grainy lip balm

[gaerwen]

I make my own lip balm and noticed yesterday its gone grainy. I assume its from melting a bit or freezing? Any thoughts? how can I avoid this?

its coconut oil, cocoa butter, olive oil, candellia wax, vit e, cocoa absolute, peppermint eo.

 

[Susie]

It's the cocoa butter. You need to temper cocoa butter by bringing it up to 100F and keep it there for 45-60 minutes.

http://intheinterestofannie.blogspot.com/2011/03/tempering-butter-101shea-mango-and.html

When I get it in, I go ahead and temper the whole batch, then pour it into an ice tray with 15 gm per cube spot so that it is pre-measured for lip balms or body butter. I do the same thing with my shea. Just saves a lot of time.

 

[Nevada]

Quick freeze at pour. http://swiftcraftymonkey.blogspot.com/search?q=grainy

 

[Ktaggard]

I find that when I use cocoa butter, the quick freeze method does not always work. I have had no problems with shea and mango though. Just in my experience.

 

[shunt2011]

It's the cocoa butter. You need to temper cocoa butter by bringing it up to 100F and keep it there for 45-60 minutes.

http://intheinterestofannie.blogspot.com/2011/03/tempering-butter-101shea-mango-and.html

When I get it in, I go ahead and temper the whole batch, then pour it into an ice tray with 15 gm per cube spot so that it is pre-measured for lip balms or body butter. I do the same thing with my shea. Just saves a lot of time.

I do this as well with cocoa and shea. I also put the balm in the fridge immediately after pouring

 

[Susie]

I refrigerate my lip balms also immediately, but more to save time waiting for it to harden.

I went to the swiftcraftymonkey site, and copied this bit so that folks will get the whole context of the freezing process:

"If you are finding your mango or shea butter is always grainy no matter what you do, you can temper it the way you would temper chocolate. Melt your mango or shea butter completely (to a liquid), then pour into a mould or container of some kind and put it into the fridge or freezer to cool very quickly."

This means you have tempered it, and it still gets grainy. Tempering is still necessary to prevent graininess.

 

[Hazel]

This is an interesting topic. I'm glad gaerwen posted it. Knock on wood. I haven't had any graininess problem with my lip balms (one recipe has shea & cocoa, the other just cocoa). I heat and hold all oils and butters at 160F (approx) for 15-20 minutes. I let cool to approx 120F (maybe a little less) and then pour. Then I leave the tubes sitting overnight to harden. I should start putting them in the frig just in case...

 

[Susie]

Gosh, you are lucky! I had graininess with cocoa, so I swapped to shea, still grainy. So I went looking for what the problem and solution was. Tempering solved it. And like I said, I just temper the whole container as soon as I get it in, then divide into convenient weights for use.

 

[IrishLass]

I use a bit of ButterEZ from LotionCrafter's in all my balms to prevent graininess.

IrishLass

 

[bumblewood]

Ok so this is probably a dumb question but... Once it's been tempered and quickly cooled, does it stay tempered? If it is melted again after the initial temper (to mix with the other oils for the recipe) does it then un-temper it? Would I have to temper the recipe as a whole?

 

[Susie]

Once it is tempered, it is tempered. I had a batch that got forgotten outside(my son) and completely melted while in transit, and it re-solidified without any problem or graininess.

If you happen to have a grainy balm batch that contains both shea and cocoa, I have successfully remelted, then raised the temperature to 170F for 15 minutes, then lowered it to 120F for 45 minutes and fixed the batch.(I really do hate to waste, and I learn a lot when fixing mess ups.)

 

[PuddinAndPeanuts]

Once it is tempered, it is tempered. I had a batch that got forgotten outside(my son) and completely melted while in transit, and it re-solidified without any problem or graininess.

If you happen to have a grainy balm batch that contains both shea and cocoa, I have successfully remelted, then raised the temperature to 170F for 15 minutes, then lowered it to 120F for 45 minutes and fixed the batch.(I really do hate to waste, and I learn a lot when fixing mess ups.)

Question about this... So If I Have untempered Shea in my body butter (I know this thread is about lip balms, but I assume this technique is as likely to apply to body butter?) and I have a bunch of body butter melt at a show or something, I can rebatch it like that and rebottle? Or does this only work for batches that used Shea that had been tempered properly?

 

[gaerwen]

Ok so this is probably a dumb question but... Once it's been tempered and quickly cooled, does it stay tempered? If it is melted again after the initial temper (to mix with the other oils for the recipe) does it then un-temper it? Would I have to temper the recipe as a whole?

my question as well.

 

[Susie]

The batch that I tempered the whole thing together had non-tempered butters in there. That is why it was grainy and needed tempering. I had cooled it before re-tempering if that is the question.

But, once you temper those butters, they stay tempered even if you remelt them. I routinely now remelt those pre-measured cubes and use them in lip balm, with no problem whatsoever. Theoretically, you could infinitely remelt and it will remain tempered.(I am not sure of the quality of the butter after all of that, though.)

I hope I am understanding the question. If not, I am sorry!

 

[Hazel]

Gosh, you are lucky! I had graininess with cocoa, so I swapped to shea, still grainy. So I went looking for what the problem and solution was. Tempering solved it. And like I said, I just temper the whole container as soon as I get it in, then divide into convenient weights for use.

Maybe not lucky. I wonder if it has to do with the butters I use. I use ultra refined shea because I buy it for whipped butter. (It's sooo easy to use. ) Lately, I've been using refined cocoa. However, I used unrefined cocoa butter with a previous batch and still didn't have graininess. I'm wondering if it had to do with the time I made it (early spring so the house was cold) and after I capped them, I stored them in the frig. Hmm...

Anyway, the batch I made last month had refined shea & cocoa and I haven't had graininess. But to be fair, I'm still on my first tube of it. I'll have to check with my sisters to see if they need more and see if they experience graininess.

I liked IrishLass's suggestion about using ButterEZ.

 

[shunt2011]

Unfortunately I've had batches of lip balm go grainy. However, some of my customers liked it they said it was kind of scrubby and added moisture as the same time. Once I started tempering the shea and cocoa it helped immensely. I'm so going to have to try ButterEZ too.