# Finally have a grainless lip gloss formula



## IrishLass (Apr 14, 2016)

Since around November/December I have been playing with making lip gloss. I posted about it at the beginning of December and included a recipe that I had made that I really liked *Here*, but wouldn't you know it, that recipe turned grainy on me about 1 to 2 weeks after I made it..... and subsequent tweaks went grainy on me, too.  Disheartened and a little frustrated, I set it aside and took a break from it for the time being.

Fast forward to February when I decided to get back up on the proverbial horse and try tweaking my formula yet again....... and I finally got it to work! My gloss has remained grain-free for a little over 2 whole months now! I'm so happy! The tweak that finally made it work was decreasing my shea/mango butter amounts and increasing my ButterEZ amount. (the solid/buttery ingredient from Lotioncrafters that helps to prevent graininess).

In my solid lip balms, I normally use ButterEZ at the rate of about 16% as per the total butter amount in my formulas, and it's enough to keep my them grain-free, but as it turns out, that amount is too small for my lip gloss formula. The amount that finally did the trick for it was 36.37% ButterEZ as per the total butter amount in my formula. Yay!

I also experimented with using an ingredient in my formula called Viamerine 2500 (from The Herbarie), which is reported to be a vegetarian sub for lanolin, but also has the added benefit of lending super shine to one's gloss. It's INCI is Oleic/Linoleic/Linolenic Polyglycerides. OOB it reminds me a lot of liquid lecithin in consistency (it's a very thick, sticky fluid), and in my gloss it provides super shine and a bit of stick-to-itiveness, although I have to say not as much stick-to-itiveness as compared to my lanolin. Still though, it's not too far off.

Here is my successfully tweaked formula, which I specially formulated to be dispensed from those Doe Foot Lip Pens that MMS sells, of which I have a bunch on hand (I had to make it fluid enough so it wouldn't pop off the doe foot top), but it can also be used in lip-wand containers or lip pens with brush tops:

25.25% Castor oil
25.25% Meadowfoam Seed Oil
15% Viamerine (or lanolin)
9.15% Mango Butter
9.15% Shea Butter (refined)
6.7% ButterEZ (from Lotioncrafters)
3% Flavor Oil
2% Filtered Beeswax (from Peak's)
2% Double Refined Candelilla Wax (from TKB Trading)
2% Sweetener (I use Sugar Baby from MMS)
.5% Vitamin E T-50 (from Lotioncrafter's)

You don't have to use shea or mango as the butters in it, by the way. It works well with other butters, just as long as you keep the total butter percentage the same so it doesn't mess with the ButterEZ amount. Other things can be subbed, too, as long as the total percentages of the original ingredients remain the same. For example, the other day I used 18.3% of Coffee Butter from MMS in place of the mango and shea butters, and instead of 15% Viamerine, I used 10% Viamerine and 5% lanolin, and it came out great. I flavored it with some coffee flavor oil and a tiny bit of spearmint EO and it's quite yummy. 

And the following recipe is a version of the above, but I tweaked it to be thicker/heavier. The consistency is too thick to use in a doe-foot lip pen (it pops the top off when dispensing), but it works great in the MMS lip pens with the brush tops, of which I also have a bunch on hand, lol:

22.5% Castor Oil
22% Meadowfoam Seed Oil
15% Viamerine (or lanolin)
11% Mango Butter
11% Shea Butter (refined)
8% ButterEZ (Lotioncrafters)
3% Filtered Beeswax (Peak's)
3% Flavor Oil
2% Double Refined Candelilla Wax (TKB Trading)
2% Sweetener (Sugar Baby from MMS)
.5% Vitamin E T-50 (Lotioncrafters)

It has a wonderfully rich/luxuriant feel to it with good stick-to-itiveness, and with the Viamerine in there, it's super shiny.

Just thought I'd share my excitement with y'all.


IrishLass


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## dibbles (Apr 14, 2016)

I'd say you have good stick-to-it-iveness too IrishLass - congratulations on figuring it out!


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## maya (Apr 14, 2016)

Yayyyyyyyyyy!


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## Navaria (Apr 14, 2016)

Glad you got it figured out. Here you are talking about doe foot pens and brush pens and I'm like " I got lip balm in the pot without spilling too much lol. Someday though, if I'm lucky, I may grow up to be like you


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## MrsSpaceship (Apr 19, 2016)

This sounds lovely, and I'm excited to learn about Viamerine.  I recently made a balm with lanolin (one of Swifts recipes) that feels amazing, but the smell... I've been thinking of getting the ultra processed version that they use for nipple balm, but this sounds like a great option.  Thank you so much for sharing!


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## IrishLass (Apr 19, 2016)

Navaria said:


> Glad you got it figured out. Here you are talking about doe foot pens and brush pens and I'm like " I got lip balm in the pot without spilling too much lol. Someday though, if I'm lucky, I may grow up to be like you


 
LOL. I can relate. Believe it or not, I am having much easier and neater success getting my gloss into the MMS lip pens than when I pour my normal balm formulas into lip balm tubes, because, unlike my regular balms, the gloss stays so wonderfully fluid that it's a breeze to dispense it by pipette. Not so with my regular balm formulas. I can't dispense those from a pipette at all because of how quick they harden (too much gets stuck in the pipettes), so I pour them into tubes from a vessel, which takes a bit more hand/eye control if you know what I mean. 




			
				MrsSpaceship said:
			
		

> This sounds lovely, and I'm excited to learn about Viamerine. I recently made a balm with lanolin (one of Swifts recipes) that feels amazing, but the smell... I've been thinking of getting the ultra processed version that they use for nipple balm, but this sounds like a great option. Thank you so much for sharing!


 
My pleasure!

The nipple balm-type lanolin is actually the type I use all the time for my balms (Lansinoh), and I've been very happy with it. 

I've used the natural-type lanolin oil from the health food store before, and while I loved the feel it gave to my balms, I hated the slight sheepish smell it gave to them, which actually reminded me of the smell of BandAids, believe it or not. lol It also gave my balms the same kind of slight sheepy/BandAid taste as well. 

In comparison, the Lansinoh has no smell or taste to it at all, but it still gives my balms that same wonderful, occlusive feel as the more natural lanolin oil.

I'm finding the Viamerine to be quite nice (the glossiness is amazing!), although I feel I need to use more of it in comparison to lanolin to get the same level of stick-to-itiveness that an equal amount of lanolin gives me. I'm going to bump it up to 20% in my next batch of gloss and see what happens, since the Herbaries says I can use it up to 25% in my lip formulas.


IrishLass


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## Navaria (Apr 19, 2016)

> LOL. I can relate. Believe it or not, I am having much easier and neater success getting my gloss into the MMS lip pens than when I pour my normal balm formulas into lip balm tubes, because, unlike my regular balms, the gloss stays so wonderfully fluid that it's a breeze to dispense it by pipette. Not so with my regular balm formulas. I can't dispense those from a pipette at all because of how quick they harden (too much gets stuck in the pipettes), so I pour them into tubes from a vessel, which takes a bit more hand/eye control if you know what I mean.


I tried the pipette and had the same problem. I ended up hitting it with a little heat from a hair dryer and it melted and ran right out. I couldn't see wasting half a pot of balm because I made a dumb mistake lol. So that was my "sample pot". After I switched to pouring by hand is when it got ugly lol. I had a lot better luck with the oval tubes. Probably because I bought the nifty holder for them


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