Emulsifying Wax -- Necessary?

[alwayssomething]

I have experimented with some different body butter recipes that are totally butter/oil based, but I find they are too greasy no matter what, even when I add wax and corn starch. I am not used to adding water-based ingredients to my stuff because that means adding lots more ingredients to stabilize and preserve, but I am thinking of making either some moisturizing body spray or a lighter, less greasy body "butter" (or firm lotion, I guess). I always try to keep my ingredients to a minimum and I was wondering:

Is it completely necessary to use both emulsifying wax and stearic acid to a water/oil combined recipe? From what I have read, they seem to serve a very similar purpose and I am not sure why I always see them used together. I have read in the past that emulsifying wax can be removed from a recipe if the stearic acid amount is adjusted.

I am hoping to use the following ingredients:

Cocoa Butter
Jojoba Oil
Aloe Butter
Castor Wax
Rose Water
Glycerine
Essential Oils
Preservative (undecided on which exactly)

Can I do this with stearic and without emulsifying wax? Does it make a difference as to whether I am making this a lotion or a spray? I know if I make a spray I will need water-based ingredients, but if I keep this a butter/lotion, does anyone have any other ideas to keep it from being so heavy and greasy and just avoiding water and emulsifiers all together?

Thanks for your help!

 

[IrishLass]

Hello and welcome!

I hope I can be of some help.

Emulsifying wax and stearic acid are two different things which serve two different purposes, and that's why you see them used together in lotion formulas. Here is the difference:

Emulsifying wax is an emulsifier- it keeps your oils and water from separating.

Stearic acid is a thickener. The more you add, the thicker your lotion will be. It will not keep your oils and water from separating, however.

I've never made spray lotions, so I can't be of help there, but I do make lotions, body butters, and also emulsified body butters, which are body butters that have water, e-wax and a thickener added to them. I find the emulsified body butters to be less greasy than anhydrous (no water added) body butters, but yet still quite thick and butter-like.

Other than adding cornstarch or something called dry-flo to anhydrous body butters, the only other thing I know of to help those kinds of body butters to be less greasy (to a point) is how much and what type of oils you use. I personally like to use meadowfoam seed oil as the sole oil in my anhydrous body butter. I find it to be much less greasy feeling than the jojoba that I used to use. I use a ratio of 70% kokum butter (or a 70% combo of kokum/mango butter) to 30% meadowfoam seed oil in my anhydrous body butter and it sinks in nice. I find it also helps to not overly slather a whole bunch of butter on the skin all at once. I follow the old Brill Cream jingle- "Just a little dab will do ya". I find that when I use just a little dab, my skin feels hydrated without feeling greasy. A little bit really does go a long way.


Hopefully others will chime in with their ideas.

HTH!
IrishLass

 

[alwayssomething]

Thank you, Irish Lass. That is all very helpful. I thought have read the stearic acid is an emulsifyer, but I I must have been reading that it is an emollient.

I still haven't decided what I want to do... adding some rosewater and glycerine would really give the texture I want, but it means throwing so many other things into the mix which annoys me. I'm still thinking about it. I'm pretty sure that in the past I was adding too many oils, so maybe I should stick to mostly butters with just a little bit of oil to soften it up? Maybe something like:

50% Cocoa Butter
30% Aloe Butter
15% Jojoba Oil
5% Castor Wax

Not sure if I would still need to add something starchy to keep it from being too greasy. My last butter ended up only usable as an intense hand/foot/elbow balm, I want this to be a nice all-over body butter.