coco

Agreed. Try the ice bath, it works wonders!

Yes, just melt butters and oils and add beeswax so that you can get it to an ointment type consistency (though the oils I recommended absorb quickly so it isn't super greasy) and voila! I wouldn't add lotion.

:laugh2: If you make soap and lotion, you should already have all the ingredients in the "wo"-man cave you need to make a balm. Super simple! Melt everything, stir, pour into a jar. Really.

My products are lab tested, but drug testing is delving into a financial realm I don't know I'm ready for yet! Any idea offhand what the cost is? I make a face cream with cosmetic actives that I would love to eventually sell and market for its actual benefits, but don't even know if I want to find out the measures it would take to legally do that.

No, you definitely don't want any FO. I think the coal tar (also stinky) is the most beneficial ingredient for a soap, though you really aren't going to get much relief from soap. If you want to make him something that will actually soothe and heal the skin, I recommend a leave-on balm. You can use lip balm ratios of wax to oils and add the essential oils etc to that. Try to keep it simple so that you actually have a high enough ratio of beneficial oils. If you need help with a formula, pm me. The following oils are highly penetrating and known for their ability to soothe and heal these types of conditions: emu borage hemp jojoba

Please define "certified" Does "certifiable" count?

I didn't know this either! I list it as "vitamin e (tocopherol)". I wonder if this is acceptable.. ugh- please tell me I don't have to have labels re-printed.

I make a soap as well as a balm for both psoriasis and eczema that contains coal tar, emu oil, lavendar and rosemary. Everyone swears by it!

SFIC among quite a few others have no surfactants Ingredients: Saponified Vegetable oils mainly Coconut Oil, Glycerine (kosher, of vegetable origin), Purified Water, Sorbitol (from berries, moisturizer) , Sorbitan oleate (emulsifier), Soybean protein (conditioner), Titanium Dioxide (mineral whitener used in opaque soaps)

Personally, I can't live without castor in my scrubs but you can sub it with any oil you like.

Now THAT is a classy looking packaging. Beautiful.

Along with what others have said about testing, I would like to suggest working on different labels. Packaging is something that draws people to your product and a professional looking label can make or break you. I have had people buy my stuff just because they love the packaging and then later told me it was an added bonus that it was a great product. You have to consider that the candle essentially becomes part of your home decor and in my opinion, the whole package needs to look nice. A return address label randomly stuck on different areas of the container just seems tacky to me. I don't care how good the candle burns or smells, getting that label off the jar would be the first thing I would do if I bought it. You never get a second chance to make a first impression

Bert's FO's are definitely hit or miss and the oakmoss is a huge miss. It smells nothing like any other oak moss i've used. Smells a bit soapy/cleaning product-ish. Yuck

Her Ed Hardy dupe is one my absolute faves!

If you temper it like chocolate, it eliminates the grains. Sometimes just a melt (let set up) then re-melt does the trick.

As for subbing beeswax for the candellia, you can but would need to use 1 1/2 times the beeswax as candellia is a harder wax.

I thought this was a trick question...

I agree! This is my favorite banana.

Carebear is right, that is your problem. 10% ewax and 9% stearic will definitely give you a greasy waxy feel-that's alot of wax! You cannot add the others at this point. You can attempt to save it by adding more straight butters. You can also add some cornstarch or IPM to cut the greasies, but it will give it that powdery/dry feel.

It should be thick, thick, thick and whipped and light, not oily. It should also rinse away in the shower without being greasy if it emulsified properly. Sounds to me like either your measurements were off, or you didn't chill it to set up before whipping? I'm also unsure how it can be too greasy/oily yet not moisturizing enough? Maybe I'm misunderstanding what you mean? You can add shea, but it will only make it more greasy. Did you make any substitutions? Maybe if I know how you made it, I could help figure out why it turned out the way it did. Don't forget to add more preservative if you do scoop out and add additional butters...

I love love love the Ed Hardy dupe from Bert's. This is the first dupe I've tried for this scent and it is amazing.

Everyone still seems to love it here. My entire line is halloween inspired (yes, year round) and I call it coffin candy :smiley2: For some reason it sure does smell better with that name. Funny how the mind works...

I LOVE Bert's pear. A fresh, crisp real pear scent.

Hmmm, I think the only way you could accomplish that would be if you were putting it in pots and even then, I can't imagine it not completely melting in the heat. If I were to attempt something like this, I suppose I would start with a high content (like 75-85%) of PKO and cocoa butter with the remainder being only hydrogenated oils.

I just can't imagine that they wouldn't have used an emulsifier. That said, looking at that ingredient list makes me want to cry thinking about the complete waste of spendy ingredients for a wash off product.