Home Cosmetic Science Talk Formulating Shampoo face rash

  • Shampoo face rash

    Posted by Climatechangeanxiety on February 23, 2021 at 3:07 am

    in an attempt to make a mild shampoo for myself, my formula below caused my face to become red/rashy/irritated the hours following my shower. It basically looks like i have a sunburn. 
    why is my formula causing this? 

    V1- red rashy face/“sunburn-like”
    cocamidapropyl hydroxysultaine 3% 
    coco glucoside 12% 
    total active 8ASM

    glycerin 0.5%
    cetyl alcohol 0.5%
    coco oil 0.2%
    cationic guar gum 0.5%
    xanthan gum 0.5%
    salt 1.5%
    citric acid 
    no preservative. i make it, use it, and dump it same day. (work in v small batches)

    V 2 - rashy, very dried out face

    hydroxysultaine 8%

    coco glucoside 9% 
    SCI prill 2% 
    total asm 10-11

    how are companies like Tom’s of Maine able to make mild, minimalist shampoos with
    decyl glucoside+glycerin+salt+xanthan gum…yet my minimalist copy cat versions is just harmful to my skin? 

    thank you in advance! 

    MarkBroussard replied 3 years, 1 month ago 6 Members · 13 Replies
  • 13 Replies
  • 1Armand2

    Member
    February 23, 2021 at 3:48 am

    have the same problem!

  • Climatechangeanxiety

    Member
    February 23, 2021 at 3:50 am

    are you experiencing the same problem with these exact surfactants?

  • OldPerry

    Member
    February 23, 2021 at 10:36 pm

    @Climatechangeanxiety - is it just your product that causes the reaction or do you have this reaction with Tom’s of Maine too?  If no reaction with their product, what are the main differences between yours and theirs?

  • ozgirl

    Member
    February 25, 2021 at 9:54 pm

    In your other thread I suggested that you may have a sensitivity to the hydroxysultaine as this was common to all of your trials. Try a formula without this and see if you get the same irritation.

  • Abdullah

    Member
    February 26, 2021 at 2:59 am

     
    how are companies like Tom’s of Maine able to make mild, minimalist shampoos with
    decyl glucoside+glycerin+salt+xanthan gum…yet my minimalist copy cat versions is just harmful to my skin? 

    They lie about there ingredients. At least on there website.

    This is there ingredient list:
    Water, Caprylyl/Capryl Glucoside, glycerin, sunflower oil, decyl Glucoside, inulin, xanthan gum, fragrance, lactic acid, citric acid, carrageenan, vitamin e, soybean oil.

  • Climatechangeanxiety

    Member
    March 1, 2021 at 3:16 am

    @ozgirl   yes, I did remove CAP hydroxysultaine…and made a basic shampoo with only decyl + coco glucoside at 7-8ASM. Added some cationic guar gum too. My body itches went away, but the race rash (although less bad as it had been with CAP hydroxysultaine) reappeared. no sensitization anywhere else on the body. so the glucosides do slightly irritate me. 

    i do think i have sensitization to hydroxysultaine possibly due to the impurities..it just makes me want to itch… so ill be sticking with just nonionics/glucosides.

    im still trying to figure out how to make a glucoside-only formulation less irritating. any ideas? i have cationic guar gum already, and glycerol oleate though i notice it suppresses foam. 

     @Abdullah thank you for that! i didnt know that was the actual formulation list.

    @Perry I tried Shea Moisture Baby Shampoo recently which lists Decyl / Sodium Lauroyl Lactylate as their top ingredients…I had basically no sensitization to that shampoo. 
    the difference between my shampoo and theirs is that mine has fewer ingredients, no claims ingredients, lower surfactant concentration… meanwhile theirs contains a whole list of extracts, oils..claims ingredients..

    Perhaps i should add more claims ingredients to mine, it might help increase the mildness? 

  • OldPerry

    Member
    March 1, 2021 at 4:08 pm

    @Climatechangeanxiety - adding more is not the best way to go about trying to figure out the problem.  A better strategy would be to do a knockout experiment.

  • MarkBroussard

    Member
    March 2, 2021 at 5:30 pm

    @Climatechangeanxiety:

    Try switching to Coco Glucoside from Decyl Glucoside.  Decyl is know to cause contact dermatitis.

    Ooops! … try making a version w/o any Glucosides.

  • Climatechangeanxiety

    Member
    March 2, 2021 at 7:51 pm

    @MarkBroussard strangely the coco glucoside irritated me more than the decyl glucoside. if decyl is a known allergen, why do major baby shampoo companies like SheaMoisure Baby, Pipette Baby; LiveClean Baby all use it as their primary surfactant?!

  • OldPerry

    Member
    March 2, 2021 at 8:16 pm

    @Climatechangeanxiety - because, you know…marketing.

    https://journals.lww.com/dermatitis/Citation/2017/07000/Alkyl_Glucosides__2017__Allergen_of_the_Year_.18.aspx

    They convinced consumers that sulfates were bad and a more “natural” replacement is glucosides. So, they used them for their products. The fact that after a few years of using them glucoside were discovered to be significant allergens isn’t surprising. We have decades of safe use of sulfates. We don’t have decades of safe use of glucosides. 

  • MarkBroussard

    Member
    March 2, 2021 at 10:30 pm

    @Climatechangeanxiety

    I too, have skin senstivitities.  The one product I have found that causes no irritation whatsoever is Dove Sensitive Skin Creamy Body Wash … you can also use it as a shampoo.

    At the most basic of levels, there really is minimal to no difference between a body wash and a shampoo.

  • OldPerry

    Member
    March 2, 2021 at 11:08 pm

    @MarkBroussard - true story: when I was working on the VO5 line our marketing people wanted to launch a body wash. We just took the shampoo formula, adjusted slightly the ratio of SLS / SLES, changed color, fragrance and called it body wash.

  • MarkBroussard

    Member
    March 3, 2021 at 1:29 am

    @Perry:

    LOL! … Well, there’s truth to that Wendy’s commercial “Parts Is Parts”

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