This is an interesting thickener, a polysaccharide produce from starches by a fungus, Aureobasidium pullulans, a black yeast. It comes as a white powder that’s very water soluble to create films that aren’t sticky or tacky.
It helps increase viscosity in our products, but it doesn’t create gels or super viscous fluids.
It actually creates Newtonian fluids when used as high as 10%, fluids that don’t thicken or thin with shear.
It creates water soluble, thermally stable films that have anti-static and elastic properties that offer a really soft, smooth feeling to emulsions and conditioners, hold to hair styling products, and lubricity, slip, and glide to any water based products. It reduces the coefficient of friction when used as low as 0.3%, meaning it reduces the amount of friction when applying a lotion, reducing drag and pilling.
It’s heat tolerant (up to 250˚C), pH tolerant, and electrolyte tolerant. It’s not soluble in alcohol (ethanol and methanol), but is soluble in polyhydric alcohols, like sugar alcohols (xylitol, malitol, sorbitol), glycols (propylene glycol, butylene glycols), 1,3 propanediol, and glycerin.
It can tolerate pH ranges from 2 to 11, and is stable in the presence of most metal ions. It isn’t hygroscopic. It has a shelf life of 2 years.
I’m not kidding when I say this can handle salt – up to 30% sodium chloride (table salt), which is a huge amount – so this is definitely a good option if you want to make products that include salts, like Dead Sea salt, fine sea salt, “magnesium oil”, Epsom salts, and so on.
To hydrate, dissolve in cold water, then mix without shear until hydrated.
Read about it as part of Pepha-Tight®️ CB or as part of Siligel (INCI: Xanthan Gum (and) Lecithin (and) Sclerotium Gum (and) Pullulan), a rheology modifier.