Cream de la cream: A mind-blowing W/O shea cream

As much as I love cold process emulsifiers and emulsion making, sometimes you need to go through hot process because you want to use certain ingredients which are solid at room temperature.

We made a KISS shea water in oil cream a while ago and we were all so over the moon about its texture and skin feel that we couldn't help sharing the formulation and process with you.

Since Neocare P3R is a cold-process emulsifier, and since the melting temperature of the shea butter is not as high as waxes or fatty alcohols, we made this emulsion in a warm-process. This means we didn't heat the ingredients above 50 ^oC. This is something between the cold process and the hot process and still enables you to use some heat sensitive ingredients.

The key to making this emulsion (and almost all W/O emulsions) is the slow addition of the water phase to the oil phase. Another important point for this specific emulsion with shea butter is a long cooling down and long stirring even after the emulsion has reached the room temperature. If you don't do this, the emulsion will become grainy and unstable.

pH adjustment and preserving

We are using a preservative that we know will reduce the pH by experience. We increase the pH of the water phase deliberately at the beginning so that when the preservative is added the final pH would be in the range (5,2-5,5) for the preservative. This may need some fine tuning and several measurements and repititions. Depending on the ingredients you use, you may need other quantities of arginin or no arginin at all for the pH adjustment.

Do not expect to jump on the target pH with your first samples. The challenge with W/O emulsions is that you need to adjust the pH of the water phase before you blend the oil and water phase but after you have made about 100 emulsions, it becomes quite easy for you.

Formulation

Procedure:

1- Blend phase A and B separately in heat proof beakers.

2- When phase A is completely uniform make a 10% dilution and measure the pH. In our case it was 8,68 but that is OK. By adding the preservative it will come to 5,2 which is what we want

3- Heat oil and water phase in a water bath between 45-55 ^oC. It is much easier when you use two water baths.

4- Gradually and slowly add the water phase to the oil phase. At the beginning you have an ugly mess but before the water phase is half-way added it becomes like an emulsion. Continue slow adding of the water to the oil phase

5- When the water is completely added stop heating but continue stirring.

6- When the emulsion is cooled down add the preservative and the essential oils. Continue stirring. The viscosity increases as the emulsion is being stirred. Depending on the tools you are using, this step might take between 1-3 hours. Do not spare time at this stage.

7- Take your stability and micro kit samples and fill the emulsion in a suitable container.

Watch the video here

Stay safe and creative