Silicone-free, green shampoos with Plantasil^® Micro

With more and more consumers finding “green” products appealing, characteristics such as “natural” and “silicone-free” are becoming important selling features in consumer products. Not only are consumers evaluating how natural the products they buy are, they are also looking to see that these products are meeting certain sustainability criteria. Today’s sophisticated consumer expects “green” and sustainable products while demanding outstanding performance. For example, with shampoos, they expect excellent care, superior conditioning, cleansing efficacy and a generous lather.

A Cognis innovation: natural-based microemulsion Plantasil^® Micro

Following the trend towards natural-based chemistry, Cognis offers a new microemulsion that uniquely combines performance with naturalness. Plantasil^® Micro is a “green” alternative to existing silicone based conditioning agents that has been shown to provide as good or better conditioning performance as silicones. 

Silicone oils are usually included in formulations to achieve the desired conditioning effect. However, the silicone market is heavily regimented by patents and silicones are perceived as being unfriendly to the environment. Our solution…nature-based microemulsions that achieve good conditioning performance in silicone-free shampoos.

Simple emulsions are thermodynamically unstable and require additional surfactants, cosurfactants and rheological modifiers to make them stable. Microemulsions, on the other hand, are thermodynamically stable. New from Cognis Care Chemicals, we present: Plantasil^® Micro (INCI: Dicaprylyl Ether (and) Decyl Glucoside (and) Glyceryl Oleate), a transparent microemulsion based on natural, renewable raw materials. This conditioning agent is an optimized blended surfactant-oil system that synergistically improves the conditioning performance of shampoos when it is combined with cationics.

Environmentally compatible and high in performance

Plantasil^® Micro does not contain any ethoxylates or sulfate groups. It is a nanosized microemulsion that makes it possible to add high amounts of oil into a cosmetic formulation and still achieve a transparent product at the same time. Its “green” composition (based on a vegetable oil) allows formulators to combine performance with naturalness.

Phase behavior

During the dilution of shampoos, gel-like particles are formed. The gel phase is created by phase transition during application through the dilution process. This in turn generates the hair conditioning effect. Microemulsions enhance this phenomenon: more microemulsion added in a shampoo causes a more pronounced phase separation with more gel phase resulting in better conditioning performance.

Residual wet-combing work

Numbers in parenthesis indicate statistical error.

The test series conducted by Cognis with an automatic wet combing system reveals that the more microemulsion is added to a classic shampoo, the better the wet combability of the hair. Hence, as an environmentally compatible microemulsion, Plantasil^® Micro enables the formulation of green conditioning shampoos and improves the combability of wet hair.

The benefits of Plantasil^® Micro at a glance:

• A nanosized structure with an average particle size of less than 100 nm
• Green hair conditioner booster
• Based on 100 % vegetable raw material
• Liquid and cold processable. Gentle stirring is sufficient for working into even cold systems
• Active matter: 44-48 %
• Compatible with a wide range of standard surfactant systems
• It is easy to add even high concentrations and still achieve transparent shampoos
• Suitable for Green concepts: Ecocert and BDIH approved, Ecolabel suitable

Example of classic formulation of a shampoo with microemulsion