Great Cakes Soapworks

(This is part five of our lotionmaking tutorial. Please start at the beginning with the introduction, and work your way up.)

We are finally ready to start formulating our recipe! You will want to work in percentages so that you can duplicate it in any amount.

In order to make a simple lotion, let’s start out with

Water Phase:
78% distilled water

Oil Phase:
5% polawax
8% apricot kernel oil – or other light oil
6.7% shea butter – or mango butter

Additives:
0.3% liquid germall plus – or preservative of choice at manufacturer’s recommended amount
1% vitamin E
1% fragrance

Let’s say you are a soapmaker with a regular sized stick blender and a scale that measures hundredths of an ounce or 1 gram increments. You will need to make at least 16 oz. or 500 grams of lotion in order for the stick blender to be completely immersed and not be whipping lotion all over yourself. Multiply each percentage by 16 or 500, depending on the unit of measurement you feel most comfortable working with to determine the amount of each ingredient.

If you have invested in a mini mixer and a scale that measures in hundredths of a gram, you could make 100 grams of lotion simply by changing the percent amounts to gram measurements – 78% distilled water = 78 grams of water, etc.

Once you have your recipe written out in measurements, you can begin! For demonstration purposes I will be making the smaller batch, just switching the percent amounts to grams.

1. Sterilize all of your bowls, spoons, counterspace, and hand blender.

2. Weigh the distilled water in a pyrex measuring cup that is large enough to hold your total amount of ingredients. I had to use my large scale, since my small one will only weigh up to 50 grams.

Weighing the water

3. Heat the water to 170 degrees.
Your method of heating could be one of two things: either creating a double boiler system on the stove, or using your microwave (make sure it is clean!). Some people argue that valuable nutrients are lost from the use of the microwave. I haven’t noticed a difference in the feel of the lotion by using the microwave, although I do use half power when heating my oil phase ingredients. It would be hard to say if the structure or nutrients of the oils have been compromised. If someone knows of a study where this has been proven, I would love to hear about it.

4. Weigh the polawax, apricot kernel oil (or other light oil) and shea (or mango) butter in another glass cup, and heat to 170 degrees.

Emulsifier and Oils weighed in cup

After one minute in the microwave on half power, the polawax and shea butter aren’t completely melted, let alone 170 degrees:

Emulsifier and Oils after 1 minute in microwave at half power

Just thirty seconds more at half power gives the results we want:

Emulsifier and Oils Completely Melted

5. Once the liquid and oil phases have been heated, check to be sure the temperatures are within 10 degrees of one another and pour the oils into the water. (It’s a bit more difficult to keep both phases near the same temperature when you are making a very small batch. Just re-heat as necessary.) Agitate with your high shear mixer or hand blender. This is my favorite part of the process since you can immediately see the water get cloudy when the oils are poured in.

Pouring the Oil Phase into the Water Phase

6. Weigh the vitamin E, preservative and fragrance; add them to the emulsion after it cools to 100 degrees or less. You can speed up the cooling process by placing the measuring cup of fresh emulsion in an ice water bath – either using the container you used for your double boiler system, or another larger bowl, being very careful not to contaminate the lotion.

Here is the final lotion, complete with additives. It’s a little on the thin side right now, but it will thicken as it cools. I always test a little bit on the back of my hand, just because I can’t help myself, and I must say this one feels very nice!

Finished Lotion, around 85 degrees

7. At this point, I cover the pyrex cup with plastic wrap to protect the lotion inside, leaving the spout hole open. Then I let the lotion set up overnight to see what the final texture and thickness will be.

Perhaps you are wondering about adding color. There aren’t any natural ways to color your lotion. Some people are more interested in color and fragrance than how natural your product is, so this may not be a problem. If you want to color your lotion, you will need to have a very white lotion base, and use water-soluble dyes. I have successfully used several different brands of FD&C dyes. MMS has a water-soluble dye kit with three colors that you can mix. I haven’t used it before, but it looks like it would work well, and is less expensive than others I’ve seen. It only takes a few drops, so add a few at a time until you get the desired brightness.

What if you aren’t satisfied with the results of your lotion so far? Our next lesson will be ways we can tweak our recipe!

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