Since around November/December I have been playing with making lip gloss. I posted about it at the beginning of December and included a recipe that I had made that I really liked Here, but wouldn't you know it, that recipe turned grainy on me about 1 to 2 weeks after I made it..... and subsequent tweaks went grainy on me, too. 
Disheartened and a little frustrated, I set it aside and took a break from it for the time being.
Fast forward to February when I decided to get back up on the proverbial horse and try tweaking my formula yet again....... and I finally got it to work! My gloss has remained grain-free for a little over 2 whole months now! I'm so happy! The tweak that finally made it work was decreasing my shea/mango butter amounts and increasing my ButterEZ amount. (the solid/buttery ingredient from Lotioncrafters that helps to prevent graininess).
In my solid lip balms, I normally use ButterEZ at the rate of about 16% as per the total butter amount in my formulas, and it's enough to keep my them grain-free, but as it turns out, that amount is too small for my lip gloss formula. The amount that finally did the trick for it was 36.37% ButterEZ as per the total butter amount in my formula. Yay!
I also experimented with using an ingredient in my formula called Viamerine 2500 (from The Herbarie), which is reported to be a vegetarian sub for lanolin, but also has the added benefit of lending super shine to one's gloss. It's INCI is Oleic/Linoleic/Linolenic Polyglycerides. OOB it reminds me a lot of liquid lecithin in consistency (it's a very thick, sticky fluid), and in my gloss it provides super shine and a bit of stick-to-itiveness, although I have to say not as much stick-to-itiveness as compared to my lanolin. Still though, it's not too far off.
Here is my successfully tweaked formula, which I specially formulated to be dispensed from those Doe Foot Lip Pens that MMS sells, of which I have a bunch on hand (I had to make it fluid enough so it wouldn't pop off the doe foot top), but it can also be used in lip-wand containers or lip pens with brush tops:
25.25% Castor oil
25.25% Meadowfoam Seed Oil
15% Viamerine (or lanolin)
9.15% Mango Butter
9.15% Shea Butter (refined)
6.7% ButterEZ (from Lotioncrafters)
3% Flavor Oil
2% Filtered Beeswax (from Peak's)
2% Double Refined Candelilla Wax (from TKB Trading)
2% Sweetener (I use Sugar Baby from MMS)
.5% Vitamin E T-50 (from Lotioncrafter's)
You don't have to use shea or mango as the butters in it, by the way. It works well with other butters, just as long as you keep the total butter percentage the same so it doesn't mess with the ButterEZ amount. Other things can be subbed, too, as long as the total percentages of the original ingredients remain the same. For example, the other day I used 18.3% of Coffee Butter from MMS in place of the mango and shea butters, and instead of 15% Viamerine, I used 10% Viamerine and 5% lanolin, and it came out great. I flavored it with some coffee flavor oil and a tiny bit of spearmint EO and it's quite yummy.
And the following recipe is a version of the above, but I tweaked it to be thicker/heavier. The consistency is too thick to use in a doe-foot lip pen (it pops the top off when dispensing), but it works great in the MMS lip pens with the brush tops, of which I also have a bunch on hand, lol:
22.5% Castor Oil
22% Meadowfoam Seed Oil
15% Viamerine (or lanolin)
11% Mango Butter
11% Shea Butter (refined)
8% ButterEZ (Lotioncrafters)
3% Filtered Beeswax (Peak's)
3% Flavor Oil
2% Double Refined Candelilla Wax (TKB Trading)
2% Sweetener (Sugar Baby from MMS)
.5% Vitamin E T-50 (Lotioncrafters)
It has a wonderfully rich/luxuriant feel to it with good stick-to-itiveness, and with the Viamerine in there, it's super shiny.
Just thought I'd share my excitement with y'all.
IrishLass
Disheartened and a little frustrated, I set it aside and took a break from it for the time being.Fast forward to February when I decided to get back up on the proverbial horse and try tweaking my formula yet again....... and I finally got it to work! My gloss has remained grain-free for a little over 2 whole months now! I'm so happy! The tweak that finally made it work was decreasing my shea/mango butter amounts and increasing my ButterEZ amount. (the solid/buttery ingredient from Lotioncrafters that helps to prevent graininess).
In my solid lip balms, I normally use ButterEZ at the rate of about 16% as per the total butter amount in my formulas, and it's enough to keep my them grain-free, but as it turns out, that amount is too small for my lip gloss formula. The amount that finally did the trick for it was 36.37% ButterEZ as per the total butter amount in my formula. Yay!
I also experimented with using an ingredient in my formula called Viamerine 2500 (from The Herbarie), which is reported to be a vegetarian sub for lanolin, but also has the added benefit of lending super shine to one's gloss. It's INCI is Oleic/Linoleic/Linolenic Polyglycerides. OOB it reminds me a lot of liquid lecithin in consistency (it's a very thick, sticky fluid), and in my gloss it provides super shine and a bit of stick-to-itiveness, although I have to say not as much stick-to-itiveness as compared to my lanolin. Still though, it's not too far off.
Here is my successfully tweaked formula, which I specially formulated to be dispensed from those Doe Foot Lip Pens that MMS sells, of which I have a bunch on hand (I had to make it fluid enough so it wouldn't pop off the doe foot top), but it can also be used in lip-wand containers or lip pens with brush tops:
25.25% Castor oil
25.25% Meadowfoam Seed Oil
15% Viamerine (or lanolin)
9.15% Mango Butter
9.15% Shea Butter (refined)
6.7% ButterEZ (from Lotioncrafters)
3% Flavor Oil
2% Filtered Beeswax (from Peak's)
2% Double Refined Candelilla Wax (from TKB Trading)
2% Sweetener (I use Sugar Baby from MMS)
.5% Vitamin E T-50 (from Lotioncrafter's)
You don't have to use shea or mango as the butters in it, by the way. It works well with other butters, just as long as you keep the total butter percentage the same so it doesn't mess with the ButterEZ amount. Other things can be subbed, too, as long as the total percentages of the original ingredients remain the same. For example, the other day I used 18.3% of Coffee Butter from MMS in place of the mango and shea butters, and instead of 15% Viamerine, I used 10% Viamerine and 5% lanolin, and it came out great. I flavored it with some coffee flavor oil and a tiny bit of spearmint EO and it's quite yummy.
And the following recipe is a version of the above, but I tweaked it to be thicker/heavier. The consistency is too thick to use in a doe-foot lip pen (it pops the top off when dispensing), but it works great in the MMS lip pens with the brush tops, of which I also have a bunch on hand, lol:
22.5% Castor Oil
22% Meadowfoam Seed Oil
15% Viamerine (or lanolin)
11% Mango Butter
11% Shea Butter (refined)
8% ButterEZ (Lotioncrafters)
3% Filtered Beeswax (Peak's)
3% Flavor Oil
2% Double Refined Candelilla Wax (TKB Trading)
2% Sweetener (Sugar Baby from MMS)
.5% Vitamin E T-50 (Lotioncrafters)
It has a wonderfully rich/luxuriant feel to it with good stick-to-itiveness, and with the Viamerine in there, it's super shiny.
Just thought I'd share my excitement with y'all.
IrishLass
