-
I need advice formulating mild dog shampoo
Hi there. I recently became interested in making cosmetics
and so far I’ve only made simple products for myself. Now I’m more confident
and would like to make mild shampoo for my dog. I researched and made formula
but want to make sure it’s not going to be irritating for him.I would really appreciate any advice
Here’s the formula:
water up to 100%
vegetable glycerin 2%
xanthan gum 0.5%
sodium laureth-5 carboxylate 12% (this wasn’t my first
choice but local supplier didn’t have any other anionic surfactant, is this
harsh?)decyl glucoside 3%
coco glycoside 3%
coco betain 9%
EO 1% (using this for scent because i don’t want to use
perfumes, is 1% too much?)wheat protein 2%
allantoin 0.3%
phenoxyethanol 0.5% (is this good preservative choice?)
citric acid to get pH down to 7-ish
I made this and formula was really foamy in the bottle, it
didn’t fully clear up even after sitting in the bottle for a few days. Not that
I care too much (it’s just for my dog) but would like to know if that affects
the quality or does it mean that ingredients are not blended well? After a few
days the bottom part of the bottle was clear and transparent yellow and foam
was at the top.I washed my hands with it, the foam was nice and it was
thick enough.Also, might be important, I didn’t heat water when mixing allantoin powder, so it kind of just sat there at the bottom of my beaker, but later when i added other ingredients i didn’t see that anymore.
-
8 Replies
-
Glycerin, allantoin and proteins don’t do anything useful or noticeable in rinse off applications, so you can get rid of them.
Essential oils reduce foam, so use as little as needed of them.
You’d need to conduct microbiological challenge tests for that, especially since bacteria loves proteins and xanthan gum.
What’s the dog typical skin pH?
Because you’ll want the shampoo to match that as closely as possible. -
I recall it’s more alkaline than human. Swiftcraftymonkey has an article about pet formulations. Might be worth it to have a look.
-
The pH of dog’s skin is 7.5 … it is also quite thin relative humans and much more sensitive … I would nix the essential oils, they might smell good, but could easily irritate you pet’s skin.
Formulating for dog’s skin is akin to formulating for babies … keep it as mild and gentle as possible.
-
Gunther said:Glycerin, allantoin and proteins don’t do anything useful or noticeable in rinse off applications, so you can get rid of them.
Thanks for the advice! I will get rid of allantoin and proteins. I want to keep glycerin tho- I find it much easier to mix xanthan gum with glycerin than with water.
ngarayeva001 said:I recall it’s more alkaline than human. Swiftcraftymonkey has an article about pet formulations. Might be worth it to have a look.Yes, it is more alkaline, I’m trying to keep it a little above 7.
Thank you so much! I’ve been looking for forums and communities to help me learn more.MarkBroussard said:I would nix the essential oils, they might smell good, but could easily irritate you pet’s skin.Thanks for the advice! Would you recommend just using perfume oils? Or maybe using EO at really low %?
-
So, allantoin, proteins, and oils don’t benefit surfactant containing products. Does that hold true for botanical extracts?
-
It’s a wash off product. Whatever you add there won’t have any benefit as it goes down the drain (there are some exceptions as polyquats). With surfactants what you generally want to do is to make them mild which is achieved through choosing right materials.
-
I sold shampoo to my clients for many years and did not know that I was being mislead by the makers of professional products. Now, I am questioning everything. So, Salicyclic Acid in dandruff shampoos, Colloidal Oatmeal as anti-irritant have no benefit?
-
Salicylic acid is an approved drug active for anti-dandruff so that works.
There is a study that showed Colloidal oatmeal had an effect but it’s a real weak study done by J&J scientists (who happen to sell Aveno that features colloidal oatmeal). You can read it here.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/dgr6z33lnbp7gw8/colloidal.pdf?dl=0
The study is just terrible and didn’t even compare it to a control lotion like their own formula. When put into some skin lotion, I doubt you’ll see any effect of colloidal oatmeal. It is just a claims ingredient.
Log in to reply.