-
Shea butter and beeswax as natural emulsifier/emollient
I read that shea butter and beeswax among others, are natural emulsifiers/emollients. Tried using them but had to discard the whole batch of hair conditioner as the greasiness wouldnt go after bath. Will be happy to have views of experts here please.
-
6 Replies
-
Beeswax is not an emulsifier. Natural is not equal good (the opposite in most cases). A decent hair conditioner is made of cationic ingredients such as: Behentrimonium Methosulfate, Behentrimonium Chloride, Cetrimonium Chloride, Amodimethicone, Polyquaterniums (7, 10, 11 etc). A very good one also includes silicones. Oils don’t do anything good for hair except for making it greasy and heavy. Oils are added at 0.5% maximum for claims only. Bottom line: hair needs cationics and silicones, not oils and butters.
-
@ngarayeva001 Thanks for the response. My search for alternatives is triggered by the headache I had after I tried the new batch. I have posted the formula in ‘Hair’ section herein. Will be happy if someone could help me see the error in formulation if any. Many thanks.
-
ngarayeva001 said:Beeswax is not an emulsifier……Oils don’t do anything good for hair except for making it greasy and heavy. Oils are added at 0.5% maximum for claims only. Bottom line: hair needs cationics and silicones, not oils and butters.Beeswax can easily be turned into an emulsifier by mixing with small quantities of alkaline substances, shea butter can’t (unless you count saponification)
. Shea butter is an emollient also for hair though I doubt that waxes are.Depending on hair type (e.g. African hair type), such oils and butters can be used at high % (with or without cationics/silicones) as ‘nurishing’ conditioners without making hair greasy and they might even work better than pure cationics & silicones. Sure, they make hair heavy but that’s not always a bad thing. If you haven’t noticed, many conditioners also contain fatty alcohols; that’s, at least on hair, simply a less greasy form of oils/butters which is better suited for ‘European’ hair (dunno about Asian hair and it’s requirements). -
I try not to argue with professionals but I have a strong feeling it’s just a matter of choosing the right silicone
I guess the hair type that would “like” shea butter, should still like some heavy silicone (Dimethicone 1000) better -
@ngarayeva001 - Questions like these really boil down to aesthetic choices but I agree that a silicone could replace pretty much any type of butter or oil in terms of performance.
-
@Pharma @ngarayeva001 @Perry I am a novice in the field of cosmetic formulations and I humbly express my gratitude to everyone here especially Perry who has facilitated this forum. Every opinion/advice/suggestion means a lot to me and I am trying to incorporate these in my experimental formulation. Thank you all??
Log in to reply.
