This fatty phospholipid mixture is a perennial favorite for those making natural skin care due to its versatility and ease of use. Lecithin is found in a wide variety of plants and animals, including soybeans, rapeseed, corn and egg whites. Lecithin typically combines best with the oil in an emulsion, but is highly effective in both water- and oil-based emulsions. Lecithin has natural humectant properties, drawing moisture from the air and depositing it on the skin, as well as the ability to help ingredients penetrate better. This makes it an ideal emulsifier for anti-aging products for drier, more mature skin. Add 1 tablespoon of liquid lecithin per cup of lotion base.
How to dissolve lecithin granules in water
Let the granules soak in the water phase of your recipe for an hour.
(By water phase I mean the watery part of your recipe, it can be water, it can be flower water, it can be herbal infusion…)
1) Put granules in the water phase of the recipe and let 1 hour to dissolve. (here 20g granules and 40g of distilled water).
2) After 1 hour the granules are dissolved
3) When you mix it after, it looks like this (without oils) – please, not, that you do not have to mix it prior to adding oils, if you are making a cream or a lotion.
Recipe with lecithin and beeswax:
| Recipe | |
| Water phase | |
| Rose water | 45ml |
| Oil phase | |
| Cocoa butter | 8g |
| Marigold infused oil | 30ml |
| Emulsifiers | |
| soy lecithin granules | 2g |
| or | |
| liquid lecithin | 2ml |
| beeswax | 5g |
Instructions
1) If you have lecithin granules, dissolve them in rose water – it will take an hour until they get wet through, then just mix them to dissolve completely. If you have liquid lecithin just mix it with rose water directly.
2) In water bath melt cocoa butter and beeswax with marigold oil. Beeswax needs around 64°C (147°F) to dissolve, pay attention to not overheat (e.g. >80°C, this may happen easily if you don’t use water bath). If you overheat cocoa butter, it will get grainy.
3) At the same time, heat your water phase (lecithin and rose water) to 70°C.
4) If necessary, transfer the oil phase into your stand mixer, if not, just use blender – you’ll probably need a very strong mixing in order to be successful making cream from beeswax and lecithin only! First start mixing the oils and than slowly pour the water phase in. Both phases should be around 50-60°C at this point. Blend until you reach an emulsion (cream consistency). I tried also hand mixing from the beginning, but it is not worthy the effort and the result is uncertain.
5) ATTENTION - It may happen that the water phase starts separating from the oil phase when you stop stirring before your cream cools completely down. Therefore, once your reach the emulsion, you can put the pot in cold water in order to accelerate the cool-down phase, but continue stirring. Do not forget to stir well until the cream is a room temperature, hand stirring is usually sufficient in this phase.
6) When finished, stir in your preservative (if any) and fragrance or essential oils of your choice.
7) Transfer you cream into cream pots.
This wax, made by honeybees and the foundation for honeycombs, has been used in
skin care
products for centuries. It has softening and healing properties of its own, but works well as a thickener and emulsifier. Beeswax works best when used in thinner, lighter oil in water emulsions, though it can make a base for creams when used alongside other emulsifiers. Beeswax is perfect for formulas designed to absorb quickly.
- Water, Additives, and Botanicals to 100 %.
You can also create an emulsion with the help of natural ingredients. However, unlike Emulsifying Wax, natural emulsifiers must be used in conjunction with each other in order to work. The best combination to start with is Beeswax,Liquid Lecithin, and Borax. Together, these ingredients can help to create a stable emulsion of fats and waters.The emulsifier part can be 100% Emulsifying Wax, or a combination of 80%Beeswax, 10% Borax, and 10% Liquid Lecithin. Try experimenting with the amount of water, oil, or emulsifier you have to create unique textures. You can also try switching Beeswax for other waxes, such as Candelilla, Carnauba,Bayberry, or Floral Wax.
More recipes:
http://myhomemadebeauty.com/2010/09/01/lecithin-benefits-for-skin/
http://suite101.com/article/make-your-own-hand-lotion-with-glycerin-and-beeswax-a349617
Some excellent information about various emulsifiers here:
http://allnaturalbeauty.us/emulsions.htm
Emulsifying Wax:
The ingredients for Emulsifying Wax NF are: Cetearyl Alcohol, Polysorbate 60, PEG-150 Stearate, and Steareth-20. It has the characteristics of cetyl alcohol combined with the viscosity building effect of stearyl alcohol as an effective thickener and helps form stable emulsions.
I don't think I want to use Emulsifying Wax, because the polysorbate is already mixed with alcohol.
Instead of using stearic acid, I could use cornstarch. Stearic acid just acts as a thickener.
Cetly Alcohol: is not really an "alcohol" such as ethyl or rubbing alcohol, which would dry the skin, but is a stabilizer, thickener; made by combining fatty alcohols derived from vegetable sources. Cetyl alcohol may be naturally derived from coconut fatty alcohol or made artificially. It is used in many cosmetics as an emollient, thickening agent, moisturizer, stabilizer, opacifier as well as a carrying agent for other ingredients. This is not an emulsifyer, but a thickener and stabiliser. On it's own it will not bind oils and water at all.
Polysorbates:
These are emulsifiers. By adding polysorbate 20 or polysorbate 80 (the most common ones we find at our suppliers), we can include something like a fragrance or essential oil (polysorbate 20) or a carrier oil (polysorbate 80) into our surfactant or water based products. Polysorbates will emulsify sebum, so they are also considered to be very very mild non-foaming, non-lathering non-ionic cleansers, which you can include in oil based cleansers, and they will increase the mildness and reduce irritation in surfactant products. They will suppress the foam slightly, so they're not suitable for low foamy surfactant products, but we can use them to suppress foam in things like facial cleansers, where suds and lather aren't welcome! Polysorbate 80 is soluble in water, partially soluble in fractionated coconut oil and soy bean oil, and insoluble in glycerin. Polysorbate 20 is soluble in water and glycerin, partially soluble in fractionated coconut oil, IPM, and mineral oil. Polysorbates are readily biodegradable and polysorbate 60 and 80 are acceptable food additives To sum it up, we generally use polysorbate 20 for essential and fragrance oils - I use it in a pinch with some of the lighter oils like fractionated coconut oil or IPM when I'm out of polysorbate 80 - and we generally use polysorbate 80 for carrier oils. You can use polysorbate 80 for essential and fragrance oils, but you can't use polysorbate 20 for carrier oils.
There are all kinds of health alerts about polysorbates, but I think most of them concern it being mixed with alcohol and the by product there of.
BTMS: I don't think I want to use these. Reading indicates that it's hazardous to inhale and while it is said to be a great conditioner, I've read some warnings about it having adverse reactions when applied to skin.
In emulsions, we use a molecule that has a part that like water, and a part that doesn't, all in the same molecule.
Soaps and detergents. A soap is basically a fat attached to a water loving element, like sodium or potassium.
Phospholipids have a water loving and a water hating side. A common phopholipid is lecithin.
**A stabilizer for emulsion is vegetable gum. These form with the water. They have the effect of keeping the oil from recombining, simply by getting in the way; forming semi-rigid walls between droplets. Another stabilizer is Xanthan gum. Adding 1/8 tsp of Xanthan gum to any oil and water emulsion will remove most of the barriers to success. Stearic acid or cornstarch are stabilizers also. Stabilizers also make great thickeners. Stearic acid is found naturally in some butters like cocoa and shea.
Fats are triglycerides. Glycerin is the back bone. If we remove the fatty acids, we are left with glycerin, which will attach to water. Glycerin has a water loving end and a fat loving end. It will emulsify!
Polysorbates are commonly used as emulsifying agents. It's a fatty acid attached to a water loving molecule. Polysorbate 80 would be a good choice.
Various alcohols like stearyl alcohol and cetyl alcohol are found in e-wax. I want to try to stay away from e-wax.
Proteins dissolve better in water than oil. This is better for oil in water emulsions like lotion, where you have more water than oil in the mixtures. To make a stiffer consistency like creams, which have less water and more oil (water in oil mixtures) I want something that dissolves in oils.
This information was found here: http://kitchenscience.sci-toys.com/Emulsions
Cetyl alcohol - Stabilizer - This short chain, saturated, fatty alcohol imparts an emollient feel to our lotions and creams and works with our cationic quaternary compounds to super-charge our conditioners.
Compare the cetyl alcohol molecule to the
stearic acid molecule. It has 16 carbons (stearic has 18) and it has an OH (oxygen-hydrogen or hydroxy group) whereas stearic has a carboxyl group at the head (OOH). Cetyl alcohol is a short chain fatty alcohol; stearic acid is a long chain fatty acid. So what does this all mean to us?
Cetyl alcohol can be used like
stearic acid to thicken our lotions for a creamier feel. You can use it up to 5% in lotions and creams, but I like to use it up to 3% because I don't want things too thick! You can use it as the emollient - oil or butter - in a lotion for "oil free" moisturizing.
Because it is saturated, it is considered resistant to rancidity, so the shelf life is considered to be very long. (A lot of manufacturers say it is resistant to rancidity forever - nothing lasts forever, but it is a very long time!) And it has a melting point of 49˚C.
It is more emollient than stearic acid, and works in conjunction with a cationic quaternary compound like BTMS to increase the conditioning agent's
substantivity (it clings more to your hair). Where stearic can feel waxy and draggy, cetyl feels glidier and greasier (in a good way).
Stearic acid and cetyl alcohol can be used interchangeably, for the most part. I liken a cream with cetyl alcohol to Cool Whip - it's glidier and silkier - whereas I think of a cream with stearic acid as whipped butter - still glidy, but definitely not silky and a lot heavier.
My conclusions:
I want to try using Lecithin, beeswax, borax, stearic acid (cornstarch), glycerin, Xanthan gum, and polysorbates.
Apparently, You can create an emulsion by using just Lecithin, and you can create an emulsion by just using Polysorbates without beeswax.
Stay away from Emulsifying Wax, & BTMS.
