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Structured Surfactant Systems - Olay Super Serum Body Wash Dupe (Simple Version) - 4/25 Exclusive



When I decided to dupe this product, I didn’t expect to go down a rabbit hole! So let me take  you through the whole process, so you an learn what I learned about the Olay Super Serum Body Wash.


First step to recreating a product

The first thing I do when trying to recreate a product is I copy and paste the ingredient list and a break down every single ingredient and define what is is/what I know about it. If there is an ingredient I’m unfamiliar with, I’ll research it.


I go through each ingredient and type next to it, what I think it’s purpose is in the formula. Basically it ends up looking like this….


Water - Diluent

Petrolatum - occlusive

Sodium Trideceth Sulfate - anionic surfactant

Glycerin - humectant

Sodium Chloride - thickener

Cocamidopropyl Betaine - amphoteric surfactant

Salicylic Acid - BHA

Fragrance - scent

Trideceth-3 - surfactant / thickener / emulsifiers 

Niacinamide - vitamin B3

Palmitoyl Pentapeptide-4 - peptide 

Ascorbic Acid - vitamin C

Tocopheryl Acetate - vitamin E

Butyrospermum Parkii (Shea) Butter - emollient

Sodium Citrate - ph buffer / preservative  

Guar Hydroxypropyltrimonium Chloride - cationic surfactant/thickener/emulsion stabilizer

Citric Acid - preservative / ph buffer 

Sodium Benzoate - preservative 

Xanthan Gum - emulsion stabilizer / thickener

Glyceryl Oleate - super fatting agent 

Mineral Oil - emollient 

Disodium Edta - chelating agent 

Sodium Hydroxide - ph buffer  

Acrylates/C10-30 Alkyl Acrylate Crosspolymer - PolyMulse Polymeric Emulsifier - Emulsifier 

Methylchloroisothiazolinone, - preservative 

Methylisothiazolinone, - preservative

Red 33. - color 


As you can see, some ingredients can have multiple purposes. For example, I’m not familiar with Trideceth-3, but from the research I did online, it is a surfactant, thickener, and emulsifier.


Now that I know what all the ingredients are I can start eliminating some. I take out the preservative, because I can use whatever preservative I want. I take out any chelating agents, pH buffers, coloring, fragrance, and all of the actives/expensive ingredients like; vitamin C, vitamin E, niacinamide, salicylic acid. So now I am left with these ingredients…


Water - Diluent

Petrolatum - occlusive

Sodium Trideceth Sulfate - anionic surfactant

Glycerin - humectant

Sodium Chloride - thickener

Cocamidopropyl Betaine - amphoteric surfactant

Trideceth-3 - surfactant / thickener / emulsifiers 

Butyrospermum Parkii (Shea) Butter - emollient

Guar Hydroxypropyltrimonium Chloride - cationic surfactant/thickener/emulsion stabilizer

Xanthan Gum - emulsion stabilizer / thickener

Glyceryl Oleate - super fatting agent 

Mineral Oil - emollient 

Acrylates/C10-30 Alkyl Acrylate Crosspolymer - PolyMulse Polymeric Emulsifier - Emulsifier 


Now this is a much easier ingredient list to dissect. Another thing I want to mention at this time, is we aren’t trying to make a formula suitable for all those actives we just removed. As of now, I am just trying to focus on creating the base of the product. I’ll worry about adding in the active after we have base we like.


Trying to understand the formula

This next step is kinda all done in my mind, but I’ll explain. I look at the list of ingredients I am working with and I try to understand the formula and I try to piece together how I think they made it. Obviously when trying to replicate someone else’s formula, all you can do is speculate and take guesses. So that is all I am doing here. 

What makes this formula so confusing is that it has petrolatum as the second ingredient. That means, this product contains more petrolatum than any other ingredient besides water. Which just in case you did know, oil based ingredients suppress lather and they don’t mix in with water based ingredients. So it seems that a formula like this goes against everything we are taught about making a body wash. So this is where I ended up down a rabbit whole. I found a post on Chemistry Corner of someone asking how to make Olay’s Age Defying Body Wash. They posted the ingredient list and look here, PETROLATUM, SODIUM TRIDECETH SULFATE, SODIUM CHLORIDE, COCAMIDOPROPYL BETAINE, TRIDECETH-3, FRAGRANCE, NIACINAMIDE*, TOCOPHERYL ACETATE**, SODIUM CITRATE, GUAR HYDROXYPROPYLTRIMONIUM CHLORIDE, SODIUM

BENZOATE, XANTHAN GUM, GLYCERYL OLEATE, CITRIC ACID, DISODIUM EDTA,

ACRYLATES/C10-30 ALKYL ACRYLATE CROSSPOLYMER,

METHYLCHLOROISOTHIAZOLINONE, METHYLISOTHIAZOLINONE, YELLOW 5, RED 33

The formula is almost identical. So I knew I found a good place for advice. In the comments someone replied saying “They have structured body wash. Use surfactants that can make structured system. Every surfactant can’t make that.”

Another commend saying “If you review patents from UL and P&G, you’ll see that what they are doing is suspending the oils, not making a emulsion. In that way, foam is not impaired. Also, the cationic polymer they use is a deposition aid for the oils, which you’re missing.”


So, just like that I found my answer. Honestly it was way easier than I expected. So then I googled, “How to make a structured body wash” and I found a very informative post on ULProspector.com talking all about the chemistry about these Structured Surfactant Systems. I don’t want to go over it all, as I am not experienced enough to teach anyone about these yet. As I get more experience formulating Structured Surfactant Systems, I’m sure I will understand more, but as of now I will just direct you to the post so you can read it yourself. 


What I do want to talk about with Structured Surfactant Systems, are the choices of surfactants we have. Because it’s limited. Not every surfactant can be used to make a Structured Surfactant System. According to ULProspector.com you can use these Surfactants.


Anionic

  • Sodium Trideceth Sulfate

  • Sodium Laureth Sulfate

  • Sodium Lauryl Sulfate

  • Sodium Lauroyl Glycinate

  • Sodium Lauroyl Isethionate

  • Sodium Lauroyl Methyl Isethionate

  • Sodium Cocoyl Methyl Taurate

  • Sodium Lauroyl Lactylate

  • Laureth 1 Phosphate

  • Diethylhexyl Sodium Sulfosuccinate

  • Sodium Methyl 2-Sulfolaurate/Disodium 2-Sulfolaurate


Amphoteric

  • Sodium Lauroamphoacetate

  • Cocamidopropyl Betaine


In the post it also goes on to mention Liquid crystal modifiers, stability enhancers, and commercially available blends that work for structured surfactant formulas.


Liquid crystal modifiers

  • Trideceth-3

  • Laureth 4

  • Cocamide MEA

  • Cocamide MIPA

  • Glyceryl Caprylate/Caprate

  • Isostearic acid

  • Lauryl alcohol


Stability enhancers for improving cold temperature stability (loss of viscosity)

  • Thickeners like Xanthan gum, cellulosics, and Guar Hydroxypropyl

  • Trimonium Chloride


Commercially available structured surfactant blends

  • Miracare SLB-365 (Water, Sodium Trideceth Sulfate, Sodium Lauroamphoacetate, Cocamide MEA-Solvay Novacare, 40-45% solids)

  • Iselux SLC (Water, Sodium Lauroyl Methyl Isethionate, Sodium Lauroamphoacetate, Cocamide MIPA, Sodium Benzoate-Innospec, 44% Solids)


Choosing Surfactants

Now that I educated myself as much as I could on the chemistry going on in this product, its time figure out what surfactants I will be using. Olay used Sodium Trideceth Sulfate, which I can not find anywhere. So I have to find a different anionic surfactant to use, but it has to be from the list of anionic surfactants on the ULProspector.com post I mentioned. These are the surfactants you and I can choose from for this project.


Anionic

  • Sodium Trideceth Sulfate

  • Sodium Laureth Sulfate

  • Sodium Lauryl Sulfate

  • Sodium Lauroyl Glycinate

  • Sodium Lauroyl Isethionate

  • Sodium Lauroyl Methyl Isethionate

  • Sodium Cocoyl Methyl Taurate

  • Sodium Lauroyl Lactylate

  • Laureth 1 Phosphate

  • Diethylhexyl Sodium Sulfosuccinate

  • Sodium Methyl 2-Sulfolaurate/Disodium 2-Sulfolaurate


The only surfactants I owned out of this list are Sodium Lauroyl Lactylate and Sodium Lauroyl Isethionate. But guess what!!!!! I bought them on Makeyourown.buzz a while ago and they were bought out by wholesalesuppliesplus.com who then decided to discontinue both of these ingredients. So unfortunately for you guys, I can’t link to where you can buy these, but you can use any surfactant from the list above. Sodium Lauryl Sulfate is on wholesalesuppliesplus.com and Sodium Cocoyl Methyl Taurate is on makingcosmetics.com. Let me know if you want me to purchase either of these surfactants to try to use for this Body Wash in the future.  Because as of now I will be using Sodium Lauroyl Lactylate and Sodium Lauroyl Isethionate. I plan on doing two different experiments using one in each experiment so I can see which would work best. As for an amphoteric surfactant. Olay used Cocamidopropyl Betaine, which this ingredients is super easy to find, so I’ll be using that as my co surfactant. They didn’t use a nonionic surfactant, so we don’t need that.


Choosing Emulsifiers

Next thing we need to do, is figure out what emulsifier we are using. They are using maybe two different emulsifiers. The first one is Trideceth-3. Which I said earlier, I don’t know much about this. It’s described to work as an emulsifier, thickener and surfactant. So I imagine it is emulsifying and thickening, but I can’t find this ingredient anywhere. Instead I am going to focus on the Acrylates/C10-30 Alkyl Acrylate Crosspolymer that is listed in the ingredient list. I know this ingredient as PolyMulse Polymeric Emulsifier on LotionCrafter.com. I own this ingredient and have been wanting to formulate with it for a while, so it’s perfect. This is the emulsifier I’ll be using to keep the oil from separating from the water phase. But there is an issue. I’ve never worked with PolyMulse Polymeric Emulsifier before. 


Experiment with ingredients

Before I try to experiment with making the Olay Body Wash Dupe, I need to learn how this emulsifier works. So I did a few experiments with this emulsifier. I just used the emulsifier, water and oil to see if I can figure out how it works, which I am glad I did, because there is a trick to using this emulsifier.


When you add PolyMulse Polymeric Emulsifier to water it immediately lowers the pH of your formula to around 2-3. That is too low for the skin and for this emulsifier. In order for the emulsifier to activate you need to raise the pH between 4-9. But something you do need to keep in mind is that the formula in the end needs to be suitable for salicylic acid, so we need to try to keep the formula to as close to 4 as possible so are salicylic acid can stay active. I know I am jumping ahead a bit here, but it is something to keep in mind. For the product we are making today, we won’t add salicylic acid, but in a future post I plan on making this body wash again, but with all the actives; Salicylic acid, Vitamin C,E, B3, and peptides.


So I did an experiment with PolyMulse Polymeric Emulsifier and I was able to get it to work easily! Great! Now we can actually move on to writing the formula. 


Writing the Formula

As I write the formula I try to keep in mind, the placement of the ingredient in the ingredient list because that gives me a hint of how much of each ingredient is in there. For example, mineral oil is pretty low down on the list, even below Citric Acid, Sodium Citrate, and Sodium Benzoate. So that tells me there is probably less than 1% mineral oil in this formula. The petrolatum was probably the hardest for choosing a percent. I want to say there is like 10% petrolatum in this formula by looking at the order of ingredients, but that just seems like way too much for me, I’m worried I won’t be able to emulsify it, so I lowered it to 5%. Ultimately after doing multiple experiments, I decided to drop the petrolatum to 3% because I was doing so many experiments and I didn’t want to keep wasting 5%. You can try to increase the percentage if you want as I wasn’t seeing any separation, so it could handle more than 3%.


Also, I decided to do two separate experiments first. One with Sodium Lauroyl Lactylate and the other with Sodium Lauroyl Isethionate. Everything else in the formula stays the same. So my first formula looked like this



Experiment Formula

Phase A

10% Sodium Lauroyl Lactylate (SLL) Other experiment used Sodium Lauroyl Isethionate (SLI)


Phase B

46.7% Distilled Water


Phase C


Phase D

1.5% pH Buffer (10% Sodium Hydroxide Dilution) *Raises the pH


Phase E


Experiment findings

What I found during my first two experiments is that the Body Wash made with  Sodium Lauroyl Isethionate (SLI) was way thinner than the one made with Sodium Lauroyl Lactylate. The Sodium Lauroyl Lactylate was is thick, it was a paste and I could hardly mix it. I also found that the pH was a bit too high. I also tried to thicken the body wash made with SLI using salt, but it wouldn’t thicken. I did notice that salt is in the Olay Body Wash ingredient list, so I thought maybe it would work as a thickener, but nope. So I learned from these first two experiments that SLL is the better surfactant for this project and I needed to lower the amount of PolyMulse Polymeric Emulsifier because it was way to thick. Plus I need to lower the pH buffer, since the pH was too high. The pH of the Olay Super Serum Body wash is 4.08, so a pH of around 4 is the ultimate goal. That way we an incorporate salicylic acid in the formula later.


By the way, I did end up doing a total of 7 experiments before I landed on this final formula. Again, this is the most basic I could make it. I wanted to leave out all the expensive ingredients so you can have fun experimenting with this too without breaking the bank. So here is the final SIMPLIFIED dupe formula for the Olay Super Serum Body. I guess as of now, I wouldn’t call it Super Serum, since there are no actives, but it is a Body Wash. Also, don’t worry, I am planning more experiments to turn this into the salicylic, peptide, vitamin C,E, & B3 Body Wash it is supposed to be, but that will be next months patreon exclusive. I mainly wanted to focus on the topic of Structured Surfactant Systems and a basic/simple version of this formula first, because I know the final formula is going to be a pretty advanced one. This simplified formula is already pretty complicated for a beginner anyway. 





 Most ingredients are NOT considered “Natural” or Ecocert. There is no way for me to change this formula to a natural or Ecocert compliant formula. 


Batch size calculator for the recipe is attached at the bottom of page along with the PDF blog you can print.


Formula;


Phase A


Phase B

46.8% Distilled Water


Phase C


Phase D

0.5% pH Buffer (10% Sodium Hydroxide Dilution) *Raises the pH


Phase E


pH Adjusting;

PolyMulse Polymeric Emulsifier only thickens and gels in pH levels between 4-9. When you add PolyMulse Polymeric Emulsifier into your formula it will lower the pH of your product, so you need to then raise the pH back up to at least 4 to activate the PolyMulse Polymeric Emulsifier.



Directions;

  • In a sanitized heat safe container, combine all ingredients in phase A and place in a water bath or on a hot plate.(A water bath is a pan filled with an inch or so of water. Place your pan on your Stove Top on medium heat.) 


  • Come back periodically to phase A as it heats to mix and break up the SLL. This can take a bit to heat and dissolve depending on the surfactant you use. SLL will dissolve pretty easily.

  • In another sanitized heat safe container, combine all ingredients in phase B and mix to dissolve Disodium EDTA. 

  • In another sanitized heat safe container, combine all ingredients in phase C. 

  • Cover both phase B and C and place in a water bath or hot plate to melt everything in phase C. Phase B just needs heated to the same temperature as everything else. I’ve even made this formula without heating phase B, but it’s easier if you do.

  • Once everything is melted in phase C, you can remove phase B and add in the PolyMulse Polymeric Emulsifier and mix with an immersion blender. Then add in the pH Buffer and mix, you will notice it immediately thickens and turns into a gel.  



  • Remove phase C from heat, and pour into phase B/D and mix with an immersion blender. You will notice it turns into a white cream, this is normal due to the emulsion forming.


  • Next, remove phase A from heat, making sure all of the SLL is dissolved and pour into phase  B/C/D and mix well. Don’t mix with the immersion blender again or it will add in too much lather. Gently hand mix it in. 



  • Once your body wash has cooled under 40°C/104°F you can add in phase E and mix.

  • Let cool and adjust pH if need between 4-6. Pour into desired bottle. I used this bottle HERE.




Benefits/Uses of Ingredients;


Sodium Lauroyl Lactylate (SLL) - Anionic Surfactant. Adds lather and foam to product while being gentle on skin. 


Cocamidopropyl Betaine - Amphoteric Surfactant. Helps boost lather and foam and help create more creamy gentle lather. Also is being used to dissolve the SLL in. 


Distilled Water - Diluent 


Glycerin - Humectant (Hydrates skin)


Disodium EDTA - Helps stabilize formula and boost preservative. Read more about Chelating Agents HERE


Petroleum Jelly - Occlusive that helps lock moisture into the skin.


Mineral Oil - emollient 


Shea Butter - emollient


Glyceryl Oleate - a re-fatting agent and can be found in our hair lipids and skin lipids. It can help improve surfactant systems by subsiding the drying effect that can sometimes occur. Makes surfactant systems more soft, conditioning luxurious, and gentle. 


PolyMulse Polymeric Emulsifier - emulsifier that helps keep the oil from separating from the water.


pH Buffer (10% Sodium Hydroxide Dilution) - Raises the pH to activate the PolyMulse Polymeric Emulsifier


Liquid Germall Plus - preservative 



Substitutes;

These are only suggestions. Further testing needs done if you are using any substitutes. Substituting ingredients may result in the need to change the formulating process or recalculate the formula.


Sodium Lauroyl Lactylate (SLL) - I also experimented with using Sodium Lauroyl Isethionate, but the formula didn’t end up as thick and salt would not thicken it. It did foam well and it would work, just don’t expect it to be thick. You can also try experimenting with any other anionic surfactant in this list; Sodium Trideceth Sulfate, Sodium Laureth Sulfate, Sodium Lauryl Sulfate, Sodium Lauroyl Glycinate, Sodium Lauroyl Isethionate, Sodium Lauroyl Methyl Isethionate, Sodium Cocoyl Methyl Taurate, Sodium Lauroyl Lactylate, Laureth 1 Phosphate, Diethylhexyl Sodium Sulfosuccinate, Sodium Methyl 2-Sulfolaurate/Disodium 2-Sulfolaurate 


Cocamidopropyl Betaine - You can try using Sodium Lauroamphoacetate. 


Distilled Water - hydrosol or aloe vera liquid 





Mineral Oil - any oil of choice.


Shea Butter - any butter of choice





Liquid Germall Plus - Euxyl K 903, Euxyl K 900, Tristate Eco, Geogard 221, Geogard ECT aka Preservative Eco, Opiphen Plus or other broad spectrum preservative of choice. (Make sure it is active in your products final pH)




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