Lotion bar best oils?

[pjknight]

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]

Id like to try. using more beeswax in the recipies does anyone use more than the standard 33%?

 

[bookworm42]

@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.

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]

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.

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.

 

[bookworm42]

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]

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.

thats a good idea. Ill give it a try

 

[Blufuz]

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.

 

[AliOop]

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!

 

[Kaybrantley]

I like using arrowroot powder. Reduces the stickiness

 

[Nonnie]

I just made a small batch to try out. Beeswax, Cetyl Alcohol, Mango butter, Jojoba oil, Fragrance and vitamin e. The CA gave a nice feel to the bars. I'll be passing them out to a few folks to try out.

 

[JillGat]

Hi everyone. I've made some lotion bars and want some opinions of great oils to use. My recipe is

32.5% beeswax
32.5% mango butter
32.5% coconut oil
1% vitamin e
1.5% fragrance

Right now I feel the bar melts a little too easily and is a little greasy. I've read that the coconut oil could contribute to the greasiness and was considering decreasing or removing it. I'm worried that doing that will make it even softer.
Should I increase the beeswax or the mango butter to make it harder? If I replace the coconut oil (fully or partially) what's a good reasonably priced oil to replace it with?

All advice welcome! I plan to experiment soonish but thought I'd get some advice first.

I've settled on this:

%
beeswax: 30
mango butter: 30
liq. oil of choice: 18
Isopropyl myristate 12
cetyl alcohol 10