[Mike]

I’m currently buying ingredients from the personal formulator website. I can’t find anybody online that sells PK3 Pre-mix pearlizer, any suggestions of where to purchase? I sent an email to lubrizol, but not sure if they sell it.

[Mike]

Also might increase Cocamidopropyl Betaine in next batch to help
moisturize skin, depending on surfactant levels in Quickpearl. I need to
look into the amounts of surfactants in Quickpearl…

[Mike]

I might try Plantarem APB next, but the current ingredients I’m using now change the skin tone of the face so I’m trying to stay with them. I’m not sure which of the ingredients I’m using that does change it, I’m thinking maybe the laureth 4 or DMDM Hydantoin, or one of the uncommon ingredients in the shampoo mix I used…..The shampoo mix I made without including the conditioners came out great for hair and skin tone besides missing the pearlizing affect. I would like to stay with the shampoo ingredients for now and include one of the following cold process pearlizing agents. I notice Quickpearl™ PK3 Pearlizing Agent includes three of the surfactants I already have in my mix, so that is my top pick right now to include in the cold process shampoo. Any suggestions on what might be the best pick, or one that is better than all of these?

1.) Quuickpearl 1: Sodium Lauryl Sulfate and Glycol Stearate
2.) Quickpearl II: Sodium Laureth Sulfate and Glycol Stearate
3.) Quickpearl™ PK3 Pearlizing Agent: Glycol Disterate, Laureth 4 and Cocamidopropyl Betaine

[Mike]

For the pearl effect, I like the idea of adding a pre-mixed pearliser. Is there a pre-mixed pearlizer you would recommend as being the best? That would also already be mixed with surfactants, then I could reduce my sodium laureth sulfate if needed depending on what the pre-mix pearlizer included. If I get a pre-mixed pearlizer I can mix it in just like a regular shampoo with no heat? Is the rotor/stator shear mixer only required if I were to melt the glycol disterate, or do I need it for the pre-mix solution as well?

For the remaining conditioning ingredients:

polyquat-7
guar hydroxypropyltrimonium chloride
Decyl Glucoside

Can those be added with a certain shear mixer, or heat?

[Mike]

Belassi, not trying to compete with any brand of shampoo/conditioner. Being this shampoo/conditioner was recently dis-continued I just want to use for myself in the future.

[Mike]

So I just made solution again without the glycol distearate, polyquat-7 and guarhydroxypropyltrimonium chloride. I doubled the Sodium Laureth Sulfate from 8% to 16% and reduced the citric Acid from 1% to 0.1%. I increased the Sodium Chloride at the end to 1.5%-2%, which gave me a much thicker solution very close to Irish Spring hair/body soap. Still need to find the exact Sodium Chloride, but right now it’s on the high side to get a thick solution.

New Mixture:

Distilled water: 100%
Sodium Laureth Sulfate: 16%
Laureth 4: 0.5%
Cocamidoproyl Betaine: 2%
DMDM Hydantoin: 0.5%
Glycerin: 2%
Panthenol B5: 0.5%
Sodium Chloride: 0.5% (Iodized Table Salt)
Citric Acid: 0.1%
Dyes: Ext D&C Violet No.2, FD&C Blue No.1, D&C Red No.33 approx .02%

Left out the following ingredients:

Polyquaternium 7: 0%
Glycol Disterate: 0%
Guarhydroypropthronium Chloride: 0%
Fragrance: 0%

This new solution came out pretty good, and I did use it on hair. Overall I think the PH might be a little high right now, I need to get a digital PH tester. I’m thinking the PH is 8-9, and not sure if the increase in sodium chloride would contribute to a higher PH.

The shampoo mixture seemed to work great, but now I need to find a way to incorporate the other ingredients. I do notice without the remaining ingredients it is missing that glowing (pearlizing effect) on skin tone that I think glycol disterate would provide? Any suggestions of how to include the two remaining conditioning ingredients and glycol disterate into this mix?

Belassi: I also might include Plantarem APB later on. Would I need to take out ingredients to include that?
 

[Mike]

I appreciate all the great advice!

1.) My next batch I will leave out the glycol distearate, polyquat-7 and guar hydroxypropyltrimonium chloride and see what happens. For future batches I would like to include these ingredients in the formulation, being I’m trying to make this formulation identical to an Irish Spring hair/body shampoo that was discontinued while creating it from home. If that’s possible?

2.) I will increase the surfactant to 16%, which should add viscosity. If the surfactant increase alone doesn’t add enough viscosity maybe adjust the sodium chloride (salt)?

3.) The high speed mixing did create a lot of foam with plenty of white flakes of glycol disterate. I will mixing slower and drop the citric acid to 0.1%.

4.) The main thing I’m concerned about with this formulation is making it as close to a product they sell on the shelf and do it from home. Is this even possible?