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How to make body butter glossy and smooth?
Hi everyone, I’m trying to make my body butter has the same appearance like my benchmark product. Actually the sensory feel is quite similar, but the appearance of mine is really ugly. I cannot say it in word, so I attach here the photo.
Left is mine. Right is what I’m trying to achieve. Smooth, Glossy, Shiny appearance.
The only thing i’m suspecting right now is because I’m using immersion blender. I do not have homogenizer at my stage right now. So for the high shear, the only thing i could think is using handheld immersion blender.
My second guess is Dimethiconol? the right picture use it, and i search that it can give glossy effect.
Here is my formula:
To 100
Water (66.9)
0.2
Disodium EDTA
4.0
Glycerin
2.0
Propylene glycol
0.1
Xanthan gum
2.0
Stearic acid
3.0
Cetearyl alcohol
5.0
Arlacel 165
(Glyceryl Stearate, PEG-100)3.0
Soybean oil
5.0
Shea butter
1.0
Lecithin
2.0
C12-15 Alkyl Benzoate
1.0
Dimethicone
1.0
Bees wax
0.5
Kemidant L Plus (DMDM Hydantoin & Iodopropynyl butylcarbamate)
2.0
Dipropylene glycol
0.7
Fragrance: Mango
0.7
Vitamin E (Tocopherol)
q.s
pH adjuster
Thank you, any help and comment is really appreciated
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20 Replies
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I don’t know but your benchmark looks like a mayo and ready to break.
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Yeah dimethicone can give it a slight gloss. Right one may have cocoa butter in for the more yellow colour perhaps? Pretty similar to one I make except I like it a bit more harder, more buttery than creamy
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Could be aeration in your sample? Looks very bubbly.
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Try the following: remove stearic acid, beeswax, DPG, lecithin. Reduce 165 to 4% (you simply don’t need that much with your oilphase). Up cetearyl alcohol to 4%. Replace soybean oil with Alkyl Benzoate. Probably up Dimethicone to 1.5%. Reduce tocopherol to 0.2%, you don’t need that much especially if you remove soybean oil. The above changes should improve texture.
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@Pattsi Sorry for the ambiguous photo. The right one is actually very popular bodybutter. Yes I know it seems there is like oil separation, and probably this is because I have kept it for around 1 year. But when i bought it, its really shiny glossy and smooth.
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@crillz I use dimethicone already at 1%. What i meant is dimethiconol. the right photo has dimethiconol in its ingredient although im not sure if it will really give big impact to the gloss appearance.
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@helenhelen thank you, yes mine has air trapped inside. I think i poured it too cold, so it thickens already. I should have pour it while its warm and liquid. Anyway, its more about that. I really want that right photo gloss, shiny, smooth appearance
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@ngarayeva001 thank you, i will try this. I agree, probably i will not need lechithin, soybean oil, dpg, and beeswax. But why remove stearic acid? i need butter consistency (not cream).
Do you think the right photo use more oil which give that gloss and shiny appearance? my total oil is around 12% right now
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Can you post the INCI of your benchmark?
Pretty sure the group can tell you what is making it glossy…if they have that INCI.
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Probably be aeration in your sample, also petrolatum might help bringing shine into the finish product
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stearic acid, beeswax - give quite a dull finish.
Body butter can mean any thing from anhydrous, rich heavy creamy/buttery emulsion … etc.
I’m curious how they get that colour, is it not fully emulsified?
So I’m guessing here, maybe try up your butter and Dimethicone, give it a little touch of sepgel.
INCI of your benchmark would make it easier. -
@vhogiono, I agree with @Pattsi, stearic acid and beeswax give dull finish and also make product draggy. It’s not always the case of course and I am sure it’s possible to formulate a good product with above mentioned ingredients, but my formulator’s intuition tells me that in this case you will be better off without it. And a touch of polymeric emulsifier (sepigel or another one) never hurts.
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@Graillotion Thank you, hope to hear your insight
My benchmark ingredients INCI is as below:Aqua, Butyrospermum Parkii (Shea) Butter, Glycerin, Glycine Soja (Soybean) Oil, Cetearyl Alcohol, Glyceryl Stearate, PEG-100 Stearate, C12-15 Alkyl Benzoate, Theobroma Cacao (Cocoa) Seed Butter, Ethylhexyl Palmitate, Parfum/Fragrance, Bertholletia Excelsa Seed Oil, Dimethicone, Sesamun Indicum (Sesame) Seed Oil, Orbygnya Oleifera Seed Oil, Cera Alba/Beeswax, Caprylyl Glycol, Phenoxyethanol, Xanthan Gum, Benzyl Salicylate, Coumarin, Disodium EDTA, Tocopherol, Sodium Hydroxide, Vanilla Planifolia Fruit Extract, Citric Acid, Caramel, C1 9140/Yellow5
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If I’m not mistaken, it’s The Body Shop body butter or a knock off or a similar product.
Then chance is it’s a high % butter product maybe 10-15, but I’m a bit confused since The Body Shop or l’occitane (25% butter) gives smooth, moderate glossy shine finish not super Glossy, Shiny appearance like the one you’ve shown. -
most likely a difference in processing; you need a high-shear mixer to get creams really smooth
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@Pattsi Yes, it is actually, but I just don’t want to mention the brand name (i’m worried it will be problem..)
For the butter product, IPCS recommends to have 12-15% oil (but butter not more than 10% as it may affect the consistency during hot and cold weather).
This is their vanilla body butter range, and as I have shown in the attached photo, its very glossy, shiny and smooth. Very good and appealing appearance.
I had tried to reduce aeration by pouring it while hot/in liquid form. When it cool down, it is much better, however I still cannot get that gloss and shiny effect.
In fact, here is what make me confuse me more:
(Please see my newest photo again here).
in my body butter, I can see from the surface of my butter its like many small dots (looks like small grain), which look not smooth. However when i dip and take with my fingers, I can see the inside of my butter is very well smooth and shiny.-I’m suspecting if some materials from my formula floats to the top?
-My second guess, are the oils that I use have problem in their polarity? (When i mix all of my oil, it won’t dissolve as one. It separates like water and oil, although all of these actually are oils.Do you think my combination of oil is just fine?
Thank you so much
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@Bill_Toge Thank you. I use immersive hand blender. Is this not high-shear enough and the cause of my grainy looking appearance?
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So basically only the high-shear mixer can get it to look smooth, nothing else?
I have had problems with beeswax and shea butter, especially if they were unrefined and l added too much of it.
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You can try add solvent like propylene glycol at the end of mixing maybe
I had try it before but it can just give the glossy increase a little bit -
Immersive hand blender can do the emulsifying job but it introduce too much air.
vhogiono said:For the butter product, IPCS recommends to have 12-15% oil (but butter not more than 10% as it may affect the consistency during hot and cold weather).It’s just a guideline, you have to find which % work best for you.
How did you add dimethicone and fragrance?
Maybe you can try adding in cool down phase with gentle stirring.A high butter product is quite a process dependent.
There’re discussions and great advices about how to handle shea butter here in the forum.
This vid is not the best formula but it can give you some idea on how to DIY high butter product.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bc2QK2VPS44
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