…your guide to making natural soap and other bath & body products!
| Views 208679
4. Mix your xanthan gum with glycerin or oil – THE WINNER!
How (not) to dissolve xanthan gum (and other powders) – heureka!
I confess – having to use a powdery ingredient that gets readily lumpy in my formulations is a nightmare for me.
Xanthan gum, guar gum, hyaluronic acid, allantoin…. you name it!
Gums are worse, as they tend to swell, making it even more difficult to dissolve.
The real horror starts when you try to make a transparent gel, where every smallish lump is visible.
But yesterday, I found my inner peace and happiness with xanthan gum 🙂 For the impatient, go to point 4.
For all the others, see how (not) to dissolve xanthan gum…
1. Adding xanthan gum in your water phase in small doses, stirring thoroughly until it completely dissolves – FAIL!
This method works… but, I tell you what – I do not have patience, nor time for that… the small doses are really really small and xanthan gum is very light so if you try to dissolve 1-2%, or even more, it is a fairly large volume to work with.
Moreover, with every dose the gel thickens and xanthan gum dissolves even worse.
Finally, I always give up when around 2/3 of the xanthan gum is dissolved (10 minutes) and just verse the rest into the formulation, hoping crazy stirring will help… it does not…
2. Adding xanthan gum directly to the liquid component of your recipe and use a blender – FAIL
This method is not good if
1. … you make small quantities at home – using a blender is not an option for you (it is simply too big!)
2. … you are trying to thicken a shampoo, liquid soap, or anything else that foams! – intense blending will create a lot of bubbles and you will end up having foam instead of a gel. This is quite a drawback if you try to make a shower jelly (like the one from LUSH)
3. Adding slowly water to xanthan gum and stir well – SO, SO…
I started to use this method as an alternative to method 1. It is not bad, but you really need to know how much of water to add. Too little or too much too fast will result in a big lump difficult to dissolve.
And again, you need to stir, stir and stir… which again is not an option when you have surfactants in your formulation.
Recently, I got quite a few questions from you on how to make a LUSH shower jelly. I was inspecting the ingredients and remarked them using glycerin. Then I saw the “how it is made” video and all started to make sense…
Hereby, I present you my most favourite method of how to dissolve xanthan gum:
4. Mix your xanthan gum with glycerin or oil – THE WINNER!
The problem is that xanthan gum (or guar gum or any other thickening gum) starts to swell in contact with water. If you are not fast or cautious enough, lumps create as the particles are being trapped in the gel.
The trick and beauty of this method is that if you dissolve xanthan gum in glycerin or oil, the particles won’t start to swell, but will get dispersed. Then, when you add water phase (preferably warm, around 50°C), only a light stir is sufficient to distribute all xanthan gum (unless you need to stir well to form an emulsion).
If you have oil in your formulation, dissolve xanthan gum it the oil phase. If you do not have oil, use small amount of glycerin.
So simple….
Can you add more methods? Leave me yours in the comments!
-
-
#4 written by sankar 8 years ago
-
#6 written by Annabelle 8 years ago
Great article, and I totally agree with you. Thanks for being so thorough and sharing your fails and successes, it shows your passion and expertise.
I have a question. In making a shampoo without water, the main ingredient is liquid castile, and two lesser ingredients are aloe gel, and vegetable glycerin. Do I mix the xanthan with the glycerin, then add that mixture, at the end, once all else is mixed?
Will the xanthan/glycerin combo thicken the shampoo, or do I have to heat it in order to activate its thickening qualities? Your insight would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you.-
#7 written by evik 8 years ago
Hi Annabelle, I believe the best would be if you used only salt for thickening your castille soap – use about 1 teaspoon to 8 oz of soap. Let it dissolve without stirring and then stir it in. If you need thicker product, add more salt.
I never had success with Xanthan gum in thickening liquid soap. It only gels in water, so it really depends how much of water your soap contains. Also – it is not that good in thickening high alkaline products, it is incompatible with metal ions. Every time I finished having part of it sinked to the bottom…
-
#8 written by ANNABELLE 8 years ago
THANK YOU FOR THIS. I TRIED THE XANTHAN AT 1/4 TSP AND IT DID NOTHING. I ADDED ANOTHER 1/4 TSP AND I ENDED UP WITH AN OVERLY FROTHY GEL LIKE SUBSTANCE THAT EXPANDED AND MADE IT DIFFICULT TO PUT INTO A CONTAINER. HOWEVER, THIS BATCH OF SHAMPOO LEFT HAIR SILKY AND SO VOLUMINOUS THAT I KEPT PLAYING WITH MY HAIR ALL NIGHT.
I’LL DEFINITELY TRY THE SALT AND THANK YOU AGAIN FOR YOUR EXPERT ADVICE.
-
#10 written by Valerie 7 years ago
omg. I was just about to try thickening my castile soap with xanthan. Thank you for sharing this info! It is the first I have seen it. Now I am stumped. I will try salt again. My formula for my dish soap is mostly distilled water (45%) and liquid castille with the addition of some decyl glucoside & coco betaine plus glycerine, cirtus/limonene EO and polysorbate. I have used salt to thicken the castile, and I get good results … until I add the eo/polysorabte UGH – it turns back to a watery liquid 🙁 my EOs are 1-2%. I had hoped a veg gum would be my solution. Any suggestion advice comments are greatly appreciated! ps (i will next formulate with a preservative, I like this in a foaming dispenser. smells like heaven. I sure hope you have some advice! Maybe it is how I am adding the salt?
-
-
-
#14 written by Silvia 8 years ago
-
-
#19 written by Sabrina S. 8 years ago
Hello Evic! I tried this tonight with guar gum on a shampoo formulation that does not have an oil phase. I tried to mix into the water phase, then add that to to surfactants. It gelled in the bowl once I added water, and formed clumps. I went ahead and put into surfactants, where it stayed in clumps. (Coco betaine and decyl glucoside) I totally forgot to drop ph of surfactants (8.1) before adding the guar/water mix. Is this the reason it didn’t mix? Or should I have just mixed the water and surfactants, dropped ph, then added the guar/glycerine mix? I am new to making shampoos and trying to keep this formulation as simple as possible! (Did not add soy protein, Vit B, or scent for fear of having to toss the whole mess- which I did!) Thanks for any input you can give!
-
#20 written by sunil 8 years ago
-
#23 written by ggjaneful 8 years ago
-
#25 written by Adrian 7 years ago
-
#26 written by evik 7 years ago
-
-
#27 written by Viv 7 years ago
Hey,thank u so so much.i started to produce my own shampoo n conditioner for my personal use,and this gummy stuffs was a nightmare.
But with ur tip I have been saved and now I make for my friends and family,who knows maybe for the market too,becoz they all love my product and always ask for more.
Thank you so much. -
#29 written by Beatriz 7 years ago
-
#30 written by evik 7 years ago
Hi Beatriz! So if I understand, you wish to thicken your lotion? Xanthan gum or arabic are not really going to help, since they depend on water. If you wish to thicken your lotion, there are two ways – increase the quantity of solid oils – butters, fats – or add some if there are none; or add some beeswax or other natural wax to it. If you share the recipe, I could help with that.
-
-
#31 written by Beatriz 7 years ago
Hello again Evik! Thank you for taking the time to answer.
This is the recipe:1/2 cup almond or olive oil (Infused with chamomile)
1/4 cup coconut oil
1/4 cup beeswax
1/2 teaspoon Vitamin EI dont want to use water so I dont have to add any artificial preservative or having to keep my lotion in the fridge.
Do you have any advice to make it thicker?
Thank you so much!! 🙂-
#32 written by evik 7 years ago
Hi Beatriz, it seems to me that this lotion would be rather a balm, certainly not liquid, did you already try it? I don’t really like recipes with “kitchen” measures, since they are not very precise and it gets difficult to rescale them, however, you can do two things: cut on the almond/olive oil and increase coconut oil or beeswax – you can start with using 1/4 cup almond oil instead of 1/2 cup. The beauty of the recipe is that you can remelt it how many times you wish and adjust by adding coconut oil or beeswax or almond oil/olive oil until you are happy with the consistency. Do not forget to take notes of how much of what you added (it is easier to do so if you measure by weight). Let me know how it went!
-
-
#33 written by Abhishek 7 years ago
-
#35 written by Ms Gothika 7 years ago
-
#40 written by Laura 7 years ago
-
#41 written by evik 7 years ago
-
#42 written by Ruthie Bell 6 years ago
-
#43 written by evik 6 years ago
Hi Ruthie, if you have surfactants instead of soap, you better use salt to thicken it. Xanthan gum is really giving it a slimy feel, that is normal and not desirable in shampoos for instance. I have read about potassium liquid soap thickening with salt solution, but only tried it once with no results. However, this might be because it had 40% of coconut oil and from what I read now soapmakers say that if soap has more than 5% coconut oil the salt won’t thicken it. Then, indeed, there is also a question of the salt curve – it thickens up to certain % of concentration and above the solution thins up again. See the post here
-
-
-
-
-
#45 written by jd 7 years ago
-
Hi there Evik,
Can give an estimation for ratios of glycerin and Xantham gum? I have a beautiful bar of pure castile soap- 95% olive oil, to which I add water, vitamin e as a preservative and essential oils to make a liquid soap. Ratios would be great so I don’t ruin too many of the bars!
Many thanks:)
-
#48 written by evik 7 years ago
Hi Amergho – well, I just use as much as covers the xanthan gum and it still stays liquid. I did not really measure the proportion of xanthan gum vs glycerine. For your liquid soap, I don’t think it will work long term, since sodium soap (bar soap) eventually separates from water. Also, I don’t think xanthan gum is a good option for thickening soap – it gets slimy and a bit sticky and not thick enough anyway (as its thickening action depends on the amount of water).
-
-
#51 written by Ibtisam 6 years ago
-
#53 written by Imo 6 years ago
-
-
#56 written by evik 6 years ago
Imo, I do not think so. Xanthan gum works only with water and the more water you have in your product, the more gelly it gets. However, in soap there is not enough water for xanthan gum to get gelly. Moreover! Xanthan gum never creates a hard gel, but rather an elastic thick gel. So – no, there are better ways how to harden solid bar – using salt, discounting water content, using oils with high palmitic or stearic acid content, adding stearic acid or beeswax…
-
-
#57 written by pinakin 6 years ago
-
#59 written by Balinda 6 years ago
Hello. Thanks so much for sharing your method. Before reading this post, i just add xathan gum directly to the water, and it was a mess. Cannot remember how much gum i wasted. 😂 i tried your method and finally succeed. By the way i still have some problems.
1. My lotion is heat-method and i just wonder something. If using glycerin, then after mixing it with xanthan gum, do i have to add warm water or cold water? Cause i have to heat the oil to 120°F And after adding water, may i stir it all right away? And stir in how long? Hope its clear to understand. If using oil, then when to add gum? Because i have to heat the oil too.
2. Im trying to make facial cleanser with cocoyl taurate, but dont know how and when to add that surfactant. Any suggestion for me?
3. If use castile soap (from koster keunen), and how can i thicken it if cannot use salt? Maybe cetyl alcohol? Or stearic acid ??
Im going to try on sodium carbormer and carbormer 940 (lunamer 60p). Dont know if it works.
Just some problems i want to share. Any insight will be greatly appreciate.
Thank you.
Balinda-
#60 written by evik 6 years ago
Hi Balinda!
1) I definitely add warm water, since you need to have both phases the same temperature (oil and water) when you do heat method. So, heat the water and add it to glycerine with xanthan gum. Stir until it becomes jelly like consistency. Then add your heated oils.
When adding to oils, you can heat your gum with oils first (do not overheat!) and then heat the oils.
2) What is the recipe for the cleanser? I usually mix the surfactants with water, heat it and then add to glycerine with xanthan.Do stir very gently so that you do not make too much bubbles.
3) castile is difficult to thicken, carbomers should do the job if I am not mistakenHope this helps
-
-
#61 written by cindy 6 years ago
Great article! I have been trying to recreate a great natural hair pomade that i originally made with beeswax bit i am now attempting to make it vegan. All of the plant based waxes that i have tried just don’t have the same flexibility that beeswax has when it has hardened. I wondered if i could add xanthan gum to the recipe to try and get that same flexibility out of a plant based wax?? What do you think?
-
#63 written by Seabee1104 6 years ago
Evik, Thank you for all of your help. I am hoping that you can help me determine whether or not xanthan gum is the right thickener for me.
Recipe:
1/4 cup liquid castilel soap
1/4 cup distilled water
1/2 tsp argon oil
10 drops of vitamin E (in jojoba)
About 20 drops of essential oilsI would like to start a business for all natural self-care products for men and I expect to have 5 different scents that serve as themed lines for my products (soap, beard oil, pomade, body wash/shampoo, etc.). Each requires a different blend of essential oils. In these blends I use varying mixtures of cinnamon, clove, cedarwood, vanilla, orange, lemon, grapefruit, peppermint, eucalyptus, and lavender essential oils.
Presently, my soap recipe performs wonderfully, but the delivery is wet and runny. I was hoping to use xanthan gum to thicken the recipe. I expect the citrus nature of some of these oils to have a thinning affect if I were to use salt as a thickener and you’ve mentioned that you do not recommend xanthan gum for liquid castile soap. Any suggestions?
-
#64 written by Courtney 6 years ago
Love your post! I have tried to dissolve the Xanthan gum in oil before to add to a natural lotion and it will not absorb the oil. I have tried it with Argan oil and olive oil but after days sitting in the oil it’s still a sandy, gritty clump sitting at the bottom of the jar. I tried to heat it a little in a water bath like a double boiler and still nothing, I also stirred this quite a bit over the few days. I am hoping that the Xanthan gum can help the lotion feel less greasy and more like lotion without adding water and an emulsifier.
Thanks so much, Courtney -
#66 written by Osman 5 years ago
Hi Evik,
I have a liquid black soap made from potash and I want the product to have a gel effect since it looks more thin. my priority is to make a natural soap product so I am thinking of adding XG, Gum Arabic or corn starch. please help me with the best natural thickener to use to achieve that. Thank you -
#68 written by Yaduvara Das 5 years ago
thanks for nice informative article but i m having follwing problems while preparing moiesturizering cream with xanthum gum
1) when i use xanthum gum , it gives some fibrous, gritty or ununiform texture to finished product but product become thick
2) when i avoid using xanthum gum, cream became thin & very light but its texture is fine
so to increase thickness of product i am using xanthum gum so what shall be solution to this?
pls guide
thanking you
yours sincerely
yaduvara dasa-
#69 written by evik 5 years ago
Hi Yaduvara, what you are describing maybe reason of incompatibility of some ingredients. Xanthan gum is incompatible for instance with grapeseed extract, making unnice fibres. However, it can be also the procedure you are using to mix everything togehter. It is very difficult to help if I do not know the exact recipe..
-
-
#70 written by Varun 5 years ago
Hi Evik
Need your help, We are developing a mild toxin free surfactant for babies using the below ingredients
– Decyl Glucoside (plantacare 2000)- 10%
– Lauryl Glucoside (Plantacare 1200) – 5%
– Disodium cocoamphoacetate 5%
– Cocamidopropyl hydroxysultaine 5%
– Sodium Cocoyl Isothionate 9Jordaporn CI Pril) 3%
– Disdoium EDTA
– Xanthan Gum
– Glycerin
– Depanthanol
– Calendula Extract
– Sodium Benzoate
– Potasium Sorbate
– Citric acidOur process for sampling is is
Creating a gel with 1% Xanthan, 2% Glycerin in hot water with strong stirring for 10 minutes first
Then adding all the other surfactants followed by other ingredients to the gel with slow stirring for about 15 minutes.
Now about the issue.
We have tried multiple combinations but we are not able to remove lumpiness of Xanthan gum which is impacting the texture and homogeneity of shampoo , the viscosity is also a slight issue
-
#73 written by Stephanie 5 years ago
Hi Evik, I hope this message finds you well,
First off, thanks for sharing your expertise, it is so very appreciated!
I am creating a creamy smooth hand soap, recipe as follows:40% liquid castile
25% hydrosol
20% oil
10% glycerin
1% preservative
0.6% GUAR GUM
Essential oils
Mixed in that order and NOT HEATED, therefore all straight out of the bottles into the bowl. Stir, stir, stir, with a whisk, not too hard as to form bubbles but firm enough to blend well (for about 10-15mins). The consistency comes out beautiful except yes, I do experience little gel like lumps once I’ve let it rest…Question: would it be better for me to mix everything in the same order but leave out the guar gum and either glycerin or oil (whichever you think would be best), mix those two together (and do I let those sit a bit?) and then incorporate that mixture into the rest? And, would the guar gum dissolve better with heat?
Looking forward to your reply, thanks so much for your help!
Steph -
#74 written by Georgia Mac 5 years ago
Hi evil! I’ve been searching for the answers you’ve provided here and am very grateful. THANK YOU! My question is similar to comment #61 by Seabee1104. I am developing a similar formulation for moisturizing scented hand soap and would like to thicken with XG. So ditto Seabee’s question, and add: Can liquid hand soap be made from a concentrated liquid dish soap + XG mixed into oil (almond) + water + essential oils for scent? Thanks, again, – Georgia
-
#76 written by Timothy 5 years ago
-
#78 written by klaus sebok 5 years ago
here is a new one!
In my frustration with me using for the first time Xantham Gum, stumbled into the same problem as everybody else.
The powder is not desolving! I found if I use the hand blender that would do the trick but also if I put some Xantham gum powder into a squise bottle and leave it for a few days, that worked as well. -
#79 written by Niharika 5 years ago
Hi..I make amla shikakai reetha shampoo..After soaking it in water the whole day the next day I boil the whole water..My question is when do I add xanthan gum mixed with glycerine in the shampoo..And how do I add it to make the shampoo thick..After adding it should I just stir the shampoo or use the blender to thicken the shampoo..ppllsss help
-
#80 written by Anthony 4 years ago
-
#82 written by Aleya 4 years ago
Hi evik,
I wish I’d come across this website earlier, all I’d aspired for since ling, compiled majestically in one place! Great Work. 🙂 … I’d be really glad if you could help me with a recipe I’m looking forward to make .(I’m new to all this, it’s going to be my first experiment) and hence hope it doesn’t go wrong.
I’m trying to make a gel/ serum with 1-2% oil and remaining rose water (with rosemary E.O and Vit E oil as a preservative.
What should I use to emulsify the mixture (gel-like, slightly runny) soya lecithin or xanthum gum or both?
Do let me know if I can use carboxymethylcellulose I have read about it, but not sure how to use it.
I’d be really kind if you could help.
Thank You! -
#83 written by Abhay gaikwad 4 years ago
-
#85 written by Keith Pickett 4 years ago
-
#87 written by Juan 3 years ago
Hi.
It’s been a pleasure to read this post.
I use to prepare a set of products for cleaning, maintenance, and for other applications as well.
I tried to thicken some of those products (detergents basically) by using xanthan gum but failed because I couldn’t dissolve it well. So I was wondering about using CMC instead as the thickening agent…
Now I’ll try your method and I’ll keep you posted.
Well, this is my first posting here, but I hope to be around from time to time as I perceive this website as being very usefull…
Many thanks for being there!!
Juan -
#88 written by Juan 3 years ago
Hi.
It’s been a pleasure to read this post.
I use to prepare a set of products for cleaning, maintenance, and for other applications as well.
I tried to thicken some of those products (detergents basically) by using xanthan gum but failed because I couldn’t dissolve it well. So I was wondering about using CMC instead as the thickening agent…
Now I’ll try your method and I’ll keep you posted.
Well, this is my first posting here, but I hope to be around from time to time as I perceive this website as being very usefull..
Many thanks for being there!!
Juan -
#92 written by Alexis 3 years ago
-
#96 written by Andinda brian 3 years ago
-
#98 written by Anna 2 years ago
Thank you so much for this info!! Can’t wait to try it with my gel serum!! Hopefully less headaches! Do you have any recommendations on what to add to an oil serum to fully blend all carrier oils, essential oils and vitamin C ester together? Want to make it so I don’t have to shake before using. Thanks so much!!
-
@evik,
Thank you for your exerlant work.
Im making body gel using xanthan gum… i use
Distilled water 90ml
Glycering 10ml
Xanthan gum 1g
And fragrance 0.1mlBut the problem is after the apply body gel to the body it is gummy . So i want to stop it. How can i do it.???
Thank you again for your valuable time and knowledge sharimg with us
-
- Comment Feed for this Post
Anna (21)
Agnes (15)
Silvia (11)
Amber (10)
Alaska-Beauty (9)
Kim (8)
mary (8)
Amanda (6)
Karen (6)
Linda (6) to dissolve xanthan gum (and other powders) – heureka! "Pin It")
I tried Xanthan gum twice – with an aim to thicken my homemade soap – disaster both times. I really did NOT enjoy working with this. I may attempt your method…. wish I had more positive infor for you! xo Jen