Hi!
After playing around with recipes with different proportions of beeswax, butter and liquid oils, I’m trying to decide which to use for a custom order (a friend of mine fell in love with my realistic macaron shaped lotion bars and wants to gift them for Christmas).
I initially avoided coconut oil in my first recipes because I had read that it would make the lotion bars more “draggy” and wouldn’t penetrate the skin as fast, leaving it oily/sticky.
Also, I think I’ve read that more people have skin sensitivity to coconut oil (true or not)?
My original recipe (#1) was:
34% beeswax
20% cocoa butter
12% mango butter
25.5% jojoba oil
8.5% grapeseed oil
I found the bar were a bit hard to melt, and I was told that maybe I should decrease the beeswax to around 25%.
So I tried this recipe (#2) which I like but I find it a bit too easy to melt:
23.5% beeswax
18% cocoa butter
23.5% mango butter
35% grapeseed oil
Since coconut oil is much cheaper that mango butter, I tried the same recipe with coconut oil instead of mango butter (#3):
23.5% beeswax
18% cocoa butter
23.5% coconut oil
35% grapeseed oil
I tested both #2 and #3 on myself and my boyfriend (right inside forearm #2, left inside forearm #3). I have drier and very sensitive skin ; he doesn’t have much issues with his (except some folliculitis).
I chose the inside forearm because the skin is thin and delicate. This is always the spot where I test cosmetics to see if I will have an allergic reaction.
On application, both #2 and #3 bars melt as fast. 15 minutes after application, the skin looks and feels about the same for both recipes, on me and my bf. At least an hour after application, #2 feels significantly less oily than #3 on my bf’s skin and minimally less oily than #3 on mine.
Neither him nor I had a skin reaction to either recipes, but I’m reluctant to use #3 for bars I will sell because I keep reading that coconut oil sensitivity is common. What do you think?
Finally, I tried another recipe to see if the bars would melt less easily but still easily enough (#4):
30% beeswax
21% cocoa butter
13% mango butter
36% grapeseed oil
As you see, the proportions of each type of ingredient are similar in recipes #1 and #4:
Beeswax: 34% in #1 vs 30% in #4
Butters: 32% in #1 vs 34% in #4
Liquid oils: 34% in #1 vs 36% in #4
My objective was to see if decreasing the beeswax a little would make the #4 bars harder than recipes #2 or #3 (yes), but a bit easier to melt than recipe #1 (yes, significantly).
I hadn’t expected such a big difference in melting speed, after all there is just 4% less beeswax in #4 compared to #1.
Would the jojoba oil explain this?
After playing around with recipes with different proportions of beeswax, butter and liquid oils, I’m trying to decide which to use for a custom order (a friend of mine fell in love with my realistic macaron shaped lotion bars and wants to gift them for Christmas).
I initially avoided coconut oil in my first recipes because I had read that it would make the lotion bars more “draggy” and wouldn’t penetrate the skin as fast, leaving it oily/sticky.
Also, I think I’ve read that more people have skin sensitivity to coconut oil (true or not)?
My original recipe (#1) was:
34% beeswax
20% cocoa butter
12% mango butter
25.5% jojoba oil
8.5% grapeseed oil
I found the bar were a bit hard to melt, and I was told that maybe I should decrease the beeswax to around 25%.
So I tried this recipe (#2) which I like but I find it a bit too easy to melt:
23.5% beeswax
18% cocoa butter
23.5% mango butter
35% grapeseed oil
Since coconut oil is much cheaper that mango butter, I tried the same recipe with coconut oil instead of mango butter (#3):
23.5% beeswax
18% cocoa butter
23.5% coconut oil
35% grapeseed oil
I tested both #2 and #3 on myself and my boyfriend (right inside forearm #2, left inside forearm #3). I have drier and very sensitive skin ; he doesn’t have much issues with his (except some folliculitis).
I chose the inside forearm because the skin is thin and delicate. This is always the spot where I test cosmetics to see if I will have an allergic reaction.
On application, both #2 and #3 bars melt as fast. 15 minutes after application, the skin looks and feels about the same for both recipes, on me and my bf. At least an hour after application, #2 feels significantly less oily than #3 on my bf’s skin and minimally less oily than #3 on mine.
Neither him nor I had a skin reaction to either recipes, but I’m reluctant to use #3 for bars I will sell because I keep reading that coconut oil sensitivity is common. What do you think?
Finally, I tried another recipe to see if the bars would melt less easily but still easily enough (#4):
30% beeswax
21% cocoa butter
13% mango butter
36% grapeseed oil
As you see, the proportions of each type of ingredient are similar in recipes #1 and #4:
Beeswax: 34% in #1 vs 30% in #4
Butters: 32% in #1 vs 34% in #4
Liquid oils: 34% in #1 vs 36% in #4
My objective was to see if decreasing the beeswax a little would make the #4 bars harder than recipes #2 or #3 (yes), but a bit easier to melt than recipe #1 (yes, significantly).
I hadn’t expected such a big difference in melting speed, after all there is just 4% less beeswax in #4 compared to #1.
Would the jojoba oil explain this?
