SomethingGoodAustin
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- Apr 16, 2012
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Is anyone out there working with magnesium stearate in lip balms or other products? I ask because my balms are behaving rather strangely.
I've been working on a tinted lip balm. My balm base is satisfactory to me, (although it could be a little firmer, possibly). My main concern was color adhesion. I read that magnesium stearate improves adhesion, so I bumped up the amount in the batch from a largish pinch to a full gram--estimated, since my scale doesn't like grams and only weighs in whole numbers for those units.
I'd already added color to this particular batch, which was 21% beeswax. Along with the MS, I added a titch more colorant and mica. Melted, stirred well, melted again, stirred, poured. In the morning, I found a small pool of what seems to be oil on the surface of the balm. More problematically, though, the balm itself had suddenly become incredibly soft. It's about the consistency of soft coconut oil, despite 21% beeswax, 15% cocoa butter, 10% Shea butter and 15% coconut oil 76, and despite the fact that the temp in my working area is generally between 65 and 70 degrees.
Another batch made with candelilla as well as beeswax also softened with increased MS, but not as much, so I think my next step will be bumping up the candelilla and kicking my current all-beeswax formula to the curb. But in the meantime, I thought I would share this current chapter in my lip balm quest saga, in case anyone has any insights or suggestions.
I've been working on a tinted lip balm. My balm base is satisfactory to me, (although it could be a little firmer, possibly). My main concern was color adhesion. I read that magnesium stearate improves adhesion, so I bumped up the amount in the batch from a largish pinch to a full gram--estimated, since my scale doesn't like grams and only weighs in whole numbers for those units.
I'd already added color to this particular batch, which was 21% beeswax. Along with the MS, I added a titch more colorant and mica. Melted, stirred well, melted again, stirred, poured. In the morning, I found a small pool of what seems to be oil on the surface of the balm. More problematically, though, the balm itself had suddenly become incredibly soft. It's about the consistency of soft coconut oil, despite 21% beeswax, 15% cocoa butter, 10% Shea butter and 15% coconut oil 76, and despite the fact that the temp in my working area is generally between 65 and 70 degrees.
Another batch made with candelilla as well as beeswax also softened with increased MS, but not as much, so I think my next step will be bumping up the candelilla and kicking my current all-beeswax formula to the curb. But in the meantime, I thought I would share this current chapter in my lip balm quest saga, in case anyone has any insights or suggestions.
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