Tuesday Tidbits

WAXES AND ALL YOUR MANY CHOICES

There is a growing movement of awareness around ingredients in personal care products. This movement has been a long time coming and something that we desperately need to pay attention to. Using higher quality, organic, natural ingredients on our skin is the best way to reduce toxins and have better skin.

Did you know that we carry these specialty ingredients for your body care formulations? We here at Shay and Company want to offer you the best options in waxes and emulsifiers for your products. We have a varied selection for you to choose from.

Choices, Choices, Choices

Emulsifying Wax this is a wax that is used to bring together your water and oil portion of your formula. If you are trying to create a body butter or lotion using an oil and water mix, emulsifying wax is your go-to to keep those two from separating. Our emulsifying wax is 100% vegetable based and non-GMO. This is an important note as some are petroleum derived. When you use emulsifying wax in your products it can make up to 25% of the formula, depending on how much water you use and how thick you want the formula. Keep in mind that when you incorporate water and oils together, you will need to add a preservative into your products or they will grow mold.

Candelilla Wax– this is an excellent vegan alternative to beeswax. You can use candelilla wax in creams, lotions, butters, lotion bars, salves, lips balms….and more. Our candelilla wax is 100% vegetable based and non-GMO. If you make the switch from beeswax to candelilla wax just be sure to make a small batch first and test your formula as candelilla will perform differently than beeswaxhttps://shayandcompany.com/product/candelilla-wax-non-gmo/

Beeswax– speaking of beeswax, we carry THREE options for you! We have organic yellow beeswax beadswhite pharmaceutical grade beeswax prills, and white cosmetic grade beeswax beads. All three are 100% pure beeswax, no fillers used, and all three can be used in everything from soap bars to body butters to candles to lotion bars. The organic yellow beeswax will affect the final color of your product so be sure to make a small batch first if you are using yellow. The white prills and white beads perform the same in formulas, the only difference is that prills are pharmaceutical grade and beads are not. This can play an important role if you are making lip balms or wound salves.

Palm Kernel Flakes these are traditionally used in soap bars, candles, lotion bars, heavy creams, liquid soaps and of course baked goods. Palm kernel flakes are a flake form of palm oil that is easier to use and measure out than traditional palm. Palm kernel flakes add excellent emollient properties to body care products and the help to increase the throw of your scent in your candles. You can incorporate palm kernel flakes in both the soy and soy/coconut wax blends for your candles. Palm kernel flakes can also be used in food applications, both in the baking side and in frying.

Stearic Acid this doesn’t sound like a wax, because it really isn’t, but it can be used in soap bars and emulsified products, so we are including it here. Our stearic acid is 100% vegetable based. Be sure to check with your other suppliers as many times stearic acid is animal derived. Stearic acid can be added to your cold processed soap bars to help increase the hardness and to boost the surfactant properties. In emulsified products, you can add stearic acid in with your emulsifying wax to help increase the emolliciency of your formulations and to add many skin care benefits, such as helping to combat signs of aging, helping combat acne, and to help soothe rosacea, eczema and psoriasis.

Options at Shay
We know that your products are your creative genius and we want to help foster all that creativity. We offer most of our ingredients in small sizes for testing. These waxes are all sold in 1-pound, 5-pound and larger sizes so you can start small and work your way up!

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