With the help of SwiftCraftMonkey I'm learning about lotions mostly by formulating and switching one ingredient at a time to get a feel for what different ingredients do. I'm up to the 10 or 12th variation now.
Today I made two lotions (about 70% water) that were identical down to a possible .1 gr variance in one or two ingredients. One I made with Cetyl Alcohol, the other I made with Stearic Acid. I used Optiphen plus in both as the preservative.
The Cetyl alcohol version went perfectly, it emulsified and thickened exactly as expected.
However with the Stearic recipe, the Optiphen didn't seem to want to mix in. When it started to cool and thicken, I did get it mixed in, but I think it was trapped in the thickening cream rather than actually mixing in.
Does Optiphen mix better with Cetyl than Stearic? It possible that i missed something or made a mistake but I'm 99% sure that I did it all correctly.
Any guidance?
Thanks!
Today I made two lotions (about 70% water) that were identical down to a possible .1 gr variance in one or two ingredients. One I made with Cetyl Alcohol, the other I made with Stearic Acid. I used Optiphen plus in both as the preservative.
The Cetyl alcohol version went perfectly, it emulsified and thickened exactly as expected.
However with the Stearic recipe, the Optiphen didn't seem to want to mix in. When it started to cool and thicken, I did get it mixed in, but I think it was trapped in the thickening cream rather than actually mixing in.
Does Optiphen mix better with Cetyl than Stearic? It possible that i missed something or made a mistake but I'm 99% sure that I did it all correctly.
Any guidance?
Thanks!