SLSA in natural cosmetics | Article

SLSA - Sodium lauryl sulfoacetate. Sounds pretty chemical, doesn’t it?

And yet there is no need to be afraid of this substance, because it is purely natural – it is obtained from fatty acids of coconut oil and palm oil. Yes, this is not about the “manual squeezing of a fresh coconut”, that coconut has to be put through a certain process. But in this way a substance is formed that is environmentally friendly and biodegradable. In addition, it meets the requirements of the ECOCERT certification organisation.

This raw material is called a surfactant or also a tenside – surface-active substance. All three of these terms denote the same substance, except that surfactant originated from French, tenside from English and surface-active substance is already an expression from the Slovak language.

SLSA and its use in practice

Imagine that you went to wash greasy hands with plain water. Water will not remove the grease from your hands, because it forms a film on your skin that does not allow the water to pass through. However, the molecules of the tenside are partly lipophilic (they dissolve well in fats) and partly hydrophilic (they dissolve well in water), they are able to reduce the surface tension at the water–oil phase boundary. This means that the tenside reduces the surface tension of the water as a solvent, the water no longer just rolls off the greasy hand, but binds the dirt to itself, and thus washes it beautifully off the skin. In addition, if you choose the right concentration, it acts in the cleansing process like soap, except that it does not disrupt the skin’s pH as much as soap.

Moreover, its molecules are large enough that they do not penetrate through the skin or mucous membranes and therefore do not irritate as much as the soap itself.

Furthermore, in this process they create a beautiful foam, and that is precisely why they are used for the production of liquid and solid shampoos, conditioners, shower gels, effervescent bath bombs or bath foams, dishwashing detergents.

Also read and try the recipe for a solid shampoo with SLSA.

SLSA - Sodium lauryl sulfoacetate and natural cosmetics

SLSA - Sodium lauryl sulfoacetate. Sounds pretty chemical, doesn’t it?

SLSA and its use in practice