The home of SwiftCraftyMonkey Formulating Inc.! Join Susan as she obsesses about cosmetic chemistry and other things (some possibly related to monkeys). Often strange, occasionally useful, and always worth a stop as a point of interest on your journey through the Intertron.
Alkyl glyceride sulfates are produced by the transesterification of coconut oil, followed by sulfation with sulfur trioxide then neutralization with lye. They are great foam boosters and have similar foaming power to the amide ether sulfates. These are great combined with the alkyl polyglucosides, non-ionic surfactants derived from glucose. Alkyl glyceride sulfates will thicken with...
Amide ether sulfates result from the sulfation of ethoxylated amide and can be combined with sodium, magnesium, or ammonium to produce something like ammonium lauryl ether sulfide or magnesium PEG-3 cocamide sulfate. They have good skin compatibility and they are very mild cleansers to the point where they don’t remove a lot of the lipids...
Alkyl ether sulfates result from the sulfation of an ethoxylated fatty alcohol. Ethoxylation is the process by which ethylene oxide is added to a fatty acid alcohol to create detergent properties in a surfactant. If you compare the molecule above to that of SLS (from yesterday), you’ll see that little oxygen (O) atom is messing...
Alkyl sulfates are probably the most maligned of the surfactants. They are organic esters of sulfuric acid created by sulfation of a fatty alcohol chain that vary according to the number of carbons in that hydrocarbon chain. (For instance, if you were sulfating lauric acid, you’d have a carbon chain of 12 carbons. If you...
I know people are scared away by the idea of using sulfates of any sort in their products, but there are so many kinds of sulfates that eliminating them all together would deprive you of some awesome surfactants! When you see a surfactant with the word “sulfate” on the end, all it means the molecule...