Thickener: Behenyl alcohol

I do love working with thickeners in my products! We know that cetyl alcohol can produce something slicker and silkier than stearic acid, and that cetearyl alcohol can offer those same qualities with a little more waxiness, so what does behenyl alcohol bring to the party? First, a review....

Cetyl alcohol is a fatty alcohol that contains 16 carbons on a long chain. Because it's saturated, it will have a long shelf life, at least two years! It has a required HLB of 15.5. We add it to our lotions to thicken the product and give it some extra glide. It has a melting point of about 49˚C.

Cetearyl alcohol (also known as cetostearyl alcohol and cetylstearyl alcohol) is a blend of cetyl and stearyl alcohols that we can use at up to 25% in our creations. It can be a 30% to 70% cetyl alcohol to stearyl alcohol or 30% to 70% stearyl alcohol to cetyl alcohol, but you might find 50-50 from some manufacturers. (I have no idea which version I have, but it looks a lot like Lanette O, which is 50-50.) It has an HLB of 15.5 and is used as a thickener. Its melting point is 49˚C to 58˚C. It's also saturated, so it will have a long shelf life.

Both cetyl alcohol and cetearyl alcohol are oil soluble, meaning they would go in the heated oil phase of our products, and they will thicken our lotions, creams, body butters, and other emulsified products when we use them in this way. Fatty alcohols are great in our conditioners because they boost the substantivity of the cationic ingredient, meaning you get more conditioning without having to add more conditioner!

Behenyl alcohol is a chain of 22 carbons with a melting point of 65˚C to 73˚C (as we increase the number of carbons, we see an increase in the melting and boiling points of our fatty alcohols). It is also saturated, and has an HLB of 15.5. It is also oil soluble, so it should be used in the heated oil phase of our products. It will boost the substantivity of our conditioners.

How am I going to use this ingredient? I'm going to try it out in my duplication of the Body Shop's Hemp Hand Protector in place of the cetearyl alcohol. So join me tomorrow for that recipe and my results!