There is a great deal of confusion regarding Aloe products.  The number one point of confusion is regarding the viscosity of aloe products.  Consumers expect Aloe Juice to look and feel like Aloe Jelly.  Many consumers believe that the thick jelly on the market came straight from the plant itself.  But in reality the jelly like product is made by adding a thickener.  The most common thickening agent is a combination of Carbomer (a.k.a. Carbopol) and TEA (Thiethanolamine), however there are a few on the market that use a gum like Xanthan or Guar Gum.  Carbomer and TEA chemicals that work in conjunction to create a synergetic force that both thickens and changes the surface tension of any water based product, thus creating a jelly.  The viscosity confusion, I believe, is created by two factors.  One being that consumers are most familiar with the clear or green Aloe Gel products commonly sold on the market.  The front of the label says that it is Aloe Gel and not everyone reads the ingredient list.  The second cause for confusion is that if you ever cut a piece of an aloe leaf, the inside (fillet) appears to be gelatinous and thick.  However, the thickness comes from the pulp and fiber that is removed when aloe is processed.  Even if the fillet is left intake with the pulp and fiber the required preservation method would thin out the finished product.  Be aware that there are also some thick Aloe Gel products which contain acrylates/C10-30 Alkyl Acrylates Crosspolymer in addition to Carbomer and TEA.  Read labels and ask questions. 

In reality, pure Aloe Juice has the same consistency and viscosity as water.  Aloe Juice is created by reconstituting freeze dried, cryo-dried, or spray dried aloe powder with deionized water to a single strength equivalency (SSE).  Once the Aloe Powder is reconstituted the finished product requires preservatives in order to remain stable.  While there is Aloe Juice on the market that is simply pressed, Aloe leaves the resulting juice unstable and not thick like Aloe Jelly.  A fresh unpreserved Aloe Juice needs to be treated like any other food grade juice that you purchase at the grocery store.  It requires refrigeration and has a short shelf life.  This short shelf life makes it unfriendly for cosmetic purposes.  We have tested the preservative free aloe juice products on the market and they tested positive for bacteria and mold.  If you make a product using this unpreserved aloe your product becomes unstable, despite preservatives added to the finished product.  We have run tests using many different methods of preservation using the unpreserved aloe juice and all of them have failed.  The simple fact is that you must start your formulas with stable ingredients.  The only way around using preserved Aloe Juice is to formulate using Aloe Powder, Aloe Oil or Aloe Butter and then use a preservative system that is stable and acceptable to you for your finished product.  At Essential Wholesale we have chosen to preserve our Aloe Juice with Potassium Sorbate and Citric Acid (to adjust the pH).  We believe that this is the safest and gentlest method we could use.  Be aware that there are other aloe juice products that contain glyceryl polymethalcrylate and propylene glycol.

There are many different Aloe Powders available on the market today.  Each of them is either freeze dried, cryo-dry or spray dry.  At Essential Wholesale we make our products from 100% Pure Aloe Vera that is IASC Certified.  IASC Certification is done by the International Aloe Science Council which is a third party verification process that insures purity of aloe products.  The aloe that we use comes from freshly harvested leaves of the Aloe Vera barbadensis miller variety of aloe.  The inner gel (a.k.a. fillet) is carefully removed to minimize disruption of the Aloin layer.  The resulting gel is processed to remove the pulp and fiber.  The gel is then pasteurized to maintain efficacy and concentrated using low temperature evaporation.  The gel concentrate is then freeze dried without the use of matrix, preservatives or any other additives.  The finished concentrate allows us to follow an exact formula to reconstitute the aloe to a single strength equivalency (SSE) aloe juice. 

Aloe Oil and Aloe Butter are created when the constituents of aloe are extracted into a carrier oil.  The aloe plant does not naturally create an oil or butter.  Using Aloe Oil or Aloe Butter in a formula is a great alternative to Aloe Juice because the butter and oil do not require preservatives.  When creating a product that does not have a water phase, formulating with Aloe Oil and Aloe Butter allows aloe to be added simply to your product.  Essential Wholesale’s Aloe Butter is created by extracting aloe into coconut oil.  Our Aloe Oil is created by extracting aloe into soy bean oil with added vitamin E to enhance the shelf life and antioxidant properties of the finished product.  Be aware that there are some Aloe Oil products that contain mineral oil on the market. 

There are hundreds of different formulas and processing methods in which aloe is available on the market.  It is no wonder that there are many people who believe they are allergic to aloe.  In reality they are most likely allergic to an added anti-caking agent, preservative or thicken agents used in different forms of aloe.  There are no ingredients on the market today that are 100% hyper allergenic because allergies are complex and varied.  With that said it still is more likely that people are allergic to something other than the pure aloe.  If you wonder if you are truly allergic to aloe the very best method to determine if aloe is the culprit is to snip off a piece of an aloe leaf and do a patch test.