Xanthan Gum Powder, food grade, sold by weight.

Xanthan Gum, with excellent stability and highest purity levels, is suitable for most pharmaceutical, cosmetic, food and beverage applications. It's a non-gelling thickener which binds water, provides viscosity, adds volume & is a foam enhancer, emulsion stabilizer, lubricant and suspending agent.

Cosmetic applications: shampoos, conditioners, lotions, creams, body washes, shower gels. INCI: Xanthan Gum.

The person who monitors our list on Yahoo! Groups, the Handmade Toiletries List (Ela McAdams) has provided these tips on how to use this product:

You really only need a tiny amount. Let's say you want to use 0.5% in a lotion. If you make 1 lb. of lotion, you are going to measure 0.08 lbs. of xanthan gum out on your scale to add to the recipe. Hopefully, you'll make something more like 5 lbs. of lotion, because it's way easier to measure .4 lbs of xanthan than it is to measure .08 lbs.

I mix the gum into the water before mixing in anything else, using a stick blender. I know some people who disperse it into their oil and then mix the oil into the water phase of their lotion, and that also works.

The important part is to keep beating the mixture as you are working, though, or the gum can literally gum up on you and NOT dissolve back out if you don't keep it moving.