What Happens When You Whip it?

I really love whipped cream. I know it is bad for me to eat too much but seriously, who can resist the creamy, light, fluffy goodness that is a bit of whipped cream, scones and jam?  So yummy.  But when it comes to cosmetic creams I’m going to tell you to move away from that whip right now as nothing good will come from it.

Whipped moisturising cream or shea balm might look lovely at first but it is all looks and no substance, well, that’s not entirely true. What you have done is filled that little pot of cream up with air. Air = oxygen, oxygen = oxidation, oxidation = reduced shelf life, rancidity, drying out,  loss of efficacy, crustiness and one big hot mess.

Whipping stuff seems to be more of a thing for home crafters who may well get away with it as whipping air into a stiff butter will lighten the texture and give you a good looking and feeling product for a while, quite possibly long enough to make, pack and sell it at your local market but if you start to hit the big time it won’t be long before your whipped dreams become a nightmare as time catches up with these little suckers.

Adding antioxidants,  reducing subsequent oxygen penetration (airless packaging maybe), using very stable oils, waxes and butters as a base and adding something in the formula to help stabilise the oxygen bubbles (a gum maybe) could go some way to maintaining the shelf life of these products for longer but as for how long, I couldn’t easily say without testing.

There is always a solution to every problem but my take-home message for this is that whipping your cosmetic creams might just cause you more problems than it is worth, at least be aware of those potential problems and do what you can to mitigate them.