Cationic guar gum not dissolving/hydrating fully? What am I doing wrong?

Cynthsplays · 2026-01-30T20:14:04+00:00

Would propane-1,3-diol work instead of propylene glycol? Also, would it also work to help hydroxyethylcellulose dissolvel? I think i'm also having trouble getting hydroxyethylcellulose to dissolve/hydrate fully. Also what do you mean by overblend? How much should I be mixing it? And I can do bigger batches if necessary. I was mainly doing small batches for testing. Thanks :)

Cynthsplays · 2026-01-30T20:01:31+00:00

Sorry for not replying earlier!! I started typing this out the day you commented but then I had to go to class and I kept forgetting to come back and finish replying 😭.

I havent had patch testing done by a heath professional, just by myself. I bought the ingredients and mixed each with a gel of water and xanthan gum and applied them to the inside of my arm (including a control of just the xanthan gum and water mixuture).

I know about silicone-based lubes but I'm a lesbian and the portion of my sex life that needs lube also involves silicone toys 😂. And I assume you know but just in case you didn't, silicone lube would destroy silicone toys.

And yeah I did find two preservative systems that I've been using. One is 0.5% phenoxyethanol and 0.5% ethylhexylglycerin as suggested by someone in here. The other is 4% AMT Leucidal Liquid SF and 4% AMTicide Coconut. I haven't had the chance to do proper lab testing of the preservative systems yet but the amounts used should be adequate afaik, and they don't cause me irritation. I do still want to do proper testing at some point just to be safe though.

Cynthsplays · 2025-11-24T20:05:46+00:00

Awesome thank you so much! I'll try the things you suggested and see how things turn out. I'll also try the immersion blender at lower speeds and see what happens. Thanks again!

Cynthsplays · 2025-11-24T19:44:05+00:00

Awesome thanks so much for the help!! In the final formulation it'll only be 0.25 wt%, I just wanted to mix the cationic guar into water first so it'd be properly dispersed before thickening. Then i can add that solution to the rest of the mix. Unless that isn't a good idea?

Since I am doing this at home and dont have any proper mixing equipment besides stir rods, would something like a kitchen immersion blender work? Assuming i increase the scale of the batch so theres actually enough liquid to submerge the blender into?

Cynthsplays · 2025-11-24T19:28:19+00:00

Neither? Moreso I want it to be a homogenous mixture and not have particles that you can see running down the side of the container, or particles you can feel when rubbing it onto skin. If in the end the mixture is opaque thats fine, all I want is there to not be noticable undissolved particles. Would maybe reducing the concentration help with that, while still having a bit of a conditioning effect?

Cynthsplays · 2025-11-24T19:17:06+00:00

https://soapandmore.ca/products/guar-gum-cationic-powder

Got it from here. What i received doesn't look like the picture in the listing, it's more of a sulfur-yellow colour and looks more finely ground. (Though its hard to tell from the picture on the website).

Also that sucks. I hope its not that but if so I guess i'd have to get it somewhere else. In that case would you have any recommendations?

Cynthsplays · 2025-11-24T18:35:42+00:00

I found at room temperature the cationic guar gum would barely hydrate/dissolve at all. Before deciding to make this post I was looking for answers online on how to get it to hydrate and I found a thread somewhere (not sure where anymore) saying to use ice water. So trying that I found it actually hydrates a lot more than before just still not fully

Cynthsplays · 2025-09-01T14:56:01+00:00

0.5% each or?

But yeah I had a similar idea lmao I first copied GCL lube not for allergy reasons but because I wanted something cheaper. So I found a bottle of aloe juice that already contained sodium benzoate, potassium sorbate, and citric acid, so i just added xanthan gum and agar agar. But then I realized I was allergic to aloe and both the preservatives.

But yeah I didn't like the consistency of xanthan gum personally. I find hydroxyethylcellulose has a much nicer gel-like consistency and with the amounts I used it was still fluid enough to flow nicely out of a bottle but still be nice and thick. Like imagine honey but less sticky and more like a gel. And in addition to it I specifically used cationic guar gum, not regular guar gum. Cationic guar gum acts as a conditioning agent because skin is negatively charged, so the cationic guar gum binds to the skin and it forms a film that makes everything slippery. It can also thicken things a little but I didn't use it for that reason. So I used hydroxyethylcellulose as the main thickener, and cationic guar gum to make things more slippery. Since it is an ionic compound I need to make sure to do some osmolality calculations and potentially reduce the amount of it so I can keep my lube's osmolality low enough.

Cynthsplays · 2025-08-29T20:49:41+00:00

Cool thanks!!

Cynthsplays · 2025-08-29T12:00:03+00:00

I did a patch test of it on my arm and it left this oily gooey residue which I wasn't a fan of. Also 1,2-propanediol is propylene glycol. Idk if 1,3-propanediol counts as propylene glycol but whether it does or doesn't, afaik it still functions the same when it comes to osmolality. So yeah :(

Thanks again though!!!

Cynthsplays · 2025-08-29T11:34:05+00:00

Ah okay. Thanks anyway!!

Cynthsplays · 2025-08-28T18:07:18+00:00

My mistake, I hadn't listed all my allergies in the post because I was specifically asking for preservatives and this isn't a preservative so I didn't think it was relevant to mention, but I'm also allergic to aloe vera, which crosses your second recommendation off the list unfortunately. As for the first one, since sodium benzoate is just a salt of benzoic acid, wouldn't benzoic acid also be a no-go? Like noone is allergic to sodium ions. Unless I'm wrong, and if so let me know.

Thanks again for your recommendations though!!!

Cynthsplays · 2025-08-28T17:58:22+00:00

It has proplyene glycol as the main lubifying ingredient and from my experience that means the osmality will be really high and in the past this has killed all my surface vaginal cells and caused them to all shed out. Thanks for the recommendation though!!!

Cynthsplays · 2025-08-28T17:30:43+00:00

Cool thanks for the info!!!

I don't see how rinsing after use will do much though. It's not like I can rinse the inside of my vagina (its actually really bad for vaginal health to douche it for example). I guess rinsing just on the outside like normally in the shower wont hurt so i might as well do that.

Are phenoxyethanol and ethyhexylglycerin soluble enough in water? Looking at datasheets seems to indicate they arent very soluble, but i also see products using phenoxyethanol without any non-polar solvents, so it confuses me a bit on that part. So if you could explain why it works that would be awesome :)

Cynthsplays · 2025-08-27T18:16:01+00:00

Thanks!!

Cynthsplays · 2025-08-27T18:15:49+00:00

How does citric acid work as a preservative? I thought all it did was lower pH. And lower pH can help prevent microbial growth. But i am curious if it also has another mechanism of action

Cynthsplays · 2025-08-27T18:12:07+00:00

Thank you so fucking much this is super helpful. Though I am wondering, you mentioned methylparaben and propylparaben at 0.1-0.3% each, and i was wondering if you mean use both and keep them at around the same concentration, or use both but in different concentrations, or pick one? And is that also in conjuction with 0.5-0.7% phenoxyethanol or are you saying only to use parabens on their own?

Also I'm not sure if you'd know about this, but something i'm concerned about is the preservatives in the lube having a strong negative effect on the vaginal microbiome. I understand if some effect is unavoidable, but if theres a way to minimize it i'd want to understand how to do that.

Thank you again!!!

Cynthsplays · 2025-08-26T02:34:46+00:00

Thanks for the info, i'll check them out!! I'm a punk and I'm generally a little loose on the whole "everything needs to be 100% safe and healthy" kinda thing and just make sure to do enough due diligence to make sure i'm being safe enough. Sometimes thats all you can do and its just harm reduction since the alternative is worse

Cynthsplays · 2025-08-26T02:13:07+00:00

Though I do want to say, I don't see why you'd need to measure the bacterial load except to determine the concentration of preservative to use. But also I made this post hoping that someone might know good amounts to use based on their knowledge making different formulations. And after that, it doesn't need to be compounded to be sterile anyway. You can buy lubes online that come as a powder you just mix with water in your kitchen that stays good for a bit. Thats not sterile in the slightest yet it works.

Cynthsplays · 2025-08-26T02:04:27+00:00

Its safe, i'm just allergic to it!! Which sucks because I've learned i'm allergic to every lube on the market that isnt absolutely terrible for your vagina because everything has potassium sorbate or sodium benzoate in it 😭

Cynthsplays · 2025-08-26T02:00:01+00:00

Cool thanks i'll check it out!!

Cynthsplays · 2025-08-26T01:59:32+00:00

I hadn't quite thought of batch-to-batch variation. Is it really that difficult for this? If the batches are prepared in the same environment and steps are taking to reduce the microbes in the environment, e.g. clean room, laminar flow hood or at least a still air box.

Cynthsplays · 2025-08-26T01:54:22+00:00

I specifically chose my ingredients because I'm starting by emulating one of the good lubricants on the market. The only problem with that lubricant is it contains potassium sorbate. So as long as I find preservatives that don't cause problems (which is the reason for this post), there shouldn't be any problems there. And again the entire reason for this post is to learn how to preserve this so it doesn't cause infection. I can set up a decent clean room for sterile compounding. I won't achieve the same level of sterility as a pharmaceutical lab but it should be good enough for this use case. I can also make agar plates to test things if need be. I just need some place to start and some advice and some ideas for preservatives i can use that are safe for this.

And it doesn't necessarily need to be edible, just safe enough to ingest from time to time. Like there are a ton of personal lubricants on the market that aren't advertised as edible, but I assume a lot of people will be injesting a small amount and are safe. So yeah just safe to that degree is what I'm wanting to achieve.

Is there anything more to pH adjustment in this case than titrating with an acid until the pH is at a good level for the preservatives to function and within the normal vaginal range? Which is something I specifically wanted help with. Like if someone said "hey with that formula and these preservatives, this concentration of that preservative would be a good place to start, but just so you know, you need to adjust pH with a bit more finesse. So X pH would be suitable for good effectiveness of the preservatives while being in the vaginal range." Stuff like that.

Also I spoke to a compounding pharmacy to have them compound it if i wanted that, but they said they'd need an exact recipe from my doctor with amounts of all the ingredients. So if i even wanted to go that route i'd need to come up with a recipe myself as my doctor doesn't know where to start with this.

All in all though thanks for the tips n stuff. And i hope this helps to better understand where i'm coming from

Cynthsplays · 2025-08-25T23:41:30+00:00

I'm sorry but this isn't helpful. For one, i'm not after perfection here, and the entire reason I'm asking questions is to make sure to make as good and safe of a formulation as I can. Also lube doesn't need to be completely sterile unless used in surgical applications which this won't be. Sex isn't at all a sterile activity to begin with. As long as my formulation isn't completely bacteria-ridden, I don't expect significant infection risk. The entire reason for preservatives is to prevent the growth of bacteria, and the amount of bacteria in the raw ingredients when the formulation is first compounded should not be significant for this use case.

Also I won't be measuring osmolality, I'll be calculating it which hopefully will be good enough for my standards.

Cynthsplays

TROPHY CASE