Making Lotion: Troubleshooting Your Recipe
Yesterday we formulated a recipe to make a simple lotion. I thought it turned out very nice, but it’s not very thick. It soaks in quickly, but it doesn’t glide across the skin very well. Now, I’m not saying that you couldn’t give this to your friends and they wouldn’t be amazed at your incredible talent, because let’s face it: who makes their own lotion?? But, I am saying that we could tweak the recipe just a bit and make it better.
Perhaps you have a recipe that you’ve made and it’s not quite the way you want it to be. Let’s look at some of the most common problems I’ve faced when formulating a new lotion recipe, then we’ll get back to the changes I would make to the lotion from yesterday.
1. It’s too thin. This one is fairly easy to fix. Decrease the liquids slightly, and re-figure the percentages of the ingredients.
2. It’s too thick. Also a simple fix. Increase the liquids a bit, and re-figure the percentages.
3. It’s too greasy. There are several possible solutions to this problem. One is to add some tapioca starch with the additives at the end. I’ve tried this, but it wasn’t my favorite solution. Another possibility is to substitute oils that are easier to absorb in your skin, such as sweet almond, apricot kernel, jojoba, macadamia nut, or fractionated coconut oil. As you can see, three out of five of these are nut oils which may pose a problem for people with allergies. Use your own judgment. Another option is to add some IPM (isopropyl miristate). It’s not an all-natural ingredient, but it’s not sensitizing either. It imparts a dry, velvety emollience to products. Try 1-3% as part of your additives.
4. The color is too murky or greyish. This goes back to my tips for choosing oils and butters. Remember that darker oils and butters will create darker colored lotions. Clear jojoba works well, as does fractionated coconut oil, which is also clear. If you choose to make a hemp lotion, it will likely have a greenish tint to it. If you plan to package in an opaque container, this might not be an issue anyway. But, if you want to color your lotion, you will need a very white lotion base.
5. The texture isn’t smooth. I had trouble with this when I used Optiphen Plus as my preservative. If I didn’t add it at just the right temperature, it seemed like it had an adverse effect on the final texture of the lotion. One of my soaping friends suggested cooling down the water to 140 degrees, then add the Optiphen Plus directly to the water before adding the oil phase. This seemed to fix the problem. I also had trouble with this when I tried a new preservative called Geogard Ultra. I never figured out a solution though, so I haven’t used the product since!
6. It’s too waxy. Some recipes include ingredients like stearic acid to give the lotion more body. The other effect is to make it too waxy feeling and not slip across the skin. If you are using stearic acid, find a way to use something else! Use shea or cocoa butter instead if your goal is to use the most natural ingredients possible. If you aren’t using stearic, but still want a more slippery feel, try adding some silicone oils. They aren’t all natural, but they aren’t sensitizing either. Cyclomethicone and dimethicone are good choices – adding just 1% of each with the other additives will make a noticable difference. Your emulsifier can change the way your lotion feels too. You could back down the amount of emulsifying wax, or try some BTMS instead. It has a more conditioning feel, as does OlivEm 1000.
6. The lotion separated! I have not personally had trouble with this before, but I’ve heard of people who have. If you have used polawax at the proper amount, this should not be a problem. Check your recipe to be sure you have added the correct amounts. If the amounts are correct, then it could be a temperature problem – the oil and water phases weren’t the same temperature when you combined them. You can gently re-heat your emulsion – preferably in a double boiler, constantly stirring until it becomes liquid-y again. Check the temperature, and if it’s still under 140 degrees, you shouldn’t have to add more preservative. If it’s over that temp, you will need to cool it back down and add more. Use your high shear mixing device to continue blending until the emulsion cools and stabilizes.
Back to our recipe from yesterday. If I wanted to make it thicker and have more glide, I would decrease the liquids to 74%, increase the apricot kernel oil and shea butter by 1% each, and add 1% each of cyclomethicone and dimethicone. The new recipe would look like this:
Water Phase:
74% distilled water
Oil Phase:
5% polawax
9% apricot kernel oil – or other light oil
7.7% shea butter – or mango butter
Additives:
0.3% liquid germall plus – or preservative of choice at manufacturer’s recommended amount
1% vitamin E
1% cyclomethicone
1% dimethicone
1% fragrance
Whatever changes you decide to make, it is important to write everything down and make sure your formula still equals 100%. Take notes on what works and what doesn’t work. Keep a journal – and a sense of humor! Lotion making is fun! (And you get to keep the test batches that didn’t turn out quite right for yourself!)
Next lesson: How to package and label your lotion.
troubleshooting lotion recipe, handmade lotion too greasy, lotion separated
November 30th, 2009 at 1:20 pm
Thank you for the informative article. I have only make two batches of lotion so far and I’m pretty happy with them. I am looking to make a thinner lotion for all over body use, and something that would come out of a bottle without banging on it. I wouldn’t want it runny though. I made on using almond oil, water, and emulsifying wax. It is a little to thick, would it help to use a different emulsifier. I am looking to use organic or natural ingredients.
November 30th, 2009 at 1:45 pm
Marcia – any recipe can be tweaked to make it thicker or thinner. I don’t know what your percentages are, so I’m not entirely sure how to counsel you. However, you can easily thin your lotion a bit by reducing the amount of emulsifier or increasing the amount of water. I’m not sure which to tell you without seeing your recipe. Feel free to contact me directly.
February 10th, 2010 at 2:49 pm
I just discovered your site today and thank you for the great info! I do still have some questions regarding things that I have researched myself and found conflicting information. I’m trying to keep my products as natural as possible but do plan to sell them eventually. I’m not sure what to believe about the preservatives out there. I’ve heard that Potassium sorbate is more natural but not very effective. Also, is it necessary to weigh the products to figure percentages or can I figure the total ounces and percentages in ounces? Hope I’m not bombarding you with too many questions! Thanks so much!
February 10th, 2010 at 4:20 pm
@Danielle: The only way to know if your preservative is effective is to get your formula challenge tested by a lab. I send mine to Dr. Cindy Jones of Sagescript Institute. If you want a more natural preservative, I recommend using tinosan – it’s citric acid and silver citrate.
If I understand your question correctly, you can figure your formula entirely on paper without weighing anything. When you actually put the ingredients together, you must weigh them.
February 10th, 2010 at 7:16 pm
Hi Amy, thanks for the quick response. It’s so awesome that you are willing to share your knowlede. I also fist made some products for family for Christmas and got really good reviews. Is there any way to know what kind of shelf life your products will have with the preservatives or do you just have to test it over time?Is it only water based products that need them or are there some oils that will cause the bacteria to grow? I’m just not getting the weighing and % system, why is it that you have to weigh the end product? I’ve never followed a recipe based on % of ingredients.I have just been mixing and adjusting until its the right balance & writing it down as I go! A cup of this, a tbsp of that,no wonder I’m lost! LOL
February 10th, 2010 at 9:00 pm
@Danielle – Whenever I send my products to Dr. Jones, she is able to tell me based on the amount of bacterial growth during the challenge test about how long the shelf life will be – you can’t know for sure without testing it again, of course. You can re-test the product after 6 months to a year to see if it has changed.
It’s mainly products that contain water-based ingredients that are the most likely to grow bacteria. Although bacteria can grow in oil based ingredients if they happen to be contaminated, which is why you should heat both the water phase and oil phase to 170 degrees to kill any nasties.
Weighing the ingredients is the only way to have consistency in your formula. A tablespoon of emulsifying wax is going to be completely different than a tablespoon of shea butter. If your formula is in percentages, you can increase or decrease the amount you make consistently as well. You should start out making small test batches of lotion. Once you have it the way you like it and need to mass produce it, you can re-produce it exactly if you use the same percentages.
February 10th, 2010 at 9:16 pm
thanks again! That makes sense and I feel a little more confident with it!
March 19th, 2010 at 12:16 am
Thank you so much for this post. You just saved me! Made a big batch of baby lotion and it started separating. I heated it as you advised, gave it a nice stir with my high shear mixer and voila…stable. Thank goodness!
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March 21st, 2010 at 9:18 pm
Amy, have you had any difficulties with that Olivem 1000 emulsifier yet? I love the texture and original outcome of the lotions I’m making with it. They are very light and have a whipped texture to them but after a few days they start to become runny. It doesnt really look like its seperating to me but just turning into a liquid. Do you have any suggestions? I’m not sure if i need to increase the percentage of the olivem but I also dont want it to become greasy.
March 22nd, 2010 at 9:07 am
@Danielle – I have not had any issues with the Olivem 1000. I’ve heard that certain preservatives can cause adverse reactions, such as liquidy lotion, but I thought that usually happened right away, not after a few days. I would ask Angie at The Herbarie if she has any recommendations. She’s very knowledgeable!
March 25th, 2010 at 9:58 am
Hey, thank you for the tip on using cocoa butter instead of stearic acid. I have a recipe that calls for 2 teaspoons of stearic acid. If I were to use cocoa butter would I use the same amount or more or less? How much cocoa butter do you think would be sufficient enough to thicken a 12 oz bottle of lotion?
March 25th, 2010 at 10:28 am
@Eva – First, I would suggest making sure you are weighing all your ingredients. It’s very difficult to get consistent results – especially with a 12 oz. recipe if you don’t. I’ll have to contact you directly to get more information about your recipe before I can advise how much cocoa butter to use.
March 28th, 2010 at 2:32 pm
If an emulsion LOOKS creamy, but then separates when rubbing it into the skin, is that due to too much wax in the formula?
March 28th, 2010 at 4:13 pm
@Melissa – You’ll have to tell me what your emulsion system is. Are you using beeswax & borax, or emulsifying wax, or something else?
March 28th, 2010 at 5:42 pm
beeswax and xantham gum are my only emulsifiers/thickeners…what does the borax do? My oils (though i dont think it matters) are avacado, shea, lanolin, and olive. My preservative is Tinosan and i feel like ive heard it can seperate emulsions sometimes or maybe this was a different preservative i read about?
March 28th, 2010 at 6:38 pm
@Melissa – Sounds like you may have an iffy emulsion system. Your other ingredients make me think that you are looking for the most natural ingredients possible. I strive for the same; however, I rely pretty heavily on emulsifying wax (naturally derived ingredients) because I know it will be stable. Personal preference for me, but you might want to consider it. From what I’ve heard, there aren’t any other really reliable emulsion systems that are truly natural and don’t have an offensive odor. P.S. I’ve never used beeswax & borax before, I just know that others do and some have issues with separation. You might check with Angie from The Herbarie for more information. She’s truly an expert.
March 28th, 2010 at 6:58 pm
i do, in fact everything i make has ingredients you can pronounce and identify in its natural state (aside form the tinosan, but thats for legal purposes). I have made similar lotions before that held together excellently, however this time i followed a recipe i devised myself that apparently went wrong and i dont know wnough about how my ingredients work to fix it. All my attempts to fix have resulted in the same (mostly because i added more H2O and it ended up with the same result only with more of the water smearing effect). Its like my lotion is encapsulating water and when you go to spread it it pops the capsuls of water and it feels liek your rubbing water around on a wax surface. Im so thrown by it.
March 28th, 2010 at 7:08 pm
@Melissa – It’s an interesting problem…wish I had better answers for you. Definitely check with Angie at The Herbarie or Jen at Lotioncrafters. They are both very knowledgeable.
March 29th, 2010 at 8:50 am
how do i do that? do they mind answering these kind of questions?
March 29th, 2010 at 8:57 am
Not at all. That’s why they are in the business.
Here’s the contact form for Jen, and there’s one for Angie too. Jen usually calls you. She’s pretty amazing.
April 24th, 2010 at 8:44 am
I have a problem with the last batch of lotion I made which I have never had before.
I use lannette N wax and stearic acid to emulsify, and solubulizer. My usual practice is to add my water to my oil and emulsifier, and blend. It mixes, then seperates again. (looks like scrambled eggs) I then add the solubulizer and it brings it back to a stable state. This last batch I did not wait until it broke down, and when I added the solubulizer it stayed stable but went very thin and has no body. I have added two more batches of very thick cream (cut the water to 1/4 but it still keeps going thin. I have a lot of lotion made that I don’t want to throw away-any suggestions? I have been making this recipe for two years and have never had this happen…
June 4th, 2010 at 9:05 am
I have just started making lotions, I am having a problem with it separation. I want to know if I am mixing it to much, I am using Olive oil, bees wax, water, and glycerin, and some vit. E. I have tried 6 different ways and they all separate. I have tried using a little castor oil and lanolin in the mix but it didn’t help. I have been using 3/4 oil to 1 cup water. I see you was saying that bees wax can separate, if that is the problem what would you then use. Thank you
June 4th, 2010 at 12:05 pm
@Sunny – you definitely want to use emulsifying wax instead of beeswax. If this is just for you to use, then you need to keep it in the refrigerator and discard after a week or two.
June 28th, 2010 at 9:09 pm
See, I knew I remembered your post about lotions for a reason! Lol
I just made my first homemade batch (yes, I am lame and have been buying a base). I would love some more info on the lab you send it out too…if you can facebook the info to me, I would greatly appericate it!
The recipe I used did call for steric acid, and I don’t think it’s too waxy, but I will be asking for testers…would you be willing to be a lab rat for me?