Lipstick Breaking - Chemists Corner

Formulating

Lipstick Breaking

Posted by Anonymous on December 15, 2015 at 5:08 pm

Hello. I have been formulating my own solid matte lipstick for a while now and while I have found a matte and moisturizing formula that I love wearing on my lips, I have a new problem. My lipsticks keep breaking.

Here’s the formula and the method that I use to make a batch of 4 lipsticks

Beeswax 4g

Shea butter 3g

Jojoba oil 3.5g

Magnesium stearate 1g

Kaolin Clay 1.7g

Zinc oxide 2.7g

Vitamin E 0.58g

Octyldodecanol 0.5 g

Preservative 0.16g

Liquid lip colorants

Method:

I melt wax, butter and oil together. In a separate container, I mix powders and add colorants to these powders.

Once the wax and butter are melted, I pour them into the powder+colorant mixture and stir really well to make homogenious mixture.

I melt the mixture again until it turns liquid

I preheat the mold so it is approximately the same temperature as the liquid.

I then pour the liquid into the mold, wait for the mold to get to room temperature and then transfer into the freezer for 20 min. the reason why I keep it in the freezer for 20 min is because otherwise lipsticks would be too soft to package.

Please let me know what your thoughts are on why the lipstick keeps on breaking.

Thank you.

Bobzchemist replied 9 years, 5 months ago 1 Member · 3 Replies
3 Replies

Bobzchemist

Member
December 15, 2015 at 9:21 pm

Problem 1: Your batch is too small to get adequate mixing

Problem 2: Your powders and your oils are not mixed together well. This will leave air pockets that can harm the strength of your sticks.

Problem 3 Beeswax and Magnesium Stearate are not strong enough by themselves to ever keep a lipstick from breaking.

What you’ve made isn’t really a lipstick - it’s actually a lipgloss (even though it’s matte) Package it in a supportive lipgloss tube and you’ll be fine.

Remember, don’t ever give or sell an untested product you’ve made to anyone else.
Anonymous

Guest
December 15, 2015 at 10:06 pm

Thank you for your reply!

Can I take this formula and somehow turn it into a matte liquid lipstick?

Or if not, can I make a real lipstick by adding something else or is there always going to be an air problem?

Thank you.
Bobzchemist

Member
December 15, 2015 at 10:45 pm

If you like the formula as-is, just use these tubes:

https://www.thesage.com/catalog/products/Slim-Stick-Tubes.html

http://www.crafterstouch.com/items.aspx?items=262

If you make a larger batch, you can use one of these for blending (with an Osterizer)

http://www.amazon.com/Oster-4937-Mini-Jar-Accessory/dp/B000BDBG2M

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