# Quality, natural lotion base?



## bbrown (Feb 28, 2015)

Aside from making my own from scratch, is there a more natural lotion base out there that mixes well with fragrances?  I recently purchased 2 gallons of a specific base because the tester was great.

I mixed 3 scents in and let them sit and now they all have a rancid smell when applied to the skin.

So I added one of the same fragrances to another lotion type I bought, not as natural, cheaper, and the scent is fine.  

So I am looking for any suggestions.


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## The Efficacious Gentleman (Mar 1, 2015)

As natural is such a misused (or multi used, maybe) term, what does it mean to you? That way people won't suggest options that they class as natural but you don't and so on. 

Out of interest, why not make your own?


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## Saponista (Mar 1, 2015)

Did you leave them without a preservative? If so they may have gone rancid, so it may not be a problem with the base itself.

The cheaper less natural one may have contained it's own preservative already.


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## DeeAnna (Mar 1, 2015)

Yeah, you might want to share the names of the products you've tried and which base was rancid and which was not. Knowing the preservative system, ingredients, reputation of the product, and the supplier might give some clues -- including your perception of what is "more natural" and what is not. And then maybe someone can suggest a useful alternative rather than just guessing.


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## bbrown (Mar 1, 2015)

I know natural can be construed in many different ways.  But in this case, I am looking for a base that has less words you can't pronounce, if that helps.

I ordered Premium Body Lotion from Aquatech out of Canada.  This  is the one that produced rancid results.  Here is the ingredient list for their lotion:
Deionized Water, Grape Seed Oil, Avocado Oil, Caprylic/Capric Triglyceride, Emulsifying Wax NF, Glyceryl Stearate, Jojoba Seed Oil, Shea Butter, Aloe Leaf Juice, Stearic Acid, Tocopherol (Vitamin E), Silk Amino Acids, Glycerine, Sorbitol, Cyclopentasiloxane, Phenoxyethanol and Caprylyl Glycol (Optiphen®), Methyl Cellulose, Allantoin.

The lotion that worked out I ordered from ELements.  It's about a $1 cheaper, not much difference really after I looked.
Ingredients:  
Deionized Water, Glycerin, Sweet Almond Oil, Stearic Acid (vegetable derived), Cetearyl Alcohol (and) Polysorbate 60, Glyceryl Stearate (and) PEG-100 Stearate, Cetyl Alchohol, Dimethicone, Tocopheryl Acetate (Vitamin E), Aloe Vera Leaf Juice, Triethanolamine, Phenoxyethanol, Ethylhexylglycerin, Caprylyl Glycol, Hexylene Glycol, BHT


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## The Efficacious Gentleman (Mar 1, 2015)

Again, why not make one? My lotion has oils and then olivem 1000 and optiphen. Very few of those odd sounding ingredients in there


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## bbrown (Mar 1, 2015)

I may at some point, but right now I am using premade bases for myself.  I am really flustered about the first one because unscented, it felt the best.


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## Aline (Mar 1, 2015)

I purchased a lotion from Denhams once and it went rancid really fast. Probably because it contained shea butter but no vitamin E....
It's possible your more natural one did not have enough Vitamin E (or maybe they forgot to add it in that batch - it happens).


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## DeeAnna (Mar 1, 2015)

You might want to check the manufacturing date -- it may be that the product that went rancid was simply older or had been poorly stored. The first product has grapeseed oil in it -- an oil with a notoriously short shelf life. Vitamin E not as effective as other antioxidants, although it certainly qualifies for a "crunchy" cachet.

Not sure why the first product is "more natural." It has a dreaded silicone in it -- cyclopentasiloxane -- and that is definitely not crunchy. I agree it's got a wider range of premium ingredients, although they're just wafting the bottles of jojoba, shea, and aloe by the kettle when they make the lotion.


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## bbrown (Mar 1, 2015)

DeeAnna said:


> You might want to check the manufacturing date -- it may be that the product that went rancid was simply older or had been poorly stored. The first product has grapeseed oil in it -- an oil with a notoriously short shelf life. Vitamin E not as effective as other antioxidants, although it certainly qualifies for a "crunchy" cachet.
> 
> Not sure why the first product is "more natural." It has a dreaded silicone in it -- cyclopentasiloxane -- and that is definitely not crunchy. I agree it's got a wider range of premium ingredients, although they're just wafting the bottles of jojoba, shea, and aloe by the kettle when they make the lotion.



Thanks for the information!  Very helpful!  

I have decided on a recipe to make my own.  Stearic acid is about the only thing I am adding that makes it not so crunchy IMO, unless someone knows better.


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## Lindy (Mar 1, 2015)

You don't need stearic acid in lotion as long as you use 5% emulsifying wax.


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## bbrown (Mar 1, 2015)

If I post a recipe can someone help me tweak it without stearic acid?


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## bbrown (Mar 1, 2015)

Here is what I have found to make:
157g water 
23g shea butter
19g cocoa butter
12g emulsifying wax
12g stearic acid
3g Optiphen
5g fragrance


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## Lindy (Mar 2, 2015)

bbrown said:


> Here is what I have found to make:
> 157g water
> 23g shea butter
> 19g cocoa butter
> ...


 
You can drop the stearic straight out without changing anything because with the Stearic that is going to be one thick lotion, more like a light cream which would be hard to go through a lotion pump.

I would drop the ewax to 11 grams though and see if you like the consistency because with the butters it is still going to be thick.  It does look like a lovely lotion though.


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## bbrown (Mar 3, 2015)

Lindy said:


> You can drop the stearic straight out without changing anything because with the Stearic that is going to be one thick lotion, more like a light cream which would be hard to go through a lotion pump.
> 
> I would drop the ewax to 11 grams though and see if you like the consistency because with the butters it is still going to be thick.  It does look like a lovely lotion though.



Thank you Lindy.  I appreciate it!


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## DeeAnna (Mar 3, 2015)

You make some really good points, Lindy! 

BBrown -- Have you compared your proposed recipe with the ingredient lists for the lotion bases? The lotion bases are using all liquid oils. Your proposed recipe is, as Lindy noted, all solid fats at room temperature with a lot of stearic acid (a waxy solid at room temp) and emulsifier. That's going to be quite a different product than the lotion bases.

Here are the major ingredients from the first lotion base:
Deionized Water, Grape Seed Oil, Avocado Oil, Caprylic/Capric Triglyceride, Emulsifying Wax NF, Glyceryl Stearate, Jojoba Seed Oil, Shea Butter, Aloe Leaf Juice, Stearic Acid...

If you wanted to use this list as inspiration, here are some ideas to consider:
I personally would not use grapeseed oil, due to its short shelf life. Just me. Apricot or almond are low cost oils with a longer shelf life. Coconut oil is also inexpensive, light, and long lasting. Other alternative oils with long shelf life and similar texture might be meadowfoam or jojoba, but they will cost more than apricot or grapeseed.
Alternative to avocado oil would be an olive oil with a light color and low odor or almond oil.
Alternatives to caprylic/capric triglyceride could be more apricot oil or meadowfoam. I would be comfortable with coconut oil as an alternative as well.
Alternative to the stearic acid would be cetyl alcohol, which gives a lighter feel to a lotion than stearic. I would use one of these thickeners in this type of lotion, because there are no butters to provide thickening.

So if you adapted this ingredients list, you could end up with a recipe something like this:
Deionized Water, Apricot Oil, Olive Oil, Coconut oil, Emulsifying Wax NF, Stearic acid OR Cetyl alcohol

Or even something simpler:
Deionized Water, Coconut Oil, Almond Oil, Emulsifying Wax NF, Stearic acid OR Cetyl alcohol

If you want to include a butter, here's a possibility:
Deionized Water, Almond Oil, Cocoa butter, Emulsifying Wax NF, Stearic acid
I've made this using a ratio of 5 parts almond to 1 part cocoa butter. It was a nice basic lotion.

This is a sensible book to get started with lotionmaking: http://www.amazon.com/dp/0938497553/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20


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## bbrown (Mar 3, 2015)

DeeAnna said:


> You make some really good points, Lindy!
> 
> BBrown -- Have you compared your proposed recipe with the ingredient lists for the lotion bases? The lotion bases are using all liquid oils. Your proposed recipe is, as Lindy noted, all solid fats at room temperature with a lot of stearic acid (a waxy solid at room temp) and emulsifier. That's going to be quite a different product than the lotion bases.
> 
> ...



Loads of excellent information!  Thank you!


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## bbrown (Mar 4, 2015)

I am waiting on a few ingredients to come in to start this.  I did the calculations and it would be about .50 cheaper for me to make it.


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## DeeAnna (Mar 4, 2015)

For me, making my own stuff is less about doing it cheaper and quicker and more about doing it better and doing it my way ... premium ingredients, my choice of recipe, small batches, etc. If a person is selling and wanting to make a living off the sales, the equation changes radically toward efficiency of time and materials. And maybe that's where you're at?

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