How to Formulate With Food: Part 2

A while back, I showed you a small package of coconut cream from a local supermarket that I decided to try using as a cosmetic ingredient. (read the first part here)

Today, we’re going to take a look at what happened when the box was opened.

Initial Test

Pictured above: a swatch of the cream on my hand. This is what I normally do to get acquainted with an ingredient ( that tolerates this kind of testing).

As it happens, this coconut cream used straight up was an incredibly pleasant and moisturizing experience. I am tempted to say it could be used solo. It had a lovely balance of liquid-to-fat and left only the slightest bit of tackiness that quickly disappeared when simply poured into the hand and applied as one would a lotion.

Face Mask

Because it felt so moisturizing on my arm and hands, I decided to mix in a bit of kaolin clay to create a paste and try it out as a basic face mask. The results were quite pleasing - so much so that I will most definitely be revisiting the coconut cream face mask - next time with a few additional ingredients. But, as this was quite a small box, I needed to save the rest for my next experiments.

Emulsions

As coconut cream is a mix of fat and liquid, I decided to try using it in an emulsion. Here’s where it got a bit tricky. Coconut cream is a percentage of fat to a percentage of liquid, and as both the fat and liquid are combined, you have to figure out which phase it belongs to. An emulsion is generally made by heating the fat and liquid phases separately before combining, but here we had an all-in-one.

To make things even more experimental, I have been getting acquainted with some new emulsifiers and tools, so I began by making the ultimate newbie mistake number 1: trying everything at once.

I’m sure you can guess what happened next.

Batch 1: Fail

Batch one: fail. The emulsion was visibly lumpy. Here’s a picture of a test application to my arm. The batch was binned but I had an idea what the problem might be so immediately made a second batch.

Batch 2: Fail

Batch 2 is pictured below. More lumpiness, but this time I was convinced I had pinpointed the problem and used the remainder of the box to make batch 3.

Batch 3: Temporary Success

This is a nice way of saying fail, because this batch failed too, but not right away. The emulsion came out smooth and creamy and was packaged in a clear jar. I am a fan of clear containers as I am often testing and monitoring products.

I tested the cream for a few days and it was lovely, sank in quickly and the coconut scent was quite pleasant.

But, pictured below is how the jar looked on day 5.

Clearly a failed emulsion.

Conclusions After Round 1 of Coconut Cream Testing

In hindsight, I believe the amount (and choice) of emulsifier combined with the stirring technique was more the culprit than the coconut cream. I will be sourcing more coconut cream to continue testing: next time with an emulsifier and method I am completely familiar with so there is only one unknown in the mix.

Stay tuned for updates!

Do Tell

Have you ever worked with coconut cream in an emulsion? What were your experiences?