when you look at the ingredient lists of products like shower gel, conditioner etc. there are often several types of alcohol included…what’s the difference between these alcohols?

Question

A shower thought of mine haha

In: Chemistry

Answer 1

There is no way of ELI5-ing alcohols. This is some seriously complicated organic chemistry (organic since it’s molecules built up from the same type of atoms that you find in plants&animals. Just often arranged very differently) and there are thousands of different types of alcohols.

However, when looking at shower gels they do two things (mostly).

1. They keep everything together and looking non-icky.. The shower gel looks like a single liquid instead of letting stuff pool at the bottom or floating on top or becoming flakes floating around in the gel.
2. They change how it feels when you touch it. Companies spend a lot of money to have shower gel feel exactly right (the right amount of squish, clinginess and goopiness), and a big reason for showergels feeling like they do is what kind of alcohols (and how much of them) you put in it.