Iselux Ultra Mild

Iselux Ultra Mild
INCI: Water (and) Sodium Lauroyl Methyl Isethionate (and) Cocamidopropyl Betaine (and) Sodium Methyl Oleoyl Taurate (and) Lauryl Glucoside (and) Coco Glucoside

Usage rate suggestions: up to 30%
Solubility: water

Iselux Ultra Mild Concentrate is a convenient combination of surfactants meant to cleanse the hair and skin. The concentrated blend is sulfate free, formaldehyde and paraben free, and doesn’t contain 1,4 dioxane.

This isn’t a base, per se. A base is more like a final product where color and scent is added and is ready to ship. Iselux is simply the premixed blend of surfactants. You still must add your water, a possible chelator, pH adjuster and other ingredients to get a final, usable product.

Here’s a quick vid of how it looks:

To create a great shampoo, a mix of anionic, nonionic and amphoteric ingredients is always ideal. Sodium Lauroyl Methyl Isethionate and Sodium Methyl Oleoyl Taurate are both anionic ingredients. Cocamidoproyl Betaine is amphoteric. Lauryl Glucoside and Coco Glucoside are both nonionic.

Each ingredient also brings their own performance benefits. For example, Coco Glucoside is said to be ideal for “fragile or sensitive skin” ⁽¹⁾. Lauryl Glucoside is said to generate “exceptional foam” ⁽²⁾ and is naturally derived ⁽³⁾.

Sodium Lauroyl Methyl Isethionate, being anionic, is great at actually getting the dirt/oils off the hair and skin in a much milder way than traditional sulfates. It’s sulfate free of course. Both it and Cocamidopropyl Betaine are said to be great at producing lather as well.

Iselux is said to have an “extremely low irritancy profile” and is used in baby washes and baby shampoos ⁽⁴⁾. Of course the irritancy level of your final product will depend on the other ingredients you choose to add to your recipe. Adding a highly irritating preservative or some other active ingredient would diminish it’s mildness.

This is also a good surfactant blend if you’re making a clear shampoo. According to Prospector, the “secondary ester structure” of Sodium Lauroyl Methyl Isethionate is “more hydrolytically stable than common esters”⁽⁵⁾.

What does that mean? Well from what I’ve been able to find, esters are susceptible to hydrolysis (the breakdown of esters into their starting fatty acid and alcohol ingredients). Hydrolytically stable esters means that water can’t cause the ester to breakdown and separate into parts.

Ask a cosmetic chemist to explain if and why this is important when creating shampoos. Being a formulator, my main concern is whether it works well for it’s desired task.

To that end, Iselux Mild Concentrate has been used in the Fenugreek Herbal Shampoo DIY recipe here at curlytea.com ⁽⁶⁾ It’s used at 28%, just shy of its 30% usage rate limit. I found it be a nice shampoo. It wasn’t overly stripping, I didn’t feel any straw-like behavior after rinse out either.

Adjusting the pH to between 5.5 and 6.5 is the recommendation. You don’t really want a shampoo that has a low pH. Hair reportedly has a negative charge. You want your shampoos to have a slightly higher pH than the typical conditioners (which range from 4.5-5.5). This helps with getting the dirt/oils off.

As with any shampoo, your main focus should be whether or not it cleanses the hair. Honestly, I wish people would forget about whether the hair is soft after using a shampoo. That’s not the job of a shampoo. Let your conditioners and leave-in creams do the job of conditioning your hair. Let the shampoo do the heavy lifting of removing all the dirt and build up from the hair and scalp so that your conditioners can do their jobs effectively.

Anyway, Iselux is by far the quickest, most effective surfactant blend I’ve used thus far. Yes, I like it better than the Polyglucose/Lactylate Blend. It seems to provide a better, cleaner feel. But that’s subjective.

Check it out if you have the chance. I purchased mine from Makeyourown.buzz ⁽⁷⁾

Related
1.ingredientstodiefor.com
2. gardenstatenaturals.com
3. organic-creations.com
4. windypointsoap.com
5. ulprospector.com
6. Fenugreek Herbal Shampoo – curlytea.com
7. makeyourown.buzz