How to Fix Liquid Cream and Find an Alternative Cream Base

I understand you're having trouble with a cream formulation that turned out too liquid and you want to fix it using a cold process, as well as find an alternative cream base for future batches.

Based on the information reviewed:

• Absolue Soft Cream Base (compare to Lancome) is a water-soluble cream base designed to be mixed by adding various ingredients to it.
• Carbomer U21 is a cold-processable water-based gel maker/thickener that requires neutralization to thicken.
• Ethylcellulose (300 cps.) is an oil thickener and requires heat to dissolve, making it unsuitable for your cold process requirement to fix the current batch.

It seems the issue with your current cream becoming liquid is likely because the ingredients you added disrupted the stability of the Absolue Soft Cream Base.

Here's how you can address your questions:

1. Fixing the Current Liquid Cream (Cold Process)

You can use a cold-processable water thickener like Carbomer U21 to increase the viscosity of your liquid cream.

• How to use: Carbomer U21 is a powder. You need to disperse it evenly in your liquid cream first. Once dispersed, you need to neutralize it with an alkaline ingredient (like Triethanolamine or AMP, if you have them) by adding it drop by drop while stirring or mixing until the desired thickness is achieved.
• Suggested Percentage: Start with a low percentage, such as 0.1% to 0.5% of Carbomer U21 based on the total weight of your liquid cream. You can gradually add more if needed, but be careful not to add too much, as it can make the texture gummy or stringy.
• Calculation for 500g: If you use 0.2% Carbomer U21 for your 500g batch, you would need 500g * 0.002 = 1g of Carbomer U21. You would also need a small amount of neutralizer.

Important: Since you are adding a powder to a finished cream, ensure you mix thoroughly to avoid lumps. Using a high-shear mixer or homogenizer would be ideal, but thorough manual stirring might work for a small batch.

2. Alternative Base for Future Batches

If you want to keep your extracts and achieve a stable cream texture without using Absolue Soft Cream Base, you can consider using other pre-made cream bases or building your own base using thickeners and emulsifiers.

• Using Thickeners: You could create a simple base using a combination of water, oils, emulsifiers, and thickeners like Carbomer U21. This gives you more control over the texture and stability. However, this requires formulating from scratch, which might be more complex than using a pre-made base.
• Other Cream Bases: There are various other cream bases available that might offer different textures or stability profiles. You would need to search for other "Cream Base" products and check their descriptions and recommended usage to see if they are suitable for your needs and compatible with your extracts.

To find a specific alternative pre-made base, you would need to explore other options available.

Products mentioned:

• Absolue Soft Cream Base (compare to Lancome)
• Carbomer U21 (Self-Wetting, Wide pH Range, e.q. Carbopol Ultrez 21)
• Ethylcellulose (300 cps.)