# Too much emulsifier?



## Butterbaby (May 23, 2014)

I am using olivem 1000, its a complete stand alone emulsifier. I made up a small batch of butter which was really awesome, second batch i lost track of the adjustments i'd made in the first batch and it is possible that I added more emulsifier?....anyway, I have little water droplets, not visible, but inside the butter.You can feel the water coming off on your skin.It went all lumpy, discovered adding more oil actually helped but wondered at which point I should add more emulsifier because if I keep adding oil then I may end up with oil seeping out instead of water, or should I just melt it all again and add more wax and oil........
Can I rescue this?
If I accidentally put extra emulsifier in, could this be pushing:cry: the water out of the emulsion?
Forgot to mention, the emulsion is beautiful and creamy and smooth since I melted it down again, added more oil....still wondering though if I need to re melt and add soemthing to get rid of the condensation in the butter.


----------



## Hazel (May 24, 2014)

I'm not an expert but I noticed you haven't had a rsponse yet. So, I'll try to help. I've never used olivem 1000 so I don't know at what percentage it might be considered too much. I have added too much emulsifying wax in a cream before and it didn't seep water. It just was extra thick and a little stiff. 

I'm a little confused by your post. If the water isn't visible, how do you know it's inside the butter? Could it be something else you're feeling on your skin? A recipe might help with trouble shooting. What do you mean by it being lumpy? Is it large or small lumps? If you used shea butter and it's small lumps, then it may be the shea became granulated if it didn't cool properly.

I'm wondering if the water is condensation. Did you let the butter cool overnight before putting a lid on it? Water will condense on an emulsion if it's capped before it's cooled. Susan Barclay-Nichol's site has excellent information about making creams and lotions. Have you seen it? http://swiftcraftymonkey.blogspot.com/

I don't think I'd worry about remelting and adding more emulsifier since you said it's now creamy and smooth. The preservative should keep it from going bad and use it as long as you don't feel it's too odd feeling to use. I don't know of anything you could add to get rid of condensation. That's why a preservative is so important.   But perhaps someone else will see this post and have an answer.

As for reheating to add more emulsifier, I have been able to do it in the past but it wasn't very successful. It was all right for a short time and then separated later. But it's also possible I didn't heat it high enough. Plus I had to add more preservative since I had to heat it higher than the recommended temp for it. This could have had something to do with the instability since I was using Optiphen Plus.


----------

