Major Lip Balm Problem! Leaking, Texture... Everything Awry!

[alwayssomething]

I am so glad I found this forum.

I have always made lip balms in pots but I have decided to switch to oval tubes for lots of reasons that I think are very practical. I am having the worst time with this. NOTHING is working and I have gone through so many supplies already.

My previous lip balms were quite creamy and soft. This was my recipe:

2 parts hemp butter
2 parts soy wax
1.5 parts coconut oil
1 part aloe butter
1 part cocoa butter
0.5 part rose hip oil
(then the appropriate amount of stevia and flavour oil)

Because I wanted a firmer balm for the tubes, I tried omitting the hemp butter (it's very soft and a bit smelly) and reconstructing the formula as follows:

4 parts soy wax
2 parts cocoa butter
2 parts aloe butter
1.5 parts coconut oil
1.5 parts rose hip oil

This mixture never hardened. It stayed liquid even when it had completely cooled. So I added 2 more parts soy wax, and now it hardens slightly mushy like margarine. My lip balms are now almost 60% wax and still soft! I want to keep adding wax, but it doesn't seem to be doing much good for some reason.

Here is the other issue that goes along with this:

Because even though it takes about 3 hours to go from liquid to mush, even at lukewarm/cool temperature it is liquid. When I pour it into the tubes it all leaks out the bottom. Even when it doesn't leak out the bottom, it still leaks down further than it is supposed to, which normally wouldn't really make much of a difference but these are translucent tubes and you can see the leaking. It looks very unprofessional. But when I let it totally cool and try to transfer it, I disturb the mushiness which doesn't allow it to ever cool into a smooth consistency. It liquefies on contact with body heat.

What do I do? I am going out of my mind. I have made entirely new batches and have gone through way too much product and packaging in the past few days... I am out of ideas. It seems like the only way to get a smooth, solid tube of lip balm is to pour it in while it's liquid, but it all leaks out when I do that. The weird thing is, when I pour the liquid onto a solid surface, it dries quite firm and waxy, which is why I don't want to add more wax at this point.

Thank you so much for your time and patience with this post. I really hope that someone has some ideas for me.

 

[carebear]

soy wax isn't hard enough to compensate for the oils. you need something harder like beeswax, carnauba, or candelilla wax.

keep in mind that carnauba and candelilla take about 3 days to reach peak hardness.

as to filling tubes - what kind of tubes are you using? I fill mine with melted lip balm and no leakage..

 

[alwayssomething]

Thank you for responding.

I am making vegan products so I am not using bee's wax. I have used candelilla wax in the past and found it was too hard and it coloured my balms too strongly. I may have to switch back, but I was hoping not to lose this soy wax batch. I have seen recipes for balms that included soy wax so I figured I would try it. It seems to be about the same consistency of beeswax to me, but I guess it might be softer.

I am using natural oval lip balm tubes that I got from rusticescentuals.com. I think that it is a problem with the balm mixture, not the tube, because it stays liquid too long. They are not air tight. I think most balms firm up before the leaking starts, but mine is liquid for hours.

Again, I was hoping to work within the ingredients I already have... do you think I should just add more soy wax and keep the soft oils to a minimum?

 

[alwayssomething]

I just realized I have about 1 cup of soy wax left from the balms I used to make. I currently have 2 cups of mushy lip balm base. I am thinking about adding 1/4 cup of candelilla wax and seeing if it firms up. I am keeping good track of the ratios as I work with it so that I can reproduce it when I get it right.

Think 1/4 cup of candelilla wax into 2 cups of mushy base will firm it up or should I start anew? Shipping costs so much on these butters, I want to rescue as much of this as I can.

Thanks for your help!

 

[alwayssomething]

Ok, after all this I added a tiny bit of candelilla wax and you were absolutely right. It is PERFECT now.

Thank you SO much for telling me about the soy wax. I think this balm actually benefits from having both soy wax and candelilla. I went half and half and I love it so much.

I'll leave this series of freaked out posts just in case anyone else does the same thing I did.

 

[carebear]

candelilla wax takes 3 days to reach the final hardness - you may find, at that point, that you need to reformulate.

I don't recommend pouring into tubes until you've seen what your base is like at that point - then re-melt and pour.

 

[puro]

I've just started out making vegan lip balms using candelilla wax. The problem that I am facing is that once the lip balms have cooled in the pot, some of them have these air pockets along the walls that look ugly. I've tried adding in some more castor oil to the balms and resetting them, but 5 of 13 still have this problem. Can anyone please suggest a fix for this?

 

[BakingNana]

I read in a previous post that someone solved that problem by using a pipette to fill the tubes and not dripping any balm onto the sides of the tube. It seemed that balm drops setting as they hit the side walls of the tube made the unslightly bubble marks. I use opaque tubes myself so I don't worry about it.

 

[puro]

Thanks for your reply. I use a wide mouthed pot and make sure I pour in the centre only, not touching the sides at all. Any other ideas?

 

[carebear]

try pouring your mix at different temperatures