What Are The Ingredients In Silicon Mix?

Silicon Mix is that conditioner which can smooth tight-tight curls straight in a Dominican Blowout one day, and bring old wigs and weaves back to life the next.

​It works on hair regardless of race or curl type, too.

​So what are the magic ingredients inside this jar that make all of this possible? It might surprise you. . .

It's All In The Ingredients. . .

Every so often, we take a look at top haircare ingredients and see why they work so well - or don't.

This week, we'll be looking at not just one ingredient, but a whole formula. And what better place to  start  than with the crema de la crema of Dominican conditioners, Silicon Mix. Yup, that little jar in the colours of ​la bandera and sunshine; the one that put the DR on the map as a haircare haven.

Our goal with this It's All In The Ingredients series is to allow any of our readers who so chooses, to become a mini ingredients expert, a beacon of truth out there in the wild wild web of internet misinformation.

To get these articles as soon as they drop and get a behind-the-scenes dose of truth to protect you from some of the dodgy hair advice floating around, join us here:
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​With that, let's get to the ingredients and what they do.
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Full Silicon Mix Ingredients List:

Aqua, Cetyl Alcohol, Cetrimonium Chloride, Mineral Oil, Stearyl Alcohol, Glycerin, Fragrance, Dimethicone Copolyol, Cyclomethicone, Keratin, Diazolidinyl Urea, Iodopropynyl Butylcarbamate, Ceramide, Citric Acid.

Cosmetic ingredients lists are written in descending order, which means that the ingredient at the top of the ingredients list is the one the product contains the most of, while the very last is the one it contains the least of. There's more on this in our how to read an ingredient's list article. 
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Silicon Mix Ingredients: Water

Also known as ​aqua ​(its INCI name), water is the most widely used cosmetic ingredient. Here, it serves as the base of this conditioner which, like most, is an oil-in-water emulsion. When applied to your hair, water is the only ingredient (except if your hair is damaged) on the list that penetrates deep, providing your hair with moisture and plasticity.
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Silicon Mix Ingredients: Cetyl Alcohol​

Don't worry, despite the name, this ingredient has nothing to do with the drying alcohols everyone in the natural hair community is warning you away from.
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Naturally derived from palm kernel and coconut oil, cetyl alcohol is a fatty alcohol - the good kind that doesn't dry out your hair or scalp. It behaves completely differently to short chain alcohols, like ethanol or methanol. 

Chemically, cetyl alcohol does have an -OH group, which is what technically makes it an alcohol, but that's about the only thing it has in common with what we conventionally think of as alcohols. Cetyl alcohol doesn't have the same acrid smell, it's a solid, not a liquid,  and not only is it not drying, it's one of the most moisturising ingredients around.

Cetyl alcohol, as used in Silicon Mix is derived from coconuts. Image by Irene Kredenets.

​That emolliency is one of many reasons why cetyl alcohol is one of the most popular ingredients in hair conditioners. Looking at its primary position in this formula, you can see cetyl alcohol's role as an emulsifier, blending water and ingredients that are usually water-hating like silicone and oils together.

It also helps keep the formula stable, and helps the cationic surfactant (cetrimonium chloride) to rinse off your hair when it's done conditioning. That's due to its mild cleansing powers: cetyl alcohol is also the main cleanser in many co-washes.
 
As ingredient number 2, this classic conditioning ingredient helps forms the base of this powerful conditioner and has a big impact on how Silicon Mix works on your hair.
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Silicon Mix Ingredients: Cetrimonium Chloride​

Ingredient number 3 is cetrimonium chloride, a cationic surfactant; an ingredient that binds ingredients together that naturally won't mix. In the case of this conditioner, it helps bind the emollient cetyl alcohol to your hair and makes it more miscible with water. The 'cationic' part of its name indicates that this conditioning ingredient has a positive charge. That's what makes it so  attracted to your hair, which has a naturally negative charge - especially the damaged bits.

​Cetrimonium chloride enhances your hair's wettability, crucial for drawing moisture into your strands. It's also responsible for the moderate detangling ability, aka slip you'll notice when you use this conditioner. This ingredient is so powerful it's usually used at very low concentrations but still has a strong conditioning effect on your hair.

Silicon Mix Ingredients: Mineral Oil​

Aka paraffinum liquidum, this is a clear, oily liquid made up of a complex mixture of hydrocarbons. In hair products, mineral oil used for its occlusion: the ability to slow down moisture loss, which helps keep hair hydrated for longer.

Now, some of what you've heard is true; this ingredient is extracted from crude oil. However, the kind of mineral oil that ends up in your conditioner or leave in isn't just some petrol byproduct. Despite the negativity this ingredient gets from plenty of naturals, modern cosmetic grade mineral oil is highly purified, with no nasties and comes from a very specific part of the oil that is isolated and refined just for cosmetic and medicinal purposes.

The end product is nonirritant and noncomedogenic —​ unlike many other natural oils, making mineral oil one of the safest haircare ingredients.

When it's used in very high quantities, as happened in many leave ins and conditioners from back in the day,  mineral oil can get greasy. But when you look at its spot on this ingredients list, after the cetrimonium chloride which is used at very low percentages, there's no chance of this oil making your hair feel greasy or weighed down.

Silicon Mix Ingredients: Stearyl Alcohol​

Like cetyl alcohol, this is a fatty alcohol, used for its nourishing, stabilising, emulsifying and emollient properties. It has mild cleansing abilities and is one of the reasons Silicon Mix feels so rich, yet rinses off your hair without detectable residue. This gentle ingredient also helps nourish your hair and keep your conditioner creamy and blended.
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Silicon Mix Ingredients: Glycerin​

Clear, liquid, sticky and sweet, you might have childhood memories of this as a sore throat remedy. A natural ingredient that forms the backbone of every oil or fat in nature, glycerin is also technically an alcohol (though this classification is not always used for it, it's the reason for the 'ol' in its alias, glycerol).

The glycerin in Silicon Mix is used as a humectant. Image by Daria Nepriakhina.

​Like the fatty alcohols higher up in the list, glycerin doesn't dry out your hair. In fact, it does the complete opposite. Glycerin is a humectant which means it draws water into your hair. Inside the jar, this trait makes it bind water and the combination that results is then easier to bind with the other ingredients in the formula.
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Silicon Mix Ingredients: Fragrance​

This is the proprietary mix of aromas that give Silicon Mix its distinctive, slightly musky scent, reminiscent of the vetiver that grows on the island. The actual components of cosmetic fragrances don't have to be listed on the label unless they contain an irritant. But like most cosmetic fragrances, it likely contains a mix of aromatic components derived from natural essential oils and synthetics.
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Silicon Mix Ingredients: Dimethicone Copolyol​​

​Dimethicone copolyol is a water-soluble silicone, which helps the more hydrophobic ingredients in this conditioner blend easily with the water-loving ingredients. It also helps make the conditioner easier to rinse from your hair.

This is not a heavy silicone or one that will make your hair a lot smoother. It isn't an ingredient that you really feel the effect of on your hair; its job is more to help the rest of the formula play together nicely.

Silicon Mix Ingredients: Cyclomethicone​​

Cyclomethicone is not one specific silicone; it's actually a mixture of different silicones. In the typical cyclomethicone mix, there are three kinds of low molecular weight, cyclic siloxanes (that means they have a chemical structure that consists of a ring shape).

Cyclomethicone is extremely light and does its job in this formula seven times over, as a carrier, an emollient, a humectant, a solvent, a thickness-controller, and an antistatic ingredient. It's also a conditioning ingredient in its own right.

Silicon Mix Treatment 16 oz

​Silicon Mix Ingredients: Keratin​​

Most people don't realise this, but because of this ingredient, Silicon Mix is a protein treatment. On most hair, this conditioner acts more like a moisture treatment, despite it containing keratin, the same protein your hair is made of.

In Silicon Mix Hair Treatment, the keratin is hydrolysed; broken into smaller, charged pieces which are attracted to your hair and fit into the tiny gaps in your cuticle left by damage. 

This helps make your hair stronger and more resilient, especially after heat damage, colouring, relaxers, Keratin Straightening Treatments, and other damaging chemicals. Keratin is only needed in small amounts, hence its position in the ingredients list.

Silicon Mix Ingredients: Diazolidinyl Urea​​

This is an antimicrobial preservative usually used alongside iodopropynyl butyl carbamate. It protects against gram negative bacteria, yeast and mold.

Silicon Mix Ingredients: Iodopropynyl Butylcarbamate​​

This preservative works in coordination with diazolidinyl urea​ to ensure you get broad spectrum protection from microbes that want to spoil your jar of treatment. It's especially good for yeasts and molds and is used in tiny amounts - under 0.1%.

Silicon Mix Ingredients: Ceramides

Ceramides are waxy, flexible ingredients used to fill in gaps on broken hair. They're a great strengthening ingredient that can be used alongside or as an alternative to proteins. They work kind of like cement does, holding brickwork - in this case your cuticle scales - together. They are very concentrated so only needed in tiny amounts.
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Silicon Mix Ingredients: Citric Acid

The final ingredient on the list is a natural ingredient derived from citrus fruits. At higher concentrations, citric acid is a chelator; it can remove hard water deposits. 

You won't actually notice any acid effects on your hair, though: As its spot on the ingredients list indicates, citric acid is only present here in tiny quantities. Like in many water-based products, it's used as a buffer, to help the manufacturer control the pH of the product. 

Citric acid, used in Silicon Mix is derived from citrus fruits. Image by Houcine Ncib.

​And since this is a conditioner, that means the citric acid is keeping the pH pretty low, close to your hair's natural pH of 3.67, to make your cuticle scales lie smooth and shiny.

How Silicon Mix works

Did it kinda surprise you, the fact that there were no exotic actives or "hot", trending ingredient on this list? Us too. If you've ever seen Silicon Mix revive weaves that were destined for the trash, or smooth resistant hair into a sleek Dominican Blowout or silk press, you'd swear this conditioner had some kinda magic dust sprinkled into it.

Yet most of the ingredients on here can be found in other conditioners with nowhere near the level of performance. So what's the secret? As any formulator can tell you, it's all in the ingredients, but it's not just the ingredients. That is, a good product will have a collection of ingredients that work together as a team, each of them included for the support they bring to others in the formula, not just their function on the hair.

​When it comes to Dominican conditioners, that formula will also be more concentrated, containing more of the ingredients that matter for textured hair than in typical conditioners you can pick up elsewhere.

At the same time, Dominicanas abhor greasy hair, so Dominican formulators can't go in for the easy win, by tipping a bunch of oils or silicones in to overwhelm the conditioner - yes, not even in a conditioner with 'Silicon' in its name. Instead, they need to weigh emolliency, softening, shine, anti-frizz and detangling against movement, lightness and non-greasiness their public demands.

​Oh, and all of this has to work under the heat of a Caribbean sun and in tropical-level humidity, in a country where hair textures run the gamut, just in case that wasn't enough of a challenge.

​The pressure makes for a powerful, versatile conditioner, that balances emollients with humectants, cationic surfactants and hair repairing actives. So far we've seen it work on: natural, relaxed, coloured, heat straightened hair, types 1-4, from African, East Asian, European, South Asian, and American (North and South) origins.

​It works on its own, or even better when you blend it with atrActiva Multivitamin Treatment. Super low porosity people will love its sister condish, Silicon Mix Bambu Hair Treatment. 

The result is always this: stronger, shinier, healthier-looking, smoother, sleeker, bouncier hair.  

If you're using Silicon Mix on high porosity hair - or just want to know more about how to take care of this type of hair - check out our new full-length DHA High Porosity Guide.