How do big brands add fragrance to shampoos and shower gels?

Tagged: body-wash, fragrance, shampoo, solubiliser

Formulating

How do big brands add fragrance to shampoos and shower gels?

Posted by Gunther on February 12, 2020 at 9:53 pm

A. Do they add the fragrance last thing, by mixing it so surfactants in the shampoo emulsify it?
This would cause lots of bubbles.

B. Do they premix fragrance with concentrated surfactants, then make the shampoo as usual?
This can cause some fragrance to evaporate by the time the shampoo is finished.

C. Premix the fragrance with some solubilizers/emulsifiers.
This looks like the best option, but I don’t see solubilizers in the List Of Ingredients.

D. Some other?
Please specify.

Bill_Toge replied 4 years, 10 months ago 10 Members · 10 Replies
10 Replies

EVchem

Member
February 13, 2020 at 2:11 pm

don’t have firsthand experience but what if they just reserved some small amount of the surfactant for the end to add with the fragrance?
belassi

Member
February 13, 2020 at 4:09 pm

I use method B.
ozgirl

Member
February 13, 2020 at 9:33 pm

We generally use method B also. We don’t notice any loss of fragrance.
chickenskin

Member
February 13, 2020 at 11:42 pm

Generally it’s mixed with a solubilizer then dumped in before salt addition (if needed) or it’s added at the end at room temperature. What specifically is the LOI?
Chemist77

Member
February 14, 2020 at 5:34 am

Method B and generally the surfactants’ concentration solubilizes the fragrance completely. Exceptions are always there though.
ngarayeva001

Member
February 15, 2020 at 7:36 pm

If it’s cold process I start making shampoo from premixing fragrance in olefin sulfonate. I noticed it’s much better in solubilising EOs than any other surfactant I work with. Better than SLES. Depending on type of EO, product might even stay clear.
OldPerry

Member
February 15, 2020 at 8:07 pm

It depends on the fragrance. Some go in fine if you just add them on the cool down phase. Others require something like Polysorbate to get them to go in.
ngarayeva001

Member
February 15, 2020 at 9:52 pm

I noticed that polysorbates can lead to a decrease of viscosity when added to shampoo. The caveat is that I only observed that in sulfate-free shampoos.
Fekher

Member
February 16, 2020 at 5:56 am

@Gunther actually i use A method it is too easy and i have never face problem with it .
Bill_Toge

Member
February 16, 2020 at 9:06 pm

ngarayeva001 said:

I noticed that polysorbates can lead to a decrease of viscosity when added to shampoo. The caveat is that I only observed that in sulfate-free shampoos.

this is true in structured surfactant systems generally; highly soluble non-ionic surfactants like polysorbate 20 compete with the structured surfactant system for the available water, and cause the latter to thin

a manufacturer I used to work for used to use PS20 to thin surfactant-based products, until they realised hexylene glycol was more flexible (easier to re-thicken the product if they overshot the bottom of the spec) and was cheaper