I didnt think it did bro. I dumped everything in my blender and whipped it up like mad, still wouldnt go into a gel! And that's following Chemo's exact instructions from the 'Recipe...' thread.
I did succeed in making the gel, but 8Oz would only hold about 6g of 4AD. Im sure, with proper tweaking of the recipe, I could nail it. The key is in the amount of water in the mix. To get maximum solubility with the 'Traditional' spray recipe, you've got to find a way to minimize the H2O and maximize the IPA.
4AD is an extreme pain in the ass when it comes to dissolving, as it isnt really soluble in any of the ingredients by themselves at room temp...Chemo is truly a freaking mastermind - finding a way to dissolve 10g of 4AD in 4Oz of gel!!! I think a big part of it is the PEG400, as Ive read him saying on the board how he got 15g of 4AD to dissolve in just a PEG400 and IPA solution.
If I took from anything, it would be the lim, fatty acid and water to increase alcohol. What's your carbomer concentration? If it's less that 1%, you could up it a little too to accommodate. Also, are you stirring the heck out of it for like hours to get it real smooth first?
Hey Dr.D...had the carbomer at 1g for the 240ml of gel. And yeah, I stirred it like a bastard!
The method I outlined here:
1.)dH2O/Carbomer
2.)adjust PH until a gel forms
3.)add IPA
4.)add Oleic acid
5.)adjust PH until it goes back into a gel
6.)add IPM/IPP
7.)add water until smooth
8.)add DMSO(10%)
9.)add D-Limoene(6%)
10.)add PG(10%)
worked great, the gel had a great consistency, it just didnt have the solubility that we really need. I know I used too much water, and could probably find the right mix with a little more trial and error. I didnt get the exact amount of water in the mix, either, the gel I was working on started to separate when I added the IPM, and I added a little water and it went right into a gel. The PG made the texture nice and smooth, very 'T-Gel' like.
I wanted to ask you - what is the advantage of using triethanolamine over NaOH? I know that triethanolamine is used in the cosmetic industry to adjust PH, is it better for the skin?
For now, the gel experiment has to go on the back burner. Im making this full out homebrew cycle for myself, my brother, and a friend, and I realized last night I have about 1000 gel caps to whip up with my cap-m-quick. And I can do 50 every 20 minutes.
There really isnt any advantage of a gel over a spray, other than a gel might be a little nicer to apply. But, with the spray, you have the concentrated skin conditioners/penetration enhancers with no H2O added to the mix. I would estimate that the transdermal absorption % of the homebrew spray w/DMSO is pretty close to the new T-Gel. Plus, its SO much easier to work with a liquid when transferring from your glassware to the spraybottle.
Still, though - gels are just so cool
So, for the transdermal mix Im going to go with the original spray recipe, with some PEG400 added to the mix. If I have some materials left over, Ill try to get the gel down.
I got it to point, maybe we can all work on it (possibly even incorprating Klaus' buffered base-gel idea), and come up with the ultimate homebrew gel recipe! That would make a phat sticky!
BV