Creating products: Equipment for measuring pH

pH indicators: You can get pH strips from your local supplier, and there always seems to be a great debate about whether or not they are useful. There's always a place for testing your pH in bath and body products, but my experiences with strips have been spotty at best.

I've tried three different kinds of pH strips and none of them made me happy! I didn't feel I was getting an accurate reading on my products. (If you've had a different experience, please share it in the comments.) I've had products that registered as having a neutral pH (around 7) that have registered as 5.5 with my meter!

If you've had good results with the strips, please make a comment! And include supplier information so we can all share in the awesomeness. (But remember, if you're a compnay, please don't write just so you can get your URL listed on the blog! I check every link!) 

pH meters: I love my pH meter, and I won't part with it, but if you can't get one, that's okay. (I make sure all my recipes are pH balanced, so you don't have to!) If you're making a lot of surfactant based products with surfactants that will register as more alkaline - decyl glucoside, for instance - it's not a bad investment. Make sure you get one that is easy to calibrate and doesn't need a ton of replaceable bits, like the tip or strips. And if it can measure temperature, make sure you get it in your local measurement (mine's in Fahrenheit, and I had to get a conversion chart for the workshop).

Here's some information on pH meters!
Calibrating your pH meter
Adjusting the pH of your products
Not worrying about adjusting the pH of your products

Tomorrow I'll address some of the questions that have arisen from the last few posts!

Read More

Creating products: Equipment (part 2)

Let's get back to our look at equipment! 

Mixers: There's always this great debate about mixers - do we go with a stick blender, hand mixer, Kitchenaid, or whisking by hand? Yes.

I went into a little detail in this post about mixers, and you can use any of those mixers listed above when making lotions. If you're making a large batch (say 4 kg), the Kitchenaid is an appropriate mixer. If you're making a small batch - say 100 grams - then not so much. 

I have purchased mixers that were too powerful - I want my first setting to be a leisurely mixing, not some crazy, can't hold on to the mixer, things are spewing everywhere kind of power - and I've used ones that weren't powerful enough, but those tended to be of the "my mom got this as an inappropriate Christmas gift instead of diamonds" variety from the 1970's. I think any mixer you buy these days will be more than powerful enough. 

If you can, I suggest getting one with a whisk attachment, as those come in very handy for making whipped butters and sugar scrubs, as well as icing for bath bombs (and regular cupcakes, come to think of it.)

If you want to know a little more about thickening and shear rates, click here! 

As a note, you know you make too many bath and body products and not enough real food when you see a stick blender on the Food Network and think, "You can use those for food?" Or when you mix a few pounds of icing in your Kitchenaid for a craft group, and instead of tasting it, I rubbed it on my hand! 

Spoons: Wooden, metal, plastic - spoons have such an important place in our workshop, but we don't talk about them much! I think I mentioned it in the past, but I went to a restaurant supply place and bought 25 for $5 so I always have a clean one nearby. The nice thing about buying cheap spoons? You can throw them out when they start to get bendy or tarnished! 

Forks: Forks also have a place in our workshop! A study found that it was more effective to stir coffee with a fork in a back and forth motion, rather than a stirring motion, so I do this with surfactant based products to integrate the water and surfactants better. I have a large wooden fork, and I bought 25 forks for $5.00 at HY Louie.

Oops, look at the time! I better get ready for work and craft group tonight! The final post on your equipment tomorrow! 

Read More

Creating products: Equipment (part 1)

The more you create, the more it seems you need to buy special equipment for your crafting...but it doesn't have to be that way. I'll give you an idea of which things I feel I really need and which I don't (and I hope you'll chime in with your favourite toys for the workshop)

Scale: This is is essential. I'd suggest getting a digital scale that can weigh to 1 gram. You've seen my scale over the last few days - a grey Escali - but I'm debating getting this one with the glass top because it might be easier to clean. Having said this, I'm worried the glass might not be all that durable. (I find my plastic scales eventually look really dirty with all the oil and things spilled on them over time, hence the wanting something that cleans up easily!)

I have a smaller scale that can weigh down to 0.1 grams for those smaller things like cosmeceuticals or extracts. I've had epoxy scales in the past, but I've purchased a new one from a jewellery shop and I'm pleased with it. I had a scale from London Drugs (click here to see the Salter scale), but it wouldn't work again once I replaced the batteries. My current one as a backlight, an on/off button that actually works, and weighs down to 0.1 gram (I can't find a picture of it, so I'll take one later today!). I've only had it two weeks, so I'm not comfortable recommending it, but it was $16.99 (as opposed to the $40 everyone seems to want) and it takes AAA batteries instead of those expensive button batteries. So I'm a fan so far. 

Pipettes: I love these things! I buy them in packs of 100 from Aquarius Aroma & Soap (although you can get them from various locations, like Lotioncrafter and Voyageur, and probably a 100 other places). You can find different sizes, and I prefer the 3 ml or 3.5 ml (Lotioncrafter and Aquarius, respectively) because the tube part is larger and I find it easier to read. 

Pipettes are supposed to be one time usage type things, but I have found you can clean them for things like fragrances. Fill a container in the sink full of hot water with dishwashing liquid. Suck the soap up into pipette, then squish it out. Suck up some clean water (warm, preferably) and shake. Do this a few times until you're sure the suds are gone. There! You've cleaned a  pipette!

When I'm crafting, I'll get one for something like hydrolyzed oat protein and either keep it in the bottle or beside the bottle so I'm not using a new one every time I need a bit of oat protein. 

Heating and holding containers: I covered this topic more extensively in this post, but I'll remind you that you want something that is heat resistant and sturdy. Something with a handle is a good thing - but if you want to use a beaker or Mason jar, have some tongs or dish cloth/oven mitt handy to remove the containers from your double boiler. 

Do you know why Pyrex works well against heat? Because it's glass made with soda lime, which is heat resistant and less likely to break. The labware is made with borosilicate glass, which is more resistant to heat, but the soda lime is more resistant to breaking when dropped, which Pyrex considers more important in a household! (Click here for a very defensive statement from Pyrex!)

You don't want to go very hot to very cold or very cold to very hot with a Pyrex (or competitors') container. I regularly go from my double boiler to the freezer for things like lotion bars, but there is a risk your container could shatter. We had this happen in the double boiler once - it just cracked, no shards or anything, but the liquids in the container were ruined! We weren't going very hot to very cold or vice versa, but I think doing that often is what caused the shattering.

Join me tomorrow as we look at other equipment you could use in your workshop! 

Read More

Questions about mixing

In the small batch post, Annette asked: The problem I have is with the mixing - The oil phase is so small, it starts to re-solidify really fast! Also, what do you use to mix the small batches? I have tried just about everything but a hand whisk! Any tips for the mixing phase?

Before we get to the mixing ideas, please make sure you have heated and held your lotion phases for 20 minutes. Unless you're in my unheated workshop in the winter where it can get to -11˚C, your oil phase should have lots of time before it starts to solidify! If you are heating and holding and this is still happening, please give me some details because this is really strange.

I make a lot of small batches and I rarely use a stick blender, although a lot people swear by them. I find they're a pain to clean and my husband generally likes to keep them for food! I prefer my Black & Decker hand mixer with the regular mixing attachments and whisk attachments. I bought another one - Hamilton Beach - that comes with mixers that have silicone covers and one whisk attachment. Both were about $25 from Canadian Tire and Wal-Mart, respectively.

I know there are people who swear by stick blenders and others who swear by mixers, and although there some science behind the shear and speed and all of that, it really doesn't become a huge issue for lotion making unless you're into all kinds of strange emulsions or gels. My personal preference is for a mixer!

In the picture above, I'm using spoons and I do that for things like shampoo bars. For my surfactants, I always use a fork. There was a study a while ago - sorry, can't find the link - that going back and forth with a fork is more effective for stirring than going in circles with a spoon. I've been doing this for a while and I find it lessens the amount of bubbles in the product. I even have a large wooden spoon for those really big batches around Christmas time! 

Wendy had a similar question: It is very difficult to mix small batches. I have been searching for a stick blender with a disk-like attachment like one of those milk frother things but with more power. So far I find the easiest way is to use a milkshake mixer because you can lift the cup up high so the mixer reaches the very bottom. I bought one from Walmart for $20. I also was having the problem of the oil phase solidifying so I heat the stainless steel cup with oil phase in it and pour the water phase into the oil. I know lots of people say you are supposed to add the oil phase to the water phase but so far I have not had any problems. Do you think it matters which way you put the phases together?

Thanks for the great idea, Wendy! I've been looking for something like that for making emulsions with Sucragel emulsifier. I really don't like the emulsifier for lotions, but I've been dying to make the oily gel into a scrub or intense moisturizer.

As for adding the water phase to the oil phase and the oil phase to the water phase, on the surface we don't notice much of a difference. But under the surface, there are some differences. (Click here for the post on phase inversion.) For years, I added the oil phase to the water phase because the water phase container was generally larger than the oil phase container and it made more sense. I had exactly two lotion fails during that time: The first was because I didn't have the water and oil phase at the same temperature, and I forgot to put emulsifier in the second one. Neither seems to have been because I put the oil phase into the water phase. It worked, but it could have failed. If you're using an ethoxylated emulsifier - Polawax or e-wax, for instance - then the water phase into the oil phase will make for a more stable emulsion. If you're using a non-ethoxylated emulsifier, then it doesn't really matter.

Join me tomorrow for more fun with questions! 

Read More