Home Cosmetic Science Talk Formulating surfactant thickener help

  • surfactant thickener help

    Posted by amitvedakar on July 19, 2019 at 4:58 am
    I want to thick my shampoo/facewash with pH range of 5.5 to 7.

    Base SLES(27%) shampoo-  40%,  FW-35%
     CDEA 3% , Betaine 5%  & Polyq. 7- 1%.
    Herbal Ext. mixture (shampoo)-2%
    Result req. Paste like facewash/Shampoo.
    I use 0.5% GHTC.
    I am confused with three ingredients.
    HEC or Crothix or Ultraz 20 type polymer.
    All materials  comes in 20/25 kg packing.
    so which is most  suitable?
    Does it make any performance issue.

    Can anybody Help?
    Thank You.
    amitvedakar replied 4 years, 10 months ago 6 Members · 18 Replies
  • 18 Replies
  • OldPerry

    Member
    July 19, 2019 at 4:08 pm

    With SLES, Betaine, and CDEA you don’t need a thickener. Just adjust the viscosity with salt.  Do a salt curve analysis.

  • amitvedakar

    Member
    July 20, 2019 at 4:22 am

    Perry said:

    With SLES, Betaine, and CDEA you don’t need a thickener. Just adjust the viscosity with salt.  Do a salt curve analysis.

    yes sir,
    Thank You.
    One more question: Does salt make skin or hair Dry?
  • amitvedakar

    Member
    July 20, 2019 at 6:02 am
    Well,
    can adding CDEA separately in surfactant make any difference in thickness?
    We add all surfactant all to gather & mix. 
  • Chemist77

    Member
    July 20, 2019 at 6:07 am

    Amit what is FW; also when you use the cationic guar an acid neutralisation is required. Have you done it all? 
    Adding all the surfactants won’t be advisable as SLES needs to be dispersed/dissolved completely in the batch before you add other surfactants. As Perry mentioned, in such a formula salt can easily be the thickener. 

  • amitvedakar

    Member
    July 20, 2019 at 8:40 am
    @Chemist77  FW- Facewash.
    It means i have to mix all other materials  (preservatives, GHTC, Herbal Ext. etc  )in SLES first & then should add CDEA,   Betaine, POly Q 7.
  • Chemist77

    Member
    July 20, 2019 at 8:44 am

    No, GHTC first. Neutralize with citric acid to pH 4 and then SLES. Add the remaining  surfactants and everything else once the surfactant mix is clear. 

  • amitvedakar

    Member
    July 20, 2019 at 8:48 am

    @Chemist77  Thank you very much

  • OldPerry

    Member
    July 21, 2019 at 12:28 pm

    No, salt does not make hair dry.

  • em88

    Member
    July 22, 2019 at 7:57 am

    What’s the viscosity you are looking for and what’s the viscosity you are getting? What’s the pH of you shampoo? 
    NaCl is cheap and easy to be added during manufacturing.  

  • amitvedakar

    Member
    July 22, 2019 at 10:15 am
    My Shampoo pH  6.
    I tried Nacl and result is OK.
    In shampoo i am going to cut down percentage of my herbal Extract to 1%.
    I think that is problematic.
    well when I make nozzle side down shampoo runing out of the nozzle.
    Nacl made some difference.
     Can Nacl be added upto 1%? 
  • em88

    Member
    July 22, 2019 at 7:07 pm

    Yes you can add NaCl up to 2% (I don’t think that there is any limit for NaCl), but you won’t need that much. 1% should be OK.
    Don’t forget to make sure NaCl is well dissolved in your shampoo before checking the viscosity. 

  • ngarayeva001

    Member
    July 22, 2019 at 7:12 pm

    There is a limit. Your salt curve will go down and you lose all viscosity. You need to do the analysis and find the peak

  • em88

    Member
    July 23, 2019 at 6:18 am

    There is a limit. Your salt curve will go down and you lose all viscosity. You need to do the analysis and find the peak

    Yes, but no one stops you to add 3% of salt even if the viscosity is the same as 0.5% NaCl :smiley:
    Jokes aside, yes, you are right regarding the salt curve, but I don’t think amitvedakar has the equipment to measure the viscosity. 

  • OldPerry

    Member
    July 23, 2019 at 7:18 am

    @em88 - You don’t necessarily have to measure the viscosity exactly. You can get a relative measure of the viscosity using a salt curve analysis. It might be a bit harder to see small differences but you could certainly tell the difference between watery liquids, slightly thickened liquids, and really thick liquids.

  • em88

    Member
    July 23, 2019 at 12:12 pm

    @Perry, you can’t make any precise decision just by looking the samples.
    I just remembered a similar situation at the university, It is very simple to have a fairly good precision if you do an experiment based on Hoppler viscometer.
    I’d suggest to amitvedakar to read about the Hoppler viscometer and how to simulate it.  B) 

  • Gunther

    Member
    July 23, 2019 at 4:57 pm

    Perry said:

    With SLES, Betaine, and CDEA you don’t need a thickener. Just adjust the viscosity with salt.  Do a salt curve analysis.

    yes sir,
    Thank You.
    One more question: Does salt make skin or hair Dry?

    By using CAPB and CDEA you’ll need so little salt to thicken it, often less than 1%, that you won’t notice any difference.

    Is the betaine you have actually CAPB (cocamidoproyl betaine)?
    Is that 5% as supplied, or 5% on an active basis?
    If it’s the former, then it’s 1.5% active CAPB, that’s a bit short. You may increase it to 10% (3% active CAPB) for further mildness and thickening.

  • ngarayeva001

    Member
    July 23, 2019 at 5:03 pm

    I made this simple hand soap last weekend:

    INCI %
    Aqua 37.6%
    Disodium EDTA 0.1%
    Glycerin 2.0%
    SLES 40.0%
    Cocamide DEA 3.0%
    CAPB 15.0%
    Germaben II 0.8%
    PEG-7 Glyceryl
    cocoate
    1.5%
    Citric
    Acid
    qs

    It is so thick without any salt that my problem was how to unthicken it. And I haven’t even added any salt. Combination of SLES and CAPB is thick by itself. CDEA makes it even thicker. So maybe you just need to play with %

  • amitvedakar

    Member
    July 24, 2019 at 4:12 am
    Well thank you all for taking interest & Suggestions.
    @em88

    em88 said:

    I’d suggest to amitvedakar to read about the Hoppler viscometer and how to simulate it.  B) 

    At present we don’t have, try for that.

    Well by adding Nacl i found some difference in thickness.
    It’s CAPB SB- Cocoamodopropyl betaine having active 30%
    I increase CAPB  7-8% & try.
    Salt should be added by dissolving or sprinkle directly & mix.
    what is advisable?   
    Thank you All.

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