Texas Naturals Lip Balm Base?

Has anyone tried their bases? I picked up some of this with another order:


Lip Balm Base 4 - Super Moisturizing with Shea - All Natural

It is a coco butter balm, which may not be right for everyone, but as sensitive as my darling wife is, she is not sensitive to this. So I proceed. A quick disclaimer. I know there are a LOT of good recipes out there for rolling my own balm. Projects with her need to have a low time investment for a high return. ;-)

Anyway, this is a nice lip balm but it's a little on the hard side. I asume that would be good in the summer but it's too hard for winter use. Is it a matter of adding a bit of soft/liquid oils? The ingredients are:

Safflower Oil, Bees Wax, Shea Butter, Mango Butter, Cocoa Butter

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I did drop them a note but the website does not have any tech info related to melting temp and optimal melting temp (concerned about the shea getting grainy). If anyone has any tips I'm all ears.



I was going to use about 3% total FO/EO ... all rose in some and maybe 25% of that as mint in another. How does that sound?

You can soften the base with a liquid oil. In my own base I like sunflower oil. If you chose to you can sweeten the base as well. I find i like it sweetened when using a fruit base. First you need to mix your sweetener which is stevia with some coconut oil. Stevia is VERY sweet so be light handed. ( if you mix extra you can store this for another time.

Anyway melt your base add some liquid oil ( you'll need to experiment with how much) and then wait a bit for your base to cool down before adding the flavor and/ or sweetener. While still liquid, pour into tubes.

Is cooking sunflower oil okay or should I seek a cosmetic grade?

What would be a good starting point percentage for stevia?

It is fine to buy in the grocery store. I do when I run low!

I have been cautioned many times to only use lip safe FO/EO, or better yet, lip safe "flavor oils". But yes, add some liquid oil in there to loosen it up. Once you add the flavor oils, you may not need much, so do that first. I am going to assume that their butters are tempered, so I would not worry much about graininess.

And just a thought, I pre-make my own "bases" to store for later use.(All projects with my daughter need to be small time/effort investment for high return also.) It does not take any more time to melt your own base than to melt someone else's. I store the extra in little 1-2 ounces plastic tubs I buy 10 for $1 at Dollar Tree. You can write the name of it right on the top and store in the fridge until ready to use. And they only cost 10 cents, so I consider them disposable. Be sure to spray all of your equipment, tubes, lids, work space with alcohol before starting to keep it as germ free as possible(I put all of it on a baking pan I have sprayed first, so that becomes my clean work surface). I spray mine the night before and either store in the dehydrator(off) or the cool oven. Be sure the inside of the tube is completely dry before adding lip balm, otherwise your balm will smell like alcohol for a few uses. Also, 1 ounce of balm makes about 7 standard tubes(0.15 oz), so prep 8 just in case.

Oh one more thing. Until you get the texture the way you like it, leave it unflavored. You can remelt it to adjust but if you flavored it you will need to add more each time. Once you get it where you want it remelt and cool a bit, then add the flavor.

LBussy said:

Is cooking sunflower oil okay or should I seek a cosmetic grade?

What would be a good starting point percentage for stevia?

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I would add a tiny bit of stevia to your liquid oil at the time until it just barely tastes sweet to you, then use that oil to loosen your hard base. You are going to kind of have to play with percentages to see what your wife likes. Some people like much less sweet than others.

And I use oils from the cooking section of the grocery store all the time. I use olive oil, almond oil, or any colorless liquid oil.

LBussy said:

Is cooking sunflower oil okay or should I seek a cosmetic grade?

What would be a good starting point percentage for stevia?

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Cooking = "food grade" which is suitable for anything
Cosmetic grade is not suitable for internal use

you are perfectly fine using internal use things for anything cosmetic. I use about 1/2 tsp pure leaf stevia with 400g lip balm -- extract's would be more concentrated so you would use less unless it's diluted with other ingredients. I mix in sunflower oil and avocado oil as my liquid oils for lip balm.

If my calculator is correct, 400 g is 14.285714 oz(so say 14.3) therefore, 1/2 tsp(4 g if my memory serves) divided by 14.3 = roughly 0.28 g stevia per ounce of base.

I use the much less mathy method of mixing a bit of stevia with oil and taste testing, then add drops of that to lip balm to adjust the sweetness. I keep my stevia oil in the fridge in a small bottle. Takes a drop or two per ounce, so it lasts quite a long time.

If you want to smell the fragrance for awhile, scenting at 2-3% might be fine. I would not use a lip balm scented that strongly. I truly dislike it when my lip balm scent is strong enough to flavor the aroma of my coffee or food. If you want just a hint of scent upon application that doesn't linger, try a mere 0.8-1% or so. Especially if you're including mint as part of the scent blend.

LBussy said:

Is cooking sunflower oil okay or should I seek a cosmetic grade?

What would be a good starting point percentage for stevia?

Click to expand...

Cosmetic grade can be a mix of oils with the named oil being the highest percentage. At least that is what I was told when I contacted Soapers Choice about the cosmetic grade Almond oil. I was told the oils used to dilute the Almond all have aproximately the same profile but it is not pure almond oil.

Well that was quite rude of me ... I didn't notice the replies. I'm sorry I did not acknoledge the help you all provided:

Dorymae said:

It is fine to buy in the grocery store. I do when I run low!

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Done!

Susie said:

I am going to assume that their butters are tempered, so I would not worry much about graininess.

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DO you have a good reference for that so I can learn a bit? For instance with anything else, there is a temperature above which the substance loses it's temper. I assume the same is true of these oils?

And just a thought, I pre-make my own "bases" to store for later use.

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Excellent idea!

Be sure to spray all of your equipment, tubes, lids, work space with alcohol before starting to keep it as germ free as possible

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I brew beer/make wine so this is familiar to me. I have food safe products that will work well for this.

Dorymae said:

Oh one more thing. Until you get the texture the way you like it, leave it unflavored. You can remelt it to adjust but if you flavored it you will need to add more each time. Once you get it where you want it remelt and cool a bit, then add the flavor.

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I agree with what you are saying. For me that makes sense. My wife on the other hand is swayed by the fragrance/taste of the commercial offerings so I am trying to use *something* to compete.

Earthen_Step said:

I use about 1/2 tsp pure leaf stevia with 400g lip balm

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Thank you! I'm a very exact/literal person so it's hard for me to start anywhere except with a number.

Susie said:

If my calculator is correct, 400 g is 14.285714 oz(so say 14.3) therefore, 1/2 tsp(4 g if my memory serves) divided by 14.3 = roughly 0.28 g stevia per ounce of base.

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It's ... it's like we're related Suzie. :wave:

DeeAnna said:

If you want to smell the fragrance for awhile, scenting at 2-3% might be fine. I would not use a lip balm scented that strongly. I truly dislike it when my lip balm scent is strong enough to flavor the aroma of my coffee or food. If you want just a hint of scent upon application that doesn't linger, try a mere 0.8-1% or so. Especially if you're including mint as part of the scent blend.

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Got ya! Now I have some starting points!

cmzaha said:

Cosmetic grade can be a mix of oils with the named oil being the highest percentage. At least that is what I was told when I contacted Soapers Choice about the cosmetic grade Almond oil. I was told the oils used to dilute the Almond all have aproximately the same profile but it is not pure almond oil.

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That makes sense ... different regulations for different areas of commerce. Ain't regulations grand?

Thank you all for helping me learn a bit more about this. I dropped by to ask a question about a specific recipe so I will start a new thread for that to keep things straight.

So to follow up ... here's what I did. As a reminder the base says:

Safflower Oil, Bees Wax, Shea Butter, Mango Butter, Cocoa Butter

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To 196g of the base I added:

+26g Sunflower Oil
+10g Lanolin

or:

88.29% Base
11.71% Sunflower Oil
4.50% Lanolin

I like the consistency very much, but even more importantly so does the wife. I also attempted some sweetener, coloring and fragrance. This had mixed results. The fragrance worked well so I'll share that first:

+1.35% Rose Geranium
+0.68% Peppermint Oil

The coloring was also from Texas Natural Supply, the Liquid Dark Red Natural Colorant. I thought it was suitable for a lip balm, but the page does not say that and it does not dissolve in oil. It is a water/glycerin color. So, I'll keep that for the soaps. It basically fell to the bottom of the cup and stayed there.

I tried the Stevia and this did not dissolve very well in the oil either ... maybe I misunderstood? I added 4g which was almost double what Susie's math suggested above. A lot of it sat in the bottom with the red coloring so it had a limited impact.

All in all it's a nice lip balm, and I have enough for a long time (even considering the requisite sacrifice to the cat toy pile).

Because everyone like's pictures, and I'm OCD like that, here are the labels I whipped up real quick like:



I only noticed afterwards how not perfect they are, but it's fine for a first batch, personal use only:

Very nice!


IrishLass