The role of surfactants
in personal care
Open up any bathroom cabinet and it is likely that most of the products you’re faced with
were manufactured with the help of surfactants. Surfactants are a group of chemicals which
essentially hold together almost all personal care products, and without which the lotions and
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A BRIEF HISTORY OF SURFACTANTS
PUTTING SURFACTANTS TO USE
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market.
These properties make them the ideal ingredient in personal grooming
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due to the essential role they play.
THE SCIENCE BIT
For those without a chemical background, surfactants are organic
compounds which contain both water soluble, and water insoluble
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are able to reduce surface tensions allowing two systems that do not
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Without surfactants, these ingredients would simply fall apart and
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fatty deposits, surfactants are needed to reduce the surface tension
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angles towards the water forming a micelle. This allows the oil to sit in a
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the water, lifting it from the surface into the solution.
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used in a wide range of industries but predominantly in the
production of personal grooming products such as hand gels
and hand soaps, bath foam, barrier creams, cosmetics,
shampoo and conditioner and toothpaste.