Lotion Separated -Help!!!

[Tall Blonde]

I was happily making a huge batch of lotion, everything was going great - and it separated. Right now it's in the fridge, a lumpy oily mess. I found an old post from 2004 that describes my lotion exactly, but there's no reply as to how to fix this mess! The mixture was pretty much done. I had half of it in a jug, and half was still mixing when I saw the problem. I put the separated half in the fridge, looked at what was in the jug, and thought "Oh good, at least this is ok." Then I cleaned up, went back for the jug and, it was also separated. Does the fact that it's nearing 100 degrees have anything to do with it? Can this be saved? Or do I have to start all over again?

[Bunny]

Ok.. Deep breaths girl..

Toss the seperated lotion. There's no way to properly fix it.

Second, please post your recipe so we can help troubleshoot it for you.

Third, if the temp was only 100 degrees and it seperated, it's not a stable emulsion anyhow. You should be able to leave it in the trunk of your car on a hot day with no seperation.

Fourth - smile.. It gets better!

[Tall Blonde]

Ok.

15 oz water

1.5 oz steric

1.5 oz Ewax

4 oz Olive

3 oz hemp

3 oz avo

1 oz vit E

.3 oz cornstarch

.3 oz preservative

.4 cyclo

I'm trying to make a REALLY thick lotion that imitates whipped body butter. The store I sell to keeps ordering body butter even tho I keep telling her it's too hot and the butter melts. I have like 50 jars of butter sitting around, melted, that I have to re-whip. Now she calls and says she's got someone coming up from San Jose (a 2 hour drive away) for some butter for someone with eczema! I'd like to say tough nuts, but that ain't gonna happen.

[Bunny]

Ok, first.. Are you selling butters that are whipped and without water?

Slow down girl.. And make sure you have some good insurance. You need to say "tough nuts" until you have a finished product that is stable, free of yeast, mold, bacteria, etc.

[Tall Blonde]

Ok.

It's an Olive Oil store, so she asked for an olive body butter, which someone had supplied to her in the past. I got some olive butter from Oils by Nature, whipped it up with some sunflower oil and it came out great, no problems, she couldn't keep it in the shop. Then summer came with a heat wave. Butters melted. I told her, no body butter until fall. That was ok. Went on vacation for 2 weeks, came back, she wants more body butter. So I thought, I can do a really thick lotion instead. Although I mostly think this all isn't worth it!

[Bunny]

Ok.. For straight butters, yes, that is very common. And it's smart thinking to change the product to do better in all climates.

Ok, I'm going to go to www.herbalsoapsbyrj.com and go to the lotion recipe to formula thing (it's on the right).

(First, that just doesn't look like enough e-wax to do the job.. But we'll see when we run it.) I'm going to round all the numbers, as they came out WEIRD!

water 50%

stearic 5%

Ewax 5%

Olive 14%

hemp 10%

avo 10%

vit E 3%

cornstarch 1%

preservative 1%

cyclo 1%

Ok, you have olive, hemp, avacado which are all oils that need to be emulsified. Your total oils is 34%. Following the 1-5 rule (1 part e wax to 5 parts oils) you would need 7% ewax. It's also working against the vitamin E when used at a percentage that high. I'd recommend dropping that down to 1%. I'd recommend something that looks something like this. (please note I've never made this recipe, and am just working off the ingredients you've listed.)

water 60%

stearic 5%

Ewax 7%

Olive 14%

hemp 3%

avo 3%

vit E 1%

(Ok, I have to add a humectant..lol)

Soduim Lactate, Glycerin, or Honey 2% (I prefer SL - add any of these to the water phase)

cornstarch 1%

preservative 1%

cyclo 2%

fragrance 1%

Ok, to get this back to your batch size, mov the decimal point over to the left two times, and mutiply by the number of ounces you want in your final batch. Like, if you wanted 1 lb of lotion, you would know that 1 lbs equals 16 ounces. You would take your percentage for water which is 60% and move the decimal point to the left so it would look like .60 and mutiply that by 16. You would need 9.6 ounces of water. For 3 lbs you would mutiply by 48, as there are 48 ounces in a lb. Go down the list using the same batch number for each multiple.

If I've totally lost ya, it's ok, I'll try to make myself more clear!

[Tall Blonde]

Thanks Bunny!

I'll give that a try my next day off. The other batch I actually stuck in the fridge and stirred it up every hour or so. It did set up again, so I put some in a jar and put it in my car to see if it would separate again! I'll have the olive oil store wait more time before I give her anything else. Sometimes she's really friendly, and other times she's really pushy. She asked me to do some balms once and I put them in tins. When I gave them to her she said next time do them in the clear jars. I told her I didn't know about that, and she said "No, you will do them in the jars." Needless to say, I don't put balms in jars and I haven't made any more balms in months.