[cmv]

I'm having trouble combining some chemicals into a solution & can't figure out what I'm doing wrong.  I *think* it's just my order of work, but I could be missing something.

Components and appx amounts by volume:

Purified water, 85%, liquid
Glycerin (vegetable), 10%, liquid
Sodium Lauryl Sulfoacetate, 3%, fine powder
Cetyl Alcohol, 2%, waxy flakes
Cetostearyl Alcohol, 1%, waxy flakes
Grapefruit seed extract, .5%, liquid

I've tried with & w/o the GSE.  I don't know the chemical composition of it.  It comes as 60% GSE & 40% vegetable glycerin.

I heat the water to about 150F and melt the cetyl & cetostearyl alcohols in it, stirring gently.  they only partially dissolve into the water
Then I slowly stir in the glycerin
then i slowly stir in the sodium lauryl sulfoacetate
last I stir in the GSE

It appears to be a uniform solution at this point and has the same viscosity as whole milk.
As it cools to room temp, it thickens slightly to the same viscosity as motor oil.

So far so good - everything is what i want.

But after it has cooled & gelled some, I see some separation.  It has what appear to be small globs of something.  I don't see these while it's warm.

I'm thinking this *should* emulsify & stay in suspension, and it mostly does.

I'm making skin cleanser BTW, but you've probably figured that out by now

I've tried melting the alcohols into the glycerin first but they don't mix at all.  I haven't tried dissolving the sodium lauryl sulfoacetate into the glycerin yet but that's my next attempt.  I figure with enough trial & error, i'll stumble on to the right process, but if anyone has any ideas it will save me lots of time & wasted materials.  I might need an additional emulsifier or a higher ratio of the fatty alcohols to sodium lauryl sulfoacetate?  I'm trying to keep ingredients to a minimum and trying to avoid ingredients that irritate skin as much as possible. 

Also, is there a better way to agitate the solution to mix everything other than slowly stirring?  I'd love to drop a stick blender into it, but I need to keep foaming to an absolute minimum.

Thanks!

[billnotgatez]

The first thing that came to my mind was milk. When left standing milk will separate with the cream at the top. A physical process called homogenization is used to make sure the cream particles do not separate out. But, I looked up your chemicals and saw that they foam very easily. So simply using a blender to homogenize will not work. But, maybe the devices used for milk may work better. I would have thought the grapefruit extract would also assist in the emulsifying process. If I were to do what you are doing, I might be tempted to add the glycerin very slowly and as the last ingredient. But, I am no authority. 

[brwagur]

I wonder why the alcohols don't dissolve in the glycerine? Isn't glycerine (glycerol) an alcohol? Check the separating liquid to see what it is, it might just be that you have too much water in the solution, and the fatty alcohols cant emulsify it.

[cmv]

They didn't for me.  I heated the glycerin & added the alcohols while slowly stirring.  After letting it sit (still being heated to maintain temp) I could see 2 layers of liquid.  Looked like oil floating on water.  If I slowly removed what I was using to stir, the alcohols would cling and then harden.

I think i stumbled upon a fix.  Not exactly what i wanted, but a step closer.  I dissolved the glycerin in warm water while heating the alcohols.  I added polysorbate 80 (equal amount as volume of alcohols) to the alcohols, then the sodium laurylsufoacetate, then the GSE.  Stirred slowly for a while, then hit it with a stick blender.  Then slowly stirred that into the water/glecerine.  Last I hit that with the stick blender.

It produced about 3/4" of foam that i skimmed off.  result was a uniform suspension that hasn't separated (48 hrs so far).

It is much thinner.  Before it was too thick and gelled up after about a day.  Now it is too runny & will add a little xanthan gum next time to correct that.

So i needed better agitation, or i needed the additional emulsifier, or I neeed both.  Would like to find a way agitate w/o foaming, but this did seem to work well.  Added a time consuming step of skimming off the foam before bottling, but so far appears necessary.