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These extracts tend not to be stable. At least in my experience. I wasted an awful lot of time trying to extend shelf life with little success.

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Customers are not going to be bothered with the hassle of doing that. Realistically you are competing with large companies that can put a bottle of soap on display in Walmart for $2.

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Body Shop has just gone under in the UK and the news on that reported it would impact $300 million worth of shea butter from Fairtrade producers. FYI.

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Salt thickening is better described as ionic thickening. All components that produce ions in solution will affect the result. This includes preservatives. EG 0.7% sodium benzoate. CAPB already contains a lot of salt which is why the shampoo thickens with it.

1. Note down all ionic compounds and sum the total.
2. Note the salt content in your version of CAPB and calculate the total.

Adding these gives the total salt content (approximately). Make a batch with nothing except the surfactants and the preservative and run a salt curve test to determine the optimum for thickening.

You should be able to obtain a thick shampoo. However you must understand that everything you add to that base will reduce viscosity. Colour, fragrance, humectants…

Gums are a poor choice to thicken shampoo. The reason is the handfeel — it’s unpleasant, slimy. You may find PEG-150 Gel of use, up to about 1%, because too much gives a “plastic” effect.

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Thank you!

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That’s very kind of you! Thank you very much.

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Thanks. I am working with a large marijuana cultivator in the USA with a view to reducing the incidence of botrytis, he’s losing 90% of his crop. It mostly goes for edibles and that part’s OK, but it is the smoking part that concerns me. I have already been running my own trials.

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I don’t even have running water in the lab. I take all the used gear to a washing area.

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If that’s your reaction then it appears that those are not mild surfactants at all.

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PhilGeis said:

Sodium benzoate by itself is not adequate.   A simple check of cosmetic labels (not just for micellar water) shows virtually none using that option.  Pseudomonads eat benzoate.

Tell that to Coca or Pepsi Cola. That is the preservative they use.

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Drop the pH to 5 and sodium benzoate is perfectly adequate. 

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B3! Sure to be. Someone offered me a 500mg supplement. I took it. Within half an hour I thought I was going to spontaneously combust.

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I hope to get my lab up and running again in the New Year so I am looking forward to 2021!

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would you like to comment ?
- Not really. This is someone else’s thread. I saw your question and all I can say is, cetyl alcohol is not found in commercial shampoos, do you think there may be a reason?

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It’s basically silica gel (isinglass) and dimethicone.

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Same problem. CDEA is not a thickener.
Thickeners: CMEA (slightly), PEG-150 distearate, methyl cellulose, glucamate VLT, certain gums (poor sensorials), carbopol types (formulation problems)

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This is the ongoing problem with relying on salt thickening. I found it pretty much impossible to make a product of a required viscosity using salt alone. You will probably have to add thickeners.

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Provided your preservative system is robust, you don’t need to sterilise packaging. 

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Without listing the formula we cannot help.

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What do you mean by “essence”? Are you talking about fragrance oil? Adding this always decreases viscosity. Often, by a lot. Salt thickened products are quite unstable in viscosity, the slightest thing messes them up.

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I can’t see anything here suspicious except as Perry said, the fragrance. Which seems high at 2%. The preservative system looks very adequate so I doubt it will be ‘off’, but have it checked anyway.

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ngarayeva001 I use my own shampoo on my dogs now. (Only sodium benzoate used as preservative.) I am unable to have them bathed by a vet because the vets all use shampoos sold for veterinarian use, and none of them have any kind of ingredient list. It’s disgraceful. Just one exposure to a shampoo containing MIC or MIT causes terrible damage.
My wife bought a hand wash to use in the kitchen and I failed to check. A week later “Look at my hands!!” Yes, atopic dermatitis. Checked the product LOI. MIT in it. Threw the product in the garbage.

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I suggest you simply copy one of the many, many products on the market that are based on SLS, SLES, and CAPB.

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Yes.

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After reading the above responses I decided not to.