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How Do You Make Shower Gel Smell Good?
I am intrigued and challenged about adding fragrance to shower gels. Each time I tried adding essential oils to make my shower gel smell good, I end up with thin liquids. In my formulations, somehow they are always thin and when I
try to thicken with Xanthan or Guar gum, it becomes goey.What do you suggest? -
18 Replies
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I have had a sample of Synthalen W400 from one of my suppliers and they say it’s great with such formulations. Maybe you can give it a shot and see if it holds up, although I have used Crothix liquid and Rewoderm LI S80 and the results are good.
But my formulations are based on SLES/CAPB and sodium chloride as the main components. -
Without knowing the formula it’s hard to say. In general any form of fragrance tends to thin a surfactant blend.
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Distilled Water (Aqua)Aloe barbadensis (leaf) extractDecyl glucosideSodium cocoamphoacetateCoco glucosideGlycerinFragranceInositolSodium BicabonateQuillaja saponiariaBenzoic AcidSorbic AcidDehydro Acetic AcidBenzyl AlcoholSea Buckthorn Berry OilPlantserve SGuar GumI would love it to have a mildly strong smell while still being viscous.
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The problem is that you are working with a sulphate-free formula and you have no thickeners in the formula except the guar gum. You will have to increase the amount of guar or use another thickener as well. And why Inositol?
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Yes, that was one of my aims, to create a sulphate-free formula. Inositol is to serve as a chelating agent, although I am still trying to see if I need to source another ingredient.The Guar gum is currently at 0.5%. What do you think of Gellan Gum?
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@milliachemist, most of these products are usually difficult to source in the UK and when you are able to get one supplier, they want you to buy 20 tonnes.
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I can’t source gums here so I have no experience with them. I guess the guar gum is responsible for your ‘gooey’ sensorials. I had a stuggle with thickening my own sulphate-free shampoo and I ended up using Glucamate VLT and MEA (the MEA gave enhanced foaming and allowed a reduction in the Glucamate, which is an expensive item.)
So, your choice is to continue along that path or to change to a salt-thickening system using sulphates. I suggest you do a cost and sales price analysis of your proposed sulphate-free product. You may find that it will not be price-competitive. In order to make a price-competitive shower gel I had to first locate an all-purpose-blend with which I could make up a product with 30% surfactant. My own attempts resulted in a minimum of 40% surfactant. Shower gels need to be really high foaming or the consumer perceives inadequate cost/benefit because they use too much. -
hydroxypropyl methylcellulose is a good thickener for this type of system, as it’s compatible with most surfactants, boosts foam and gives a long-flow, far less gooey rheology than xanthan gum or guar gum; it’s available from Univar (as various grades of Methocel) and IMCD (as Benecel HPMC)
gellan gum is excellent for suspending particles, but it will give you no viscosity whatsoever
(incidentally, Matrix Chemie and Surfachem/Birchwood Chemicals are the respective UK small-order suppliers for 3V Sigma and Evonik Goldschmidt)
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You might also consider Sclerotium Gum … forms a gel, but is not sticky like Xanthan or guar. I use it in a couple of cleansers using surfactants very similar to what you are using. Plus, you can add up to 5% oils (or fragrance oils) with Sclerotium.
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@Bill_Toge, thanks. While following the trail of Methocel supplier in the UK, I came across Ultratex and due to its simplicity, I am also considering it.@MarkBroussard, I also tried to check up on Sclerotium Gum, but could not find any UK supplier. Why is the US the land of the best ingredients? I’m jealous!
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Hi @braveheart. If you still want to pursue your sulfate free formula, you can try thickening your formula using guar gum-xanthan gum system. 0.5% guar to 0.30% xanthan will do.
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@Kirk. I have both, just never considered the combination. Thanks.
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@Kirk How would you recommend the order of addition of these 2 polymers into the water phase, secondly considering the ionic nature do you thick these 2 will sync nicely??
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In my experience of using these gums for shampoo, these two gums are dispersed first (guar gum then xanthan gum) in the hot water phase (75 - 80 deg C) after adding the chelating agent (I use phytic acid btw). then after that, the surfactants are added. And these 2 gums work nicely together as far as I know.
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@ Kirk
Great info, thanx a ton. -
If you aren’t aware, one trick to incorporating gums into formulations is to first prehydrate the gums by making a slurry. Add glycerin to the gums and and mix with a spatula. Then drizzle the slurry into the water phase while either stirring vigorously or under high shear if you have a homogenizer.
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@MarkBroussard:
Thanks for the tip. Yes, I have a homogenizer. HA and Ferulic has been an awkward challenge. I try to leave them in the aqua for hours, but I will try the glycerin procedure at once and let you know. Thanks. -
With Ferulic, just make a slurry with Panthenol, add to water phase and heat to 80C. It readily goes into solution.HA … it does not form a slurry with anything that I have tried … you just have to sprinkle it onto water with rapid stirring and wait.
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