Teach Soap

Will someone please let me know how I can thicken my lotions. I am using a goats milk recipe. I really like how it turned out but I would rather it be more of a body butter than a lotion. I am trying to stay away from greasy. Would it help to sub. the oils for butters? ie instead of avocado oil use butter.
Michelle

To avoid the greasy feeling I use 13.5 % oils and 2.5 % glycerin. It works well for me. I use stearic acid at 4 % to thicken my lotions so if you want it thicker than that mabye 5 % or even 5.5 %. Good luck.

Bruce

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Thank you for your help. Sorry to sound so ignorant but how do I figure out the % of each ingredient??

You can also use beeswax pellets, added to your butters/oils when you heat them, to thicken; also an emulsifying wax...

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Peggi

http://www.klamathriversfinest.etsy.com

i used both e wax and stearic acid. should I just increase my amounts. again not sure on the %

If you add too much stearic or wax, you can get a draggy, waxy feeling - and too much glycerin can give you a sticky afterfeel. I'd be more inclined to look at using some butters instead of liquid oils.

Honestly, it's pretty hard to tell what you should change without knowing the complete formula - can you post it for us to look at?

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ingredients:
liquid glycerin 0.33 oz
stearic acid 1 oz
ewax 1.6 oz
mango butter 0.8 oz
avocado oil 1 oz
jojoba oil 0.7 oz
almond oil 1 oz
grapessed oil 1 oz
distilled water 13oz
aloe 5.4 oz
goats milk 8.8 oz
vitamin E 1tsp

Okay. If I convert to percentages, and break it up into phases (oil phase v. liquids) here's what I get from your original recipe:

Phase A: (water phase) - total 79.49%
distilled water 37.54%
liquid glycerin 0.95%
aloe 15.59%
goats milk 25.41%

Phase B (oil phase) - total 20.51%
stearic acid 2.89%
ewax 4.62%
mango butter 2.31%
avocado oil 2.89%
jojoba oil 2.02%
almond oil 2.89%
grapessed oil 2.89%

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Thank you bfor the break down. What should I change?

Okay. Part two, the analysis. (I left out the vitamin e in the first calculation, because I was getting brain damage trying to work out a formula that was all by weight except that one teaspoon. We'll add it back to the oil phase here.)

Your total water phase is pretty high. I also think the goat milk percentage is high, and that you're asking for a preservation nightmare. I'd reduce the total water phase, and switch some of the milk for water.

As for the Phase B ingredients - well, the stearic is low, so Bruce's suggestion was dead on. The e-wax is a tiny bit low, too. Your oils and butters look fine, although you can increase the butter a bit and reduce the liquid oil.

Last but not least, you'll need a preservative, not shown in the original. I'd try this again, but do it something like this:

Phase A: (water phase) - total 65.00%
distilled water 40.00%
liquid glycerin 5.00%
aloe 10.00%
goats milk 10.00%

Phase B (oil phase) - total 32.00%
stearic acid 5.00%
ewax 5.00%
mango butter 4.00%
avocado oil 4.00%
jojoba oil 6.00%
almond oil 4.00%
grapessed oil 4.00%

Phase C - (preservatives and additives) 3% (subject to tweaking)

Preservative of choice - 1-2% (per manufacturer's directions)
Fragrance - 1-3% (depending on your preferences)


If you make this with a 1000 gram recipe, it will be about the same finished quantity, and it will be easy to convert. For example, the 4% mango butter would be 40 grams. Easy.

I'm just making this up off the top of my head, I haven't made it, but I'd think this would be very thick. Much more of a cream than a lotion. Does that help at all?

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Magic has never steered me wrong, and she is full of good info! She has provided me with tons of it in the past yr., and I wouldn't have the scrub recipe I have without her, so, I'll bet her recipe is real close to what you want

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Peggi

http://www.klamathriversfinest.etsy.com

lol, Peggi, I love you back, but now I have performance anxiety. I'll have to run home and make this to see if it's horrible.

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Thank you so much. I will let you know how it goes. Great job on all the calculations. I did add a preservative germall plus but forgot to list it. Recently I heard that goats milk is a bear to preserve so I may want to just stick to water.

Goat's milk is a bear to preserve due to the proteins in the milk.

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Irena
Closed minds are like faulty parachutes; they refuse to open.

If I continue to make this lotion with the above ingredients is germall plus at 1% going to be sufficient/safe??