Should i be nervous about making lotion?

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LuckyStar

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Been making soap for the better part of two years now and have loved every second of it. I have made bath bombs and bath salts in the past, and want to try yet another product, lotion.

The part that worries me is this will be my first product that uses water, and thus will need protection against microbial growth. I am planning on treating it like canning, boiling or using a bleach solution all my bowls and mixing utensils , and finishing up with some phenonip....but i'm still sort of , i dono, anxious about the idea of stuff growing in my lotion? lol
 
Been making soap for the better part of two years now and have loved every second of it. I have made bath bombs and bath salts in the past, and want to try yet another product, lotion.

The part that worries me is this will be my first product that uses water, and thus will need protection against microbial growth. I am planning on treating it like canning, boiling or using a bleach solution all my bowls and mixing utensils , and finishing up with some phenonip....but i'm still sort of , i dono, anxious about the idea of stuff growing in my lotion? lol


Don't be nervous. It is like anything else, when you make it for the first time it can be intimidating but once you get the hang of it, it's a lot of fun. Make sure to keep the area and your utensils as clean as possible and add your preservative. Keep part of your lotion in an open container for testing, dip your fingers in it each day. You'll know very soon if your preservative fails! Good luck!
 
Making lotion is a cool thing :)

check out Swifty Crafty Monkey (Susan Barclay) for definitive guide on making lotion. Phenonip is a very effective preservative. As long as you give it a good mix it'll be fine. Equipment- I use a dedicated food mixer, pyrex jugs and a double boiler to hold the water and oil phases at 70-85°C for 20 mins. I got an infra-red thermometer to accurately measure temp which I find really convenient.
 
Like BirdieWife, I really enjoy making lotions.

Another sensible guide in addition to Susan's lotionmaking "thingy" is Anne Watson's book Smart Lotionmaking. I also had a lot of angst about lotionmaking when I first started, and wrote to Anne for advice. She was right -- in many ways, it's simpler and less fussy than soap making. Just get a scale that reads to 0.1 gram and a good preservative (I use Germall Plus but there are other good ones to choose), if you don't have them already. Most of the other things you need you will already have from soap making or cooking.

And relax about the cleaning issue. Sanitation is important, but it's not a hugely difficult thing to manage. Anne gives a lot of good info in her book about working clean -- whether you're making lotion for your personal use or making it for sale. I've followed Anne and Susan's procedures and had only one bottle of lotion go bad so far. That was a bottle I had reused and obviously not gotten perfectly clean, so the failure was my own darn fault.

Anne is currently selling her book in e-book format for only $0.99, so the price is right if you do the e-book thing. See http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00H2L64NM/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20
 
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The only disaster I ever had was when I added Optiphen Plus at over 120F and it destabilized the lotion. That was using emulsifying wax but I have found that when using BTMS the lotion does not destabilize at that temp.
Fortunately I was making it in small quantities at that time....!
 
another vote for Susan's blog! she is very very generous with all the info and tutorials. i made my first successful lotion through her blog.

the preservative i am using is germall plus. so far i am pleased with it.
 
Thanks for all the great info and links as usual, i'll diffidently get that e book, 99 cents is pretty hard to beat. I'm sure the answer is in the book, but i figure i may as well ask here too.

What do you think about using some calendula infused sweet almond oil as one of my oils, and a strong chamomile tea as my water? Can you see any problems arising from doing so?
 
Thanks for all the great info and links as usual, i'll diffidently get that e book, 99 cents is pretty hard to beat. I'm sure the answer is in the book, but i figure i may as well ask here too.

What do you think about using some calendula infused sweet almond oil as one of my oils, and a strong chamomile tea as my water? Can you see any problems arising from doing so?


Yes.

Adding botanicals of any kind can make an emulsion MUCH harder to preserve. Don't try to run before you can walk, start simple. Make a basic lotion first, get a feel for the process and try your results, then tweak a little bit at a time with each successive batch.

I have been making lotions for a few years, and to be honest my simplest recipe is still my favorite.

HTH
 
Just start with small batches. When I test a new combination I do no more than 200 grams total. I get nervous about adding botanicals too. I think the infused oils are fine as long as they are very well strained. Teas I think are a bit trickier.
 
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