The gel cleanser has a special place for every skincare addict due to its nice feeling and gently cleaning away all dirt, impurities and makeup. As you expected, to formulate gentle gel cleanser is not difficult at all. In fact, it is pretty simple and it requires least amount of time.
You could simply thicken the cleanser to form gel using xanthan gum. It is great thickener but I found that it is not enough to thicken the gel for long term. After few days, the consistency will be less thick gel.
You could use carbomer to help it to form thick gel consistency. The cons of using carbomer as stand alone is you will need to formulate high pH cleanser (> pH 6)because most of carbomer does not work in low pH formula. Gentle cleanser will have pH around pH 5 – 6. If you could find any carbomer that works in low pH, it would be great to use it to thicken the cleanser.
In this formula, I use combination of carbomer (acrylates/c10-30 alkyl acrylate crosspolymer )and xanthan gum. It can hold low pH around 5 so it is the perfect carbomer to use in formulating nice feeling gel cleanser.
I sprinkled carbomer into water and let it hydrates. While waiting for it to hydrate, I mix xanthan gum with glycerin. If you mix xantham gum directly with water, it will create fish eye or lumpy. Please note that too much xanthan gum will create sticky feeling. Once, it hydrates, combine the water with glycerin and stir it.
The surfactant I used for this formula is from Amisoft CS-11 (Sodium Cocoyl Glutamate). It is mild anionic surfactant which is produced from glutamic acid and fatty acid. It leaves skin moisturised and feeling soft. I really love this brand because you can use this surfactant as stand alone. I believe for other brands, this is secondary surfactants which indicates you will need to use 2 surfactant combination. I have been using this to gently and effectively removes my sunscreen.
Simple Gel Cleanser
Materials
Phase I
- 77.68 % Water
- 0.2 % Acrylates/C10-30 Alkyl Acrylate Crosspolymer
Phase II
- 4 % Propanediol *You can change this to Glycerin
- 0.3 % Xanthan Gum
Phase III
- 5 % Sodium Cocyl Glutamate (Amisoft C-11)
- 10 % Cocomidopropyl betaine
Phase IV
- 2 % Lipomoist *You can change to any other active/botanical extract
- 1 % Preservatives
Instructions
Phase I
- Sprinkle Acrylates/C10-30 Alkyl Acrylate Crosspolymer to water and let it hydrates
Phase II
- Combine xanthan gum with propanediol
Phase III
- Once phase I has hydrated, combine phase II step into water
- Combine all materials in phase III to water
- Heat it to 75°
Phase IV
- Let it cool down to room temperature
- Combine all materials in phase IV
- Stir them and check pH