[MaidenOrangeBlossom]

I started off making essential oil perfume because the alcohol based/synthetic fragrances began causing sinus infections and migraines. The key is to experiment with all essential oils. Keep playing around with combinations and within a year you’ll have absorbed a lot of intuition on various scents. A very good combo that lasts forever is vetiver, vanilla as a base because its so strong. It imparts a scent for at least half a day. I think your particular chemistry can vary a bit but using more than one base note, 1-2 middle notes and 1-2 top notes can create a layering effect that is pleasant and very potent. I also add a touch of glycerine as the humectant can carry scents forward. But its a bit messy, customers tend to love “natural” but they don’t lol. Here is one of my favorites that I’ve gotten compliments on:

1 drop vetiver

3 drops Vanilla Absolute

1 drop Blood Orange

3 drops Vitamin E Oil

1 drop vegetable glycerine

I think I also added benzoin or tobacco making it unisex.

Try it out and see for yourself how powerful it is. After about 9 months of formulating, I was able to pair essential oils (synthetic shouldn’t be different), in a complimentary way without knowing why. It turns out your nose can sense similar chemicals in each scent. IMO I don’t like strong fragrances, its an imposition to others who may have various allergies or sensitivities.

[MaidenOrangeBlossom]

Sodium hyaluronate

[MaidenOrangeBlossom]

It seems like you might be trying to pair coemulsifiers together rather than a single emulsifier with a co emulsifier and thickener for stability. I love BTMS for everything, cetyl alcohol as a secondary coemulsifier and a gum to stabilize.

[MaidenOrangeBlossom]

More than 3 times the amount you need 15% Cetearyl Alcohol
Eliminate completely, this will make hair feel like wax 10% Stearic Acid
Might be too much, cationic ingredients can do the opposite of what you want 3% BTMS 80
Almost sure this is unnecessary 1% Olive Silicone Alternative
Great ingredient 35% SCI
Also good 10% Cocamidopropyl Betaine
Increase substantially 24% SCS
Can be eliminated or used at a lower percentage 0.5% Guar Hydroxypropyltrimonium Chloride
Never used but everyone loves 0.5% Polyquaternium-10
Necessary 1% Preservative

[MaidenOrangeBlossom]

Olive M, Cupuacu and the alcohol you’ve chosen would not create a dry touch. Kokum butter is very hard and has a matte finish, cetyl alcohol gives a powdery touch, carnuba wax is very hard and will harden the stick well enough for a drier feel. The recipe could use an overhaul in terms of ingredients. Adding rice starch or other powders can prevent any greasy feel. The titanium dioxide is a bit high, it requires so much lipids to disperse that you’d have to add more powders to balance the feel. I think the others gave good advice too.

[MaidenOrangeBlossom]

Olivem won’t thicken a formula unlike other emulsifiers. Steric acid has incredible thickening properties and a nice skin feel. I personally hate olive m and I generally don’t like gums because I’m a beginner and it has a tendency to fish eye, I’ve ruined hundreds of dollars in formulas because of it. However, I do use cationic guar in one lotion, without it, the lotion is extremely unstable. Lotions are probably the more chemically complex thing I’ve ever tried creating from scratch. A ready made recipe, generic one is easy and usually works but I wanted to create my own so that’s why its so complex and likely why you may be having issues with texture. Are you looking for a more gel like texture? Creamy? Powdery? That’ll determine what ingredients to use. Are by chance marketing it as plant based, natural? That’ll also determine what to use. One of my favorites is cetyl alcohol for the powdery feel and kokum butter for the hardening and thickening feel without the greasiness.

[MaidenOrangeBlossom]

I’m trying to not use any essential oils in my products, how can I cover the scent of unpleasant ingredients like BTMS?

[MaidenOrangeBlossom]

How did you market the limited ingredients and what was your most popular products? Did you get good feedback from people suffering various skin ailments?

[MaidenOrangeBlossom]

I couldn’t actually market it since I could be shut down for any potential medical claims, I used the dubious term, natural. There’s only so many words that can be used so I settled on that and it was at least something the masses sort of think they understand which helped. But now I am attempting to move away from that term so I could use some ideas. I am leaning on either Simple (its not simple, took years of research and experiments on myself lol) or Limited Ingredient which almost sounds like pet food. I can see why so many people claim organic or natural, not a whole lot to go on without accidentally making a medical type claim.

[MaidenOrangeBlossom]

seaweeds can also cause hair drag depending on what exactly you’re using, for example the clear bioseed weed you can get from lotion crafters is water based so it won’t cause drag. Keratin can also leave an undesireable feel to hair in leave in conditioners. I usually use no more than 2% but balance it with extra BTMS and oils like camellia which is silicone like in its lightness but very expensive. Howver, you only need under 10% in any product for a nice feel and effect. 10% isn’t a lot for this oil due to its extreme lightness.

[MaidenOrangeBlossom]

05% of guar cat is too much. Increasing the plant oils/butters and cationic emulsifiers should do the trick. Although guar cat is touted, in practice its very hard to balance and it leaves an extremley awful feel to hair used in concentrations above .1% although some people have had success. And mixing it in veggie glycerin can help immensely.

[MaidenOrangeBlossom]

Your conditioner bar is far more complex than mine so I’m not able to give scientific advice. However, I live in a place where we have over 100% humidity and I have very thin hair. My conditioner bar has never given me frizz/static issues. Frizz is often a sign of hair damage but not always. Adding moisturizers, even humectants (some hair experts warn about too much humectants in humid weather) but adding slightly more than average hasn’t affected my hair (I don’t have large sample since my customers also all love it). Heres what I use:

Cupuacu butter which is the most hydrating butter but for fine hair you can use muru muru which acts similar to a silicone (not really imo but its the lightest butter that is effective for anti frizz)

Artichoke extract which is water soluable and highly effective for frizz and I believe static.

My specialty is in simplicity, its not scientific so I couldn’t sell to big brands, it would have to hold up to expensive consumer tests, but at the end of the day I can make a limited ingredient product that holds up.

My hair used to be difficult, almost never grew and dry. Now its so healthy that an expensive modern salon told me I had the healthiest hair they’d ever seen. Maybe a chemist can chime in on the ingredients I mentioned and why its so effective? I personally leave out silicones because I’ve gotten a similar effect from the ingredients mentioned above with success in my very small customer base (100 customers).

[MaidenOrangeBlossom]

Its been difficult to source any type of container. I love tin containers because of the light weight and being more eco friendly. It isn’t lux but it can be done very well.

[MaidenOrangeBlossom]

I love pairing emulsifiers and stabilizers like gums with face creams. Kokum is incredible because of its hardness and steric acid content. Theres a butter that is also a natural emulsifier but Ive never used it. BTW for kokum it can dramatically alter the look and feel of a product.

[MaidenOrangeBlossom]

wow the marketing gimmicks are real. So many shampoos are advertising niacinimide as a hair miracle.

[MaidenOrangeBlossom]

Would it be effective if it was left in for 5 minutes?

[MaidenOrangeBlossom]

Thank you! Good points. I was actually considering a combination. I’ll be selling locally but eventually need to ship since I don’t plan to make a lot for the festivals. The theft and driving hours doesn’t leaves only the option of shipping after the show. I’m still debating how much glass vs plastic since I also want to present an eco friendly product. I know there is a lot of debate on that front.

[MaidenOrangeBlossom]

That is part of my research. Because of some experience in making products that changed my skin and hair forever, it was simple and cheap. You don’t need much so I figured the marketing bit was valuable. So I might actually market, simple is better. Lol.

[MaidenOrangeBlossom]

Is there a scientific explanation of why adding these things makes hair feel nicer despite it washing away? I want to make an effective product and better understand so I can for lack of a better word, smarter. For example my favorite shampoo and the only one that works is the Shikikai color reflect. The main ingredient is vegetable glycerine which is how I began making hair care. By adding it to my shampoos, my hair became less dry but with so many other ingredients, my science isn’t exact. Is “feel” different from actual efficacy? How would it be measured if I subjectively feel that the additional active type of ingredients I use make my hair look and feel nicer even when there is no science to back that up?

[MaidenOrangeBlossom]

You can completely remove guarcat. The benefits of it are overstated. I love vegetable glycerine because of its feel, it does wash off but I find that the inclusion improves my hair even if a little.

[MaidenOrangeBlossom]

Use a very small amount immediately after wetting skin and lightly blotting dry. You have to use humectants strategically and layer various products. If made correctly, HA quenches skin on contact. But on very dry skin in dry weather, you won’t do your skin any favors. Also a dry or tight feel doesn’t necessarily mean dry skin. Skin feel is a different part of skin care. Film forming agents can make the tight feeling much smoother. One of my favorites is seaweed powder. Smells like doo doo but I can’t recommend it enough from a consumer standpoint. Formulating with it is difficult but I’m sure the well trained chemists on here can explain its use.

[MaidenOrangeBlossom]

Yeah I get you totally, thats why I stopped using the terms organic and natural but now am stumped as to what words to actually use. Sometimes you use the words people understand (they don’t necessarily know that natural is not an actual real term). I was actually thinking of Simple, Easy lol. Or made from plants which isn’t a lie even though its actually made in a lab, otherwise they’d risk blindness or death.

[MaidenOrangeBlossom]

Scents are so tricky, as most scented ingredients are strong triggers for allergies or dermatitis, across the board. Is there any scent that has been found to be less of a trigger? I was thinking about using coco butter beause of the strong scent that could disguise the smell of ingredients like BTMS.

[MaidenOrangeBlossom]

Just a body butter but I did create an effective 2 ingredient “lotion” but smelled so bad that I realized simple can only go so far.

[MaidenOrangeBlossom]

Thank you so much. I’m a hobbyist and looking to sell at local festivals since losing my job. But I am considering applying for grants to start a business which would allow me to pay for consulting.