[Bill_Toge]

firstly, what’s the tradename of the material you’re using? 

(I ask as there are dozens if not hundreds of materials with this INCI name)

secondly, what purpose will it serve in your finished product?

[Bill_Toge]

the fact that “natural” is a very vague term with no legal definition is a real two-edged sword

while you can in principle make it up as you go along as @David says, the disadvantage of this is that such a vague claim will be impossible to prove if it’s challenged, particularly if you attach an actual number to it

a clearer and more provable statement would be “materials of natural origin comprise [PERCENTAGE]% of this product by weight”, which is probably what is meant in the examples you’ve cited

as the resident toxicologist and safety assessor at my last place used to say: don’t claim anything on the pack that you can’t defend in court!

[Bill_Toge]

just remembered something important: are you using a surface-treated grade of HEC?

the method I’ve described works well for surface-treated grades, and less well for untreated grades

[Bill_Toge]

if by “inexpensive” you mean “several hundred pounds but probably less than £1000”, try a model A Greaves mixer:

http://greaves.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/High_Shear_Lab_Mixers.pdf

also, apropos of nothing, until now I had no idea there were any UK-based academic qualifications in cosmetic science

since it’s essentially a mixture of industrial science and engineering, I’d be very interested to know how it’s taught

[Bill_Toge]

it would be helpful if you listed the ingredients in question

[Bill_Toge]

that happens because the lye hydrolyses the triglyceride esters in safflower oil to form the acid in situ, and then the sodium salt of the acid - a slow step followed by a fast step

when you use the acid itself instead of the triglyceride ester, you remove the slow step of the process, and so the sodium salt is formed much more quickly

[Bill_Toge]

the fundamental problem is that the two parts of your formula (HEC gel and surfactants) are not sufficiently mixed, and the large difference in viscosity makes efficient mixing very difficult

one way round it is to take advantage of the fact that the speed of hydration increases with temperature

the best way to do this is to add HEC to your room-temperature water, skip the hydration step, add the surfactants on top of your non-hydrated HEC dispersion, and heat it up with constant stirring

once it gets to 75°C it will hydrate within minutes, if not seconds, and you should get a more uniform gel 

[Bill_Toge]

in which case, it could be one of your surfactants crashing out due to the alcohol content

[Bill_Toge]

in which case I’d suggest you refer this matter to your safety assessor and see what their view is, since they’ll ultimately be the ones who sign your product(s) off as safe and determine whether or not they go to market in their current state

for what it’s worth, none of the safety assessors I’ve dealt with have ever recommended adding this warning, not even the ones working to corporate policies and limits which went went well over and above the ones prescribed by the regulations

[Bill_Toge]

in the absence of any actual dosage or exposure figures, this whole video is pretty meaningless

also, I like the way they misspelt “bisphenol” on one of the cards

[Bill_Toge]

firstly, “contains formaldehyde” is only required on products containing formaldehyde itself, i.e. not formaldehyde donors, and even then it’s only required if it’s included for non-preservative purposes; see Annex III/13

Annex V/5, which covers its use as a preservative, does not specify any labelling requirement, and nor do any of the entries for formaldehyde donors in Annex V

secondly, any product containing DMDM hydantoin that’s not formulated at an extremely acidic or alkaline pH, or stored at temperatures over about 50°C, will have a negligible concentration of free formaldehyde; it only releases formaldehyde when microorganisms try to digest it

[Bill_Toge]

the only potential issue with using LDPE with that kind of product is having fragrance and other volatile materials leaching through it and/or discolouring it

whether or not this is likely to happen will depend on how thick the walls of the pack are, and whether the plastic is single-density PE or a blend of high- and low-density PE

in my experience, blends are more robust than single-density grades

[Bill_Toge]

you might be able to make an absolutely palm oil free product if it had nothing in it but water, silicones, synthetic polymers and mineral-based materials

[Bill_Toge]

what’s the pH of this cleanser?

(I ask as glucosides contain a lot of insoluble matter at alkaline pH, which clears at neutral or acidic pH)

[Bill_Toge]

PEG-150 distearate is only dispersible in surfactants; don’t know what effect alcohol has on it

[Bill_Toge]

@Clark, hydrogenated castor oil, PEG-40, and PEG-40 hydrogenated castor oil are three different things

hydrogenated castor oil is a very hard wax with a high melting point which creates a gel-like structure in oils, and stabilises viscosity at high temperatures 

PEG-40 is a water-miscible liquid used as a solvent

and as @ozgirl said, PEG-40 hydrogenated castor oil is a water-miscible surfactant used for solubilising oils into water

the “nature-ral” recipe in your second post would make a more conventional pomade

[Bill_Toge]

behentrimonium methosulphate is a mild conditioner and a cationic emulsifier (available from Croda, as the Incroquat BTMS series) 

Lactamide MEA is a humectant

polymethoxy bicyclic oxazolidine is an antimicrobial, presumably part of the preservative system 

[Bill_Toge]

try it both ways, that way you can find out for yourself which one’s best

[Bill_Toge]

1. heat water

2. add SLS powder

3. mix till dissolved

[Bill_Toge]

@Roberto1969, D&C Orange 10 is banned in Europe, but all the others are OK 

[Bill_Toge]

try heating the water before you dissolve it; it’ll take forever to dissolve in cold water

[Bill_Toge]

CMC doesn’t boost foam like HPMC does; if anything, it’s more likely to kill it

[Bill_Toge]

Ultrez 20 is very tolerant of alcohol; I’ve used it with up to 60% w/w in the past, and never had any difficulties

whichever one you use, it’s best to disperse it in the water before you add the alcohol, since it’s an absolute ball ache trying to add it afterwards

[Bill_Toge]

well for starters, you cannot legally claim that your product is “free from any chemicals” unless you want to try selling a vacuum

absolutely everything that goes into a product, whether it’s part of the packaging, the product itself, or even the air inside it, is a chemical of some kind, both in the scientific and the legal sense

[Bill_Toge]

this sounds more like you’ve not enough viscosity to keep the pearls from falling out

what viscometer, spindle and speed are you using to measure it?