Sunday 24 April 2011

HLB system: Work this one out!

Now you try it! Here's a recipe (originally found in this post) on which you can practice your mad HLB figuring out skills!

BODY BUTTER FOR ITCHY WINTER SKIN WITH MINIMALLY PROCESSED INGREDIENTS
WATER PHASE
25% water
10% aloe vera
10% chamomile hydrosol
10% witch hazel
2% hydrolyzed protein
5% tamarind seed extract
3% glycerin
0.5% allantoin

OIL PHASE
10% soy bean oil
7.5% cocoa butter
7.5% mango butter
7% emulsifier*

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

Please refer to this PDF for information on your emulsifier and oil values.

Remember the steps to finding out the HLB value of your ingredients.
1. Which ingredients have an HLB value?
2. How much of each ingredient is in the total recipe?
3. Divide this by the total oil phase to get a percentage.
4. Multiply the percentage by the HLB value. Add them together to get the HLB value of your oil phase.

And remember the steps to finding out the HLB value of your emulsifiers.
1. Find a low HLB emulsifier and a high HLB emulsifier.
2. Work on the percentages to find a total that is very close to the HLB value of your oil phase.
3. Rejoice!

I'm going to suggest you use glycol distearate (HLB 1) and ceteareth-20 (HLB 15.2) as your emulsifiers, but you can use others. It's just those are the ones I'm using and it will be easier to compare your notes with mine if we're using the same emulsifiers!

All right! You're on your own! Feel free the post your results in the comments. There isn't a prize or anything - just the satisfaction of knowing you got it right! Join me tomorrow to see if you got it right!

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