Control batch viscosity.
When first opening the jar the Veggie Emulsifier smells a bit like celery, but we did find the odor dissipated when used in a lotion. The scent does not interfere with any level of fragrance usage.
Veggie Emulsifier Test Batch 1.
The first batch was our control batch made with 3% Emulsifying Wax. This batch helped us to ensure we would have the lotions match with different emulsifiers.
Our second batch of lotion was made with 3% Veggie Emulsifier. This lotion did completely emulsify, but it was very thin.
Veggie Emulsifier Test Batch 2.
Recipe Variations in Percentages:
| Control Recipe made with Emulsifying Wax: 3% Liquid Glycerin 3% Stearic Acid 3% Emulsifying Wax 15% Macadamia Nut Oil 75% water 0.5% Germaben II 0.5% Fragrance Oil of Choice |
First Test Recipe made with Veggie Emulsifier: 3% Liquid Glycerin 3% Stearic Acid 3% Veggie Emulsifier 15% Macadamia Nut Oil 75% water 0.5% Germaben II 0.5% Fragrance Oil of Choice |
| Second Test Recipe made with Veggie Emulsifier 3% Liquid Glycerin 3% Stearic Acid 6% Veggie Emulsifier 15% Macadamia Nut Oil 72% water 0.5% Germaben II 0.5% Fragrance Oil of Choice |
Our findings are that while the Veggie Emulsifier will emulsify a lotion when used at the same rates as the Emulsify Wax, the resulting lotion will be thinner. You can easily solve this problem by increasing the Veggie Emulsifier or by using Stearic Acid or oils with a high stearine content like Shea Butter, Cocoa Butter, Palm Kernel Oil and/or other oils that are firm at room temperature.
When using any new ingredients, we do recommend making test batches to make sure you like the ingredient. I hope this helps!
what is the veggie emulsifier made of? super curious!
Good Morning Andee! I love posts like this one that explain how you can mix things up with other products! THANK YOU! May I ask for an explanation of the differences in the Emulsifying Wax and the Veggie Emulsifier? I am not familiar with either product 🙂 Are they both vegetable based? Do either of them have parabens? I would assume the Veggie Emulsifier does not have petroleum in it – does the wax? Those kinds of things would be super helpful 🙂
THANK YOU!
Veggie emulsifier? I can’t wait to try some. Thanks for conducting a comparison. SOmetimes we don’t have all the ingredients or time needed to do an experiment like this one. Thanks again.
Andee, I love it that you do test batches for us!! This is really helpful and makes buying the new products easier because we know what we’re getting. Thanks!!!
Oh thanks for this post! Love hearing about new products, and how to use them! :-))
The emulsifying wax is synthetic and the veggie emulsifier is vegetable derived. No parabens. The emulsifying wax is petroleum derived.
Does this help?
I really need to try this emulsifier with my mango butter lotion.
While I’m at it, it should work well with my hair conditioner recipe too.
This sounds interesting! I am just looking into possibly making my own lotions so I’ll definitely have to keep this in mind. Thanks!
I appreciate the test batches! Looking forward to testing it out myself 🙂
“The emulsifying wax is synthetic and the veggie emulsifier is vegetable derived. No parabens. The emulsifying wax is petroleum derived.” – Andee
WOW. I didn’t know that! That is so good to know! I usually use the em-wax at 5% in my lotions along with Stearic Acid. When I replace the em-wax with this emulsifier (because now I will) should I just keep everything the same but use this at 10%? Just wondered if you knew offhand… but I know testing is always best (and the most fun!). 🙂
Thanks again!
-Cheyenne
Cheyenne,
I would recommend making a test batch. You might use the same amount or increase it up to double. It emulsifies at the same percentages as the Emulsifying Wax, but it isn’t as thick. I wish I could be more help, but have fun testing!
I would agree that you need to add twice as much veggie emulsifier as wax. I made two test batches last night, I just can’t get by the smell. I used orange 5 fold essential oil as scent in both batches and the veggie wax scent is SO strong. I am not normally so sensitive to smells. I would love to hear what other think about this please?
Certain products do have odors that carry through. Most often our association with odors is memory triggers and this can cause a pleasurable or un-pleasurable experience association. I do not care for the odor of the conditioning emulsifier. I also don’t like lavender, tea tree, rosemary or eucalyptus. I do like the Orange 5 Fold though!
Generally we encourage you to let the mixture mellow for at least 24 hours before passing judgement. Time changes nearly everything.
So, this is still confusing. Your website lists the emulsifying wax as being vegetable derived fatty alcohols. Now that you have the veggie emulsifier, you’re saying that the other one is petroleum derived, even though it specifically says vegetable derived?
Whoops! We had an error in the catalog and it has now been fixed. We appreciate the heads up on the description.
The veggie emulsifier is from sugar beets, palm and coconut. The emulsifying wax is from petroleum – a synthetic source.
Looking forward to trying this new product!!
I’m so glad you tested this out for us! I saw the veggie emulsifier in the shop yesterday and was curious how it compared to E-wax. Thanks Andee! <3
So glad that you have tested this product, I never knew that there was something else out there that was veggie derived. Next time I place an order, hopefully sometime soon, I can get some of this and try it for myself. Thanks so much!!!
I Appreciate this post. Is the veggie emulsifier considered a “natural” product then? I have been thinking of venturing into lotions, but most of my customers balk at anything that isn’t natural.
I’m really excited about the veggie emulsifier, while I’m not a vegetarian or vegan, I’ve been trying to keep my products vegan. I have a couple of customers who are looking for ‘fall flavored’ lip balms, do you have any flavors that you only offer seasonally? Specifically my customers would like something with pumpkin, apple or carmel.
Very interesting! Thanks for this post! I did not realize that e-wax was petroleum-based – I plan to switch to the veggie emulsifier at my next order. Thanks for giving us the option 🙂
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I’ve used this emulsifier in a few batches now… Making the Aloe Butter Hand Cream on your site (except I always use Olive Butter place of the Aloe Butter.) Made the first batch with double the recipe quantity of emulsifier, and it was much thicker than when I make the cream with regular e-wax… so I mixed up another batch sans emulsifier, and combined the two, and it was great.
Yesterday, I made the same recipe, substituting the veg emulsifier 1:1 for e-wax this time… and it was very thick! So made another half-batch sans emulsifier, and combined the two, and it seems to be good now… (so in the end used less veg. emulsifier than I usually use of e-wax). I’m puzzled.
Does the stearic acid and the types of oils affect the veggie emulsifier’s performance?
This is typical of this batch. The veggie emulsifier and the conditioning emulsifier are both weaker than regular emulsifying wax. This recipe uses the Conditioning Emulsifier and so it would be well suited to a change to the Veggie Emulsifier. This cream is very thick and no adjustment would be needed to replace the Conditioning Emulsifier with Veggie Emulsifier. If you wish to use the regular Emulsifying Wax then we would decrease the amount of the emulsifier for the batch. You have 8.6% of items that would thicken this mixture in the Veggie Emulsifier and Stearic Acid. I would not increase either amount to use the Veggie Emulsifier. If I used the regular Emulsifying Wax I would decrease the emulsifier.
Use of a hydrogenated oil such as olive will also increase the viscosity of the cream. This should be expected.
Where is palm oil in the veggie emulsifier sourced?
I will need to check. The buyer on this product is out right now but when she returns we will find an answer for you.
Tina
I have found that the veggie emulsifier thins quite a bit with different fragrances and essential oils. A little extra stearic helped with this problem. However, since I sell quite a bit of unscented lotion which is now a bit too thick to start with, I have to measure out the amount needed and then add additional Aloe juice and a few extra drops of preservative. But—to have the all veggie emulsifier—-I’ll put up with a little extra work!
Thank you Bonnie G
Hi Andee, do you know the HLB of the Veggie Emulsifier?
Thanks!
I am not sure. This isn’t something we generally track because it is an imperfect system. Anyone know of a perfect system? We don’t either!
Tina