Formulating 101: Emulsifiers

What is an emulsifier?

When water and oil are mixed together and vigorously shaken, a dispersion of oil droplets in water - and vice versa - is formed. When shaking stops, the phases start to separate. However, when an emulsifier is added to the system, the droplets remain dispersed, and a stable emulsion is obtained.

An emulsifier consists of a water-loving hydrophilic head and an oil-loving hydrophobic tail. The hydrophilic head is directed to the aqueous phase and the hydrophobic tail to the oil phase (see figure 1). The emulsifier positions itself at the oil/water or air/water interface and, by reducing the surface tension, has a stabilising effect on the emulsion. 

In simple terms an emulsifier is a compound that can blend oil and water together into a homogeneous mixture.

My favourite and most used emulsifier is ECOMulse 

ECOMulse is a natural source, self-emulsifier for oil in water emulsions.   It contains no ethoxylated ingredients. This system is based on acyl lactylates, which are conditioning to both hair and skin. The anionic lactylates are produced by a reaction between the acyl group of fatty acids and lactic acid. Lactic acid and fatty acids are natural moisturizing factor (NMF) constituents that are found in the skin. The lactylates are excellent viscosity enhancers, stabilizers, and conditioners. ECOMulse™ is a complete, balanced and highly desirable emulsification system. When used in lotions and creams, it will provide a soft, conditioned, talc-like feel to skin.  Note, because this is based on anionic lactylates, it does not conform to the HLB system for non-ionic surfactants and no HLB number has been determined by the manufacturer.  EcoMulse is manufactured using raw materials that are GMO-free.

It's a naturally derived compounds that fits the needs of most of my lotions and potions!  It's fairly easy to work with.  It's also often called Natramulse or Ritamulse, depending on the manufacturer.

For cationic emulsions I use SugarMulse or one of the popular BTMS formulas available.

Although the components sound long and complicated, they're natural and not at all harmful.  You will often see a company claim that their products are 'chemical free' or 'free from chemicals'.  

EVERYTHING IS A CHEMICAL.  Anything with substance or components is a chemical.  Water is a chemical compound!  Don't trip and fall for fear mongering!

What's in a name?

I get asked a lot about the names of my products!

In each listing I include the translation and in many cases, a brief explanation of what it means.

The names I've chosen for my hand care line are all Hindi.  They're picked to specifically match the formulation.  For example, Gulaba means rose and it's the name of my hemp and rose hand cream.  Sometimes it's a random and everyday word that is just beautiful to me, other times it's the name of a Hindu deity.  After all!  The logo for Glitter and Gratitude is a little G shaped elephant, the god Ganesh, the remover of obstacles!

He was an important part of the concept and motivation behind my shop and he helped motivate me every step of the way!

I know it's a little confusing, which is why I'm going to rearrange a few things.  Starting in 2016 when I reopen, my core hand care/skin care line will bear the original Hindu names.  But.  All of my soaps, hair care products, and upcoming men's line will have more...  user friendly names!  It's important to keep the original focus of my company intact, it's important for me to continue to focus on why I started GGA.

Formulating 101: HLB

One of the first things you need to learn when you formulate creams, lotions, conditioners, cosmetics, etc is something called the HLB system.

In 1949, while working as a chemist at the Atlas Powder Company, William C. (Bill) Griffin developed the HLB System. HLB stands for `Hydrophile-Lipophile Balance` and is a measure of the relative proportions of water-soluble and oil soluble components in a surfactant. For any given surfactant function, such as detergency, emulsification or wetting, there is usually an optimum HLB value. Current emulsion technology dictates that the surfactants' HLB in a system must match the HLB requirement of the insoluble materials. The HLB Calculator is an Excel Worksheet based on that system that quickly and easily allows the formulator to calculate HLB requirements for cosmetic formulations.

The HLB system is a complicated formulary that helps you determine how much of certain oils and emulsifiers you need to create a stable and ph balanced emulsion, aka: lotion.  The oil portion is called the lipophilic portion and the liquid portion is called the hydrophilic portion.

Each oil and butter had a very different makeup and requires a different percentage of emulsifier to break the surface tension that keeps an oil and liquid mixture apart and keep it combined.  So you add the values of each ingredient and do some crazy math to determine what you need to do to combine everything into the consistency you want.  You also need to take into consideration the ionic charge of your ingredients, either they are cationic (positive) or anionic (negative)!

You cannot just add some em wax to some oil and mix it in with some water and get a lotion!  No!  You need to break everything down into percentages and saturation levels so that it's a balanced solution.

I hate maths, I do, but this system has made it fun for me and I love experimenting with things to change up the emolliency and the feel of the finished product!

Later this week I'll talk more about actual emulsifiers and how they work and what they're made of.

With Glitter and Gratitude!

Holiday Happenings!

Black Friday!

• 10% off orders of 10$ or more 
• 20% off orders of 20$ or more

Everything currently in-stock (creams, soaps, etc) will be included and most of the core creams will be restocked for the sale.  There will be a limit of three (3) of each item per order!

Everyone who orders on Black Friday will be entered into a drawing for 10% off their entire purchase good Cyber Monday only.

The shop will be closed over the weekend to get ready for the MASSIVE HOLIDAY RESTOCK.

Cyber Monday!

My massive holiday restock will be launching at noon CET (3am PST and 6am EST for those in the US).

There will be three Cyber Monday exclusives including:

• Elf Sweat cold processe soap
• Jack Frost cold process shave bars
• Santa's Sack Goodie Bags with minis of a dozen holiday products (limit 1)

Also launching will be:

•  Limited Edition Game of Thrones inspired soap trio
• Two new core collection body creams in a new 200g (8 oz) size
• Complex-ion problem skin cold process soap bars
• Seven new cold process soaps
• Three new shave bars
• A limited trial of balm deodorant
• Fourteen Limited Edition GG Holiday items
• Three new core hand creams including Menta, a special holiday inspired release
• Three new lip glosses including Twisted, a special holiday inspired flavour
• Noel Kali cuticle balm in regular and new travel stick sizes
• Winter Candy Apple Varuna mani soak

For sneak peeks please check out and follow my Instagram! I also have a #giveaway running so head over and enter.

Glitter and Gratitude Apothecary can currently be found on Etsy!

Hullo!

I took an unexpected hiatus there. 

The past few weeks have been hectic.  My mum is visiting and it's been a blast having her around.  We've done a lot of sightseeing and poking around and a LOT of eating.  I've cut back to only 30 minutes of yoga a day, so I need to kick myself back into gear.  It's crazy how much you can tell you miss it!

I have been working a great deal on the shop.  It's taken a lot of focus and determination to get it going and I'm keeping on an upward trajectory!  I did really well with my Halloween releases and it's sort of taught me a bit about what I need to be doing for my Holiday releases.

There is so so much coming!

And that means that there is so so much to do!  I'm going to launch the Holiday shop on what's called Cyber Monday, for those of us in the EU that's the online retail version of Black Friday in the US, which is a massive shopping day.  I'll keep the shop open for three weeks and shut just before Christmas.  That way nothing ships and gets lost in the rush and because I'm having surgery and will use the time to relax!

More details will be available as soon this settle.

In nail news... my #mentalityburns are still healing.  My nail growth is still very brittle and while the damage looks like it's grown out?  My nails are thin and very ridged.  I haven't been able to get much free edge!  I'm working, though, on a new vitamin system and oiling every half hour!

How have you been?  Anyone still lurking?!

With glitter and gratitude!