My first lotion!

[LauraHoosier]

I used swiftcraftmonkey's directions and recipe with a few changes to match what supplies I had and I just love how it turned out with the exception of (may be me since the headcold isn't quite gone) a slight smell I can't put my finger on.

Recipe Used:
5.6oz Water
1.2 oz Organic, Hi Oleic Sunflower Oil
.4oz Shea Butter
.2oz Steric Acid
.4oz BTMS-50
.1oz Phenonip
.1oz OMH FO

Tiny I know but it worked out ok. After stick blending at the end and letting it cool it's almost a cream consistency. So far I can take the top off the wide mouthed container, turn it upside down and it doesn't move much lol. I love how it feels on my hands and forearms. I'll re-check the smell after my cold clears the rest of the way out.

 

[soapbuddy]

You can use Phenonip up to 1%. In your case that would come out to 0.07. You have too much preservative in there, which could be irritating.

 

[Sunny]

may be easier to work in grams if you are doing very small recipes.

 

[LauraHoosier]

I used SoapMaker 3 to come up with my numbers and they're rounded up due to the small size which makes them all wrong. Thanks you two for the catch and reminder to use grams on small batches. If I'd have switched them to grams I'd have seen my mistake. Going to do a redo tomorrow the right way.

 

[IrishLass]

I used swiftcraftmonkey's directions and recipe with a few changes to match what supplies I had and I just love how it turned out with the exception of (may be me since the headcold isn't quite gone) a slight smell I can't put my finger on.

Congratulations on your first lotion!

That smell could be coming from the BTMS. To my nose, BTMS smells a lot like fish, and I can smell it in my lotion if I go over a certain %.

I remember a few discussions about the fishy-like smell of BTMS on another furum a few years ago. If I remember right, some people said they could definitely smell fish and others said they couldn't. I remember Swiftcraftmonkey being a part of one of the the discussions and saying that the kids in her youth group could smell it a mile away and refuse to make anything with it, while she herself can detect it only every once in a while in the bag, but not in the lotion itself.

When I open up my bag of BTMS- which I bought from LotionCrafters so it's good stuff- it smells like low tide. I can smell it and my family can smell it. I can even smell it in my lotion as low as 2%. I sure do like how it cuts down on the greasies, though. I reformulated my recipe and I now split my emulsifier % into part Polawax and part BTMS, keeping the BTMS at 1.25%. It seems like a small amount, but since I also started adding avocado oil (one of the drier oils) in my recipe along with it, it's enough to cut the greasies for me. And the lower % keeps the fishy smell at bay.

IrishLass

 

[judymoody]

I used swiftcraftmonkey's directions and recipe with a few changes to match what supplies I had and I just love how it turned out with the exception of (may be me since the headcold isn't quite gone) a slight smell I can't put my finger on.

Congratulations on your first lotion!

That smell could be coming from the BTMS. To my nose, BTMS smells a lot like fish, and I can smell it in my lotion if I go over a certain %.

I remember a few discussions about the fishy-like smell of BTMS on another furum a few years ago. If I remember right, some people said they could definitely smell fish and others said they couldn't. I remember Swiftcraftmonkey being a part of one of the the discussions and saying that the kids in her youth group could smell it a mile away and refuse to make anything with it, while she herself can detect it only every once in a while in the bag, but not in the lotion itself.

When I open up my bag of BTMS- which I bought from LotionCrafters so it's good stuff- it smells like low tide. I can smell it and my family can smell it. I can even smell it in my lotion as low as 2%. I sure do like how it cuts down on the greasies, though. I reformulated my recipe and I now split my emulsifier % into part Polawax and part BTMS, keeping the BTMS at 1.25%. It seems like a small amount, but since I also started adding avocado oil (one of the drier oils) in my recipe along with it, it's enough to cut the greasies for me. And the lower % keeps the fishy smell at bay.

IrishLass

+ 1. I think BTMS smells fishy also. I use it in my syndet shampoo bars and in conditioner. I have found that the smell dissipates in a day or two. Or it can be covered up with a small amount of fragrance.

 

[LauraHoosier]

I'll give that a try then. I did buy more then one kind of emulsifier, thickener ect. so I could see what I liked best and have options. Thanks IrishLass and judymoody.