Duplicating products: Giovanni Direct Leave In Conditioner

Sweeteababy suggested that we take a look at the Giovanni Direct Leave In Conditioner. (If you'd like to make a suggestion for a product we could duplicate, please click on this link and leave me an accurate ingredient list and a link to the product somewhere on the 'net.)

Let's take a look at each ingredient.

Aqua (Purified Water): Our solvent.

Rosemary (Rosmarinus Officinalis) Oil*, Nettle (Urtica Dioica) Oil, Thyme (Thymus Vulgaris) Oil*, Birch Leaf (Butela Alba) Oil, Chamomile (Anthemis Nobilis Flower) Oil*, Clary (Salvia Sclarea)*, Lavender (Lavandula Angustifolia)*, Coltsfoot Leaf (Tussilago Fargara)*, Yarrow (Achillea Millefolium) Oil*, Horsetail (Equisetum Arvense) Oil*: Please click here for the post on the 50:50 conditioner for more information on these extracts.

Birch Leaf (Butela Alba) Oil: I can't find much about the benefits of this oil for our hair. I found that it is an astringent and helps with blood circulation, but I'm not really sure how the latter works for a conditioner.

Mallow (Malya Sylvestris)*: Mallow contains a lot of mucilage, which can form a moisturizing film on our hair and skin.

Soybean Protein (Glycine Soja)*: A hydrolyzed protein that will offer film forming and moisturization to our skin and hair.

Cetyl Alcohol (Plant Derived): An emollient fatty alcohol that boosts the substantivity of cationic quaternary compounds found in hair conditioners.

Tocopherol (Vitamin E): Our anti-oxidant.

Panthenol: A vitamin that can behave as a humectant and film former. Very good for our hair.

Trace Minerals: No idea what this could mean.

Citric Acid (Corn): pH adjuster.

Sodium Hydroxymethlyglucinate: Preservative - Suttocide A.

Grapefruit Seed (Citrus Derived): Not a preservative, but could be an anti-oxidant.

As a quick note, I went to this website and found the ingredient list also included aloe vera after the water, panthenol after the tocopherol, and phenoxyethanol as a different preservative. This one has almost the same list sweeteababy posted, but it includes the panthenol. I've included panthenol in the ingredient list because it seems like this is the version she has.

What do we have here? I can't tell you what we don't have - we don't have a leave in conditioner. A conditioner must contain a positively charged ingredient like behentrimonium methosulfate (Incroquat BTMS-50), behentrimonium chloride, cetrimonium bromide, cetrimonium chloride, and so on. We don't have that in this product. (Click here for more information on conditioners.) Without a cationic ingredient, we just have a lotion you put into your hair.

But we don't even have that! There is nothing in this ingredient list that would be considered an emulsifier for those oils and the cetyl alcohol, so I'm feeling like there's something missing in the list. We have a ton of essential oils - well, 8 - and if we used those at even 0.5% each, we'd still have 4% oils in this product. Even if there's only 1% cetyl alcohol, we have 5% oils we're adding to this water based product and they'll just float on top of the product being un-emulsified if we don't add something to it that will create an emulsifed product.

So I'm not sure where to go with this product. I can't duplicate it because it doesn't contain an emulsifier or a cationic quaternary compound, and I know if I make it up with this ingredient list, I'm going to end up with a separated mess of oils and water that won't offer anything to my hair because it doesn't contain a conditioner. I've done my searches on line and I can't find a version of an ingredient list that contains an emulsifier and/or cationic ingredient.

What I will do is leave you with this suggestion: Find a leave in conditioner recipe you like - I hope I'm not being arrogant by suggesting this one - and add the extracts at whatever rate you want (I'd suggest 0.25% for each of the essential oils to start, and whatever you want for the water soluble ingredients.) Use BTMS-50 or another cationic ingredient that emulsifies at 2%, cetyl alcohol at 1%, hydrolyzed protein at 1%, panthenol at 1%, vitamin E at 0.5%, and your preservative at 0.5% to whatever the suggested rate might be. Add water to make up to 100%, and you've got yourself a leave in conditioner.

Join me tomorrow for more fun duplicating products!