[nathanhamood]

Pharma said:

Epsom salt is worse than sea salt in breaking emulsions. How does it perform without any sea & Epsom salt?

It’s probably the EO emulsion droplets floating up. If the particles don’t fuse (the emulsion/micelles hold), a gelling agent might resolve flotation.

I haven’t tried batches without the salts but my guess would be that they wouldn’t have the issue. The floaters are actually a sort of gelatinous solid that forms, almost like a breakdown of some of the materials over time more so than even just separation. 

[nathanhamood]

Pharma said:

Bicarbonate, if it even works because it’s not really alkaline, will form carbon dioxide sooner or later = bubbles and overpressure. I highly advice against it! If ever, go with carbonate but avoid any acidic pH or the same happens. Unlike hydroxides which fully react if added properly, the final product using a carbonate will be fairly alkaline and aggressive, nothing to be put on hair.

I appreciate the caution! I’ll make sure to avoid this then. Do you think the hydroxides will be safe enough to work with? And at a low enough dose shouldn’t have any adverse effects right? 

[nathanhamood]

AndrewSeel said:

Softening effect can be perfectly done by lanette O 

Thank you! I’ll give this a try! My worry with lanette o and cetearyl alcohols was a fear in thinking that it would actually thicken the product, would that not be the case?

[nathanhamood]

EVchem said:

Sodium bicarb is a much weaker base, it will likely not perform the same. TEA is also weaker than NaOH but not as bad as bicarb so maybe that is your middle ground

Thanks, I will give TEA a try and report back! 

[nathanhamood]

@Pharma thank you for this note. Would something like sodium bicarbonate work? I worry about having to handle sodium hydroxide.