This is where the notes start. Batch 001 is Tallow Balm in 50 g and 100 g, and Blue Tansy Dry Oil in 30 mL.
The balm took more than a dozen versions. Those were drafts on my workbench, not batches, so they never got numbers. But since this is the first note, here's roughly how I got here.
Version one was the classic. Tallow, olive or avocado oil, jojoba, and a wax. Most tallow balms use beeswax. Some people avoid bee products, so I went with candelilla, the usual plant-based swap. It worked, but it felt heavy, it was shiny, and it wasn't creamy. Candelilla sets hard and a little brittle.
Then I added squalane. Your skin makes its own squalene, and squalane is the stable form of it. Better, but still shiny and still a bit heavy.
Then I tried more oils, and learned about shelf life. Hempseed and rosehip are popular in skincare, but they oxidize quickly, which means they can go rancid sooner. I switched to high-linoleic sunflower oil instead. Tallow is low in linoleic acid, sunflower fills that gap, and it keeps better than either of those two. Then I built the antioxidant side properly: vitamin E plus rosemary extract. Coco-caprylate/caprate came in around here too, to make it lighter.
Much better, but still not right. The fix wasn't another oil. It was the structure: the waxes that hold the balm together. Some combinations came out too hard, some too soft to set. Finding the balance took longer than anything else. I worked on it with Phoenix summers in mind, and it also gave the balm the texture I'd been chasing.
Last, I took things out. Fewer oils, fewer waxes, and meadowfoam seed oil in place of some of what left. Fewer ingredients means fewer things that can go wrong. In the end, less was more.
The oil was simpler. I already knew how these oils behave, so it took two changes. I swapped coco-caprylate/caprate for C13-15 alkane, a plant-derived ingredient that feels even lighter and dries faster. And I adjusted the blue tansy and manuka until the blend felt right.
What these notes are for
Every batch gets a number, and the number never resets. It's on the front of your jar or bottle, with the pour date and my initials written on the back. When I change a formula, even slightly, I'll write it here before that batch ships: what changed, why, and what you might notice.
What can change without a formula change
Natural ingredients vary a little from batch to batch, the way two harvests of the same olive oil can taste a little different. Your balm's color or faint scent might shift slightly. That's the ingredients being themselves, not a new formula.
Questions about your jar? Send me the batch number: support@iuvolabs.co.
— Cesar