- This topic has 8 replies, 7 voices, and was last updated 5 years, 1 month ago by
.
-
Posts
-
So I just made a big batch of the cream blush base and I left it (after it’s all melted) in a pan of boiling water for 3 hours and the Mg stearate still hasn’t liquefied — the batch is still cloudy. I followed the recipe exactly. Anyone else had this issue?
Melting the magnesium stearate is a pain in the backside!
It doesn’t melt really in a double boiler.
I leave the beeswax out, and in a thin based pan, melt everything over an open flame (I’ve a gas stove). I x10 the recipe, and it took about five or so minutes for the magnesium stearate to melt. Then I add in my beeswax.
BE WARNED! Adding in the magnesium mysteate, makes it wicked bubbly and very difficult to see if everything has melted down.
I use a hot plate + beaker on low. It melts it without sorching the oils. Otherwise it won’t melt. I agree with Penny though, the bubbles are annoying. Marie mentions in the book that they dissapear when working with the base, but mine don’t. The more I mix, the more appear. I usually melt, mix a bit, then let it cool while trying to tap the bubbles. Then remelt, do again (no new bubbles appear), etc. However I still get bubbles in my pots of lipstick. For my first batch, I scraped out the foam on top, but then realized that the foam soliified into a softer version of the base, so I was wasting product.
I’m having a similar problem.. Just did second batch of the lipstick base and the powders clumped up both times! Grr. I melted everything in a bain-marie first, then put it all in a little pot with the burner on low. I’m wondering if there’s another way to do this because this is frustrating.
You’ll need to melt the magnesium stearate over direct heat—I’m pretty sure all the instructions in the book say so, due to the melting point being too high for a water bath.
The best way to go about it is mash it up with some liquid oil to break up the clumps before starting, and then melt it over low, direct heat; then add the wax and lower the temperature (as beeswax discolours at temperatures high enough to melt magnesium stearate—it’s purely cosmetic, but avoidable). You can definitely melt everything together all at once if you’re not fussy about the base being a bit darker 🙂
Thank you Marie, yes that’s what I did, I melted it with the oil first over direct heat, then added in the waxes etc. The mag stearate/myristate weren’t melting, weren’t melting, were remaining cloudy then quickly kind of clumped up and got gummy. I was watching it pretty closely. Sometimes it works ok and other times I find I get this problem… I’m wondering if there are any other powders that have similar qualities that I could use instead? I find these quite unpredictable. Thanks so much.
CAN’T BELIEVE HOW LONG THIS HAS BEEN!
girls, i think i have a solution to the Mg Stear problem.
DON’T MELT IT. that’s it. Don’t melt the MS along with the wax and oils. Add it to the dry ingredient phase. For example:
Phase 1 to be melted: wax, butter, oil
Phase 2: pigments, micas, starch, other fillers etc, INCLUDING MAGNESIUM STEARATE.it still works just as well without any of the hassle, including the gross film and sticky texture when you melt it!
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.
