Natural Ingredients for Providing Opacity and Pearlescence in Shower Gels and Shampoos

Opacifiers and pearlising agents are widely used to improve the appearance of shower gels and shampoos. Most current opacifyingOpacifiers and pearlising agents are widely used to improve the appearance of shower gels and shampoos. Most current opacifyingand pearlising solutions are based on synthetic ingredients, such as: styrene/acrylate copolymers for opacifiers, glycolstearate derivatives with fatty amides or mica-coated with a high refractive index metal oxide coating for pearlising agents.These synthetic ingredients are in the line of fire due to current trends towards zero-plastic and zero-nano particle products. Besides,they can also be difficult to use due to pH restrictions, need for high-temperature processes, and compatibility issues withother ingredients, particularly with cationics.This study demonstrates that a specific natural kaolin-based solution can be used to replace synthetic opacifiers and a specificnatural talc-based solution can replace conventional pearlising agents.