Home Cosmetic Science Talk Formulating saponification, thicken formula

  • saponification, thicken formula

    Posted by JD on November 30, 2014 at 7:29 pm

    So I just made a base for a liquid cleanser using KOH. I want to thicken this up a little BUT ONLY using cocamidopropyl-betaine and NaCl.


    Any recommendations?

    coconut oil 2.6%
    shea butter 10.36%
    water 84.56%
    KOH 2.49%
    JD replied 9 years, 5 months ago 5 Members · 14 Replies
  • 14 Replies
  • Chemist77

    Member
    December 1, 2014 at 1:11 am

    The salt will definitely break the soap emulsion that you have created by neutralizing fatty acids with the alkali, though you can try CAPB alone (which again has some salt content) and see how it works out for you. 

  • JD

    Member
    December 1, 2014 at 1:18 am

    I have a product for home use that has the listed ingredients that I mentioned. They were able to get some thickening. Any starting % you can throw out there?

    p.s would glycerin thicken it?

    Thank you!
  • Chemist77

    Member
    December 1, 2014 at 1:59 am

    Maybe that was the part of Betaine they mentioned, why don’t you just pump in a little more soap and this would take the viscosity up. Not really sure if glycerin can help in gaining the viscosity, never ever heard about it. In fact glycols reduce the viscosity in some systems.

  • nasrins

    Member
    December 1, 2014 at 2:43 am

    without anionic surfactant how can u thicken by betain and NaCl?

     

  • JD

    Member
    December 1, 2014 at 2:53 pm

    I dont know how they did it but they did? unless they used PG instead of glycerin for the neem extract but its suppose to be 100% natural organic and last time i checked, PG is not so natural/organic. Would PG even thicken over glycerin?

  • JD

    Member
    December 1, 2014 at 2:57 pm

    They could have evaporated water to thicken formula? if that’s the case, then the product will loose 8-16 oz of water making costs a lil more expensive..

  • Bobzchemist

    Member
    December 1, 2014 at 11:49 pm

    The coconut oil is being saponified, as is the shea butter, so the soap will be a thickener, Check the sap values.

  • belassi

    Member
    December 2, 2014 at 12:21 am

    By the way, I fed the given formula into soapcalc and it corresponded exactly to the requirement percentages for a potassium soap. So, it’s basically a diluted liquid soap. You’re asking how to thicken a liquid soap. Well, frankly, that is a matter that you’ll find discussed on a soapmaker’s forum.

    You might try heating the soap solution to 70C and dissolving say 2% of MEA with slow agitation and then continue agitation while cooling to room temp. I have found that the addition of a low % of MEA to CP soap (solid bar soap made with NaOH) increases hardness slightly and makes the soap last longer in the shower. As I recall, sodium lactate in a low % makes soap harder so you might try that. There is no point in adding glycerine as there will already be plenty of that. Apart from those, you’d need to research a thickener suitable for high pH (typically pH = 10) surfactant solutions.
  • belassi

    Member
    December 2, 2014 at 12:27 am

    Further to my last: this looks like quite a nice liquid facial soap. The shea will give a silky effect. If you can find it, kpnangan butter would be even better. And replace 2% of the shea with castor (more conditioning, more bubbles). I think if you add salt you may find that it begins to sequester.

  • nasrins

    Member
    December 2, 2014 at 2:09 pm

    @bobzcemist so thickening process doesnt due to betain and NaCL.

  • JD

    Member
    December 2, 2014 at 3:01 pm

    Thanks as usual Bob, you the man!

    Great comment Belassi, you hit all the points I was thinking about(mind reader).

  • Bobzchemist

    Member
    December 2, 2014 at 3:13 pm

    @nasrins, betain and NaCl thicken just fine in most surfactant/synthetic detergent solutions. But…soaps are different, and also react badly to salt. (look up “salting out” in soap manufacturing)

    @Kfox, can you add Stearic or Oleic Acid? After neutralization, the Potassium Stearate and/or Potassium Oleate should thicken your soap up easily.
  • nasrins

    Member
    December 3, 2014 at 1:55 am

    @bobzchemist I wish I could explain it in best way.

    as I read in some papers when we have anionic surfactants in our formula here betain acts like a salt( cause it produces both anion and cation) and increasing in  viscosity is in high amount.but when we have cationic, amphoteric or nonionic surfactant betain doesnt any much affect in viscosity. why?  anionic radius is far more than cationic one so alteration in micelle structures is more,  viscosity is function of these structures so it is altered too.

  • JD

    Member
    December 15, 2014 at 11:23 pm

    @bobzchemist, I could add stearic but i am trying to keep it a gel as much as possible ,but oleic might be the way to go. thx

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