Sticky Lotion

Hi guys,

I'm having trouble with making a nice light hand lotion that isn't sticky. I get the consistency right with xanthan gum, and it's not oily, but when I rub it into my hands it gets really sticky.

The recipe I used was:

•*380g Distilled Water (78.19%)
•*18g Emulsifying Wax (3.7%)
•*18g Stearic Acid (3.7%)
•*20g Sweet Almond Oil (4.12%)
•*15g Shea Butter (3.09%)
•*8g Avocado Oil (1.65%)
•*3g Xanthan Gum (0.62%)
•*6g Liquid Silk (1.23%)
•*6g Dimethicone (1.23%)
•*8g Fragrance (1.65%)
•*4g Phenoxyethanol (0.82%)

I want to create a nice lotion that is easily absorbed and leaves no stickiness.
If anyone can help, I'd greatly appreciate it

I am suspecting the xanthan gum. Have you tried the lotion without the xanthan gum and if you have, was it sticky?

Saponificarian said:

I am suspecting the xanthan gum. Have you tried the lotion without the xanthan gum and if you have, was it sticky?

Click to expand...

Hi

I have tried it without xanthan gum and it was still sticky. Actually, it was more sticky without xanthan gum, but the recipe had different percentages of oils and water.

Hello.

The 2 ingredients that I have had give a sticky feeling to my lotion if not used correctly are xanthan gum and glycerine. I have stopped using xantham gum for this reason.

I like Cyclomethicone more than dimethicone. You most likely will have to do a trial and error thingy with 100g batch. If it were me, the 3 ingredients I will eliminate one by one to test will be Xanthan gum, Dimethicone and Liquid silk. The others are just oils and water.... But then, I haven't been doing this for too long so I might not be the best person to answer this. Maybe we should wait for more experienced people to come along.

which kind of dimethicone do you use (100 cs, 300cs, 1000cs?)? the higher the cs number- the denser and viscous the material so it might be one reason for your problem. Maybe it's the liquide silk that creates that feeling? try rubbing the liquid between your fingers to see.. and like the one above mentioned- try that recipe again minus one of the probably problematic ingredients

Emulsifiers also vary widely. I do not add butters to my lotions only my thick whipped butter type lotion. You also may want to try replacing your stearic acid with cetyl alcohol, for a lotion. Stearic in my opinion can be draggy. Like Saponificarian, I like Cyclomethicon better.

And yet another thought -- Have you tried these different oils and butters on their own on your skin?

If not, see how a drop of each oil feels when you spread it your skin. Give it 5-10 minutes -- see how each absorbs into the skin and how it feels on your skin over time. If they all feel heavy, greasy, and/or sticky to you, then putting them all in a lotion isn't going to improve matters. The thing a lotion does is allows you to spread the fats thinner and more evenly over your skin, but it doesn't change the essential nature of the fats. A thin layer of greasy fat is still going to feel greasy.

After checking out each fat on its own, then try blending the fats together in various ratios and see how each mixture feels on your skin. You don't need to blend a big amount -- just a few drops total is all that's necessary. If you can't get a blend of fats to feel right without the other lotion ingredients, it's a clue you might want rethink your choice of fats.

According to my notes, sweet almond, shea, and avocado all tend to have a greasy, non-absorbent skin feel. If you changed out one or two of these for lighter and more absorbent oils, you might see improvement in the overall skin feel of the lotion.

Inexpensive to moderately priced fats that have a lighter, silkier, more absorbent feel to me include apricot, cocoa butter, fractionated coconut oil (FCO), meadowfoam seed, and safflower. Another lovely option is squalane, but it's more spendy. You can blend one or two of these fats with a heavier, greasier fat to get the skin-feel you want.

To give you an example from my experience, I like rosehip seed oil for my face, but it's awfully heavy and greasy on its own. It made a truly icky lotion when I included it at a high % of the total fats. I then diluted it with meadowfoam seed oil and found about 4 parts meadowfoam to 1 of rosehip was the trick to making a nice lotion.