Cetrimonium Chloride in Shampoo

What is Cetrimonium Chloride?

Cetrimonium chloride is a really economical conditioning agent used in many shampoos and conditioners.  It’s typically used in some of the more economy type products because it provides a light conditioning at a low cost.  The product is a quat. It works like PQ-10, as mentioned in an earlier post.  It’s derived from coconut oil and a petroleum based ingredient, but it’s mostly coconut oil derived.

Why do we use Cetrimonium Chloride in Phique?

One of the secrets of the industry is ingredients are often sold in blends.  That makes them easier to incorporate into the formulation.  This decreases time to make, which translates to money.  In our case, there is a blend of amodimethicone, cetrimonium chloride, and trideceth-12 used.  By doing this, it makes the amodimethicone easy to incorporate and the overall product more stable.  We probably wouldn’t have included on its own because we already have some good products in the formula.  Sometimes having different types of molecules for conditioning help the whole formula.

Is Cetrimonium Chloride Safe?

According to the CIR expert panel, they concluded: “The original conclusion for cetrimonium bromide, cetrimonium chloride, and steartrimonium chloride was that these ingredients “…are safe for use in rinse-off products and are safe for use at concentrations of up to 0.25% in leave-on products”. ”  Shampoo is a rinse off product, so there is no limit on the amount you can use.

I will tell you that there probably is no product using more than the 0.25% maximum for use in leave on products.  Even in a rinse off, any more would probably be too much.  Remember, shampoos and conditioners are mostly water.  The total solids of a typical conditioner would be around 6%, so this product would make up about only 3% of the total solids.

That wraps up the conditioners we use in the shampoo, next we’ll talk about a few other conditioners