Glycerine

Glycerine, also called glycerol, is a clear, odourless liquid widely used in personal care, pharmaceutical and formulation products.

In your DIY toolkit, it has one particularly useful job: helping Xanthan Gum mix properly.

Xanthan Gum hydrates almost instantly when it touches water. If you tip the dry powder straight into a liquid, the outside can gel before the inside gets wet, creating stubborn little lumps.

Mix it with Glycerine first and the story changes. The thick liquid coats and separates the Xanthan Gum particles without hydrating them. When water is added afterwards, the particles can disperse and hydrate more evenly, creating a much smoother finished product.

Glycerine is also a humectant, meaning it attracts and holds moisture, which makes it particularly useful in hand wash, body wash and other recipes used on skin.

Stops the xanthan gum from clumping in water

It coats the tiny xanthan particles and stops them sticking together before they meet water helping to create smooth, lump-free gels.

You can DIY in style

By teaming xanthan and glycerine you can turn any water based solution into a thick gel, providing excellent cling for vertical surfaces.