• Formulating

  Grainy bumps in facial balm … is this fungus??

  Posted by kat on October 27, 2019 at 8:10 pm

  Hi this is my formulation. I did a lot of different versions to see why I keep getting the same grainy particles. Is it recommended that I use a stronger preservative in addition to the vitamin E and elderberry extract I added to delay rancidity? Thanks for your help! 

  kokum butter 30%.  
  Matcha butter 20% 
  Hemp Seed oil 10%
  Jojoba 5%
  Seabuckthorn 5%
  camellia seed oil 5%
  Wheat Germ oil 3% 
  Tamanu oil 1%
  OLIVE M 1000 5% 
  elderberry extract 5%
  Candelilla wax 2%
  Rice powder 1%
  Nanovasicular cooling system 5%
  Vitamin E 1%
  C/C Triglycerides (MCT Oil) 1%
  EO Blend - 1%

  ccchem replied 5 years ago 5 Members · 5 Replies
• 5 Replies

• 

  crillz

  Member

  October 27, 2019 at 9:34 pm

  My guess is just graininess due to different melting point of butters and waxes perhaps. 
  Being all oil I don’t think u need a preservative at all and I’d question why olivem 1000 is in there as it is an emulsifier. I’d swap it with some Cera Bellina as heard it helps with graininess. 

  Must note I’m kinda new to this I just like trying to learn and help with questions do I’m guessing also. 

  I’ve recently made balms with beeswax, cocoa butter, shea and oils. After a while it went grainy, but i simply eliminated one of the butters (Shea in this case) and it fixed my problem. I think it was just too many different melting points. Haven’t tried it but heard multiple times cera Bellina helps it’s this though. 

• 

  kat

  Member

  October 28, 2019 at 3:51 am

  crillz thank you so much for your suggestions, the multiple melting points didn’t occur to me but in retrospect, it makes sense! Also realized I have quote a few hardening ingredients here that might not be playing nice together. I’m going to remove the olive m 1000 and not put the matcha butter over heat as its soft enough to dissolve with the help of oils. I will only heat up kokum and the candelilla and see how that goes. I will check out Cera Bellina too, i hadnt heard of it before. 

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  Herbnerd

  Member

  October 28, 2019 at 7:30 pm

  @crillz this is totally what it is. This can be avoided by stirring and cooling at the same time. My guess is the melted oil has been poured into the jar and left to cool.

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  Fekher

  Member

  October 29, 2019 at 3:09 pm

  @kat i guess it is process problem so may you did not heat /stir enough . What @Herbnerd said is really can be good solution.

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  ccchem

  Member

  November 6, 2019 at 12:30 pm

  Most likely due to different melting points of fatty acids in the butters. If this is the case, you can fix it by melting your balm - making sure the granules are completely melted, and then freezing it. The point is to cool it very fast. This always works when I have grainy butters. Hope this helps

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