Water: Our solvent.
Cetearyl alcohol: A fatty alcohol that will help boost the substantivity of the cationic quaternary compound.
Behentrimonium chloride: Like behentrimonium methosulfate (Incroquat BTMS-50) but with chloride instead of methosulfate. This is our conditioning agent and emulsifier, and is essential for this product. We can moisturize our hair as much as we want, but without the conditioning agent we don't have a conditioner. We really need this ingredient as an emulsifier for all these oils!
Palm oil: A very thick oil, almost like a butter, that is very moisturizing for hair and skin.
Orbignya speciosa kernel oil or curua palm oil: Another type of palm tree from South America that produces an oil very similar "in colour and odour to palm kernel oil". It has a lower melting point than palm kernel oil, though.
Palm kernel oil: A very thick oil, almost like a butter, that is very moisturizing.
Safflower seed oil: Very similar to sunflower oil, it's high in linoleic acid, which is very moisturizing.
Meadowfoam seed oil: A very long shelf life oil (about 2 years) with tons of anti-oxidants and strange new fatty acids.
Sunflower seed oil: A light feeling oil with a 6 month to 1 year shelf life, it offers high levels of linoleic acid and Vitamin E.
Macadamia nut oil: A light to medium dry feeling oil with a 1 year shelf life that contains a ton of phytosterols.
Sesame oil: A medium feeling oil with a nice balance of linoleic and oleic acids. It has a shelf life of about a year.
Babassu oil: A dry feeling solid oil that melts at skin temperature. It has a shelf life of about 1 year.
Olive oil: A medium to heavy weight greasy feeling oil with a shelf life of about a year.
Unsaponifiables: Unsaponifiable matter is that matter which is present after an oil has been saponified or mixed with a base like sodium hydroxide or potassium hydroxide. That which is left over includes lipids of natural origin - tocopherols, squalene, and phytosterols (which help soften our hair and reduce static charge). Unfortunately, there's no information about what unsaponifiables these might be and what they might contain, so there's nothing we can really do about this ingredient.
Jojoba seed oil: Not really an oil but a liquid wax, it can penetrate through the hair follicle to offer moisturizing. It has a shelf life of up to 2 years.
Avocado oil: A heavy weight oil with a shelf life of about a year. It's easily absorbed by the skin and hair, which is why you'll see it in hair care products - it softens and conditions, and protects against fly away hair.
Sweet almond oil: A light weight oil with a 6 month to 1 year shelf life. It contains a lot of oleic acid, which can be softening and moisturizing.
Passion fruit seed oil: Also known as maracuja oil, it's a light weight oil with a shelf life of about a year. It's high in linoleic acid (77%) and it is supposed to be rich in Vitamin C, calcium, phosphorus, and anti-oxidants (it would have to be to last a year with that much linoleic acid!). I've seen it written that it "encourages healthy hair growth and increased vitality". Nothing can make your hair grow, so I doubt that's accurate.
Coffee seed oil: Derived from coffee seeds, it has the strong smell of coffee and is reported to contain anti-oxidants (I couldn't find any really good information on this oil). It is suggested for use at 3% to 10%.
Murumuru butter: Very much like coconut oil - and it can be substituted for it - it contains a lot of lauric acid, which is a fantastic fatty acid for hair as it has a high affinity for proteins. Because of its low molecular weight and linear chain structure, it can actually penetrate the hair shaft.
Shea butter: A greasy feeling butter with a shelf life of two years.
Mango butter: A drier feeling butter with a shelf life of two years.
Rosemary leaf extract: Could be an essential oil, could be an anti-oxidant.
Hydrolyzed rice protein: A hydrolyzed protein like silk or oat, it will film form and offer moisturizing to our hair.
PEG-100 stearate: A high HLB emulsifier used in combination with a low HLB emulsifier to create an emulsification system.
Glyceryl stearate SE: A complete emulsifier, unlike glyceryl stearate (not SE).
Fragrance: Smells pretty!
Hydroxycitronellal: A synthetic Mugeut or lily of the valley fragrance. (Click here for more information.)
Magnesium nitrate: Used as a dessicant to keep water out of products. (Click here for more information.)
Methylchloroisothiaxolinone: Preservative with anti-bacterial and anti-fungal properties.
Methylisothiazolinone: Preservative (read more about it here - very interesting studies!)
Okay, so what do we have here? We have what should be a very thick conditioner with tons of emollients, a cationic quaternary compound (our conditioner), and some emulsifiers. Are the emulsifiers necessary in this product? Can't we just use our BTMS-50 as an emulsifier? Yes, you can, depending upon how much you use.
Where do you think the 1% phase starts? I think it starts with the rosemary leaf extract, but it could be anywhere on the list below the hydroxycitronellal, because fragrances are generally at 1% or lower.
Which ingredients can we leave out or substitute? I'm thinking we don't really need the magesium nitrate because we're not going to be shipping this product to anyone anytime soon, and we can use our favourite preservatives suitable for emulsions (but not ones that don't play nice with cationic ingredients). I'm not going to use the other emulsifiers because I'll include enough BTMS-50 for it to be a stable emulsion.
And what's with all the oils? I think we need at least 55% water (to keep it as an oil in water product so we can use BTMS-50 as the emulsifier), 1% fragrance, 0.5% preservative, 0.5% anti-oxidant, 8% BTMS-50, 4% cetearyl alcohol, and 2% hydrolyzed protein, we only have 17% left for oils and we have 19 of them!
Yes, I know they probably aren't using as much cetearyl alcohol and BTMS-50 as I'm using because they are using an emulsification system to help keep the product emulsified, but I think this is necessary to make the product an awesome conditioner as well as emulsified. You can reduce the BTMS-50 as low as 6% with 3% cetearyl alcohol to get another 3% oils (total of 20%) if you want the oils more than the conditioning.
So which oils are essential in this product? If you want my honest opinion, I'd keep the palm oil because it is a good and inexpensive oil that will make the product very moisturizing. I'd keep the avocado and jojoba oils as they are good for hair, and I'd go with murumuru or coconut oil because we know they are proven to be great for our hair. The sunflower, safflower, macadamia nut, and sweet almond really don't offer much for our hair, but you could keep the olive oil or sesame seed oil because it has high levels of saponifiables. You could keep low levels of mango or shea butter to get the goodness of those butters, but use them at 1% to 2% each for thickening. And I think a little babassu might be a nice thing for the skin feel.
So we have palm or coconut oil, avocado, jojoba, olive or sesame seed oil, babassu oil, shea, and mango butters. That's five oils into 17%. I'd go with the coconut oil at 5%, and the others at 2% each.
I really don't think there's much point in adding something like 1% or 2% of an oil because for the most part you aren't getting enough to offer any goodness. There are some exceptions, but for the most part you want to use at least 5% of each oil to get any benefits. If you want to use two or three oils, go ahead.
So let's take a look at a possible recipe.
POSSIBLE DUPLICATION FOR OJON REVITALIZING 2 MINUTE HAIR MASK
WATER PHASE
67% water
2% hydrolyzed protein of choice
OIL PHASE
8% Incroquat BTMS-50
4% cetearyl alcohol
5% coconut or palm oil
2% shea butter
2% mango butter
2% olive or sesame oil
2% avocado oil
2% jojoba oil
2% babassu oil
COOL DOWN PHASE
1% fragrance oil (I'd suggest lily of the valley for a similar fragrance)
0.5% preservative
0.5% ROE or Vitamin E (as an anti-oxidant)
Follow the basic lotion making instructions for this product.
As a note, if you find this product is too moisturizing for your hair, reduce the BTMS-50 to 4% and the cetearyl alcohol to 2% and up the water. (I think this would turn me into an oil slick, but some people need this kind of moisturizing in their hair!) Reduce the oils as you wish as well.
As a final note, this is not a recipe that would be suitable for Incroquat BTMS-25 as we need all the emulsifying we can get here. Sorry!
Join me tomorrow as we take a look at duplicating another product, one that I'm asking you, my wonderful readers, to figure out for yourself before I offer the answers!
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