Question: Can we make a clear leave in conditioner?

Sweeteababy0427 writes: I would like to know more about making liquid emulsifications. For example, like a leave in conditioner that has oils and water but I would like for it to stay in the liquid form and translucent (if possible). I saw you post about the spray leave in conditioner but I am thinking in general, if I wanted to make any product like that how would I do it? Which emulsifiers would I use? At what percentage?

If you want to use one of the cationic quats like Incroquat BTMS-50 or cetrimonium bromide, it isn't possible as they are emulsifiers and will make the product opaque. You could, however, use cetrimonium chloride, cationic polymers, and water soluble oils (esters) to make something clear, but it will be less conditioning than something made with our cationic quaternary compounds!

So what emollients could we use in this recipe? We need to use something water soluble, so we'll want to stick with esters like PEG-7 olivate (or another water soluble oil), Cromollient SCE, Caprol Micro Express (link at Lotioncrafters), or even oil mixed with polysorbate 80 as our emollients.

I would use cetrimonium chloride as my detangling and cationic ingredient at 2%, then add a cationic polymer like polyquat 7, honeyquat (although it will be slightly yellow), or polyquat 44 (my new Saturday night thing!) at the appropriate amount. I'd use polyquat 7 or honeyquat at 3% to 5% or polyquat 44 at up to 2% (although the suggestion is 0.5%, I would need more conditioning!).

So let's take a look at a few ideas (based on this post on detangling products)...

CLEAR, SPRAYABLE CONDITIONING PRODUCT WITH ESTERS

HEATED PHASE
water to 100%
1% Cromollient SCE or up to 5% PEG-7 olivate (or other water soluble oil) or up to 10% Caprol Micro Express
3% cetrimonium chloride
2% hydrolyzed protein

COOL DOWN PHASE
3% polyquat 7 or honeyquat or 0.5% polyquat 44
2% panthenol
0.5% preservative
1% fragrance oil

I'm not the biggest fan of using polysorbate 80 in hair care products as it can feel kind of sticky, so I'd keep it to 2% or lower, which means you can only use 2% oils in this recipe. If you want to make a clear emollient conditioner, I'd definitely go with one of the other esters, but I thought I would include this recipe to show you how it can be made.

Your conditioner will go the colour of your oils, so I would stick to clear oils like fractionated coconut oil or lightly coloured oils like sweet almond, sunflower, and so on.

CLEAR, SPRAYABLE CONDITIONING PRODUCT WITH POLYSORBATE 80
HEATED PHASE
water to 100%
3% cetrimonium chloride
2% hydrolyzed protein

COOL DOWN PHASE

3% polyquat 7 or honeyquat or 0.5% polyquat 44

2% panthenol

0.5% preservative

1% fragrance oil

2% oil of choice

2% polysorbate 80

You can use the general or alternate instructions for these recipes. But mix the oil and polysorbate together first, then add it to the conditioners.

As a side note, I've been playing around with Caprol Micro Express in hair care products and I'm quite enjoying it for my oily hair. As another side note, cetrimonium chloride is supposed to be an emulsifier but I've found it doesn't work well in that capacity. You can try it with small amounts of oils, but it will need shaking after a while.

Have fun formulating!