sarahmarah Posted November 15, 2020 Share Posted November 15, 2020 Hi all, I made cream today for the first time! Yay!—and I want to shout it with glee 😂 I used the beginner Swift Crafty template for cream. It does look a bit grainy and I’m sure I may have screwed something up... I did a 200g batch. water phase: 118g distilled water 4g sodium lactate oil phase: 10g deodorized argan oil 10g HO safflower oil 10g apricot kernel oil 6g unrefined cocoa butter 6g kokum butter 6g mango butter 2g unrefined shea butter 14g BTMS 50 6g stearic acid cool down 2g liquid germall plus 2g fragrance 2g vit E +heated/held for 20 min +Topped off water that dissipated with boiled distilled water on scale +pored heated water into mixing bowl then poured heated oil in mixing bowl beat with stand mixer for about 4 min—*may have beat at too high of a speed Added my cool down and mixed to incorporate. Annnnd it looks like this? Is this normal? It’s at about 75F in these pics. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NightLight Posted November 15, 2020 Share Posted November 15, 2020 Wait until it cools off for a day then evaluate. It looks like some of the butters may not have been melted enough, and possibly you didn’t blend long enough. Looking at your recipe. Simplify. The reason is it’s hard to figure out culprit ingredient or technique with a multi ingredient formula. Pick one butter to use. Each butter will have different qualities in feel in final product. You can use the stearic. Use one oil. Whats the percentage of BTMS and what’s the percentage of oils and waxes? You might not have enough emulsifier. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sarahmarah Posted November 15, 2020 Author Share Posted November 15, 2020 The recipe was only a template so I definitely didn’t need to use all those ingredients but I just wanted to play. It feels good on the skin. Just looks a little unsightly. BTMS 50 was used at 14% 6%stearic 30% oils 20% butters for a 200g batch. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sarahmarah Posted November 15, 2020 Author Share Posted November 15, 2020 Hmm. In checking my recipe I was 2% short because I subbed sodium lactate for glycerin and never made up the difference. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sarahmarah Posted November 15, 2020 Author Share Posted November 15, 2020 Sorry for posting this in the soap section🤦🏻♀️—I thought it was in B+B. I’m a hot mess today lol Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sarahmarah Posted November 16, 2020 Author Share Posted November 16, 2020 I figured out what the likely culprit was— my stand mixer. I made another batch used my immersion stick blender. Now I have cream that looks like it should lol. Live and learn 😆 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NightLight Posted November 16, 2020 Share Posted November 16, 2020 Okay that looks better. Recipe is still very high in oils and butters. You don’t need 6 per cent stearic. Stearic is a draggy thickener. It won’t feel glide you on skin. Over 3 per cent you will get whitening when applied to skin. You could do 2 per cent stearic and 2 per cent Cetyl alcohol. Cetyl alcohol is a nice very glider thickener. You can also cut you oil usage down by half. Here is good article from Soapqueen. Look at percentages in formula https://www.soapqueen.com/bath-and-body-tutorials/lotion/how-to-create-homemade-lotion-recipes/ To learn more join Swift Craft Monkey Blog Everything you need to know about crafting body care https://www.swiftcraftymonkey.blog/ 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TallTayl Posted November 16, 2020 Share Posted November 16, 2020 A stick blender will definitely help homogenize the molecules before they have a chance to coalesce. I have to say, though that stearic in a lotion can still grain with time. The butters also have stearic as part of their fatty profile. the recipe looks like it is using added stearic to thicken. You can drop the amount of water to achieve a similar thickness. As you experiment with lotion making, I bet you’ll find that Cetyl Alcohol provides a much nicer feel as a thickener over time. Cetearyl alcohol (a blend of cetyl and stearyl alcohol) will also provide a thickening with a nice skin feel. BTMS has cetearyl alcohol so increasing the btms instead of adding more stearic might be a great solution without providing a base to grain like stearyl can. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sarahmarah Posted November 16, 2020 Author Share Posted November 16, 2020 Thank you @NightLight and @TallTayl! I really appreciate the feedback and advice. I'm definitely going to simplify and experiment with less oils/butters and different ways to achieve thicker consistency without relying on added stearic acid. These batches were draggy and I definitely noticed the whitening on the skin. I joined Swift Crafty Monkey a few months ago and Ive been reading enough material to make my head spin 😊 Its been an amazing resource. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TallTayl Posted November 16, 2020 Share Posted November 16, 2020 1 minute ago, sarahmarah said: Thank you @NightLight and @TallTayl! I really appreciate the feedback and advice. I'm definitely going to simplify and experiment with less oils/butters and different ways to achieve thicker consistency without relying on added stearic acid. These batches were draggy and I definitely noticed the whitening on the skin. I joined Swift Crafty Monkey a few months ago and Ive been reading enough material to make my head spin 😊 Its been an amazing resource. A very simple formula is just an oil or butter with emulsifying wax in water. Use Ewax (cetearyl alcohol and polysorbate 60) at 25% of the oil by weight. once you get your lotion crafting feet under you, branch into gel makers. Those are life changing. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NightLight Posted November 16, 2020 Share Posted November 16, 2020 Whenever I make a product, I go for as simple as possible to get end result. For cream Water emulsifier thickener oil butter preservative as you get experienced you can add stabililizers tiny amounts of natural gums polymers gel emulsifiers just like waxes, you have to get to know your ingredients. different emulsifiers different results, same with thickeners, stabilizers, oils. you can make a greasy cream or a dry cream by switching the ingredients around. take notes. buy some curtly alcohol, you will like it in lotions and creams. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sarahmarah Posted November 16, 2020 Author Share Posted November 16, 2020 I’m definitely going to try a simple batch next. Luckily I have some ewax nf and cetyl alcohol samples from Lotioncrafter I can put to good use. I was previously doing some simple experimenting with emulsified scrubs and playing with ingredients with those and when it came to making my first lotion I swear my good sense went out the window lol. Cheers to reigning it back in and keeping good notes 😊 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NightLight Posted November 17, 2020 Share Posted November 17, 2020 Cetyl alcohol Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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