Lotion bar best oils?
- Thread starter bookworm42
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pjknight
Well-Known Member
ive been experimenting with lotion. bars. first recipe was 4 oz beeswax, 3 oz coconut oil, 1.5 oz cocoa butter, 1.5 oz mango butter,1.5 oz hemp seed oil, 1.5 ounce almond oil, 1/4 tsp kayolin clay. It was a bit greasy for my liking. I prefer a harder bar that glides on skin without a drag. this next recipe is what I am considering- 4 oz bees wax, 1.5 ounces cocoa butter, 1.5 oz mango butter, 1.5 ounce hemp seed oil, 1.5 ounce almond oil. 1/5 ounce vit e. Any thoughts you might have would be appreciated.
pjknight
Well-Known Member
Id like to try. using more beeswax in the recipies does anyone use more than the standard 33%?
@pjknight I would try reducing the beeswax if you want less drag. Beeswax will make the bar harder and not melt as easily. I've found that for me powder additive contribute to drag some people find the opposite. It's all just personal preference and experimentation.
You could try it without the clay and see if that does anything. You could also reduce the beeswax to see if that helps with the drag.
You could try it without the clay and see if that does anything. You could also reduce the beeswax to see if that helps with the drag.
Also cold bars and cold skin can contribute to drag. Where I'm at it's starting to get colder at night and my lotion bars definitely drag more than they used to.
pjknight
Well-Known Member
ok thank you for your imput. going to try a test of more beeswax and another test with less beeswax to see how close I am to what I want.
The nice thing about lotion bars is that if you have a good enough scale you can make a 1-2 bar recipe and if you don't like it you can melt it down and add more stuff to it. Just keep really good notes so you know what you did next time.
I actually took my leftover experiment bars, melted them down, and combined them with a previous batch. Now they're just chilling in the fridge until I need them. Once these are all used/given away I'm going to make more with my preferred recipe.
pjknight
Well-Known Member
thats a good idea. Ill give it a try
Hi! I’m in the process of testing first butters than oils for lotion bars, when that’s done I’ll post the results here.
Regarding softeness, I try to fix that by adjusting the ratio of beeswax, hard oils and liquid oils, rather than changing the ingredients themselves. That way I can focus on the glide and absorption by controlling the ingredients.
So far, I’m really happy with hazelnut oil because it has its own nutty smell, but it can be a bit pricy depending on where you buy it. Otherwise, apricot kernel oil was perfectly decent. Coconut oil I dont like, it takes forever to absorb.
Mango butter was nice, but my new exotic obsession is pracaxi oil. It feels really nice and absorbs really quickly.
Regarding softeness, I try to fix that by adjusting the ratio of beeswax, hard oils and liquid oils, rather than changing the ingredients themselves. That way I can focus on the glide and absorption by controlling the ingredients.
So far, I’m really happy with hazelnut oil because it has its own nutty smell, but it can be a bit pricy depending on where you buy it. Otherwise, apricot kernel oil was perfectly decent. Coconut oil I dont like, it takes forever to absorb.
Mango butter was nice, but my new exotic obsession is pracaxi oil. It feels really nice and absorbs really quickly.
Oooh hadn't heard of pracaxi oil before! Just did a read-up on it, and while it is too high on the comedogenic rating for my face, it sounds lovely for body butters or body lotions. Thanks for mentioning it!
