Is Heat & Hold Necessary For Lotion?

Dahila said:

when I am done with lotion , I leave it on my table in the beaker, covered with paper towel so no dust goes there. More or less 14 hours then I put it in the container to the fridge but no closing it. For another few hours. It solves the problem with condensation.
BTW I wonder what you guys think about my spelling English is my second language ............

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Your spelling is stellar! Better than some whose first language is English.

Dahlia you do quite well.

PuddinAndPeanuts said:

Ah- gotcha. I totally misread your tone... Sorry if I was snarky.

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I apologize for making you feel bad or made fun of. Or if I came across like a xenophobe or a bully.

Heat and hold not only sanitizes the ingredients, but it also prepares the emulsifier to do the most efficient job of emulsifying the lotion. There's some neat chemistry going on with the heat and hold step.

As far as ingredients that cannot tolerate the heat and hold step, such as preservative, fragrance, some humectants, etc. These ingredients are usually included as a small %, compared to the water, emulsifier, thickener, and fats. That means they are less likely to be a source of major contamination. You are counting on your preservative to overcome any microbial contamination in those ingredients. Since these ingredients are usually added in small quantities, that's a pretty safe risk to take.

A question for the members who heat and hold in the oven. How do you do it exactly? Just chuck it in, as is, or put the containers on a baking sheet? I just started making lotions! Totally addicted!
I've used the stovetop (double boiler) and my crockpot, but the crockpot doesn't get hot enough. Well it's about 10 degrees to cool. Thanks guys!

Preheat the oven. Fill a suitable sized pan with about 1 inch of water. Preheat this water bath to temperature, either in the oven or on the stovetop.

Heat all ingredients to temperature in the hot water bath or -- much faster -- use the microwave. When the ingredients are up to temperature, put the containers in the water bath, if needed, and start timing the holding period.

It's not any easier or simpler than doing a water bath on the stovetop or crockpot, just that you're using the oven to maintain heat. I wouldn't bother using the oven for small quantities, but it makes sense for larger amounts.

Thanks DeAnne! I didn't even think about the water bath for the oven. Your awesome!

The water bath will help keep your lotion ingredients at a more even, reasonable temperature just like using a water bath on the stove. The oven burner going on and off can make the air temp go up and down quite a bit, so the water bath protects your ingredients from those wide swings.

Glad to help!

SwiftCraftyMonkey (Susan Barclay-Nichols) does not recommend using the microwave to melt your ingredients but rather to do it stove-top. Once it's melted you can go into the oven.

I agree she doesn't recommend using the microwave for the hold phase, but I can't find anywhere that she absolutely cautions against using a microwave for initial heating.

I will agree it can be easy to overheat ingredients in the microwave, but with care, I don't see the harm in taking advantage of the microwave's speed when it is reasonable to do so. I routinely bring my water phase up to temperature in the microwave while I'm heating my (much smaller) oil phase in a hot water bath. When the water phase is up to temp, it goes in the water bath too.

"...We can't use a microwave to heat and hold our ingredients: We can heat, but we can't hold!..."
http://swiftcraftymonkey.blogspot.com/2013/12/what-do-you-want-to-know-how-can-we.html

"... I suggest using a double boiler instead of the microwave. You have better control over the temperature of your ingredients - you can test the temperature regularly with a candy thermometer - and you can increase or decrease the water temperature as you wish...."
http://swiftcraftymonkey.blogspot.ca/2011/01/heating-and-holding-are-your-products.html

DeeAnna said:

...SNIP

"... I suggest using a double boiler instead of the microwave. You have better control over the temperature of your ingredients - you can test the temperature regularly with a candy thermometer - and you can increase or decrease the water temperature as you wish...."
http://swiftcraftymonkey.blogspot.ca/2011/01/heating-and-holding-are-your-products.html

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That is the one I saw....

Lindy said:

Heat and hold is necessary for 2 reasons. One it tempers the oils & butters plus it also sterilizes the ingredients. This gives your preservative the best chance of holding your lotion.

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So what do you think of this:
https://formulabotanica.com/6-reasons-why-the-heat-and-hold-method-is-a-myth/

Ella75 said:

So what do you think of this:
https://formulabotanica.com/6-reasons-why-the-heat-and-hold-method-is-a-myth/

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I recently came across that article too, I also do heat & hold and would like to know what others think.

Anyone?

Zany_in_CO said:

I recently came across that article too, I also do heat & hold and would like to know what others think.

Anyone?

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Is this thread too old for another reply? I used to always heat and hold, but after seeing that article about a month ago I stopped. Too soon to know. Do any of you use the microbial test kit from Lotioncrafter http://www.lotioncrafter.com/microbial-test-kit-lotioncrafter.html ? They are out of stock now, but I am thinking about ordering some when they are back. Just wondering what people who have used them think about them, and if anyone has compared results from lotions with and without heat and hold. Maybe this should be a new thread. ???

Please start a new thread, re this conversation.