Mostly shea lotion....

[SudsyKat]

Ok, this post is for you lotion making geniuses. Here's your chance to show off your know-how! Has anyone ever formulated a mostly shea lotion or body butter?

Forgive the long intro, but just to give you an idea of where I'm coming from - I have made lots of lotions, but I generally follow swiftcraftymonkey's formulas. I have tweaked stuff as well, so I am somewhat familiar with that process. My problem is that most of the lotions I make are fairly thick (and I do add the water back to the heated water phase after heating, so that's not the issue). I guess thick lotions are not really a problem, but I would really like to make a softer/thinner lotion (like a commercial body butter), containing mostly or all shea in the oil phase. I've decided to try to work with the HLB system, which I totally understand from a thinking standpoint, but have never actually tried.

I'm wondering if anyone has ever tried this and what you think of the idea? I'm thinking this product would be for people who have really dry skin and don't mind a little oiliness in their products. I could throw in some IPM for good measure, of course. Pure shea butter spreads beautifully, and if I don't use too much wax for emulsification, or any other thickening agent, I'm thinking this would have similar spreadability.

Thanks for your input!

 

[melstan775]

I've seen Shea lotions that are pure Shea with just jojoba oil or sweet almond oil for spread ability. What's HLB and IPM?

 

[SudsyKat]

Melstan775, what you're describing is like a whipped shea butter, which is a great product also. And I might just end up doing that instead. At the moment, I'm trying to make an emulsion (oil and water). The HLB system is a way of figuring out how much emulsifier you need to emulsify certain amounts of certain oils. IPM is short for Isopropyl Myristate, a fantastic ingredient which makes your creations less oily. Hope that helps.

 

[sistrum]

So it sounds like you are making a single oil lotion, right? If so I would just cut back on the amount of shea butter you are using because butters being thick will make a thicker product or leave out the thickeners if you are using any ( don't know because I don't know what your recipe or process is). Good luck.

 

[SudsyKat]

Thanks, sistrum. I do want to make a single oil lotion. My recipe will be as short a list of products as I can make it. I'm thinking water, shea, whatever emulsifying agents I use and maybe a little IPM.

As for thickening, I was hoping I could make a thinner product by formulating my own emulsifying agent (hence the mention of the HLB system), instead of using Polawax or some other wax-type agent. That's how the commercial products can be so wonderfully flowy - like L'Occitane makes a body butter with 25% shea and it's as thick as you would think. That's where I got the idea.

I guess I'll just formulate something and give it a go! Thanks

 

[judymoody]

I think there are two ways you could go:

I suggest if you haven't already done so that you go to the Herbarie and read up on the emulsifiers that they sell. Lotioncrafter would be another excellent supplier. If you want more glide or a lighter consistency but want to stick to shea alone, changing the emulsifier might be all you need to do. Based on your mention of the HLB system, you may be heading in this direction already.

The other option is to consider something other than shea to get a looser consistency. Rice bran oil makes a very nice lotion which is good for, ahem, maturing skin.

I am not an expert by any means. I also have a bunch of emulsifiers sitting on my shelf that I have yet to use.

I assume you'll also be using a preservative in your ingredients short list?

 

[SudsyKat]

Thanks Judymoody! Yes, definitely will use a preservative. I forgot to mention that, and I know it's very important! I get a lot of stuff from both The Herbarie and Lotioncrafter. I will research some more and see what might work for me. Good point about rice bran oil. How did you know that just this evening, I was working on a body lotion for ... mature... skin? I don't know why I'm so stuck on Shea Butter. I guess it just has such label appeal. Anyhow, thanks for the input!

 

[three_little_fishes]

New to the forum and I have only made body butter once and for myself. So I could be completely lost and not have a clue what a lot of what is said on this board means. I'm just figuring out soap so I should probably stick to learning that first!

I used a recipe once found online that was simply 1 cup shea butter, 1/2 cup coconut, 1/2 liquid oil (I used almond)....all melted and whipped together. I need to make more because it was amazing.

PS: You guys lost me at emulsifiers.

 

[SudsyKat]

Three little fishes - body butter is a great product as well. I may just go with that instead, if I don't come up with a solution for what I'm trying to do. I just thought of another idea as well, to make the lotions softer/thinner. I could add an ester like "Peg-7 Olivate" to the water phase, instead of adding more oils, giving the lotion substance without adding thickness (and I don't think you have to compensate with more emulsifier, since it's not technically an oil). Anyhow, that's not related to shea, but just a thought in general, as a way to get that rich lotion without having it be too thick.

...update - just checked into Peg-7 Olivate. I thought that maybe since it is water soluble, I could add it to the water phase and not have to consider it an oil (not have to add more emulsifyer). Unfortunately, that's not the case. Just FYI - in case anyone is following this. It is added to the oil phase and considered an oil for the purposes of calculating your emulsifyer amount. Boohoo.

 

[new12soap]

SudsyKat, are you trying to make a thinner lotion or a thicker body butter that just has more glide? I am not sure what you after here but this is really interesting. I have not formulated using HLB on my own (yet!), but like you when I follow swift's recipes (she is awesome) the lotion is much thicker and more "oily" than I like. I compensate by using MUCH more water and adjusting my preservative. I have also found that I prefer BTMS over e-wax, or ideally I blend the two. Whereas the e-wax does indeed have more of a waxy oily feel, the btms is drier, more powder-y feeling, and IMO has more glide but without thickening. Also unlike e-wax the btms is charged and is much better at actually bonding with and moisturizing the skin, not just sitting on top of it. You probably already know all this, I only mention it because you didn't say if you had tried it. I say start w say 15% shea, 3-4% emulsifier, preservative of choice, and see what happens! You can always adjust w IPM or try another emulsifier if you don't like it, but just start very very small, like 100g total batch size.

Please keep us posted on your progress!

 

[new12soap]

I just hunted down the shea body butter and looked at the ingredients, they also add cyclomethicone and dimethicone, which will contribute a lot to that nice "feel".

 

[SudsyKat]

New12Soap - thanks so much for the input! It's nice to hear that someone else has had similar experiences when working with Swift's recipes. I love them, as you do, but they tend to be a bit thick. And it's not really even thick - it's just thick compared to commercial products like Origins, etc. I always use Polawax, just out of habit, though I do make one foot cream with BTMS-50. I was under the impression that BTMS would be even thicker, but come to think of it, the cream I make with it is quite nice and glidy and not really all that thick. So I will definitely give it a try! I'm doing 20 things at once at the moment, so it may not be right away, but I will post my results. Thanks again!

 

[panzerakc]

"Smart Lotionmaking", Anne L. Watson's book, has a recipe that uses shea butter and shea oil.

I'm making it even as we speak as my first lotion-making attempt.

Anita

 

[Earthchild]

Did you make this yet? I'm curious to hear your results. Check out LotionPro 165 from Lotioncrafter for your emulsifier. It's a complete system (glyceral stearate and peg 100 stearate) so will be easier to work with than the HLB system and yield a much thinner product than e-wax or BTMS. I use it to make a body butter that feels more like a lotion. Just a thought.

 

[SudsyKat]

Panzerakc - I haven't had a chance yet - It may be a few weeks. I'm just getting my business underway. i have my first "gig" in a couple of weeks and I may be accepted into my local farmers market this month as well. Very exciting! I'm trying to make sure I have enough product. But I can't wait to try this, along with a bunch of other fun ideas I have lined up. I'll let you know when I do make this!

 

[itunu]

I second lotionpro - it's amazing - really hydrating, light and spreadable so not thick like polawax and some ewaxes.

But if you decide to give HLB a go you can download the HLB calculator I created here (it does all the work for you):-

http://diybathandbody.wordpress.com/hlb-calculator/

If you go the HLB route would recommend pairing glyceryl stearate (make sure it's not the SE version) up with cetearth-20