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Guar Gum
Hello there,
This is the first time I try to use this website.
I’m facing a huge problem concerning dissolving guar gum in the shampoo.
I was first using the cationic guar gum and then changed to start using guar gum with pH already wquals to 6.
I am preparing a 1% solution of guar gum with water aside and mix using the high shear mixer. I’m adding the guar slowly to the container.
Then I’m leaving the 1% solution of guar gum for 3 hours aside (till the SLES 70 is totally dissolved in the mixer) so they fully hydrate and dissolve.
when the SLES 70 is totally dissolved I add the Sodium Chloride and once the mixture is homogeneous I start adding the fully hydrated guar gum to the shampoo and then upon being homogeneous I start adding the rest of surfactants ( Cocamide DEA, Cocamidopropyl Betaine).
When I finish the product and leave it to rest for a while a thick gellish layer is formed on the surface of the shampoo. First I said it may be the foam exposed to air then it turned to be the guar gum it self! -
7 Replies
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I was recently struggling with not being to fully hydrate my cationic guar gum in water or glycerin. It would keep separating. I finally let the guar sit in the glycerin for 24hrs and that seemed to do the trick. Not sure why my particular grade of guar seems to take so much longer to hydrate than other people’s, but that’s what finally worked for me.
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Ok, let’s solve this huge problem of yours.
Your method is wrong. You need to hydrate the gum with all water available from the formula. As you mentioned, SLES is 70% active (if I understand it correctly). The rest is water and maybe preservative. There you go, available water. If you’re using another surfactant, such as Cocamidopropyl betaine, there is up to 70% water. And so on.
Here’s how to process it correctly.
Combine all surfactants under low shear with water. Once homogenous, you can think of adding your gum. The best way would be to slurry it, in glycerin (glycerin helps stabilize the foam and you can make some product story with that) for example, and add that under low shear.Don’t forget to adjust pH first and add NaCl after. Sometimes adjusting pH is enough to thicken your product.
Hope this helps.
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My Formula contains
11.5% SLES 70% active
3% Cocamidopropyl Betaine
2% Cocamide DEA
1.5% Sodium Chloride
0.3% Guar Gum
Then you suggested to hydrate the guar gum with all the amount of water and leave the usage of sodium chloride till the end depending on the viscosity of my product right?
and making the guar gum solution slurry won’t affect its efficiency? the guar gum I use has a pH=6 (1% solution) -
@AyaKhatib What affects the efficiency is to switch from cationic guar gum to guar gum. If you want an ingredient that both increases viscosity and mainly helps condition hair, then you should use cationic guar gum (the positive charge helps it bind negative sites on hair). Guar gum would only help you with the viscosity part, but not with the conditioning.
I agree with @Paprik that you need to change the order of addition. Usually in a formula like yours, I’d add guar gum first (preferently the cationic one for the above reasons), mix it vigurously for aprox. 20 min (depending on your mixing equipment; if you use a homogenizer, you should mix for shorter time). I’d add then SLES with medium mixing (10-20 min, till the mixture is homogenous), CAPB (with lower mixing) and Cocamide DEA (for 10 min aprox., since final viscosity only shows up pnce it’s fully mixed). Sodium chloride should be added last and as a solution.
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I usually recommend and use only low shear when working with surfactants. However @ketchito ‘s process should work, so give it a try. Especially if you do not want to use any humectant (such as Glycerin) and slurry the gum. (slurring the gum won’t reduce its effectiveness)
One more thing, Guar gum has kind of low viscosity modifying effect. Typically Guar gum is used up to 2%. So 0.3% will not do much.
Well, last point, why are you even using gum? You are using SLES, this should easily thicken with NaCl. You can try to increase Cocamidopropyl Betaine (again, 30% active will give you at 3% input only 0.9% actual Cocamidopropyl Betaine) to have more salt from it, adjust pH to approx. 5.3 - 5.8 and see how it goes. After that, start to add 0.3-0.5% NaCl every time until you reach desired viscosity. (max 3%. Or if you add too much, the viscosity will irreversibly drop)
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@AyaKhatib I see that your system is easy to thick with just adding slat so why using guar gum?
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What is your batch size that you make and what is your high shear mixer?
The problem is you are not dissolving that 1% guar gum solution properly. Don’t make 1% first.
The batch that has separated, heat it to 40°c and mix it with high shear mixer. The problem will be solved.
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