Teach Soap

Hello all! I am new to toiletry making and would love to have a few questions answered as well as suggestions for this formulation of body cream:

aloe vera juice (has citric acid [ph stabilizer] and potassium sorbate[mold inhibitor])
glycerin
jojoba oil
sweet almond oil
t-50 vitamin e oil
Grapefruit seed extract
coffee bean butter
fragrance oil

1. Aloe vera juice does not list water in its ingredients. The ingredients are aloe vera whole leaf, citric
acid and potassium sorbate. So if it contains no water do I really need any preservatives? Especially
since the juice already has a mold preservative in it.

2. If aloe vera juice would indeed be considered having water in it, I hear fragrance oils
do not dissolve well in water so I would need a solvent or solubilizer to get it to react well with the water
in the aloe vera. What do I add in order to do this? Even if it doesn't contain water will the fragrance
oil have trouble being with the aloe juice?

3. Also, if water were to be in the aloe vera juice what kind of emulsifier would you suggest? I hear
you need emulsifying wax for oils and water ingredients?

Grapefruit seed extract is not a preservative. Aloe has water in it naturally, so yes, you will need a preservative. If you want to mix fragrance oils with the aloe, you would need either a polysorbate to make the fragrance water soluble, or an emulsifier like e-wax NF.

What is the exact recipe?

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

I don't have exact percentages yet, i just planned to buy the supplies and play around with the measurements until I got the consistency and fragrance right, feel free to suggest measurements, soapbuddy. But thank you very much for the answers, I will have to search about E-wax and polysorbate before making my decision on which one to use as well as Optiphen for a preservative.

Here is a basic recipe I posted some time ago. You can sub liquid aloe for the water, any other oil for the oil and any other butter for the butter. You can leave the stearic acid out if you want this thinner. Add the difference to your oil. A Preservative is a must. Germs, mold and bacteria are natural, but they can seriously hurt you.

Distilled water 79%
Coconut oil 7%
Shea Butter 4%
E-wax NF 3%
Sweet Almond oil 5%
Stearic Acid 1%
Preservative - the % varies depending which preservative you use (I left this as 1%, so the whole formula would equate to 100%)

Always heat and hold you water for 20 minutes to make sure that any bacteria are killed, even though you are using distilled water. The smallest batch I would make is 16 ozs. because if you go any smaller, you will need a very accurate scale that goes down to 0.000 oz. You will also need a thermometer.

Here is what the recipe looks like for a 16 oz. of lotion;

Distilled water 79% 12.64 ozs.
Coconut oil 7% 1.12 ozs.
Shea Butter 4% 0.64 ozs.
E-wax NF 3% 0.48 ozs.
Sweet Almond oil 5% 0.8 oz.
Stearic Acid 1% 0.16 oz.
Preservative - % according to the manufacturer's recommendation

The total comes out to 15.84 ozs. because I didn't add the unknow preservative.
Simmer your water. Meanwhile add your oils, butter, ewax and stearic acid and melt together. Let the water cool to 120. Do the same for your melted oils/butter. Using a sanitized stick blender start mixing the melted oils into your water. It will start turning white. Make sure it's mixed well. Add a scent if desired. Then depending on your preservative add it below 120 degrees. When everything is well incorporated, pour into NEW bottles, but leave the cap off. Put the bottles in the fridge to cool off. Put caps on when the lotion is cool. If you would put caps on right away, condensation would form in the top of the bottle and that's just plain water, which could cause problems with lotion going moldy or bad.

I hope that helps.

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

Thanks so much soap buddy! I was wondering if heating the aloe vera liquid like you suggested heating the distilled water would be a bad idea? Does it somehow denature the vitamins and mineral content of the aloe vera?

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