient)/w(total)) *100 = w/w%.
(20.4g/100g) * 100 = 20.4% w/w.
Benz3ne

Member
October 28, 2020 at 2:41 pm

To OP - I’d also second dropping the % of glycerine. I’ve noted from my own trials that glycerine inclusion does inhibit foam production and lowers viscosity (typically).
Have you compared the surfactant blend in the standard market product to yours? Typically mixtures are SLES/CAPB only or sometimes include a little CDEA, so maybe just try those two and scale-up actives of those two to 12%, thicken with salt and see how the lather differs.
You might actually have a preferable lather, but bubbles might be smaller. Or that you require a little more water to lather the product.
I’ve read into handwashes/bodywashes being up to around 20% actives, so you might want to experiment with concentration of actives, up from the ~13% you currently have.
For records, I found that ~12% actives across an approximately 6:2:1 ratio (SLES:CAPB:CDEA) has lathered just fine, comparably to other marketed hand washes.
Abdullah

Member
October 29, 2020 at 5:59 am

@himansh_20 i first wanted to make sulfate free products but it was not good. Then made sulfate products at least a hundred different formulas because i was afraid of sulfate and didn’t wanted my product to be harsh.
Here is what i learned.

SLES is not harsh so don’t be afraid of it. Use at least %10 active SLES if you want good foam.

SLS is harsher than SLES and has less foam. So why use it? Remove this.

CAPB isn’t milder than SLES (in my experience may be because it has MCI/MI as preservative) and not only doesn’t increase the foam but decrease it. So use it at %1 just for viscosity purpose.

CDEA also just to shift the salt curve to left at %1

Don’t use glycerin

Use pq7 at %3.3 or 2.2 (0.2, 0.3 active)

Don’t know about your preservatives and edta as i haven’t used them.

Here is my suggested formula from your available ingredients for good foam.

SLES %10 active
CAPB %1 active
CDEA %1 active or don’t use at all
Pq7 %0.2 or 0.3 active
himansh_20

Member
October 30, 2020 at 3:52 am

Thank you very much, Mr Abdullah.
himansh_20

Member
November 30, 2020 at 3:45 am

Thanks Dr Abdullah. As per your advice, I omitted glycerine and prepared the handwash. It is giving excellent foaming.