Home Cosmetic Science Talk Formulating Color and makeup Lipstick making process

  • Lipstick making process

    Posted by Vin on April 22, 2016 at 4:17 am

    I’ve seen a video where after heat to melt, the lipstick were pour into the mould then it was placed into the freezer immediately. What is the reason to put in the freezer? What happen if we don’t put it the freezer and just allowed to air dry?

    michaelpolymer replied 1 year, 8 months ago 5 Members · 4 Replies
  • 4 Replies
  • Mike_M

    Member
    April 22, 2016 at 1:04 pm

    The time that it takes to cool down affects the formation that you’ll get in the final product. You can affect the final viscosity by cooling at room temp or rapid cooling depending on what you’d like.

  • bobzchemist

    Member
    April 22, 2016 at 2:09 pm

    It has a lot to do with crystal formation. (I’ll explain more, be patient)

    Lipstick has to be a matrix - a mesh network of linked wax crystals woven through a semi-solid gel. Too much wax, and you have a waxy lump with no payoff - too little, and you have a gooey mess with no structure.

    To pull this off, not only do you have to have just the right wax mixture, and just the right amount of wax to gel ratio, but your wax crystals also need to be just the right size. Too small, and your wax matrix won’t form, too large, and your stick will feel gritty on the lips.

    So, how do you get your wax matrix to be near perfect? Since wax crystals grow larger slowly, only start to grow as your lipstick mass cools down below it’s melting point, and (if you’ve formulated your lipstick properly), will not grow at all at room temperature, you can precisely control the size of your wax crystals by limiting the time they have to grow. You can do that by chilling your lipstick mold as soon as the lipstick is poured. Some folks even pre-chill their molds.

  • Amruta

    Member
    March 6, 2020 at 3:20 am

    Hi Bob,
    At what temperature should the lipsticks in mold should be chilled. Is the refrigerator fine for this activity?

  • michaelpolymer

    Member
    July 27, 2022 at 11:37 pm

    But when we take lipsticks out and put the lipsticks in the room tempreature, the matirx will change accodring to the room tempreature again?If yes, I think the refrigerator function is to save time not the matrix.

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