WARNING: Laughing may ensue!
Monday, I received a lotion recipe to test from one of the gals in technical support. The original recipe was in grams and made approximately 500 grams of lotion. My first ingredient (which I later ended up omitting) required 1.25 grams of citric. I thought, I can’t weigh 1.25 grams. My scale would only read 1.2 grams. “Well, that is accurate I thought,” sarcastically. Why don’t I just convert my unit of measure from grams to ounces, my scale CAN weigh 1.25 ounces.
I am sure many of you are sitting at your screens laughing, because, you KNOW what is coming. So, I proceeded to weigh out all of my ingredients except for my citric which started this entire conversion disaster. I ended up making 3.89 gallons of lotion. That fills our twenty-five pound buckets so close to the rim there is less than half of an inch before it spills over. My immersion blender is very tired and in need of a holiday. Poor thing. Due to my test kitchen disaster, I wanted to help everyone with increasing their test batches so they are able to use the scales they have available without making enough product to last their grandchildren’s life time.
What I should have done, instead of changing my unit of measure, is move my decimal point to the right one increment or multiplied my particular batch by two. I could have corrected my recipe prior to heading to the kitchen as well. The test batch would have been perfectly fine had I followed the original recipe after I crossed out the citric. So much for a small test batch. I must admit, this lotion is fabulous, it is just a little overwhelming in size. It is probably a very good thing I did not scent it. Now I at least get to have some fun in that area!
3.89 Gallons of Lotion
That’s a LOT of lotion!! LOL! At least it’s GOOD lotion! 🙂
I am just now reading your blog and am wondering if you still have any of the lotion! I have to admit, it’s easy to confuse the two. My digital scale offers ounces and fractions or grams. Needless to say, it’s easier to work with grams than try to figure out what 2.7 ounces looks like in fractions.
Thanks for the laugh!
OuiSi,
I am so glad you got a laugh out of this blog. The staff here at MMS thought it was so funny. I didn’t hear the end of it for weeks!
I am afraid I don’t have anymore lotion. I never thought we would get through all of those samples but we did! I was planning on introducing a lighter version of this recipe in about two weeks. We should have samples then.
Best Wishes,
Taylor
Okay, I know this sounds dumb, but when you say you would move the decimal point one digit to the right, that would still significantly increase your batch – is that right? So does that make it an easier batch to measure or is there a conversion in moving the decimal that I’m missing. (Sadly, I am just getting into the grams vs. ounces, so I am severely challenged! 🙂 )
Emily,
I think the idea was to work with 12.5 grams instead of 1.25 grams of citric acid 🙂 12.5 grams is still better than 35.4 grams (=1.25 oz) .. Hope this helps!
Pingback: Adventures With The Sage » Blog Archive » The Importance of Being Prepared
Pingback: Creative Fixes and Ideas – Day 1 | Adventures With The Sage