top of page
Search

Hydrating Body Gel using Sodium Carbomer

Updated: May 13, 2022


Ever since I posted the Vanilla Rose Jelly Face Mask and the Cucumber Jelly Eye Mask I have been getting so many questions from you guys asking if you can use carbomer instead of xanthan gum in these recipes. The short answer is, yes, but there is a lot more to it than just that. So today I am going to be explaining to you what my experience has been like working with Sodium Carbomer.


About Carbomer

There seems to be a few different carbomers about there. So I'm not sure which one you guys are referring to when you ask me about it. The carbomer I purchased is Sodium Carbomer that has been pre-neutralized.

"Sodium Carbomer is a pre-neutralized synthetic polymer that can be used to thicken, suspend and stabilize cosmetic formulations. Requiring very low concentrations, Carbomers are often used to adjust the viscosity of cosmetic preparations. They dry quickly and are not film forming." - lotioncrafter


From my understanding of what I read on lotioncrafter, most carbomers require an alkaline catalyst. Meaning you need to raise the ph in order to get the carbomer to activate and gel the product. With pre-neutralized sodium carbomer, you don't need to worry about raising the ph. As it has already been neutralized. Pre-neutralized sodium carbomer has a ph of about 6.5 and creates solutions that are between 6-7.5. Pre-neutralized sodium carbomer is recommended to be used at .2% - .5% so you only need a little bit to create a gel solution. It is also mentioned on the lotioncrafter listing for pre-neutralized sodium carbomer that it can be used in eye gels, body washes, shampoos, and creams & lotions. I believe the eye gel and creams & lotions to be true, but I'm not so sure about the shampoos and body washes. I'll explain why.


What Sodium Cabomer is not compatible with

I noticed pre-neutralized sodium carbomer specifically (idk about other carbomers because I've never worked with them) isn't compatible with a lot of ingredients. I found that the following ingredients, once added directly into a solution of water and pre-neutralized sodium carbomer that is a nice thick gel, immediately thins out;

What Sodium Carbomer worked with

I did have good luck using it with nonionic surfactants. Specifically a couple different emulsifiers, but we will save that for another post.

  • nonionic surfactants

  • extracts

  • hydrosols

  • dl panthenol

  • niacinamide (I didn't try it, but I'd imagine it would work)

  • allantoin (I didn't try it, but I'd imagine it would work)

I also find that using glycerin as a humectant in gels just makes the product to sticky (unless you are creating a wash off product like a face mask) Now, this is obviously just my own personal preference, so you do you, but I'm going to avoid using glycerin in gels that are leave on products.

Hydrating Body Gel Formula

  • 10% propylene glycol

  • 10% concord grape fruit essence

  • 2% cucumber extract

  • 75% distilled water

  • 2% dl panthenol

  • .5% liquid germall plus

  • .5% sodium carbomer pre neutralized

Directions;

  • weigh all the ingredients into a beaker besides the sodium carbomer and mix until dl panthenol has fully dissolved.

  • weigh the sodium carbomer in a separate beaker and add in any mica powder at this time if you would like your gel to have color.

  • pour a small amount of the carbomer into your beaker with all the ingredients and mix with an immersion blender.

  • add in a little more of the carbomer and mix again.

  • repeat this process until all the carbomer has been incorporated into your solution.

note; you want to make sure you are only adding small amounts of carbomer into your solution at a time to prevent it from clumping up and creating fish eyes.


Ph adjusting

We already discussed the issue of pre-neutralized sodium carbomer not being compatible with lots of different ingredients, but here comes the other issue with it.

You can't really lower the ph much. The final ph of the hydrating body gel came out to be 7.35. This is just a bit to high for a leave on product. Typically you want leave on products to have a ph of 4.5 - 5.5 even 6 is probably okay, but I like to keep it around our skins ph level for best results. So I decided to try and lower the ph. I added in 2 drops of a 40% citric acid solution diluted in 60% distilled water. I mixed in the citric acid solution for about a minute, allowing the ph to adjust, and then I took the ph again. It still wasn't low enough. I ended up adding in about 5 drops of the citric acid solution when I noticed the hydrating body gel was starting to thin out. It became way to thin to work as a body gel and the ph only got down to 6.82.


So basically I can't recommend pre-neutralized sodium carbomer to be used in leave on products. At least not in a body gel, but I do think it is okay to use pre-neutralized sodium carbomer in a jelly face mask. Since face masks are wash off products, you don't really have to worry about the ph as much since you are washing them off. You will also most likely be applying a toner, serum, or moisturizer after which have a balanced ph. Now I personally still like to make sure my face masks have a balanced ph, but I really don't think it will do any harm using a face mask with a ph of around 7.5.


Substituting Xanthan gum with Carbomer

To answer your question, yes, you can use carbomer as a replacement for xanthan gum in my jelly face masks. Just keep in mind you can't add in all those ingredients I mentioned earlier that sodium carbomer isn't compatible with and you won't be able to lower the ph.

I will be sharing a recipe that I used pre-neutralized sodium carbomer in and I was actually able to lower the ph to 5.8, so look out for that video. I'll also be sharing a body gel recipe I made with out sodium carbomer. So get excited for those videos

Hope you enjoyed this post. Let me know in the comments if you have ever worked with carbomer and which kind you used. Also if you have any tips on formulating with carbomer, let us know :)

Have a great day!




Comments

bottom of page