Multifunctional hair care sets the benchmark for shampoo manufacturers

Consumers want their multifunctional hair care products to provide value for their money. McKinsey’s State of Beauty report found consumers' most desired hair care product traits relate to performance, quality, and versatility.²

Ingredient selection and compatibility are crucial to not compromising these must-have formulation features. Changing ingredients can impact product stability, texture, colour, and aroma.³

Incompatible ingredients can result in a reduced product shelf life, an unappealing appearance and consistency, and compromised product performance.

Formulating with a high-purity, lightly branched ingredient, such as Shell NEODOL^®, can help shampoo manufacturers offer product stability, improved handling, ingredient compatibility, and maintained product colour.⁴

Emulsifiers are essential ingredients for shampoo manufacturing, helping mix oils and water that don’t usually blend well.

These ingredients have several traits that make them ideal for multifunctional formulas:⁵

• Improved product spreadability
• Enhanced ingredient absorption
• Boosted lathering

Emulsifiers can also affect viscosity, texture, and performance, all vital to creating an exceptional product experience.⁶

High-mole ethoxylates with different hydrophilic-lipophilic balance values, like numerous Shell NEODOL grades, can help optimise emulsion properties in formulations.

Consumers want immersive product textures to create exciting and emotional sensory experiences that are refreshing, mood-boosting, nostalgic, or even adventurous.

According to Beauty Matter, consumers associate lower-viscosity formulas with being “watered down and less effective.”⁷

Controlling the multifunctional hair care formulation’s viscosity can help shampoo manufacturers ensure consistent product thickness and density, contributing to consumers’ desired sensory experiences.⁸

The nature of fatty alcohols makes them ideal for controlling the viscosity of hair care products. Shell Chemicals offers a broad portfolio of Shell NEODOL product grades and blends to help specifically formulate towards certain viscosities.

The critical micelle concentration (CMC), also known as surfactant molecule aggregation, is crucial for delivering effective cleansing in personal care formulations.⁹

CMC helps efficiently emulsify oils and reduce surface tension to improve product performance.¹⁰

Aqueous solutions of non-ionic surfactants show significantly lower surface tensions and better wetting characteristics than water alone.¹¹

A non-ionic surfactant for shampoo and other personal care products, such as Shell NEODOL, offers a range of CMCs to choose from. This allows formulators to select what’s best for what they want to achieve with their multifunctional hair care formulations.

Additionally, sulfates based on Shell NEODOL have low CMCs and are just as effective as oleo grades at reducing interfacial tension (skin/water and hair/water), providing effective cleansing.¹²