The short answer here is no—far from it.
Let’s start with a quick definition of emulsifying wax. It’s a waxy substance (usually white pellets, flakes, or beads) that is a carefully blended mix of fatty ingredients (examples include cetearyl alcohol, cetyl alcohol, and glyceryl stearate) and emulsifiers (like PEG-100 Stearate and Polysorbate 60) that will emulsify (and often, but not always thicken) a mixture of oil and water. The emulsifier emulsifies the formulation, while the fatty ingredient boosts viscosity for improved stability and adds emollience to the formulation.
Emulsifying waxes are included in the heated oil phase of our formulations as it needs to be melted to work. They are generally used at about 20–25% of your oil phase, but check with the retailer and/or manufacturer for usage guidelines.
Different emulsifying waxes have different strengths and weaknesses, so you will need to research each emulsifying wax you wish to work with to learn what it is suited for and what it brings to our formulations. I highly recommend the Humblebee & Me DIY Encyclopedia as a starting point! Some examples of important tidbits you’ll need to know as a formulator:
- Emulsions made with Glyceryl Stearate SE require some sort of gum or gelling agent to be stable.
- Ritamulse SCG (Emulsimulse, ECOMulse) is anionic, so tread carefully if including cationic ingredients in formulations emulsified with this emulsifier. This emulsifying wax also has pH and oil phase size limits.
- BTMS-50 and BTMS-25 are cationic, so tread carefully if including anionic ingredients in formulations emulsified with these emulsifiers.
- Glyceryl Stearate (and) PEG-100 Stearate won’t thicken your formulations the same way many emulsifying waxes (like Emulsifying Wax NF or Olivem 1000) will; this gives you a great deal of added flexibility, but can also create stability issues depending on your formulations.
These are some the emulsifying waxes I work with (click each name to learn more!):
- Ritamulse SCG (Emulsimulse, ECOMulse)
- Polawax
- BTMS-50
- BTMS-25
- Emulsifying Wax NF
- Olivem 1000
- Glyceryl Stearate SE
- Glyceryl Stearate (and) PEG-100 Stearate
- Behentrimonium Chloride
Make sure you’re always checking the INCI of whatever you’re buying! The brand/trade name of the e-wax may change depending on where you live or where you’re shopping, so the INCI is the thing you really need to pay attention to. There are loads of places to purchase emulsifying waxes around the world; check out my big list of places to shop to find one in your home country.
Buyer beware!
Some suppliers sell fatty thickeners like cetearyl alcohol with some variation of “emulsifying wax” in the name. In my humble opinion, this is infuriatingly misleading. Fatty thickeners won’t emulsify, but having the name “emulsifying wax” in the name makes you think it’ll work and just… argh. This is a recipe for frustration and disappointment. When shopping for emulsifying wax, make sure you read the full description and any reviews to ensure the product will actually emulsify formulations on its own.
Posted in: Ingredients
