Point of Interest!

Newbie Tuesday: Next week's project!

2012-01-31T09:45:00.000-08:00

If you're interested in joining on the fun with next week's body butter project, click here to learn more about the supplies you'll need. If you made last week's lotion, then you have what you need!

BASIC BODY BUTTER RECIPE
HEATED WATER PHASE
59% water
2% sodium lactate

HEATED OIL PHASE
10% oils
15% butter
3% cetyl alcohol
7% Polawax (e-wax)

COOL DOWN PHASE
0.5% to 1% preservative
1% fragrance or essential oil

Join me next Tuesday for some instructions and the video!

Newbie Tuesday: You made lotion!

2012-01-31T09:39:00.000-08:00

I can't tell you how wonderful it has been to wake up every morning to your e-mails and comments about your first time lotions! (And Lise is right - the excitement of seeing your emulsification happen never gets dull!) This we'll rejoice in your successes and trouble shoot some issues, then do it all again next week with body butter! If you have no idea what I'm writing about, check out the post on last newbie Tuesday for the first time lotion recipe. If you want to play along, but don't know where to start, click here.

Alex wrote to say: My name is Alex, and I am having a great time following along with your "Newbie Tuesday" posts! I've been reading your blog for a while, but I was intimidated to make anything myself - until now! I posted about my first lotion making experience on the newest post in the series. I'm very happy with the finished product! It went really well, and your instructions were so thorough and awesome! I have attached some photos of my process to this email. Feel free to post the photos if you think they will be helpful to others. I am really looking forward to the rest of the series, and I can't thank you enough for all of the wonderful information and encouragement!

I followed the recipe above and I aimed for a 100 gram recipe, so all I did was weigh the percents as grams (i.e., 69 grams water, 15g oil, etc). The directions were really helpful and I thought every detail was covered really well! I used shea butter for my butter and sunflower oil for my oil. I also used pink grapefruit essential oil. One mistake I made was I tared the water phase container while weighing the water phase initially...I should have written down the weight of container + water (as Susan said in the directions hehe... I guess I got too excited!!) I just chanced it and added 10 g water at the end of the heating and holding. One other problem i had was that my containers were bouncing around my double boiler a little bit during heating and holding. Maybe they are too light?

The consistency of my final product was fluffy and thick enough to put in a jar rather than a pump container. On the skin it was a tad oily, but I didn't mind! It absorbed fine after a few minutes. I think it's a pretty decent thicker, oilier winter lotion and I'm very happy with the result! lol I guess the real test whether this is a true success will be if the consistency stays the same over time! :)

This was super fun and I cant wait for the rest of the series!! Thanks so much for the great info and encouragement!!!

Thanks so much for sharing your thoughts with us, Alex!

If your containers are bouncing around in your double boiler, then they are too light and/or your water is boiling a little too vigourously. If you are planning to do more lotion making, I suggest investing in some glass containers that have a little weight to them - Pyrex type jugs are a good choice - or putting more stuff in the containers. This is one of the down sides to using plastic. They can actually float and spill out into your container if you aren't paying complete attention to them as you're video taping next week's body butter recipe. (Yes, this happened to me yesterday!)

If you find it too oily or greasy, are you already thinking of ways to reduce the greasiness in the next batch? Are you already thinking of ways to convert this into a spring or summer lotion?

Rosi commented in this post: Hello Susan. I made my lotion yesterday and I also made some modifications on it. I added 70% water, 4% glycerin, 2% cetac, 10%, 5% coconut butter. It is supposed to be for the hair. It came out wonderful, until now it is still together, it has not separated. How long does it take for the lotion to separate if it will separate? I would like to make it less thick though, so what should I do add more water or reduce the the BTMS. I used BTMS 25. Thank you so much, I keep looking at the lotion all the time and also touching it. My first lotion!!!!!

I think we all share the same sentiment. When made my first lotion, I think I used it up in a few days as I kept putting it on, making my friends and family try it, and I really did march around the house singing, "I made lotion! I made lotion!" It was such a great feeling!

If a lotion is going to separate, you can't predict when it will separate. It could be right away, it could e a day or two later, it might be a year later. Ideally, you'd use BTMS-50 instead of BTMS-25 when making an emulsified product with 15% or so oils, but BTMS-25 can still emulsify things. And at 6%, odds are pretty good that you'll stay emulsified. I love the fact that you modified it yourself - using BTMS instead of Polawax!

How can you make it thinner? Using 2% cetac will definitely reduce the viscosity - quite dramatically, in fact - so do you want it thinner still?

Leman wrote in an an e-mail: I have made the newbie basic lotion recipe with success :-)) and here are my notes and photos attached if you like to share it.

(Click here to see all the photos! How organized can you be? Wonderful!)

Measuring the water phase - here you will see a paper tissue between the scale and the beaker because once I pour the boiled water into the beaker my scale becomes unstable due to heat (the numbers keep going down) so I put a tissue to prevent the heat affecting this!

Heating up my water and oil phase to 70C - don't you love my new thermometers :-) I used mercury thermometer in the past and broke them twice they were just pain, these are called milk thermometers and as you can see the red zone is clearly marked for 70C :-) I am in love with them!

Now this looks silly I know! I put spatulas underneath my beakers to stop them from bouncing! they bounce so much when heating. I need to find proper wired rings!

Now this is the point of emulsification!!!! yupiiii.... the picture is not very clear I am afraid as I had to ask my boyfriend to take the pictures while I was pouring the oils phase into water phase as I was afraid I would either drop the camera into my double boiler or ruin my lotion and he took the picture of my hands rather than the process!

I mixed it with my milk frother for about 3 mins while the beaker was still in the double boiler but heat turned off. I took the beaker out of the double boiler and continued mixing for another 2 mins.

Letting it to cool to 45C. adding cool down ingredients. Hand mixing cool down ingredients for about 2 - 3 mins as my milk frother won't mixed it anymore! Consistency. This turned more like a cream than a lotion even though I topped up the water I lost during heating.

This is my lotion/cream in a jar! :-))

Few notes/questions:

- When heating for the 20 mins in double boiler the water phase was around and above 70C however the oil phase kept dropping below 70 even though they were in the same double boiler. Why is that? Sometimes I have this problem the other way round - oil phase going around 85-90C and water phase around 70-75C and it is a struggle to keep them both at around same temperature. Any tips here?

- I have weighed the water phase with the beaker together so I could add the lost water. Around 1g was evaporated so I compensated that.

- I am happy with the texture this time even though I used a milk frother. I think in the past I mixed it way too much and that's why I'd always have a lotion/cream more like a mouse consistency with lots of bubbles! This time it was perfect with soft silky texture, no bubbles.

- I poured the oils phase into the water phase. This was the first time I did that, I usually pour my water into oil. I saw traces of oils in the oil phase beaker when the beaker has cooled down. I think it is more practical to pour water into oil. I think that's ok isn't it. We can do either way, right? I have measured my beaker with the traces of oil in it and then cleaned and dried and measured it so I could see how much oil I have wasted! It turned out that I have wasted 0.7g to be exact. Does that really matter? I mean since we are making small batches I guess it does matter. I think I am going to pour my water into oil from now on...

Once again, thank you so much for the wonderful blog and sharing your knowledge with us. You are an angel!

Amazing, Leman! Thank you for taking all those photos to share with us! Have I mentioned yet that I'm jealous of your beakers? I have one and I need to get more! And your lotion looks amazing!

To answer your questions - I think the difference between the heated oil phase and heated water phase has to do with the way the water and oil conduct heat. I can get my water phase to 70˚C in what seems like a short period of time, whereas it feels like my oils take forever to get there and aren't that eager to stay around 70˚C. And it doesn't really matter whether we go oil into water or water into oil when we get to our mixing stage - just do what works best for you. (Click here for a post on that topic!)

HollyB wrote to say: Thanks for holding our hands. I'm definitely making more lotion. Next time I want to use some honey, since making things with hive products is my thing. Can hardly wait for the next Newbie Tuesday. Thanks again.

Wow, that's one gorgeous label, Holly! Are you thinking about modifying your recipe to include some honey and beeswax?

Julie wrote to say: Bonjour Susan. First, thank you so much for your website! I have only found it a few months ago and I have not read everything yet, but it has been a delight to read so far. Following my discovery of cold process soaping, I have been trying to make lotion and other related products. I am still not done reading your book on making lotion, but reading your blog today while the kids were sleeping, I decided to give a try to your Newbie Tuesday lotion

making and bring the practice into the learning. As you ask for tale and pictures, here's mine:

The recipe I used:

- 69% water

- 15% avocado oil

- 5% mango butter

- 3% stearic acid (sorry I do not have cetyl alcohol yet, but it is on

my next order wish list)

- 6% BTMS

- 1% Optiphen

- 5 drops of each Lily of the Valley FO (NDA) and Bamboo FO (Saffire

Blue) (about 0.5%)

It was the first time I used an electric mixer to make lotion. I liked the results. I have used stick blender before, but mine died when I last try to make liquid soap and my other one is bigger and makes too much bubble for a small lotion recipe. The electric mixer made the lotion "fluffy" but no big bubbles. It was also the first time I use BTMS as an emulsifier (my usual been e-wax). I found the lotion a little waxy feeling at first, but very soft and powdery afterward. The waxy feeling actually feels very nice on hands and feet and is almost a little addictive (I can't stop rubbing my hands together). Maybe the stearic acid has also its part in the waxy feeling. I will be very curious to try cetyl alcohol when I get it.

Another thing I did different than your instructions (and I would love to have your point of view and experience on it) is the holding phase. Don't worry, I did it. But I used my oven instead of a double boiler. I melt my oils/butters in the microwave then I place the water cup and the oil cup in the oven at 175*F with a thermometer in each cup. Once it's reach 70*C (it actually goes up to about 75*C) I start counting the 20 minutes holding phase. I found this way easier than making a double boiler, but please let me know if you think it works the same or not.

Bonne travail, Julie! (And that's all the French I remember from grade 12! How sad is that?) Thanks for sharing with us! BTMS offers that powdery feeling that some people like and some don't. (If you're looking to reduce greasiness in your products, BTMS-50 is the first place I'd start!) Heating and holding in the oven works very well, so keep doing what you're doing!

Lorraine wrote to say: I found your fantastic blog a couple of months back after I got hooked on various newbie bath & body recipes and today graduated to my first lotion with your kindly-shared expertise! Here are a couple of pictures of the end product.

As I was out of cream rather than lotion, I actually decided to cut my teeth on the Lush Dream Cream dupe as my first foray and it seems to have come out great! As I’m not a huge fan of camomile I substituted that for some powdered green tea, hence the green tinge in the photos.

I’m absolutely made up with the feel of the cream, the fun of the process and excitement of emulsification - XD – and now I’m hooked! I can’t wait to run out of my other ‘bought’ products so I can have fun making more up at home. Think I'll be buying one of your e-books before long as I'd love to show some financial support to your youth groups.

These look wonderful, Lorraine. (And I love your e-mail name of Cupcake Crafts!) But you don't have to wait until you run out products - there's always an excuse to make more!

HB commented in this post: I forgot to reweigh my water phase and added it to the oil phase. As the emulsion was magically happening, I remembered. So I put it all back on the scale and added water to make 100%. Good thing I'd written down the weight of the container earlier! And now I'm marching around the house with the bottle in hand saying, "I made lotion! I made lotion!"

Congratulations on your new lotion, HB! Isn't it a great feeling? Make sure that any additions you make - generally water that you've forgotten - isn't too out of what temperature wise with the rest of the product. That's why I boil up a kettle of water and let it cool down. After the 1000 gram batch of foot lotion that died horribly because the little bit of water I had to add wasn't at the right temperature, I make sure I have heated water around!

A few thoughts for you, our wonderful newbie lotion makers...

1. What's the first thing you want to tweak and why?

2. What oils and butters are you thinking of buying for your next project?

3. Are you lusting after cute bottles yet?
4. Are you still thrilled with your first lotion?

And are you ready for next week? We're making body butter! And don't hesitate to share your thoughts if you're a first time (or relatively new) lotion maker! I made lotion! I made lotion! Yep, it's still exciting for me all these years later!

A few administrative things for the blog on a slightly rainy Monday morning...

2012-01-30T08:51:00.000-08:00

I'm in the workshop today - it's finally warm enough! - stocking up on just about everything I need! I'm out of or just about out of shampoo bars, conditioner bars, intense conditioner with coconut oil, winter hair custard, intense conditioner with all my conditioning agents, leave in conditioner, body butter, body wash, bubble bath, cuticle balm, hand lotion, sugar scrub, solid scrub bars, and foot scrub bars. (And no, I won't get these all done today, but I can start!)

Please don't ask me to duplicate any products for you. I wrote that series as a way of teaching you how to do it yourself and thought it might inspire you to learn new ways of making products, and I'm done with it for now. (Click here to see my explanation as to why I'm done with duplicating products.) Instead, why not learn enough so you can duplicate your own products? Check out the formulating series or the duplicating series to see how you might do it yourself! (It's going to take some time, but everything awesome takes time, and it's worth it!)

If you're new to the blog, please read more than the first or second post you see before writing to me. Odds are pretty good that I've written about the topic that interests you before. (I'm up to 1505 posts, most of them about bath & body products!) I know the blog can be huge at times, so check out the tour I've posted in the upper right hand section that says "before you write to me..." Or check out the FAQ to your right. I love getting your e-mails, but you aren't the first person to try to convince me that beeswax is an emulsifier or GSE is a preservative. You aren't the first person to refer me to Skin Deep or the EWG about an ingredient being bad for you. This is why I really recommend that you take the tour before writing to me because you'll get to know a little bit more about my philosophy of formulating and creating products. (I don't have a clue what "natural" means, I believe in preservatives, I don't consider Skin Deep or the EWG reliable scientific sources.) Plus, you'll find out where stuff is, and that's always a good thing!

How do I choose what e-mails I'm going to answer and those things I'm going to put on the blog? Curiosity, mostly. Something piques my interest or lends itself nicely to a blog post, so I'll choose that one. I try to answer as many e-mails as I can in the morning, but please remember that I work full time, take classes at the university, plan and run my youth groups, and have friends and family with whom I want to spend time, as well as doing research and writing the blog, so my time at the computer is very limited. (I also like to play video games from time to time and read!) Please don't be offended if I don't have time to re-write your formula for you: I need time for myself some days.

This is not directed at any one person - please don't take offence if you see something of yourself in this post because it really isn't about you - but to all of you, my wonderful readers, in general. I love this blog - I love hearing about your first time lotions, I love hearing about your hundredth time lotions, I love trouble shooting your problems, I love referring you to places where you can get ingredients, I love seeing pictures from your countries, I love seeing the studies that show I'm wrong, I love learning more about you and why you got into making bath & body products - but I'm only one person with limited time, and I find it hard to get everything done I want to get done in a day.

With that said, join me tomorrow for Newbie Tuesday where you get to show off your amazing lotions! I'm so excited about this! Your pictures and stories are so much fun - keep them coming!

When should you use a preservative?

2012-01-29T09:57:00.000-08:00

I'm getting a lot comments and e-mail from newbies lately - welcome! - asking about preservatives. The answer is - whenever you have a product that contains water or might be exposed to water, you must add a preservative.

If you want to make an oil in water lotion (what we normally make), you must add a preservative. If you change every millilitre of water in the lotion to being honey or aloe or a hydrosol, those are still water based ingredients and you must add a preservative. If you make a body wash, shampoo, conditioner, or any other product that contains water or a water like ingredient, you must add a preservative.

If you have a product into which someone might put their wet hands - for instance, a sugar scrub - you will need to add a suitable preservative. (Click here for more information on water activity and preserving!)

Let's go back a step...What is a preservative? Preservatives help prevent microbial growth in our products, which can cause separation of our emulsions, speed up rancidity of our oils and butters, and cause weird smells and colours.

Vitamin E is NOT a preservative. It is an anti-oxidant that can help retard rancidity, but it is not a preservative that will prevent microbial growth.
Citric acid is NOT a preservative. It can be used as an anti-oxidant that can help retard rancidity, but it will also mess with the pH of your product (making it more acidic by 1 pH at 0.2% or so).
Grapefruit seed extract is NOT a preservative. (I've gone into greater detail about this in this post.)
Essential oils are NOT preservatives. They might have some anti-microbial features (like eugenol), but none of them have been proven to be effective preservatives in our products. (More about this tomorrow!)

It really doesn't matter why you can't use a preservative - if you make a water containing product, you must use a preservative. Offering up what seems like a good reason to leave out the preservative doesn't mean it's okay to leave it out. Fungus, bacteria, and yeast don't care if you're allergic or sensitive, if you're vegan or you want the product to be organic - they'll still grow in your lotions, and make you and the people you love sick. Everybody's got their something: I'm lactose intolerant. Lactaid Ultra pills don't help, and I've even gone as far as taking two before eating Raymond's amazing homemade ice cream and I still get sick. It sucks, but that's my reality. I don't get to eat ice cream or drink egg nog or enjoy cake with tons of whipped cream. In a similar vein, if you are allergic to preservatives, if you want only 100% organic products, if you're against them somehow, or if you don't want to spend money on more ingredients, then you don't get to use water containing products and will have to stick to anhydrous products.

I know this sounds harsh, but this is the reality. I don't care how many blogs or suppliers out there try to convince you that you can make products that don't contain preservatives, you can't make a water containing product without a preservative, and writing to me to ask for my blessing to make a water containing product without a preservative is pointless. It's like asking your vegan friend to grill you up a tasty steak - it's not going to happen.

Related posts:
Preservatives - a whole bunch of posts on the topic
Why use a preservative?
Mechanisms of rancidity
Storing products in the fridge
If you really want to make products without preservatives...
The importance of preservatives

Are you a newbie who has made some lotion?

2012-01-28T10:59:00.000-08:00

Are you a newbie who has been following Newbie Tuesday? Have you made your first lotion recently? Want to share your success or troubleshoot your failure? Then write to me (sjbarclay@telus.net) or visit this post and comment and we'll get to it on Tuesday, January 31st! (I like the e-mailing 'cause I get to see pictures, but comments are good.)

As for this week...it's Rated T for Teen video game club today, so I won't be writing anything new until tomorrow! We had a power outage all through town yesterday due to a fire at the power station - look in the centre of the photo, which was before the explosion - so I didn't get a chance to write anything yesterday. We'll be back to normal on Sunday (and I have the week off, so yay, more time to research and experiment!)

Have a great Saturday!

How can you tell it's a good recipe? Do the math!

2012-01-26T06:12:00.000-08:00

Jenna wrote as a comment in this post on recipes: I have created this recipe and have made it before. There were moments that it worked and moments that it didn't. So after finding your blog a short time ago, I finally have the courage to ask about my recipe.

water 300g
ewax 25g
shea butter 40g
sweet almond 52.5g
jojoba 52.5g
preservative 2.5g
vit e 30 drops

The first thing we need to do is work on the math for this recipe and put it into a percentage so we can see if we have the right amount of various things. How do we do that? Add up all the numbers we have - the water is 300 grams, the e-wax 25 grams, and so on (leave out the Vitamin E as it's hard to know the weight of 30 drops), and figure out if we have enough of each ingredient in the mix.

The ingredients in this lotion total 472.5 grams, so this recipe ends up being...
63.5% water
5.3% e-wax
8.5% shea butter
11% sweet almond oil
11% jojoba oil
0.5% preservative
0.2% Vitamin E (I had 0.2% left over with the rounding, so I figured I would put it in the Vitamin E)

What can we tell about this lotion now? It's a high oil lotion - 63.5% water phase with 30.5% oil phase - and it needs more emulsifier. If we use the 25% rule from Polawax (we use 25% of the oil phase in our emulsifier), we should be using 7.625% emulsifier in the lotion to make sure it's emulsified well. (It's recommended for some emulsifying waxes NF that aren't Polawax that you use 1% more in a lotion, so really, you want to use 8.625% e-wax in the recipe). So the first problem here is that we aren't using enough emulsifier. (And this would explain why it failed. Sometimes

My second suggestion is to add a thickener. Some people call cetyl alcohol (or any fatty alcohol) or stearic acid a co-emulsifier - that's not really true, but it will help keep the product emulsified. And it will thicken it up, which is a bonus! I'd remove 3% from the oil phase and add 3% cetyl alcohol or stearic acid. Which one you use depends upon your goal for this product. If you want a foot cream or body butter that stays on a long time, I'd go with stearic acid. If this is a body lotion or hand lotion that you want to glide on easily, cetyl alcohol. I've removed 3% from the sweet almond oil to make up for the 3% cetyl alcohol or stearic acid, but you could reduce the jojoba or the shea butter instead.

You have the preservative at the right level if you're using something like liquid Germall Plus, at the low end for something like Germaben II, and too low for Optiphen. (Check out the chart for more information on preservative suggested usage levels).

Why did the recipe work some times, but not others? Because Jenna likely had the two other types of emulsification - heat, mechanical, and chemical - going for her, even when the chemical emulsification didn't work!

Let's re-write this recipe!

JENNA'S LOTION RECIPE
HEATED WATER PHASE
60.2% water

HEATED OIL PHASE
8.5% emulsifying wax
8.4% shea butter
8% sweet almond oil
11% jojoba oil
3% cetyl alcohol or stearic acid

COOL DOWN PHASE
0.5% preservative
0.2% Vitamin E

Here you go, Jenna! Let us know how it worked!

Related posts:
Calculating percentages from weight.
Convert recipes from percentages to weight.
Why do we weigh our ingredients?
Troubleshooting an epic lotion fail!

Heating, holding, freezing, and thawing our ingredients!

2012-01-25T07:41:00.000-08:00

The temperature of our ingredients is a hot topic these days, so let's take a look at a few questions I've been posed in the last few weeks...

If we heat carrier oils, will they go rancid quicker? Are we destroying the goodness in them?

I answered this question last year in this post, but let's summarize it here. (Quick answers are no and no.)

Heat won't ruin our lovely oils because we aren't heating them up to a temperature where they will start smoking or burning or oxidizing. (For instance, coconut oil has a smoke point of 180˚C or 350˚F. Click here for a list of the smoke points of various oils.) As you can see, the more refined the oil, the higher the smoke point. Grapeseed oil isn't as fragile as one might think: It has a smoke point of 216˚C, which is right in the middle of the list!

Yes, heat will increase the rate of oxidation of our oils, but only by a bit, and we can compensate for that by including Vitamin E or another anti-oxidant. It's not going to speed up the rate of rancidity so much that a 1 year shelf life lotion becomes a three month shelf life lotion. It's more like making a 1 year shelf life lotion a 11.5 month shelf life lotion. And besides, if you don't heat and hold, you're not going to get a great emulsification anyway, which severely limits the shelf life of every product to "the moment it fails", which could be shortly after creation.

Can we heat delicate oils - like evening primrose, borage, squalane, and so on - in the heat and hold phase of our products or should we leave them for the cool down phase?

There is no chemical difference between what we call exotic oils and carrier oils. They both contain fatty acids, phytosterols, polyphenols, and all kinds of vitamins and minerals. The concept of one oil being a carrier oil and another being an exotic oil has no basis in chemistry - it's a designation we've given the oils based on availability and cost. Wheat germ oil might or might not be an exotic oil depending upon the section of the store your supplier puts it in and how common it might be in your part of the world. Don't get me wrong...there are differences between something like borage oil and sunflower oil (for instance) - borage feels drier, it contains GLA, it has a different fatty acid make up - but they aren't so different that we have to treat borage with great delicacy and sunflower oil with reckless abandon!

I've only seen one oil listed as needing to be in the cool down phase and that's kukui nut oil. And to be honest, I'm not seeing anything scientific showing that kukui nut oil can't be used in the heated oil phase of the product or anything about its sensitivity to temperature. I got this information from a supplier's website, and I can't promise you that it's accurate.

Every carrier or exotic oil we use should go into the heated oil phase to ensure it emulsifies into the product. If you put them in the cool down phase, you are risking an epic lotion failure, which is doubleplusungood and to be avoided! There is no need to put our exotic oils into the cool down phase because we aren't heating them up to the point of smoking, which is really the only way we can damage them.

70˚C or 158˚F is not that high a temperature in the grand scheme of things. Vitamins can handle high temperatures - click here for information on Vitamin C, for instance - as can our fatty acids, polyphenols, phytosterols. In this study, phytosterols were heated for either 50˚C for several weeks or 100˚C for an hour, and the oils "did not show any significant variation in the phytosterol content."

Tara asked in this post: Is there some validity in the point that it is the CHANGES in temperatures that help to destroy our oils? I like to freeze most of my oils, but they need to be brought to room temperature before I can use them. I then refreeze them and thaw them again the next time I use them. Is this more destructive than if I just leave them at room temperature (or slightly below, as my work area is in the basement)?

It's a good question, and yes, there can be some changes in ingredients when they go from being frozen to heated, but there doesn't seem to be so big a difference when it comes to oils, butters, and exotic oils. The changes of concern are when we have to worry about ice crystals ruining something - say veggies or meat - or when we have a lotion that goes from being in my freezing car after a week of snow days into my too warm office. I regularly freeze and thaw my oils without problem.

So can you freeze and thaw then re-freeze your oils? Yes. It's fine. Can you leave your oils at room temperature? Sure. There's no problem there either!

I know the plural of anecdote is not data and I can't just ask you to take my word for the idea that you can freeze and thaw oils without problem, but I can't find any good studies showing that it's okay to do this. You can see what the North Dakota State University has to say about freezing oils (very brief, scroll down a bit). The key problem with freezing anything is the creation of ice crystals by the water in the product. Oils and butters don't contain water, so there's no problem there!

If we can freeze our oils and butters, can we freeze our anhydrous products? In theory, yes. It would depend what product you're freezing. If you want to freeze a bath oil - sure, go ahead. Bath melts? Why not? Your sugar scrub base (without sugar)? Sure! A balm or lotion bar? Why not? And so on. And don't worry about the bottles - when oil freezes it contracts, unlike water, which expands! (Click here for more on water and freezing!)

You cannot freeze products that contain water! Emulsified products are especially fragile when it comes to freezing as are products that might contain water soluble ingredients (like conditioner bars that might have hydrolyzed proteins and panthenol, for instance).

Learn more about oils, butters, exotic oils, and esters in the emollients section of the blog!

Newbie Tuesday: It's time to make lotion

2012-01-24T07:57:00.000-08:00

It's Tuesday! Did your supplies arrive? Are you ready to make a lotion? Do you have your supplies ready? All right! Let's go!

Sorry I didn't have a video ready - it's been hovering around 0˚C in my workshop and the heater only brought it to 9˚C on a good day! I'll try for the next recipe!

Download a PDF of this post here!

BASIC FIRST LOTION RECIPE
HEATED WATER PHASE
69% water

HEATED OIL PHASE
15% oil (sunflower, soy bean, rice bran, or olive oil)
5% shea or mango butter
3% cetyl alcohol
6% emulsifier (BTMS or Polawax)

COOL DOWN PHASE
1% fragrance or essential oil
0.5% to 1% preservative
(This doesn't total 100% because of the difference in preservatives!)

Note: I've changed the emulsifier to be 6% - it should be 5.75% if I'm using Polawax, but I considered that you might be using all kinds of weird and wonderful emulsifiers, and 6% will cover those of you using Polawax, BTMS-50, and e-wax very well. I've reduced the water to 69% to compensate.

Secondary note: Check your preservative's suggested usage rate to ensure you're putting it in the right phase. Most will go into the cool down phase, but some won't! (Click here for the list.)

PREPARING YOUR BRAIN
You can do this! It's not rocket science - it's cosmetic science, which much more awesome and useful in your daily life! You will not pre-suck! (We define this in craft group as saying you suck before you've even started so when you fail, you can say "I told you so", and not lose face. Or saying "I'm not good at this new thing", and you won't be, because it's something new and we're not going to be perfect the first time out!)

Just think...in about an hour, you can say you've made a lotion and have something to show for your hard work and research. (Take a picture of it and send it to me at sjbarclay@telus.net so I can see what you've made! I'm quite excited by all of this!)

PREPARING YOUR SPACE
Ensure that your space is clean and tidy. Make sure all your containers, utensils, and everything else have been cleaned well. (Click here for related link.) Get a bottle (or two) ready for your lotion. (You don't need to clean your bottle. If you bought it from your supplier, then it's assumed to be clean!)

If you're making the recipe I mentioned in the first Newbie Tuesday post, then you'll make about 3 ounces or 90 ml of lotion, which will require a 2 ounce bottle with a little left over or a 4 ounce bottle with some head space at the top.

First, turn on your double boiler apparatus (or turn on the burner on the stove) and get the water in the double boiler warming. I'm not sure of the exact amount of water you should add to your specific double boiler: Add enough that the tops of containers aren't covered by the water and it won't spill into the containers if the water accidentally starts boiling. I generally find that getting the water half way to 3/4 of the way up the side of my Pyrex jug should take me through to the end of the heating and holding phase. You can boil up the water in a kettle or pot before using it in the double boiler, if you like.

Next, get your supplies and equipment ready. You'll be using a scale for all the measuring, so make sure it has a prominent place on the counter top. You need two heat proof containers (Pyrex jugs, for instance) - one for the heated water phase, one for the heated oil phase. And you'll need a spoon for each container because you won't be able to resist having a stir as they heat!

Have your notebook beside you with the recipe printed in quite large font and a pen or pencil at the ready. Writing notes is vital to make sure you know what you did this time and what to do (or not to do) next time!

THE HEAT AND HOLD PHASE
Put your Pyrex jug on the scale. Now weigh out your heated water phase - just the water in this recipe - into your heatproof container.

Weigh your container - hit tare on the scale (zero out the number) so you can get the "before" weight of your heated water phase. (We need this number to know how much water evaporates during the heated water phase so we can compensate for it before we combine the two phases). Now put this container into your double boiler.

Put the second Pyrex jug on the scale. Weigh out everything from the heated oil phase - your oil, butter, emulsifier, cetyl alcohol - into the jug, then put the jug into the double boiler.

I forgot to take a picture of this container on the scale, but this is what your heated oil phase will look like - some oils with the pellets of emulsifier and flakes of cetyl alcohol sinking to the bottom or maybe floating around the top. Depending upon the butter you use, it may or may not be showing as large chunks in the container.

Monitor your containers. Use your thermometer regularly. (If you're using glass containers, try not to let the thermometer hit the floor of the container or you'll be taking its temperature, not your product!)

When the temperature of both phases reaches 70˚C or 158˚F, start your timer for 20 minutes. The containers should heat and hold for 20 minutes at 70˚C or 158˚F. (The temperature might fluctuate and get up as high as 85˚C. That's okay, as long as the temperatures of both containers are over 70˚C and relatively the same when you combine them.)

In the meantime, while you're waiting for the heat and hold phase to come to an end, you can fill up a kettle or another container for heating water and heat some water. You'll add some of this to the heated water phase just before your combine the two to ensure you have a water phase of 70%.

If you haven't written any notes yet, write them now! What oil did you use? Which butter? Did you go a little over the suggested amount for anything? How long did it take for the phases to get to 70˚C? And so on. Also while you're waiting, put away the things you don't need and get out those things you do need like a funnel or plastic bag to get the lotion into the bottle, the bottle, perhaps a label, and definitely your cool down phase ingredients. Check on the water in your double boiler and make sure you have enough so you won't run dry before the 20 minutes is up. Maybe do a little air guitar, or check your e-mail on your smart phone. Twenty minutes isn't that long, but it might feel that way when you're excited to see your lotion finish!

When you've heated and held both phases at 70˚C/158˚F for 20 minutes, remove just the water container from the heat and measure it. How much water did you lose? Add up to the amount you should have had originally. Let's say you measured 500 grams for your container and water phase - if your container now reads 475, add 25 grams from the water you boiled up separately. (It is okay if the water in the kettle is a little hotter than the water phase, as long as it doesn't make the water phase 85˚C or 100˚C while your oil phase is around 70˚C. This is unlikely to happen with so little water and your water phase being over 70˚C, so don't worry!)

Add the oil phase to the water phase and watch the emulsification happen. Isn't it awesome? The way the everything the oil touches turns into milky white without you having to do anything! This is chemical emulsification and it's awesome! (I remember the first time I saw emulsification - I was so excited! I love it when the kids in my craft group see it for the first time - it really is quite awesome!)

This is the part of lotion making where we mix. I like to use my hand mixer on setting 1 or 2 using the beater attachment and mix for a few minutes - maybe 4 minutes or so? Then I set it aside and let it cool down. Put a thermometer in the container and wait a bit. The temperature of the room is important here. If you have an unheated workshop like mine, it can take a really short period of time to cool down - maybe 10 to 15 minutes. If you have a warm room, it might take longer. Some people use an ice bath to cool it down. I guess you could do that if you really wanted it to cool down quickly - I've never tried it because it never seems to take very long to cool in my house!

And yes, it's okay to have a stir with a clean spoon while you're waiting for it to cool down. See how the viscosity changes as the product gets closer to 45˚C. It can take up to three days for a lotion to come to its final viscosity, so don't worry that you are currently seeing something with the consistency of slightly thickened milk!

THE COOL DOWN PHASE
When the product reaches 45˚C or 113˚F, add your cool down ingredients. In this lotion, that would be your fragrance/essential oil and preservative (I use liquid Germall Plus, which goes into the cool down phase. Your preservative may vary. Check before you start making the lotion!) Mix again. Maybe 2 or 3 minutes? Now leave it alone. You're done. We're just waiting for it to get cool enough to bottle.

If you're going to put this in a jar, you can do that right away and let the product cool in the jar. Do not put the lid on the product - we don't want condensation! Cover the jar(s) with a paper towel until cooled.

THE PACKAGING PHASE
If you're putting this into any other kind of bottle, put a clean cloth or paper towel over the top of the container, and let it cool down to where the jug isn't warm to the touch any more (room temperature - around 20˚C or 68˚F). You can try using a funnel to get your product into the bottle, but I prefer to use a piping bag (that you'd use for icing - find them in the cake decorating section of your favourite craft store or Daiso!). Some people suggest using a plastic bag with the corner cut off - for some reason, I can't make this work for me and end up with lotion everywhere.

Put some pressure on the bag, then let it off, then add a bit more, until your container is getting quite full. Bang the container on the table to get rid of the air, then add some more. Keep doing this until you reach a point where you want to try putting the pump into the bottle. Make sure it doesn't overflow because it'll get into the pump mechanisms!

And now you're done! Rejoice! Do a happy dance to celebrate the making of the lotion! You've done it!

The next part of lotion making? Making cute labels. Marching around the house with the bottle in your hand saying, "I made lotion! I made lotion!" E-mailing your friends and family (and tutor - sjbarclay@telus.net) and telling them tales with attached pictures! And generally rejoicing in the fact that you set out to accomplish something and did it! You're walking on sunshine, and don't it feel good? Indeed!

Please write your comments in the section below to inspire others to give it a try! (Can we try to keep all the newbie lotion making comments in this post and keep all the comments in this post about first time lotion making?) Next week's Newbie Tuesday post will be the troubleshooting and sharing part of the process, so please e-mail me (sjbarclay@telus.net) or comment below and let me know how it went for you. I want others to learn from your experiences, but I also need to know if this tutorial was helpful! If you encounter a problem - like a lotion fail, for instance - please write out your recipe and process, letting me know about any changes (for instance, type of oil and butter), so we can trouble shoot it next week! Please send pictures and let me know if it's okay to use your experience and photos in the post next week. (And let me know what screen name you want!)

Congratulations! You did it! Now use it all up very quickly so you have a cheap excuse to make another one!

Points of interest relating to the cold on a very snowy Friday

2012-01-20T11:25:00.000-08:00

I haven't written about it much this week, but apparently I'm living in the "Freezer Valley" now (as opposed to the Fraser Valley - ha ha ha, it's a pun or play on words!). The snow started on Saturday, January 14th, and has continued throughout the week. I've had to cancel four craft groups, and the university, the schools, and my work have been closed since Tuesday! I know it probably doesn't look that bad, but the roads are very dangerous right now - we don't clean them properly, people don't have snow tires, and we don't really know how to snow drive unless we grew up somewhere other than southwestern BC - and we're waiting for the freezing rain to fall.

Updated to add: I'm definitely not going out today or tomorrow or any other day until the roads are safe again! Nothing in my life is THAT important! You know when they warn you that you should be worried about the "other drivers" on the road in weather like this? I am the other driver!

The good thing about this week is that I've managed to get all my paper work done - hooray, it's a post Christmas miracle! - and I've managed to get samples of everything for craft group for the next two months, so I'll have nice, easy to follow shopping lists with examples to show the kids!

The humidity is really low around here right now - about 25%, when it's generally more in the 50% or higher range - which means for the first time in a long time, I have to worry about my hair being too dry rather than trying to keep the frizzies away! Normally, I'd get into my workshop and make myself a nice intense conditioner with coconut oil, but it's -6˚C in there, which is just slightly higher than the outside temperature. (I don't mind the cold, but I do mind freezing! And even the little ceramic heater and the larger radiator don't get it warm enough to avoid muscle spasms!) Instead, I've just heated up some virgin de coconut oil and put it on the ends of my hair. I smell amazing right now - so coconut-y - and my hair will be happy with the extra moisturization! I look like I haven't washed my hair in a week, but it's not like I'm leaving the house any time soon, eh? (A tip for the oily haired amongst us: Don't put this near your scalp or you'll get more oily for a while. Just put the oil on the ends of your hair and the really dry bits!)

Which brings me to the second point of interest for a very snowy Friday. My oils and surfactants are either frozen or around the cloud or titer point. I get e-mails or see comments or read posts on forums about whether or not we should keep our oils in the fridge or freezer and my answer is always a resounding yes! The concern is that we might hurt a fragile oil, and my answer is that there is nothing you might find in an oil that can be damaged by freezing. In fact, you're retarding rancidity and stopping the clock on the shelf life by freezing it!

Let's put this in perspective. You've just purchased some wonderful hemp seed oil with a shelf life of three months. Let's say you're a lucky person like me, and can drive to your supplier and pick it up. Even if the three month shelf life of that oil starts on the day you purchased it (let's say January 20th), your oil will be unusable by April 20th. Time flies when you're trying to find time to get into the workshop, and before you know it, it'll be spring break in March before you find time to formulate something awesome with it. And now that product has a shelf life of one month. If you freeze the oils, you effectively stop the clock on January 20th, so when you make that product in March, it'll be good until at least June! Now that's a big difference!

I always put my more expensive oils into the freezer if I don't use them the week I buy them. Comfrey, calendula, pomegranate, sea buckthorn, hemp seed, and other exotic oils get popped into a freezer bag in the bottle and frozen. When I buy larger amounts of regular oils - things like rice bran, olive, sunflower, and soy bean - I package them into smaller bottles, label them, then get them into the freezer. (Because I make smaller batches of products and I don't sell what I make, I don't go through as much oil as you'd imagine!)

If you've been keeping your oils in the fridge (or my workshop!), bring them back by heating the bottle in warm water - something like a double boiler on low - until the cloudiness disappears. You can do the same with your surfactants - just remember to heat them slowly until they clear up and become more liquidy. (As a note, make sure you have a little plate or metal ring on the bottom of the double boiler so the plastic bottle doesn't warp while you're heating it! It won't get totally ruined, but it will have trouble standing up afterwards!)

Related posts:
Rancidity: A primer
Mechanisms of rancidity.
All the posts on various oils

Essential oil: Rosemary essential oil - anti-inflammatory studies

2012-01-19T07:48:00.000-08:00

Rosemary essential oil is regularly referred to as an anti-inflammatory, but does this claim stand up when we take a look at the science?

"The objective of this study was to evaluate the effects of rosemary essential oil (REO) on experimental models of nociception and inflammation in animals. These data suggest that REO possesses anti-inflammatory and peripheral antinociceptive activity." (1) And this study noted that, "carnosic acid has a strong anti-inflammatory potential". And this study on wound care with rosemary essential oil noted, "Reduced inflammation and enhanced wound contraction, re-epithelialization, regeneration of granulation tissue, angiogenesis and collagen deposition were detected in the treated wounds. Conclusions: Results indicated that the essential oil of Rosmarinus officinalis was the most active in healing diabetic wounds and provide a scientific evidence for the traditional use of this herb in wound treatment. However, further scientific verification is required to confirm and assess the range of wound healing potential of essential oils of Rosemary chemotypes." (2) As a note, this study used "aqueous extract and essential oil" and each was applied to the wounds. The essential oil was found to be more active.

Why does rosemary work in this way? The studies I've seen note that 1,8-cineole and carnosic acid have anti-inflammatory properties. Does it work if we just inhale it? No. We have to actively apply it or inject it (please do not go around injecting yourself with rosemary essential oil, regardless of what the studies say!)

Can we come to the conclusion that rosemary essential oil can behave as an anti-inflammatory? I think we can!

If you want to know more about the mechanisms by which carnosic acid works, look for the paper Carnosic acid and carnosol potently inhibit human 5-lipoxygenase and suppress pro-inflammatory responses of stimulated human polymorphonuclear leukocyte (Biochemical Pharmacology; Jul2008, Vol. 76 Issue 1, p91-97, 7p), where the authors state "Recently, we found that CA [carnosic acid] and CS [carnosol] activate the peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma, implying an anti-inflammatory potential on the level of gene regulation." Or look for the paper entitled Carnosic acid and carnosol, phenolic diterpene compounds of the labiate herbs rosemary and sage, are activators of the human peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma. (Planta Medica (PLANTA MEDICA), 2006 Aug; 72(10): 881-7 (56 ref))

References:
1. Takaki, I., Bersani-Amado, L., Vendruscolo, A., Sartoretto, S., Diniz, S., Bersani-Amado, C., & Cuman, R. (2008). Anti-inflammatory and antinociceptive effects of Rosmarinus officinalis L. essential oil in experimental animal models. Journal Of Medicinal Food, 11(4), 741-746.
2. Healing potential of Rosmarinus officinalis L. on full-thickness excision cutaneous wounds in alloxan-induced-diabetic BALB/c mice. Journal of Ethnopharmacology; Sep2010, Vol. 131 Issue 2, p443-450, 8p

Essential oils: Rosemary essential oils - aromatherapy

2012-01-18T06:15:00.000-08:00

It's interesting how many of the studies I've found compare lavender and rosemary essential oils when it comes to aromatherapy. (A quick recap from this post on lavender and aromatherapy: The studies are showing that inhaling lavender essential oil can decrease anxiety and stress and the expression of same as well as increasing sleep.)

In one study by Diego et al (1988. As noted from p. 292 of the Handbook of Essential Oils), a study was conducted with lavender and rosemary essential oils. Participants inhaled one or the other for three minutes before a math task. Both essential oils were found to affect performance compared with a baseline. Both increased calculating speed, but the lavender increased accuracy. (An increase in speed without an increase in accuracy is kinda pointless! They wondered if the people who inhaled rosemary were "overaroused"!) The rosemary group reported feeling more alert, while the lavender group reported having a less depressed mood. All reported feeling less anxious, more relaxed and more alert, but there was a feeling of general drowsiness for the lavender group.

In another study (see link below), the lavender group saw "a significant decrement in performance of working memory" and a decrease in reaction times. The rosemary group showed enhanced performance for overall quality of memory but an impairment in speed of memory. Both groups reported feeling more content than the control group, but the rosemary group reported feeling more alert than the other two groups. As a note, they mention the whole speed vs. accuracy thing - perhaps a reduction in speed facilitates a higher level of accuracy? (page 32). (Moss, M., Cook, J., Wesnes, K., & Duckett, P. (2003). AROMAS OF ROSEMARY AND LAVENDER ESSENTIAL OILS DIFFERENTIALLY AFFECT COGNITION AND MOOD IN HEALTHY ADULTS. International Journal Of Neuroscience, 113(1), 15. (Click here for the study. I really recommend that you read this. It is simply fascinating and gives all kinds of reasons why aromatherapy works.)

I have looked at a number of other studies, and they are coming up with the same thing. Rosemary makes you more alert, more speedy, but less focused. I just didn't want to overwhelm you with citations!

So this sounds pretty positive...except it sounds like inhaling rosemary might result in some kind of alertness but also some spazziness where you can't control your power? (I feel like this most days!) I don't get the idea of being relaxed but alert - remember, though, I'm all about the hyperness - but it sounds like the use of rosemary in aromatherapy might result in someone feeling a bit more energetic, but not quit as focused. (Like a firehose spraying everywhere! Lots of power and energy, but less control).

Join me tomorrow as we take a look at rosemary essential oil's role as an anti-inflammatory!

If essential oils are so great at being anti-oxidants, why don't we use them more in that capacity?

2012-01-17T06:58:00.000-08:00

Essential oils can be fantastic anti-oxidants, and we do use them in that capacity all the time in cosmetic products. ROE, rosemary essential oil, powdered rosemary extract, green tea extract, and so on - we use all these things to prevent our oils from oxidizing in our products!

Although cinnamon, clove, and rosemary essential oils (to name a few) are good anti-oxidants, there is some dispute as to whether they are better than BHA and BHT. (Özcan, M., & Arslan, D. (2011). Antioxidant effect of essential oils of rosemary, clove and cinnamon on hazelnut and poppy oils. Food Chemistry, 129(1), 171-174, and other studies). Click here for more information on rosemary essential oil as an anti-oxidant.

The other problem with adding essential oils as anti-oxidants is that you have to have the fragrance that comes along with them. This is fine if you like the smell of lavender or sage or rosemary, but what if you hate those fragrances? What if you don't want the possible psychological effects of those essential oils, or what if you're going into the desert and the combination that works best for your shampoo or conditioner bars is almost the same as the combination that works to annoy snakes?

Finally, essential oils need to be respected for their effects - they might make us more or less alert, more or less drowsy, offer us relief from pain, penetrate our skin - which means they might not be the best choice as an anti-oxidant for our products.

Related posts...
Anti-oxidants
Rancidity: A primer
Mechanisms of rancidity

Essential oils: Rosemary essential oil - anti-oxidant and anti-microbial?

2012-01-17T06:43:00.000-08:00

We see claims all the time that rosemary is a good anti-oxidant and anti-microbial, but does it stand up to tests of these assertions? Let's find out!

Rosemary essential oil has been used as an anti-oxidant for quite some time - we can see this in the use of ROE or rosemary oleoresin extract (I think that's what that stands for - I've seen a few interpretations). There are countless studies on this topic, but I'll quote a few here. This one, from the awesomely named journal Meat Science, found that "The effect of the addition of rosemary essential oil on the oxidative stability of frankfurters depended on the level of added essential oil and the characteristic of the frankfurter. The rosemary essential oil successfully inhibited the development of lipid and protein oxidation in IF with that antioxidant effect being more intense at higher concentrations of essential oil." (Read the entire study to see the effects on white pigs, which weren't so great. IF stands for Iberian pigs.) This study concluded that "Strong inhibition of LP [lipid peroxidation] in both systems of induction was especially observed for the essential oil of rosemary." This study, entitled Antioxidant Activities of Rosemary, Sage, and Sumac Extracts and Their Combinations on Stability of Natural Peanut Oil, concluded that "Rosemary extract (except for 3 and 4 h) exhibited the most antioxidant effect compared with other individual extracts." In a study researching if rosemary and sage essential oils could retard rancidity on par with BHT. "Plant essential oils inhibited oxidative deterioration of liver pâtés to a higher extent than BHT did." (Estévez, M., Ramírez, R., Ventanas, S., & Cava, R. (2007). Sage and rosemary essential oils versus BHT for the inhibition of lipid oxidative reactions in liver pâté. LWT - Food Science & Technology, 40(1), 58-65.)

This study found that "rosemary extract had a higher antioxidant activity than blackseed essential oil", which really doesn't tell us much about anything, but I figured I should include all the studies I found instead of cherry picking those which confirmed my position.

It seems that every essential oil is considered antiseptic or anti-microbial, so I always take any claim of this nature with a huge grain of salt. But there are some good studies being conducted on rosemary essential oil and killing bacteria. The conclusions of this study noted: "In the present study, the antimicrobial activity of the essential oils from clove (Syzygium aromaticum (L.) Merr. et Perry) and rosemary (Rosmarinus officinalis L.) was tested alone and in combination...Both essential oils possessed significant antimicrobial effects against all microorganisms tested...The antimicrobial activity of combinations of the two essential oils indicated their additive, synergistic or antagonistic effects against individual microorganism tests." Very interesting!

This study - The Chemical composition, antimicrobial and antioxidative activity of laurel, sage, rosemary, oregano and coriander essential oils - concluded that "The oils showed a high degree of inhibition against all the microorganisms tested. The highest and broadest activity was shown by the oil of oregano, while the oil of sage was the least effective."

And take a look at this study relating to the P. acnes bacteria (the bacteria that causes acne). "Significant changes in morphology and size of P. ACNES were observed by atomic force microscopy (AFM) in response to essential oil treatment...In conclusion, the AFM investigation of morphology and size of P. ACNES treated with rosemary essential oil represents a powerful technique, which can generally be applied to reveal the biological changing mechanisms of bacteria induced by antibacterial agents at the nanometer level." (Yujie, F. (2007). Investigation of Antibacterial Activity of Rosemary Essential Oil against Propionibacterium acnes with Atomic Force Microscopy. Planta Medica, 73(12), 1275-1280.) Now I realize that this study was all about the coolness of the atomic force microscope and not about how rosemary essential oil might be used against acne, but it is interesting to see that when P. acnes encounters rosemary essential oil, it withers and dies, which I think could give us some proof that it is good for acne (although I've been going on the assumption that it's because of the oil fighting properties!).

This study noted, "...basil, rosemary, and sage essential oils did not show antifungal activity against Candida isolates at the tested concentrations." And this study summarized: "The essential oil of R. officinalis showed strong antimicrobial activity against: S. aureus, S. epidermis, P. aeruginosa, E. faecalis, K. pneumonia, and E. coli, moderate effect against S. bruneii, and no effect against C. albicans. It was previously mentioned that the essential oil of R. officinalis exhibit a significant antibacterial activity only against K. pneumoniae and P. aeruginosa, although its activity against C. albicans is lower compared to the essential oils of Thymus sp. and Calamintha sp."

So it looks like rosemary essential oil is pretty good with bacteria, but not so great with yeasts/fungi. How does it work with larger creatures?

Rosemary essential oil "has been shown to be an effective repellent (Hori, 1998; Koschier & Sedy, 2003), fumigant, and contact insecticide against a range of insect and mite species, with particular efficacy against stored product pests..." and it might be an effective because of the "1,8-cineole and α-pinene were determined to be the most toxic constituents to the two-spotted spider mite" (Click here for the entirety of this study.)

So I think it's safe to say that rosemary essential oil has demonstrated anti-oxidant properties. What about the anti-microbial properties? I think the science is showing that rosemary essential oil has anti-bacterial properties but isn't so great for anti-fungal properties.

Join me tomorrow as we take a look at the science behind applying it to our skin or using it as aromatherapy!

Newbie Tuesday: A little more information about lotion making

2012-01-17T06:24:00.000-08:00

Greetings newbies! If you're new to this concept, please click here for last week's post so you can play along! We're getting ready to make a lotion on the 24th, then a body butter, then a cream.

This week ask yourself this question: What is making you nervous when you think about making a lotion?

Are you scared of making a failed lotion? What's the worst thing you think could happen if you fail making a lotion? You'll waste supplies. You'll waste your time. You'll get your hopes up and have them dashed when you see that it's failed. You'll suck and be a bad person. (I don't believe this, but this is the kind of weird thing our brain believes!)

What's the best thing that could happen if you make a lotion and it works? You won't have wasted supplies. You'll be happy that you made a lotion and perhaps do a little dance (that the neighbours may or may not see). You'll post a picture of it on your favourite forum or perhaps tell the keeper of a blog you like to read about it (and send her a photo). How 'bout we focus on that part of the lotion making process!

Yep, you might fail. But that's one of the ways we learn. Keep notes throughout the entire process. Write down what happens in every phase so you can make the product again if it's a success, or avoid everything you did the first time with failures.

Let's take a look at the lotion making process and where people tend to make mistakes so we can avoid them next week! I'm breaking the lotion down into 4 phases - the prep phase, the heat and hold phase, the cool down phase, and the packaging phase.

THE PREP PHASE
This is the time when we get all our supplies and equipment ready for lotion making. Clean the surfaces in your workshop with a good cleaner, and ensure all your containers and stirring implements are clean. I like to use Pyrex jugs in my double boiler, and I tend to use metal spoons I bought from the restaurant supply store to stir. I fold a paper towel and put it near the double boiler so I can have somewhere to rest the spoons, but you can use any sort of spoon rest you like.

Mistakes that can be made:

Not having a clean surface, which could lead to contamination. Fix this by cleaning your surfaces before starting.
Not having your supplies ready. Fix this by buying your supplies in advance and making sure you have space for all your supplies.

A note on cleaning your space: I know a lot of people are worried about not cleaning their spaces well enough for fear of contamination, which can lead to scary things growing in lotion. Clean your space well, but don't obsess about it. I clean my space with alcohol - sprayed - and clean my heating and mixing vessels and utensils. Don't let the dog lick your utensils, wear gloves, put your hair back, and follow general cleanliness rules. This isn't to say we have to be lax about cleaning, just that we don't need to make this is the reason we don't make lotions!

THE HEAT AND HOLD PHASE
Put everything from the heated water phase into the heated water phase container. Weigh your container and write the number down so you can replace the water that evaporates. Put everything in the heated oil phase into the heated oil phase container. Put both containers into a double boiler and watch until it reaches 70˚C. When it reaches 70˚C, start your timer for 20 minutes!

After 20 minutes, remove from the heat, weigh the water container again and replace the evaporated water, then pour the water in the oil phase or the oil into the water phase. Mix!

Mistakes that can be made:

Not heating and holding for 20 minutes at 70˚C. Please do this. I know there are people out there who tell you you don't have to do this. I will tell you to heat and hold because this is the biggest indicator of success or failure when making a lotion. If a lotion doesn't fail because of a poorly written recipe, it fails because the maker didn't heat and hold! (There are exceptions here, but not many!)
Putting the wrong thing in the wrong phase. In this lotion, we put the water in the heated water phase. The oil, butter, cetyl alcohol, and emulsifier go into the heated oil phase. And the preservative and the fragrance/essential oil go into the cool down phase.
Not replacing the water that evaporated during the heat and hold phase. Boil up some water and let it cool down. After the 20 minutes of heating and holding, weigh the water phase again, and add enough to total the original amount. Now add the water to the oil (or the oil to the water) and mix well.

THE COOL DOWN PHASE
After you mix the lotion well (click here for more information on possible mixing techniques), monitor the temperature until it reaches about 45˚C, then add the cool down ingredients. In this case, that would be your preservative and your fragrance/essential oil. Mix again. Leave to cool to room temperature.

You can't really make any major mistakes here, except for adding things to the cool down phase that shouldn't be here and not waiting for it to get to 45˚C. Just watch your preservative - some can cause the lotion to curdle.

PACKAGING
This one's easy. Wait until it reaches room temperature, then put into a jar or bottle. I use a piping bag to get mine into the bottle, but there are loads of ways to do this. The only way to mess this is up is to re-use an old, unclean bottle.

So what is holding you back from making lotions? Let me know! And get ready to make it next weekend! By January 31st, you won't be able to say you've never made a lotion!

The Dish is down?

2012-01-16T12:31:00.000-08:00

Is this Dish forum down? I wasn't sure if it was just me, but it seems like it was down yesterday. Isn't there somewhere we're supposed to go when it's down? I can't remember what that was now! Can anyone update me?

Essential oils: Rosemary essential oil - overview

2012-01-16T06:13:00.000-08:00

I covered rosemary extract and hydrosol almost two years ago, but it's time to take a look at the oil soluble components of the plant, which we find in the essential oil. (I also promised a post on the essential was forthcoming...oops, sorry for taking so long!)

Rosemary essential oil contains the oil soluble parts of the plant, whereas the extract and the hydrosol tend to contain the water soluble parts of the plant. (I say tend, because the hydrosol can contain some of the oil soluble bits). The main volatile oils are a-pinene, b-pinene, borneol, camphor, bornyl acetate, camphene, 1,8-cineole, and limonene. The amounts of these compounds can vary with the region of the world in which the rosemary is grown, the climate, the processing method, and so on. (This is true for all botanical ingredients!) The 1,8-cineole can range from as low as 20% to highs of 40% and the α-pinene can range from 5.4% to 20%.

Rosemary is reported to behave as an anti-oxidant and anti-microbial. It is reported to be good for oily hair and skin, which is one of the main reasons I use it in my products. Considering what we know about limonene - that it's great for degreasing and is used in products as "orange" oil - it isn't surprising that it's good for removing sebum! We know that camphor can offer a sensation of cooling, although rosemary isn't known for that, and we know that 1,8-cineole has been demonstrated to help with inflammation. (We'll be looking at the anti-oxidant and anti-microbial features tomorrow, then the aromatherapy and skin application features the next day!) It's also reported to help with concentration, anxiety, focus, and alertness.

The essential oil is extracted by steam, although you can find some CO2 extractions for cosmetic use. (With steam distillation, about 0.2% to 1.3% of the plant matter becomes the oil.) It is oil soluble, so as with every other essential oil we've covered so far, add it to the cool down phase at no more than 1% or so.

If you want to know more about the cultivation of rosemary for essential oil in South Africa, click here. If you want to see a video about rosemary essential oil distillation, click here (YouTube)

Join me tomorrow as we take a look at the science behind rosemary essential oil by looking at the science behind anti-oxidant and anti-microbial qualities.

Essential oils: Potent snake irritants

2012-01-15T11:00:00.000-08:00

Rosemary is one of a number of essential oils shown to be "potent snake irritants.". "Brown tree snakes exposed to a 2-s burst of aerosol of these oils exhibited prolonged, violent undirected locomotory behavior." (p. 884, Handbook of essential oils : science, technology, and applications / K. Hüsnü Can Baser, Gerhard Buchbauer.). Yep, if you want to annoy or irritate a snake, add 10 grams of these essential oils - cedarwood, cinnamon, sage, juniper berry, lavender, and rosemary - to 1 litre of water and spray it at one. Try this on your next camping holiday in the desert and let us know how it works out.* (Hey, it's not science without confirmation!)

So why am I telling you this? One, because I've just realized that my shampoo and conditioner bars contain three out of the five snake annoying essential oils and I would write that on the label as a selling point if I were to sell my products. And two, I go camping with these bars all the time and I am now counting myself very fortunate that I have not been bitten by a snake!

*Please note: This is a joke. Do the opposite of what I've just said here, which is to not put these essential oils into water and not spray them at snakes. If you do choose to ignore my warning and spray a snake in the face with these essential oils and it demonstrates this "prolonged, violent undirected locomotory behavior", any damage caused to you by a snake is not my responsibility.

If you liked this idea of annoying snakes, I really encourage you to watch this video on the honey badger (Raymond calls it "nature's griefer"), especially the bit about it eating the snake's dinner, then eating the snake, around 2:00 or so. I really need to make a stencil out of this animal. It seems to be the only animal who eats for revenge!

And an aside about deserts because it's just that kind of day...If you live in Canada, our only desert is around Osoyoos, B.C., but you can find snakes to annoy all over the Okanagan area. It's a great place to camp! Haynes Point is an amazing place to stay as you're on a peninsula completely surrounded by water and get your own private beach with every site, but you have about 45 minutes in which to book your site every year, so you're very fortunate to get a spot!

As an aside, why is this area considered a desert when it's -6˚C there today? Because a desert is "a landscape or region that receives an extremely low amount of precipitation". So it's not about the heat, it's about the humidity!

Videos on distilling essential oils

2012-01-15T09:47:00.000-08:00

I watched a few of these videos this morning from Carmel Lavender farm, and I thought they were quite interesting. So I pass the link on to you - Carmel Lavender farm videos on distilling essential oils! (Click link to watch it on YouTube or just click play here.)

Essential oils: Eugenol and the phenylpropenes

2012-01-15T06:17:00.000-08:00

Let's take a moment to look at the compound called eugenol (or 4-allyl-2-methoxyphenol) that we find in clove, cinnamon, allspice, bay, basic, rose, jasmine, and carnation plants and oils. "Eugenol is a phenylpropene, an allyl chain-substituted guaiacol." (From Wikipedia.) It's a polyphenol, meaning it has a phenyl ring (the six sided molecule) and and has a hydroxyl group (the OH and the -ol in the name). It's part of a group of compounds called phenylpropenes, which also include chavicol, estragole, and safrole. These other phenylpropenes are known to be carcinogenic and toxic in various ways, and eugenol can be hepatoxic (toxic to your liver) at higher doses (click here).

As an aside, when you're doing a search for safrole, you'll find a lot of sites about making MDMA or ecstasy as it is apparently a major component of the process.

Eugenol is known to have anti-oxidant properties (Antioxidant activity of eugenol: a structure-activity relationship study, Gülçin İ, Journal Of Medicinal Food; 2011 Sep, p 975) and has shown itself to be a good anesthetic in rats (as per this study). It is used as an anti-inflammatory (click here), anti-oxidant, analgesic, and penetration enhancer in medical products (Eugenol: a natural compound with versatile pharmacological actions. Pramod K, et al. Natural Product Communications;2010 Dec, p 1999). It is showing promise as an anti-microbial - "...eugenol above 200 ppm completely inhibited mold growth" (click here for abstract).

Eugenol can be an allergen and skin irritant. (If you want to know more about this, click here for a really long PDF on eugenol). Think carefully about using eugenol containing essential oils in products for someone with sensitive or allergic skin.

Pork scratchings - make your own!

2012-01-14T09:46:00.000-08:00

I love making crab rangoon, but after I made it for New Year's Eve, I realized I'd be wasting at least half a package of won ton skins if I didn't make something like won ton soup by the expiry date! I couldn't let that happen, so off we go to Superstore. Alas! They are out of ground pork. But we realized something very important...we could get some pork shoulder, grind it ourselves, and make some ground pork. And some sausages - we haven't had Cumberland type sausages for a while, and I make a wonderful version, so we could use it for that, too. So we bought $16 worth of bone in pork shoulder and took it home. (My package of won ton skins were about $1.67 so I saved some serious money by not letting half a package go to waste!)

The next day, we spent an hour or so cutting up the meat and getting it ready to grind. I put it through my Kitchenaid grinder, and made myself some lovely ground pork. Coarse, then coarse again for sausages; coarse, then fine for ground pork for my won ton soup. We eventually got 5 pounds of ground pork that we used for sausages, won ton soup, my mom's great sausage and rice patties, with some left over for the freezer.

If you're a carnivore like me and you have a Kitchenaid, buy the grinder attachment! You will not regret it! Make yourself some hamburgers that taste like real meat with 1/3 each of chuck, brisket, and short rib! I am not being paid by anyone to say this...I love my grinder attachment. I use it at least once a week and we get way better ground meat because of it!

But here's the part of the story I feel compelled to share with you...we made our own pork scratchings! I didn't think it would be possible, but we did and they were amazing! Check out how to do this on the blog, Just Cook It. (Make sure you read parts one and two - look just below the article for the link to the second part).

We followed the instructions on that blog but we made two small changes. We put the trays in the fridge and left them for 72 hours and they came out great. And only salt them the once. We salted the pork scratchings the first day, then flipped them over on day two and salted them, then salted one tray just before cooking (but left the other unsalted as the control group). The three-salted tray was very very salty but the two salted-tray was still salty. I love salt, but I think that the one salting would have been adequate with maybe a little salt near the end of the cooking process. (To establish my salt-cred: The passenger seat of my car is generally covered in a light sprinkling of salt because I need to have salt when I'm eating anything with eggs or potatoes and I tend to eat in my car quite often.) We did not put pepper on them as I hate black pepper.

If you have ever eaten pork scratchings - we have something like them in Canada called pork rinds, but they are puffy and you don't get the little bit of fat like you would from a package of British ones - I really encourage you to try this. It costs very little to get the pork fat, and they are really incredible!

Please do not comment that you'd like to make this but it's so high in fat or comment on the calorie count. It's very boring to read and we all know that something made from fat isn't a low calorie food. They are permitted on Atkins, apparently.

Essential oil: White camphor essential oil - the science

2012-01-13T06:06:00.000-08:00

White camphor essential oil contains limonene, 1,8-cineole, camphor, linalool, piperitone, eugenol and safrole, as primary ingredients. (At what levels you can find those compounds? I'm not sure as it's been really hard to find information! Some will contain no camphor and will be called ho-wood essential oil. Others have more!) I've found this document - which doesn't note the eugenol at all - and this book, which emphasizes the camphor. (Note that I own the book, but I can't link to a book at my house!) I'm going to go with the idea that white camphor essential oil contains camphor, linalool, safrole, and 1,8-cineole for the purposes of this post.

It's claimed to be an analgesic, anti-depressant, anti-inflammatory, antiseptic, diuretic, rubefacient, and insecticide.

We know that 1,8-cineole can be an anti-inflammatory and insect repellant, but it hasn't been proved to be an antiseptic. We know that linalool is an insecticide (killing mites) and an anti-inflammatory. We know that camphor is used for a variety of different applications, such as embalming, behaving as a plasticizer in nail polish, and repelling moths. It offers a sensation of coolness, which is why I tend to use it in combination with menthol and eucalyptus in my foot care products.

What's a rubefacient? From Wikipedia: "...is a substance for topical application that produces redness of the skin e.g. by causing dilation of the capillaries and an increase in blood circulation." Camphor has been shown to have this ability. As well, it's a thermoreceptor agonist, so when you put it in something like a muscle pain rub, you'll see some reddening of the skin and a feeling of coolness.

So does it stand up to the claims? I couldn't find anything about it being a diuretic or an anti-depressant, but the evidence is there for the claims of it being an anti-inflammatory, rubefacient, insect repellant, and insecticide. Since making an insect repellant requires claims and I don't make claims I can't test, I can't say anything about using it in that capacity. I like to use camphor in my foot care products - click here for some ideas - and in anhydrous products for making me feel better during a cold or when I've hurt my muscles - click here for some ideas. (And please note I'm not making claims about these products!)

If you wish to use white camphor essential oil in your products, I'd suggest using it at 1% or less in the cool down phase of your product. As with every essential oil, it's oil soluble, so you can't add it to a water soluble product without using an emulsifier or a solubilizer, like polysorbate 20.

Join me tomorrow for more fun with essential oils!

Comment moderation

2012-01-12T13:17:00.001-08:00

I'm afraid that comments on all posts will have to undergo moderation until the spammer who is going through every post on my blog is finished. I promise the only comments to be deleted will be those spam comments. Sorry about this, but it has to be done until the spammer is finished bothering us or until Blogger's spam detection picks up on it!

It's over! We've had two spam free days, so I hope that purveyor of on-line medications leaves us alone! Back to unmoderated comments!

Newbie Tuesday - update

2012-01-12T06:22:00.000-08:00

If you want to play along with Newbie Tuesday and make a lotion on the 24th, here are a few substitutions you can make if your supplies aren't in on time...

Oil - Yes, you can get oils from the grocery store! (Click here for that post.)

Butter - You can generally get cocoa butter at the health food store or some ethnic stores. You can definitely get coconut oil at Indian grocery stores.

Humectant - Although we're not using a humectant for these recipes (yet!), you can get glycerin from the drug store or use honey (if you are preserving the product well) in a pinch!

Everything else, you will have to get from your local supplier.

If you look to your right, you'll see my frequently asked questions, and at the bottom, you'll see a list of suppliers for your continent! Click on those (and don't forget to read the comments, as the best information is there!) and you'll find someone near you!

Have fun formulating! See you next week!

Essential oils: White camphor or camphor white essential oil

2012-01-11T07:19:00.000-08:00

The camphor essential oil we find at our suppliers tends to be white camphor or camphor white essential oil (Cinnamomum camphora). It's steam distilled then rectified to remove the poisonous elements. It contains limonene, 1,8-cineole, camphor, linalool, piperitone, eugenol and safrole.

Piperitone is a monoterpene ketone with a minty odour. Eugenol is a phenylpropene that can be found in dill, star anise, wormwood, clove, nutmeg, cinnamon, basil, and bay leaf, to name a few plants. It is used as an anti-oxidant for rubber, and can be hepatoxic (toxic to our livers at certain doses - click here for a case study).

The star of the white camphor essential oil is camphor, a compound we discussed yesterday. (And yes, obvious cat is obvious!) It's claimed to be an analgesic, anti-depressant, anti-inflammatory, antiseptic, diuretic, rubefacient, and insecticide. We'll be looking at those claims tomorrow. Be aware that camphor is considered to be hepatoxic as well - click here for the information on that - and a possible contact irritant.

There are two other essential oils - brown (80% safrole content) and yellow (10 to 20% safrole contect) and both are considered toxic, so you're not likely to see these on our suppliers' shelves. (One of the references I've used, click here.)

As an aside, I couldn't find white camphor or camphor white essential oil at any of my favourite American retailers or at Of a Simple Nature (UK), but I found it at four Canadian retailers - Voyageur, Aquarius, Creations from Eden, and NDA - and the American version of NDA. Fresholi has an essential oil from the Cinnamonum camphora tree they call ho leaf essential oil, but it has no camphor. NDA also has camphor powder. Is there some reason the American companies aren't carrying it?

Join me as we take a look at white camphor (I'm calling it that now...) essential oil tomorrow and the claims made about it!

Newbie Tuesday: Let's make a lotion!

2012-01-10T06:29:00.000-08:00

I'm starting this series I'm calling Newbie Tuesday! It's time to stop reading and get into your workshop and make something awesome! Think of it as a lotion-along...maybe not. I'm not happy with that compound word. I'll find something else for future posts.

Here's how I think this is going to work. This week we'll choose a basic recipe and assemble our ingredients and supplies. To give those of you who have to send away for supplies more time, we'll spend next Tuesday (January 17th) taking a closer look at the process of making the lotion. I'll post the visual tutorial for making the lotion on Tuesday, January 24th - if I have time, I might try making a little video of it, although I'm not sure how gripping the 20 minutes of heating and holding will be (ha ha ha!). We can review how you did on January 31st, celebrating the successes and troubleshooting the epic fails! We'll make 100 grams of lotion - this is enough to make something we can use for a while if it's great and not too much to throw out if it isn't. And just think, by the end of January, you'll be able to say that you finally made a lotion!

We'll continue this into February when we'll make a body butter (the 7th) and a cream (21st). So buy enough supplies for each of those projects!

Does that time frame give everyone enough time to order and receive supplies and find a two hour window to make a lotion? Let me know! And you don't need to be a newbie to play along!

Which recipe should we choose? I think we should go with a 70% water recipe that can be used as a body, hand, or foot lotion. (Click here to see the original post and why we're using each ingredient!) We'll go with a body butter recipe for the 7th - click here for that recipe - and modify it into a cream by adding stearic acid February 21st - click here for that recipe. We'll be making 100 grams of each product.

EQUIPMENT YOU'LL NEED

a scale that can weigh 1 gram (available at supply stores or places like London Drugs in the culinary aisle)
2 heat proof containers - one for your oil phase, one for your water phase - Pyrex jugs are good for this purpose, and a 2 - two cup Pyrex jugs would be ideal.
a double boiler (make one up on the stove with a pot with warm water)
a thermometer (a candy thermometer works really well here)
spoons (metal ones...)
mixer (with beater attachments) or a stick blender
a notebook and pen/pencil. Print out the lotion recipe and make extensive notes while you craft!

BASIC FIRST LOTION RECIPE
70% water
15% oil (sunflower, soy bean, rice bran, or olive oil)
5% shea or mango butter
3% cetyl alcohol
5% emulsifier (BTMS or Polawax)
1% fragrance or essential oil
0.5% to 1% preservative
(This doesn't total 100% because of the difference in preservatives!)

SUPPLIES YOU'LL NEED

an oil - at least 100 grams. I'm going to suggest a low cost oil like olive, sunflower, rice bran, or soybean oil. If I had my way, we'd all be using soybean oil, but I know some of you will to use what they have in the workshop. Feel free to get something from the grocery store instead of sending away for something. (I'd get two oils - one that's described as less greasy and one that's normal greasiness).
a butter - at least 100 grams, although again, get more if you think you might like to make a whipped butter, lotion bar, or other anhydrous product. I'm going to suggest either shea butter (greasier) or mango butter (less greasy). Remember that most homemade lotions are less greasy in general than storebought lotions and the point of this is to learn about lotions!
an emulsifier - at least 50 grams. I'm going to suggest one of two emulsifiers - Polawax (not e-wax, but actual Polawax as it's less faily than e-wax and it's the same around the world) or Incroquat BTMS-50. If you can't get either of these for whatever reason, then use something else, but this series will be tailored to these emulsifiers.
cetyl alcohol - at least 25 grams. Yes, this is a tiny amount, but it really does make a difference to the product.
stearic acid - at least 25 grams. Again, it's a tiny amount, but you don't turn a body butter into a cream without it!
a preservative. I like liquid Germall Plus, but you can choose whichever one you want with two things in mind - preservatives are never optional, and Optiphen can curdle a lotion if you don't follow the procedure just right!
distilled water - it's about $2 for 4 litres where I live (a gallon), and you don't want to be using tap water.
a container of some kind - get a nice bottle to house your lotion. Something pretty. Oh, go on. Splurge and buy that really lovely frosted one for $1.50! I'd get a pump bottle for the lotion and cream, and a jar for the body butter!

If you really want to read more about lotions, click here for the start of the Creating Products series I wrote a few months ago. But it really is time to stop reading and get into the workshop!

Join me next week to review the process of making a lotion!

Essential oils: Camphor

2012-01-09T07:29:00.000-08:00

Camphor is a component in essential oils (for instance, lavender can have a camphorous odour in some species). It's used a lot in the food industry to flavour sweets and cough products, and it's used in embalming, fireworks, and rust prevention. Solid camphor balls are used as a moth repellant.

In cosmetics, it's considered a plasticizer - it's used in nail polish to allow it to dry well but remain flexible - and it's added to topical pain relieving products as it is a vasodilatory substance (meaning it "refers to the widening of blood vessels"), and it offers that sensation of cooling we've been reading about with menthol and 1,8-cineole. It's often found in combination with peppermint/menthol and eucalyptus in cold treatment products, but it is not considered a cough suppressant.

Please note: There is camphor (the ketone) and camphor (the essential oil). The information above is about the ketone found in essential oils. I'll put the words "essential oil" after camphor when I'm talking about that.

Camphor is found in all manner of plants, including lavender, sage, Mexican oregon, rosemary, sweet basil, and cinnamon, to name a few.

Be careful with this essential oil! The FDA allows it at a maximum of 11% because it is poisonous. For a child, eating 2 grams could be toxic and 4 grams could be fatal! (Reference: Wikipedia, Medscape news.)

As an aside, I am so sick and tired of people telling me that propylene glycol is bad for you because it can be found anti-freeze. Being in anti-freeze doesn't make something toxic! Do you think you should avoid camphor because it's used to make dead people look nice before the funeral, repel moths, make things explode? No. Don't make something bad by association. (Although having said that, the glycols are in anti-freeze because it lowers the freezing temperature of water, which is a good thing!) Upon further thought, though, this argument isn't a great one because camphor is, in fact, toxic at relatively low doses...

Join me tomorrow for more fun with camphor - this time, the essential oil!

Essential oils: Lavender and tea tree oil and gynecomastia

2012-01-08T09:38:00.000-08:00

Can lavender essential oil cause boys to grow breasts (a condition called gynecomastia)? You probably heard about this a few years ago, so let's take a look at the case study (which you can find at the New England Journal of Medicine, February 2007 issue). A quick summary: This was a case study of three boys who had been exposed to lavender essential oil through body care products.

The conclusions of the case study...

Our in vitro studies confirm that lavender oil and tea tree oil possess weak estrogenic and antiandrogenic activities that may contribute to an imbalance in estrogen and androgen pathway signaling. Estrogenic or antiandrogenic activities have been reported for other essential oils and some of their monoterpene constituents. On the basis of the three case reports and the in vitro studies, we suspect that repeated topical application of over-the-counter products containing lavender oil or tea tree oil was the cause of gynecomastia in the three patients.

This report raises an issue of concern, since lavender oil and tea tree oil are sold over the counter in their “pure” form and are present in an increasing number of commercial products, including shampoos, hair gels, soaps, and body lotions. Whether the oils elicit similar endocrine-disrupting effects in prepubertal girls, adolescent girls, or women is unknown. Since gynecomastia is labeled idiopathic in approximately 10% of men, one might speculate that unidentified exogenous sources of endocrine-disrupting chemicals may contribute to the onset or progression of the condition, or both, in such patients. The results of our in vitro studies indicate a dose–response relationship in the estrogenic and antiandrogenic activities of lavender oil and tea tree oil, suggesting that susceptibility to gynecomastia or other manifestations of endocrine disruption may require exposure to a threshold dose of these oils. The threshold might depend on several undefined factors, including the concentration of the oil in a product; the duration, frequency, and quantity of use of the product; and the genetic characteristics of persons exposed. Until epidemiologic studies are performed to determine the prevalence of gynecomastia associated with exposure to lavender oil and tea tree oil, we suggest that the medical community should be aware of the possibility of endocrine disruption and should caution patients about repeated exposure to any products containing these oils.

Should you worry about whether not to use lavender and/or tea tree oil in your products? If you're basing your decision solely on this case study, I will refer you to the letters section of the Journal for the response from a small portion of the scientific community and encourage you to do a much more thorough job of researching this topic than I have done here. If you're just asking the question, I think this reminds us that we need to be really aware that essential oils aren't just about pretty fragrances but can have a physical effect on us. Essential oils are something most people would consider natural and they show up in all kinds of products, and it reminds us that we need to be very aware of what we're putting in our products regardless of the ingredient's origin.

An additional quick note thanks to a comment made by the Tony Larkman of the Australian Tea Tree Industry Association (www.attia.org.au)...I guess I have to make it clear that I don't think this was a good study and I don't think the conclusions were sound. People are complex creatures, and I don't think it's possible to come to the conclusion that these essential oils were the cause of the boys' physical issues with such little information. I thought my opinion would have been obvious from the context, but apparently I need to spell things out these days or I get nasty comments from people with financial interest in the ingredient. (If you want to dispute something I've written, here are some suggestions for how to do it and be nice about it.)

I suspect Tony's new to the blog - he probably does a regular search for mean things written about tea tree oil and found what he thought was a slam of his product, instead of being a regular reader who would know about my perspective on science and how I write. He probably didn't bother to scroll back to December 3 to 6th to see all the nice things I've said about tea tree oil and all my suggestions for ways we could use his essential oil in our products. I'm guessing he probably didn't bother to familiarize himself with my blog before making a comment.

His comment (which you can read in the comment section of this post): "It is intensely frustrating for the tea tree industry that this statement is still being promulgated in articles such as these without any evidence to back up the statement except poor science."

A final thought...Does what he has written with his link and company information constitute advertising on my site? He could have written his opinion without putting that information in his comment. It wasn't essential to the post. What do you think?

And thus endeth the rant...

Join me tomorrow as we take a look at another essential oil!

Troubleshooting an epic lotion fail!

2012-01-08T06:50:00.000-08:00

I was surfing around various forums yesterday morning while taking a break from the annoyance that was putting the tutorial for the cosmetic bag together (I really hate Microsoft products! Stop thinking for me!!!), and the number one question I saw over and over again was this - why did my lotion fail? Let's take a look at all the questions we can ask ourselves about our lotion fails!

Quick chemistry reminder: Lotions are formed through chemical, mechanical, and heat emulsification, so most of our questions will revolve around the issue of emulsification.

Review your recipe. Write down the size of the oil phase, the water phase, and the cool down phase. It should add up to 100%. If it doesn't, take a look at what could be reduced - normally the water phase.

If it is written in volume - tablespoons, teaspoons, cups, and so on - don't make this recipe. It's simply not accurate enough so you can replicate it next time. You want a recipe written in weight so you can be sure you have the same measurements every single time. A tablespoon of emulsifier could be short one time and over the next. Accuracy is important!

Related posts:
How do I know if it's a good recipe?
Why do we weigh our ingredients?
How to convert from percentages to weight?
How to convert from weight to percentages?

How much emulsifier did you use? Every emulsifier has a suggested usage rate, and I recommend using the higher level of emulsifier if you're new to using it. For Polawax - and Polawax only - there's a 25% oil phase rule of thumb for its usage. If you have 20% oils, you will use 5% emulsifier (multiply your oil percentage by 0.25 to get your amount!) If you're using something like BTMS-50, you don't have to use the 25% oil phase amount, but it isn't a bad to start. I know with something like Ritamulse, I used 8% every time because I couldn't find a suggested usage rate from anyone, but I kept seeing this amount in the sample recipes from the company (never 7%, never 9%, always 8% regardless of the oil phase...weird!)

As an aside, some emulsifiers don't play well with other ingredients. Check to ensure your emulsifier can play well with cationic or positively charged ingredients, different preservatives, and extracts. (Using Optiphen as a preservative can cause some problems with curdled lotions!)

Did you actually use an emulsifier? If you used beeswax as the emulsifier in your product, you won't get emulsification.

Related post: Beeswax is not an emulsifier.

What was your process? Did you heat and hold both the heated water phase and heated oil phase at 70˚C/158F for 20 minutes? If you didn't, then go back and try the recipe again and do that. The majority of fails I read about this morning were from people who didn't heat and hold.

Why do we heat and hold?

Why do we heat and hold in two phases?

Does heating and holding ruin my oils?

What if I go over 70˚C while heating and holding?

How do I compensate for evaporation after heating and holding?

I'm really confused about why heating and holding is a controversial subject. I saw the owner of a forum tell the readers that we were wasting our precious "life minutes" heating and holding and that it ruins the oils. It does not ruin oils and we aren't wasting time heating and holding as it's an important part of the process for the chemistry of emulsification - read this post if you're interested in learning more - as well as the preservation of the product.

Did you add the water to the oil phase or the oil to the water phase? Turns out that really doesn't matter much for us homecrafters!

Did you wait until the product cooled down to 45˚C/113˚F before adding the cool down phase? When I made a lotion with Ritamulse, I added my preservatives and cool down phase at 50˚C (which is fine for Polawax) and it curdled almost immediately! Eek! A kilogram of lotion ruined!

Related post: Cool down phase

How did you mix the two phases together? Did you use a stick blender, a mixer, a homogenizer, and so on? How long did you mix it after combining? How long did you mix it after cool down?

Related posts:
Questions about mixing.
Combining the two phases: Mixing

Ask yourself these questions and I think you'll find the answer to why your lotion failed. Fails are normal and part of the process. I know it feels you're wasting supplies, but think of how much you've learned from just one separated lotion! You've learned about emulsifiers, heating and holding, measuring by weight, choosing a good recipe, mixing, and everything else. It's worth the frustration and garbaged supplies if you can make an awesome lotion next time!

Related posts for this post:
The chemistry behind why lotions fail!
An example of lotion fail!

To those of you writing to me about making natural products...

2012-01-07T09:46:00.000-08:00

I feel as if I have to post this again because I'm getting a number of people writing to me asking about natural products, sending me links to the EWG or Skin Deep databases, and I feel like I need to clarify my position again, so I'm reposting this older post. I really encourage you to read the discussion when I posted this originally....And I really encourage you to read this post I wrote on "Are the ingredients I suggest on the blog safe", where I pose the question, "Would I use an ingredient on my mom, my husband, my dog, and the kids in my youth program if they weren't safe?"

I am regularly asked how to make natural products and I guess I'm having trouble figuring out what that means, so I turn to you, my lovely readers, to help me define what exactly you mean so I can write up some natural product recipes!

When I think of natural ingredients, I think of those that I consider minimally processed. All of our botanical or natural ingredients have to be processed in some way so we can use them in our products. Bees and honey have to be removed from beeswax, olives have to be pressed, extracts have to be dried and ground into powder. So they aren't truly as nature intended as they have been interfered with in some way before we get them, hence the concept of being minimally processed.

When I look at things advertised as natural emulsifiers - for instance, Ritamulse (aka Natramulse, ECO mulse) - they don't strike me as natural (INCI: Glyceryl Stearate (and) Cetearyl Alcohol (and) Sodium Stearoyl Lactylate). The original source might have been coconuts, but we don't just scoop out some cetearyl alcohol along with the coconut milk; it has to be processed in some way to produce the various fatty acids, fatty alcohols, and so on.

I get similarly confused when I see surfactants listed as "derived from coconuts" or "derived from almonds" or "derived from sunflowers" because most, if not all, of our surfactants are derived from some kind of oils found in fruits, seeds, and so on. I see something like decyl glucoside being called natural, but I don't understand how the process to turn this sugar based surfactant is different than making something like disodium laureth sulfosuccinate (DLS mild), which is derived from coconut or palm oils.

When I think of a natural product, I think of lotion bars, whipped butters, lip balms, and body oils - in other words, I think of anhydrous products, and I've already covered those in great detail in both the posts and the e-book. I honestly can't see how anything containing a surfactant, a cationic quat, an emulsifier, a preservative, and so on could be considered natural. I think we could make a mostly natural lotion (let's say about 92% if we ignore the emulsifier, thickener, preservative, and fragrance oil) but I can't see how it is possible to make a 100% natural lotion!

I guess this is where I'm getting confused. I can't understand how something that has been modified in a manufacturer's lab - an emulsifier or surfactant - can be considered natural in the way beeswax or glacial clay could be considered natural. So I turn to you for some assistance here.

When you are asking for recipes for a natural product, what do you mean? What ingredients do you consider natural? And why are some considered natural and some aren't?

An addendum to this post specifically to the people who have been writing to me asking for natural products - can you please e-mail me or comment as to what you mean by natural? I'm happy to do formulate some recipes, but I need to know what you are defining as natural!

Related posts:
How do you know your ingredients are safe?
Defining your products by what's NOT in it.
Why am I perceived at hating "all natural" things?
Much maligned ingredients!
What does "coconut derived" mean?
I'm chemical free!
Celebrating 2011 as the International Year of Chemistry
How to research ingredients (and the Trifecta of Argh!)

Tutorial: Sewing a cosmetic bag

2012-01-07T08:37:00.000-08:00

I'm really enjoying sewing cosmetic bags! I made a ton of them over the holidays as presents for the older kids in our youth programs who do all the volunteering for us (setting up, cleaning up, enforcing the rules, running games, and so on), so I thought it was apt to share this pattern with you. (Apt because you support these programs so well and because this is a blog about making cosmetics!)

I've tried many different cosmetic bag patterns, and there's always something I don't like about them. So I figured out the basics of how the bag should work - ratios between the sides, bottom, and zipper part as well as how the bag should be assembled - and made up my own pattern. Click here for the tutorial for my favourite cosmetic bag! I'm afraid the pattern was too big to get onto even a legal sized sheet of paper - it was just a titch too wide - but I hope I've given you enough information to create your own, even for beginners!

I encourage you to spend the extra time to make the lining if you want it to be a sturdier bag or a bag that will stand up to going camping, travelling, or just going to and from the gym. And feel free to add stiffener - I like Fuse a Shade - to make it sturdier still.

If you like the pattern, there's this stuff I bought from the quilting store to make fabric patterns. It's a little stiffer and sturdier than paper and it's stiffer than using something like broadcloth. I've seen it referred to as non-woven, non-iron on interfacing, but the one I have has little red dots on it so you can make sure you follow the lines properly! I definitely recommend that stuff!

These bags are suitable for boys - just make them in some kind of manly or plain fabric. Here's one I made for one of the guys who likes Dungeons & Dragons. (I made a brown version as well!)

Please share what you've made with me by e-mailing pictures to sjbarclay@telus.net! I love to see what you've made!

Essential oils: Lavender - the science about applying it to our skin or ingesting it

2012-01-06T06:25:00.000-08:00

Lavender essential oil isn't just for aromatherapy - we can put it in our products or ingest it, so let's take a look at the science behind those claims!

RELIEVES PAIN OR HELPS WITH HEALING (APPLICATION)

In this study of 120 women who had undergone episiotomies in the hospital, 25 of the 60 whose wounds were treated with lavender essential oil reported no pain, versus 17 out of 60 who had povidone-iodine. The lavender group also reported less redness.

In this study, women were asked to bathe with lavender oil to help with perineal pain after childbirth. "Analysis of daily discomfort scores revealed no statistically significant difference between groups It cannot be concluded that current practice results m a reduction of postnatal perineal discomfort at the dilution levels used. However, there is some consistency m results between the 3rd and 5th days, with those women using lavender oil as a bath additive recording lower mean discomfort scores This is a time when the mother usually fmds herself discharged home and perineal discomfort is high."

In a study entitled, "Topical Use of Lavender, Clary Sage, and Rose Oils Reduces Dysmenorrhea in College Students", the authors studied women at School of Nursing at Wonkwang Public Health College in Iksan, Korea. "The authors conclude that aromatherapy with topically applied lavender, clary sage, and rose oils is effective in reducing the severity of menstrual cramps and dysmenorrhea." The problem is that these oils were combined, so we're not really sure if one was more effective than another. In the review, there are problems noted about the way this study was conducted - for instance, "The limitations of the study are the placebo, which was not a true placebo in that it did not match the treatment product exactly, particularly in odor." The reviewer concludes that, "...it indicates that lower abdominal massage in combination with essential oils of lavender, clary sage, and rose may be a simple, safe, and low cost method to alleviate menstrual cramps." (Han S, Hur M, Buckle J, Choi J, Lee M. Effect of aromatherapy on symptoms of dysmenorrhea in college students: a randomized placebo-controlled trial. J Altern Complement Med. 2006;12(6):535-541.)

I could spend weeks just reviewing studies on lavender essential oil and pain, so for now I would say the jury might still be out or "more investigation is required" to say that lavender essential oil applied topically reduces pain.

TREATING BURNS & SUNBURNS (APPLICATION)

I've searched my university library, EBSCOhost, Google scholar, and my textbooks, and the only thing I could find on using lavender essential oil on burns or sunburns was in this article from Alive magazine without any mention of the science of why this might be. So I can't call this confirmed. (If you have any studies on this, please pass them on to me at sjbarclay@telus.net!)

ANTI-MICROBIAL (APPLICATION)

In this study on treating MRSA, the researchers tested four strains of lavender and found that..."At any single dose, the extent of inhibition was very similar irrespective of the chemical composition of the oils or the strain of S. aureus used. Several binary combinations of the oils were tested, and the results showed that the necrodane-rich L. luisieri oil interacted synergistically with L. stoechas (high in 1,8-cineole, fenchone, and camphor) and L. langustifolia (rich in linalool and linalyl acetate) to produce larger inhibition zones than those produced using each oil individually." The conclusion was that "The results suggest that combinations of lavender oils should be investigated further for possible use in antibacterial products."

Now remember, this phrase generally means "we found something, but there isn't a lot to report" or "we didn't find what we wanted, and there's not a lot to report", so read this to mean that they found something interesting but haven't achieved the results to say that this works!

In this study on a number of different essential oils, there wasn't a strong finding that lavender was effective at preventing bacterial growth. "In the liquid medium, lavender oil permitted a small growth after 6 h..." (I really encourage you to read this study! It's very interesting!)

RELIEVES ANXIETY (INGESTING)

In the study, "Effects of orally administered lavender essential oil on responses to anxiety-provoking film clips" (I love that title!) "Orally administered lavender capsules (placebo, 100, 200 µl) were tested in a randomised between-subjects (n = 97) double-blind study. Film clips were used to elicit anxiety." The conclusions? "These findings suggest that lavender has anxiolytic effects in humans under conditions of low anxiety, but these effects may not extend to conditions of high anxiety." In other words, these lavender tablets were effective, but might not be for high anxiety. Which isn't a bad thing, because most of the time what we're experiencing is low anxiety anyway. Can't sleep, worried about something, traffic is getting you frustrated, and so on. (I'm guessing this would be a job for something like lavender tea!)

In this review of using lavender essential oil (specifically Silexen capsules) with patients with anxiety disorders, the researcher concluded that "The anxiolytic effect of lavender was clinically detectable after 2 weeks of treatment and was statistically significant at week 4 and all later visits " and "The lavender treatment had a significant beneficial influence on the patients’ duration and quality of sleep and reduced their daytime tiredness."

I could quote a number of studies that support these two, but I think we're establishing that ingesting lavender can benefit sleep and anxiety.

Join me tomorrow to take a look at those reports that lavender essential oil can cause breast growth in young boys! You know that's going to be interesting!

Essential oils: Lavender - the science about the aromatherapy

2012-01-05T05:55:00.000-08:00

Lavender essential oil is reported to have many awesome benefits, but the main ones appear to be reducing anxiety, reducing pain, and helping with sleep. So let's take a look at some of the science behind the aromatherapy claims about lavender. (As a note, unless otherwise indicated, we're dealing with Lavandula angustifolia, English or French lavender.)

In this study, 30 volunteers were divided into two groups. Both inhaled oxygen through a mask for 5 minutes before being poked with needles. One group had masks with two drops of 2% lavender essential oil diluted in jojoba oil and the other didn't. The conclusion was that lavender essential oil provided a significant decrease in stress levels and pain levels are reported by the volunteers.

For alternate view, take a look at this study that showed that post-operative patients didn't report feeling less pain when inhaling lavender oil!

In a study on anxiety and aromatherapy during exams, "the use of lavender and rosemary essential oil sachets reduced test-taking stress in graduate nursing students as evidenced by lower scores on test anxiety measure, personal statements, and pulse rates." (McCaffrey R ; Thomas DJ ; Kinzelman AO, Holistic Nursing Practice (HOLISTIC NURS PRACT), 2009 Mar-Apr; 23(2): 88-93 (17 ref)) In another study on anxiety and aromatherapy on nurses, "The sample of the study was composed of 50 students who constituted the study group and 45 students who were the controls. The study group was exposed to lavender inhalation. The mean anxiety score of the study group (42.76 - 12.48) was lower than that of the control group (51.51 - 12.21), and the difference between the groups was statistically significant (p = .002). This study shows that aroma inhalation decreases examination anxiety." (Kutlu AK ; Yilmaz E ; Cecen D, Teaching & Learning in Nursing (TEACH LEARN NURS), 2008 Oct; 3(4): 125-30 (39 ref))

In this study on dementia patients and lavender, the researchers concluded that aromatherapy wasn't effective for reducing agitation in severely demented patients because "There is significant evidence in the neurologic and neuropsychologic literature that persons with dementia have impaired olfactory abilities...this study found no support for the use of a purely olfactory form of aromatherapy to decrease agitation in severely demented patients." The writer of this letter to the editor about a study they conducted argues that "the present study shows lavender aroma therapy to be useful in treating such patients apart from neuroleptics."

In experiments with rats, one study found that "...these experiments suggest that lavender oil does have anxiolytic effects in the open field, but that a sedative effect can also occur at the highest doses." (Shaw D ; Annett JM ; Doherty B ; Leslie JC, Phytomedicine,, 2007 Sep; 14(9): 613-20).

As for sleeping, this study from 2005 found "Outcomes favor lavender, and a larger trial is required to draw definitive conclusions." The report on this study in which a "group of 30 women and their infants were randomly assigned to one of three groups —1) a lavender bath oil group, 2) a nonaroma bath oil group or 3) a lavender bath oil group in which the mothers received an advertisement stating the bath oil "helps calm babies when they get irritated" or "helps settle them down before bedtime"—to assess the effects the lavender aroma on infants' stress levels, crying and sleep behaviors". The conclusion of the study authors was that "These data suggest that infants with irritability and sleep problems could be calmed by this aroma and may experience more restful sleep." (I'm not totally happy with this study because I didn't find it in a peer reviewed journal, but it is reporting what others are reporting with regards to sleep, so I'm quoting it here.) In this study, the conclusions were that "Lavender increased the percentage of deep or slow-wave sleep (SWS) in men and women. All subjects reported higher vigor the morning after lavender exposure, corroborating the restorative SWS increase. Lavender also increased stage 2 (light) sleep, and decreased rapid-eye movement (REM) sleep and the amount of time to reach wake after first falling asleep (wake after sleep onset latency) in women, with opposite effects in men. Thus, lavender serves as a mild sedative and has practical applications as a novel, nonphotic method for promoting deep sleep in young men and women and for producing gender-dependent sleep effects."

Beyond sleep, lavender’s sedative and calming effects have been noted using various physiological measures during waking. Lavender lowers heart rate and blood pressure (Nagai et al., 2000; Romine et al., 1999) and changes electroencephalographic (EEG) frequency and contingent negative variation (Torii et al., 1988), suggesting increased drowsiness. Lavender also increases beta activity (Diego et al., 1998; Lorig et al., 1990), decreases alpha activity (Masago et al., 2000), and increases theta activity (Klemm et al., 1992; Lorig and Schwartz, 1988). Such findings concur with self-reported relaxing mood states induced by lavender exposure (Diego et al., 1998; Goel and Grasso, 2004; Motomura et al., 2001). In addition, lavender slows reaction times (Karamat et al., 1992; Yagyu, 1994) and reduces performance of cognitive tasks (Ludvigson and Rottman, 1989; but see Diego et al., 1998).

I could quite honestly spend all day quoting studies I've seen on humans of all types and animals (mostly rats, but some mice) and we'd still come to the same conclusion: The studies are showing that inhaling lavender essential oil can decrease anxiety and stress and the expression of same as well as increasing sleep. Very interesting!

Join me tomorrow for more on the science of lavender essential oil when we take a look at ingesting or putting the oil on our skin!

Chemistry Thursday: Isomers

2012-01-05T05:48:00.000-08:00

I mentioned in the post on lavender essential oil that there were two stereoisomers of linalool - what the heck is an isomer?

I liked this family tree type picture to give you an idea of the different kinds of isomers, so I'm including it in this post!

Isomers are compounds that have the same molecular formulas, but have different structural formulas. You can see in this picture that we have 7 hydrogen, 3 carbon, and 1 fluoride in each molecule - which means we could write the molecular formula for either as H7C3F - but flouride is connected in a different place in each compound. Although they have much in common, these constitutional isomers don't necessarily have the same chemical properties and aren't necessarily very similar in nature. The placement of that F is very important because it means the entire molecule could be different.

Take a look at this picture of a fatty acid. If the double bond is on the 3rd carbon from the end, then we have an omega-3 fatty acid. If the double bond is on the 6th carbon from the end - and only the 6th carbon - then we have an omega-6 fatty acid. If the bond is on the 9th carbon from the end, we have an omega-9 fatty acid. The difference between these three fatty acids is where the double bond exists, so they have the same molecular formula but have very different physical properties, like boiling points, melting points, cloud points, rates of oxidation, and so on. These fatty acids would be isomers of the other because they have the same molecular formula but a different physical construct. We can look at an omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acid and know that although they have the same number of carbon and hydrogen atoms, one might have a shelf life of a month and have a boiling point of 155˚C while the other might have a shelf life of a year and have a boiling point of 380˚C. (I'm making up these numbers to illustrate my point!)

"Stereoisomers are isomeric molecules that have the same molecular formula and sequence of bonded atoms (constitution), but that differ only in the three-dimensional orientations of their atoms in space." So stereoisomers have the same molecular formula and the bond connections are the same, "but their orientation in space differ." (Wikipedia)

"Enantiomers are two stereoisomers that are related to each other by a reflection: They are mirror images of each other, which are non-superimposable....They have the same physical properties, except for the direction in which they rotate polarized light and how they interact with different optical isomers of other compounds. As a result, different enantiomers of a compound may have substantially different biological effects." (Wikipedia) In other words, they have the same molecular formula, but differ in their structure by being reflections of the other. As you'll see in the next example, they might look very similar but we can have different reactions to them!

In the post on linalool, we noticed that there are two stereoisomers of linalool - licareol or (R)-(-)-linalool found in lavender, bay laurel, neroli, bergamot, and sweet basi,l and coriandrol or (S)-(+)-linalool found in coriander, palmarosa, petitgrain, and sweet orange flowers.

We also noticed that one stereoisomer had an R and - in front of the name and the other had an S and + in front of its name. These letters/symbols indicate that these are enantiomers. The R and S designation are based on the Cahn–Ingold–Prelog priority rules (CIP), based on atomic number. (Click here to read more about how these are named. It's a bit detailed for this post!) The + and - in the name relates to optical activity. "An enantiomer can be named by the direction in which it rotates the plane of polarized light. If it rotates the light clockwise (as seen by a viewer towards whom the light is traveling), that enantiomer is labeled (+). Its mirror-image is labeled (−). "

You might hear these molecules being described as chiral - a molecule that "lacks an internal plane of symmetry and thus has a non-superimposable mirror image." (Wikipedia)

And if you want to know more about naming chiral molecules, click here!

What does this all mean? These enantiomers can look quite similar but taste and smell quite different! You can see that the (R)-(-)-linalool smells like lavender but the (S)-(+)-linalool smells floral. "Spearmint leaves and caraway seeds, respectively, contain L-carvone and D-carvone - enantiomers of carvone. These smell different to most people because our olfactory receptors also contain chiral molecules that behave differently in the presence of different enantiomers." (Wikipedia) These limonene enantiomers have different effects on us: The D-limonene has a clean, citrus-y odour, whereas the L-limonene has a piney, turpentine-like odor.

If you want to learn more about isomers and chirality, click on this WikiBooks link for a much more detailed write up!

Do you need to know this stuff to know more about essential oils? No, but it's interesting, eh?

Essential oils: Linalyl acetate

2012-01-04T05:11:00.000-08:00

Linalyl acetate is an acetate ester of linalool, and it can be known as linalyl acetate or 3, 7-dimethylocta-1,6-dien-3-yl acetate. It's found in clary sage (up to 78%), lavandin, lavender, and bergamot, as well as neroli, lemon, lime, and some mints (p. 171, Selected Topics in the Chemistry of Natural Products).

In animal studies, it's been shown to have a sedative effect (p. 563) and an anxiolytic effect (p. 302) on rats, but it might not have an anti-inflammatory effect (p. 248, Handbook of Essential Oils). On the other hand, this study, conducted in 2004 on rats, states "The results obtained indicate that linalool and the corresponding acetate play a major role in the anti-inflammatory activity displayed by the essential oils containing them, and provide further evidence suggesting that linalool and linalyl acetate-producing species are potentially anti-inflammatory agents."

Linalyl acetate is considered a fragrance and flavour compound, and it is responsible for a lot of the flavour and fragrance of lavender. It might be a contact allergen - take a quick look at this abstract, which states, "Conclusion: It is concluded that autoxidation of the weakly allergenic linalyl acetate leads to formation of allergenic oxidation products."

Essential oils: Linalool

2012-01-03T07:23:00.000-08:00

You see this compound listed on quite a few products, especially on products from the EU, but what the heck is linalool? Linalool is a monoterpene alcohol (also known as 3,7-dimethylocta-1,6-dien-3-ol) found in plants from the Lamiaceae family (mints, scented herbs), Lauraceae family (cinnamon, rosewood), and Rutaceae family (citrus fruits) (Wikipedia).

There are two stereoisomers of linalool - licareol or (R)-(-)-linalool, which is found in lavender, bay laurel, neroli, bergamot, and sweet basil. It has an odour described as "woody or lavender" (p. 171, Selected Topics in the Chemistry of Natural Products, Raphael Ikan). Coriandrol or (S)-(+)-linalool is found in coriander, palmarosa, petitgrain, and sweet orange flowers, and has an odour described as floral (p. 171, ibid).

I'll be writing more about isomers on Chemistry Thursday, so look for it!

Linalool has been well studied with regards to sleep, reduction of anxiety, and analgesic properties. One study (Elisabetsky, 1995) found that there were "dose dependent marked sedative effects, including...increased sleeping time and decreased spontaneous locomotion in mice." (Handbook of Essential Oils, p. 301). Studies have found linalool may have a spasmolytic (muscle relaxation) effect and pain reducing effect on rats, as well as an anti-inflammatory effect (p. 718, Botanical Medicine in Clinical Practice and page 301, Handbook of Essential Oils). A study done on stress in rats found that "(R)-(−)-linalool inhalation represses stress-induced effects on the profiles of both blood cells and gene expression." In other words, smelling (R)-(-)-linalool reduced the expression of stress in rats. And studies of injecting linalool into rats to reduce inflammation has shown it can be effective (page 248, Handbook of Essential Oils).

It is not a given that if something works in rats or mice that it will work in humans, but there have been quite a few small studies on people for these effects, to the point where I feel comfortable in saying there's evidence to show that inhaling an essential oil with linalool may help with sleep. But there's certain point where I have to stop researching something. I have to stop researching here for the animal experiments as reading them is getting quite depressing.

You will see linalool listed in the ingredient list on products from the EU (or Lush, in North America) because it's considered a contact allergen. When it is exposed to oxygen, it can break down into an oxidized product (click here for that study) that can provoke an allergic reaction in "over 5% of those who underwent patch testing" (click here for that information), and the author suspects that "about 2% of the complete population of Sweden are allergic to air oxidized linalool." (Interestingly enough, non-oxidized linalool didn't provoke the same response!) For a different take on this possibility, check out this abstract! "However, it remains to be seen how often such an allergy, once established, is responsible for any of the cases of allergic contact dermatitis commonly ascribed in the literature. Indeed, in some cases, patch test conditions may not be optimal for differentiating between clinically relevant and irrelevant allergy to linalool."

Why is it found in 60 to 80% of scented products (as per this web page)? Because of its flavour and fragrance properties. It smells and tastes pretty, and it's not that expensive to add to something like a dishwashing liquid or body wash.

Linalool has been shown to be good at killing mites: It's called an acaricide, which is are "pesticides that kill members of the Acari group, which includes ticks and mites" (p. 411 and 420, Bioactive Natural Products). "As a pesticide, Linalool is intended for use indoors to control pests (fleas and ticks) on pets and the spaces they inhabit by affecting the insect’s nervous system. Linalool is also used as an outdoor mosquito inhibitor..." (from the FDA handout), although there is some doubt about its efficacy for mosquitoes.

I would have researched the insect killing properties more, but it's giving me the creepy crawlies, so let's move on!!!

I don't know much about labelling for commercial purposes, but if you're in the EU, you might want to check if you have to include information about linalool on your products. It's on the list of ingredients that must be declared, according to the Seventh amendment of the Cosmetics Directive.

Join me tomorrow for more fun with lavender essential oil!

Essential oils: Lavender - an overview

2012-01-02T06:04:00.000-08:00

Lavender is one of the major essential oils, and I admit that I've been putting off my research of lavender because I know it's going to take a while as we use it so much and there's so much information out there on it. But here we go!

There are a few different lavenders you'll see out there. English or French lavender (Lavender angustifolia) has the most lavender-y type smell you'll find, with an emphasis on the flowery scent. Regular old lavender (Lavandula officianalis) generally smells a little more camphory. Lavandin (Lavandula x intermedia) has more of the camphor and 1,8-cineole. (I find it has a mustier, less floral scent than the English lavender). You might find lavender as an essential oil or as a hydrosol, and the essential oil is generally steam distilled.

You might see lavender 40/42 available for purchase. These numbers "indicate the linalyl acetate content; in this case, they indicate the product contains 40%-42% of linalyl acetate. Lavender 40/42 is generally a blend of various lavenders in order to get a consistent scent from batch to batch, with processors adding linalyl acetate to cover the smell of camphor or borneol components of a given lavender." (From Camden Grey). You might see it listed as Lavandula officianalis and its origin as France. I've seen write-ups at suppliers stating that this type of lavender essential oil has the lowest level of therapeutic abilities, but that's for us to investigate over the next few days!

The main compounds we find in lavender are linalool at 29% or so (a monoterpene alcohol that is responsible for a lot of the fragrance), linalyl acetate at 33% (a terpene ester responsible for a lot of the fragrance also). We find a lot of camphor (up to 13%) and eucalyptol or 1,8-cineole (up to 26%) in in Lavandula latifolia or Spike lavender.

What are the claims about lavender? It is purported to be an antiseptic, anti-inflammatory, insect repellant and bite soother, anxiolytic (meaning it can treat anxiety), sleep aid, acne treatment at 1:10 with water, pain reliever, urine flow increaser, and respiratory disorder treatment. That's an awful lot of stuff to investigate, but here goes! But wait - we need to take a look at linalool and linalyl acetate as well as a little chemistry with isomers! Join me tomorrow for more on lavender!

Happy new year!

2012-01-01T06:41:00.000-08:00

I hope 2012 brings you love, laughter, peace, and happiness, as well as a thirst for knowledge! I think we need to declare 2012 the year of curiosity, as being curious leads us down all kinds of wonderful and interesting paths!

Okay, I know 2012 is the year of dragon in Chinese mythology and the year the world explodes or something - on my birthday, December 21st, no less! - but I'm declaring it the year of curiosity!

I've noticed so many people stating that they've never made a lotion, but they'd like to in 2012, so let's make that happen! What's holding you back from making that first cream, lotion, moisturizer, or other emulsified thing? Why haven't you taken the plunge yet? What barriers stand in your way and how can we remove them? I'll gather your thoughts and turn it into some kind of series on this blog so you can make that first lotion and feel the same addiction...I mean, fondness for the craft that I have!

Do you have any resolutions you want to share?

I'm making more time for crafting in my life! I want to learn how to sew something tailored for Raymond. I want to conquer the sleeve and not fear making shirts. I want to learn how to make CP soap (liquid or bar). I want to be less procrastination-y when it comes to doing things like writing up the schedule for craft group or preparing grant proposals. I need to further refine my boundaries and continue to say no and not feel guilty about it! There are more...but they're not very interesting (yet another year of committing to not brushing my teeth as hard!)

Welcome to 2012, the year of curiosity!

Essential oils: Patchouli

2011-12-31T06:00:00.000-08:00

I admit, I'm not a fan of patchouli essential oil. I find the smell reminds me of concerts I attended as a teenager, some of which I had to leave early because the overpowering smell made me physically ill. I have banished from my workshop because even having the bottle in my fragrance cabinet made me feel just awful. I will try to be as unbiased as possible as I write this post.

Patchouli essential oil is steam distilled from the Pogostemon cablin plant, generally found in the tropical parts of Asia. It is rectified to remove some of the darker colours in the oil. (Rectification means there's a re-distillation of the crude oils.) CO2 extraction was find to produce a higher yield of patchouli oil from the raw materials - generally the leaves, and it takes 100 kg to create 3.5 kg of oil, which explains why it's so expensive - and a "better quality" essential oil (Journal of Supercritical Fluids, Feb 2009, Vol 48, issue 1, p 15-20).

Click here for more processing technique information!

The main compound in patchouli essential oil is patchouli alcohol or patchoulol, which makes up about 32% of the oil. The other components include α-guaiene at 15.6%, Ϭ-guaiene at 16.7%, α-patchoulene at 5.5%, and seychellene at 5.3%. The main odour of patchouli comes from norpatchoulenol, which makes up 0.6% of the oil. (Journal of Essential Oil Research, issue 16, p 17 to 19, Jan/Feb 2004.)

Patchouli is generally used for its fragrance, although there are some claims made about this essential oil. It may be beneficial for skin, preventing chapping or wrinkling. It may help the digestive system. It may offer anti-inflammatory, anti-infectious, antiseptic, tissue regenerating, and itch relieving properties. (Tony Dweck, click here and scroll down. No page number given.) Please note that I have not been able to find any studies on any of these claims, so I can't provide you with any more information than this. I was able to find that patchouli essential oil is considered a potential contact allergen when used at more than 1%, so I'd suggest you keep your usage of this oil under 1% (p. 91, Handbook of Cosmetic Science & Technology).

As with most of our essential oils, it is suggested to use patchouli in the cool down phase of our products (below 45˚C/113˚F) and it sounds like using it at 1% or lower is a good idea.

If you can provide me with some studies on patchouli essential oil or any of the components, let me know! I've seen many claims made, but can't find a single study on patchouli, patchouli alcohol, and patchoulol in my texts, on Ebsco host, Google scholar, or Google books!

Join me on Monday for more fun with essential oils!

Essential oils: Peppermint essential oil - formulating a shampoo for dry hair

2011-12-30T06:11:00.000-08:00

It seems like people like to have a little tingle in their hair care products, so let's take a look at how we could formulate a shampoo for dry hair with a little peppermint in it.

First, let's take a look at our surfactants! When I'm formulating for dry hair, there are three surfactants I really like - SMC or SMO taurate, polyglucose/lactylate blend, and SCI.

Using SCI (prill form), SCI (with added stearic acid), or ACI (liquid) will give me a creamy, conditioned after feel that I don't get with other surfactants, it will help thicken my product, and it might pearlize my product. A pearlized product always feels a bit more moisturizing - mainly because it is - so it's a good idea to use something like this in a dry hair shampoo. I'm going to use this at about 10% of my shampoo.

I like SMO taurate because it also thickens our product and has a nice pH level, so I don't have to do a lot of adjusting with citric acid.

I like the polyglucose/lactylate blend because it offers a lot of moisturizing goodness - way too much for us oily haired girls - and it has a good pH for hair care products (5.0 to 7.5). It thickens with Crothix easily.

So which ones shall I use? (I also want to include some cocamidopropyl betaine to increase the mildness of the product.) I think I'll go with SCI noodles and SMO taurate. You can use the polyglucose/lactylate blend here, if you wish. I just have a lot of SCI and SMO taurate in the house! I think I'll use 10% SCI, 10% SMO taurate, and 10% cocamidopropyl betaine, which means I have 30% surfactants. This is a nice amount for dry hair.

I know I want some good things for hair in here - 2% hydrolyzed protein (I find silk protein works well with dry hair), 2% panthenol, 2 to 5% humectant (glycerin is a good choice, although you could go with something like Honeyquat that'll work double duty as a conditioner!), 0.5% to 2% cationic polymer (I'm having a love affair with polyquat 44, so I've added that, but I also like 2% polyquat 7) - and an emollient. I'm considering up to 5% PEG-7 olivate (water soluble oil), up to 3% Cromollient SCE, or 1.5% glycol distearate. I think I'll go with 5% PEG-7 olivate in this product, but any of these would be a good choice.

As a note, glycol distearate is a very inexpensive thickener and pearlizer - I encourage you to read more about it if this interests you. It would be a fantastic choice here, but it is something you have to heat up in the surfactant/water phase of the product, so you might need more thickener depending upon the type of essential oil you choose. Peppermint tends to thin products out, so you'll need more thickener like Crothix at the end. I don't like to go over 2% glycol distearate as it can form a white film at the bottom of the product over time, but this product will not thicken with 1.5% glycol distearate alone!

For the rest of the water phase, you could use a hydrosol (lavender might be nice) or aloe vera at 10%. (Aloe vera has the added bonus of helping to thicken the product!) You can just use water.

For my cool down phase, I know I want to use 1% peppermint essential oil, 0.5% to 1.5% preservative (I'll use liquid Germall Plus at 0.5%), and the 2% panthenol.

MINTY SHAMPOO FOR DRY HAIR
HEATED WATER/SURFACTANT PHASE
10% aloe vera
10% SCI prills or noodles (or 10% ACI liquid)
10% SMO or SMC taurate
10% cocamidopropyl betaine
3% glycerin
2% hydrolyzed protein (I suggest silk for dry hair)
0.5% polyquat 44
5% PEG-7 olivate
43% water

COOL DOWN PHASE
2% panthenol
1% peppermint essential oil
0.5% liquid Germall Plus

Optional: Up to 3% Crothix after the product has cooled

Combine the SCI prills or noodles with the cocamidopropyl betaine and heat well until the SCI has melted. In a separate container, add the rest of the water phase and heat at the same time. When the SCI noodles or prills have melted, combine the two phases and heat for 20 minutes at 70˚C (heat and hold). (If you've already had all the ingredients heated and held before combining them, you don't need to re-do the heat and hold.) Let all of it cool down to 45˚C then add the cool down phase ingredients and mix well. Let this all come to room temperature before adding the Crothix. Add at 1% at a time and mix it very well to see if you like the viscosity. Add up to 3% Crothix to make this product thicker. Bottle and rejoice.

If you want to add peppermint to any hair care product, by all means go ahead! Add 1% in the cool down phase like you would any other essential or fragrance oil. You can add it to any of the shampoos you see in the hair care section of the blog, and it would be lovely in a shampoo bar - for dry hair or normal to oily hair. And you can add it to conditioners if you want - again, up to 1% in the cool down phase.

As an aside, consider adding 1% tea tree oil to a product like this to help with dandruff. You can go as high as 5%, but I find 2% smells very medicinal. It's a nice combination with 1% peppermint.

Join me tomorrow as we take a look at patchouli essential oil!

Links to lists!

2011-12-29T09:49:00.000-08:00

If you take a look to your right, you'll see the links to lists section of the blog. I've created a permanent link to all the essential oil posts and I'll be updating the sections as I write the posts. Blogger's been kind enough to give us 20 pages that we can keep in this way, so I'll be organizing other sections this way in the near future.

Essential oils: Formulating with peppermint essential oil - foot care products

2011-12-29T09:14:00.000-08:00

A big reminder before we get started formulating with peppermint essential oil - don't put peppermint essential oil in any product in which you might soak (bubble bath, bath bombs, bath salts) or that might get close to tender mucous membranes. That lovely tingle we like on our feet doesn't do well for other parts of our body!

Peppermint and foot products seem to go together well. Perhaps it's because peppermint can increase circulation or because it offers a cooling sensation - either way, it's a great addition to any foot related product.

FIZZING FOOT BATH BOMBS
126 grams baking soda
61 grams citric acid
13 grams oil of your choice
2 to 3 grams peppermint essential oil
oil based colour, if desired

Mix together your baking soda and citric acid. Then add the oil, a few drops of colour, and your fragrance oil. Mix together well. Press the mixture into small molds - ice cube sized at most - and let set for at least 1 hour (overnight is best). Package in cellophane bags. Use 1 cube per foot bath.

Feel free to double or triple this recipe. I know I normally write my recipes in percentages, but I haven't done it for this recipe and I find that bath bombs are so picky at times, I'll just leave this as is!

As an aside, if you're a mom toilet training a toddler, consider making a batch of small bath bombs your child can use as a reward. When they've used the toilet successfully, they can throw one in and enjoy the fizz and fragrance (flush first, then use bath bomb). Allowing the child to choose which colour or fragrance they would like to use this time is a good idea. You don't have to forego the prize chart in the bathroom, but this will offer the child an immediate reward and that's easier to see than a prize at the end of the week! (I did mention my day job is family support worker, right?)

FIZZY MINTY FOOT SALTS (by volume)

1/4 cup Epsom salts

2 tbsp baking soda

1 tbsp citric acid

2 ml peppermint essential oil

Colour, if desired.

Put the Epsom salts into a container, then add the baking soda and citric acid. Add colour and essential oil and mix until well blended. Use 1 to 2 tbsp per foot bath. Do not use these in a body bath - the mint is tingly!

SOLID SCRUB BAR FOR THE FEET

50% cocoa butter

20% mango, shea or other butter

3% stearic acid

4% Incroquat BTMS

2% wax of choice - beeswax, soy wax, etc. For candellia wax, please use 1% as it is very hard.

3% sodium lactate

12% oils - heavier oils are good here - avocado, castor, olive oil

2% cyclomethicone

2% dimethicone

1% fragrance oil (I recommend peppermint)

1% Vitamin E (if you are using oils with less than 6 months' shelf life)

Add up to 100% pumice (or 80% pumice, 20% baking soda)

Feel free to leave out the silicones and substitute 4% oils in their place. The sodium lactate is here as a bar hardener, not a humectant, and you can leave it out if you wish. Feel free to substitute the stearic acid for cetyl alcohol, cetyl esters, behenyl alcohol, or cetearyl alcohol for a different skin feel.

Melt everything except the silicones, fragrance oil, and Vitamin E in a heat proof container in a double boiler until all the ingredients are well melted. Remove from the heat and add the silicones, fragrance oil, and Vitamin E. Add your exfoliant and mix well. Then pour into a mold and put in the fridge or freezer until set. Let sit for 24 hours before using.

I suggest you put a very clear label about usage for this product because I've had people try to stand up in the bath after using them and I've had others use it as a facial exfoliant (I'm not kidding!!!)

Write something like this...Rub this bar into sore, tender, or rough patches and feel the tingle. Now rinse. No need for lotion; it makes its own! Please do not stand until after rinsing -- it can be slippery!

For more labelling ideas, click here!

Join me tomorrow as we have some fun formulating non-foot care products with peppermint essential oil!

Essential oils: Peppermint - the science relating to other things

2011-12-28T06:06:00.000-08:00

A few more things about peppermint and then we'll do a little formulating with it!

Smelling peppermint oil might be good for enhancing your memory and increasing alertness (Moss et al, 2003).

Peppermint oil might be good at repelling mice and it might be good at repelling ear mites (put a little on a Q-tip and swab your ear). "Ticks can be removed by applying 1 drop of cinnamon or peppermint oil on Q-tip by swabbing on it." (Handbook of Essential Oils, p. 884).

Gobel et all (1995) found that a blend of 10% peppermint essential oil and 5% eucalytpus oil rubbed on the temples and forehead might improve cognitive performance and work as a mental and muscle relaxant, but it this blend didn't work well for pain. 10% peppermint essential oil showed an analgesic effect and reduce the sensitivity to headaches. In another study by the same researchers, 10% peppermint essential oil was shown to have increase capillary flow in patients with headaches by up to 225%, but had no effect on migraine patients. In contrast, eucalyptus essential oil decreased the blood flow by 16%. (In an earlier study - 1994 - the researchers found that a combination of peppermint, eucalyptus, and alcohol worked as a mental and muscle relaxant but not a pain reliever.)

Join me tomorrow as we do a little formulating with peppermint essential oil to take advantage of all these great qualities!

Essential oils: Peppermint - the science relating to menthol

2011-12-27T08:28:00.000-08:00

Peppermint essential oil is composed of 38% to 48% menthol (a monoterpene alcohol), 20% to 30% menthone, and about 6% 1,8-cineole (aka eucalyptol, which we discussed in the post on eucalyptus!) Menthol is the most interesting part of peppermint as it's the compound that gives us that cooling sensation we seek when we add it to our products.

As I mentioned the other day, menthol and 1,8-cineole react with a temperature transient receptor (TRPM8) that we find on our skin and in the nasal vestibule (the thing we call our nose in this elaborate picture to the left). When we use menthol as a decongestant, it's a sensory illusion. There's no change in the amount of air we can inhale or exhale, it just feels like there's less resistance. 1,8-cineole and camphor offer these same sensations.

In an early study (Packman & London, 1980), they found inhaling menthol was effective at reducing cough frequency in people who had citric acid induced cough (a reminder as to why we should wear masks in our workshops!). It wasn't as effective as 1,8-cineole (or eucalyptol), but it was more effective than the placebo. In another study (Keria et al, 2008), menthol was found to be effective at reducing cough frequency, but it wasn't as effective as the placebo. But here's the problem - the placebo was eucalyptus oil, which has been shown time and time again to reduce cough frequency. So how can we trust this study when the authors thought that something like eucalyptus oil was an effective control? Unfortunately, the other study I could find on this topic - click here - had volunteers inhale 75% menthol in eucalyptus oil! So how do we know if it's the 1,8-cineole or the menthol that worked well?

This really does show you that you need to read more about the study than just the results! What is wrong with with these researchers? Are you studying menthol or eucalyptol???

Why is it (possibly) effective for coughs? It could be because of menthol's interaction with airway cold receptors - apparently our body likes colder air - or with the neuronal cough reflex.

With the digestive stuff, our products wouldn't be really all that effective unless you were eating them and you were using peppermint oil in huge doses. But we can make someone with a cold feel a little better by making something containing peppermint oil or menthol they can huff...I mean, sniff. For instance, making a blend of essential oils someone could breathe in straight from the bottle or put into the reservoir of a humidifier might be a nice thing indeed. I like to make a blend of 1 part eucalyptus, 1 part peppermint, and 1 part camphor and put a few drops into the holder on my humidifier. And I keep a small bottle of this beside my bed so I can smell it regularly. I also put some foot lotion with the Vicks' blend (3 parts menthol, 1 part eucalyptus, and 1 part camphor or 3 parts peppermint, 1 part eucalytpus, and 1 part camphor) on my chest so I can inhale its awesomeness when I need to breath easier (although we know it's an illusion, it still feels good!)

Click here for some ideas for products in which you can use peppermint!

Join me tomorrow as we take a look at some of the other awesome benefits of peppermint oil!

Happy Boxing Day!

2011-12-26T08:56:00.000-08:00

The hardest thing about going to bed on Christmas Day is deciding which book out of the stack I should read that night! I chose Dr Joe's Science, Sense & Nonsense, but I was kind of leaning towards Snuff, Terry Prachett's new novel!

Today is all about the sleeping, resting, napping, and dozing. I've got a sugar hangover and I'm still fighting this cold, so it's all about the not doing much today!

I don't shop on Boxing Day - I don't like being that close to anyone who isn't my husband, we don't get really killer deals like we used to, and I hate the idea of making someone work on Boxing Day. I had to work Boxing Day one year - I know, only one year! I'm lucky! - and it ruined my Christmas night as I had to make sure I treated it like a work night. I was at the mall at 8 am to man my ticket and lottery booth. No one came by until well after 11! I think our local mall opens at a normal time, but I saw Coquitlam Centre opened at 8 on Boxing Day. Seriously? (In the Province newspaper today, they note there were a few shops on Robson Street that were open yesterday! We can't have one day a year on which we don't shop?) I find it hard not to spend money on Buy Nothing Day (aka Black Friday) because I generally work that day and work means buying coffee for clients, putting gas in the car, and so on, but I find it easy to be thrifty today!

This paragraph isn't intended to judge people who go shopping on Boxing Day. For a lot of people, this is the one time a year they can treat themselves to something nice with Christmas money! If you've braved the crowds today, kudos to you! You're a braver person than I!

My husband pointed out how much my family and friends have accepted my obsession with science by looking at the gifts they've given to me! (Check out my awesome new The Elements calendar to go with the book I received last year!) Did you get any cool, science-y presents this year?

Well, I have a long day of resting and vegging ahead of me, so I best end this with a cherry Happy Boxing Day before I make a bacon sandwich! Happy Boxing Day!

Your normal programming will resume tomorrow with more on peppermint essential oil!

Merry Christmas to all!

2011-12-25T00:19:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas! I hope you're reading this blog post with a steaming cup of hot chocolate or tea in one hand and a piece of Toblerone in the other! I wish you and your family a wonderful Christmas Day filled with laughter, love, and far too much chocolate.

As for me, I'm probably standing over the stove making our traditional breakfast of Pillsbury turnovers, bacon, and eggs after opening presents! Then it's an afternoon of fun and games with my husband, my mom, and my friends before a lovely dinner of prime rib with roasty potatoes, Yorkshire puddings, Brussel sprouts (ick!), other vegetables, with Christmas pudding with custard for dessert!

And a Christmas wish from Blondie...We wish you a merry Christmas! We wish you a merry Christmas! We wish you a merry Christmas, and a happy new year! Give me bacon!

Essential oils: Peppermint - the science relating to digestion

2011-12-24T06:21:00.000-08:00

Peppermint essential oil is one of the more common essential oils. It's plentiful and inexpensive, and the minty coolness it brings to our products is most welcome (except when we're soaking in it! Eek!) Peppermint essential oil is composed of 38% to 48% menthol (a monoterpene), 20% to 30% menthone, and about 6% 1,8-cineole (aka eucalyptol, which we discussed in the post on eucalyptus!)

Peppermint has been studied mainly for three things - the coolness it offers. its effects on the digestive system, its effect on respiration and cold symptoms, and its possible effect as an anesthetic for pain or itching. Let's take a look at digestion today!

There have been quite a number studies showing that mint, is great for digestion, but this doesn't really help us when we are studying the essential oil. We find different compounds in the leaves when we make a tea out of it - water soluble compounds like flavonoids - than we do in the essential oil, where we'd find oil soluble compounds like terpenes. (Click here for a bit more information.)

This study (2008) looked at the efficacy of peppermint oil on post operative nausea, and found it was more effective than placebo...but we have no idea of the size of this study, so we'll have to take those results with a grain of salt. Another study (Hills & Aaronson, 1991) found that peppermint essential oil has a "calcium blocking activity in gut tissue" that relaxes the lower sphincter and helps facilitate eructions (known to non-medical people as burps!) but it can aggravate reflux. This study also that concluded that "peppermint oil relaxes gastrointestinal smooth muscle by reducing calcium influx."

This study concluded that, "Peppermint oil and caraway oil show a relaxing effect on the gall-bladder and the former slows small intestinal transit...", and this study noted that, "...all other studies result in effects, indicating a substantial spasmolytic effect [muscle relaxing effect] of PO of the smooth muscles of the gastrointestinal tract." (Grigolet & Grigolet, 2004).

There have been quite a few studies on peppermint essential oil on irritable bowel syndrome. Here's a critical review and meta-analysis that concluded that "The role of peppermint oil in the symptomatic treatment of IBS has so far not been established beyond reasonable doubt. Well designed and carefully executed studies are needed to clarify the issue." And there was another analysis by Grigolet & Grigolet (2005) that found that enteric coated peppermint oil at 180 to 220 mg given thrice daily was an effective treatment. Is the jury out on peppermint's usage for irritable bowel syndrome? It appears it might be.

So it looks like peppermint oil is effective for stomach problems by making the muscles in our digestive tract relax. But this comes from ingesting peppermint - quite a few of the studies made use of time released peppermint oil capsules - not from inhaling it. This isn't to say there aren't some benefits to inhaling this wonderful essential oil, but it doesn't appear that relieving digestive issues are amongst them.

Join me tomorrow for more fun with peppermint oil as we take a look at peppermint's effects upon respiration and cold symptoms (which I need right now....sniff! sniff!)

As much as I'd like to post today...

2011-12-23T09:19:00.000-08:00

...there's just way too much to learn about peppermint! I've spent the last three mornings researching it, and I think to post on menthol this morning would be a disservice as I don't feel I can adequately put together all the cool stuff I've been learning about peppermint essential oil! Instead, here are a few posts with products I've made using peppermint oil or menthol! I'm hoping to post something tomorrow or Monday - it's just so interesting!

Body lotion becomes foot cream
Foot lotion becomes foot cream
Whipped butter for my painful back!
Lotion bar for my painful muscles
A possible shampoo for dandruff prone hair (add 0.5% to 1% essential oil in the cool down phase)
An oil stripping shampoo (again, add 0.5% to 1% peppermint essential oil in the cool down phase)

As to the names of these products, please note that I'm not making claims here. These are aspirations based upon the chemistry of the ingredients!

See you tomorrow!

Essential oils: Peppermint

2011-12-22T07:38:00.000-08:00

Peppermint seems to get associated with foot care products quite a lot, but it seems there is more this minty essential oil can offer to our products!

Peppermint essential oil tends to be steam distilled from the flowers of the Mentha x piperita plant, a hybrid plant. High pressure distillation seems to be the norm, but it could be infused or even water distilled. The oils become the essential oil, the water soluble portion becomes peppermint hydrosol. It's one of the more popular essential oils, with 3300 metric tons produced in 2008. (I know I bought about 4 pounds that year!)

Peppermint essential oil might undergo rectification, a redistillation of crude oils intended to remove something unpleasant. In the case of peppermint, it can be done under a vacuum to remove sulfur compounds. For something like eucalyptus, it might be done to increase the amount of something like eucalyptol.

Peppermint essential oil is reported to be a digestion aid, headache reliever, reducer of nausea or travel sickness, soother of sore throats, respiration helper, and anti-spasmodic. We tend to use it in our products because it offers a perception of coolness to our skin.

Peppermint essential oils is composed of 38% to 48% menthol (a monoterpene), 20% to 30% menthone, and about 6% 1,8-cineole (aka eucalyptol, which we discussed in the post on eucalyptus!)

Peppermint considered a thermoreceptor agonist - in other words, it makes our skin feel hot or cold even though there's been no change in temperature. (You might remember from the post on eucalyptus essential oil). It makes our skin feel a little colder, which is why we include it in pain relief essential oil blends, as well as foot related products. I love to use it in a cooling spray along with spearmint and a little menthol. This is thanks to the menthol which "interacts with TRPM8, the cool-sensitive thermoreceptor" (click here to read more!). Because of this nifty feature, you'll want to keep peppermint related items away from mucous membranes and tender areas. I know the Vicks' blend bath bomb sounds like a good idea, but take a moment and think about it.

Add peppermint oil at up to 1% in the cool down phase of your products. You can also use peppermint essential oil in cooking - add a drop or two to some chocolate for a minty sensation or add some to a simple syrup and use it as an additive to a cocktail (do not use it at 1% in your cooking products!!! Too much!0. Just remember that peppermint essential oil is an oil soluble ingredient, so you will need an emulsifier if you want to add a significant amount to either a body care or eating product!

Join me tomorrow to take a look at the science behind peppermint!

Dove's beauty bar...just a few thoughts

2011-12-20T08:26:00.000-08:00

I'm really frustrated right now by the Dove commercial in which they show a bar of soap looking all wizened and dried out, then imply this is what said bar will do to your skin. My skin is not like soap, and the appearance of the product I use to clean it has nothing to do with how it will make my skin feel. To compare cold process soap to a Dove bar is disingenuous at best - the Dove bar is a syndet bar made from synthetic detergents (like SCI) and is generally acidic, while cold process soap is made from saponifying fats with sodium hydroxide (lye) and is generally alkaline.

What you see in the picture is Dove's unscented, sensitive skin beauty bar, all wizened and dried out. I use this on a daily basis, and you can see the cracks and drying out happening on this bar. Yes, the picture is altered slightly because the bad kitchen lighting made it all yellowy, but I didn't add the cracks to it. Dear Dove...don't write cheques your syndet beauty bar can't cash.

I love this post on the Alabu Skin Care Blog concerning experiments on Dove Soap to see if it lives up to its claims! Chemistry is awesome!

Yes, I'm out of cold process soap right now. I don't make CP soap myself, and I don't know any soapmakers locally. I think part of my plans for 2012 will include making CP soap for the first time!

Essential oils: Anise or aniseed - part 2, the science

2011-12-20T07:32:00.000-08:00

I've seen these properties quoted time and time again in my research about anise essential oil - antiseptic, antispasmodic, carminative (it decreases gas or encourages the expelling of it), expectorant, and a stimulant. I've seen information about it being estrogenic (mimicking the hormone estrogen), and I've seen that it can be used as the starting point for psychedelic drugs. So what can we prove?

What did I find about anise being an antiseptic? I found this paper that confirms that anise is considered to be those six things I list above, but no proof is offered in the form of studies or other papers. This study didn't find that anethole was an effective treatment against salmonella. This study showed that anethole combined with dodecanol might be effective together, and this study concluded that although anise was not effective against bacteria, it might work against mold (and this one found something similar). Another study (Journal of Applied Microbiology; July 2008, Bluma, R, Amaiden, M. R., Daghero, J., Etcheverry, M) concluded that anise used on stored maize could help inhibit the growth of Aspergillus. This study gives some information on what combinations they used against microbes, and they found that anise was good against molds and fungi.

As for being an insecticide, this study (European Journal of Pediatrics, Jan 2010, Burgess, Bruton, and Burgess) found that a coconut and anise spray was an effective treatment against lice. The coconut and anise spray was a proprietary blend from a German company containing fractionated coconut oil, propan-1-ol - an alcohol, thus our solvent - star anise oil, and ylang-ylang oil. There has to be an emulsifer in there somewhere as you don't get fractionated coconut oil and alcohol to mix without one! I digress...and I realize this is about star anise, but there's a lot of anethole in that essential oil as well!

Anise is listed as being a good expectorant and anti-tussive. I couldn't find much on this topic, although this medical web page notes there isn't much proof that anise is good for a cold.

As a digestive aid, we find it in gripe water - the house brand at Price Smart contained it - but there isn't a lot of proof that anise can work for our digestion. It is a great breath freshener, and I encourage you to seek out either the candied aniseeds in Indian markets or restaurants or some aniseed balls if you haven't had a chance to try either.

As for being an anti-spasmodic, this study is really the only thing I could find, the conclusion being "The relaxant action displayed by Pimpinella anisum justifies its use in the folk medicine as an antispasmodic agent." The down side being that this study was about the water/alcohol soluble bits of the plant - not the essential oils - and that the actual study was on rats and the amount given to them was pretty huge. We can't necessarily extrapolate that inhaling the essential oil will result in muscle relaxation.

As for being estrogenic, I'm not finding much about that either.

To summarize, I think there's some good science to indicate that anise or aniseed might be a good weapon against mold and that it might be a good weapon against lice. There's some evidence to indicate it might be an anti-spasmodic, but not a lot to indicate it might be good for a cold or that it helps with digestion. (If you have some contrary evidence, please share it with me! I can't search every database, and I would love to be proven wrong about this wonderful essential oil, which is one of my favourites!)

Join me tomorrow for fun formulating with anise!

No post today - sorry!

2011-12-19T07:32:00.000-08:00

It's Monday morning and I'm getting ready for my math exam - EEK!

Saturday was a crazy day! Video games with the girls at the library, including Dance Central 2 for the Kinect, then Raymond took me out roller skating for my birthday on Saturday night. I haven't roller skated since I was about 11, but I picked it up again more quickly than I would have expected! I did fall pretty dramatically while arrogantly trying to spin around in a circle, so I'm a little bruised and sore, but in a good Saturday-night-was-awesome kind of way.

And I have a cold...but it's abating. So no post from me today - except for this...which I forgot to post on Monday!

Essential oils: Anise (or aniseed)

2011-12-18T09:38:00.000-08:00

I love my aniseed! From the aniseed balls and Imperials I would get when I'd visit my grandma in England to the anise-vanilla combination a friend used in her CP soap, I love this herb! (Don't confuse it with star anise, though! That's a different herb altogether!)

The main compound in anise (Pimpinella anisum) is anethole (anywhere from 70% to 95%), a phenylpropylene or aromatic compound that is responsible for the flavour of liquorice in things like anise and fennel. It's used extensively in food flavouring, and we find it in a lot of alcohols like ouzo and absinthe. You might see those candy coating anise seeds at Indian restaurants - they're great for freshening the breath and (possibly) helping with digestion. (My husband bought a bag of these and they're fantastic!) I've seen anethole listed as having an estrogenic effect, helping increase breast milk and helping with menstrual cramps, but I haven't been able to find any studies confirming this (but more about that tomorrow!)

Anise seed oil is soluble in oil, and it's more soluble in alcohol than water. This is what can cause the ouzo effect, which is when an alcohol containing anise is added to water and causes this clouding of the water. As an interesting aside, this clouding is thanks to an emulsion being created in the glass! (I really encourage you to click on the link because it's quite interesting!)

When anise essential oil is extracted by CO2 extraction (click here and scroll down), there's generally an increase in the amount of anethole.

While the essential oil is in storage, the anethole content can increase thanks to chemical reactions between other compounds, so you might get an even more liquoricier anise seed oil than you expected!

The main use of anise essential oil is in flavouring or fragrancing various things. Anise oil is thirteen times sweeter than sugar, and it's a chemical precursor to a psychedelic drug called paramethoxyamphetamine. It's reported that it's like catnip for dogs - I haven't confirmed this yet as I don't really need Blondie tripping out on me the day before my math exam - and it is supposed to be good for menstrual cramps and colds (I will be trying out the latter today as I'm fighting off a doozy!!!)

As with all the other essential oils, use this at safe levels in the cool down phase of your product. I've been using it at up to 1% (and in combination with vanilla - yum!) in my products. As with any essential oil, you'll want to ensure that you are using it at safe levels for individuals who can handle it. Always be careful with pregnant or nursing mothers, the infirm, children, and those who are bed bound.

Join me tomorrow as we take a look at some of the science behind aniseed essential oil!

No post today...look for something tomorrow!

2011-12-17T10:49:00.000-08:00

It's been a whirlwind week! I made candles with the pregnant and parenting teens on Thursday morning, and chocolate, sushi shaped beeswax candles, Shrinky Dinks, and Star Wars related snowflakes on Thursday night at the Christmas Extravaganza! Today we're at girls only Rock Band (and Dance Central 2) at the library, so I haven't had time to write a post. Look for something tomorrow!

When you contribute to our groups by buying the Formulating & Creating Lotions and Creams, Lotion Making 101, Back to Basics, or Hair Care: Shampoos & Conditioners e-books, you contribute to four different programs at three different locations (Chilliwack and Yarrow libraries, and the Ed Centre alternative school). For more information on our groups and what we do, please click here!

If you've never made Shrinky Dinks, you need to try them! They are incredibly awesome and you can make all kinds of jewellery with them. The picture you see above is of one of the kids making Pokemon and Mario jewellery with some sushi thrown in! They make awesome presents for your kids to make and give to their friends! (Click here for the jewellery making handout!) Get a few sets of earrings, some 5 to 6 mm jump rings, and a package of Shrinky Dinks from somewhere like Michael's or Jo-Ann's. I like the frosted ones - 10 for $8 to $10, but use the coupon! We can get enough out of half a sheet to make an entire charm bracelet. I know your kids are out of school this week - spend $20 on all the supplies and let them go nuts making them! (If you need any ideas for pictures, I have tons of handouts. Just write to me at sjbarclay@telus.net and I can send you tons of ideas!)

Essential oils: Eucalyptus in lotions and body wash

2011-12-16T06:37:00.000-08:00

For some reason, menthol and eucalytpus go fantastically together, so I suggest trying a lovely foot lotion with 3% menthol, 1% eucalyptus, and 1% camphor, just remove 2% from the cocoa butter or soy bean oil to compensate for the essential oils that will go into the cool down phase.

FOOT CREAM WITH MENTHOL AND EUCALYPTUS
HEATED WATER PHASE
35% water
10% aloe vera
10% peppermint hydrosol
3% glycerin
3% sodium lactate

HEATED OIL PHASE
3% menthol
10% soybean oil
10% cocoa butter
7% emulsifier
3% stearic acid

COOL DOWN PHASE
2% panthenol
2% dimethicone
0.5% preservative

Click here to see the original post with each ingredient explained!

Please click here to see the lotion making instructions!

USING EUCALYPTUS IN BODY WASH
You know I love body washes, so let's make one with a lovely eucalyptus-lime blend. My best friend suggests using 3 parts lime to 1 part eucalyptus for a refreshing blend, but you can play with the levels you like!

Click here if you want a break down for why I'm using each ingredient. I'm giving you a short summary, but there's so much more to learn!

I think I'll go with a really mild body wash for those of us who have dry skin that can only feel drier this time of year!

(Click here for the original post.)

BODY WASH FOR DRY SKIN WITH WATER SOLUBLE OILS OR DIMETHICONE (POLYGLUCOSE/LACTYLATE BLEND INCLUDED)
HEATED WATER PHASE
27.5% water
15% Amphosol CG (coco betaine)
15% SMC or SMO Taurate or ALeS
15% polyglucose/lactylate blend
10% aloe vera
5% glycerin
5% cationic polymer (like condition-eze 7 or honeyquat)
4% water soluble oil like PEG 7-olivate or water soluble shea
2% hydrolyzed protein

COOL DOWN PHASE
2% panthenol
1% fragrance or essential oil
0.5% to 1% preservative
1% to 2% Crothix (as necessary)

Weigh the heated water phase and heat until it reaches 70˚C. Hold for 20 minutes. Compensate for the lost water by adding some water after the heating part. (Weigh your container before you heat it. Weigh it after wards. Heat some water to 70˚C - or higher - and add it at the end.)

When the body wash reaches 45˚C, you can add the cool down phase. Let it cool completely to room temperature and ensure you've added your fragrance oil before you add the liquid Crothix. Add at 0.5% at a time until you reach the desired consistency!

You can substitute the water for hydrosols, if you wish, and feel free to leave out whatever ingredients you like.

If you want something slightly more moisturizing, try this body wash for the winter! I love the polyglucose/lactylate blend for the drier months! I've included SCI in this recipe and I think SCI and polyglucose/lactylate are my new favourite surfactant combination!

Join me tomorrow for more formulating fun!

Essential oils: Eucalytpus in anhydrous products

2011-12-15T05:55:00.000-08:00

I love to use eucalyptus in a number of different products - let take a look at some anhydrous products that might be awesome with the inclusion of this essential oil. Remember that we don't want to go over 1.12% - so stick with 1% - and we'll add the eucalyptus in the cool down phase.

If you've got someone with a cold, Vick's rub can be a blessing. We can make our own version with some menthol, camphor, and eucalyptus!

VASELINE CONSISTENCY RUB FOR HORRIBLE COLDS!
89.5% castor oil
5% beeswax
1% Vitamin E
2.5% menthol crystals
1% camphor
1% eucalyptus

Heat the beewax and menthol in the microwave or double boiler until melted. In a separate container, heat the castor oil. Pour the castor oil into the beeswax and menthol and beat until it reaches that vaseline-like consistency. When it cools below 45˚C, add the Vitamin E, camphor, and eucalyptus. (The Vitamin E is option - it just extends the shelf life quite some time...but this already has a 1 year life span, so make your decisions accordingly!)

I found the recipe at Voyageur for the non-petroleum baby jelly, but I've altered it to include 4.5% essential oils and menthol. Please don't use this for baby's bums with all those essential oils in it!

If you like this recipe, consider making a pain relief lotion bar - click here - but include 1% eucalyptus for another essential oil. I like to use 2 parts peppermint, 2 parts spearmint, 1 part cinnamon, 1 part clove bud for my pain relief blend, which I then use at up to 3% of my cool down phase. Replace the cinnamon or the clove with 1 part eucalyptus if you wish. Click here for a recipe for a whipped butter that might be good for sore muscles, or continue reading for a balm that might do the same thing!

I love this balm I'm about to post (find it in its original form here if you want some explanation for all the various ingredients or if you want a different version with way fewer esters) because it's not a greasy product, and I really don't want to be all shiny and greasy when I apply this stuff to my forehead or shoulders and go out for the day.

COMPLICATED BALM FILLED WITH ESTERS AND SILICONES MODIFIED TO INCLUDE ESSENTIAL OILS
20% beeswax
4% cetyl esters
24% shea butter
20% cetearyl ethylhexanoate
2% isopropyl palmitate
13% C12-15 alkyl benzoate
9% capric/caprylic triglycerides
3% menthol

COOL DOWN
1.5% dimethicone
1.5% cyclomethicone
1% eucalyptus essential oil
1% camphor essential oil

Heat everything but the dimethicone, cyclomethicone, and essential oils in a heatproof container in a double boiler. When it has melted, add the silicones and fragrance oil. This balm has a scoopable consistency, so you can wait until it has cooled to put it into jars or tins or you can pour it when it is still warm.

This essential oil blend is all about trying to get a Vick's like blend. If you want this to be more about the muscle pain relief, try the pain relief combination in the previous recipe. If you want to this to be a little more Tiger Balm-y, click to see what you can alter. It looks like clove bud is a major part of that product, which would give it the heat while the menthol, mint, and camphor bring the cold.

Click here or click here for more ideas for making balms!

Remember! I am not making claims that any of these products will relieve pain or inflammation. In theory, they might, but I haven't had them tested to confirm any of my claims! These are suggested recipes that have worked for me, but that doesn't mean they will work for anyone else.

Join me tomorrow as we use eucalyptus in other products!

Essential oils: Eucalyptus

2011-12-14T06:19:00.000-08:00

Eucalyptus essential oil is a staple in my fragrance and essential oils cupboard because of all the awesome things it is alleged to do - plus it smells great in combination with camphor and menthol! Eucalyptus is listed as being antiseptic, anti-inflammatory, insect repellant, and helpful for respiration and our sinuses. How does it do all these great things?

The main compound in eucalytpus is eucalyptol also known as 1,8-cineole, which is a "cyclic ether and a monoterpenoid". Eucalyptus essential oil must contain at least 70% of this compound, although most contain more.

In this small study, prednisone dependent people with asthma were able to reduce their usage of steroids after ingesting capsules of 1,8-cineole. In this study, people with non-oozing sinus inflammation found that capsules containing 1,8-cineole found a reduction in "headache on bending, frontal headache, sensitivity of pressure points of trigeminal nerve, impairment of general condition, nasal obstruction, and rhinological secretion." (And as someone with sinus issues, I can assure you these are all awesome reductions!) And in this study, they confirmed it on rats.

In this paper on inflammation, it is posited that

Pathogenesis and symptoms of inflammatory processes are accompanied and/or initiated by the production of reactive oxygen species (ROS)...Eucalyptus oil ameliorate inflammatory processes by interacting with aggressive oxygen radicals of the OH.-type and interfere with leukocyte activation. These activities partially allow attenuation of oxidative attack and damage introduced by infections or environmental impacts.

As for ingesting it, in 2002 the EU has declared that it is safe in things like beverages and cough candy at up to quite high levels, although I don't know if you could get over the unsafe level because the horrible taste would stop you from being so foolhardy!

Eucalyptol can be used as an insect repellant - this study found that it didn't kill the larvae, but it did have an impact on the mosquitoes feeding and laying eggs on us! However, eucalyptus is very attractive to orchid bees, so you might have to get rid of those little creatures some other way! (Tea tree oil had the same effect...interesting!)

As for being an anti-septic, it looks like more study might be necessary (which is always a fancy way of saying "we're not sure yet!"). In this letter, we see a few studies cited that eucalyptus might be a local antiseptic, this case study shows it might be effective against MRSA, and this study shows that there is some promise but no conclusive evidence.

Interestingly enough, eucalyptus oil is showing that it can help other compounds penetrate our skin better, so it is being considered as a penetration enhancer (click here for study).

Does eucalyptus essential oil stand up to the claims? It looks like it does. We see studies confirming that it's good for respiration, we see studies confirming it helps with inflammation, and there's some indication it can be good for insect repellancy. (Click here and scroll to page 145 to see a summary of these studies.) I don't think we can call it antiseptic yet, but I do think we can call it a penetration enhancer

As for using it in cosmetic products, it is suggested that we use no more than 1.12% in our leave on products with a maximum of 4.5% when combined with menthol and camphor (Active Ingredients Used in Cosmetics). Add it to your cool down phase as you would any other essential or fragrance oil.

Why add it to our products? It's considered a thermoreceptor agonist - in other words, it makes our skin feel hot or cold even though there's been no change in temperature. Eucalyptus makes our skin feel a little colder. I add it to my foot cream for this reason, but we could add it our products to make someone with a cold feel a bit better. It can be used in a sports cream or Tiger Balm kind of product, as well. I also like it because it smells cold to me, and my best friend makes an awesome lime-eucalyptus blend that we've used in a body wash and a hand lotion.

A vital side note: Although combining eucalyptus with camphor and menthol can simulate Vicks, please do not make a bath bomb containing these ingredients for someone with a cold. Think about it for a moment...bath plus tingly essential oils equals super tingly bath. It isn't a good idea in a bubble bath either!

Join me tomorrow for fun formulating with eucalyptus!

Essential oils: Processing techniques

2011-12-13T07:12:00.000-08:00

How do we get our essential oils? There are as many techniques, it seems, as there are types of essential oils!

PHYSICAL METHODS
INFUSION: Soaking the plants in vegetable oil, water, alcohol, or other solvent. This is done for products like calendula, St John's Wort, and arnica. (This is something we can do at home, but I do recommend you learn from a skilled practitioner.) This can also be called the maceration method.

ENFLEURAGE: The plant matter is put on a fat layered screen and the fat absorbs the fragrance. They take the saturated fat off the screen and heated with alcohol to create an absolute. This isn't a common process, although jasmine and tuberose are still done this way (which might explain the extreme price of both!). As a note, many sources I've read say that the fats are generally animal fats - tallow or lard - so if you're a vegan, you might want to make sure your essential oils are not processed in this way.

COLD PRESSING: With something like a citrus fruit, the skin is pierced and the fruit is pressed to release the juices. The oils float to the top and are removed from the juice. This can also be called scarification (but put in "essential oils" with this word if you're doing a search because eek!).

WATER BASED METHODS
STEAM DISTILLATION: The plant matter is steamed and the essential oil removed. The water soluble bits are left behind, which we called hydrosols. The plant matter is put into a still and pressurized steam circulates through the material. "Tiny droplets of essential oil evaporate and attach to the steam. The steam which then contains the essential oil, is passed through a cooling system to condense the steam, which forms a liquid from which the essential oil and water is then separated by decantation. The oil forms a layer on the water surface as it does not dissolves in water and hence is separated easily."

WATER DISTILLATION: The plant material is placed in water, then boiled. The water is condensed and cooled down, then the oil - which rises to the top of the container because oil is lighter than water - is removed. The water left over can be called a floral water or hydrosols.

METHODS REQUIRING SOLVENTS
CONCRETE: (This method has replaced enfleurage for the most part.) The plant material is mixed with a solvent - usually hexane - removing waxes, pigments, and aromatic molecules. The solution is filtered, then distilled, and we end up with some waxes and an essential oil - this is the concrete - or resin.

ABSOLUTE: The concrete is treated with alcohol to remove wax, then its vacuum distilled to remove the water.

OLEORESINS: This term can refer to two things. Resin from trees like the myrrh tree or the resin that comes out of the concrete process. I'm referring it to the latter. The resin from the concrete process is treated with alcohol or acetone, and the oils extracted.

CO2 EXTRACTION: This is a cold process, which means that plants that can't take high temperatures can enjoy this process, and it can get oils out of plants that have very low levels of oils or those that have not been traditionally used as essential oils. It's like pressure cooking, but with carbon dioxide, and at the end, it just evaporates into the air!

Supercritical carbon dioxide at around 31.1˚C and 72.9 atm behaves like a liquid and a gas...sort of. It expands "to fill its container like a gas but with a density like that of a liquid." (Remember that STP or standard temperature and pressure is 25˚C and 1 atm.) So they use this as the solvent instead of water, alcohol, hexane, and so on.

AFTER PROCESSING: RECTIFICATION
Rectification is a redistillation of crude oils intended to remove something unpleasant. In the case of peppermint, it can be done under a vacuum to remove sulfur compounds. For something like eucalyptus, it might be done to increase the amount of something like eucalyptol. For something like patchouli, it's to make the colour less dark, which is apparently offensive to some perfumers.

Which way is the best way to extract oils? I don't know. I know the concept of cold pressed sounds really lovely, but it can result in more furocoumarins in citrus essential oils, which can make them more phototoxic, and a lot of wasted fruits. The heated processing methods don't work for things that can't take the heat, so solvent extraction might be the only way we can get some of our lovelier oils. I am kinda surprised about the enfleurage in a way - vegans really need to be aware of this processing method - and I think the supercritical CO2 is awesome!

Some interesting downloads

2011-12-13T06:54:00.000-08:00

I found a bunch of brochures for compounding various things for pharmacists, and thought you might be interested. We don't make medical or health claims for our products, but there's some interesting information in there about compounding things like styptic pencils, deodorants, and suppositories!

Compounding gels
Compounding medication sticks
Compounding acne products

Want more? You can find these PDFs at this link - Paddock Labs - and click on resources!

Essential oils: Orange in surfactant based products

2011-12-12T07:50:00.000-08:00

I love using orange essential oil in my rinse off products, especially shampoo, because it's a fantastic essential oil for degreasing oily hair and skin. But it is really awesome for hand cleansers, especially when we've been making products and need to get the oils off our skin!

I tend to use my orange essential oil with vanilla - 1:2 ratio orange to vanilla, which smells like Creamsicles!- or in my oily hair essential oil blend - equal parts sage, rosemary, cedarwood, and a citrus like lemon or lime - in my shampoo or body wash at up to 2% in the cool down phase.

Always check the suggested usage or restrictions on every essential oil before using. In the case of orange essential oil, 1% is just fine, but I want my hands to smell like Creamsicles, so I'll use 1% of that blend in the product (1 part orange, 2 parts vanilla by weight). This means I only have 0.33% in my product, which falls within the limits on the essential oil, so it's all good!

This is my favourite hand cleanser recipe, and I've modified it to include some orange essential oil. I've also included neroli hydrosol - it's not necessary, although it's nice for degreasing, so feel free to use other hydrosols or just use water. As for the surfactants, I suggest keep the cocamidopropyl betaine for mildness and thickenening and the SCI for the thickening and pearlizing, but you can use any combination that leaves your hands feeling soft. (If you'd like to see why I'm using the ingredients I'm using, click on the link above!)

ORANGE & HONEY HAND CLEANSER
or HAND SOAP WITH SCI & POLYQUATS, TAKE 2
FIRST HEATED PHASE
10% cocamidopropyl betaine
11% polyglucose/lactylate blend
10% SCI
2% glycol distearate

SECOND HEATED PHASE
33.5% water
10% aloe vera
10% orange hydrosol
3% PEG-7 glyceryl cocoate
3% glycerin

COOL DOWN PHASE
3% honeyquat
0.5% liquid Germall Plus
1% fragrance
Crothix (optional)

And here's a modification if you want to make it with ACI liquid!

Weigh the first heated phase into heatproof container and heat in your double boiler until the SCI and glycol distearate has melted. Weigh the second heated phase into a heatproof container and heat until the SCI has melted in the other container. Remove both from the heat and add the second heated phase slowly, stirring as you go, until it is well incorporated. You may want to heat it a little longer to ensure it is well incorporated.

When the temperature reaches 45˚C to 50˚C, add the cool down phase BUT DON'T ADD THE CROTHIX! (Read more about Crothix here if you've never used it before.) I didn't need Crothix in mine, but that will vary given the modifications to ingredients and fragrance you choose.

When the mixture has reached room temperature or has sat for at least four hours, test the viscosity. Add 1% Crothix, and mix very well. If you want it a bit thicker, add another 0.5% and stir well. Repeat until you get the viscosity you want.

If you like foamer bottles, consider making a hand soap for your kids in Creamsicle or orange! They'll love it! Click here for a recipe!

Join me tomorrow for more essential oil fun!

Essential oils: Folded oils and phototoxicity of citrus essential oils

2011-12-11T11:05:00.000-08:00

What the heck does folded mean when it comes to essential oils? Folded oils tend to be citrus based oils - orange, grapefruit, lime, lemon - and we see them as 5X or 10X folded.

Folded essential oils are those that have been further distilled and concentrated to create a more concentrated, and usually stronger smelling, essential oil. The oils should have a longer shelf life because some of the terpenes that contribute to oxidation of the oil have been removed, and they should be safer to use in leave in products thanks to the removal of those same terpenes.

Unfolded essential oils tend to contain furanocoumarins or furocoumarins, which can make the oils photosensitizing. Removal of these compounds can make the oil less likely to be phototoxic when used in leave in products. (Notice I said the word "likely"...)

A phototoxic ingredient "is a chemical compound which becomes toxic when exposed to light. Some medicines: tetracycline antibiotics, sulfonamides, amiodarone, quinolones. Many cold pressed citrus essential oils such as bergamot oil. Some plant juices: parsley and Giant hogweed. Others: psoralen." (Wikipedia). You'll notice the word "cold pressed" before the word citrus. This is because the cold pressed versions of essential oils contain more furocoumarins, which is why they are folded to ensure there are fewer photosensitizing compounds.

Can we use folded oils in leave on products and be guaranteed the product users won't be subjected to phototoxicity? No, and here's the problem with essential oils in general....

I've mentioned before that mineral oil is used a lot in commercial products because it's predictable. We know that when we see something like "light mineral oil" (I'm making up this name for the purposes of this post) that it has a certain characteristics. When we see something like sunflower oil, we know some general things, but it is affected by the terroir - the place it was grown, the climate, the way it was processed, and so on - so the characteristics are not the same with every bottle. This means it could change the viscosity of our lotion, the amount of linoleic acid, and so on. It's the same thing with essential oils. Although we know that orange oil contains orange essential oil, each bottle could be different with differing levels of terpenes or other compounds depending upon the climate, growing temperature, processing, and so on. So when I see something called 10x orange oil, it means that the oil has been concentrated to increase the fragrance and remove some of the photosensitizing compounds. But the 10x orange oil from one company might be different than the 10x orange oil from another company thanks to different manufacturers and different places they've been grown.

As a rule, I don't put citrus based essential oils in anything that won't be completely rinsed out. That means I reserve them for my body wash and shampoo for the most part. It does suck because the Creamsicle lip balm I made with vanilla and orange essential oil tasted amazing...

If you're using folded essential oils, the risk is lower, so I leave it to you to make your own decisions based on the information you have from your supplier and past experience. If you're new to essential oils, please be really careful when using orange, lime, lemon, and so on...the goal is to make the end user happy, not burn them when they're out in the sun for a few hours.

I know some of you are considering writing to me to say that you have used citrus based essential oils safely and think my comments are insane. To you I say, fantastic! I'm glad you can use them well. But please consider this story...A very enthusiastic young woman posted her lip balm recipe - lime juice, sugar, and Vaseline - on a very large crafting forum with the comment, "I guess I sell lip balm now!" I got in trouble from the moderator for telling her this was a very bad idea, so I abandoned that forum, spent more time at the Dish, and started up this blog. There are people out there who think this kind of recipe is a good idea to make and to sell. If you have successfully used non-folded citrus based essential oils in your products, to you I say, "Kudos!" But please remember that your success isn't necessarily what others will experience!

Wow, how did we go from information to a lecture? Sorry about that! Join me tomorrow for some ideas on how to use orange oil in our products!

Chemistry Sunday: Introduction to organic chemistry - functional groups

2011-12-11T06:05:00.000-08:00

We deal a lot with functional groups in organic chemistry, so I'm going to quickly go through the various types of functional groups so we can get to more stuff about essential oils!

A functional group is "a molecular module, and the reactivity of that functional group is assumed, within limits, to be the same in a variety of molecules. Functional groups can have decisive influence on the chemical and physical properties of organic compounds. Molecules are classified on the basis of their functional groups." (Wikipedia). Okay, that made sense in a way that was not! Let's try again....

For example, we classify something as an alcohol when it has a certain molecular structure. When you see a compound called an alcohol, we know that it must have a certain molecular structure and that it will behave in a certain way. We know it will have this oxygen and hydrogen (a hydroxyl group) in the compound, which makes it an alcohol.

If you remember the post on alkanes, you'll remember that we had the one carbon with the four hydrogens attached and we called that methane. For an alcohol, for instance, we see that there's only three hydrogens attached to the carbon, then this oxygen and hydrogen in the fourth hydrogen's place! This is substitution changes the nature of the molecule. Before, it was methane (meth- meaning one, for the one carbon, and -ane because it was a carbon chain with no double bonds). Now we have methanol (meth - for one, -ol for alcohol). Methane was a smelly gas; methanol is a liquid! The substitution of the functional group of alcohol for that fourth hydrogen group really made a huge difference in the chemistry of that molecule!

Side note: The hydroxyl group appears in a ton of different molecules, so you'll be seeing it quite a bit. It's that oxygen and hydrogen you see in this picture. It's important for so many reasons, but two really interesting ones for us are its ability to increase hydrophilicity - increasing something's love for water - and increasing water's solubility! If you really want to know more organic chemistry, say hi to the little hydroxyl group and look for it in your favourite molecules!

The R in the picture indicates there's something else there - a chain of carbons, for instance - that doesn't interest us at the moment!

Why do we care if this is a methane molecule or a methanol molecule? Because it affects how we might use it in our products. (Although we'd never use methane - too whiffy and gaseous!)

Alcohols tend to have much lower freezing points than something like water and they can draw water from the atmosphere to itself (it's hygroscopic). If you look at our humectants - like glycerin or propylene glycol - we know that adding them to our products will lower the freezing point and make it easier to transport lotions and other things that might contain these poly-alcohols! If we poured water on the road in winter, it'd freeze. Pour propylene glycol, glycerin, even honey on the road in December and you're doing motorists a favour by keeping that patch from freezing quickly! We also know that including an alcohol in our products makes the product more hygroscopic, meaning we will get more moisturizing for our skin because we'll draw water to it. Alcohols aren't just for Saturday nights at the karaoke bar any more!

Side note: The alcohol that makes it easier to talk to boys is called ethanol. Eth- means two, an- from the alkane or chain without double bonds, and -ol from the alcohol. Take a look at that picture. You can see the last carbon has been replaced by an oxygen and hydrogen - that's what makes this an alcohol!

I know you're asking yourself how does this relate to fatty alcohols like cetyl alcohol, cetearyl alcohol, and behenyl alcohol? These are alcohols in the sense that they have the hydroxyl group on the end. We'll be talking about this more in the future, but in the meantime if you want to know way more about fatty alcohols? Click here for a great PDF on the topic!

Essential oils: Orange

2011-12-10T08:15:00.000-08:00

Orange essential oil can be found in so many places because it's inexpensive and it smells nice. It comes from the peels of oranges that have enjoyed some other use - juice, flavouring, and so on -

What do we find in orange oil? The main compound found in orange oil - about 90% of the oil - is limonene, a cyclic terpene that gives us that wonderful orange-y fragrance and flavour as well as acting as a great solvent for cleaning. It's good for removing grease and oil from people and objects.

We also find about 0.4% geraniol, a mono-terpenoid alcohol, that is the lovely smelling part of rose, geranium, citronella, and other flowers that is used as a flavouring agent and mosquito repellant. (Side note: It might repel mosquitoes, but it might attract bees as it's also found in the scent glands of honey bees!) We find about 0.7% ɑ-terpineol, a mono-terpenoid alcohol that offers some nice fragrance. (Also found in tea tree oil.) Citral, a powerful anti-microbial and starting point for the synthesis of Vitamin A, is found in very low amounts, almost too low to mention! But it's there!

Be careful! As with any citrus based oil, it can irritate the skin and cause photosensitivity. I wouldn't suggest using it in a leave in product - lotion, lip balm, lotion bar, and so on - because you never know where the end user of the product might end up in a day. If she's at the beach after applying your lovely orange and vanilla lotion, this might not be a good thing!

Where might I use orange oil? I like to use it in rinse off products, like my shampoo for greasy hair - combine it with a little vanilla for a Creamsicle like fragrance - or my body wash for oily skin. As much as I would like Creamsicle in my lotions, I never use it in a leave on product because of my concerns about the photosensitivity!

Join me Monday for more fun with orange essential oil as we add it to a few of my favourite recipes!

Chemistry Saturday: Cis and trans fats

2011-12-10T06:05:00.000-08:00

Original post can be found here...

When we have a double bond on a fatty acid, it can be in either the cis- or trans- configuration. What exactly does this mean?

In the cis configuration, the missing hydrogen atoms are on the same side of the double bond (cis means "same"). The molecules bend at the site of the double bond, giving us a kinky molecule that won't pack in nice straight, dense lines like the saturated fatty acids. Put a bunch of these together and you have a liquid oil!

In the trans configuration, the missing hydrogen atoms are on the opposite sides of the double bonds. The chain doesn't bend much, so they have a straighter shape. Meaning they can pack in more densely, resulting in an oil that behaves as a solid saturated oil instead of a liquid oil. It has a higher melting point, doesn't need refrigeration, and is cheaper than saturated oils like coconut or palm oil.

The process of partial hydrogenation can force the hydrogen atoms in a normal cis configuration to become a trans configuration. The double bonds are broken, then re-formed in the trans configuration. I think you can see why trans fats would be so popular with the food manufacturers, eh? It means you can get an oil - say, sunflower oil - that behaves like a butter by being solid and has a longer shelf life.

If you're really interested in learning more about trans fats, please click here. It is a fascinating subject!

Join me tomorrow for a post on on functional groups, then it's back to essential oils!

Chemistry Friday: Introduction to organic chemistry

2011-12-09T05:49:00.000-08:00

Nope, I haven't gone all granola on you! Organic chemistry is

a subdiscipline within chemistry involving the scientific study of the structure, properties, composition, reactions, and preparation (by synthesis or by other means) of carbon-based compounds, hydrocarbons, and their derivatives. These compounds may contain any number of other elements, including hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen, the halogens as well as phosphorus, silicon, and sulfur.

In other words, organic chemistry is the study of thingies that contain carbon. It wouldn't be the study of metals, metalloids, or even salts - if it doesn't contain carbon, it isn't organic chemistry. So we'd study fats, oils, butters, surfactants, and extracts, for instance, but we wouldn't be studying Epsom salts, MSM, silicones, or zinc because those are inorganic chemistry.

This is an alkane. Alkanes "are chemical compounds that consist only of hydrogen and carbon atoms and are bonded exclusively by single bonds (i.e., they are saturated compounds) without any cycles (or loops; i.e., cyclic structure)." To put it in easier terms, it's a chain of carbons that contain single bonds, no double or triple bonds.

Carbon has four electrons in its outer shell, meaning it has space for up to four electrons to join in the fun by covalent bonding. Hydrogen has an extra electron that it wants to share, meaning that each hydrogen can offer one electron. Carbon has four slots - hydrogen has one electron - so we can get four hydrogens around each carbon. The smallest alkane is called methane (meth- meaning one and -ane indicating it's an alkane).

Alkanes are named after the number of carbon atoms. This picture is ethane - eth- meaning 2 and -ane indicating it has only single bonds.

But why aren't there four hydrogens around each of these carbons? Take a look at one of the carbon atoms. It can make up to four bonds - it has three bonds with hydrogen, and the fourth is bonded to another carbon!

As an aside...meth- is 1, eth- is 2, prop- is 3, but- is 4, and pent- is 5. So if you see a propane molecule, you know it has 3 carbon atoms! Click here to learn more about organic chemistry nomenclature! The other thing you might see is called the trivial name, and we'll get to that soon!

An alkene "is an unsaturated chemical compound containing at least one carbon-to-carbon double bond." (The word unsaturated means that there is at least one double bond, so the definition is a little circular.) "The simplest acyclic alkenes, with only one double bond and no other functional groups, form an homologous series of hydrocarbons with the general formula CnH2n." (If you see the word "olefine" or "olefin", this also refers to an alkene, like C14-16 olefin sulfonate, one of my favourite surfactants!)

So this molecule is ethene (eth- as in 2, -ene as in alkene, meaning there's a double bond in there). The carbon is bonded doubly to another carbon, which means there's only space for four hydrogens in this molecule as opposed to six above. That's because carbon has covalently bonded twice to the other carbon, so there's only room for two hydrogens per atom!

This is an unsaturated molecule of oleic acid, and you can see that there's a double bond along that chain that could be broken, allowing some atom to slip in and join the fun! If that the bond is broken and oxygen sneaks in there - you've got oxidation and your oil will go rancid soon!

The more double bonds we see in an oil, the shorter its shelf life will be because those double bonds can be broken and oxygen can cause rancidity. This is why our butters have longer shelf lives than oils. Something like shea butter has relatively few double bonds, while something like grapeseed oil has double and triple bonds! (For more on the chemistry of our oils, click here and start reading!) We'll be getting to what that O and OH at the end mean in the next few days!

That was a lot to take in one day, so let's summarize:
1. Organic chemistry is the study of stuff that contains carbon.
2. Alkanes are chains of carbons with hydrogens on them and they have only single bonds, meaning they are saturated. We name alkanes by using the prefix for the number of carbons (like eth-) and the ending -ane.
3. Alkenes are chains of carbons with hydrogens on them and they contain double bonds, so they are unsaturated. We name alkenes by using the prefix for the number of carbons (like eth-) and the ending -ene.

Let's take a look at cis and trans fats tomorrow! On Sunday, we'll look at functional groups, and get back to essential oils on Monday!

Argh! Why are you trying to teach me chemistry?

2011-12-08T06:11:00.000-08:00

So you get jokes like this! (Click here for more! They're not all as awesome as this!)

I find it interesting how many of us say, "I'm not good at math". When was the last time you truly tried to do any real math beyond adding up the bill at a restaurant and trying to divide it amongst the guests? (The reason it never adds up properly is because there's always someone who manages to get out of his/her fair share, not because you suck at math!) Are you saying that you're not good at arithmetic because you can't do it in your head or you can't do it successfully? Or are you having a flash back to your grade 11 report card?

The last time you probably did math for a grade was when you were 16 or 17. How many things did you last do when you were 16 or 17 that you could honestly say that after years of practice, you still aren't good at doing? You probably started to drive, but you've had years of practice doing that. You might have learned how to sew or crochet or knit, but years of making clothes and scarves has helped you become good. And you probably first learned to cook or bake properly. But for some strange reason, we get this math anxiety and practically yell, "I suck at math" at anyone who might be within a 2 metre radius.

Okay, my point was supposed to be about chemistry, but I think math and physics fall into the same category. People will say to me, "I know you're talking about chemistry, but all I hear is bzzz bzzz bzzz," or proudly proclaim that they didn't understand a word. I'm not sure why not being interested or not knowing is a sense of pride, and that's why I ask the question.

I understand that chemistry might not interest you...but considering the topic of this blog and the questions and comments I get every day, I think it might just a little. I have two big worries...

One, it seems like we know less about science every day. People are terrified of chemicals, even through they're everything! We can fall prey to the pseudo-scientific things the cosmetic companies say. We fall prey to the pseudo-scientific things natural and organic companies say. We believe things we're told by people who want to sell us stuff, and we don't know how to review a study to know if the results are good or not. A basic understanding of science is a good thing here.

Secondly, I'm a little worried about people who own businesses selling bath and body products who don't know enough chemistry to formulate their own recipes. I get messages every day from people asking me to help them formulate something for their business. Not a friendly "what do you think?" e-mail with a recipe attached - which I love!!! - but a "can you formulate this for me so I can sell it and make money" kind of e-mail with nothing attached. If you are selling bath and body products, you need to know enough chemistry to figure out what oil you can use or how to make your own emulsifier if your supplier is out and you have a big show tomorrow morning!

On top of everything else, I think we owe it to ourselves to learn a little bit of everything so we can be interesting and well rounded people!

Okay, here endeth the lecture...

As a final note...H2O2 is hydrogen peroxide!

Chemistry Thursday: Covalent bonding

2011-12-08T05:23:00.000-08:00

If you're new to chemistry, please read the first two posts in this series (found here and here).

Covalent bonding is the bonding between atoms when they share the electrons. If you look at this picture above, each hydrogen atom has one electron. They come together and share the electrons, forming H2 instead of each being a lonely H.

Covalent bonding happens between atoms with similar electronegativity, which is defined as...

a chemical property that describes the tendency of an atom or a functional group to attract electrons (or electron density) towards itself. An atom's electronegativity is affected by both its atomic number and the distance that its valence electrons reside from the charged nucleus. The higher the associated electronegativity number, the more an element or compound attracts electrons towards it

Click here for a fancy periodic table of the electronegativities of the elements. As a note, you don't need to know much more about electronegativity at this point...but it is interesting!

Electronegativity determines what is polar and non-polar (which you might remember from solubility - like dissolves like, so polar solvents dissolve polar solutes and non-polar solvents dissolve non-polar solutes.)

Let's say you have something like water - H2O, meaning it has two hydrogen atoms and one oxygen atom. Each hydrogen atom is bonded to the oxygen atom covalently. Oxygen has a higher electronegativity number (3.44) than hydrogen (2.20) and oxygen is considered slightly negative, so the water molecule is considered to be polar, meaning it has a negative side and a positive side.

As an aside, oils are considered non-polar, which is why water and oil don't mix, and we can't put oil soluble things into water and vice versa. They won't mix because the polarity is different!

Covalent bonding is the type of bonding that leads to single, double, and triple bonds, like those found in a lot of our ingredients. For instance, with oils, when we have a saturated oil, this means it only has single bonds. Double and triple bonds lead to unsaturated oils! (Click here for the emollients section and read the chemistry of oils part! There's a lot there, and we will be reviewing this shortly!)

Ellbie described the difference between ionic bonding and covalent bonding like this...

Ionic bonding is like a couple living together, you are very happy at the moment but if another attractive ion comes along, with the right charge, then it is like I'm outta here, baby. On the other hand covalent bonding is more like marriage, it takes energy (ie. guns, lawyers,or money) to break that bond.

I love this description!

Join me tomorrow for a little more information on chemistry as we continue to look at essential oils.

The chemistry of essential oils: Terpenes revisited

2011-12-07T06:55:00.000-08:00

This post was originally written on December 30, 2010, but I've added and updated it!

So what the heck are terpenes?

Terpenes are organic compounds, the major building blocks within nearly every living creature. For instance, steroids are derivatives of the triterpene squalene. (Quote from Wikipedia .) They are derived from units of isoprene (that's the picture up there, with a formula of C5H8) called the isoprene rule or C5 rule. Terpenes are created out of multiples of those isoprene units. When they are modified chemically through oxidation or rearrangement of the carbon skeleton, they become terpenoids or isoprenoids (terpenoids are not the same as terpenes as they have been modified in some way, but some people group them together.) These can be cyclical or linear.

Terpenes are everywhere in our products, especially in oils and essential oils.

MONOTERPENES
These contain 10 carbons and 2 isoprene units. They tend to be used as flavouring and fragrancing ingredients, but they often have other great qualities. Limonene is a great example of a monoterpene, and we know it acts as a good degreaser (you can see the isoprene unit at the top and bottom of the ring). Linalool, which is found in roses and lavender, is often used as a fragrance ingredient. Other monoterpenes of interest are camphor, menthol, citronellal, thymol, and carvacrol.

We find major monoterpenes in plants or spices like black pepper, peppermint leaf, cardamom, rosemary, bitter orange peel, camphor, caraway, and thyme.

Some monoterpenes can stimulate mucous membranes and help with congestion, respiratory issues, and phlegm - think about Vick's for a moment with the camphor, eucalyptus, and menthol (but don't think about Buckley's cough syrup because it really tastes awful!). You'll find 1,8-cineole (aka eucalyptol) in tea tree oil and eucalyptus, both of which can stimulate mucous membranes but can be irritating at higher levels. And there is some indication that monoterpenes might have some anti-cancer properties (click this link for the summary of the study).

SESQUITERPENES
These contain 15 carbons and 3 isoprene units. They are found abundantly in plants and some of the major ones are alpha-bisabolol in chamomile and parthenolide in feverfew, both of which are potent anti-inflammatories, and ß-caryophyllene (the picture to the left), found in rosemary, cloves, cinnamon, and the essential oils of cannabis. Studies are still testing to see if the the ß-caryophyllene has anti-inflammatory properties in humans. Chamazulen, also found in chamomile, is a fantastic anti-inflammatory.

Another important sesquiterpene is farnesol, found in citronella, neroli, lemon grass, tuberose, rose, musk, and balsam. It's used in products to enhance the fragrance, but it's also a natural pesticide for mites and is active against yeasts.
For more on sesquiterpenes, click here.

DITERPENES
These have 20 carbons and 4 isoprene units. The most significant one is phytol, which constitutes the lipophilic side chain of chlorophyll in plans. It forms a part of Vitamin E (tocopherol). (Vitamin A contains 20 carbon atoms but it's formed from a cleavage of a tetraterpene.) Some of the other important diterpenes are stevioside from stevia (which I enjoy in my tea every morning) and ginkgolides from ginko.

TRITERPENES
These contain 30 carbons and have 6 isoprene units. The most important one is squalene, which makes up about 12% of our skin's sebum, so our skin identifies it as "ours" and soaks it up quickly. Squalene is a vital part of cholesterol, steroid, and Vitamin D synthesis in our bodies. It penetrates the skin quickly offering softening and moisturizing to even really chapped or cracked skin.

We find it in lanosterol, one of the ingredients in Croda's Super Sterol product.

In this category we also find curcurbitane, which is found in cucumber extract, and is a very good anti-inflammatory and analgesic. And we also find dammarenediols in ginseng extract, which might help with penetration of actives into our skin.

TETRATERPENES

These contain 40 carbons and 8 isoprene units. The major tetraterpenes of interest in this category are ß-carotene, lycopene (pigment in tomatoes), and capsanthin (pigment in red peppers)

The main terpenes we'll be seeing in essential oils are the monoterpenes and sesquiterpenes. Tomorrow we'll spend some time with the terpene alcohols like monoterpene alcohol and sesquiterpene alcohol, but first, we need to know what an alcohol means in chemistry!

The chemistry of essential oils: Overview

2011-12-07T06:54:00.000-08:00

I don't think it would be helpful to talk about essential oils without talking about the chemistry, so I'm going to take a few days to review what we find in these oils. If you're interested in learning more chemistry, this'll be a two-fer as we delve into the various molecules we might find in the oils and why they work they way they do.

We find a ton of interesting molecules in essential oils, with the most common being terpenes and terpenoids; sesquiterpenes and sesquiterpenoids; phenylpropane derivatives; phenols; ketones; esters; aldehydes; alcohols; and oxides (to name a few!). Anyone who thinks that essential oils are "chemical free" are completely wrong, eh?

I'll be covering these in order...for the most part...starting with terpenes in a few minutes. I did write a post on this in the past, so I've updated it and will be posting it in about 5 minutes!

If you have any questions related to the chemistry of essential oils, I ask that you put them in this thread so I can find them easily!

All right - we're off! See you in a few moments!

Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!

2011-12-06T07:41:00.000-08:00

A huge thanks to those of you who have donated for the e-books or made a donation to our Rated T for Teen programs! Thanks to you we can have our Christmas extravaganza groups - our once a year, try to get as many projects in at once so the kids can give out gifts to family and friends, treat them to some hot chocolate and cookies event!

The kids have chosen - today it's candles and soap making, Thursday's group wants to do some resin casting, fun with fleece, and Shrinky Dinks! I'm visiting the pregnant and parenting teen group next week and we're making soy wax and beeswax candles, and I'll be teaching bath salts and bath bombs to three groups of parents with children ages 6 months and younger at our local Family Place. You've made it possible for me to buy these supplies to teach these groups, and I can't thank you enough.

Tea tree oil: Moisturizers

2011-12-06T06:15:00.000-08:00

In all honesty, if your acne is bothersome enough to have you considering adding tea tree oil to a moisturizer, then your face probably doesn't like oils. I'd really ask you to consider making a gelled toner, like this one, and adding tea tree oil with the solubilizer (like the Caprol Micro Express I used in it). Or consider making an oil free moisturizer, like this one. Just add your tea tree oil at 1% to 5% (although that's quite high, in my humble opinion) in the cool down phase. Remove the same percentage from your water phase.

Here's a post I wrote recently on facial moisturizers with tons of links!

Join me tomorrow as we take a look at the chemistry of essential oils!

Tea tree oil: A facial wash and a toner!

2011-12-06T05:50:00.000-08:00

As we saw from the studies on tea tree oil, using it in our facial products could help with acne. I'm going to include it in a facial cleanser with one small disclaimer - this is not an unscented product! It has a light medicinal smell, which isn't necessarily a bad thing, so you might want to consider who is using the product before loading everything up with tea tree oil. Any fragrance in a facial product can get annoying if you have to smell it all day!

I'm going to add it to my favourite facial cleanser (posted the other day, so click here) at 1% in the cool down phase. That's it! You don't need to include an emulsifier (remembering that tea tree oil is, in fact, an oil) because surfactants can emulsify a little bit of oil without problem. 1% is no problem for most surfactants!

You can choose any cleanser you want - creamy foamy facial cleanser, a cream cleanser for dry skin, a regular skin cleanser - just add it at 1% to 2% in the cool down phase. (Click on the label "facial product" to find more!)

Adding tea tree oil to a toner is a little more difficult because a toner is generally a water only product with no solubilizers. And therein lies the problem. A lot of our solubilizers feel sticky. Polysorbate 20 can feel a bit sticky, even at 1%, so I'm going to suggest something like Cromollient SCE, Caprol Micro Express, or caprylyl/capryl glucoside to avoid the stickiness. (If you don't mind polysorbate 20, use that. I'm just not a fan!) Since I already use Caprol Micro Express as an emollient in this recipe, I can just add my tea tree oil at 1% in the product during the cool down phase!

If you aren't using a solubilizer in your toner, choose one, mix in the tea tree oil, then add it during the cool down phase. Wasn't that easy?

BEWARE! Using tea tree oil in a cleanser is one thing - you're washing that off! Using it in a toner means you will smell of tea tree oil all day long. If you hate the smell of tea tree, do not do this. Or try a small amount - take something like a tablespoon of your toner and add 0.15 cc (one of those small mineral make up scoops) of tea tree oil to it and see if you like it. If you don't, don't ruin your lovely - and possibly expensive, if you've used a lot of cosmeceuticals - with the smell!

Join me in about half an hour when we'll add tea tree oil to facial moisturizers!