• Formulating

  Shaving gel foaming problem

  Posted by luiscuevasii on May 16, 2015 at 12:36 pm

  Greetings

  I’m trying to make a gel that makes a dense foam like the “pressurised can” when it rubs to the face, I was experimenting with mainly water, stearic ácid, TEA/NaOH, sles, cocoamida Dea. Mi idea was to neutralize stearic ácid but I can’t figure out the concentration of stearic needed and the problem is that when I rubed it only make a foam like liquid soap, I need a dense foam.

  My current experiments are:

  Water: q.s
  Stearic acid: 10%-25%
  Sles (28%): 10-25%
  DEA: 2-5%
  TEA or NaOH: q.s to ph 6.5-7.5
  Glycerin: 10%
  Propyleneglyocol: 5%

  OldPerry replied 8 years, 11 months ago 3 Members · 7 Replies
• 7 Replies

• 

  OldPerry

  Member

  May 17, 2015 at 2:59 pm

  Is there an example of a product on the market that already works the way you are describing?

• 

  pma

  Member

  May 17, 2015 at 11:35 pm

  pH 6.5 - 7.5 can be too low if you want the dense foam from “soapy” stearic acid. Products like that usually have a pH around 8, 9… 

• 

  luiscuevasii

  Member

  May 20, 2015 at 3:08 am

  Thanks Perry, Gillette sells a shaving gel, that makes a lot of foam and it’s translucent, is there a difference of foam when I neutralize the stearic with tea or NaOH?.

  @pma thanks, but Im not looking for a hard soap, I’m looking for a gel.

  Can anyone suggest me a concentration of stearic and TEA to get a gel consistency.

• 

  luiscuevasii

  Member

  May 20, 2015 at 4:04 am

  Just saw that the product I’m looking for is called “post-shaving gel”, there’s a lot of patents on the Internet, but I just got confused, some of them didn’t use sles, some uses liquid paraffin and diols but I can’t figure out why.

• 

  pma

  Member

  May 20, 2015 at 5:04 pm

  @luiscuevasii Even so… Shaving gels from Gillette, for instance, have a pH between 8.3 and 8.9.

  I really wouldn’t expect a relevant foam from stearic acid in a pH around 7.
• 

  luiscuevasii

  Member

  May 24, 2015 at 7:24 pm

  @pma thanks, just adjusted the ph to 8.5, but it only makes normal foam when rubbed, it feels like a solid soap or a liquid soap, im looking for a dense and creamy foam.

• 

  OldPerry

  Member

  May 27, 2015 at 1:12 pm

  Ah yes the old post-shaving gel technology.  That involves putting a propellant in the formula.

  Here is an example ingredient list.

  Edge Shave Gel

  Water, Palmitic Acid, Triethanolamine, Sunflower Seed Oil Glyceride, Isopentane, Sorbitol, Stearic Acid, Isobutane, PVP, Glycerin, PEG/PPG-17/6 Copolymer, Panthenol, Tocopheryl Acetate, PEG-90M, Phytantriol, Fragrance, Blue 1

  
  

  Notice this formula has both Isopentane and Isobutane. When the propellant is incorporated into the gel it expands and forms the foam on the hand. I believe this also uses bag-in-the-can technology to force the gel out of the container.

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