DIY Karma Shampoo (extra delicate!) & chat on betaine

Hello everyone! 😀

Make your own Karma Shampoo
I was already in love with a shampoo recipe but I have “upgraded” it thanks to “betaine” (this is the INCI name, but to not confuse it with surfactants we better call it Trimethylglycine or TMG).
Wikipedia says: “Trimethylglycine (TMG) is an organic compound that occurs in plants. Trimethylglycine was the first betaine discovered by science; originally it was simply called betaine because, in the 19th century, it was discovered in sugar beets”.
So what is all the fuss about this ingredient? 😀
Properties of Trimethylglycine:
In detergents, at a 5% concentration, it helps making the detergent more gentle on the skin, so in this shampoo this is why I have added it 😀
But this is definitely not all about this great ingredient: it has anti-inflamatory and soothing properties, so it is great used in creams for people with sensitive skin, it helps reaching a very creamy consistency in creams (so it is a plus for texture! 😉 ), apparently it also helps to stabilize vitamin C.
How to use it: it is used at a percentage between 2% and 5% in creams but in detergents it should be added at 5%. It is water soluble. It has a basic pH so beware if you are using it with pH sensitive ingredients (like Niacinamide for instance… which should never reach very basic pH).

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How to formulate a Face Wash – with Recipe

Now that we have studied the theory of Surfactants (here and here) and we have the values of some of them it is time to finally formulate! 😀

The recipe of today is for a very delicate Face Wash which helped me when I used to suffer of a mild but annoying and constant (meaning that my skin wasn’t covered in pimples completely but I did have a few all the time and this lasted over two years) form of acne. I should make a post about this! I used to be quite aggressive with my skin: I was scrubbing, using alcoholic toners, applying aggressive creams… but nothing was helping (on the contrary…).
Then one day I decided to give a break to my skin, I stopped scrubbing crazily, I stopped attacking my skin and I started concentrating on eating more healthy food and… TADAAA it did the trick 😀 I simply found out that all my skin needed was to be treated gently.

DIY Face Wash - Recipe

This is how the formulation was done:

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