Adjusting Your Gel Cleanser Formula to a Cream Foam Texture

To transform your liquid gel cleanser formula into a cream foam texture suitable for tube packaging, similar to typical facial cleansing foams, you can add certain ingredients to your existing formula. Key ingredients that help create a cream texture and stable foam include Fatty Acids and Fatty Alcohols.

Recommended Ingredients to Add

1. Fatty Acids:

   • Stearic Acid: Reacts with the Triethanolamine in your formula to create soap, which thickens the product and creates a fine, stable foam.
   • Myristic Acid: Works similarly to Stearic Acid in creating a cream texture and foam.

2. Fatty Alcohols:

   • Cetyl Alcohol: Helps increase viscosity and improves the texture to be more creamy.

3. Opacifiers/Pearlizers:

   • Glycol Distearate (e.g., emulPearl™): Helps give the product a cloudy or pearly appearance, which is typical of cream foams.
   • Glyceryl Distearate: Can also help improve texture and stability.

How They Work in the Formula

When Stearic Acid or Myristic Acid is added to a formula containing Triethanolamine, a chemical reaction occurs, producing soap within the product. This soap acts as an emulsifier and texturizer, making the product thicker and creamier, and the foam finer and more stable.

Cetyl Alcohol enhances the thickening properties and helps give the cream texture more body.

Glycol Distearate or Glyceryl Distearate helps give the product an opaque white or pearly appearance, making it like a standard cream foam.

Considerations for Formulation

• Fatty Acids and Fatty Alcohols must be melted with heat before incorporating them into the formula.
• The ratio of Fatty Acids to Triethanolamine should be appropriate for proper neutralization.
• Adjusting the proportions of the added ingredients will require experimentation to find the texture you desire.

Adding Stearic Acid or Myristic Acid is the most direct starting point for adjusting your formula to a cream foam texture.