Making A More Fluid Lotion 3

I was thinking about how to make my lotions more liquid. I seem to always end up with thick creams instead of fluid lotions, even when I set out to make a more fluid formulation.

This lotion was very fluid after cooling to room temperature – it’s exactly what I was trying to make!

When encountering a problem like this, I find it’s very helpful to contact our Technical Support Team and tap into their wisdom.

A general principle they gave me was to look at how much water, emulsifying wax, and stearic acid was used. I gave them this formula to evaluate.

75.5% Distilled Water
6% Avocado Oil
5% Golden Jojoba Oil
4% Glycerin
4% Emulsifying Wax
2% Stearic Acid
2% Dimethicone
0.5% Seabuckthorn Fruit Oil
0.5% Liquid Germall Plus
0.5% Fragrance Oil

The team’s suggestion was to omit the 2% stearic acid, lower the emulsifying wax to 3%, and increase the oil of choice by 3%. I opted to add a third oil instead of increasing the avocado oil or jojoba oil; I added 3% White Riesling Grapeseed Oil.

Another thing I learned is that our Emulsifying Wax has a thickener in it, so it will make lotions thicker. That’s a good thing to know!

My revised formula is as follows:

75.5% Distilled Water
6% Avocado Oil
5% Golden Jojoba Oil
3% White Riesling Grapeseed Oil
4% Glycerin
3% Emulsifying Wax
2% Dimethicone
0.5% Seabuckthorn Fruit Oil
0.5% Liquid Germall Plus
0.5% Fragrance Oil

What You’ll Need

Instructions

Weigh all ingredients but preservative and fragrance, and microwave using short time bursts until everything is melted. Stir frequently during heating.

Check the temperature and allow the mixture to cool below 120ºF before adding preservative and fragrance.

Stir or stick blend well after adding preservative and fragrance, then pour into bottles, label, and enjoy.

Ingredients before being heated.

Lotion after heating and blending.

Notes

Pouring the very fluid lotion into bottles.

When I made the first formula listed on March 29 (see the blog post here), I was surprised at how stiff it was. Now I know it was the combination of stearic acid with a higher percentage of emulsifying wax.

This second attempt with the modified formula yielded exactly what I was hoping to create – a fluid, light lotion. You can see in the photo with my hand that it readily dripped down my fingers, and the photo at right shows how fluid it was as I poured it into bottles.

What kind of troubleshooting have you done lately? If you’d like to share, we’d love to hear about it in the comments!