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Balm behaving the opposite of what I’d expect..
Hi everyone,
Hoping someone can shed some light on this weird issue I’m having. I created a balm for a customer to replicate their existing product, which is a softer creamy anhydrous balm. However, upon them receiving the balm, they are stating it is too hard. When showing them the sample they received from me vs. my sample retain, they are totally different (mine being soft, theirs being hard). If something happened during shipment (which we are shipping from extremely hot weather to extremely hot weather 2 hours away), I would have expected the sample to turn grainy, not into a harder balm. Does anyone have any ideas? Should I perform a certain type of test before sending (placing in an incubator at greater than 50C)? My formula contains 13% beeswax and the rest vegetable oils (mostly sunflower and olive).
Thanks all!
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4 Replies
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It’s hard to say without knowing all the ingredients. I’d suggest you at least list those.
But there are a couple of possible explanations. First, if the balm experienced melting and then reforming during shipment, it’s possible that the top layer became enriched with beeswax, resulting in a harder texture. Make sure to mix the balm thoroughly during production and maybe instruct the customer to check the balm consistency deeper into the container. Another thing is that it could have cooled too quickly. If this happened and the wax and oils crystallized at different rates, this might result in a firmer texture. You could see if either of these is the case by doing a freeze/thaw stability test. -
@Perry44 Can you please elaborate how freeze/thaw will show the above mentioned problems in the balm. Is it melting or graininess or what?
Thanks
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A freeze/thaw test cycles between hot storage/RT/cold storage/RT. It is meant to mimic what might happen in shipping. So that’s why you may be able to reproduce the results.
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beeswax is not enough for hot temperature in transport. it’s probably melting in transport and resolidifying and changing the texture.
you need a higher melting point wax. what’s the melting point of your lip balm? you should also be testing the lip balm in final component in 50C.
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