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Have you also wondered how to create water-based gels, shampoos or various shower products in a gel form? The answer to these products is natural gums. However, natural gums hide much more than just the possibility of turning water into a gel. Let’s take a closer look at the properties of individual natural gums and compare them.
Natural gums are usually carbohydrate-based substances that swell in an aqueous environment because they form entangled networks, thereby increasing the viscosity of the final product. What can natural gums be useful for? First of all, natural gums are used to create water-based gels. That means natural gums are added to water, hydrosols or other aqueous solutions and can transform them into a gel. Of course, there are certain limitations, for example some gums only dissolve after heating, or are unstable at certain pH values, or may not form gels at all and have a different application.Another property of natural gums is their ability to improve the stability of emulsions, or to give emulsions a unique gel-like consistency. Body yogurts are based exactly on the combination of an emulsion (i.e. the union of water and oils with an emulsifier) with a natural gum. Natural gums also have conditioning properties. Some natural gums can improve the condition of the hair and are used as active ingredients. In addition, natural gums also affect the texture of products and their skin feel. Natural gums can be obtained from plant material or algae; some gums are also prepared biotechnologically, produced by various microorganisms.
To compare the gel-forming properties of selected natural gums, we prepared solutions of these gums containing 1 % natural gum, 2.5 % glycerin, 1 % preservative Euxyl PE 9010 and 95.5 % distilled water. All solutions/gels were prepared in the same way: the powdered natural gum was mixed with glycerin to form a viscous slurry, then distilled water was incorporated into this mixture under constant stirring, and after a gel had formed, the preservative was added. The only exception was carrageenan, whose aqueous solution must be heated in order to dissolve, and then a gel forms after the mixture has cooled. In this case, the preservative was added after cooling to room temperature.
Xanthan gum is an excellent natural gum for beginners, as it can effectively form a gel in both cold and hot water and is stable over a wide pH range. If a product made with xanthan gum does not turn out well, the error is probably not in the xanthan gum itself, but in the proportion of other raw materials or in the procedure, because xanthan gum tolerates a wide range of conditions, including intensive mixing, and thus creates very stable emulsions. Xanthan gum combines well with galactomannans such as konjac powder; the combination of these two substances causes a marked increase in viscosity.This natural gum is obtained biotechnologically and is produced by Xanthomonas campestris. A disadvantage of xanthan gum is that products with it can be somewhat difficult to spread and leave a slightly sticky feeling on the skin. Xanthan gum contains negatively charged groups, so it is classified as an anionic gum; such negatively charged gums generally do not combine well with positively charged substances such as cationic surfactants, which are often used in hair care. On the other hand, anionic gums form good gels in aqueous environments for use in shampoos, shower gels, facial cleansing gels and similar products. Xanthan gum is therefore well compatible with amphoteric, nonionic and anionic ingredients.
Xanthan gum formed a fairly thick gel at a concentration of 1 %. The gel was not clear and transparent; instead, it was milky and opaque. Its structure was not the smoothest (compared to guar gum), yet this did not affect spreading on the skin: the gel spread evenly, so for home cosmetic making this is more of an appearance defect that does not affect functionality. However, fully rubbing the xanthan gum gel into the skin until it disappears took somewhat longer than with guar gum, and a slightly sticky feeling on the skin was noticeable until it was completely absorbed. Xanthan gum has the advantage of forming stable gels over a wider pH range, including acidic conditions, and is therefore suitable for thickening shampoos and other products containing glucosides, which have an alkaline pH and must be neutralised to the physiological skin pH (4.5–5.5).Xanthan gum is therefore suitable for beginners; even at low dosages (1 %) it forms fairly thick gels. If you want shampoos or shower gels that flow easily from the bottle, use lower dosages.
Guar gum is a thickener obtained from the seeds of Cyamopsis tetragonolobus. Guar gum hydrates easily in both cold and hot environments and forms fairly thick gels. Guar gum is a nonionic gum and can therefore be combined with other raw materials regardless of their charge. There is also a cationic guar gum that has different properties, so these two substances cannot always be substituted for one another.
Another gum that thickens aqueous solutions well is guar gum. Similar to xanthan gum, guar gum does not form clear solutions, but slightly cloudy mixtures. However, its advantage over xanthan gum is that the resulting gels have a very smooth, pleasant texture, which feels and looks very good. The disadvantage is a somewhat lower stability compared to xanthan gum; at a concentration of 1 %, guar gum also forms gels of lower viscosity, i.e. more fluid gels. To achieve a more gel-like consistency, you will therefore need a slightly higher dosage than with xanthan gum.
Gum arabic is obtained by extraction from the tree Acacia senegal and can also be found under the name acacia gum. This gum is not particularly known for strong gel-forming properties; it does not form thick gels, but it can stabilise emulsions because it interacts with lipids. In addition, it provides a soft feel on the skin and thus improves the texture of products. This gum sometimes finds use in decorative cosmetics because it improves the adhesion of colourants to the skin.If you work with gum arabic and have trouble dissolving it completely in cold water, you can heat the mixture to 70 °C until the gum arabic is fully hydrated. After cooling, the viscosity may change. A more marked increase in viscosity is usually achieved when this gum is used at a concentration of at least 40 %. It is an anionic gum that does not combine well with substances with a purely positive charge. Thanks to the mentioned ability to interact with lipids, gum arabic facilitates the union of oils with water without increasing viscosity. This is particularly useful if you want to incorporate a small amount of oils into an aqueous solution, for example to combine essential oils with aqueous solutions while maintaining low viscosity, as in toners and sprays. Try using a ratio of gum arabic to oils of 3:1 or 4:1.
Gum arabic was the only gum in our test that did not thicken the prepared aqueous solution. Therefore, gum arabic is not suitable for thickening products or forming gels when used alone. It is therefore worthwhile to use gum arabic in combination with other natural gums to form a gel and thicken the product. In the gum arabic test, a clear liquid was obtained, so gum arabic does not cloud solutions but instead provides transparent solutions.
Carrageenan is one of the anionic gums obtained from algae. Carrageenan is specifically obtained from the red seaweed Chondrus crispus and is a widely used ingredient not only in cosmetics but especially in the food industry. It is a good thickener and partly an emulsifier, and therefore improves the combination of oily and aqueous raw materials.Carrageenan helps to thicken products and create thick, viscous emulsions. In addition, it improves skin hydration because it helps retain more water in the skin.
Carrageenan represents a plant-based alternative to animal gelatine, and its properties correspond to this. Before thickening, carrageenan must first be heated in a water bath until it dissolves, which is achieved at about 70 °C. After dissolving, the mixture must be allowed to cool. Only after complete cooling does it set, so depending on the temperature where the mixture is cooling, you sometimes have to wait several hours to obtain a solid mass.The advantage of carrageenan is that it thickens intensely even at low concentration. At 1 %, a firm jelly similar to cake gelatine was obtained after cooling. Therefore, for thickening products, a lower concentration is more appropriate, as the firmness of this jelly was too high for any product to be pourable. At a concentration of 0.3 %, it was already possible to stir the mixture with a stick. However, a disadvantage was that during stirring, the solid part of the jelly broke up into smaller pieces, so we did not obtain a uniform gel but rather a mixture of jelly lumps, which not only do not look good, but are also not easy to work with.Overall, carrageenan has the advantage of providing fairly clear and transparent solutions. The disadvantage is the need to heat the mixture to dissolve the carrageenan, which adds another step to the manufacturing process. At the same time, a uniform gel was not obtained, but a mixture of lumps, so either use very low concentrations around 0.1 %, or combine carrageenan with another natural gum to achieve better properties.
When making shampoos or shower gels, many of us occasionally reach for various colourants, most often mica powders. Mica powders are not only shimmering, but also available in a wide colour palette to enhance your product. Do you also want to prepare a palette of colourful products? Then you certainly do not want the mica powder you have chosen to sink to the bottom of the product over time. This is why we looked at the test of mica powder sedimentation in the gels and solutions of natural gums we prepared.We proceeded similarly as in the previous test. One-percent solutions of natural gums were prepared, except for carrageenan, which was used at a concentration of 0.3 %, since at 1 % it provides a jelly that is too firm,into which it would not have been possible to incorporate the mica powder. The 0.3 % carrageenan solution was also heated to dissolve this thickener.Then 0.5 % green mica powder was added to the solution and a milk frother was used to disperse it evenly in the mixture. To facilitate the dispersion of the mica powder, the colourant can be added to the glycerin and natural gum mixture first, and only then can water be added.We poured 10 g of this mixture into test tubes and left them to stand upright for 72 hours to observe any settling of mica powder at the bottom. The results relate to the respective percentage of natural gum used (1 %, respectively 0.3 % for carrageenan), so if a lower concentration of natural gum is used, the same result may not be achieved (the gel may not be sufficiently viscous and the mica powder will sediment at the bottom). What did we find? Read below!
When xanthan gum was used, the results obtained in combination with mica powder were quite good. The mica powder did not settle on the bottom; slight sedimentation after 72 hours was observed only in the upper part of the gel column, but if the mica powder were part of a cosmetic product, this phenomenon should not be a major problem, because handling the product leads to occasional mixing.Overall, the mica powder did not settle at the bottom, so it is possible to combine xanthan gum well with mica powders to achieve coloured products.
Another gum that combines well with mica powders is guar gum. The mica powder again did not settle at the bottom; slight sedimentation at the top of the gel column will be negligible during product use, because handling the product will also cause some mixing. The mica powder was dispersed very evenly; in this respect, guar gum proved to be the best gel-forming agent for incorporating mica powder. The gel was evenly coloured and overall appeared even somewhat more homogeneous than with xanthan gum.
Since gum arabic did not thicken the prepared solution at all, as we expected there was no even dispersion of the mica powder and the mica powder therefore sedimented at the bottom.
When mica powder was used with carrageenan gel, some dispersion of the colourant was observed; however, since the solution contained larger pieces of carrageenan, the mixture was not uniform and homogeneous, and the mica powder was therefore not as evenly dispersed as in xanthan gum and guar gum gels. More pronounced sedimentation in the upper part of the gel was also observed.As carrageenan in our case (0.3 % carrageenan in the solution) did not form a completely homogeneous gel even after mixing with a mixer/milk frother, it was not possible for the mica powder to be perfectly and evenly dispersed.
We believe that our comparison of natural gums has helped broaden your horizons and brought more insights.Did our article clarify some questions regarding the creation of natural cosmetics in gel form?If you have any personal experience and insights that would bring further new information to this topic, do not hesitate to write to us at marketing@handymade.skWe warmly thank Ivana Jačalová for the extensive contribution.
Until we meet again in another article or tutorial, keep creating natural cosmetics.
Until saponification, friends.
