It makes sense for cosmetic companies to sell directly ready-made ingredients for personal care products. Green products sell for $10 to $20 a bottle vs $3 in Walmart for the tough-skinned. They have more vertical sales and we save a lot of money. Imagine saving moving the water around in those bottles! Making your own body wash isn't crafty and time-consuming anymore.
SLSA recipe
Water 200g (~ one cup)
SLSA 10 g (5% weight)
Glycerin 20 g (10% weight)
Essential oil 1 drop
Procedure: Dissolve SLSA in warm water. Stir and sit until you have a clear liquid. Add glycerin and essential oil. Bottle it. The clear liquid will turn into a white cream/paste after a few hours. I may be wrong but I think the glycerin "thickens" the solution.
I got a cheap electronic scale with 0.1 g resolution. But for these Chinese products, the accuracy may be +- 1g. So I might have brought one with 0.01 g resolution. The are about the same price. A higher resolution one has less range - can not take a heavy load.
You can find a 1 lb bag of SLSA everywhere, making hundreds of bottles of body wash with it. A bottle of vegetable glycerin is another $10; also it can make hundreds of bottles.
Depending on the hardness of your water, I would use 3% to 5% for body wash. And 5% to 10% for shampoo. The same for hand washing dishes; the glycerin is optional.
But is it any good? It's not as good as Castile Soap plus a lot of glycerin. But I don't feel dry after a shower. The shampoo cleans well for our hard water and oily hair.
SLSA is still an irritant in the same class of SLS and soap. If it takes off the oil of your skin, it can hurt the skin and eyes in high concentrations. Maybe SLSA is more gentle than SLS.
SLSA is an acetate, not sulfate, so hopefully, it cannot be manufactured in the same process as SLS, resulting in toxic contaminations.
The LSA ion is an organic compound with carbon chains; it had to come from living or dead living things. Derived from vegetable oil doesn't tell the whole story. As an organic compound, it is biodegradable in theory. To be eco-friendly, it has to be readily biodegradable. But I have seen no claims that it is degrading fast, which is important because, like most washing chemicals, they are toxic to aquatic lives.
The next project will be ready made chemicals that will be safe for humans and the environment. My requirement is "just add water".
Sunday, June 18, 2017
The quest for a safe and effective hair conditioner
Hair conditioner and other personal daily hygiene stuff rarely have a score of one on EWG. The low scorers are very expensive or simply not available. I have been making compromises between low score and reasonable price.
I have been using Bronner's Castile soap at 50 cents an oz. Increasingly I feel that's too expensive because the kids use it like water. It could be used diluted but that's not practical for kids. Nobody should have to suffer in preparing or using it.
I ran into my wife's SLSA. The time when I tried to homemade things these things aren't that available. After reading the good claims, I got myself a good body wash gel in no time by accidentally. It dawned on me that it only take a few grams for a cup, making it hugely economic even if you use the best ingredients.
I also worried about the preservatives that I need if I DIY. But then many ingredients are self-preserving like salt water, glycerin. I can always add sugar or salt, which are both good for skin if the Internet is to be believed.
At first, I believe in myself and how difficult can it be finding something that is slippery? I have guar gum that feels very slippery. I can turn it into gel using calcium in some pills. I can thicken it by cooking it, resulting in a stable and consistent paste as thick as I like it to be. Yes, it applies well and can emulsify oils you put in. But it did nothing to my daughter's very tangled hair.
I've tried egg, which works a bit but smells. I have tried protein powder to emulate the egg white, which didn't work. I came across blogs claiming that flax seed works the same as off-the-shelf conditioners. It felt much better than egg white but it also did nothing after rinsing off.
In between those natural things, I thought of using what the off-the-shelf conditioners use. I was scared off by the full name of BTMS, which sounded so chemical. Then I settled on the next thing down the list, emulsifying wax NF. It wasn't that good on EWG because the ingredients aren't disclosed (but supposed to be a national standard?). But the other emulsifiers have bad scores. And I'm sure wax alone doesn't do anything on tangled hair.
After reading so many good praises on various suppliers, I ordered BTMS and tried it. I just add 5% melted solid to glycerin and then to filtered water and it works perfectly. And it's so much cheaper than our safer conditioner. That would be the end of story until I read some negative things about BTMS. Worse, there are contradictions that don't inspire confidence in the industry.
BTMS (Behentrimonium Methosulfate) is unacceptable on the Whole Food list of premium products. But it scores 1 on EWG. OK, maybe Whole Food have some reasons that are not on the sources of the EWG database. Then I found out that people are confused because BTC (Behentrimonium Chloride) is on the Whole Food list but has an EWG score of 3, worse than BTMS.
OK, elementary chemistry tells me that when dissolved in water, the Behentrimonium ion does what the Behentrimonium ion does, whether the other ion is Methosulfate or Chloride. And that Chloride ion did nothing much as in common salt. I can understand EWG. If nobody research directly on BTMS, they consider it as limited data or no data. They don't review similar compounds as in CIR, the cosmetics review body. And the data on BTC isn't that good.
And I agree that WF is bullshitting. There is no scientist in charge of the list. If they want to sell a premium product on their shelf, they will make sure that all the ingredients are on the list.
I have been using Bronner's Castile soap at 50 cents an oz. Increasingly I feel that's too expensive because the kids use it like water. It could be used diluted but that's not practical for kids. Nobody should have to suffer in preparing or using it.
I ran into my wife's SLSA. The time when I tried to homemade things these things aren't that available. After reading the good claims, I got myself a good body wash gel in no time by accidentally. It dawned on me that it only take a few grams for a cup, making it hugely economic even if you use the best ingredients.
I also worried about the preservatives that I need if I DIY. But then many ingredients are self-preserving like salt water, glycerin. I can always add sugar or salt, which are both good for skin if the Internet is to be believed.
At first, I believe in myself and how difficult can it be finding something that is slippery? I have guar gum that feels very slippery. I can turn it into gel using calcium in some pills. I can thicken it by cooking it, resulting in a stable and consistent paste as thick as I like it to be. Yes, it applies well and can emulsify oils you put in. But it did nothing to my daughter's very tangled hair.
I've tried egg, which works a bit but smells. I have tried protein powder to emulate the egg white, which didn't work. I came across blogs claiming that flax seed works the same as off-the-shelf conditioners. It felt much better than egg white but it also did nothing after rinsing off.
In between those natural things, I thought of using what the off-the-shelf conditioners use. I was scared off by the full name of BTMS, which sounded so chemical. Then I settled on the next thing down the list, emulsifying wax NF. It wasn't that good on EWG because the ingredients aren't disclosed (but supposed to be a national standard?). But the other emulsifiers have bad scores. And I'm sure wax alone doesn't do anything on tangled hair.
After reading so many good praises on various suppliers, I ordered BTMS and tried it. I just add 5% melted solid to glycerin and then to filtered water and it works perfectly. And it's so much cheaper than our safer conditioner. That would be the end of story until I read some negative things about BTMS. Worse, there are contradictions that don't inspire confidence in the industry.
BTMS (Behentrimonium Methosulfate) is unacceptable on the Whole Food list of premium products. But it scores 1 on EWG. OK, maybe Whole Food have some reasons that are not on the sources of the EWG database. Then I found out that people are confused because BTC (Behentrimonium Chloride) is on the Whole Food list but has an EWG score of 3, worse than BTMS.
OK, elementary chemistry tells me that when dissolved in water, the Behentrimonium ion does what the Behentrimonium ion does, whether the other ion is Methosulfate or Chloride. And that Chloride ion did nothing much as in common salt. I can understand EWG. If nobody research directly on BTMS, they consider it as limited data or no data. They don't review similar compounds as in CIR, the cosmetics review body. And the data on BTC isn't that good.
And I agree that WF is bullshitting. There is no scientist in charge of the list. If they want to sell a premium product on their shelf, they will make sure that all the ingredients are on the list.
So I took the matter into my own hands and try to dig up the scientific data. The most useful one is National Center for Biotechnology Information that contains a lot of databases.
Before that, I got the CIR review of quats in general. Yes, they are not that good in general but there are so many things that can attach to the quats. So I found a reviewed compound with exactly the same structure but the carbon chain is significantly shorter. It's not that good but the bigger molecular weight makes a lot of different; larger molecules are more difficult to penetrate into the skin layer.
I did find two papers in one of the databases, PubMed, that settled the confusion. Bear in mind that the public database is often used by companies to attack and defense opponents. The papers are scientifically sound but the funding sources are not disclosed as far as I can tell.
One paper argued with big data that very few problematic cases are reported over many years. I can agree with that and so I can finish my bag of BTMS feeling at ease. And the damages that a 200 lb person vs a 300 lb person can do are very different.
Unfortunately, the 2nd paper said that the Behentrimonium ion concentration in the sediment off some bay is increasing exponentially over many years. Maybe that's the reason why BTMS isn't used in the conditioners that we have, good or bad.
So, derived from any plant is irrelevant, except for religious reasons that cannot be from animals. You need to find carbon chains somewhere, though killing plants is much better than from fossils. And it's too easy to be an organic compound after heavy chemical processing. An organic compound is made up of carbon, hydrogen, oxyen, and nitrogen etc. If it's organic, it is biodegradable in theory. But in real life, BT is organic but accumulates in the environment.
The word is readily biodegradable; a high percentage will degrade in days or months. And if it's a naturally occurring organic compound found in living things, I bet it is readily biodegradable.
And most things like surfactants and quats that change the property of water, such as tension and viscosity, must be toxic to aquatic life. It's like putting you into the atmosphere of some alien planets. If it's readily biodegradable, it may be reduced in waste treatment plants, and won't accumulate in the ocean.
The other thing is preservatives. Most of the chemicals can kill rats in high concentration. You are lucky if they are not preservative themselves. Others are self-preserving like glycerin, a sugar substitute. Since I only make a bottle of two at a time, if the thing doesn't go bad like food, I consider it preserved. And I'm not eating it.
And there is the myth about animal testing. If you put a new invented chemical into a product, you probably test it on animals instead of risking class action. But if you claim free of animal testing, does it mean that all the ingredients in the product are never tested on animals? This is almost impossible. Except for soap, it has been tested on humans for hundred of years, therefore no other test needed.
And the process is very simple. Melt 5% (weight) BTMS in a cup of 10% glycerin in a pan of hot water on a stove. Heat water in the microwave to about the same temperature or higher. Pour water into BTMS and stir. Done. It will be a white cream. The best rinse off detangler. You can add a few drops or a spoon of oil of your choosing. Also, one or two drops of essential oil for the fragrance.
Next time I'll try hydrolyzed guar gum that is like a quat.
One paper argued with big data that very few problematic cases are reported over many years. I can agree with that and so I can finish my bag of BTMS feeling at ease. And the damages that a 200 lb person vs a 300 lb person can do are very different.
Unfortunately, the 2nd paper said that the Behentrimonium ion concentration in the sediment off some bay is increasing exponentially over many years. Maybe that's the reason why BTMS isn't used in the conditioners that we have, good or bad.
So, derived from any plant is irrelevant, except for religious reasons that cannot be from animals. You need to find carbon chains somewhere, though killing plants is much better than from fossils. And it's too easy to be an organic compound after heavy chemical processing. An organic compound is made up of carbon, hydrogen, oxyen, and nitrogen etc. If it's organic, it is biodegradable in theory. But in real life, BT is organic but accumulates in the environment.
The word is readily biodegradable; a high percentage will degrade in days or months. And if it's a naturally occurring organic compound found in living things, I bet it is readily biodegradable.
And most things like surfactants and quats that change the property of water, such as tension and viscosity, must be toxic to aquatic life. It's like putting you into the atmosphere of some alien planets. If it's readily biodegradable, it may be reduced in waste treatment plants, and won't accumulate in the ocean.
The other thing is preservatives. Most of the chemicals can kill rats in high concentration. You are lucky if they are not preservative themselves. Others are self-preserving like glycerin, a sugar substitute. Since I only make a bottle of two at a time, if the thing doesn't go bad like food, I consider it preserved. And I'm not eating it.
And there is the myth about animal testing. If you put a new invented chemical into a product, you probably test it on animals instead of risking class action. But if you claim free of animal testing, does it mean that all the ingredients in the product are never tested on animals? This is almost impossible. Except for soap, it has been tested on humans for hundred of years, therefore no other test needed.
And the process is very simple. Melt 5% (weight) BTMS in a cup of 10% glycerin in a pan of hot water on a stove. Heat water in the microwave to about the same temperature or higher. Pour water into BTMS and stir. Done. It will be a white cream. The best rinse off detangler. You can add a few drops or a spoon of oil of your choosing. Also, one or two drops of essential oil for the fragrance.
Next time I'll try hydrolyzed guar gum that is like a quat.
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