Today we are getting acquainted with a new-to-me fatty thickener: C10-18 Triglycerides, sold as “Butter Pearls” by Simply Ingredients (gifted). I love fatty thickeners and use them in all kinds of formulations, and I’m super excited to have a new one in my repertoire! Simply Ingredients says you can “turn any oil into a balm with just 20% Butter Pearls melted into your favorite oil”—and that definitely got me excited to get to know these little white beads a bit better 😄
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Butter pearls are a blend of palmitic and stearic acids—roughly 75/25. This ingredient is made from inedible leftovers from the making of olive oil, making it a lovely up-cycled ingredient that reduces waste. Like all fatty thickeners, Butter Pearls are super versatile. In my research I found C10-18 Triglycerides in ingredient lists for cleansers, creamy colour cosmetics, lotions, moisturizers, and more.
I structured this experiment differently than I’ve done in previous “quick guide” experiments. My earlier experiments were structured around ratios, making the percentages a bit odd (1:8 = 11.1111111%). I’ve structured this experiment around percentages as that’s how I formulate, and it’s about time my quick guides caught up 😄
I’ve made seven different mixtures of butter pearls and safflower oil: 2%, 5%, 10%, 15%, 20%, 30%, and 40% butter pearls, with safflower oil taking us up to 100%. I melted each mixture together in a water bath and stirred the mixtures while they cooled. I then left them overnight before trying them out. I looked at the viscosity/hardness and then spread each mixture on my skin to see what the skin feel, slip, melt speed, and general use experience was like. I did this a couple times, over a couple days, to be sure I was getting a good feel for what was going on. Here’s what I learned.
Post Overview
The Ratios
2% C10-18 Triglycerides + 98% safflower oil
This mixture is visibly hazy. It is more viscous than straight safflower oil, but definitely still liquid. Lovely rich skin feel, with great slip. After sitting for 3 days the haze of the C10-18 Triglycerides is starting to settle out, leaving a clear layer on the surface of the mixture, indicating that this isn’t going to work well to add just a wee bit of viscosity to very fluid formulations (at least not on its own).
5% C10-18 Triglycerides + 95% safflower oil
Very soft solid when left on its own, but liquifies when stirred about. Oil-gel-like. Soft, scoopable, rich, silky. Slightly mealy, uneven appearance, but feels smooth. Melts quickly but maintains structure well—it doesn’t start immediately running down my leg as it softens. This would probably be fully liquid in 25°C+ temperatures.
10% C10-18 Triglycerides + 90% safflower oil
Somewhere between very thick liquid and very soft solid; it could tip one way or the other depending on ambient temperature. Does not liquify quickly, requiring a few seconds of massage into the skin before melting. Rich, creamy, slippy skin feel. Slightly mealy, uneven appearance, but feels smooth.
15% C10-18 Triglycerides + 85% safflower oil
Soft solid; I can run my finger through it in a very rich, indulgent way—like extra thick custard. Nice glide on the skin, slow to melt. Rich, creamy, buttery. A bit white on rub-in. Slightly mealy, uneven appearance, but feels smooth.
20% C10-18 Triglycerides + 80% safflower oil
Soft solid; you can press a finger into this mixture and it’ll leave a dent behind. Scoops, spreads, and massages into the skin well. Definite rich, creamy, buttery feel. Good playtime, though not long enough for a massage product. Slight powdery skin feel. A bit white on rub-in. Satiny, non-greasy skin appearance.
30% C10-18 Triglycerides + 70% safflower oil
Dry, fluffy, crumbly, malleable, and creamy. You can smoosh a chunk of this between the fingers and it feels both buttery and a bit dry/powdery. Rubs into the skin relatively easily, though with a noticeable whiteness—almost like lather. Some creamy-tackiness left on the skin—reminiscent of shea butter. Satiny skin appearance; does not look or feel greasy.
40% C10-18 Triglycerides + 60% safflower oil
Hard, dry, and crumbly. A chunk of this mixture will just sit on your skin without melting. That chunk can be pressed into the skin and massaged in, though it’s pretty slow moving. The skin feel is stiff yet creamy, leaning towards powdery. Leaves the skin looking satiny, not greasy.
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Lessons Learned
- C10-18 Triglycerides hardens products in a way that softens quickly, but is slow to fully melt/liquify; the products keep their structure to a degree as they’re applied.
- Post-testing, my skin was left feeling conditioned and protected, even after washing my hands.
- Compared the cetyl alcohol, C10-18 Triglycerides melt much more slowly and add more richness.
- Compared to stearic acid, C10-18 Triglycerides create formulations with better slip.
- Compared the cetearyl alcohol, C10-18 Triglycerides thickens similarly, but C10-18 Triglycerides is more creamy/butter while cetearyl alcohol is more slippy/oily
- A potential substitution for C10-18 Triglycerides would be a blend of cetearyl alcohol and stearic acid.
- C10-18 Triglycerides would be a great addition to anything you want to feel rich and creamy—I’m especially thinking lipsticks and vegan lip balms!
- C10-18 Triglycerides is to stearic acid as cetearyl alcohol is to cetyl alcohol
Observations Chart
| Hard? | Solid? | Melt speed | Sticky? | Slip | |
| 2% | No | No | Immediate | No | Excellent |
| 5% | No | Barely | Medium | No | Excellent |
| 10% | No | Barely | Medium | No | Excellent, rich |
| 15% | No | Soft solid | Medium | Not really—more rich & creamy | Good |
| 20% | No | Soft solid | Slow | Not really—more rich & creamy | Good |
| 30% | Yes | Yes | Very Slow | Not really—more rich & creamy | Slow, slightly powdery finish |
| 40% | Yes | Yes | Very slow | A little; tacky/creamy | Slow, slightly powdery finish |
Looking for something to add to bath salt mixtures to add moisturizing properties to the bath water. Would these work as bath oil beads?
I would not recommend it; the melting point is pretty high for a comfortable bath.
Thank you very much my mentor.
Thanks for reading!
I’d like to venture into using other products outside of natural carrier oils, natural waxes and butters, but I’m concerned about skin reactions. I don’t see any information about known allergens in your encyclopedia entry for butter pearls.
I got into making balms, salves and butters because of my sensitive skin, eczema and difficulty finding products that worked for me. Fragrances make me ill, and anything with “alchohol” (that I can figure anyway) causes a breakout or exacerbation of eczema. Even “natural” products or “for sensitive skin” product just sat on my skin, didn’t absorb and caused reactions. I can’t definitively identify all of the exact ingredients that caused me problems, but since I’ve been DIYing it and switched to fragrance free 7th Generation Dish Soap I haven’t had any serious breakouts from products. Fragrance exposure in public does it though. I’ve stuck to just carrier oils (sometimes infused with herbs/flowers), natural waxes and butters, as well as judicious use of essential oils. I’ve stayed away from any liquids since I am not using preservatives. I never expected anything to last more than 6 months, but surprisingly most have lasted two to 5 years.
Where do I begin trying these other ingredients? I’d like to try these butter pearls. Do they last longer than natural butters? Do they cause reactions? Is there a resource similar to the Women’s Voices For The Earth for individual products? I’d appreciate you heading me in the right direction so I can educate myself.
Thank you!
@Lisa L, the butter pearls are olive derived, so if you have a known sensitivity to olives, that might be of concern to you. Otherwise, there is a lot of technical information on the ingredient available at the supplier’s website, http://simply-ingredients.com/.
Perfect timing! I ordered butter pearls and received them yesterday.
Thank you for all the information!
I have my butter pearls and am excited to try these out! Do you think these would work good for a deep conditioning hair mask? If so would they just be replacing the Ceteyl Alcohol in a recipe, or will they also replace the emulsifying wax ? Thanks!!
Butter pearls are not an emulsifier, so they cannot be used alone in a conditioning hair mask (or even something like a lotion). In addition, for an effective hair mask, you really need a cationic emulsifier like BTMS-25 or 50 to make a conditioner. It’s the cationic (positively-charged) part that makes it conditioning. If you just use regular E-Wax (or any non-cationic emulsifier), you will probably wind up disappointed in how your deep conditioner performs.
available in canada?!
If the lip scrub recipe calls for both Cetyl Alcohol and Stearic Acid can I Substitute them both for butter pearls instead?
That’ll work, but it will change the feel of the formulation. Try it and see what you think! 🙂
How much butter pearls would you use in a lip balm? Could it be the substitute for the beeswax in the formula?
It depends 🙂 It isn’t an alternative for wax in a lip balm, but it can be a beautiful complement!
Just wondering Marie. I’m def buying Butter Pearls for a couple of balms.
However, your experiment shows that used at just 2% it separates & sits on top of a formula. Darn! I was hopeful for a certain application! So Butter Pearls can’t thicken the viscosity of an all Oil Cleanser. I cannot stand the sapogel oleo thickeners as these are just way too slow to work with for larger batches. And a gel is not what I’m looking for anyways.
Is there ANY product/ingredient out there that can be used to increase viscosity to a honey-like consistency for an all-oil cleanser?
Marie might have a much better solution to offer, but in the meantime check out her Summer Glow Body Oil formulation. Though in other formulations she uses Polyamide 3 to make oil gels, in this one she uses just a tiny bit to thicken up the oil for a bit of viscosity (which looked like warm honey to me in the video), and though this formulation was clearly not designed for rinse off, I presume that rinse off is not a problem as she also uses Polyamide 3 with an emulsifier in her iconic Clear Jelly Oil Cleanser with no rinsing issues. Of course, Polyamide 3 is different depending on which vendor you source it from, so do check out her encyclopedia entry on it too for more specific details
Hi Marie!
I cant make sense of the ingredient “Butter Pearls”. It seems that there has been some sort of mixup with ingredient names/inci.
I have used c 10-18 many times, and it does not perform as the Butter Pearls in this guide.
Looking at the technical documents of the “Butter Pearls” ingredient, I can see that its Cas no: 68002-71-1 does not correspond with c 10-18 triglycerides (Cas no: 85665-33-4), but is the Cas no of (C16-C18) trialkyl glyceride: INCI: glyceryl palmitate/stearate.
It makes more sense that this ingredient actually is glyceryl palmitate/stearate, as it has a higher melting point (+-54°C) than C 10-18 triglycerides that have a melting point around 38°C. And the fact that it is made up of “…a blend of palmitic and stearic acids—roughly 75/25.” Supports this.
Using C 10-18 glycerides, I cant reproduce your testresults. In my testing a 30/70 ratio C 10-18 / Sunflower oil, makes a soft balm that melts instantly in contact with skin. At a 20/80 ratio, it is more of a liquid, similar the 5-10% ratios in your experiment.
If you compare the technical documents of Butter Pearls to C 10-18 triglycerides, theres a big difference!
However, the production description is very similar to the LUSH description of C 10-18 triglycerides:
“Non-edible portions of pressed olive fruit leftover after olive oil production are separated and processed to leave fractions of palmitic and stearic acid, which make up Butter Pearls.”
LUSH:
“To make C10-18 triglycerides, they use by-products of olive oil extraction that they collect from Italian producers – inedible olive fractions that would ordinarily go to waste.”
However, I cant see that glyceryl palmitate/stearate could be produced this way, so it is all very confusing.
What do you make of it?
/Camilla