Formulating Body Oils Part 2; Writing a Formula - Formulating for Beginners

This is just a post on how to formulate a body oil. I will be making more posts on how to formulate for many different types of products.

Explaining Formulas and Batches

Formula's are written in percents.

Recipe's are written in weight. (I use grams & so do mostly all other formulators around the world)

Batch size is the total amount of product you want to make.

Since a formula is written in percents that means it can be easily transferred to any batch size. Batch size is the total amount of product you want to make. So a batch can be 100 grams, 150 grams, 50 grams, 1,000 grams, however much you want.

The total of your entire formula should equal 100%. A recipe should add up to the batch size you are wanting to make.

Writing a formula in percents makes it really easy to transfer into a recipe and makes sure you are using accurate and SAFE amounts of each ingredient.

How do you know what Ingredients are used to make a product?

There are so many different cosmetics out there and they are all used for different reasons and they are all formulated differently with different types of ingredients. So I understand that it is confusing to figure out what exactly goes into the product you are wanting to make. I know this aspect of formulating can be confusing so this is why I am breaking down how to formulate, into separate products. I have done a video in the past showing you how to write a formula and not everyone understood that video. I believe the reason why not everyone understood it is because they don't understand what ingredients are suppose to go into that product in the first place and why I chose the ingredients I did.

So today we are just discussing formulating body oils. Don't worry about any other product as of now. If you didn't read my last blog, go read it. I discuss what a body oil is, what ingredients are found in body oils and what you can use in them to make them less greasy. I basically laid the foundation of what body oils are so you can understand why I am using the ingredients I choose and why I am using them at each percentage.

How do you know how much of an Ingredient to use?

There are tons of places online, Lotioncrafter, Formulator Sample Shop, Make Your Own, New Directions Aromatics, etc. to buy ingredients to formulate with. If you check out any of these websites you will notice they always provide recommended or suggested usage rates for their ingredients. This way you have an idea of how much of that ingredient to use. For example; Vegetable Glycerin has a Recommended Usage Rate: 2 - 5%. So how do you know if you should use 2%, 3%, 4%, or 5% of glycerin? This is when, what you are making, cost value, and personal preference comes in. If I were making a moisturizing face wash I might use 5% glycerin because glycerin is a moisturizing ingredient and I want as much moisturizing benefits from glycerin as possible. If I am making a facial serum I would probably only use about 2%-3%, why? Because facial serums are leave on products, you don't wash them off the skin, and glycerin can feel a bit sticky if used at too high of a percentage in leave on products.

This is why it is important to research ingredients and understand them before using them as well. Luckily suppliers provide very detailed descriptions on their ingredients so you already have a good idea of what to expect from an ingredient. Don't always trust everything the suppliers say though. Sometimes they may say an ingredient feels a certain way when it doesn't. You need to do your own experimenting and research as well. Everyone has their own opinions of each ingredient. Something someone doesn't like, you may love & something they love, you may hate.

In my last post I mentioned Blueberry seed oil has a Typical Usage Rate: 1 - 5%, up to 100%. For cost value reasons you want to use 1% - 5% because it is an expensive oil, but maybe cost isn't an issue. You can totally use more if you would like. A reason you may want to use more blueberry seed oil than 5% is because blueberry seed oil has a beautiful green color to it and maybe you want to use blueberry seed oil to naturally color your product green. You can do that. There are many reasons why you may use an ingredient at a certain amount. Just make sure you are always checking the suggested usage rate and staying within the recommended amount. For things like preservatives, I ALWAYS use them at the highest recommended percentage rate and I recommend you doing the same.

There are other times when suppliers will offer multiple suggested usage rates, depending on what product you are making. For example; Emulsifying Wax NF has a Recommended Use Rate: 2-25%, usually 3-5% for lotions and 5-10% for creams. So depending on if you are making a lotion or cream will determine how much to use. This means it is up to you to experiment with different percentages to see what amount you like for a lotion and what you like for a cream.

Brainstorming what ingredients I want to use (Basic Body Oil)

So now that you understand what ingredients are found in body oils, and how to figure out how much of each ingredient to use in your body oil we can start writing the formula.

Lets write a simple formula for a very simple body oil. (refer to my last post for more details on making a body oil and why I am using the ingredients I chose)

For this body oil I chose to use meadowfoam seed oil, as my primary (because it is very light weight and absorbs quickly) and baobab oil as my secondary. This is also a fast absorbing oil and it also contain "anti aging" benefits and you all know how much I love my anti aging ingredients. It is also really good for dry skin, which is exactly what I have. I will also be using vitamin E oil for the antioxidants and a combination of lemon and grapefruit essential oil for fragrance.

Formulating Basic Body Oil

Since meadowfoam seed oil is my primary oil I will be using the highest percentage of it. Since baobab oil is my secondary oil I will be using less of it, about 10%. Vitamin E oil has a Suggested Usage Rate: 0.5 - 2% but since it is such an expensive ingredient I am choosing to only use .5% of it. I only want to use 1% total of my essential oils, why? because most essential oils are safe at 1% and I have also found that .5% - 1% seems to be just the right amount to make my products smell good. So I know the percentage I am going to use for everything except for the meadowfoam seed oil.

I am using .5% vitamin e, 1% essential oil, & 10% baobab oil. Add up all these percents. It equals 11.5 & remember our total formula needs to equal 100% so now we need to subtract 11.5 from 100 so we know how much more oil we need to reach 100%

100 - 11.5 = 88.5

So now we know we need 88.5% of meadowfoam seed oil to finish off the formula.

PLEASE NOTE! Lots of essential oils can cause phototoxicity which means that there are specific essential oils that when you put them on your skin and go out into the sun, can cause pretty significant damage, including severe burning, blistering, and discoloration. Most of these phototoxic essential oils are citrus oils, but some aren't. So be aware of this. I only use products made with phototoxic essential oils on my body at night or in rinse off products that are used at night like body scrubs. I know a lot of people want to use essential oils for their "natural" benefits, but please be safe when using them.

My Basic Body Oil Formula;

• 88.5% meadowfoam seed oil

• 10% baobab oil

• 1% essential oil or fragrance oil (I am using lemon and grapefruit)

• .5% vitamin E oil

Let's discuss how you turn this into a recipe. I wanna make 30 grams of this body oil because I know it will fit perfectly in a 1 oz bottle. So we first need to figure out how much 88.5% of 30 grams is. You can do this by moving the decimal point in 88.5 up to spaces, so then you will have .885, Multiply 30 by .885 which equals 26.55 So now we know we need 26.55 grams of meadowfoam seed oil. So lets do .5% next. Move .5's decimal point up two spaces and you get .005, multiply 30 by .005 which equals .15 so now we know we need .15 grams of vitamin E oil. If you hate math and this is confusing, here is an easy way to do it. Literally just google, what is 88.5% of 30 and you will get your answer. Google, what is 10% of 30 and you will get your answer. Instead of doing the math just google the math problem. Problem solved!

Basic Body Oil recipe (30 gram Batch)

• 26.55 grams of meadowfoam seed oil

• 3 grams of baobab oil

• .3 grams of essential oil or fragrance oil (I am using lemon and grapefruit)

• .15% vitamin E oil

Directions; Mix all the ingredients together in any order and pour into a pump bottle.

Now that you seen how I formulated a basic body oil recipe let's formulate a more advanced recipe.

Choosing ingredients for Advanced Body Oil

The goal for this Advanced Body Oil is for it to feel dry and not sticky or too greasy. So I know I am going to have to make this body oil consist of a large portion of silicone alternatives, and some IPM. For this advanced body oil recipe I want to use some NatraSil and Coco Caprylate as my silicone alternative, IPM to make the body oil less greasy. As for my primary oil I want to use some Caprylic/Capric Triglyceride because it is very light weight and is a transparent oil (this is technically an emollient ester, but is used as an oil replacement to make products less greasy) and I want to use some meadowfoam seed oil too because my skin loves this oil. I want to use .5% vitamin E oil to keep my oils fresh and to add some antioxidants and I want to use 1% juniper berry oil as my fragrance. As for my secondary oil I want to use some blueberry oil because it is green and I'm hoping since all the ingredients I am using are clear (except for the meadowfoam seed oil) the green color from the blueberry oil will really shine through. Blueberry oil is also what I like to call my "marketing" ingredient.

What is "Marketing Ingredients"

A "marketing" ingredient is basically an ingredient you add for marketing purposes. I don't know if "marketing ingredient" is a word most people use, but that is what I am calling it. If you see a product on the market that mentions lovely ingredients like cucumber, rose, aloe, chamomile, the more common ingredients people actually know of. Advertising these types of ingredients on the bottle makes people want to buy the product more because it seems familiar to them. People know what cucumber is and how soothing it can be, but they have no idea what the heck natrasil is. Right? Even though natrasil is lovely and may make up a higher percentage in the product, people won't be drawn to it as much because they don't know what it is. So it's smart to base your product around certain themes or ingredients. Does that make sense? You don't need to do this, but I like too.

Formulating Advanced Body Oil

When I formulate a recipe I like to start off with making a list of the ingredients I want to use, which I already did that. So the next thing I do is write down the percentages of each ingredient I am using. I like to start with the ingredients there is the least amount of. For example, the blueberry oil, vitamin e oil and the essential oil, I know right away, I will be using .5% vitamin E oil, 5% blueberry oil, and 1% juniper berry oil. I am also choosing to use 5% IPM to make the product less greasy. I chose to use it at 5% because it's recommended usage rate in massage oils is 4% - 10% & I wanna use it just a little above the least recommended amount. You can use it up to 10% if you would like. I also want to use a silicone alternative. The one I chose to use is NatraSil. I've used this in a lot of products on the skin and I really like it. NatraSil's recommended usage rate is 1-25%. I chose to use NatraSil at 10%. I then chose to use 20% meadowfoam seed oil because I love it and I didn't want to use to much of it since it has a little yellowish color to it. (remember, I'm trying to get that green blueberry oil to shine through) Next I want to use 35% Caprylic/Capric Triglyceride. I love using a high percentage of this oil because it is very light weight and doesn't feel really greasy. It is also a clear oil and I was hoping some of the green color from the blueberry oil would be more visible if I used mostly a clear oil.....Spoiler Alert, that didn't end up working out. I would have to use a higher percentage of blueberry oil to get the green color to show through more. Oh well, you experiment and you learn. Now for the rest of the product I want to use coco caprylate. It is also a clear ingredient and a very light weight silicone alternative so I wanted a large part of this product to contain silicone alternatives and emollient esters so it feels more dry and less greasy. So any percentage that is left in this formula will be coco caprylate. I need to add up all the percentages I already have to see how much space is left in my formula. Remember formulas need to add up to 100%. So far I have .5% vitamin E oil, 5% blueberry oil, 1% juniper berry, 5% IPM, 10% NatraSil, 20% meadowfoam seed oil, & 35% caprylic/capric triglyceride which equals 76.5. Take 76.5 and subtract it from 100. Which equals 23.5. So now I know I will be using 23.5% Coco Caprylate. & this is how you write a formula for an Advanced Body Oil.

Advanced Body Oil Formula

• 35% caprylic/capric triglyceride

• 23.5% coco caprylate

• 20% meadowfoam seed oil

• 10% natrasil

• 5% blueberry oil

• 5% IPM

• 1% juniper berry oil

• .5% vitamin e oil

Before you keep reading, try transferring this Advanced Body Oil formula into a 60 gram batch to see if you did your math correctly. Or you can just google "what is 45% of 60"

Advanced Body oil Recipe (60 gram batch)

• caprylic/capric triglyceride - 21 grams

• coco caprylate - 14.1 grams

• meadowfoam seed oil - 12 grams

• natrasil - 6 grams

• blueberry oil - 3 grams

• IPM - 3 grams

• juniper berry oil - .6 grams

• vitamin e oil - .3 grams

Directions; Mix all the ingredients together in any order and pour into a pump bottle.

I hope this blog was able to make writing a formula easier to understand. I know there is a lot to unpack in this blog, but I promise, it really isn't that hard. Once you actually start formulating and practicing this will become much clearer. It is hard to fully understand something you've never tried. So get up and try formulating and don't be scared to experiment with things you've never used. Also please remember, what I say and share is just a glimpse into what you can do. There are so many possibilities when it comes to formulating. Every formulator has their own method to formulating and I am only sharing 1 persons perspective and opinion on it.

The main thing you need to keep in mind when creating a product is; What are you making, what is it being used for, what skin type is it for, and what is it's purpose. Then from there you can figure out what to put in it and how much of each ingredient it needs.

This is just a post on how to formulate a body oil. I will be making many more posts like this on how to formulate for many different types of products. The next one will be on facial oils.

Formulating Body Oils Part 2; Writing a Formula - Formulating for Beginners .pdf

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hugHfPr2ZXc