Guest post: Making O/W Emulsions with Lecithin

Hi everybody,

After my last post about making O/W hydrogels with lecithin, two of my readers from other parts of the world were so kind to share their recipes and photos with me.

I find it very interesting when people from different parts of the world work on the same concept and share their results. We're working under different climatic (temperature and moisture) conditions and we're working with different instruments (specially when it comes to mixers and homogenizers) and ingredients and such parallel experiments would help us understand how a certain recipe/concept would work and under which conditions it would fail.

Anyway, I'll make it short and jump to the formulations and procedures.

The first formulation is from Teresa from the Balmkitchen from Singapore which, if I'm not mistaken is always hot and humid.

Teresa who is an amazing and precise formulator (on top of a graphic designer) has made an easy to understand photo tutorial. She has used a liquid lecithin whereas my previous post was with powdered lecithin. It means that you can use whatever form of lecithin that is available in your lab for this hydrogel preparation.

This is her recipe:

Lavender hydrosol 72.1%

Apricot kernel oil 15%

Soya lecithin 3%

Vegeluron 3%

Liquorice extract in glycerine 2%

White tea extract in glycerine 2%

Panthenol 0.5%

Xanthum & Acacia gum 0.5%

Tocopherols 0.5%

Rosemary CO2 extract 0.1%

Euxyl K903 1%

Palmarosa essential oil 0.3%

1-Hydrate lecithin in 6% of hydrosol for 30 minutes in a beaker. I blended it with the glass rod. It slowly turned from dark brown to a caramel colour.  It is not miscible in the hydrosol at this point. It looks like a lump of caramel.

2-Trickle 4% of Apricot kernel oil very slowly into the lecithin/hydrosol mixture. Stirred with glass rod to blend with every increments of oil.

3-Blend the remaining Apricot oil, Tocopherols and Rosemary CO2 extract in one beaker.

8-Scooped the Xanthum & Acacia gum in the two extracts into the emulsion and whisked vigorously for about 4 minutes. Emulsion has thickened and looks really good!

Added Euxyl K903, whisk and checked pH which is around 4.5 - 4.7. 

Added Palmarosa essential oil and whisk to blend. (photo 3)

 

9- Checked whether it is a true o/w emulsion by diluting in water and the emulsion dissolved into it. Yay!

 

Teresa has added that this emulsion prepared with a hand whisk is still stable after a few days but is showing some signs of separation @ hot and humid Singapore climate. A hand whisk seems to be suitable for your first trial or for a small test batch which you completely use only in a few days.

 

Formulation:

Soy Lecithin powder (non-GMO) 3.0%

Oil mix 15.0%

Geranium hydrosol with dissolved silk peptide (to 100.0%)

Panthenol 0.6%

Hyaluronic acid 2.3%

Tocopherol 0.5%

Sodium lactate (60%) 3.6%

Xanthan gum 0.3%

Liquid Totarol K7, preservative  0.7%

Lavender essential oil 1%

Lactice acid 1 drop to adjust the pH

1. Hydrate soy lecithin powder in hydrosol

2. Dissolved 0.3% X-gum into 3.6% Sodium lactate

3- After homogenization with Kai Blendia

4- Filled in an airless pump

I hope you're now motivated enough to try this simple and amazing concept in your lab. Feel free to send me your photos and recipes to be shared with other readers.

BeHappy and have fun