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natural lip balm
Hello
I have made a natural lip balm that includes castor oil and beeswax and peppermint oil. Nice and simple.
Have found that with heat it melts to a very liquidy mess. Is there anything to use to give it a higher heat stability? other waxes?
Have also found that it melts and doesnt re solidify as well as originally would the peppermint oil be playing a role in this.
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18 Replies
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You may need to include wax with higher melting point. May be Candelilla or Carnauba. Also inclusion of butters like Cocoa, Shea, Mango and the like may help with consistency. Good luck!
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Thanks Galina
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I agree with @galina. You need a higher melting point wax to get better heat stability. You could also reduce the level of peppermint oil.
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Try Koster Keunen for waxes, they have a good selection
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Thanks perry and bobzchemist. Have used candelilla wax so far and it has helped however now the customer thinks it is too shiny. Never ending fun!
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Ha! The life of a formulator.
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If I remember our old lipstick formulas we used to incorporate carnuaba to give a little matte effect to the so shiny look of the stick and it worked. You can try that by using an optimized mixture of these waxes.
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Speaking about natural lip balms, my sister informed me that after she used my balm (olive oil, beeswax, chamomile extract, tocopherol) her lips swelled. She had suffered this also before with a balm from a large company. I searched google and found that this is something well known. It’s from beeswax - maybe the propolis, or ingredients from flowers like linalool?. But EU regulation don’t list beeswax as an allergen: http://ec.europa.eu/health/scientific_committees/consumer_safety/docs/sccs_o_102.pdf
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Yes, @heraklit, propolis is a potential allergen. Estimations of contact sensitivity based on studies range from 1.2 to 6.6%. Chamomile and its derivatives can also cause allergies, though it’s usually the whole extract, as there are numerous chemicals within those extracts.
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Chamomile ess. oil doesn’t have any known allergen. I used a CO2 extract at very low amount. I haven’t see anything so far about allergies from chamomile extracts.
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@heraklit, aside from water, EVERYTHING is a known allergen, to someone somewhere.
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This is precisely why they make us list every ingredient on our ingredient labels, not just the ones that might be allergens - they all might be. We try to avoid the ones really large sections of the population are commonly allergic to, but that’s the best we can do and still be able to make products.
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Now my sister (age 49) learned that she is sensitive to beeswax or propolis!
Thats why EU authorities thinking to add about 200 more substances as allergens, that must be listed on our labels! -
Actually @Bobzchemist, even water can be an allergen. Or at least cause a skin reaction.
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So far my lips swell with beeswax and candelilla wax, never tried carnauba wax, so I tried to order sunflower wax from koster keunen waxes but they won’t sell in smaller batches, hard to find products??
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@Bobzchemist, @Perry, @ heraklit
Even worse, there might be impurities in the product, such as metals, that cause irritant or allergic reactions.
It’s a good idea to get patch-tested by a dermatologist or allergist, just in case. It’s definitely possible you’ll be allergic to or cross-react with carnuaba wax. Plant-based products tend to do that.
Microcrystalline and okozerite waxes are good substitutes, and they’re technically “natural” (well, they are minerals),
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@bortopa If it’s just for testing purposes and you can stand the markup… The Herbarie has a good selection of waxes in small quantities including Sunflower Wax.
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Thanks MichelleReece & EliseCortes
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