-
SLS:SLES 3:7 Golden Ratio?
According to this article from Pilot chemical
The Formulation Basics for Personal Cleansers
https://www.happi.com/contents/view_features/2009-09-02/the-formulation-basics-for-personal-cleansersFor sodium lauryl sulfate and sodium laureth-2 sulfate a good starting ratio is 3:7 on an active surfactant amount basis. This combination of lauryl and laureth sulfate will give a nice, well-balanced lather profile that the consumer expects from a personal cleanser. This ratio is also a good starting point for viscosity response and short flow (non stringy) properties of the final product. Ammonium lauryl/laureth sulfates may be slightly better than their sodium counterparts in amount of foam generated, clarity at lower temperatures and viscosity response in certain formulas but they can release ammonia at higher pH.
Regarding rheology, this 3:7 lauryl to laureth sulfate ratio imparts a nice short flow for the system. Higher amounts of lauryl sulfates may cause stringy flow whereas the higher amounts of laureth sulfate will not have optimized creaminess of the lather and may not build maximum viscosity.
I’ve always wondered if this 3:7 ratio is the reason why some premixes work so well?
Can you lower overall surfactant for milder cleaning, while still keeping this ratio for balanced lather?
-
7 Replies
-
Thanks for this interesting note.
I tried putting together a 3:7 mix as outlined, using enough CAPB to thicken it. The other night I was at a friend’s house and they had an Equate hand soap in the bathroom; it had a coconut fragrance so I decided to duplicate it. The fragrance left the soap almost as if pearlised; I assume there are sugars in it. The result was quite nice, but not nearly as good as I get using ALS/ALES. -
@Belassi do you happen to have a specs sheet for a ALS/ALES preblend
where they list the % of ingredients?Plantaren APB and Texapon KD S03 don’t seem to list the percentages at all.
-
No, sorry, it must be proprietary information.
-
Is the coconut fragrance synthetic or natural-extract?
Maybe it worked so well because coconuts contain emollient esters and lactones:
http://www.chemikinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/chemik_2015_06-3.pdf
Did you get any complaint from customers triggering ammonia smell by shampooing their hair after using hair relaxers, dyes or alkaline neutralizers?
-
Never had complaints about that.
-
@Belassi one last question
Did you ever get ALS/ALES to decompose with sunny Mexico temps?
I couldn’t find any scientific info on that.
Thanks -
Yes. I had a small amount begin to smell of ammonia. It was the end of a batch and close to expiry. I found the pH had drifted off, so I added a little citric acid and after testing it again, used it in a test product. There were no issues.
Log in to reply.
