Thickening Facial Cleansing Gel: Issues and Solutions

Subject: Thickening Facial Cleansing Gel

Hello,

We are glad to hear that you were able to achieve the desired thickness by adjusting your formula based on the staff's advice!

Based on the discussion, the difficulty in thickening your facial cleansing gel likely stemmed from the high concentration of humectants, specifically Propylene Glycol and Glycerin, in your original formula. These ingredients can interfere with the effectiveness of some thickeners.

As you discovered, reducing or removing Propylene Glycol helped significantly. The staff also recommended using Sodium Chloride (salt) as a thickener. Salt is often effective in thickening formulas containing anionic and amphoteric surfactants like AminoWash (Sodium Lauroyl Glutamate) and BabyFoam (Sodium Cocoyl Isethionate), which were present in your formula.

You also tried SugarThick (PEG-120 Methyl Glucose Dioleate) and Pro Polymer (Acrylate Crosspolymer). While SugarThick is a thickener, it might not have been as effective in the presence of high humectants. Pro Polymer is another option, but you experienced difficulties with dissolution at low water concentrations and storage stability issues.

As the staff mentioned, if using salt provides sufficient thickness, it can be a more cost-effective option compared to SugarThick, especially since your formula contains surfactants that respond well to salt.