Question re heating oil & water for making lotion or cre

[Manda]

I would like to try making lotion from scratch so have been reading up on recipes and tutorials... and now I'm confused! :?

Some instructions say to heat the water phase ingredients separately to the oil phase ingredients and then to combine them all once heated/melted. Some instructions say to heat the oil and water together but heat the emulsifying wax separately. Some instructions say to heat the whole lot together.

What is best? Does it really matter? Seems as though heating the whole lot together would be the easiest way to do it but surely there must be a reason why so many recipes say to heat things separately....?!? :shock:

 

[Deda]

I heat and hold the water for 20 minutes, then I use a one pot method. I've had no issues with separation.

 

[CookieChan]

I heat and hold the water for 20 minutes, then I use a one pot method. I've had no issues with separation.

Why hold the water for 20 minutes?

 

[IanT]

I ususally heat my water...and oils seperately... The e-wax and stearic are added to the oil phase and get melted along with any of the butters etc...

Not sure of the difference of heating the whole thing and heating the ewax seperately...never tried it that way, but once I have my water and oils heated to the same temperature I combine them... Its important to make sure that theyre both around the same temp because if the water is colder than the oils, it will cause the ewax to bead up and rice ... which will lead to you having to heat the mixture back up again (I have done this a few times... )

I have not had any issues with separation after my lotion is good to go and in its containers...

.....

Not sure if I can answer your question directed at Deda...but my assumption (and we alllll know what happens when we make assumptions)... is that it is to "cook" off all the chlorine and flouride and all that other stuff they add to our drinking water?

 

[Manda]

Thanks for your replies.

Deda, heating the water for 20 mins - would that be to ensure all germs are killed?

Do you think that would be the only reason to heat the oil & water separately?

Ian - if it's important that the oil and water are both at the same temp wouldn't it make sense to heat them together? Surely there must be a good reason why so many recipes call for them to be heated separately... What about safety? Could the oil/water possibly spit & spatter if you heat it together and get it too hot?? :shock:

When I get my supplies I think I'll just try doing it all together. If it works, great, if not, we may be closer to knowing why!

 

[Deda]

Deda, heating the water for 20 mins - would that be to ensure all germs are killed?

Exactly, and used distilled water.

 

[kittywings]

I never pay attention to if they're the same temp. BUT they usually spend the same amount of time on the same amount of heat... so I guess they kind of are the same temp.

 

[Manda]

Well I made my first batch of cream using the basic recipe from ASS and it turned out like cream!!! Whaddya know?!
Super impressed with it as I was half expecting it to be a flop. And I didn't realise how easy it was!

I am still not sure where to get distilled water from, all I could find was filtered "spring water" in bottles so I bought that, then boiled it in the kettle, then measured (weighed) it into my pyrex "double boiler" put all the other ingredients in (execpt for the preservative & FO) and heated until it all melted.

I had a sugar thermometre in there which I think got up to 55-60C and when it'd cooled to around 50C I used the stick blender on it. Then when it'd cooled to about 35C is when I added the preservative and FO.

It feels and smells great however I'm just a bit worried about a few things..

1. Did I get it hot enough? I did boil the filtered water first but do I really need to boil it for 20 mins? If I was going to do that then shouldn't I boil everything for that long? I mean, the utensils I used were washed and clean but weren't boiled at all. The other ingredients could possibly harbour contaminents, and I didn't boil or sterilize the (new) plastic tottles and PET jars because I think they would melt.
I guess I'm just not sure if "clean" is good enough or if everything should be "sterile". I mean as soon as someone dips their fingers into the cream the contamination could begin...
I'm not looking to sell as I know I'd def have to get challenge testing done first, so will just be giving to friends and family but I still want to give them a safe product that won't go bad or grow yuckies.

2. I couldn't easily weigh the preservative. While my digital scales weigh to the gram, they're not very accurate at measuring small increments. (For example I was using mac wax one day, chopping bits off and putting it in the bowl on the scale and I seemed to be putting heaps in and yet the scale was still reading 0g. So I poured the wax out, put the bowl back on the scale, still reading 0g, then plonked the wax back in all at once and it read 5g.) My small test batch called for 1.25g of preservative, so I used a pipette to add 1.25ml. I later read something that said 1g of preservative converts to 1.5ml. So now I'm worried I didn't put enough in.

Just thinking about it while I type, next time I could weigh the preservative bottle before, then after removing some, to see what the weight difference is... that'll work!

 

[IanT]

Thanks for your replies.

Deda, heating the water for 20 mins - would that be to ensure all germs are killed?

Do you think that would be the only reason to heat the oil & water separately?

Ian - if it's important that the oil and water are both at the same temp wouldn't it make sense to heat them together? Surely there must be a good reason why so many recipes call for them to be heated separately... What about safety? Could the oil/water possibly spit & spatter if you heat it together and get it too hot?? :shock:

When I get my supplies I think I'll just try doing it all together. If it works, great, if not, we may be closer to knowing why!

Im not sure if heating them together would work because there is an oil and water phase... I have not experimented with any other techniques than the phase technique..i figure if it aint broke dont fix it ya know? but it would be a cool experiment!?

I dont really measure the temperature...i just make sure they are both heated very thoroughly...and the difference in temperatures are not very great... so this way none of my emulsifiers rice up ... that has been my experience thus far at least

 

[Manda]

What does 'rice up' mean? Is it sort of like curdling?

I heated them all together and so far so good...!