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moodybalm

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    Oregon
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    Making lip balm, lotion, lotion bars and fun apparel designs!

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    Lip Balm, Body Lotion

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  1. +1 for Isopropyl Myristate (IPM). I only use a few % in my products, but I do read you can use "up to 100%" in formulations. Definitely follow NightLight's advice and try removing the shea/stearic and trying a lighter oil. I use Capric Triglyceride for my lotion bars because I want a very light feel, but I also hear sunflower oil is light. Definitely avoid oils like castor if you don't want a greasy feel.
  2. I buy mango butter and shea butter from LotionCrafter, and I'm about 20lbs into each with no problems. As with any supplier, I'd recommend tempering your butters or at least heating them above 165f for at least a few minutes to get the stearic acid portion to fully melt.
  3. I have two products with butter in them. One is my lip balm with shea butter, and the other is my lotion bar with mango butter. While my lip balm definitely goes grainy after a while, the lotion bars take considerably longer to hit that point and the grains aren't nearly as big. I've had moderate success with simply reducing the amount of butter in my formula. My old lip balm formula had ~28% shea butter and ~5% cera bellina wax, and it got these huge grains in them after a few weeks to a few months. My current recipe is closer to 18% shea butter with ~6% cera bellina, and while it does sometimes go grainy after a few months, the grains are way smaller and they usually disappear after a single application on the lips. Supposedly, heating above 165f and quickly cooling the product helps with the stearic acid dispersal, but even "pouring then immediately moving to the freezer" doesn't seem to change the outcome. Maybe "quick cooling" means like, "industrial flash freezer"? Because I don't have that 😅
  4. In all my efforts to get good rinse-off, I forgot to make sure the ingredients would even have heat tolerance 😂 And I'll be adding stress testing to my process, for sure. Thank you both! 🙏
  5. Hello! 👋 I've been formulating a cleansing balm that comes out fine and works nicely, but something about its trip through the mail system causes the entire thing becomes this irreversibly unseparated-but-soupy consistency that never hardens back up. As I'm used to this kind of thing simply being a matter of letting it "cool down and firm back up", I'm suspicious of some soft of chemical breakdown. My recipe ratios: 49.00% Capri Triglyceride 14.00% Oliwax 8.00% Shea Butter 8.00% E-Wax 6.00% Polysorbate 80 5.00% Stearic Acid 3.00% Olivem 3.00% Kaolin Clay 2.00% Cera Bellina Wax 0.75% Vitamin E Oil (tocopherol) 0.75% Optiphen 0.50% Fragrance I have a heated phase that I hold for 20 to kill microbes in the Kaolin Clay, then I stick blend it in an ice bath down to ~120f before adding the cooldown phase (Vit E Oil, Optiphen and Fragrance) to stick blend until it gets to a light trace. In little 4oz tubs, it takes around 12 hours for it to completely set, and then it keeps very well for going on 6+ months. But the breakdown issue cropped up when I sent a couple test-tubs to some family members. It was like, 80f tops outside during its time in transit (I realize it can get hotter in warehouses/trucks), but both tubs reached their destination leaking. And what hadn't leaked out was unseparated-but-soupy and it never resolidified! I'm back to the drawing board and clearly have a couple new metrics to test against, but in the meantime, does anyone have any experience with this or any advice? My Oliwax's INCI is "Hydrogenated Olive Oil (and) Olive Oil (Olea Europaea) (and) Olive Oil Unsaponifiables", and it's my first time working with a "pseudo-wax", so I'm concerned something is causing it to break down to a liquid state? (Assuming that's even possible.) Maybe it's the Optiphen? Again, the product seems to be fine until it's been through the mail system, so I assume it's either that it was agitated or that it melted and started some reaction. Thank you for any help you can offer! 🙏
  6. Hi, everyone! 😄 I'm messing with balm/lotion bars (~40% carrier oil, 35% butters, 25% wax) , and I was thinking about mixing in a little kaolin clay for a more-powdery feel. But the clays are waaaay more miscible in water, and getting them mixed into the melted bar mixture with a mini-whisk is just about impossible. Is this just a fool's errand? Or does anyone have any tips for this? I can try high-shear blending, but I imagine I'd then have tons of bubbles. 🤔
  7. Ohhhh, I see! So if I get stearic acid and cetyl alcohol, can I just kinda make my own ratios? Or is stearic acid not the "stearyl" in "cetearyl"?
  8. Yes, I'm looking forward to experimenting! Also, yeah I should probably just cut out the rubbing alcohol spray. 😄 I read citric acid can help cover Optiphen's gaps, but Germall Plus seems to be a better, full-spectrum preservative? I might order some of that. Oh, yeah! I'm definitely keeping the bottles around for longevity testing! I considered jumping into gums, but got scared by how people say proteins make formulating way more complicated. (At least, I think gums are proteins?) 😬
  9. Cool thanks, will do! The more I learn about the chemistry behind it all, the more I feel like the more accessible tutorials out there are a bit irresponsible, hahaha 😂 I find it all very fun, though! I've got some lighter carrier oils (triglycerides and mango butter) and alternative co-emulsifiers (cetyl alcohol and cera bellina) on the way, along with a pH test kit. So hopefully, I can find a formula that will play nice.
  10. The sealed bottles have no visible separation, luckily. The undisturbed lotion in the bottle looks like it's got a bit of a skin on top, but that might just be normal for lotion? I didn't know that about stearic acid! Nor do I stir the lotion as it cools (usually, I just pour it after briefly blending in the cooldown phase and getting bubbles out). I suppose I'd have to switch to piping the lotion in via bag, if it gets really cool? Thanks so much for all your advice!
  11. Sure yeah, here's a pic of the overflow/test bowl in question. It's separated a bit more, the last few days. 😬 You can see along the back of the bowl that there's a yellow-ish coloring coming through. The only yellowish thing I put in my lotion is one of the flavor oils I use, so I'm wondering if I'm just not stick-blending the cooldown phase long enough (as NightLight suggested). I'll also give upping the e-wax a try, though I want to avoid making it too thick (the bottles I'm using have disc-caps). Thanks for your advice!
  12. Someone else mentioned the same thing with the slow-pouring. The way I do it now, with the oil phase going into the water phase, I pour it all and scrape the bowl before blending. I should probably try the more common "water phase into oil phase" and pour it slowly. Thank you for the advice!
  13. Holy cow! 😱 That's badass! Making me want to get my saws out. Well done!
  14. Hi, y'all! I've been formulating lotion for the past few weeks (and it's been very fun), but I'm running into a consistent "problem". Quotations because I'm not sure it's even something that will occur in proper production: -My lotion sweats a very thin layer of oil on top! But only in the open bowl I use for excess/testing. The lotion in bottles doesn't (seem) to have the issue. I'll share the specifics of my recipe and a brief version of my process, but first I want to ask if this is just something lotion does when left to cool/thicken in open air? The room's been about 86f/30c, so heat might be a factor, as well. I haven't been in the game long enough to have that wisdom. My recipe, separated into phases: ----- Water Phase (75.5%): -14.7oz. distilled water (73.5%) (+ 2.6oz for evaporation AKA 17.3oz.) -0.4oz glycerin (2%) Oil Phase (15%): -1.8oz isopropyl myristate (9%) -0.8oz almond oil (4%) -0.4oz oat extract (2%) Emulsifiers (part of Oil Phase) (7%): -0.9oz of emulsifying wax (4.5%) -0.5oz of stearic acid (2.5%) Cooldown Phase (2.5%): -0.15oz high-concentration vitamin e-oil (0.75%) -0.2oz of Optiphen (1%) -0.15oz of Fragrance (0.75%) ----- My process, briefly: (0. Sanitize) 1. Get oil/water phase to 170f/77c and hold for 5 minutes. 2. Pour oil phase into water phase (on double boiler). 3. Stick blend while holding at 170f/77c for another 5 minutes. 4. Take off heat and stick blend until 140f/60c 5. Add cooldown phase 6. Stick blend 2 minutes 7. Spritz top bubble layer once with 91% isopropyl alcohol (test batches are shallow, so bubbles form) 8. Spatula-stir until rest of bubbles dissipate (It's usually 112f/44c, by this point) 9. Pour 10. Leave to cool, uncapped, overnight I've tried 3 other variations on this recipe, which involved more water/less oil and more/different emulsifiers, but they all have this slight separation issue (again, only in the bowl). TL;DR - If my lotion sweats a thin layer of oil on top as it cools/thickens, but only in an open bowl, do I need to worry about that for the seemingly-solid lotion in my bottles? Is my emulsion simply bad? Is even a single, fine spritz of 91% isopropyl alcohol to get rid of bubbles bad for it? Any help or wisdom offered would be greatly appreciated! -Moody
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