Yuck! Clumpy goop!

Ditdah

I was trying to make my own version of the curl-defining spray/all-in-one spray. I mixed the following, in this order:

~ 3 oz distilled H2O
few squirts alove vera gel (lilly of the valley brand)
5 drops jojoba oil
1 tsp epsom salt
5 drops "GSE" - grapefruit seed extract in vegetable glycerine (no other ingreds)

When I started to stir it, I got lots of little white clumps. As I kept stirring, the clumps stuck together, and I fished out a gummy white clump of "plasticy goo."

All of these are in my all-in-one spray, with the addition of reguar (HE SMU) gel and conditioner, and that didn't curdle. Anyone have any idea why this did?

echokitten

I have had that before and I think it is the epsom salts reacting to the glycerine. Just a guess though, we'd need one of the site chemists to confirm it.
Also, I have found that using Aloe Vera JUICE (which you can get at a healthfood store)instead of the gel works well and isn't as goopy. Use the one that is organic with no added sugars.

I do this...
distilled water
jojoba oil
aloe juice
glycerine
scented essential oil

Since I can never get the right amount of epsom in I usually just leave it out altogether. The other ingred are good enough with a bit of scrunching to encourage the curl. Just my opinion though, you may be different...

Ditdah

Well, I made another batch last night, and left out the glycerine/grapefruit seed extract. I figured I'd only be using it for a day or so to see if I liked it, so i wasn't worried about the preservative effects of the gse. Worked pretty well this morning, but when I came home I had little white chunks in the bottle.

So, I dumped and cleaned, and mixed this (thanks to your suggestion, echokitten:)
distilled water
2 squirts HE SMU (ran out of aloe vera)
4 drops jojoba oil
5 drops glycerine/gse mix
4 drops essential oil blend

I haven't used it yet, but I'm hoping with the omission of the salts, I'll have better results!