Lost in lotion bars

[HoppyCosmetics]

If people find coconut oil too drying on the skin even with a high superfat or even in smaller amounts in a bastille soap, it could be a coconut allergy. You could substitute the coconut oil for babassu oil or palm kernel oil instead.

 

[rparrny]

If a recipe says add 1% of something, how do you work that out in grams? All my recipes are in grams, and ive no idea how to convert that to percentages.

Once you know how to convert percentages into grams, then you can take all your gram recipes and convert them into percentages. That will allow you to make batches of any size. Having all your master recipes in percentages is a big time saver as once you have that...you can re-batch at pretty much any size.
Converting weight to percentages:
Number of grams (per ingredient) x 100 divided by the total grams

For example: your formula is a total of 75 gms in weight
40 grams of your formula is grapeseed oil
23 grams is coco butter
10 grams is beeswax
1.5 grams is your fragrance
0.5 grams is Vitamin E
__________________________
75 grams total in your formula

(40 (grapeseed oil) x 100) / 75 (your total batch size) = 53.3%
(23 (coco butter) x 100) / 75 (your total batch size) = 30.6% This was actually 30.66 so you could round it off to 30.7%
(10 (beeswax) x 100) / 75 (your total batch size) = 13.3%
(1.5 (fragrance) x 100 / 75 (your total batch size) = 2%
(0.5 (vit E) x 100 / 75 (your total batch size) = 0.6 (again this was 0.66 and could be rounded up to 0.7)
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

99.8% total
Now this happens if you don't round up or down and in many formulas and you have to decide at this point where you want to put that extra 0.2%. In this particular case just rounding up the coco butter and Vit E will even out your formula, but sometimes it will give you more than 100% especially if you have a lot of ingredients. You just have to look over your formula and decide where you want to add or subtract to reach your goal of 100% and than you have your master batch recipe that you can convert into any size you want.
Keep in mind that if your product is a hit and you will be taking it national or something like that with huge batches being made, that fudging around with the rounding up and down could get you into trouble.
You can avoid this by experimenting with batches of 100 grams, then everything will be evened out.

 

[AliOop]

Unsaponified coconut oil doesn't agree with my skin or hair - it just sits there and makes me feel greasy and dry at the same time. FCO is better but still not my favorite.

I love using meadowfoam seed, argan, and jojoba as my soft oils; mango or shea as my medium butter; and cocoa as my hard butter. All the expensive stuff, of course!

Waxes end up being too sticky and draggy for me, but for those who get severe dry skin in winter (like @Zing) I understand it is a God-send.

 

[HoppyCosmetics]

Once you know how to convert percentages into grams, then you can take all your gram recipes and convert them into percentages.

Thanks for all the help, that's great. I'll go over what you said with my recipe and see if i understand it.

 

[LynetteO]

I don't know how I missed this thread because I"m a lotion bar fanatic. Any update on your recipe? My basic recipe is 1/3 each of beeswax, coconut oil, and a butter (shea or cocoa). The cool thing is if it is too hard or too oily, you can just melt it and adjust your ratios.
I do like to add meadowfoam or sweet almond for coconut oil.

Question 4U. Instead of my usual lotion bar recipe of 3oz ea: beeswax, CO plus 1.5oz ea: cocoa butter, Shea, sweet almond & grape seed which I like but a skosh greasy. Was out of beeswax & almond oil so made…
3oz each: GW 415 soy wax, cocoa butter, CO & grape seed. They are much too soft. Upon re-melt would you recommend adding just more wax or cocoa butter too?

 

[Zing]

Question 4U. Instead of my usual lotion bar recipe of 3oz ea: beeswax, CO plus 1.5oz ea: cocoa butter, Shea, sweet almond & grape seed which I like but a skosh greasy. Was out of beeswax & almond oil so made…
3oz each: GW 415 soy wax, cocoa butter, CO & grape seed. They are much too soft. Upon re-melt would you recommend adding just more wax or cocoa butter too?

I love your confidence in me, LOL. I'm an evangelist, not an expert!

But since you asked.... If I read your recipe correctly, you have just 25% wax so yes, I would increase that amount. I use 33.33%. Let me know how it goes.

 

[debbism]

I've never heard of Floral Wax' sounds interesting. I gotta make Lotion Bars' its on my bucket list. But its trumped by other projects.

Floral wax isn't a true wax but it adds a nice texture and subtle scent. I use it a lot

 

[Peachy Clean Soap]

Floral wax isn't a true wax but it adds a nice texture and subtle scent. I use it a lot

where do you find your FW & can I use it in soap too?. thx dear

 

[LynetteO]

Lotion Bars have no NaOh added. Coconut oil that has NOT gone through saponification with addition of lye is not too drying but rather nice in the skin, for SOME people. That being said however I think I’d like to try a lotion bar without CO entirely just to see how I like them.

 

[debbism]

where do you find your FW & can I use it in soap too?. thx dear

I get mine from HBNO...best prices and many diff waxes. You can use them in soap but they have a high melting point

 

[Quanta]

Question 4U. Instead of my usual lotion bar recipe of 3oz ea: beeswax, CO plus 1.5oz ea: cocoa butter, Shea, sweet almond & grape seed which I like but a skosh greasy. Was out of beeswax & almond oil so made…
3oz each: GW 415 soy wax, cocoa butter, CO & grape seed. They are much too soft. Upon re-melt would you recommend adding just more wax or cocoa butter too?

In my experience, it's the Shea butter that is making them greasy. I would swap it for either mango butter or babassu oil. You would need to adjust the amounts of the other ingredients to compensate for babassu oil being softer than Shea though.

You can also try adding isopropyl myristate. I use it at 3-5% in my lotion bars.

 

[AliOop]

I get mine from HBNO...best prices and many diff waxes. You can use them in soap but they have a high melting point

What is HBNO?