2 posts tagged “experiments”

This week, I'm mostly working on product development.  I'm trying to perfect a liquid soap that is both natural and pretty...harder than one might think.  Hence the reason all commercial liquid "soaps" aren't really soaps, they're detergent based on sodium laurel sulfates.  As to getting a transparent liquid...there I've had no luck at all.  But still, the research continues.

I've been spending a lot of time working on a Body Caviar, which I'll probably have to rename, to keep people from trying to eat it.  The original formula is an anhydrous formulation with DC® 5562 Carbinol Fluid, but I've been trying to find a natural oil that I can use instead.  Primarily to match the rest of the product line, although, carbinol is a great product for bath and skin applications.  It's a functional silicone fluid (Bis-Hydroxyethoxypropyl Dimethicone) that's unique due to its polar organic substituents. The silicone and organic combination does really neat things on the skin, and it makes an outstanding suspension aid for pigments, salts, and sunscreens.

The "beads" that I'm using are spherical particles of trimethylated silica (Silica Silylate) that provide a vehicle for the absorption and delivery of lipophilic materials .  I'm really happy with the performance of these small (1000 μm) ones. I use a larger bead with a much stronger shell for non body applications, such as certain aromatherapy modalities, but these smaller beads are performing very well in initial tests.  

And I was just reminded by a phone call that I need to work on some formulations for a friend's baby.  Bless her heart, the poor little thing is just itchy all the time, so I'm working on some evening primrose oil based solutions that I hope will bring her some comfort.  I'm going to finish up the carbinol experiments for the day, and get to work on excema solutions.  

(You know, if I'm going to play Mad Scientist, I really need one of those machines that goes zzzzzzzpth!, and an Igor.  Ooooh, and a basement with a platform that raises to the sky, so during lightning storms I can stand on it and curse the elements.  Mwhahahahahaha! Erm.  Sorry.  I think perhaps the fumes in here are stronger than expected...)

See, it looks so easy when master chefs do it.  It does.  I mean, nothing could be easier, right?   Heat up some cream, melt some good chocolate in the hot cream, add cognac, vanilla, espresso, stir, form into balls, dust with cocoa powder.  

They lie!  They all lie!  It's not that easy.  If it were that easy, chocolatiers wouldn't get 60 dollars a box for them, that's what I'm saying.

Needless to say, my second attempt at truffles didn't go as planned.  Although, it was much better than my first attempt, so...there's that.  And I have 2 pounds of truffle filling made, so I'll try again later to create a shell, since my filling is far too soft to just roll in cocoa powder.    I can't figure out if I used too much cream, or not enough chocolate, or what.  I followed the directions exactly, so the only thing I can imagine is that the recipe was deliberately wrong because the Barefoot Contessa doesn't want me to make truffles.  (Ok, perhaps trying to make truffles while having my "cranky week" wasn't such a smart idea...but that doesn't stop the fact that they lie, they all lie...those bastards!)

Ahem.  Sorry.  Perhaps I'll just eat my truffle with a spoon and call it done. ;)