Home Cosmetic Science Talk Formulating General Off Topic Grainy butters………

  • Grainy butters………

    Posted by graillotion on December 14, 2021 at 8:09 pm

    I have mentioned that I spend a little time helping out on some mommy blogger sites….and so sometimes I ask questions related to their life problems.  :#

    I never use shea/mango butters….because I think they feel gross and greasy.  But they of course….love them.  They are forever having grainy concerns.  So my first question….when I was a beginner…I also made the shea mis-step…yet I never ever had a problem.  I rarely if ever did an accelerated cool down…and never tempered it.  So why question is….why no issues? 

    Is it because I never exceeded 3%?

    or

    From the beginning…I always used very good equipment…(hehehe… no whisk or stand mixers…or even cheap stick blenders)… I always used a very high quality emulsifying head.  Therefore I always had small particle size.  Is this the key to keeping a grainy texture at bay?  Make particle size so small…that things don’t have time to find their friends…and make a group (grain)?  Does the type of emulsion play in….one with enough strength to not allow migration of certain components back into a group (grain)?  They of course mainly use e-wax (which I dropped on about day 3 of my cosmetic career)…and often do not use gums or polymerics.  It seems like the emulsion structure could prevent the re-grouping?

    Both I…and the mommy bloggers are aware of the typical tempering steps….but it just seems to me…like something in ‘process’ or emulsion structure can be even more effective…and I really suspect…particle size might be a key.

    Second question…. are there some butters…that will never ever be grainy, no matter the mis-treatment or poor process?  Meaning the more common ones….like Murumuru, Cupuacu, Illipe, Kpangnan, Kokum…etc.

    Aloha and thank you for considering these questions.  If I don’t work with certain ingredients…I usually don’t have the simple answers.

    Aloha.

    abdullah replied 2 years, 3 months ago 4 Members · 4 Replies
  • 4 Replies
  • Cafe33

    Member
    December 14, 2021 at 8:46 pm

    What finished product are you speaking about? Whipped butters?

  • graillotion

    Member
    December 14, 2021 at 9:02 pm

    Cafe33 said:

    What finished product are you speaking about? Whipped butters?

    That of course….and others.

    So provide both answers. :) 

  • jemolian

    Member
    December 15, 2021 at 9:56 am

    I don’t make whipped butters, but seems that the problem they have is when they make anhydrous whipped butters? I’ve also seen them mentioning using SOFTISAN® 378 and it would help with that. Doubt you’d have the same graininess issues in an emulsion if the percentage is not that high. 

  • abdullah

    Member
    December 15, 2021 at 11:53 am

    You have many question marks  but i don’t know how many questions are there. So if you give each question a number it will be easy to answer that mach questions.  ;)

    If you increase the temperature to 10-15 degree above melting point of a butter and then cool it, no grainy will be there. 
    If you are mixing butters, increase the temperature 10-15 degree above melting point of the ingredient that has the highest melting point, the mex them for a bit longer or use high shear mixer and when it cools there will be no grainy. 

    The problem with those blogs is that may be they don’t introduce enough heat or not enough mixing or not enough heat when mixing so they don’t melt properly and so don’t mix properly. 
    Or maybe they are doing so purposely to create a problem and then talk about it and solve it in different ways in order for you to watch their blog or videos more often.

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