Teach Soap

Hey all,
I am working on a facial cleansing milk for myself. this is the second time i am making it, the first time i made it my stearic acid balled up after mixing everything together and i though it was because i did not heat and hold for long enough. This time i went slower (patience is not a virtue of mine...) but i did go slower and heated everything to the correct temperatures, held them while i blended then cooled everything down to add my EO and preservative, it seems that my stearic acid is balling up on me again and i am not sure why. it is possible that my stearic is old and therefore not behaving as it should?

Here was my recipe:
Phase 1
65% water
The water was brought to just below boiling

Ph 2
6% ewax
3% stearic acid
These two went into a double boiler to melt

Ph 2B
11% oils

Ph 3
1.5% preservative (optiphen plus)
1% EO's
1% vita E oil
1% chamomile extract

Phases 1 and 2 were combined into the double boiler then i added the oils and mixed to get my emulsion to hold. once it was holding together i took it off the heat and let it slowly cool to about 120. at that point i added my ph3 ingredients and again mixed until everything was blended together. i poured the mixture into my malibu bottles and left the lids off to cool. When i used it last night i noticed what i believe are little bits of stearic acid balled up in my cleanser it makes me sad because this is the first cleanser in a long time that my face really likes and i want the recipe to just work for me.

Any insight to my problem would be much appreciated.

Thanks all
Erin

To me, it looks like you have a lot of stearic acid in there. I normally use e-wax at about 5%. I would make a small batch and leave out the stearic acid. How old is the stearic acid and how was it stored?

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

Ok thanks. I made this in a calss which we used no stearic but i thought it was too thin (like water). What if i reduce it to about 1%? Do you think that would work better? Or is there a better ingredient to use to get this a little thicker?

The stearic is over 1 year old and i store it in the plastic bag it came in with a clip and that goes into my additives box which is plastic with a lid.

Thanks
Erin

Stearic acid isn't water soluble, so that is probably the problem. Try adding Phase 2 to phase 3, instead.

Most stearic acid that I've ever bought has had a shelf life of at least 5 years if stored correctly.

You could use liquid Crothix or table salt to thicken it. You could also replace the stearic with cetyl alcohol, which is less waxy feeling.

One other thing, I noticed your percentages only add up to 89.5%

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Ok, i didn't realize that stearic was not soluable in water. I can add the oils to the stearic/ewax and mix then add the water, that should help correct? I generally make anhydrous products or soaps so this is a little bit foreign to me.

As for the 89.5% i am basically using the same % as we did in class but i removed a couple of items and did not replace them with something else (oops) , i also added the stearic because i wanted it to be thicker and i changed up the oil and eo combinations. i would say overall it's a pretty decent product and will be great once i get this pesky stearic thing handled. i don't think i would want to use salt since this is for my face and i don't have the other ingredient on hand so that's out. looks like it's back to the lab for this little guy.

thanks
erin

I missed that part. Add your ewax and your stearic to your oils to melt. If you want it thicker try cetyl alcohol. It comes as powdery flakes.

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