Quick Guides
I've done lots of experiments on ratios with different thickeners—you'll find those here, plus other quick guides!
A Quick Guide to Butter Pearls and Liquid Oil Ratios
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!...
A Quick Guide to Sunflower Wax and Liquid Oil Ratios
Today we're getting to know sunflower wax (Helianthus Annuus Seed Wax), a vegan wax made from the winterization of sunflower seed oil. It's a potent thickener and hardener with an interesting dry/astringent skin feel. I find it to have a creamier feel than candelilla...
A Quick Guide to Berry Wax and Liquid Oil Ratios
Today we're getting to know Berry Fruit Wax (Rhus Verniciflua or Toxicodendron Vernicifluum Peel Cera), a natural vegan wax. Not to be confused with bayberry wax (Myrica Cerifera Fruit Wax), berry wax is made from the waxy coating found on the berries of the Chinese...
A Quick Guide to Ceresine Wax and Liquid Oil Ratios
Today we're continuing my "quick guide" series with another wax—ceresine! I picked some up from TKB Trading last year and figured it was high time we got better acquainted. Ceresine (or ceresin) wax is derived from ozokerite, which is a "naturally occurring fossil wax...
A Quick Guide to Soy Wax & Liquid Oil Ratios
Today we’re doing another “Quick Guide” experiment, this time featuring soy wax. We’ll be looking at how this vegetable-derived wax behaves when combined with olive oil in different ratios. I've often read that it can be a good vegan 1:1 alternative/swap for beeswax,...
A Quick Guide to Cetearyl Alcohol & Liquid Oil Ratios
I've been itching to get my hands on some cetearyl alcohol for a while now—readers keep asking me about it, I see it in ingredients lists all the dang time, and I've been reading all kinds of lovely things about it! Now that Windy Point has it available in smaller...
A Quick Guide to Almond Wax & Liquid Oil Ratios
If you read my A Quick Guide to Olive Wax & Liquid Oil Ratios, you know Dale also sent almond wax along with the olive wax for me to play with. Whee! As usual I set out to make the acquaintance of almond wax with my standard ratio experiments so I could get a...
A Quick Guide to Olive Wax & Liquid Oil Ratios
Earlier this year Dale got in touch to ask if I’d ever worked with olive wax, and when I replied I’d never worked with it and not found it for sale in Canada, he generously offered to mail me some olive wax and some almond wax. Several months later they arrived in a...
A Quick Guide to Stearic Acid & Liquid Oil Ratios
Today we're looking at stearic acid, and how it behaves when melted together with olive oil at different ratios. Stearic acid is a pretty humble ingredient—mine is unassuming white beads that are bigger than cetyl alcohol, but not by much. We use it to thicken and...
A Quick Guide to Cetyl Alcohol & Liquid Oil Ratios
Cetyl alcohol is pretty unassuming. Give it a cursory glance and it looks like white dust—teensy little moderately glossy blobs and specks of nothing all too exciting. Cetyl alcohol is a saturated fatty alcohol derived from coconuts, with a melting point of 49°C...
A Quick Guide to Cera Bellina & Liquid Oil Ratios
I've been having fun playing with a new ingredient lately—cera bellina. Cera bellina is derived from beeswax, and it does some really cool things. For starters, it makes oil gels! Think about ointments—that soft, creamy, translucent texture. Cera bellina does that! It...
A Guide to Making Substitutions in DIY Recipes
I get asked about substitutions, additions, and swaps a lot—hence this guide to making substitutions. I've already got guides on carrier oil substitutions and essential oil substitutions, so this article is going to be a bit more scattered. I'll look at some starter...
A Quick Guide to Different Emulsifying Waxes
In my time working with emulsifying waxes, I've found that they vary quite a lot. There are two main categories of emulsifying waxes—complete and incomplete. We'll be looking at complete emulsifying waxes (or e-waxes) here as incomplete e-waxes require co-emulsifiers...
A Quick Guide to Colourants
When you want to add a bit of colour to something, there's a lot to consider. What colour do you want? Do you want opacity along with the colour? How long do you want the colour to last? What is the end use of the product? And let's not forget the all-important...
A Quick Guide to Bayberry Wax & Liquid Oil Ratios
My series of wax to oil ratio experiments continues today with bayberry wax and . Bayberry wax is a plant-based wax made from the fruit of the Myrica faya shrub. The resulting wax is dry, crumbly, and green, and smells wonderfully of the...
A Quick Guide to Cocoa Butter & Liquid Oil Ratios
Now that I've worked with three different waxes for these quick guides, I thought I'd try . Cocoa butter is a wonderful ingredient—brittle, cocoa scented, and velvety soft on the skin. It melts at about 34°C, which is just a few degrees below...
A Quick Guide to Different Shea Butters
Shea butter was one of the first ingredients I fell in love with. First argan oil, second—shea butter. I kicked things off with a wee tub I found at the St. Lawrence Market, and followed that up with a bulk buy through a shop in Toronto's Kensington Market. After I...
A Quick Guide to Carnauba Wax & Liquid Oil Ratios
After the rather surprising success of my Quick Guide to Beeswax & Liquid Oil Ratios post, it seemed like a good idea to do more of them, with different ingredients. So, today I'm venturing further into vegan wax territory. Carnauba wax, also called Brazil wax is...
A Quick Guide to Coconut Oil & Beeswax Ratios
I find my quick guide to liquid oil and beeswax ratios so useful that I knew I'd have to extend it out to soft oils as well. Today we're looking at beeswax and coconut oil, a perennial favourite in DIY body products. Coconut oil is a soft oil, solid at room...
A Quick Guide to Candelilla Wax & Liquid Oil Ratios
After the rather surprising success of my Quick Guide to Beeswax & Liquid Oil Ratios post, it seemed like a good idea to do more of them, with different ingredients. So, today I'm venturing into vegan wax territory. Candelilla wax is a plant based wax, derived...
A Quick Guide to Beeswax & Liquid Oil Ratios
This is an experiment I've been meaning to conduct for ages. For as many DIY concoctions I've made over the years, I still found myself wondering how much beeswax to add to something to get a certain level of hardness or thickening. So, one short winter day I set out...
A Quick Guide to Buying Your First Essential Oils
So, you're getting into making your own body products and household cleaners. You've found a supplier, you've found their essential oils section... and whoa. There are hundreds. And they all sound amazing. The reviews rave about how this one cured their epilepsy and...
A Quick Guide to Solubility
Let me preface this by saying I am no scientist, and this guide is definitely a quick one (and based very much on personal experience). I took 12th grade chemistry, and that's it—and that was a while ago. I did, however, convince my brilliant friend Adrian to...
A Guide to Essential Oil Substitutions
After writing about carrier oil substitutions, I couldn't wait to write more about swapping this ingredient for that, and why things do or don't work. So, today I'm writing about essential oil substitutions. There are fewer variables here, so it'll be a shorter entry,...
