It looks like the manufacturer, SEPPIC, has discontinued production of the emulsifier Simulgreen 18-2*
(See:
https://www.sr-skincare.co.uk/simulgreen-182-958-p.asp)
(*edited to add: this is also mentioned in the SwiftCraftMonkey blog that lsg refers to, although the manufacturer's own website doesn't mention it)
According to comment on this page, Simulgreen needs a stabiliser and and is prone to failure:
https://chemistscorner.com/cosmeticsciencetalk/discussion/3020/simulgreen-18-2
(Elsewhere it's stated that Simulgreen fails without high-sheer mixing)
Without going further into the details of your formula, perhaps the emulsifier is the issue and the change highlighted this?
On your question of anionic, cationic and neutral ...
Atoms
Atoms are the building blocks of our world.
Atoms have a core (called the nucleus) and rings (called "shells) around them (a bit like Saturn and it's rings - an Atom has a "nucleus" and "shells")
Inside the nucleus are some neutrons (they have no electrical charge ... hence the neutral/neutron name!).
Also inside the nucleus are some protons (they have a positive charge ... hence the name including "pro", which means "for" or "positive").
Spinning around the outside of the nucleus, like rocks in ring layers around Saturn, are the electrons (electrons are fast, light and negatively charged).
(Trivia: Electricity is the flow of electrons)
When the number of positively charged protons and negatively charged electrons are the same, there is no charge (the charge is neutral).
An element is simply an atom with a particular number of protons in it's core.
Eg. Hydrogen, which is element number 1, is an atom with one proton in it's core
and Oxygen, which is element number 8, is an atom with 8 protons in it's core.
Molecules
A molecule is made up of a collection of elements.
These can be the same element, or made up of different elements.
Eg. The gas "hydrogen" has molecules of H2 (two hydrogen atoms bound together)
and the liquid "water" has molecules of H2O (two hydrogen atoms and one oxygen atom).
Ions
An atom can lose or gain electrons.
(When an atom has lost or gained electrons, it is called an "ion")
The atomic ion (with it's core of neutrons and protons) has an electrical charge.
If the atom has lost some electrons, it becomes positively charged (there are now more protons than electrons). A positively charged ion is called a "cation".
If the atom has gained some electrons, the atom's overall electrical charge becomes more negative and this ion is called an "anion".
In the same way, a collection of atoms (in a molecule) can have a positive, negative or neutral charge.
When the number of electrons in an atom or molecule is not the same as the number of protons, the atom or molecule is referred to as an "ion".
Anionic, Cationic and non-ionic
The final substance, after all of the individual molecular charges are combined, can be described as having an overall (or net) charge.
The net charge is the sum of all of the individual charges.
Molecules and products follow the same naming ... they are referred to as anionic if the net charge is negative, cationic if the charge is positive and neutral (or non-ionic) if there is no charge.
Why the electrical charge matters
The electrical charges work like magnets, only on a molecular level ... positively charged ions are attracted to the negatively charged ions.
When formulating a product, if the overall charges of the ingredients are kept the same (negatives with negatives, for example), or are a mix of one charge and neutral (positives with positives and a neutral, as another example), the product is more likely to remain stable.
If products with varying charges are blended, there can be unwanted combinations formed by the attraction between the anionic and cationic ingredients, and this can lead to unwanted lumps/gels/slime forming in your product (as the molecular attraction overcomes your best mixing efforts!).
I hope that helps
