• Formulating

  Sudden Thickening of Shampoo

  Posted by natzam44 on March 18, 2020 at 8:54 pm

  Good afternoon,
  I figured I would bring you all some non-sanitizer related problems to diversify the forum posts.

  I created a basic shampoo today with some stuff that I had laying around. Here is the formula:
  Water - 63.0%
  Cocamidopropyl Betaine (30%) - 23.4%
  Sodium Alpha Olefin Sulphonate (39%) - 10.3%
  Polyquaternium 7 - 1%
  Sepimax Zen - 1%
  Phenonip - 0.8%
  Fragrance - 0.5%
  Citric Acid - pH 5.5

  Basically, all was going well until I added the preservative (a blend of multiple parabens) when suddenly, the product thickened to a near unusable point.

  My question is: Was the thickening caused by the addition of the paraben blend? If so, what would you advise as a solution? Use less preservative (it is for personal use only)? Remove the Sepimax and rely on the parabens for thickening?

  Thanks

  natzam44 replied 4 years, 9 months ago 2 Members · 2 Replies

  • formula help
  • formulation
  • hair product
  • preservatives
  • shampoo
• 2 Replies

• 

  Jennycat

  Member

  March 19, 2020 at 5:53 pm

  Is the pH the same before and after adding the parabens? Some acrylate thickener might be thickened by increasing pH.

• 

  natzam44

  Member

  March 20, 2020 at 12:49 pm

  @Jennycat
  I will check my sample’s pH.
  Thinking about it, that would make sense.

  Thanks.

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