CHAPTER 9b
COSMETICS

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9.13 Recipes

It should be recalled again that a very large percentage of modern cosmetic ingredients are simply to improve appearance, durability, emulsification and preservation of a much simpler and more natural formulation. it should not be neglected that many of these chemicals, though not proven to be directly damaging, are nevert~eless artificial and foreign to the system to which they are applied. Equally, it is known that many cosmetic products do not do what they claim to do and instead may be damaging skin, hair, eyes, etc., after prolonged use. In general, it is therefore recommended to resort to less complex and more natural ingredients wherever possible.

Figure 9.12 : Two attractive displays of various cosmetic items, all containing one or more primary bee products (left: Müngersdorff, Germany; right: La casa de miel Argentina).

Freshly prepared creams and other formulations, should not be poured immediately into their retail containers or, at least, sufficient time should be left after bottling for the product to cool before it is capped. If poured warm and capped immediately, water may condense on the lid and drop onto the surface of the cream. Some cold creams in particular maintain a smoother texture if filled cold, though this may require pressure fillers for the more viscous products.

If premanufactured cream or soap bases are purchased and mixed with bee products, advice on the correct addition of the various products should be sought from the formulator of the base.

The inclusion of herbal extracts, such as Aloe vera gels, powders or juice is possible in many products. Particularly the Aloe products are known for many benefits similar to those known for royal jelly and other bee products. Their synergistic interactions might further increase beneficial effects.

Aqueous solutions are possible with all bee products except beeswax, but solutions might produce precipitates after shorter or longer periods of time. Even honey, in acqueous solution might eventually produce some precipitation. Adding some alcohol and a substance to facilitate or maintain dissolutions (such as ricinus oil) will make acqueous sollutions of propolis possible, up to a certain concentration.

The following five formulations have been described by Proserpio (1981) and can be mixed by just shaking the ingredients in a bottle or using any simple mixing device. The mixing sequence is not very important.

* Hydrolysed pollen is recommended because it has a protecting and nourishing effect on the hair.

Other primary bee products can be added to the hair lotion to increase its beneficial effect. The skin softener for dry skin and the toning lotion for firming relaxed, stretched or stressed skin may benefit from the addition of royal jelly or honey.

Emollient lotion (o/w)

Melt and mix like any other emulsion cream and add fragrances when cool.

Emollient mil for face and body (o/w)

Warm, dissolve and mix all the ingredients in the left hand column. Dissolve the gum in a small amount of water. Very slowly mix the cellulose into the rest of the water, stirring well. Heat while stirring, add the dissolved gum, alcohol and glycerol, then mix well. Bring the oil phase to same temperature (70-80⁰C) and emulsijy for 10-15 minutes. Continue stirring while cooling. Once below 40⁰C, the honey, pollen extracts and fragrances may be added.

Honey and lotion

Melt the petroleum jelly in a water bath. Add the remaining ingredients and heat (<42 ⁰C) for several minutes until the mixture is smooth and well mixed. For very small batches, to be used at home, 1 part could be equivalent to one tablespoon.

Honey and Rosewater hand lotion

Soak the gelatin in the water and dissolve over a low heat. Add the glycerol. Cool until warm to the hand and add the other ingredients.

Ointments are fairly easy to prepare and proportions can be varied easily, since little or no emulsification is necessary and consistency is not very sensitive to minor changes in proportion or substitution by similar substances. Their durability is limited by the choice of oils.

Beeswax and coconut hand cream (ointment)

To soften the ointment, add approximately 3 to S parts of water and up to 0.2 parts of borax.

Propolis ointment

The formulas are very similar to the previous recipe and the mixing instructions are the same. The similarity shows the flexibility in mixing different proportions and ingredients partially or wholly replaced by others.

Nourishing bee cream (oointment)

With good stirring the consistency should be creamy. Keep the cream in a well sealed storage vessel for 24-48 hours before filling into jars then label and sell. The cream may be kept for about 4 to S and it is better to refrigerate after preparation is completed.

Coconut hand cream (ointment)

Melt the beeswax in a water bath and slowly blend in the other ingredients except bee products. Continue stirring while cooling. The baby oil can be replaced by mineral oil, jojoba oil or other. Proportions can be varied and other bee products may be added at levels of 2 to 10%.

Aloe moisturizing cream (ointment)

Insect repellent

Combine the aloe and citronella oil in a saucepan and heat slowly over a low heat for 3 minutes. Add the wax and stir until the wax melts. Remove the pan from the heat and stir until the mixture thickens. Pour into jars. The beeswax makes this cream water resistant.

Waterless paste (ointment to which zinc oxide has been added)

Melt the beeswax in a water bath and stir in the other ingredients. Continue stirring while cooling.

Emulsions require an efficient mixing system and an emulsifier, to obtain a homogeneous product.

The oils, waxes and emulsifier(s) are melted together at 70-75 ⁰C. The water and heat stable water soluble substances are heated to 75- 80⁰C. The formation of an emulsion is likely to be easier and more successful if the temperatures of the two phases are about the same at the time of mixing. If borax is used as an emulsifier, it is usually mixed with the water phase. Each phase may have to be filtered before mixing.

The different phases are premixed and added to each other according to the emulsion type and specific formulation, using turbo-mixing and stirring to emulsify and homogenise. Stirring is continued for 10-15 minutes at the same temperature. After cooling to 60⁰C homogenization is stopped and mixing is continued, if possible under vacuum.

At 30 to 40⁰C, heat sensitive substances and fragrances are added, during continued mixing of the product. The cream should be mixed for a further 5 minutes after which physio-chemical parameters such as pH, viscosity, organoleptic aspects and colour should be adjusted. It may then be poured into a storage vessel.

In the case of emulsions or lipogels containing pigments or insoluble powders in suspension, adequate milling systems should be used in order to get a good dispersion, homogeneity of the colour and absence of lumps. Three roller mills, pebble mills or homogenizers (rotor-stator type) are normally used for this operation.

If the addition of propolis renders a product too dark, titanium dioxide can be added in order to lighten the final colour. Use a mill or, if hand mixing, a mortar and pestle or preferably a mill to disperse the pigment in a small quantity of product before incorporating it into the bulk.

The following are four olw emulsion formulations. 01w emulsions are considered the most appropriate by some people, because of the ease with which they can dissolve both water soluble and fat-soluble ingredients. But formulations must be "correct" for the skin, i.e. optimum pH and without surfactants or Vaseline. All primary bee products can be mixed with these emulsions. Their incorporation in the following formulations can be varied considerably. Though beeswax can be incorporated in small quantities, it finds much less use than in the cold cream type formulations (w/o and w/o/w emulsions). When substituting or changing the proportions of ingredients, a few small batches should be tried first. In contrast to ointments, even small changes can cause significant differences in the consistency, shelf life and other aspects of the end product.

Cleansing milk (o/w)

Purifying cream (o/w)

Mix the ingredients of the oil phase (in the left hand column) and the ingredients of the water phase (in the right hand column) according to standard procedures. Add the essential oils or fragrances and the glycol extract of propolis once the temperature is below 40⁰C.

Hand cream (o/w)

Mix according to standard procedures, add the essential oils, the GEP and the honey (predissolved in a little of the water) once the temperature is below 40 ⁰C. Propolis extracted in ethanol or hydrogenated lanolin can also be used, but glycol extracted propolis is better.

Reconstituting cream (o/w)

Mix according to standard procedures, add the essential oils, honey, royal jelly and pollen extract at temperatures below 40 ⁰C. The pollen extract should be fat soluble, i.e. made with concentrated ethanol or in glycerol (the former is preferred).

Beeswax-pollen cream (o/w)

Prepare like any standard emulsion and once cooled to below 40 ⁰C, add propolis, pollen and fragrances. The content of pollen may vary from 0.1-10%, or its equivalent alcohol (glycol) extracts. The amount of glycol added should be adjusted to account for any glycol included in the extracts of pollen and propolis.

Prepare like any emulsion, but watch for correct sequences in preparing each phase and the pH of the aqueous phase (according to the requirements of the chelating agents). For simplicity, these formulas can be reduced to their bare minimum of oils, beeswax, emulsifier (borax), water, fragrances and other primary bee products. For such a simple example, see the next recipe.

Nail cream (o/w)

Mix like standard o/w emulsion. One part of borax should facilitate emulsification of the cream.

Night cream (o/w)

Mix the ingredients listed under A and heat them to 75 ⁰C. Mix those under B and heat them also to 75⁰C. Mix B into A, emulsijy, cool to 40⁰C, then add the hermaben and the fragrance. Stir throughout the process and homogenize. This oil-in-water cream utilizes an anionic/nonionic emulsijjcation system. The Macadamia nut oil helps to reduce any greasiness of the mineral oil.

Modern cold cream (w/o/w)

Glycol or ethanol extracts of propolis and pollen can be used. Royal jelly can also be used in its freeze-dried form if weights are adapted accordingly, i.e. 0.35 parts of freeze-dried royal jelly if no carrier substance has been mixed with the royal jelly and 0.65 parts added to the water.

The waxes and oils are heated to 75 ⁰C together with the emulsifiers which can be substituted by a much smaller quantity of borax, i.e. 0.5 to 1 part. The water is also heated to 75 ⁰C and added slowly to the wax-oil phase while emulsijying, stir thoroughly until it has cooled to room temperature. Below 40⁰C, the pe~me and other heat sensitive ingredients may be added and everything is stirred to a homogeneous cream. After 24 hours the product can be filled into retail containers.

Classic cold creams (w/o with borax)

Berthold (1992) lists 11 basic recipes for creams (w/o emulsions with borax) in a comparative table. The basic ingredients varied from 5 to 17 parts of beeswax, 40 to 56 parts mineral oil, 5 to 35 parts of water and 0.4 to 1 part borax. This again demon~trates the great flexibility of this type of emulsion in simple recipes, where itis easy to change ingredients unlike in more complex formulations.

Moisturizing cream (w/o)

Combine the honey and glycerol, then stir in the oils. Afterwards, stir in the water. This cream does not require heating, but will not be stable for very long and might separate. Its storability should be tested.

Aloe cream (w/o) for general cosmetic purposes or for burns

Multipurpose cream

Though mentioned here as a cream, this product can be eaten and used as a home remedy for relief (not cure) of any illness. To guard against allergies, use pollen extract (or beebread extract) instead of pollen.

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