Deodorant Experiment w/ sodium stearate
- taralee
- Mar 17, 2022
- 9 min read
Updated: May 13, 2022
A while ago I purchased an ingredient called Sodium Stearate.
INCI Name: Sodium stearate
Description: Vegetable-based aqueous thickener and gelling agent, emulsifying agent (o/w), and cleansing agent. Consists primarily of the sodium salts of saturated C16 & C18 fatty acids. Free flowing powder. Particle size (thru 100 mesh) approx. 40%. Soluble in hot water, alcohol and cosmetic esters.
Benefits:
Multi-functional ingredient with thickening, gelling, and emulsifying properties
Widely used as thickener in stick products (e.g. deodorants) and co-emulsifier in cream and lotions
Use: Add powder to the hot water phase (approx. 80oC / 176oF) and stir until homogeneous. Typical use level 0.5-20% (deodorant sticks 4 - 8%, bar soaps 5 - 20%, co-emulsifiers <1%) . For external use only.
Applications: Stick cosmetics (e.g. deodorants), color cosmetics, soaps, creams, lotions, sunscreens, after sun care products.
I'm not sure how I became aware of this ingredient. I may of just been browsing makingcosmetics.com & came across it, but that's besides the point. Making cosmetics also provides a deodorant recipe using sodium stearate. Click here to view the recipe. I didn't have all the ingredients they used in their recipe and I was trying to make due with what I had. I also wanted to incorporate some ingredients that would make the deodorant similar to the deodorant I have. I noticed the deodorant I have is an oil based deodorant so I knew it wouldn't come out exactly the same, but I still wanted to incorporate some similar ingredients. The deodorant I have has a fatty alcohol in it. So I decided to pair the sodium stearate with a fatty alcohol to hopefully give it somewhat of a similar texture to my deodorant. Also I wasn't convinced that the sodium stearate alone was enough to harden that bar. So here is my first recipe I tried;
Test 1
phase 1
25% propanedial 1,3
53.5% distilled water
phase 2
3% cetyl alcohol
phase 3
8% sodium stearate
6% arrowroot poser
3% penstia powder
1% ethylhexylglycerin
.5% liquid germall plus
Directions; I weighed out phase 1 and phase 2 in two separate beakers and heated them like I would an emulsion. Once they were heated I mixed them together then poured in phase 3 and mixed.
results; This deodorant came out too soft and gritty. It looks like all the powdered ingredients didn't dissolve well enough and everything was just mixed together horribly. So this was a FAIL.
Test 2
I figured since the 1st one was way to soft I should add another hardener. So I decided to incorporate some beeswax and raise the percentage of the cetyl alcohol. I also wanted to make sure to mix everything together with a high sheer mixer before pouring it into my deodorant mold.
phase 1
25% propanedial 1,3
47.5% distilled water
phase 2
6% cetyl alcohol
3% beeswax
phase 3
8% sodium stearate
6% arrowroot powder
3% penstia powder
1% ethylhexylglycerin
.5% liquid germall plus
Directions; I did the same thing I did in Test 1. Except after I poured phase 2 into phase 1 I mixed it with a high sheer mixer. Then after I pour phase 3 in, I mixed again with a high sheer mixer.
results; This one apparently came out so bad that I threw it out right away because I never got footage of it and I made it about 2 weeks ago so I really don't remember what it looked like. Sorry about that. So test 2 was a FAIL!
Test 3
I went back and took another look at my favorite deodorant and noticed another oil based ingredient that might help my deodorant work out better. (honestly looking back I'm just thinking "why in the world would this ingredient help?!" I think I was just really stuck on making this deodorant similar to mine. Even though it really isn't what I should of been doing.) The ingredient was c12-15 alkyl benzoate. I also wanted to get a different fatty alcohol to use. I noticed when I looked at different deodorants online a few of them had an ingredient called behenyl alcohol. I also noticed on formulator sample shop they mention this ingredient is commonly used in antiperspirants. So I decided to get the behenyl alcohol and c12-15 alkyl benzoate to incorporate it into my next test. I also did away with the pensita powder because it's an expensive ingredient and I was doing a lot of experiments at this point and didn't want to waste more of it. (normally I advise to keep out your expensive ingredients until you have the base of your product mastered, but I really didn't think it would take this many experiments)
phase 1
25% propanedial 1,3
29.5% distilled water
phase 2
20% c12-15 alkyl benzoate
6% behenyl alcohol
phase 3
8% sodium stearate
phase 4
10% arrowroot powder
1% ethylhexylglycerin
.5% liquid germall plus
Directions; I weighed phase 1 and phase 2 in two separate beakers and heated them up like you would making an emulsion. Once heated I took phase 3 and poured it into phase 1 and mixed it in. Phase 1 then turned into a thick white paste. So I poured phase 2 into phase 1 and mixed with a high sheer mixer. I then poured phase 4 into the formulation and mixed with a high sheer mixer. Then I poured it into my deodorant mold.
results; This deodorant actually turned out, not too bad. This deodorant actually looked and felt a lot like my deodorant I currently use. Unfortunately the c12-15 alkyl benzoate or the water was separating from the product. You could feel a layer of oil or water on the surface of the deodorant. Even after you wiped it away it would come back. Also chunks of powder would come off when you tried to use the deodorant. So this was another fail.
Test 4
I decided to take out the c12-15 alkly benzoate to see if maybe this was the cause of the separation, since I did use it at a really high percent. I also decided to take out the arrowroot powder to see if this was the reason chunks of powder were coming off. Lastly, I took out the propanedial because I was running low on it.
phase 1
84.5% distilled water
phase 2
6% behenyl alcohol
phase 3
8% sodium stearate
phase 4
1% ethylhexylglycerin
.5% liquid germall plus
Directions; I followed the same directions I used in test 3.
results; total fail!
Alright, so we are back tracking now. I'm taking another look at the making cosmetics deodorant recipe. Click here to view it. Now I noticed in the directions it says the following "Add phase B slowly in several additions, with plenty of stirring in between." phase b in this case is the sodium stearate. So I think I need to do this. Before I was adding in the sodium stearate all at once, which I don't think is allowing it to fully dissolve. So here is test 7. Yes that is not a typo. I did 2 other tests since test 4, but I didn't want to include them because they were total fails and that is just to many tests to share.
Test 7
So I simplified my recipe. I wanted to try just an all water based formula. No oil based ingredients. I also am still not convinced that the sodium stearate will be able to harden the deodorant enough so I didn't listen to the formulating guidelines because I'm stupid sometimes. lol So I used it at 15%. It is advised to use it at 4 - 8% in deodorants. It says you can use it up to 20% in bar soaps, so I knew it was safe to use it at that high of a concentration on the skin. So that didn't worry me. I also made sure to incorporate the propanedial 1,3 this time because it works as a good solvent for the sodium stearate.
phase 1
25% propanedial 1,3
58.5% distilled water
phase 2
15% sodium stearate
phase 3
1% ethylhexylglycerin
.5% liquid germall plus
Directions; I heated up phase 1 to 70C. I then added a tiny bit of the sodium stearate at a time. Making sure to mix it in until it dissolved completely and the water goes clear. I noticed doing this process did cause a lot of bubbles to appear in the formula. Just spray it with some rubbing alcohol and the bubbles will go away. I continued to add in a tiny bit of sodium stearate at a time and mixing it in until it was all dissolved in the water and propanedial. At this time the formula should be completely clear and no bubbles. I then let the formula sit to cool down to 50C so I can add in the cool down ingredients. & here is where the problem started.
results; The formula hardened before it reached 50C. So at this point, I was convinced. Sodium stearate can harden water. WOW!
Test 8
Apparently I wasn't convinced enough, because I still didn't try using the sodium stearate at 5-8%. Nope! I decided to ignore all the lovely information in front of me and do it my way. I decided to use the sodium stearate at 10% this time.
phase 1
25% propanedial 1,3
63.5% distilled water
phase 2
10% sodium stearate
phase 3
1% ethylhexylglycerin
.5% liquid germall plus
Directions; I followed the same directions as I did last time.
results; the bar came out really nice. I was actually hopeful at this point. Except it was as hard as a rock!
Test 9
This time I gave in. I finally used the sodium stearate at 7.5%. I had the information in front of me this whole time, but for some reason decided to make things harder on me, by trying all kinds of other things.
phase 1
25% propanedial 1,3
66% distilled water
phase 2
7.5% sodium stearate
phase 3
1% ethylhexylglycerin
.5% liquid germall plus
Directions; I heated up phase 1 to 70C. I then added a tiny bit of the sodium stearate at a time. Making sure to mix it in until it dissolved completely and the water goes clear. I noticed doing this process did cause a lot of bubbles to appear in the formula. Just spray it with some rubbing alcohol and the bubbles will go away. I continued to add in a tiny bit of sodium stearate at a time and mixing it in until it was all dissolved in the water and propanedial. At this time the formula should be completely clear and no bubbles. I then let the formula sit to cool down to 50C so I can add in the cool down ingredients. I added in the cool down ingredients, mixed, and poured the formula into my deodorant mold.
results; it turned out wonderful! The deodorant stick looked amazing. It wasn't to soft and it wasn't to hard. When I rubbed the bar into my arm I actually felt product coming off. It was wonderful!
Test 10
I wanted to try to make the bar a little bit softer this time. Test 9 was amazing, but idk I guess I wanted to see what 5% sodium stearate would look like.
phase 1
25% propanedial 1,3
68.5% distilled water
phase 2
5% sodium stearate
phase 3
1% ethylhexylglycerin
.5% liquid germall plus
Directions; same as test 9
results; I love it! The top part of the deodorant did come out a bit ugly. I think I was just sick of making deodorant at this point and I wasn't as diligent keeping the bubbles at bay this time. But either way, it's great! You can definitely tell it's softer than test 9. Also when you rub the bar into your skin you can feel a lot more product coming off as compared to test 9.
Next time I make this deodorant I am going to use sodium stearate at 6%. I think that will be the perfect number!
Final thoughts;
I learned a lot from this experiment. Not just about deodorant, but about actually making sure I listen closely to the formulating guidelines. Also, just because I don't understand how an ingredient can do something, doesn't mean it won't work. I was so convinced that the sodium stearate wasn't enough to make a hard bar that I tried pairing it with a fatty alcohol, a hardener, an emulsifier (I tried making it with emulsifying wax along with a fatty alcohol, that was a total fail too.) Then I tried using it at a higher percentage than recommended. I guess I was feeling really rebellious during this experiment. lol
In the video that goes along with this blog I mentioned an antiperspirant I was going to add into this deodorant. Well things have changed. Allow me to explain.
So a week or so ago one of you guys brought the ingredient zinc ricinoleate to my attention. Unfortunately this ingredient is oil soluble so I couldn't use it in this formula. (well I might be able to get it to work by trying to dissolve it down with an oil and then trying to incorporate an emulsifier into the deodorant) but if you take a look at that deodorant recipe by making cosmetics I keep talking about, they actually have an ingredient called DeoConcentrate Personal Care in it. This is a liquid version of zinc ricinoleate, solubilized in sodium lauroyl sarcosinate. I was planning on buying this and incorporating it into this deodorant, but it's sold out on making cosmetics. This isn't the worst thing ever, since technically this deodorant already has an antiperspirant in it, ethylhexylglycerin. So I'm not too disappointed. I do plan on purchasing some Zinc Ricinoleate at some point and trying to make a deodorant with it though. So let me know if you would like to see that experiment as well. I apologize for this experiment being, a bit of a mess, but that's how it goes sometimes. Hope you enjoyed :)
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