[belassi]

alcohol is worse than useless for this purpose. Use a solubiliser.

[belassi]

In general, try to combine a low HLB emulsifier such as glyceryl stearate with a high HLB emulsifier such as PEG-7 Glyceryl Cocoate.

[belassi]

Hmm, depends on the density of the material relative to the density of the suspending material.

I’m not sure what you mean by “at 45 deg” - an angle? A temperature?

If you mean temperature, this would be during a cool down phase?

I think @ashish has nailed the problem. It’s been a while since I used SF1 but I recall about adding acid back so as to work at pH <6, and you’re around pH10 or so.

[belassi]

What are these beads? I do hope they are not PLASTIC which has been BANNED due to the horrible toxic mess it is making of the oceans.

[belassi]

Further to my last:

potassium cocoate 40% soln. is readily available in most places, try adding say 3% of that to your two surfactants, then titrating with the salt solution.

I also agree with Ozgirl’s suggestion for adding some CAPB, in fact CAPB could be used directly as a thickener with much better results. It contains NaCl.

[belassi]

Oh, right, Bill. That hadn’t occurred to me. I think Bob is closest to the solution to this. maybe it is a potassium cocoate/SLES/LAS surfactant combination. 

Try this:

Calculate (using the SAP value) the required amount per kilo to saponify the lauric acid with KOH.

Then saponify the lauric acid first, dilute with water, add the SLES and LAS. Mix well. Adjust the pH.

Then titrate, slowly, with the pre-prepared mix of salts, stirring continuously, until you get optimum thickening. At the same time you do this, record the pH.

[belassi]

I had a lot of problems when we began making soap 5 years ago. Most of our problems stemmed from the fact that we weren’t making enough to be able to buy the proper oils in industrial sized amounts, and so we used unsuitable oils.

By unsuitable, I mean any oil containing say linoleic acid. Corn oil, sunflower oil, soya oil … these oils that you find in the supermarket do not make good soap. It “sweats” under high humidity and temperatures. It goes rancid in 4 months.

The three basic oils to use that do not go rancid, are coconut, palm, and olive. Coconut for bubbles and cleansing, palm for creamy lather, hardness, whiteness, and stability; and olive for creamy lather, stability, and skin conditioning effect.

Too much coconut strips the skin of its natural oils and can cause problems.

Once we found a good combination of oils and began buying them from our local oem, we found that our problems with stability went away.

One thing you haven’t mentioned, what type of fragrance are you using?

[belassi]

This is a bit outside my usual areas but I’ll try to help.

First, you are combining low active levels of anionic surfactants, a polar solution, with a nonpolar substance, the lauric acid. What’s the idea of that? Refattening? There would be better ways to achieve that. I am surprised that the relatively low level of actives is enough to emulsify the lauric acid, but apparently so. The fact that you get thickening at all, is due to making an emulsion.

Second: When you add the salts it becomes runny. Hardly surprising is it? You’re adding 3% salts and expect to stay inside the salt curve?

Third: If your management withholds vital information from you, I suggest looking for a better job. Seriously.

[belassi]

If you are using only coconut oil then you must be using a high superfat percentage - at least ten percent, probably more - otherwise your soap will be horribly drying to the skin. With that percentage of unreacted oil, that could easily be responsible.

It would be better to change your formula. Palm oil makes a good soap and is very stable and not prone to go rancid, also gives good hardness and whiteness. A suggested blend would be something like 40% coconut, 40% palm, 20% high oleic oil (eg modified rapeseed) similar to olive oil, with a 4% superfat. And also add BHT as Bob said.

[belassi]

List the formula and you might get a meaningful response.

[belassi]

It sounds as if one or more of the oils you are using is going rancid at that storage time. It’s important to use the correct blend of oils. If you will tell us what the blend is, I will be able to comment further. It is not the coconut oil, unless the oil you’re buying is impure or old.

[belassi]

But here, I can. So I stock my new store at Amazon Mexico and then a US consumer buys it and Amazon ships it there, for instance. Or (same) EBay. Are US consumers doing anything wrong buying items from, say, China?

[belassi]

I believe that it’s just the beginning of a more general realisation. I’m glad I realised before I put them in too many products.

[belassi]

@swabu: You appear to be sure there is a market, but you say there is a lack of expertise.

Then my answer to you, is: If your premise is true, then you should develop the expertise yourself, because when you have it, people will flock to your door. There is quite a lot of information there - a good starting point is the differences between hair types - but you will need to do the work yourself.

[belassi]

That’s unfortunate. As I understand matters, hydroquinone is much riskier. So, basically, I have to infer that Showa Denko are likely to have poor sales of this new substance into the USA market? I’m fortunate to be in a marketplace which allows ‘cosmeceuticals’. But what happens when I open our Amazon store and we get US customers buying such a product?

[belassi]

Frankly I think the idea that a cream cannot have a real physical effect on the skin is ridiculous. In my own tests on Apprecier’s new Vitamin C compound, our tests produced up to a 90% reduction in photo-age spots. And you’re going to tell me I am imagining that? I don’t think so.

[belassi]

All I can say is, that I designed an antiwrinkle cream using pea polypeptides about 2 years ago, and now it is our best selling product; it appears to actually work. The only other item that shows similar results is the new Apprecier cream I am working on at the moment. Probably I will proceed to make a third cream with both these as main actives.

[belassi]

It’s just a meaningless buzz word.

[belassi]

It’s a small sample, but our testers failed to notice any difference in colour fading between our sulphate-free shampoo and the one based on ammonium sulphates.

[belassi]

If I were making liquid soap in large quantity, I would be looking at buying palmitic acid, oleic acid, and coconut oil as the majority components and adding minority oils as required eg avocado oil, shea butter, etc.

[belassi]

without an emulsification system it is not going to work.

[belassi]

This is unlikely to work unless you use a dessicating chamber or a high vacuum chamber or freeze drying.

2. No.

[belassi]

Unsafe.

[belassi]

In my opinion that preservative will adversely impact foam. I find sodium benzoate perfectly effective.

[belassi]

Looks like it would be good for hot process shampoo too using an overhead paddle stirrer.