Open Questions – Oct 22 – 31.07

Please feel free to ask any questions you mayhave about our natural skin care ingredients or issues with the shopping cart, website or blog by posting a comment below. I will do my best to reply here so that everyone can benefit.

Have a Great Day!

Janice

Antioxidant and Preservative Use in Natural Skin Care

Q – Yes I did get it in good time, thank you for inquiring.

Actually I was also wondering if I could ask you a few things about the vitamin E t-50 and the optithen because I am hoping to at some point sell some of the creams I’ve been making.

Through my research I have heard mixed advice on when to add the antioxidant to the emulsion, before the oils are heated or to the emulsion after it has cooled to 50′ or less?  What would you advise with the vitamin E t-50 that you stock? I have been storing my oils and butters in the fridge over the last few days due to the humidity would you recommend this all the time?

Also I am using optithen at 1% in the cool down faze, how long can I expect my products to last based on this.  I prefer to use the gentlest form of preservative but do not want to risk any bacteria growth in my products do you think you will ever stock Neopein or  biopein?
Any advice you could give me would be greatly appreciated.

G.

I always add anything that could be heat sensitive after it has cooled (at the last moment before it becomes impracticle to mix etc.)  That includes anti oxidants such as vitamin e, it is heat senstive, as well as preservatives and any delicate additives.

I also add nutritive oils after the other oils instead of mixing them all together. (I do two containers, one with the more stable oils and one with the less stable/nutritive oils adding the nutritive ones last)

Storing your oils and butters in the fridge will prolong their shelf life.  You can store your oils in the freezer as well.  You can find more info here  Do I Need to Refridgerate My Oils?

Preservation always depends on many factors – recipe/ingredients/ratios, cleanliness/sterilization, temps and conditions when making can even be a factor so there is never any guarantee although for the most part I think the norm is that a preservative will be effective for about 1 year.

I think that challenge testing is always a good idea before selling. As I said, there are always variables, but at least this way you are sure that the preservative system and ratio you are using will work with your recipe.

I don’t plan to stock Neopein or Biopein, but I do have Suprapein, which is the latest in the series.  I have posted about new Suprapein sizes available – smaller and bigger – and right now any order will receive a bonus pack of Natramulse™ as well.

Hope that helps!  Jan

[tags]making natural skin care[/tags]

Shea Butter Hard to Spread

Hi Jan,

Thanks for the order. It arrived so quickly!

I have a question about the shea butter: I found this particular one the organic, unrefined Togo to be pretty sticky and hard to apply to the skin. Do you have a shea butter that tends to be creamier, that goes on and absorbs a little more easily that I might order next time? I will still use up this one but just for future reference..

Thanks again, Jan.

J.

Hi J.

It seems to vary from batch to batch, the beige ghana shea butter that I have now is a little moister but I am almost out.

You can soften it up a bit by either leaving it in a warm spot, or putting it in a warm water bath (put it in a metal bowl and then set that bowl inside of another with warm water in it) Stir it but make sure no water gets in it or it can go moldy.

Shea softens very easily, if you have a fairly good mixer, or even just using a hand whisk or fork, you can mix it up at room temp in the summer.

Anyway, you can add a small amount of your favourite oil to give it a little moisture for easier spreading. Or even keep a tiny amount in a warm spot and just use it that way, it will spread easier when it is warm.

HTH,

Janice

[tags]unrefined organic shea butter, body butter, natural skin care[/tags]