Carbopol EDT 2020

Carbopol is an "easy to disperse" cross linked polyacrylic acid copolymer Sounds impressive doesn't it. I have seen this product under various names with various descriptions.
Using just a few simple ingredients you can make gel out of any water based solutions. The possibilities are endless, herbal gels, hair gels, light lotions, glitter gels, you name it. I will try to give a very simple explanation of how to use the product and from there you will have to experiment to get the results you want.
For all of the following instructions I have used weights as my measurements, even for the liquids. I have a scale that weighs in 2 gram increments so I have designed the recipes with this in mind.
Carbopol needs something to raise the ph of your liquid base to make the solution thicken. You can use either a sodium hydroxide solution or triethanolamine. As a soapmaker I chose the solution. You need a 18% solution in your recipes.

Mix in a glass or plastic container.
82 grams of water
18 grams of sodium hydroxide.

This will last a while, and you can store it in a plastic container, but make sure that you store it out of the reach of children, in fact you may want to only make as much as you need at one time. Take the regular precautions when mixing the lye and water, but do be aware, this is a weak solution and shouldn't cause you any trouble.

Make your water solution. This can be anything you would like infused in water, or a blend of ingredients to make your water based solution. I used chamomile made into an infusion or tea. I let it cool and used it for my base.

I am giving you directions for two mixtures of different thicknesses, you can decide which you prefer, or based on my recipes figure out what is best for you.

Thinner base:
Combine:
242 grams of water based solution
2 grams of germaben II
2 grams of Carbopol 2020
Stir this mixture for a minute and let sit for about 20 minutes to let the Carbopol disperse into the water. It will look clumpy in the water, but I gave it a shot with the hand blender to disperse it a bit better. It still separated into a clumpy layer and a very liquid layer on the bottom, this is completely normal.
After 20 minutes add:
4 grams of the sodium hydroxide mixture and stir.
This should thicken quite quickly, but the gel particles will gradually expand to its full thickness in a few hours so be patient. Do not make the mistake I did of using the hand blender. The gel thickens so quickly that air bubbles become trapped which is ok if that is what you want, but annoying if you were going for the clear look. Stirring by hand every so often should be enough to complete the gel. This is the fine line that you have to walk with Carbopol. Stirring gives you a clearer nicer look, unless you stir it too much, then it becomes thin like water again. It takes quite a bit of stirring to get the gel to collapse, but once it does, it will never thicken again.
Also, salt will collapse your gel, so avoid it at all costs (one of the reasons that it can not be used in liquid soap).
At some point you may want to scent the gel with eo's or fo's to your preference. I personally would do this after you have the thickness you like, that way you won't get overwhelmed with scent if you add too much. .

Thicker base:
Combine:
484 grams of water based solution
4 grams of germaben II
6 grams of Carbopol 2020
Add:
8 grams of the sodium hydroxide mixture and stir.

This formula gives you a very thick gel. If you want something in-between the two, make this thicker formula and don't add the germaben II. When your solution has thickened and clarified for a few hours, add distilled water until your mixture is the thickness you want.
KEEP NOTES - There will be a test later. You would hate to get to the exact formula you like and not know how to make the same product again. Weigh the finished product and add germaben II at .3(point 3%) to 1% germaben II to preserve your gel, we use .7%.
As you can see, the larger the batch, the more you can play with the formula. The smaller batches are hard to adjust for thickness.
Pat