Homemade whipped tallow balm smells like playdoh??

[NotMartyMcFly]

So I wanted to start a small business making and selling homemade tallow balm. I had lots of tallow from processing our cows so I rendered it several times and had been storing it. My first batch I gave out in 2oz containers at my church, using only rendered tallow, jojoba oil and vanilla essential oil. Instant hit, everyone loves it. 2nd time around, since one of my planned scents is gonna be "milk and honey" I added some raw honey as well as the vanilla scent. Lo and behold, this batch smells like playdoh. It's not just me either, my 10yo son agrees. Its not beefy or vanilla at all, just plastic dough smell. What did I do wrong and can I fix it? I would hate for this batch to go to waste if I can just up the scents or add another oil

 

[DeeAnna]

Honey is water soluble. Tallow and jojoba are fat soluble. You cannot mix the two and expect long-term success unless the formulation also includes an emulsifier and preservative and you use safe manufacturing and packaging methods to ensure the product starts out as sanitary and microbe free as possible.

If you don't want to jump through those hoops with your balm, keep your balm recipe fully anhydrous (fats only -- no water-based ingredients.)

It's possible the balm with honey is beginning to go bad due to microbial growth. Honey is a great source of sugars and provides some water. Mixed with fats, this is a great diet for cooties to grow. Microbial contamination doesn't necessarily take long to develop and it isn't necessarily visible to the eye.

Personally, I would not try to "fix" this problem -- discard the batch, chalk it up to a learning experience, and go from there.

There is no such thing as vanilla essential oil. Vanilla extract, vanilla absolute, and vanilla fragrance oil. But not the EO.