Teach Soap

Had a really annoying couple of days with the polymers. Have to use a separate thickener for the Plantapon sulphate-free, I'll spare you the details, but Aqua SF1 is too difficult. I found a brochure for Glucamate LT which looks like a nice natural alternative thickener easy enough to use. The Herbarie has a write up on it. If I can get some I'll report back.

I haven't used this one. Please report back.

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Irena
Closed minds are like faulty parachutes; they refuse to open.

I've got samples of LT and the rep also brought VLT which I had not heard of. I did a quick trial with the LT and it seems synergistic with the surfactants, pretty decent. More later when I get a chance to do some proper tests.

OK, I have been testing this morning. I made a shampoo that was about 20% surfactants and 80% water. This was a sulphate-free shampoo and prior to using the thickener it was way too thin.
I used 2.5% Glucamate VLT and the thickness was superb.
NOTE: Glucamate comes in two forms, LT and VLT. The LT is in propylene glycol which tends to reduce flash foam so I used the VLT which is in propanediol.
The application feel was excellent and the foam production also excellent, so I'm very happy with the outcome of the test.
The VLT was very easy to use; just pour and mix.

FYI the shampoo was:
10% AKYPO RLM CA45, 5% cocoamidopropyl betaine, 5% sodium cocoamphoacetate.

With a bit more refinement I made a very effective sulphate-free shampoo with a total of just 15% surfactant.
9% AKYPO RLM45
3% cocoamidopropyl betaine
3% sodium cocoamphoacetate

I used 3.8% of the Glucamate VLT to thicken.
The sensorial feel of the product is luxurious.

Other ingredients:
fragrance 1%
EDTA 0.2%
panthenol 1.5%
glycerine 4%
KOH to adjust pH to 6
sodium chloride 2%

Quite an economical shampoo to make even with the high cost of these surfactants.
(AKYPO RLM45 and the acetate cost roughly $8 per kilo, betaine is about $2 per kilo, panthenol is expensive.)

Thanks! I'll have to see where I can find this in the US.

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Irena
Closed minds are like faulty parachutes; they refuse to open.

You're welcome.
The only problem might be the AKYPO RLM45 CA. It comes from Kao Chemicals, a European company. My Lubrizol supplier carries it. The Glucamate is a corn product, quite 'green'. Also from Lubrizol. The sodium cocoamphoacetate can be obtained from various manufacturers, mine is Dehyton G. The betaine is really common and you can find it anywhere. If you need the KOH per gram for the AKYPO just let me know and I'll post it. Likewise the procedure.

Yes please post the KOH per gram for the AKYPO. There are a couple of places I'm going to check out. They might have these ingredients as they carry a lot of surfactants.

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Irena
Closed minds are like faulty parachutes; they refuse to open.

The AKYPO comes as a free acid (lauryl carboxylic acid, I believe) but please don't press me on this because my organic chem is a bit wooly when it comes to such things
Anyway, before I began formulating I titrated the AKYPO against fuel-cell grade KOH and:
The AKYPO comes as pH = 3
You need 12% by weight of AKYPO, of KOH, to move it two pH points, 3 -> 5. You could use any other suitable base, eg NaOH, or maybe TEA, just adjust according to mole weight.

When you add the other components you should find that it moves another half-point up, to 5.5, which is ideal for the hair and also for the scalp.

I just tried an alternative formulation. I replaced the betaine with Plantapon LG Sorb. There is no discernible difference. Betaine is a lot cheaper than Plantapon. The 15% surfactant content does give good results; flash foam is not as good as with SLS or ALS, but it soon builds up to be at least as good.

I eliminated the 2% salt content and upped the thickener to 4% with even better results.

Remaining tasks for the clear shampoo: test to see if Glucamate can maintain thickness in the presence of additives such as Tween-20 and keratin.
I used a cherry fragrance oil from IFF and the shampoo is crystal clear.

The test panel's opinion is that it's good, but needs to be a bit more concentrated, so I'll probably use a total surfactant concentration of 18% and adjust the Glucamate VLD % accordingly.

I have to say, I am delighted with this. The product is markedly better in feel, and foams almost as well, as my ALS frequent use shampoo, which has 30% total surfactants! If you need any help with it just ask.

I have both betaine and Plantapon. I also have TEA. I'll see if I can find the rest.

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Irena
Closed minds are like faulty parachutes; they refuse to open.

It should work fine with the AKYPO, betaine, and use the Plantapon instead of the Dehyton G. I use the G to emulsify the fragrance before adding it to the mix, I suggest trying Plantapon instead for that. I just made a litre of it this morning and it came out great.

I just made the cream version. Added 1.5% keratin, 0.5% d-limonene, 1.5% avocado oil, 1.5% jojoba oil, 0.5% vitamin E. Just with hand stirring the oils emulsified perfectly, the shampoo came out great; seems to have even more foam if anything and the sensorials are even better!

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Irena
Closed minds are like faulty parachutes; they refuse to open.

The Glucamate VLT is quite expensive, the LT less so. I'll try the LT to see if a similar % works the same.
ALL these thickeners are expensive! I checked out the relative prices at the Herbarie and stuff like Crothix, Maize Silk (really pricey) and so on are all in the same range.
I thought, OK, let's try Carbopol Ultrez 20 as an alternative thickener, but performance was unacceptable. The sensorial feel of the oleate (Glucamate) is superb, but the Carbopol doesn't really contribute much, and worse, it traps air bubbles so the shampoo won't clear properly.
I think I will play around with the formula to see if I can use a lower % of glucamate; maybe increase the betaine %. Cocoamidopropyl betaine is inexpensive and contributes bubbles, also conditions, and costs more like $2/kilo, while the VLT costs 15 times as much!

Made two identical batches, except one with LT and one with VLT. The VLT was better - it had better foam, better viscosity. The propylene glycol used in the LT suppressed the foam to some extent.