Teach Soap

I just tried to make my first lotion. It seems to have tiny little soaps of wax or something in it. When rubbing the lotion in to the skin the tiny balls disappear or absorb into the skin. Does anyone know what might have caused this? Did i not blend well enough? Is there anyway to fix it now? Any advice is welcome!

What was your recipe?
At what temps did you combine the water and oil phase? Did you add anything extra?

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

It was a BB lotion kit. The recipe was:
1.7oz Sweet Almond oil
1oz Avocado Oil
1oz Stearic Acid
1.2emulsifying wax
heat mixture above for 1-2 mins.
add 1.2 shea butter to mixture and stir
add 18 oz. heated distilled water and stir while pouring
blend in low pulses with mixer and stir inbetween pulses
when lotion thickens at .02 phenonip
then add .1 essential oil and stir
Pour into bottles

The recipe didn't mention that i had to take the temperature of the water or the oil. So I am not sure what temp. they were at. The oil mix was microwaved on high for 2 mins. to get it to melt. and the water I microwaved for 2 minutes to get it warm.

I didn't add anything extra.

Also I just tried a second batch in which i only microwaved the oil mix for 1min 30 secs. and the water for 1 min. But i still got the little balls in it. I have no clue what I am doing wrong!?? Is there anyway to fix the batches, I hate to have all this wasted lotion!

When you melted all your oils, did they completely dissolve? Stearic Acid needs a higher temp to melt. Did you melt the shea butter?

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

Yes all the oils completely dissolved. And then once they were dissolved I added the unmelted shea butter to the oils and stirred for about a minute. That made the shea butter melt.

I would have melted the oils including the shea butter all at the same time. It's possible that the shea butter cooled off your melted oils and stearic acid somewhat solidified.
I normally mix my oils/butters and distilled water at around 120 degrees. After mixing some more and letting it cool off I add my preservative. I don't use the same preservative you do though.

I would get a thermometer to see what the temp is once you melt your oils and then again for the water.

Did you use a stick blender?

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

is germaben better to use than phenonip, soapbuddy? I'll be placing an order and if it's better I'd like to use whatever is better.
.

No, Germaben is heat sensitive and should be added to the water phase or to the emulsified portion of the formulation at a temperature of 140°F (60°C) or below, during the cool down stage, generally prior to the addition of fragrance. Adding Germaben above 140°F (60°C) could result in compromising the preservative system in your product.

Phenonip can be used in emulsions and anhydrous formulations. It is not as temp. sensitive.

What did you use the mix the two phases with?

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

i used phenonip & added it last after fragrance

To mix I used a hand held plug in beater. (You know the ones you would use to mix cake, has two spinning beaters). On the first batch I mixed on low like the directions said. On my second test batch I mixed on high and the clumps seemed to be much smaller. Maybe I wasn't mixing fast enough? I did just buy a cheapo kitchen beater at target for $6.99.

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

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

Thank you so much!!! I will try my next batch with a stick blender!

I too have been getting lumps in my cream lotion. When I used Shea Butter no lumps but with the Macadamia Nut Butter I've been getting lumps. Since it's for me no big deal and they do melt on contact with my skin and I love the cream. I thought it probably was because I was only using a hand wisk. I bought my husband a electric stick blender for his birthday (he the cook in the family,bless him) but he's not used it yet and we kinda agree not to use each others things until they have used them at least once. So I'll get after him a bit to fix something and *use it* (grin)! Thanks everyone for the good tips. -- Lynn