Sigh...something is wrong with my cream...

[leenabug]

Okay, I made some cream with my goats milk multibase el 1. Immediately after I mixed it up and put in the jars, i put what was left in the bowl on my legs. It started stinging and itching for 15 min! The next day i tried it again (out of the jars) and it still did it , but now in a milder way and only for 5 min. I let my mom, sister, hubby and son put some on them to test. My son and sister also experienced a stingy m itchy sensation. My husband and mother felt nothing unusual. IT has left no redness or rash, so what is going on? Here is what I did:

I washed everything in hot soapy water , to which I had added bleach. Then I put the 1 lb of multibase in a glass bowl and added a third of an oz of fo to it and mixed it in with a metal spoon. (the fo was a mixture of honeydew melon from BCN and Lovespell from Peak(both which said body safe))Then I slowly added 1 lb of warm (170 degrees) distilled water. I had kept the water heated to between 170 and 200 degrees for 20 min beforehand. Then let cool to 170 before I adding it.Mixed the batch up with an electric blender, poured in 4 oz jars, let cool before adding lids. Looks and feels great, just can't stand the stingy, itchy sensation, nobody else is gonna either!

Do you see anythng wrong with this? I have another lb of cocoa multibase el1, that I could mix up with no fo and them combine the two? would that help?

My first mistake was mixing up the whole 1 lb tub. It looked so small, I didn't really realize how I could have mixed up only a fourth of it and tested first.

I don't like the smell. The peaks lovespell, smells almost bitter to me. Which is nothing like the lovespell I was using from TN. I bought this fo from a reputable person on here, who said it was less than 6 mo old, but I never heard of a lovespell having a bitter "wang" to it. That was why I added honeydew melon, because I didn't thnk I was liking Peak's version of lovespell. Now it has a sweet smell to it, but I still get little wiffs of that "wang" from the peaks fo! Sigh.......I told you I was afraid I would mess up!

So was it me, the goats milk or my fo?

[adillenal]

Is this a base that you are just FO adding to? If it is, any of the ingredients could cause a reaction. It could also be the FO. Don't blame the goat milk since you have many other ingredients in there in the base.

I make lotion from scratch and I have testers for every fragrance. Some people will say that they itch from one FO and then try a different one and it is fine. So yes, FO can cause itching in some people.

[SpaceGirl]

I think the only way you are going to know for sure is to apply some of the base (straight and diluted to your final concentration) but without any FO and see if you get the itchies.

You could also test the pH of your batch and see if that was off, I know that can cause the itch sometimes, too.

As for the lovespell, I have it from Peak's as well and don't get a "wang" from it at all. Then again everyone's sniffers work differently.

[leenabug]

Could it be that the lovespell is ruined?

[AkainePSP]

I washed everything in hot soapy water , to which I had added bleach.

Is it possible that not all the bleach rinsed off? Even a tiny amount I would think could cause a reaction in someone with sensitive skin.

Is it possible you are having a reaction to the fragrance oil? If I use a fragrance that has any trace of cinnamon in it my skin gets red blotchy and stings like crazy.

Have you tried using the base on its own? Its also possible some ingredient in the base is causing a reaction.

[adillenal]

I looked up the ingredients and directions for this base. Since it can be made with from 1 pound to 8 pounds of water, my suggestion would be to add more water and make a lotion rather than a cream. These directions make me wonder about the preservative though. WOuld be super strong at one pound of water and weak at 8 pounds of water.

Product ID: MLTB

Multi-Base Lotion Compound

The Natural and Easy way to produce any type of Creams, Lotions, Body Milks, and Moisturizing Body Sprays.

Ingredients:

Glyerin, Glycol Monostrearate, Acrylamide Copolymer, Octyldodecanol, Isopropyl Myristate, Isopropyl Paltimate, PEG- 20 Glyceryl Stearate, Ceteareth-14Polysorbate 85, Water, Iodopropanol Butylcarbonate.

Usage:

• Creams
  Mix one pound multi-base with one pound warm water.
  
• Light Lotions
  Mix one pound multi-base with four pounds warm water
  
• Body Milk
  Mix one pound multi-base with six pounds warm water.
  
• Body Mist
  Mix one pound multi-base with eight pounds warm water.

Choose:

• Original Plain
  
• Mango Butter
  
• Shea Butter
  
• Sweet Almond
  
• Goats Milk
  
• Cocoa Butter

Pricing shown is per pound.

[leenabug]

First I am going to mix up the cocoa butter base, also as a cream. Then I am going to try mixing one jar of the goats milk, with one jar of the cocoa and see what happens. If that don't work, I will try the lotion idea. Wanting to do that last because I have no lotion bottles.

[leenabug]

Okay after SIX weeks, I finally got around to facing this mess again. This is what I discovered...............After the original batch of goats milk multibase set for 6 weeks it no longer caused stinging and itching in most testers! I mixed up the cocoa butter multibase with NO fo and it caused the itchy feeling as well. After setting for days the itchy feeling was reduced in the coca butter multibase as well!? I mixed the 2 multibases together and it worked fine, no problem. So what did I discover? ..............................That I know absolutely nothing more than I did to begin with! This is the end of my "cream/lotion" experimenting for the present. I don't have my candles perfect anyway, why did I get distracted with this? Just thought you might want to know that something changes with time in the multibase.....................I am relieved that the 8 or 10 jars I have are useable , but i am not interested in trying this again! Back to candles and sewing.......................

[Flicker]

I just now read this. I tested the basic multibase and one other years and years ago...I think I was pregnant with my now 5 year old, been that long. The thing that got to me was first, I made a spray lotion with it and it molded! I used distilled water per instructions and had it tossed into a drawer for months...took it out and it was black! ISH!

My feeling is there is no way the preservation system in those can be right. Maybe it is the preservatives that are irritating you? Think about this, if you make a product from scratch, you add the correct % of preservative. If they are making a product that say varies from 1-7lbs total weight the preservative has to be too much on the low end or not enough on the high end....see what I mean here?

I just can't personally see how a product like this can work effectively or properly. I obsess over things like this so understand your frustration. I'd guess though it was the preservative that made ya itchy scratchy

[leenabug]

thats interesting.........what changes in perservatives over time?

[Flicker]

Nothing changes per se over time but let me use this as an example. If you are making lotion and your finished product weighs 1 lb, you would use 1% of that which is like .15 oz of preservative. (no, I am not going to do exact math here but you will get the idea. If I made the same batch times 7 I'd use 7 times as much preservative as I did with the 1 lb batch to make 7 lbs.

There is just no way on earth they can have a good system in there if you can multiply that base in that manner. If you used the low end of water, it would be preservative heavy and likely on the high end, too low...which is why I saw mold and so fast! And probably the same reason you reacted to the product.

IMHO correct preservation of lotion is essential for safety reasons. No one wants a bacteria, fungus and yeastie beasties floating around in their lotions It is simply unsafe for anyones skin and health.

Hopefully that explained it better, if not PM me and I will get back to ya