MELTED MOISTURIZERS

I pride myself on creating beautiful skin care products using very few, and very clean nutritious ingredients. However, that does mean that they are more sensitive to extreme temperatures. In the winter you may have received your facial mist in a recycled plastic bottle. Not our first choice of packaging, but when temperatures drop below zero celsius the mists can freeze and shatter the glass. However, the summer heat can be trickier to manage; we are unable to ship in cooler bags.

The most vulnerable products are the moisturizers and tinted moisturizers. These products have cosmetic butters as their bases, shea and mango, and just like butter from a cow these are solid at most room temperatures but melt when it gets hot. In order to create the silky-smooth textures of these products, we whip them.

When exposed to high temperatures, the shea or mango butter melts, and the whipped formula collapses. To top it off the jar will often leak as the product is now a fully liquid oil. Not good. This will happen if you leave the jar in a hot car, or on a sunny windowsill, or sadly during shipping if it’s left in the sun, or by a heater. We will always replace a melted product but as the ingredients are still good to use, it’s worth trying to rescue it so as not to waste it.

Here’s how

• If it’s still a liquid pop it in the fridge. You want it to cool down quickly. Once hard, bring back to room temperature and with a small spatula (end of a teaspoon, glass stirring rod) stir it vigorously. There is too little actual product to whip it like we do but a brisk stir should help to bring back the texture somewhat. Give the edges of the jar a good wipe (use vodka to help clean the final oiliness) and you are good to go.
• If it has partly solidified already, it will likely look grainy due to the butter and oils not combining properly, gently melt it again by sitting the jar in a warm water bath. Once melted, pop it in the fridge to cool and follow the instructions above.

This is far from ideal, I understand that, however I like to remind myself that it’s because the products are so clean that this happens. I could add stabilizers to prevent this happening, however they are not only not beneficial for the skin but some are toxic and irritant.

If this is something you wish to avoid, the facial oils are a great summer alternative.