Last week, we met our gelling agents - Ultrez 20, a carbomer that has to be neturalized with something like triethanolamine or 18% lye, and Sepimax Zen, a pre-neutralized polymer. We'll play with Ultrez 20 this week and Sepimax Zen next week.

There are two ways to make something with Ultrez 20: You can add all the ingredients, then neutralize it, or you can make up a gel and add our ingredients to it after neutralization.

Let's take a look at the first way of making a gel with Ultrez 20 in this post.

Let's say you wanted to make a lovely gelled toner, like this simple rosewater from the first post on toners.

SIMPLE TONER FOR NORMAL SKIN - ROSE WATER & CHAMOMILE
HEATED WATER PHASE
56% distilled water
20% witch hazel
20% rose water or other hydrosol 2% glycerin, sodium lactate, or propylene glycol
0.5% allantoin

COOL DOWN PHASE
0.5% powdered chamomile extract
0.5% powdered cucumber or green tea extract
0.5% liquid Germall Plus

First, check to see if there are any ingredients that aren't compatible with Ultrez 20. 
Are there any cationic or positively charged ingredients" Nope.
Are there any that contain a lot of electrolytes" We'd have to leave out sodium lactate, but otherwise, nope!
Are there any salts" Again, nope.
So this recipe can be turned into a gel very easily! Yay!
Remember not to add any aloe vera liquid to this recipe as it's full of salts!

Second, consider how thick you want to make this product. 
If we add enough Ultrez 20 to ...