Adjusting Face Cleanser Formula: Thickening, Foam, and Cost Reduction
Question
I am developing a liquid face cleanser formula. I would like to know how to:
- Thicken the formula to a cream or clear gel texture.
- Achieve a foam texture.
- Reduce the strong smell, which seems to come from Tea Tree oil.
- Reduce the overall cost of the formula for commercial sale, as the current version is quite expensive.
Answer
Based on the information provided:
To make your liquid mixture into a cream or gel, you can use a thickener like SugarThick (PEG-120 Methyl Glucose Dioleate). The final texture (cream or clear gel) will depend on the other ingredients in your formula.
If you want a foam texture, you don't need to thicken the mixture. Since your formula already contains high-foaming ingredients like BabyFoam (Sodium Cocoyl Isethionate), you can simply package the liquid in a foam pump bottle, and it will dispense as foam.
Regarding the strong smell, you've identified it as coming from Tea Tree oil. The provided text does not suggest a method to reduce the smell of Tea Tree oil in the formula.
For reducing the cost of the formulation for selling, the current formula uses gentle but expensive surfactants like AminoWash (Sodium Lauroyl Glutamate) and BabyFoam (Sodium Cocoyl Isethionate). To lower costs while maintaining some gentleness, you could consider replacing BabyFoam and AminoWash with Lauryl Glucoside. You would need to adjust the pH of the formula to around 5.5 when using Lauryl Glucoside (though BabyFoam and AminoWash are already in the pH 5-6 range). While Lauryl Glucoside is more cost-effective and gentle, it may produce less foam than BabyFoam. You could potentially use CreamyFoamer to help boost foam, which is also cheaper than BabyFoam. The choice of ingredients should align with your product's target market and desired properties.
