[sciencewannabe]

jemolian said:

I’ve not used e-waxes in a long time but have you considered changing your preservative since it might cause instability for some emulsifiers? 

It’s a fair question, it is known to cause issues. I tested a jar without preservative and sadly, there was no change in the issue. 

[sciencewannabe]

ngarayeva001 said:

What is wrong with this product except for soaping? And why you want it to be w/o?

The separation on the top layer makes for an inconsistent texture and doesn’t feel professional to me. I was hoping it would be a simple fix but I’m 25 test batches in to try and stabilize it. The soaping only happens with PEG-40 and does not complement the product use for smoothing women’s hair styles. I definitely didn’t intend for it to be W/O, it’s just the right ratios for hair products that perform with some hold but still wash out a little easier and are primarily composed of “natural” ingredients. I didn’t know I was making an impossible or hard to emulsify product when I started 5 years ago LOL! 

[sciencewannabe]

Bill_Toge said:

they’re not W/O emulsions; polysorbate 60 and ceteareth-20 are both high HLB emulsifiers, so it’s not physically possible for them to form W/O emulsions

instead of glyceryl stearate, try a low HLB emulsifier that comes in the form of a liquid (polyglyceryl-3 oleate, for instance), and just to be sure, try adding a little bit of xanthan gum (say, 0.1%) to the water phase, to reduce separation

This will take me some time to wrap my head around but I appreciate the reply and suggestions! 

Just to clarify, would I use the polyglyceryl-3 oleate WITH E-Wax calculate HLB, etc. or just polyglyceryl-3 oleate and xantham gum in place of the current emulsifying system? Thanks again!