This is wonderful!!! I was so convinced that no one would want to know how to make a lotion that I was getting kind of dejected. But yes, I'd love to teach you all how to make lotions from scratch, Cannafan, from scratch. I don't bother with lotion kits nor do I bother with premade mixes that you just add scent to. I make my lotions with good, healthy oils that treat the skin right and that you can experiment with. I make them with love. I'm just the kind of person who just loves to take something from beginning to ending and all the steps in between, no shortcuts here.
So we'll begin by learning about the different oils that can be used in a lotion (or a cream or a butter for that matter). Since I've already told you how to tell the difference between a cream, a butter and a lotion recipe, I'll tell you again!
There is no real discernable difference between a cream and a butter, often referred to as a body butter. They are characterized as having no emulsion to speak of and only just a collection of oils mixed together to a cream consistency, often using beeswax or some other wax like soya wax to develop that consistency. Wax usually makes up to 8% of the total ingredients of the formulation in order to develop that consistency that we refer to as a "butter" or "cream."
A lotion is quite different in both consistency and formulation. Here is the basic makeup of a lotion's formulation, but please don't let it scare you. As time goes on, it will seem less frightening to you.
Light Oils = 8% - 17%
Heavy Oils or Butters = up to 5%
Water or other liquids 75% - 80%
Emulsifying Wax = 3% - 6%
Thickener (such as stearic acid) = up to 3%
Vitamin E Oil = 1%
Preservative = usually at about 1%, but according to manufacturer's directions.
See why I said not to let the formulation freak you out? Really, building a lotion is very, very simple. Much easier than learning how to ride a bike. With learning about how to ride a bike, well, you got to learn to keep your balance, you've got to remember to pedal, you've got to learn so much when it comes to riding a bike. Learning how to make a lotion is nothing like that. It's very easy, in fact. You just have to get used to the language and what those ingredients are. Which I will teach you.
The oils we are going to go through in my short, brief posts on oils that I've been promising to add to the roster for days now. And I will get to it, especially now that there's an interest in developing lotions. For lotions, you've really got to know your oils, for there are so many oils to choose from and each of them has their own qualities and subjectivities. Yes, probably not real subjectivities, for they are inanimate products, but I like to think of different oils as having their own characteristics and ways of being. We've already touched upon coconut oil and grape seed oil in this thread, so maybe I will start with the both of them. That would be a good jumping off point.
Water or other liquids. Yes, or other liquids. You can use chamomile tea. You can use another type of herbal tea. You could use maple syrup, for all I care -- but it'd be a pretty sticky and gross lotion when you were done with it! But you get my drift. If you've got an imagination for waterbased ingredients, then you've got an imagination for different lotions.
Emulsifying wax comes in two forms: e-wax for short, or conditioning emulsifier. E-wax gives a stiffer lotion, whereas conditioning emulsifier gives a more liquid emulsification which tends to result in a smoother lotion that sinks into the skin just a little bit easier. But both are fine, and I often use a combination of the two in each of my recipes to get the best of both worlds.
Thickener is just that -- a thickener for your lotion. Who wants a watery, thin lotion that dribbles down your leg or back as soon as you pump it on? Someone, probably. But not me. I like a rather thick emulsion that I only need a little bit o to do the job right. And Thickener can help you achieve that.
Vitamin E Oil helps your lotion in two ways. First of all, it helps to prevent your oils from going bad. And it also is a wonderful additive for the skin, helping to rejuvenate it and aiding the lotion in providing antioxidants for the skin
Now let's get something very important straight up front right now. Vitamin E Oil is NOT a preservative. I repeat, Vitamin E Oil is NOT a preservative. It helps the oils from oxidizing, thereby aiding in the prevention of your oils from going rancid in your lotion, but that's all it does. It does NOT act as a preservative for your lotion in any way. It only helps to prevent the oils from oxidizing and thereby going rancid in your lotion, but it does NOT act as a preservative for your lotion in any way.
In order to preserve the integrity of your lotion, you MUST add a preservative to your lotion. If you do not, you then MUST go thorough very rigid sterilization techniques that are designed to reduce molds and mildews and bad karma-like bacteria from your working environment to zero levels so that your lotion does not become contaminated during the production process. These particular ways of creating your lotions can be followed -- must be followed if you are not going to be using a preservative in your lotion. Even still, they must never be sold professionally (in fact they are illegal to sell), must be kept in the refrigerator, and MUST be discarded after only 10 days to prevent the growth of bad bacteria in your lotion that could make you very, very ill and if used near the eyes, even cause blindness.
Okay, did I scare you enough into using preservatives in your lotions? Good. That was my intention. Lotions made without preservatives are NOT something to play around with. I would never make them, and I would never, ever even think of selling them.
A note about using lotions around eyes... I do not advocate the use of homemade lotions on the face at all. I know plenty of people who make their own lotions for facial use. I do it myself. But I do not advocate it. I definitely want it to be said up front that I think that home crafted lotions are wonderful things, but I would never make one for someone else that was intended as a facial cream. Too much liability. Too much potential for problems. Too much potential for being sued.
Now, I don't want you to think that you cannot make wonderful lotions with easy methods that don't require you to cleanse your working environment so that you have zero bacteria and zero molds and mildews. This is a way of working where you reduce the nasties to acceptable levels so that your lotion is safe enough, made in a clean enough environment, produced in a good enough environment so that your lotion, while using a preservative, is a strong, sturdy and safe emollient that will last you a long time on the shelf. I currently have several lotions I have produced that were made under these conditions and none of them have gone bad on me. That is the method of cleansing that I will teach you to work under. That is the methodology of working under that I advocate and will teach you to use in this Study Hall. For those who are interested, I will agree to teach you through private messaging how to work under the other methodology, but I will refrain from confusing everyone with those methods in the main Study Hall.
Okay, so I've blurted out a ton of bloody info here today, and much of it is probably very confusing. Don't worry, it will all become clearer as time goes on and everyone becomes more accustomed to the language of creating lotions and the methodologies of doing so, too.For now, here's a few take aways:
1) Understand the difference between lotions, creams and butters.
2) Learn the content of what constitutes a lotion from its specific ingredients.
3) Learn that Vitamin E Oil is NOT a preservative, though many people say it is. It is just an antioxidant that will prevent your oils from spoiling.
And that, my dear friends, is more than enough for today, right?
And my I ask something of you all in return? Would you all please begin to blog all these posts for future reference? I would hate to have to begin to repeat myself after taking such time to write this all down once already. I'm not lazy. I just don't see the need to repeat so much information when there's so much more to come.
SO MUCH MORE TO COME?!? ARE YOU NUTS?!?
Well, yes.
