tweak my recipe?

[Stacey]

I'd like to ask for some help with my lip balm recipe please. :?:

I got the recipe several years ago off the internet somewhere...sorry, I can't remember where. Those where the days of collecting recipes and not remembering to credit the originator... . Sorry.

.50 Beeswax
.60 unrefined cocoa butter
.20 shea butter
.80 sweet almond oil
.40 castor
.30 jojoba oil
.20 avocado
10 drops eo (I usually use peppermint)
10 drops Vit. E

Two issues:
1. There are a ton of ingredients. All look to be great oils but it seems like I could be duplicating the properties of oil from the other. KWIM? I don't MIND having so many ingredients if they each bring seperate value to the balm. But if we're talking for example that avocado brings the same value of jojoba...why have both? Would there be any oils that you would trade out?

2. A crazy as it sounds...it doesn't seem very moisturizing...with all those lovely oils, I would think it should be crazy good for moisturing. I find that I tend to use my balms more on the weekends. (during the week I wear lipstick/gloss to the office.) It seems that by the time the weekend is over that my lips are a little dry.

Do I have too many/much hard oils? It goes on well and has good slick. It feels good when on.

Or does it really come down to this?: Are my expectations skewed because of the vast amount of whatever it is that they put in commercial lipsticks/glosses that provide moisture? *shrugs*

Your Thoughts/Opinions?

Thanks!
S

 

[saltydog]

I'd like to ask for some help with my lip balm recipe please. :?:

I got the recipe several years ago off the internet somewhere...sorry, I can't remember where. Those where the days of collecting recipes and not remembering to credit the originator... . Sorry.

.50 Beeswax
.60 unrefined cocoa butter
.20 shea butter
.80 sweet almond oil
.40 castor
.30 jojoba oil
.20 avocado
10 drops eo (I usually use peppermint)
10 drops Vit. E

Two issues:
1. There are a ton of ingredients. All look to be great oils but it seems like I could be duplicating the properties of oil from the other. KWIM? I don't MIND having so many ingredients if they each bring seperate value to the balm. But if we're talking for example that avocado brings the same value of jojoba...why have both? Would there be any oils that you would trade out?

2. A crazy as it sounds...it doesn't seem very moisturizing...with all those lovely oils, I would think it should be crazy good for moisturing. I find that I tend to use my balms more on the weekends. (during the week I wear lipstick/gloss to the office.) It seems that by the time the weekend is over that my lips are a little dry.

Do I have too many/much hard oils? It goes on well and has good slick. It feels good when on.

Or does it really come down to this?: Are my expectations skewed because of the vast amount of whatever it is that they put in commercial lipsticks/glosses that provide moisture? *shrugs*

Your Thoughts/Opinions?

Thanks!
S

Hi Stacey,
I love my lip balm and always reach for it rather than commercial. I think you can make a really nice balm, it's just a bit of trial and error to see what you like. Your lip balm sounds like it would be moisturizing, you say it goes on well and feels good, but your lips feel dry after using it all weekend- maybe you just need to adjust your oils?

Your lip balm recipe is approx 57% soft oil to 43% hard (i didn't include the EO or vit. E) and you can def do it with less oils.
My fave recipe is very close to that, percentage wise. I like more soft than hard, I'm not fond of the waxy balms, I prefer it more emollient but firm enough for a roll-up tube.

I used MMS's guidelines (roughly): http://www.thesage.com/recipes/recipes. ... play&id=19
and then added soft oils, 5 grams at a time, until I got what felt really good to me. I especially like Castor, Avocado & Apricot Kernel Oil for my soft oils. I've read some people aren't fond of Castor, but I feel like it gives my balm real staying power.
I wrote all my additions down as I went and since I'm not good with math, I ran it thru soap calc just to get all my percentages so I could adjust my recipe if needed.

I don't think I would use Cocoa and Shea, I think one or the other is fine if your trying to cut down on the amount of different oils. I also use Coconut in mine, it's slick and firm. I would also choose either Jojoba or Avocado, but probably not both.
I'm no expert, just trying to help and let you know what worked for me. I think if you cut a couple oils out and tweak it just a bit you will be very happy. Mine took about 8 tweaks (mostly adding more soft oils) to get it nice for me.
I would add the extra oil, pour half a tube, let it harden and then use it for a while before I decided if I wanted a touch more moisture- and it's freakin fantastic, lol.
Hope this helps in some way, good luck with your balm!

 

[paillo]

i would substitute the peppermint eo with a flavor oil specifically intended for lip balms. peppermint -- or other eos for that matter -- can be skin irritants. i know i've certainly found that with peppermint eo in lip balms

 

[Stacey]

Wow! Val! Thank you for such a thorough answer. Clearly you gave this some good thought and I certainly appreciate that. Not only did you make great suggestions you also pointed me in a direction and suggested ways to to do/help of my own research. That's terrific. Truly, thank you.

I'm excited to try out your advice. Good thing it's the weekend right now!

Paillo, thank you too for the suggestion. I'm aware of the skin irritation with the Peppermint EO, that why I used so little. I do like a little bit of the coolness/tingly with the Peppermint. But I am aware to use strong caution with it.

Here's cautionary side story about using too much Peppermint EO. I've been experimenting with making flax seed hair gel. It doesn't have the best fragrance to it so I added a little peppermint EO to jazz it up. Well apparently I added too much. I didn't get burned or too irritated with it but man o man, it sure woke my scalp up when I used it. :? Learned my lesson the hard the way.

The next time I made it I used so little that you can hardly smell it. Hopefully the third time will the be charm!

But yes on a serious note using EO's do take a lot of caution. Good thing I'm only experimenting on myself.

 

[saltydog]

Wow! Val! Thank you for such a thorough answer. Clearly you gave this some good thought and I certainly appreciate that. Not only did you make great suggestions you also pointed me in a direction and suggested ways to to do/help of my own research. That's terrific. Truly, thank you.

I'm excited to try out your advice. Good thing it's the weekend right now!

My pleasure, and I really love your siggy!

 

[PrairieCraft]

I second the use of castor oil, love it. Coconut too.

 

[Stacey]

Me again with another question:
:wink:
I didn't get the chance to test run a new recipe this weekend but I have given it a great deal of thought.

Question about the use of Coconut oil: Are you using the usual 76 degree coconut oil or are you using the 92 degree coconut?

I'm wondering if you're using the lower 76 degree stuff do you have a problem with "pocket melt"? Meaning if someone puts the lip balm tube in their pocket will they have major issues with softness/melting? I'm planning it on swapping it out for the shea butter. I'm guessing that since it's such a small amount of coconut oil that it should be ok as long as I keep the cocobutter and beeswax for hardness...Yes?

Truthfully, I'm kind of glad to be getting rid of the shea. I've had trouble with it getting grainy before. I did figure out that if I freeze the balms right after I make them they'll be fine. But even so...I've had a tube of balm get left in a warm car and when it got hard again, it got grainy. Yuck! I don't want that happening to anyone else using my balms.

I'm also planning on keeping the avocado and the castor. Maybe keeping some of the Vit. E. I probably will look at using some flavor oils too. But I do like that peppermint EO one!

Thanks again for the help!

 

[carebear]

try subbing palm oil (not palm kernel) for the shea butter. it does really well.
or use my favorite thing on earth - Butter-EZ.

 

[saltydog]

Question about the use of Coconut oil: Are you using the usual 76 degree coconut oil or are you using the 92 degree coconut?

I use reg 76 degree.

Truthfully, I'm kind of glad to be getting rid of the shea. I've had trouble with it getting grainy before.

That's why I stayed away from the Shea. The coconut oil stays fine supported by the beeswax and cocoa butter. It actually takes a bit to melt it back down again, I couldn't imagine that it may melt in someones pocket.
BTW, I got a couple flavor oils from Sweetcakes - French Vanilla & Rose and they are soo nice

Let us know how you like it when you finish!

 

[IrishLass]

or use my favorite thing on earth - Butter-EZ.

Yes! I completely concur. ButterEZ is awesome.

IrishLass

 

[saltydog]

or use my favorite thing on earth - Butter-EZ.

Hey carebear, I know this is a bit late (I had never heard of ButterEZ until you mentioned it) but I was wondering how you use this product?
Do you add it to the Shea at a certain percentage?
Thanks!

 

[dubnica]

or use my favorite thing on earth - Butter-EZ.

Yes! I completely concur. ButterEZ is awesome.

IrishLass

Yep, i had to re- melp bunch of my lip balms because they got grainy. I added ButterEZ and they are so smooth now. LOOOOVE !

 

[saltydog]

Disregard my above post, found directions on the Lotion Crafter site, duh