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Hair Gel w/ Carbomer
I’ve been working on a hair gel formulation with the following ingredients in a 64 oz batch. This current formulation yields a thicker mixture but still too fluid, more of a fluid custard. Any advice on getting it to a thicker/firmer gel state? This is my 3rd adjustment for this formulation and I seem to be getting closer but I’m not sure what to adjust, if it’s increasing the carbomer or something else. I’m trying to keep the ingredient list with the current ingredients but if anyone has any suggestions I’m open. Thanks in advance!
Water 53%
Aloe Barbadensis Leaf Juice 10%
Sorbitol 5%
Carthamus Tinctorius (Safflower) Seed Oil 5%
Ricinus Communis (Castor) Seed Oil 4%
Persea Gratissima (Avocado) Oil 4%
Butyrospermum Parkii (Shea Butter) 4%
Argania Spinosa Kernel Oil 4%
Oleth-5 3%
Phenoxyenthanol Ethylhexylglycerin 1.5%
Sodium Carbomer 0.5%
Tetrasodium EDTA 0.3%
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9 Replies
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You will never be able to thicken a product full of electrolytes with sodium carbomer (or any other carbomer/acrylic acid based polymer). Remove aloe. What is this product supposed to do in general?
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Thanks for responding. It’s a styling gel. Not meant for superhold or anything, but styling for curly hair.
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@SPMX first of all it is a cream not hair gel because it contains oils, then for styling hair the formulation should have styling agent which is as I guess absent in your formulation
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Agree with Fekher. Also, those oils would make hair greasy. All you need is a little bit of PVP and amodimethicone.
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@SPMX As @Fekher and @ngarayeva001 have highlighted, what gives the product hold once it has been applied? At the moment you are delivering oils and a little bit of thickener which will only add shine/softness and not hold. You need to introduce a fixative to define the curls (e.g. PVP and VP/VA Copolymer at 1-3% each) otherwise they will just drop out once the water has evaporated, and the oils will soften them further so they will hold their shape even less.
Even though you don’t need to neutralise sodium carbomer, it does have an optimum pH, so making sure the pH is between 5.0 - 10.0 may be a good quick check to make and adjusting as required.
Failing that, up the sodium carbomer in 0.1% increments and see what happens. I have used carbomers up to 1% to make a stiff hair gel before, though not with as many oils in the formulation as this.
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klangridge said:@SPMX As @Fekher and @ngarayeva001 have highlighted, what gives the product hold once it has been applied? At the moment you are delivering oils and a little bit of thickener which will only add shine/softness and not hold. You need to introduce a fixative to define the curls (e.g. PVP and VP/VA Copolymer at 1-3% each) otherwise they will just drop out once the water has evaporated, and the oils will soften them further so they will hold their shape even less.
Even though you don’t need to neutralise sodium carbomer, it does have an optimum pH, so making sure the pH is between 5.0 - 10.0 may be a good quick check to make and adjusting as required.
Failing that, up the sodium carbomer in 0.1% increments and see what happens. I have used carbomers up to 1% to make a stiff hair gel before, though not with as many oils in the formulation as this.
Thanks everyone! @klangridge I’m going to increase the carbomer with this next reformulation and remove several of the oils and use hydrolyzed wheat protein. I’m going to get some PVP. I was afraid that it would be to heavy for the hair but I will definitely give it a try.
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Hydrolysed protein will break gel network the same way as aloe.
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You have to choose: electrolytes or rheology modifiers based on acrylic acid. You can’t have both.
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ngarayeva001 said:Hydrolysed protein will break gel network the same way as aloe.
Thank you for the FYI. I am going to try the new formulation today!
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