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Natural gel
I would like some input as to why my homemade gel leaves white residue and results in extreme flaking.
Formula is
Glycerin 5.00%
Irish moss (carrageenan powder) 1.70%
Xanthangum .75%
Dehydroxanthangum 1.75%
Add these powders to the glycerin and mix till smooth.
Water 90.5%
Proceed to mix water and add the glycerin to the water and continue to
Mix until a gel is formed about 3 minutes.Is my method flawed?
I used an overhead stirrer and tried with a stick blender and the results where the same.
Side note: water was at room temperature.Thank you.
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20 Replies
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You need to increase the glycerin dosage and for sure cut down on your polymers say by 25% to start with. The ratio of plasticizer to the polymers is way too imbalanced here.
Hopefully someone can chip in a better advice.Have you tried Carbomers and PVP if its just a normal hair gel???? -
Thank you for your advice. Chemist 77. The gel is more of a curl defining gel. And i am not sure what you mean by cutting down by 25%.
the polymers added together are 4.5% in the formulation. -
Final note. When i did reduce the amount of polymers the gel was not as thick and did not define my curls. I have think kinky hair. How do i reduce the amount of polymers and still achieve a thick gel that defines the curls with out using pvp or carbomer?
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Then just increase glycerin.
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Is it natural of synthetic? Heading is Natural then why carbomer? please explain………
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@ashish Carbomer is alternative if she doesn’t want to stick to natural or if she has a change of mind and that’s why I mentioned that if it is a normal gel without the huge responsibility of ‘natural’.
Hope it clarifies. -
I have tried to up the glycerin amount to 15% and adjusted the water. However, the gel was still flaking and left white residue.
Is it my process in creating the gel?
The polymers that iam using were said to not result in flaking or white residue. -
I am not sure who told you that this naturally derived gum thickeners do not result in flaking or residue. I have experienced this result with both higher levels with Xanthan gum and Amaze XT (Dehydroxanthan gum).
Having been involved in Formulating for a bit, I can recall when the Carbomers came out and I was able to experience their evolution and improvement. As such I remember the issues with the gum based thickeners. I know people want to be “natural” (an undefined term) now a days, but this is an area where you will see some marked decreases in performance by using the gums.
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Very interesting to read what Mark said above. I began using carbomers and only recently decided to try gums, but frankly I found their performance disappointing. Much more difficult to work with.
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@belassi I think you will find that you are not alone in your experiences. There are some tricks such as mixing different gums (ex. Solagum AX) but in the end a Carbomer will blow them away. I think this is a case where you really need to decide if “natural” is more important than “god.”
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The reason the gums are more prefered over the carbomer is their ability to define kinky hair. The gums result in a slimy, textured product that is not only moisturizing and glids through the hair strands, but also holds the desired style without stiffness. Carbomer gels simply dont have the same effect. Also the gums being natural is a plus.
I guess my question now is are there any suggestions regarding how
I can reduce the amount of flakiness and white residue? and what is the prefereed method of hydrating and incorporating the gums within the water? Was my method at least
correct?
Thank you for all your feedback. -
I agree with sir markfuller. We used to use gums for a natural shampoo, and client feedback is that white flakes, sort of dandruff-like, appeared on their hair with regular use of our product. I think it is really a battle now between “natural” and “good performance” and there’s nothing we could do about it. One tip though. I usually dissolve my gums in water instead of glycerin. Hope this helps. Happy new year!
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Also I have tried many gels with Carbomer as those gels are easy to find. they do not define the curls, and the results are undesirable.The fact is not to hold to natural like “God” @ (microformulation) but it is about finding alternatives to those ingredients that give favourable results to certain hair types and non favourable results to kinkier hair types. You say Carbomer will blow them away. This is not the case at all when referring to kinkier hair types.
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Thank you chrisbaysauli but how did you dissolve the gums in the water? Is there a special technique? Because i have tried dispersing the gums into water and that created pieces within my gel that were not properly hydrated.
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I worked on one of the top 10 Ethnic Curl products and we achieved great results with Fixate Plus polymer from Lubrizol (Polyacrylate-14). It was by far superior for hold over carbomer and the gums. Here is their starting Formulation which can be altered and customized. It is really just a starting point.
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Thank you for the formula. I do not have many of the ingredients listed in that formulation I will have to order some ingredients. In the mean time are there no % in which i could use the gums and not produce flaking or white residue. What if i heat the water and then add the gums to the water?
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@sesha:
The easiest way to disperse gums is the method you are using … Prehydrate the gums in Glycerin to form a slurry and then drizzle the slurry into water while homogenizing.The flaking has nothing to do with the way you are incorporating the gums, it’s simply because you are using a lot of gum and over time, as it dries, well, you’ve got a lot of gum in the hair. Heating water won’t help with that problem.It sounds like you’ve run into a wall where your desire to use natural products have hit their performance limit, but also have undesirable ancillary effects. So, it’s time for you to decide to incorporate synthetic alternatives to achieve the performance you’re shooting for and eliminate the flaking problem.For those of us who formulate in the Organic/Natural arena, we run into this all the time … clients present us with formulations loaded with Silicones and ask for an all natural alternative with the same performance. It simply is not possible most of the time. -
Thank you so much for your comment
@Mark Broussard it was very helpful. There is a product that I have tried that uses those natural polymers and has worked to define my curls and left barley any flakingIngredients are
Purified Water, Aloe vera juice, Glycerin, Sodium PCA, Bamboo extract, Sea kelp extract, Silk amino acids, Panthenol, Xanthan gum, Dehydroxanthan gum, Fragrance, Paraben-free preservative
I like this product however they do not ship to quebec. I tried it while visiting ontario. What did they do different? why the product works with minimal flaking?
Thank you. -
In your formulation, you are using a total of 4.2% gums (Carrageenan, Xanthan, Dehydroxanthan).In taking a look at your reference formula, I would suspect they are using approximately 1% Xanthan Gum and 1% Dehydroxanthan gum, or a total of 2.0% gums.Try your formula using 1% Xanthan and 1% Dehydroxanthan (eliminate the Carrageenan) and see what happens. The Bamboo Extract is a rich source of silica that also has a slip feel similar to silicones … that may be a good addition to your formulation.
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Thank you Mark I will try reducing the gums to 2% total and eliminating the carrageenan.
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