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Soy Lecithin in water in oil emulsions
Hello, I need a little help.
I’ve recently acquired liquid soy lecithin with the intention of creating a water holding system in my whipped butters and skin oils.
I’ve been trying out different formulas/measurements
Example
10% water/water soluble additives
50% butter
35-38% oil/emolients /cetyl alcohol
2-5% liquid lecithin (I use lecithin as an emolient thus the %)
My challenge is getting the lecithin to fully dissolve, hold the water and not separate. There isn’t much information out there on this.I tried dissolving lecithin in oil first but it didn’t hold as much as 10% water.
I tried adding lecithin to water phase but I ended up with chunks.
Is there a more suitable technique to prevent separation or do I need to re-eveluate my percentages for a more stable (actual )emulsion(I know lecithin isn’t an emulsifyer) . I have beeswax, and polysorbate 80 but I want to avoid using tween 80. Thanks. -
10 Replies
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Soy lecithin IS an emulsifier, it has an HLBV of about 4. Your oil phase is so high that this can be described as a W/O emulsion. I have no experience making these, but I understand that the lecithin should be added to the oil phase in a W/O emulsion. Someone else can provide help with the % use, I hope.
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Still no replies. I haven’t found much information on w/o emulsions using soy lecithin. I’ll just have to conduct more experiments.
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What about adding lanolin?
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are you heating the batch, and if so, to what temperature?
also, how are you mixing the two phases together?
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Add lecithin to oil phase and slowly add water phase to oil with mixing.
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Thanks everyone,at first I was adding lecithin to the oil heat phase then when it cooled down I added the room temperature water phase ( avoided heating considering one of the water soluble additive is heat sensitive).
And I wasn’t using a blender or mixer. I was using a spatula. I guess a mixer would have enhanced physical emulsion. Just to be sure, Is my water percentage(10%) too high for the binding capacity of 5% lecithin? In a formula with 85% emolients/oils. -
yeah, you need a high-shear mixer of some kind to mix the phases together
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You should at last use a mortar. Lanolin should work better.
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I know this is an old discussion, but I would love to chat about liquid lecithin and w/o creams. I have no clue why w/o isn’t very popular? Also 10% isn’t high at all, I use nearly 50% Aloe Gel. I may experiment and use a 10%. After using a blender, did you love the results? I a new to this and I have made a personal cream that I use very often and decided to use an emulsifier and a preservative. My salve, turned into a lotion by adding lecithin and I couldn’t be more happy. Well I was actually going for a heavy cream. I am wondering if adding xanthan gum will help the viscosity thicken? Thanks in advance!
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@Skinjunkey i guess for w/o lecithin provide adequat hlb i think that the level of use should be higher 8% or more , as it has low hlb it must be in oil phase adequat temperature with adequat mixing will almost give better resultats .(should know that % given is % of emulsifier so i guess that liquid lecithin is not pure so you should know the concentration to know the right % of use)
@coastallabs i think that gum can help for increasing viscosity.
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