The aim of this work was to evaluate the role of three biopolymers used as coagulant–flocculant aids in the treatment of a high-load cosmetic industry wastewater (WW) located in Mexico. Discussion is based on a surface response methodology. When using guar, locust bean gum, and Opuntia mucilage, conductivity and turbidity removals as high as 20.1 and 67.8 % were found, respectively. Chemical oxygen demand (COD) removals as high as 38.6 % were observed. The maximum removal efficiency was found for mucilage, with 21.1 mg COD/mg polymer. At the end of the process, pH was in the range of 5.8–7.3 for an initial wastewater pH value of 5.6. The production of sludge was very dependent on the WW organic load. An analysis of some metal content in the sludges is presented. From the response surface analysis, it was observed that the parameter which strongly affected the removal of COD, turbidity, oil and greases (O&G), and the amount of sludge including their metal contents was the polymer dose. Only in the case of O&G removal was a combination of dose–wastewater organic load responsible for the removals. The values of R ² for the correlation process were between 0.5451 (O&G) and 0.7989 (COD). The p values for the different expressions were between 0.1985 (COD) and 0.7195 (O&G). The values of adequate precisior (AP) indicate how feasible it is to use the surface response analysis (AP > 4). Most of the analysis indicated that AP > 4, except in the case of the O&G removal analysis where AP = 2.9.