One ingredient, ten products: Incroquat BTMS-50 in silicone based facial moisturizers

If you like silicones, Incroquat BTMS-50 should be your emulsifier of choice for lotions and moisturizers because it's designed to handle high levels of cyclomethicone and dimethicone. (Check out the data bulletin on this ingredient for more information...)

Why would we want to use silicones in a facial moisturizer? Dimethicone is moisturizing and skin conditioning, and it is an approved barrier ingredient, meaning it will protect our skin from the outside world. Cyclomethicone is a good emollient that can behave as a surface smoothing agent for aging skin, and it will detackify sticky ingredients like glycerin or sorbitol. They both offer a silky, less greasy feeling than our natural oils, which is great in a moisturizer.

You can take pretty much any moisturizer you like and substitute the silicones for the oils and the BTMS for the emulsifier and have a silicone based moisturizer, but we'll modify our base facial moisturizer recipe to be mostly about the silicones. I'm also adding evening primrose oil because it offers some lovely qualities like fatty acids, phytosterols, and polyphenols we won't get in the silicones. You can use any oils you have in your workshop to replace this oil or the silicones, if you wish.

SILICONE BASED MOISTURIZER 
HEATED WATER PHASE
56.5% water
10% aloe vera
10% lavender or other hydrosol
3% glycerin
2% hydrolyzed protein of choice

HEATED OIL PHASE
5% borage or evening primrose oil
4% Incroquat BTMS-50
2% cetyl alcohol

COOL DOWN PHASE
2% panthenol
5% dimethicone
2% cyclomethicone
1% Vitamin E
0.5% to 1% preservative of choice

Follow the general lotion making instructions for this product.

Want to make more moisturizers or tweak this one? Check out these posts!
Facial moisturizers: An introduction
Facial moisturizers: Another overview
Facial moisturizer with hemp seed and macadamia nut oil
Facial moisturizer for dry skin
Facial moisturizer for oily skin
Facial moisturizer for aging or wrinkled skin
Facial moisturizer with sunflower oil
Liquid foundation - light coverage
Liquid foundation - medium coverage
Facial moisturizers - silicone based

Moisturizers using BTMS-50 as the emulsifier...
Oil free moisturizer
Oil free foundation
Silicone based moisturizer
Oily skin moisturizer

Other posts in this series:
One ingredient, ten products: Incroquat BTMS-50
One ingredient, ten products: Incroquat BTMS-50 in a rinse off conditioner
One ingredient, ten products: Incroquat BTMS-50 in a leave in conditioner
One ingredient, ten products: Incroquat BTMS-50 in an intense conditioner
One ingredient, ten products: Incroquat BTMS-50 in a facial moisturizer (part one)
One ingredient, ten products: Incroquat BTMS-50 in a facial moisturizer (part two)
One ingredient, ten products: Incroquat BTMS-50 in a body butter
One ingredient, ten products: Incroquat BTMS-50 in a sugar scrub (part one)
One ingredient, ten products: Incroquat BTMS-50 in a sugar scrub (part two)

We're away on holidays!

Raymond and I are going camping at Farragut State Park near Coeur D'Alene, Idaho, until Thursday. I will be checking my e-mail when we get to wifi spots, and if you donate for an e-book, I'll send it at that time. The point of getting away from it all is to get away from it all, but I'm sure we'll be near a coffee shop or breakfast place that'll have wifi and I'll send out e-books and check my mail and your comments at that time!

Thanks, and see you at the end of the week!

Quick addendum: I am posting about Incroquat BTMS-50 all week!

Quck note to avoid Sea Buckthorn Insider

A website called Sea Buckthorn Insider has stolen my writing, and have it on their website. They did not ask permission, and they are not responding to my requests to remove it. I am not affiliated with them in any way, and I would encourage you, my wonderful readers, to buy your sea buckthorn oil from a more scrupulous supplier. I wouldn't trust the information on that site either - they have someone claiming that a lump in their breast went away after using sea buckthorn oil, which is against the rules of marketing a cosmetic ingredient

I need to make this very very clear - I am in no way affiliated with this site. 

Update: They have removed my work after wondering why I didn't contact them instead of posting this on the blog. I did contact them a few times, and I posted quite a few comments, none of which were posted. It turns out my work was used by another sea buckthorn oil site, but they've taken it down. 

Weekend Wonderings: Why is Vitamin E sold in clear bottles if it's light sensitive?

In this post on anti-oxidants, Bridget asks: I've read that many antioxidants are light sensitive. They will quickly become inactivated with exposure to light. I know vitamin C is like this. That's why C serums have to be packaged in opaque or amber bottles. I have read that vitamin E is also light sensitive. So then why is it that I keep seeing vitamin e oil for sale in clear bottles? Was I misinformed about vitamin E being light sensitive? Or are the companies that sell vitamin E oil in clear packaging misleading their customers? Or are there some other factors at work or information I'm not aware of? 

This study found Vitamin E in tablets degraded when exposed to light over a period of time. This study found Vitamin E and Vitamin A in parenteral nutrition packages degraded when exposed to light. And this book confirms Vitamin E is sensitive to heat and light (which is one of the reasons we add it in the cool down phase). So we've established that Vitamin E is sensitive to light. 

Vitamin E degrades because of photo-oxidation. (A double bond interacts with a singlet oxygen (1 oxygen atom), which is produced by the light. It is highly reactive with unsaturated lipids.) 

Interestingly enough, the Handbook of Preservatives doesn't recommend that we store it away from light; it notes that it darkens on exposure to light, but makes no special mention of how we should store tocopherols, but it notes it for other types of tocopherols. In this book, it is noted that a-tocopherol is "quite unstable and light sensitive when used in topical formulations" and so the "active hydroxyl group is, therefore, usually protected by esterification by acetate." (This book says the same thing.) 

Esterification is "an alcohol or (of an alcohol) combined with an acid, to form an ester". (Wikipedia)

It appears there are two answers as to why we get our Vitamin E in clear or frosted bottles. What we get is often tocopherol acetate (see this product at Lotioncrafter), which is more stable that non-acetate versions of Vitamin E. And secondly, Vitamin E isn't so crazy unstable that it can't be in light at all. Much like our carrier oils, it's recommended we keep our Vitamin E in a cool dark place so we reduce the exposure to heat and light, but it isn't going to be ruined if we leave it on our counters for a day or two. Having said this, I think it's a wise idea to keep your Vitamin E where you keep your oils! 

As an aside, in the summer months, I recommend getting your oils into the fridge or freezer. Yes, you can freeze oils! Similar questions and answers can be found in the frequently asked questions section of this blog! 

When it comes to Vitamin C or ascorbic acid, its instability is about more than light sensitivity. It's also sensitive to pH - preferring pH 3 or less - and it's unstable in water. This is why we need to use a different version of Vitamin C, a version that has been esterified to make it more stable. Look for something like ascorbyl palmitate or other, more stable Vitamin C if you want to make products that contain it. 

As an aside, the instability of Vitamin C and expense of the other forms of it are the main reasons you don't see Vitamin C sera on this blog. I'm asked all the time about these products, but I haven't made them because of this instability! It's not as easy as putting a Vitamin C tablet into some water and calling it a serum. You have to find the right kind of Vitamin C and make sure you're formulating it correctly, testing the pH, and so on. If you're interested in making one, here's a recipe from Lotioncrafter using tetrahexyldecyl ascorbate in a water free base. 

Want to know more about what is sensitive to light? Check out this chart! As you can see, Vitamin E and C aren't as sensitive as Vitamins A, D, and K, or riboflavin. 

Interestingly, if you've ever wondered if you could use things like Vitamin E or Panthenol in your alkaline soaps, look at the last line of the chart for your answer. (The short answer is no, they don't like alkaline environments.) But you could use Vitamin E in an acidic environment, like a lotion with loads of AHAs! 

Related posts: 

A more in-depth look at anti-oxidants

When to add Vitamin E?

Vitamin C

Share your knowledge about Vitamin C esters!

Join me Monday as we continue formulating with Incroquat BTMS-50 in our One ingredient, ten products series! 

One ingredient, ten products: Incroquat BTMS-50 in an emulsified scrub (part two)

When we're making an emulsified scrub, Incroquat BTMS-50 is a great emulsifier choice because it offers emulsification as well as skin conditioning. You can use Incroquat BTMS-25 in place of it in this recipe, if you have it.

EMULSIFIED SUGAR SCRUB
10% Incroquat BTMS-50
10% cetyl, cetearyl, or behenyl alcohol or stearic acid (5% cetyl and 5% stearic is very nice)
10% cocoa butter (or other really hard butter)
10% shea or mango butter (or quite soft butter - shea aloe would be great here)
56% oil
1% Phenonip
1% Vitamin E (optional)
2% fragrance or essential oil (optional)

See yesterday's post on emulsified scrubs for directions.

You can make all manner of changes to this recipe! If you like a drier feeling, less greasy product, conside using behenyl alcohol with mango butter instead of cocoa butter or shea butter, with less greasy feeling oils like macadamia nut oil, hazelnut oil, or avocado oil.

LESS GREASY FEELING EMULSIFIED SCRUB
10% Incroquat BTMS-50
10% behenyl alcohol
20% mango butter
25% macadamia nut oil
31% avocado oil
1% Phenonip, Liquipar Oil, or Optiphen
1% Vitamin E
2% fragrance oil or essential oil

See yesterday's post on emulsified scrubs for directions.

In the summer, I like to make a lighter version of this scrub. I like my products greasier feeling, so I choose my oils accordingly. I choose the lighter feeling fractionated coconut oil and pumpkin seed oil because I want a film on my skin, but not something that will feel really greasy to the touch. I like to use cocoa butter to give the product some stiffness, and I love babassu oil for its light and dry feeling.  I'm using stearic in this version because the babassu oil can melt at 76˚C, and the stearic will drive that melting point up a bit and keep some stiffness.

SWIFT'S SUMMER VERSION OF THE EMULSIFIED SCRUB
10% Incroquat BTMS-50 (I generally use Rita BTMS-225 here)
5% cetyl alcohol
5% stearic acid
10% cocoa butter
10% babassu oil
31% fractionated coconut oil
25% pumpkin seed oil
1% Phenonip
1% Vitamin E
2% fragrance oil (Clementine Cupcake or Sweet Meyer Lemon, both from Brambleberry)

See yesterday's post on emulsified scrubs for directions.

If you wanted to get really exotic, you could switch the cocoa butter for another hard butter like kokum butter or sal butter, and mowrah butter for shea butter. These are good substitutions because of the melting points, but don't necessarily have the same fatty acid profile. Remember that every change you make will have an effect on the viscosity of the product and the skin feel, but this shouldn't stop you from experimenting and finding the combination you like the best!

As we saw in part one yesterday, you can use all manner of exfoliants in an emulsified scrub. I like to use sugar, so I'll use in it my recipes, but you could choose jojoba beads, loofah, various seeds, and so on. You will have to experiment with amounts to see how much exfoliation you like. Be warned about salt, though: It can sting cuts or newly shaved skin.

Don't confuse jojoba beads with microbeads, those little plastic beads that are being banned everwhere. Microbeads don't biodegrade; jojoba beads do.  

So there you have a few ideas on how to make an awesome emulsified sugar scrub that you will love! Join me on Monday, June 30th for some ideas on how to use Incroquat BTMS-50 in silicone based moisturizers.

Related posts:
Formulating with soy bean oil - includes recipe for sugar scrub!
Formulating for dry skin
Formulating for other skin types - sugar scrubs!
Emulsified scrub with Ritamulse SCG
Black cocoa emulsified scrub
Question: How do you know what and when to substitute? (All about emulsifiers and scrubs)
Experiments in the workshop - golden shea sugar scrub
Using behenyl alcohol in sugar scrubs
Experiments in the workshop - using behenyl alcohol in the Ritamulse SCG sugar scrub
Pumpkin seed oil: Making an emulsified scrub
Oil or emulsified scrub?

Facial scrub related posts:
Facial scrubs: Template post and tweaks
Facial scrubs: More tweaks

Other posts in this series:
One ingredient, ten products: Incroquat BTMS-50
One ingredient, ten products: Incroquat BTMS-50 in a rinse off conditioner
One ingredient, ten products: Incroquat BTMS-50 in a leave in conditioner
One ingredient, ten products: Incroquat BTMS-50 in an intense conditioner
One ingredient, ten products: Incroquat BTMS-50 in a facial moisturizer (part one)
One ingredient, ten products: Incroquat BTMS-50 in a facial moisturizer (part two)
One ingredient, ten products: Incroquat BTMS-50 in a body butter
One ingredient, ten products: Incroquat BTMS-50 in a sugar scrub (part one)

One ingredient, ten products: Incroquat BTMS-50 in emulsified scrubs (part one)

If there is one thing in the world I could not live without, it would be the emulsified scrub. I love love love this product to exfoliate and moisturize my skin in the shower. They're super easy to make, and the way they turn into lotion in the shower still amazes me years after making my first one.

Why choose an emulsified scrub over an oil based scrub? The functions of the two scrubs are quite similar - they are both intended to exfoliate the skin with salt, sugar, or other scratchy things and leave behind a nice oily film - with one key difference - the emulsified scrub turns into a lotion type product when water is applied while the oil based scrub is rinsed off when water is applied and doesn't turn into a lotion type product. The oil based product will leave behind an oilier feeling film than the emulsified scrub.

In an oil based scrub, we use only oil soluble ingredients like oils, butters, and esters. In an emulsified scrub, we use oil soluble ingredients like oils and butters, but we can include water soluble ingredients because we're including an emulsifier, so you could add some humectants or proteins or other water soluble ingredients.

In my emulsified scrubs, I like to use a cationic emulsifier like Incroquat BTMS-50 or Rita BTMS-225/Incroquat BTMS-225 because it will condition our skin more than using a non-ionic emulsifier like Polawax and because it offers a less greasy feeling to the product.

As a note, this is a great place to use your Incroquat BTMS-25 because we aren't worried about the stability of the emulsification while the product sits in the container.

EMULSIFIED SUGAR SCRUB
10% emulsifying wax (e-wax, Polawax, BTMS-50, BTMS-25 BTMS-225)
10% cetyl, cetearyl, or behenyl alcohol or stearic acid (5% cetyl and 5% stearic is very nice)
10% cocoa butter (or other really hard butter)
10% shea or mango butter (or quite soft butter - shea aloe would be great here)
56% oil
1% Phenonip
1% Vitamin E (optional)
2% fragrance or essential oil (optional)

Weigh all ingredients except the fragrance or essential oil in a heat proof container and put into a double boiler. Heat and hold for 20 minutes at 70C. Remove from the double boiler and put into your fridge or freezer until it reaches 45C. Add the fragrance oil, then return it to the fridge or freezer to cool further.

When the mixture starts to harden slightly on the sides of the container and gets a thick film on the top, remove it from the fridge or freezer and start whipping it with a hand mixer with whisk attachments or your Kitchenaid with whisk attachments. Whisk until it looks like vanilla pudding - this might take a little while - then add the sugar and whisk until well incorporated. Pour into jars and let sit until hardened.

How much sugar to add? I add 3/4 cup per 100 grams of product, which works out to 150 grams of sugar per 100 grams of product. You can add more or less depending upon your preferred level of scrubbiness. I made my last batch with 1/2 cup of sugar or about 100 grams per 100 grams of product, and my friends said it wasn't scrubby enough.

Can you use another exfoliant? Sure, why not? I have used salt before at the same amount I would the sugar and it worked out well. But sugar can sting cuts or newly shaved skin, so I prefer sugar.

Related posts:
Physical exfoliants (part one)
Physical exfoliants (part two)
Chemical exfoliants

There are some debates about whether we should use a preservative in our sugar scrubs. I say yes! If you'd like to know more about why there's a debate, check out this post on sugar scrubs and water activity.

Which preservatives can we use in this product? Because it's an anhydrous or non-water containing product, we have to use a preservative suited for anhydrous products. This means we have a limited selection, including Phenonip, Liquipar Oil, or Optiphen. Using a water soluble preservative like my favoured liquid Germall Plus is on par with using no preservative at all, so please make your choices wisely.

Related posts:
Formulating with soy bean oil - includes recipe for sugar scrub!
Formulating for dry skin
Formulating for other skin types - sugar scrubs!
Emulsified scrub with Ritamulse SCG
Black cocoa emulsified scrub
Question: How do you know what and when to substitute? (All about emulsifiers and scrubs)
Experiments in the workshop - golden shea sugar scrub
Using behenyl alcohol in sugar scrubs
Experiments in the workshop - using behenyl alcohol in the Ritamulse SCG sugar scrub
Pumpkin seed oil: Making an emulsified scrub
Oil or emulsified scrub?

Facial scrub related posts:
Facial scrubs: Template post and tweaks
Facial scrubs: More tweaks

Other posts in this series:
One ingredient, ten products: Incroquat BTMS-50
One ingredient, ten products: Incroquat BTMS-50 in a rinse off conditioner
One ingredient, ten products: Incroquat BTMS-50 in a leave in conditioner
One ingredient, ten products: Incroquat BTMS-50 in an intense conditioner
One ingredient, ten products: Incroquat BTMS-50 in a facial moisturizer (part one)
One ingredient, ten products: Incroquat BTMS-50 in a facial moisturizer (part two)
One ingredient, ten products: Incroquat BTMS-50 in a body butter

Join me tomorrow as we make a few tweaks to this emulsified scrub!

Blast from the past: Suncreens - What does SPF mean? What exactly is sunscreen? Why shouldn't we make our own?

WHAT DOES SPF MEAN? (Originally found here...)

What is sun protection factor or SPF? How is it defined? SPF is defined as...

the dose of UV radiation required to produce 1 minimal erythema dose (MED) on protected skin after the application of 2 mg/cm2 of produce divided by the UV radiation to produce 1 MED on unprotected skin.

In other words, it's how much of this stuff you need to use to protect your skin from a dose of radiation that would affect unprotected skin. The higher the number, the more protection you should get. (Sort of...see the post below on sunscreens!) 

"Water resistant" sun screen must maintain its SPF after immersion in water for 40 minutes. "Very water resistant" sunscreen must maintain its SPF after immersion in water for 80 minutes.

Broad spectrum or full coverage sunscreen will protect against both UVB and UVA rays.

How does SPF work? It's all about you! Let's say you burn after 10 minutes in the sun. SPF 15 will get you 150 minutes in the sun. SPF 30 will get you 300 minutes in the sun. But you have to re-apply after about 2 hours with a non-water resistant sunscreen anyway, so what's the point if you take 20 minutes to burn and you have to re-apply it after about 120 minutes? Because SPF 15 will block out about 93% of the UV rays, and SPF 30 will block out about 97%. For very fair skinned people, going from SPF 30 to 50 might get them another 1% coverage. Might not be a big deal for someone who has dark skin, but if you're like my husband (more below), that 1% could mean the difference between a slight reddening of his skin and a burn.

WHAT EXACTLY IS SUNSCREEN? (Original found here)

Yep, it's that time of year again (at least in the Northern Hemisphere)! It's time to buy buckets of sunscreen and make sure Mr. Sun doesn't make us all red and unhappy! We definitely need to be wearing sunscreen!

There are two types of sunscreen ingredients - physical blockers and chemical blockers. The physical blockers are titanium dioxide and zinc oxide, both of which work by preventing the sun's rays from reaching our skin by reflecting and dispersing them. The chemical sunscreens work by absorbing ultra-violet rays and keep them from penetrating the skin. They are great at blocking about 95% of the UVB rays, but very little UVA. The degree of absorption depends on the type and concentration of chemical sunscreen. Ideally, you'd have a combination of the two in your sunscreen.

To get maximum sunscreen-age, apply it about 15 to 30 minutes before going into the sun so it can penetrate the keratinous layer of your skin. Re-apply it regularly every 2 to 4 hours, and especially if you've been swimming or sweating a lot.

The physical sunscreens are unlikely to cause a reaction on our skin - any reaction you might have is thanks to the other ingredients in the sunscreen - so if you have sensitive skin, stick with zinc oxide and titanium dioxide and be okay with looking a little ghostly (I like this on my face, not so much on my legs!) These sunscreens might feel a little draggy, but it's a small price to pay to avoid sunburns!

If you're out in the sun - meaning, if you ever go outside - don't forget to protect your nose and lips. Your nose gets the most sun exposure, so sunscreen it well. And our lips can be protected with as little as your lipstick on a cloudy day, or with a water resistant sunscreen or lip balm during a sunny day.

Don't forget to get a good pair of UV blocking sunglasses. They'll protect your retinas and they'll make you squint less - and less squinting means fewer wrinkles, so you're looking good as well as feeling good!

So how do we make our own? We don't.

As you may or may not know, my husband has vitiligo, a condition that leaves him without melanin in big patches in his skin and hair. (This is what they say Michael Jackson had, the condition that was making him white. As Raymond is already quite fair skinned, you don't notice it much.) We buy sunscreen by the bucketload in the summer to ensure he isn't at risk for burning, which can happen in a few minutes for him. If I could make sunscreen that I could guarantee would work for him, I'd make it. But there are so many factors that go into ensuring a sunscreen works, I don't feel confident that it will prevent him from agonizing pain today and skin cancer in the future.

If you're considering making your own sunscreen, there is a lot of chemistry to know. (Check out this post from Zenitech!) You have to worry not only about the pH of a sunscreen but the emulsification of our lotion when making a sunscreen. As well, how do you know how effective your chosen sunscreen might be? Only by going into the sun and seeing if it works, and anecdotal evidence is not data - it might have been a cloudier than normal day, you might have been under a tree, you might have really sun resistant skin that doesn't burn for 30 minutes or more! If you have a fair skinned friend, she might burn in 10 minutes, and the product that works well for you might mean sunburn for her! 

There are so many scary things out there on the 'net about sunscreen, and I won't give them any validity by putting them into this post. The way I see it? Sunscreens block out the sun's rays. Sun makes me burn. Anything that prevents unnecessary pain today and wrinkling tomorrow works for me. (Click here for a post on pigmented skin through sun exposure and here for a post on photo-aging.)

Yes, I know anecdotes aren't data and this last paragraph is my opinion, but I really haven't found any valid studies showing that sunscreen causes more harm than good. 

If you're worried about sunscreens, then don't use them. Or choose sunscreens containing only certain ingredients, but not others. Just choose something...

There is no argument I haven't heard before about why you want to make your own sunscreen, so I'll ask you not to make one. There is absolutely nothing you can say that will make it okay for you to make something that could be quite dangerous to someone. Sunscreen makes my skin break out so badly and my skin is red all summer long because of the irritation, yet I still use it. I have the skill and knowledge to make something that might resemble sunscreen, yet I would not think of doing it, even though it would save my family a ton of money. You have so many products containing so many different types of physical and chemical sunscreens with so many different types of bases - anhydrous, fancy moisturizers, basic lotions - that there is something you will be able to use. You will have to invest some time and money to find a product that your skin likes - I've been searching for years - but you will find something.

If you want to try a zinc oxide cream - very nice if you've had a little too much fun in the sun - may I suggest this recipe I made recently for my husband? I've used it for soothing various problems and I like it! I did tweak mine to include 10% aloe vera - good for post sun exposure - and added 2% hydrolyzed protein to the heated water phase and 2% panthenol to the cool down phase. Feel free to switch the stearic acid for cetyl alcohol for a slightly less thick but more glide-y product. And switch the oils if you wish! 

Want to know more about the ingredients in sunscreen? Then click here for zinc oxide and click here for titanium dioxide. And click here for a post on micronized ingredients (it's kinda long with lots of studies and links, so I thought it wiser to link to it than copy it here!). 

One ingredient, ten products: Incroquat BTMS-50 in a body butter

We've on the fifth product using Incroquat BTMS-50, and I thought we should take a look at body butters. Before we start, let's define what we mean by a body butter first because there are a few products called body butters that we could create. What I mean by a body butter in this post is an emulsified product that contains quite a lot of butter in the oil phase of the product. It contains water, so it's considered a thick lotion. (The other alternative is to have an anhydrous or non-water containing product that you might see as a whipped butter, which contains only butters and oils. It is not emulsified.)

If you want more information on how to make this product, please check out the Newbie Tuesday body butter post with instructions and general information.

BASIC BODY BUTTER RECIPE
HEATED WATER PHASE
61.5% water
3% humectant

HEATED OIL PHASE
10% oils
15% butter
3% cetyl alcohol
6% Incroquat BTMS-50

COOL DOWN PHASE
0.5% to 1% preservative
1% fragrance or essential oil

Check out this very detailed post on how to make this product!

How can we tweak this recipe? As we saw with the facial moisturizer, you can tweak the water soluble ingredients or the oil soluble ingredients to suit your specific skin needs and to use what's in your workshop. As I've written quite a few recipes for modifying body butters, I'm going to refer you to the list below because there are literally thousands of variations we could make, and I've covered at least 16 possibilities below. If you have any questions about the variation you'd like to make, please comment below!

As a note, for any recipe you find calling for another emulsifier - Polawax, e-wax, Ritamulse SCG, and so on - you can substitute Incroquat BTMS-50 at the same amount. You can even reduce it, but that takes a bit of knowledge of how thick the product is in the first place. For any emulsifier - except Ritamulse SCG - just substitute it 1:1 for the emulsifier. So if you see 6.5% emulsifier in the recipe, use 6.5% Incroquat BTMS-50. I generally use Ritamulse SCG at 8% of a recipe, but that's a bit high for Incroquat BTMS-50 and will leave you with a really really thick product. You might like that, so keep that level if you wish, but my suggestion is to go with 6% and add 2% to the distilled water amount to compensate.

Body butter related posts:
Lotions: Body butter with speciality ingredients
Formulating with oils: Body butter
Lotions: Body butter creams
Newbie Tuesday: You made a body butter! Questions?
Cocoa butter in a body butter
Formulating for your skin type: Body butter
Formulating for your skin type: Body butter for dry skin
Formulating for your skin type: Body butter for oily skin
Formulating for your skin type: Body butter for wrinkled skin
Formulating for dry skin: Making a body butter
Duplicating products: Boots Organic Rich Body Butter
More fun with the HLB system: Making a body butter
Adapting your products for summer: Making a body butter
Using cationic quats in other products: Making a body butter
Fun with hydrolyzed protein: A body butter recipe
Learning to formulate: Lotion with minimally processed ingredients

Other posts in this series:
One ingredient, ten products: Incroquat BTMS-50
One ingredient, ten products: Incroquat BTMS-50 in a rinse off conditioner
One ingredient, ten products: Incroquat BTMS-50 in a leave in conditioner
One ingredient, ten products: Incroquat BTMS-50 in an intense conditioner
One ingredient, ten products: Incroquat BTMS-50 in a facial moisturizer (part one)
One ingredient, ten products: Incroquat BTMS-50 in a facial moisturizer (part two)

One ingredient, ten products: Incroquat BTMS-50 in facial moisturizers (part two)

Let's pause this series for a moment and look at a few combinations of ingredients we could use to tweak yesterday's recipe for a facial moisturizer with Incroquat BTMS-50.

Since I've written quite a few posts about tweaking the oil phase of our products - see yesterday's post for that list - let's take a look at how we can tweak the water phase of our product using hydrosols, extracts, cosmeceuticals, and other ingredients.

If you're adding things to the water phase, remove the same amount from the amount of distilled water you're using. For instance, if you add 10% aloe vera to the recipe, remove 10% from the distilled water amount, meaning you'll have 10% aloe vera and 67.5% in the heated water phase. If you add 10% aloe vera, 10% chamomile hydrosol, 5% beta glucan, 5% Multifruit BSC, and 2% niacinamide, you'll remove 32% of the distilled water amount, leaving you with 45.5% distilled water. Yes, the product will be thicker when you remove the water, but how much thicker depends upon what you're adding. If you are removing water for more powders and viscous liquids, the product will be thicker. If you are removing water for things like aloe vera liquid and hydrosols, your product might not seem that different!

BASIC FACIAL MOISTURIZER RECIPE
HEATED WATER PHASE
77.5% distilled water (you can replace 10% to all of the water with hydrosols or aloe vera)
up to 5% humectant of choice
2% hydrolyzed protein

HEATED OIL PHASE
8% oils
4% Incroquat BTMS-50
2% cetyl alcohol

COOL DOWN PHASE
0.5% to 1% preservative
2% panthenol

A huge part of the fun of formulating is figuring out things that can go together and be awesome for our skin! So what combinations have I used in the past?

I really like hydrolyzed proteins in my products, so I make sure that I choose one for my moisturizers. I have found that Phytokeratin is a nicely balanced one with some that penetrate my skin for moisturizing and some that will film form. I'm having a love affair with niacinamide in my facial products at 2% to 4% to reduce greasiness and reduce transepidermal water loss (TEWL). I really like to add aloe vera liquid at up to 10% for its ability to film form and soothe my skin, and I love adding chamomile hydrosol at up to 10% to help with redness. (I'm not a fan of the smell, though! Too earthy for me!) For my humectant, I think I'll go with sodium lactate here at 2.5% because it's not only a great hygroscopic ingredinet, but it will also help with acne. I'm using it at less than 3% because at higher levels, it can be sun sensitizing. Oh, what the heck! Let's add some glycerin to the mix at 2.5% because we can never get too moist, eh? And I'm throwing in 0.5% allantoin to act as an occlusive barrier ingredient and skin softener. These ingredients should be good for all skin types.

Total percentage of ingredients: 22.5% because I have already planned for the humectant and protein in the original recipe. So I'm removing 22.5% from the distilled water amount to total 55%.

HEATED WATER PHASE
55% distilled water
10% aloe vera liquid
10% chamomile hydrosol
2.5% glycerin
2.5% sodium lactate
2% niacinamide
2% Phytokeratin hydrolyzed protein
0.5% allantoin

It's easy to tweak this recipe to make something for your skin type. Let's say you really want some anti-aging alphahydroxy acids in the product with some silicones and humectants. You could use some hyaluronic acid (Lotioncrafter link) at 0.5% along with the glycerin at 2.5% (which means we have 3% humectant, not 5% humectant, so we'll have to adjust accordingly.) You could add some Multifruit BSC at 10% as your AHAs, coenzyme Q10 at 1%, hydrolyzed silk protein at 2% (already accounted for), 0.5% allantoin, 10% aloe vera liquid, and 10% rose hydrosol. Instead of oils, we could use the silicones dimethicone and cyclomethicone at 4% each in the cool down phase instead of the oils in the heated oil phase.

To modify the recipe, we'd add up all the new things - 10% Multifruit BSC + 1% coenzyme Q10 + 0.5% allantoin + 10% aloe vera liquid + 10% rose hydrosol = 31.5% change in the distilled water amount.
We have to remove 2% because we only used 3% humectant. So we have to remove 29.5% water from 77.5% =
And we don't change the oil amount because we're using 8% silicones in place of the 8% oils.

BASIC FACIAL MOISTURIZER RECIPE
HEATED WATER PHASE
48% distilled water
10% aloe vera liquid
10% rose hydrosol
2.5% glycerin
2% hydrolyzed silk protein
0.5% allantoin
0.5% hyaluronic acid

HEATED OIL PHASE
4% Incroquat BTMS-50
2% cetyl alcohol

COOL DOWN PHASE
0.5% to 1% preservative
10% Multifruit BSC
4% dimethicone
4% cylcomethicone
2% panthenol
1% coenzyme Q10

Use the general lotion making instructions for this recipe.

As a note, if you are a silicone loving person, definitely make Incroquat BTMS-50 your emulsifier of choice. It can emulsify huge quantities of silicones! This isn't to say the other emulsifiers can't emulsify silicones - I've done up to 10% with Polawax - but Incroquat BTMS-50 is made to be more stable with them.

More posts about using cosmeceuticals in your products:
Learning to formulate: What are cosmeceuticals
Learning to formulate: Some thoughts on cosmeceuticals

Using cosmeceuticals in our facial products

Tweaking a facial moisturizer for dry skin
Using cosmeceuticals in products for oily skin

Join me tomorrow as we have more fun formulating with Incroquat BMTS-50.

One ingredient, ten products: Incroquat BTMS-50 in facial moisturizers (part one)

Incroquat BTMS-50 is a great emulsifier for our emulsified products like moisturizers, lotions, creams, and body butters. It will emulsify quite a lot of oils, which means we can use less than we would with other emulsifiers, like Polawax. There is no rule of thumb with Incroquat BTMS-50, so we have to figure it out as we go along. I like to start with 4% to 5% for moisturizers and lotions and 6% to 8% for something I want to be thicker, like a body butter or a foot lotion. The more I use, the thicker the product will be, so I have to take that into consideration too.

As a note, I don't recommend using Incroquat BTMS-25 or Rita BTMS-225 in oil-in-water lotions as you could experience separation. I know there are people out there who successfully make lotions with BTMS-25 or BTMS-225 all the time, it's not as fool proof as BTMS-50 and I hate suggesting you make something that I can't guarantee will work for you. If you want to try using it, I suggest increasing the emulsifier by up to 50% of the amount I use it in the product. (This will make it thicker and waxier than my recipe thanks to the added cetearyl alcohol.)

What kind of lotion should we make? You can make any type you want with this emulsifier, but I'm thinking we could make a nice matte feeling facial moisturizer with some fancy oils and ingredients. As usual, feel free to make alterations to this recipe based on what you have in your workshop.

I find I like my facial moisturizers to have a matte feeling and look 'cause we generally don't want a really shiny face. When used in a lotion, Incroquat BTMS-50 offers a dry, powdery, silky feeling. If you want to keep this dry feeling, choose less greasy feeling oils like macadamia nut oil or hazelnut oil, or choose some of the exotic oils, most of which are less greasy feeling than something like rice bran or sunflower oil. (Check out the emollients section of the blog for more information and comparison charts.) For a facial lotion, I like to use something like evening primrose oil or pomegranate oil because they offer all kinds of wonderful qualities, like anti-inflammatory properties thanks to the phytosterols and anti-oxidants thanks to the polyphenols. You can choose the oils you prefer for this recipe.

Because the oil phase is so small in this moisturizer - 10% - I have to rely upon a lot of water soluble ingredients to give me the oomph I want in a moisturizer. What kinds of things could I use? Ask yourself what you want it to do!

I tend to have skin that like to go red thanks to my rosacea, so I'm going to choose things that reduce redness or inflammation. I have acne prone skin, so I tend to choose ingredients that will help with breakouts.

You can add all kinds of cosmeceuticals and other lovely extracts to this recipe. Just remove the amount you add from the water phase. So if you add 2% DMAE, remove 2% from the distilled water in the phase. If you add 2% niacinamide, 5% Multifruit BSC, and 5% lady's mantle extract, then remove 12% from the distilled water amount.

Let's talk about the math for a minute. In the above example, 2% + 5% + 5% = 12% total. We want our product recipes to total 100%. Anything we add to a product takes the total over 100%, so we need to subtract somewhere, so we remove that added percentage from the water amount because removing water doesn't have a profound effect on the product. It might be a bit thicker because you've removed water, but the recipe will total 100%. The product below doesn't total 100% because of the difference in the humectant amount and the preservative. 

BASIC FACIAL MOISTURIZER RECIPE
WATER PHASE
77.5% water (you can replace 10% to all of the water with hydrosols or aloe vera)
up to 5% humectant of choice
2% hydrolyzed protein

OIL PHASE
8% oils
4% Incroquat BTMS-50
2% cetyl alcohol

COOL DOWN PHASE
0.5% to 1% preservative
2% panthenol

Follow the general lotion making instructions for this product.

Want to make more moisturizers or tweak this one? Check out these posts! 

• Facial moisturizers: An introduction
• Facial moisturizers: Another overview
• Facial moisturizer with hemp seed and macadamia nut oil
• Facial moisturizer for dry skin
• Facial moisturizer for oily skin
• Facial moisturizer for aging or wrinkled skin
• Facial moisturizer with sunflower oil
• Liquid foundation - light coverage
• Liquid foundation - medium coverage
• Facial moisturizers - silicone based

Moisturizers using BTMS-50 as the emulsifier...

• Oil free moisturizer
• Oil free foundation
• Silicone based moisturizer
• Oily skin moisturizer

Join me tomorrow as we tweak this recipe a little bit more with all kinds of interesting ingredients! 

One ingredient, ten products: Incroquat BTMS-50 in leave in conditioners

I love leave in conditioners! You can fill leave in conditioners full of ingredients to moisturize, hydrate, smooth, tame, and protect your hair, and you don't need a ton of each ingredient to do it! Think of a leave in conditioner as being very much like a rinse off conditioner, but thinner. You can use all of those ingredients your hair likes - hydrosols, aloe vera, humectants, extracts, proteins, silicones, and so on - to keep it looking great after washing. I generally use between 1% and 2% Incroquat BTMS-50 in my leave in conditioners, because anything more than that can get too thick to spray through a mister.

I'm not going to write a new recipe today as I think I've written quite a few variations on the leave in conditioner recipe. If you're interested in learning more about this kind of product, please visit the hair care section of the blog and check out these recipes!

Leave in conditioner with my favourite recipe
Modifying the leave in conditioner recipe with Incroquat CR
Modifying the leave in conditioner with hydrosols and extracts
Coconut oil in leave in conditioners
Honeyquat in leave in conditioners

Join me tomorrow as we take a look at using Incroquat BTMS-50 in body care products, like lotions.

Weekend Wonderings: Let's talk about math! Caprol Micro Express! And why I'm using so many exclamation marks today!

Sorry for not posting every day, but it's at the point right now that I have write all the posts on the weekend, and if I don't get that chance, then there's nothing! I appreciate your patience as I get less busy in real life! (It stinks because I had all the posts for the week written but not edited by Sunday!)

I had my first singing recital last Saturday and it was both terrifying and awesome! I did "Still Alive" by GLaDOS (from the game Portal) and it was so much fun! I started taking singing lessons seriously last year as a way of connecting to and being okay with my voice. I'm never going to be Floor Jansen (YouTube link), but I can still have fun singing! (This explains the exclamation marks as I'm still excited!)

A quick update on Caprol Micro Express at Lotioncrafter: You spoke and Jen listened! "In cooperation with Abitec, the materials to make Caprol Micro Express I (the original, which we have carried for 10 years) as well as Caprol Micro Express II (which can solubilize up to 5% oils) have been ordered from the manufacturer and we'll be mixing them in-house by early July." Woo!

As an aside, this is why we love suppliers like Jen! You ask, she listens!

A reader named Christine wrote to me to tell me that people are using 1% liquid Germall Plus in their products. As we know from the post on this lovely preservative, the usage rate is 0.1% to 0.5%. So where are they going wrong?

She thinks it's the math! When we are figuring out how to much of something to use, we generally use decimals. So 1% becomes 0.01 and 0.1% becomes 0.001 when we are multiplying or dividing using decimals.

When you're using percentages, it's easier to remember that 50% is actually 50/100, meaning it is 0.5 in decimals because we divide 50/100. If you have 1% it means that we have 1/100 or 0.01 if we divide 1/100. (Do you remember the whole numerator and denominator thing? It just means that the number on the top is divided by the number on the bottom. So 1% means 1 is divided by 100 to get the decimal.)

Check out this great post on the topic on the great site, Math is Fun! In a few minutes, this will all become clear! 

As an aside, it seems to me that the easiest way to freak someone out is to ask them to do math. We have such a mental block about it, and just about everyone thinks they're terrible at it. Most of us haven't had to do much more than addition and subtraction since high school, and the idea of calculating percentages or using decimals can get a little scary at times. Don't fear the math! If you give it a few minutes, you'll find that it's not at all terrifying and can be useful!

Think of other things you haven't done since high school. You haven't made a souffle, painted a picture, thrown a clay vase, played an instrument in band, and more, but you don't go on and on about how you suck at it! We can't get good at anything if we don't do it regularly!

Related posts:
Don't fear the math!
Calculating percentages in lotions
Calculating weight from percentages

The other thing to take away here is that you really want to check the suggested usage rates for your ingredients. You could be wasting them, causing irritation, or messing up your products if you aren't using the right amount!

Join me tomorrow for more fun formulating!

One ingredient, ten products: Incroquat BTMS-50 in intense conditioners

This week we took a look at Incroquat BTMS-50 as a conditioning agent and emulsifier. We'll focus on the awesome conditioning powers it can offer our hair for a few more days before we get into what it can bring to our lotions.

What makes a conditioner an intense conditioner? We tend to use more BTMS-50 and we tend to include an oil or butter. (This isn't a hard and fast rule as there are no hard and fast rules in defining conditioners.) Oils aren't conditioning, they are moisturizing. So when we add oils, we're doing it to moisturize our scalp and to create a film on the hair strand to make it easier to comb and to trap in water. We can use any oil we wish for this application, but coconut oil is generally my first choice due to the great studies that have been conducted on it and because it's so inexpensive. You can choose to use any oil you wish for this and other recipes.

Related posts:
What's the difference between moisturizing and hydrating?
What oils are good for our hair?
Coconut oil? Coconut oil! 

Is there a reason to leave a conditioner on your hair for a long time or overnight? Not really. Studies have shown that conditioners take about two minutes to do their job, but there can be a good reason to leave it on to help the oils moisturize your scalp or hair strand and to let them create a film. If you want to leave it on for a long time, have at it.

In this product, I'm adding liquid aloe vera to be soothing for my scalp, as well as for its ability to create a film on my skin and hair. It'll also behave as a humectant, drawing water from the atmosphere to my hair and scalp. I'm going to add peppermint hydrosol because it's great for circulation and a light fragrance. The astringency is nice and some people can feel a light tingle with it. If you want more fragrance or tingle, add up to 1% peppermint essential oil into the cool down phase.

If you have frizzy hair, leave out the aloe vera and glycerin. If you have oily hair, remove the oil and cetyl alcohol, and think about using rosemary hydrosol, powdered extract, or essential oil in this recipe.

I'm adding cetrimonium chloride at 2% to the heated oil phase to help with detangling. If you don't have this, feel free to leave it out and add 2% to the distilled water amount. If you use cetrimonium chloride, the product will be thinner. If you don't use it, this will be a thicker product. Either way, this is definitely a product you want to put into a jar!

INTENSE CONDITIONER WITH PEPPERMINT & COCONUT OIL 
HEATED WATER PHASE
49% distilled water
10% aloe vera liquid
10% peppermint hydrosol (or hydrosol of choice)
3% glycerin
2% hydrolyzed protein of choice

HEATED OIL PHASE
7% BTMS-50
3.5% cetyl alcohol
2% cetrimonium chloride
10% coconut oil (or oil of choice)

COOL DOWN PHASE
2% panthenol
0.5% liquid Germall Plus (or preferred preservative)
1% fragrance or essential oil

Follow the general conditioner making instructions for this recipe.

If you want to use Incroquat BTMS-25 or Rita BTMS-225 in this recipe, please click here for those modifications. 

If you want to add some silicones to this recipe like we did with the rinse off conditioner recipe from the other day, just add 2% dimethicone and 2% cyclomethicone in the cool down phase and remove 4% from the distilled water amount to compensate. You could use a silicone substitute here like broccoli oil at up to 5% in the heated oil phase, yerba santa glycoprotein (FSS link) at 5% in the cool down phase, or some of the other silicone alternatives in the appropriate phase.

If you are interested in broccoli seed oil, check out Ingredients to Die For or From Nature with Love or at Aromantic (UK). I make no guarantees by putting these links here, and I warn you that it does smell like broccoli! 

Also, feel free to add any hydrosols or floral waters to the heated water phase in place of the distilled water. Or feel free to remove the ones I'm using and replace them with others or with more distilled water.

For more hair care and conditioner recipes, please visit the hair care section of the blog!

Join me on Monday when we have some fun with more conditioner recipes before taking a look at some lotion recipes we can make with Incroquat BTMS-50.

One ingredient, ten products: Incroquat BTMS-50 in rinse off conditioners

It's super easy to make a conditioner with Incroquat BTMS-50. You can use anywhere between 3% to 10% Incroquat BTMS-50 with a preservative at the suggested usage rate and up to 100% water. There, you have a conditioner. But you don't have all the lovely things we want in a conditioner, like a protein or panthenol or a humectant and so on. But it really is that easy!

How can we use Incroquat BTMS-50 to make an awesome rinse off conditioner? First, we think about what we want the conditioner to do. Generally, we want a conditioner to make our hair feel soft and manageable. We'd like to make combing and brushing easier. And we want our hair to look healthy and, if possible, shiny. Incroquat BTMS-50 will help with the detangling, increased ease of combing and brushing, and increased softness, but we have to do a little more work to get our hair to be shiny and healthy looking.

If you have dry hair, your first thought should be about moisturizing. We can add oils for that reason, but there are film formers and humectants to consider. Yes, oils are moisturizing, but they're about trapping water into the hair strand or moisturizing your scalp. They aren't going to bring more water to your hair. That's where humectants come into the picture. Humectants draw water from the atmosphere to our hair or skin and hydrate.

Aloe vera liquid is a great inclusion in a conditioner as it offers the film forming and moisturizing we want in a product. It can make frizzy hair frizzier, so only use it if you aren't worried about poofy hair. I'm including peppermint hydrosol in this product because it can add a little tingle to your scalp and smells quite nice. It's suitable for all hair types.

Hydrolyzed proteins are proteins that have been hydrolyzed to be more water soluble and more attracted to your hair. Silk proteins tend to be small enough to penetrate the hair strand and moisturize from within while oat protein tends to be too large and will form a film on your hair strand instead, trapping in moisture. Use these at up to 2% in the heated water phase.

For the humectant, I like to use glycerin as it's inexpensive and easy to find at our suppliers and even local drug stores. (Again, if you have frizzy hair, this isn't a great inclusion.) Panthenol is another humectant, although it seems like us frizzy girls can handle it. It's a great addition at up to 2% in the cool down phase as it offers film forming for our hair strands and moisturizing and wound healing to our scalps. It increases the pliability of our hair strands, making them softer but stronger.

COCONUT & PEPPERMINT RINSE OFF CONDITIONER 
HEATED WATER PHASE
49% distilled water
10% peppermint hydrosol
10% aloe vera liquid
10% chamomile hydrosol
2% hydrolyzed protein
3% glycerin

HEATED OIL PHASE
5% BTMS-50
2.5% cetyl alcohol (cetearyl alcohol or behenyl alcohol)
5% coconut oil

COOL DOWN PHASE
2% panthenol
0.5% liquid Germall Plus (or preservative of choice)
1% fragrance oil or essential oil

Follow the conditioner making instructions for this product. This product probably isn't recommended for oily hair as you're adding oils and cetyl alcohol to the product and isn't great for frizzy hair because of the aloe vera. Feel free to remove those ingredients if you have those hair types, or visit the hair care section of the blog to see other recipes that will work for you.

As a quick note, if you want to make a peppermint and almond oil conditioner like the famous so-called cleansing conditioner, just replace the almond oil for the coconut oil and add a bit of peppermint essential oil in the cool down phase. 

If you want to use Incroquat BTMS-25 or Rita BTMS-225 in this recipe, please click here for those modifications. 

If you want to add some silicones to this recipe, just add 2% dimethicone and 2% cyclomethicone in the cool down phase and remove 4% from the distilled water amount to compensate. You could use a silicone substitute here like broccoli oil at up to 5% in the heated oil phase, yerba santa glycoprotein (FSS link) at 5% in the cool down phase, or some of the other silicone alternatives in the appropriate phase.

If you are interested in broccoli seed oil, check out Ingredients to Die For or From Nature with Love or at Aromantic (UK). I make no guarantees by putting these links here, and I warn you that it does smell like broccoli! 

Also, feel free to add any hydrosols or floral waters to the heated water phase in place of the distilled water. Or feel free to remove the ones I'm using and replace them with others or with more distilled water.

As an aside, why do I tell you to remove water from the distilled water amount? Our goal is to make the lotion ingredients total 100%. If we add 10% aloe vera, our recipe will total 110%. So we remove 10% from the water amount to make the grand total 100%. If we add 2% dimethicone and 2% cyclomethicone, we remove 4% from the distilled water amount. We remove the water amount because it won't affect the recipe much. If we removed another ingredient, say the emulsifier - Incroquat BTMS-50 - or the oil, it would affect the recipe too much. Remember, though, when we remove water, we generally make the product thicker, unless we are adding more watery type ingredients.

Join me tomorrow as we make an intense conditioner with BTMS-50.