{"id":24551,"date":"2025-07-10T21:12:24","date_gmt":"2025-07-11T01:12:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.iff.com\/?p=24551"},"modified":"2025-07-10T21:12:24","modified_gmt":"2025-07-11T01:12:24","slug":"why-are-clear-conditioners-so-rare-discover-the-science-and-the-breakthrough-that-could-change-this","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.iff.com\/es\/media\/stories\/why-are-clear-conditioners-so-rare-discover-the-science-and-the-breakthrough-that-could-change-this\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Are Clear Conditioners So Rare? Discover the Science\u2014and the Breakthrough That Could Change This"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ever wondered why your shampoo is crystal clear but your conditioner always looks like a creamy cloud? It\u2019s not just a design choice\u2014it\u2019s chemistry.\u00a0Alomgir Ali, Senior Application Scientist and Carole Gherardi, Market Segment Lead explains the science behind this, and how you can potentially unlock a transparent hair conditioner formulation. This article first appeared in Cosmetics Business, March 2023<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Traditional conditioners rely on fats, oils, silicones, and positively charged molecules that bind to the negatively charged surface of damaged hair. These ingredients coat the hair cuticle in a way that makes combing and movement between hair fibers more fluid and require less energy. These conditioning components typically have a long, oil-loving moiety within the molecule that is insoluble in water. This means that a transparent, water-based formulation is difficult to make, as the oil-loving part of the molecule will want to separate from the water immediately. There are, of course, clear oils which would make fantastic transparent bases, but oil thickening is often an issue. Additionally, if some of the conditioning raw materials are solids and opaque at room temperature, the final formulation will be turbid and likely have a poor sensory feel.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The workaround that has been used for over a century is to create an emulsion. One common emulsion is an oil-in-water mixture, where microscopic droplets of oil (and some of the conditioning agents) are suspended in a continuous phase of water (which contains structure-creating and thickening agents). Surfactants, emulsifiers and other conditioning agents sit at the surface between the oil and the water, holding the whole formulation together, resulting in a beautiful and thick, but white and opaque, hair conditioner. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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How to formulate a clear conditioner with AURIST\u2122 AGC<\/div><\/div>