[Gunther]

I think you should neutralize lauric and myristic acids with KOH separately, to avoid KOH reacting with other ingredients.

You may wish to use a premade commercial pearlizer instead of EGDS.

0.2% is a bit high. 0.1% will work fine.

[Gunther]

@Microformulation just nailed it: limited contact time

If the cleanser contains surfactants, it must be rinsed off
So it limits the time it contacts the skin
not much moisturizing can be achieved in such a limited time.
But maybe at least some mosturizing can be achieved, with the right ingredients.

[Gunther]

I’m no expert by any means
but African American hair often needs a lot of conditioning

For rinse off shampoos, silicones and polyquaterniums come to mind, along milder or lower levels of surfactants, to reduce drying.
For leave on products you can add cationics, fatty alcohols
and emulsify a bit of coconut oil so it “replenishes” oils when left on hair.

You can check out the websites @chemicalmatt suggested
and compare “ethnic” to plain formulations side by side to see how they differ.

[Gunther]

Oils are a bit soluble in concentrated alcohol
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2FBF02540248
for dilute alcohol solubility becomes a matter of trial and error

You’ll need an additional solvent
the study used n-hexane, but you can’t use that in cosmetics
Maybe Isopropyl Myristate can help increase solubility?

[Gunther]

IMO gloveboxes are more effective, and cheaper in the long run as you avoid replacing expensive respirator cartridge filters.

You can easily build one yourself
https://www.instructables.com/id/DIY-Glove-Box/
https://www.instructables.com/id/DIY-Anaerobic-Chamber-aka-glove-box/

[Gunther]

@Chemist77 is yours a liquid or powder?
If powder, how do you prevent K-cocoate particles from sticking to each other and becoming paste-like?

[Gunther]

@Tattvas you can try both lowering the alcohol %
and trying a different alcohol source
alcohol is often denatured with smelly substances
so you can buy plain 95% ethyl alcohol and denature it yourself. The difference is noticeable.

And better/more fragrance as @Perry just suggested.

@Dr Catherine Pratt
it looks like alcohol is a must for body sprays and mists
I have always wondered what’s the purpose of women spraying alcohol on their skin, but they seem to like it
sure, alcohol dries faster than water, but still.

[Gunther]

IMO making sure the soap doesn’t go rancid (thus smells) is the first step.

Choosing coconut oil is a great first step as it’s mostly saturated,  thus won’t go rancid as fast as other oils do.

You can choose the heavier fractions of oil, the solid and not the liquid ones
as they’re more saturated.

Finally you can use hydrogenated coconut oil (or any other fully hydrogenated vegetable oil), for 100% saturation. It’s up to you to see if the word hydrogenated may feel less natural to customers.

As for essential oils
you can try to market an unscented detergent
depending on your country regulations you could even market it as ‘hypoallergenic‘ since it contains no fragrances that could trigger allergies.
Best of luck. Keep us posted.

[Gunther]

Isopropyl alcohol smells more and worse than ethanol does, so this makes the latter a better choice IMO.

Why not just switch to another pomade recipe that doesn’t foam, and requires no alcohol?

[Gunther]

Live microbes, often marketed as probiotics or so.

[Gunther]

Unless you’re aiming for a premium market niche, essential oils will be too expensive for a laundry detergent.

Is that a liquid detergent? Because soap flakes can take quite a bit to dissolve, thus inconvenient for the customer to use.
Potassium coconut soap (Potassium cocoate) will be better than Sodium, as the former is more soluble.

[Gunther]

https://chemistscorner.com/where-to-find-free-cosmetic-formulas/

swiftcraftymonkey.blogspot.com/
The best for total newbies
Basic recipes, yet nice explanations on why ingredients are choosen.

[Gunther]

I agree
Using formaldehyde at or below the maximum allowed concentrations yields no straightening whatsoever.

There are some fromaldehyde-free patents and formulas, but it ain’t clear that they’re any better to thioglycolic acid hair relaxers.

@PRANAV9 maybe it’s better to stick to existing thioglycolic acid formulations, and just add a conditioner to reduce hair damage, either added in the straightening fomulation, or as after treament.
i.e. I always wondered if BTMS if compatible with thioglycolic acid. At the end only experimentation can tell.

[Gunther]

Real Deionized water is much more expensive than demineralized or distilled water.

[Gunther]

I’m not aware of any studies that prove that silicones are bad for hair.

Most silicone bashing is based on pseudoscience.

[Gunther]

Ain’t Cannabidiol a controlled substance?

According to Wikipedia it’s Schedule I, except for some low concentration formulations that are Schedule V
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cannabidiol

Although CBD doesn’t seem to be clearly listed
https://www.deadiversion.usdoj.gov/schedules/orangebook/c_cs_alpha.pdf

Several papers say CBD remains illegal
https://www.brookings.edu/blog/fixgov/2017/02/06/cannabidiol-illegal-and-always-has-been/

and so says a court
https://eu.statesmanjournal.com/story/news/2018/05/04/court-rules-cbd-cannabidiol-schedule-1-controlled-substance-marijuana-pot/580835002/

So, at the end
trust no one, don’t even trust lawyers
it looks like you’ll have to ask the DEA directly for clarification.

BTW how much do DEA chemists typically make a year?

[Gunther]

What about carboxylic acids?

https://www.cosmeticsandtoiletries.com/testing/efficacyclaims/Your-Hair-on-Acid-The-Influence-of-Carboxylic-Acids-494640401.html

[Gunther]

You can Google the studies

Determination of the Feel of Hair after Cosmetic Treatment - Sensory and Objective Test Methods

A preliminary investigation of the interaction of a quat with silicones and its conditioning benefits on hair

New Approaches for Assessing Conditioning and Quantifying Silicone Deposition on Hair

[Gunther]

Depending on your definition of gel,
you can make a simple one with just a silicone dissolved in cyclomethicone.
Pretty shiny, smoothing and even a mild hold.
Some of them are already marketed as drops for hair split ends.
You can often buy premade 15% dimethiconol in 85% cyclomethicone gel, you can bottle it as is, or you can add more dimethicone/ol or cyclomethicone if you want it to be more or less viscous, respectively.

Now, adding fragrance to a 100% silicone formulation may be challenging.
Let’s see what do the more experienced guys can suggest.

[Gunther]

Great info @DAS
Do you know if Sodium citrate, TetraSodium EDTA or Paraben Sodium salt (all of them are actually salts) work the same way?

BTW do you know why salt causes this undesirable effect?

[Gunther]

@NoviceKarel
What about boiling the maris limus before using to kill existing bacteria?
Being mostly mud, I don’t think it will degrade, although drying it might be time consuming.

Parabens are approved by the EU up to certain concentrations
if I’m not mistaken
methylparaben 0.4%
propylparaben 0.19%
Maybe stating that your product meets European safety specs will calm your customers down (be careful with european fragance INCI naming regs).

@ngarayeva001 do parabens have a smell?
Maybe just smelling the raw powder, but not when diluted to use.
Also, paraben Sodium salts have virtually no smell.

[Gunther]

Since it’s a leave on product, you can emulsify some coconut oil with BTMS
it may help replenish some oils that are stripped away by shampoo.

It that still doesn’t work, switching to a milder shampoo, or shampooing less often seems unavoidable.

[Gunther]

According to these Kao tech papers

http://www.kaochemicals-eu.com/sites/default/files/related_files/business_unit/2016_April_AKYPO%20PC_EN.PDF

http://www.kaochemicals-eu.com/sites/default/files/related_files/basic_page/2012-06-12_akypo_household_leaflet_eng.pdf

There’s no Nitrogen atom in their formulas, so there are no amides.

IMO it has to do with it being not too soluble given the high concentration 30%.

I got similar results neutralizing Oleic acid with Sodium hydroxide: a thick paste floating at the top.

You may wish to use Potassium hydroxide to neutralize it
as its salts are more soluble than Sodium ones,
and Sodium more soluble than Triethanolammonium ones in turn.

[Gunther]

Thanks I will try that
I love the idea. Being cocoate (mostly) saturated, it ain’t as likely to go rancid.

By any chance do you remember the approximate cocoate concentration that killed foam?

[Gunther]

You should be getting enough conditioning/detangling out of 3% BTMS-50 + 1% dimethicone, especially since it is a leave on product.
For how long do you leave it on?

You can try adding polyquaternium 10 or 7, or cationic guar
but IDK if they’ll outperform BTMS+silicone.

You may wish to switch to a milder shampoo, shampoo less often
or switch to a cleansing conditioner, or washing your hair with conditioner (co-wash).
Conditioners can only do so much if you have dry hair, and frequently shampoo.

AFAIK there’s no magic bullet but we’ll see what the more experienced guys have to say.