Daisy, Erika, Ivy and I made lip balm in class today. It was quite a long process because a ton of beeswax apparently takes forever to melt into a liquid. Usually, beeswax has a somewhat low melting point, but it takes a while when you have a large amount. This experiment shows phase changes from a solid to a liquid and then back to a solid. The temperature from the hot plate and the room are drastically different, so you can change it.
Looking Back:
The lip balm turned out alright. It wasn't the best lip balm, but it was a really good first try. The lip balm smelled really good, but it was REALLY waxy. We didn't have any way to measure the beeswax, so we just kind of guessed. It took a really long time to melt the beeswax, so I'm pretty sure we used too much.
We put peach flavoring into the mix to make it smell/taste good. I'm pretty sure we didn't use enough, but it was better than doing too much. If we did too much, it was be way too strong. Our lip balm has a faint peach flavor and you need to put a lot of lip balm on to really taste it.
The wax was really hot, so it was hard to pour it into the tubed without burning someone's fingers. The wax dried really quickly; only taking about 1-2 minutes to dry. It was drying up when we we pouring, so we had to keep it in the boiling water for it to heat in between pouring into different tubes. It wasn't as hard as I assumed it was gonna be because we just mixed ingredients and waited for it to melt and dry.
Looking Beyond:
This lab kind of refreshed phase changes and how something can go from a solid to a liquid or a liquid to a solid, depending on the temperature. Because of the temperature change, our extremely hot mixture changed into a waxy solid in just a few minutes. Just like the candles, if we put the temperature too high, it would overheat the wax and burn the coconut oil, messing everything up.
Looking Inward:
I kind of liked the way my chapstick worked out. It wasn't as glossy or soft as I hoped it would be, but it smelled and tasted really good. The whole process was just really slow and boring because it was just melting, mixing, and waiting for it to dry. It wasn't as action packed as the rockets or the bath bombs. It wasn't really hands on as I hoped.
Looking Outward:
I worked Erika, Ivy, and Daisy on this lab. I thought our group worked pretty well. We're friends outside of class, so there weren't any fights or disagreements. I really wish we were in a smaller group because there wasn't really anything to do for more than two people. There was just a lot of waiting around and it was just kinda boring if you weren't doing anything.
Looking Forward:
For better results, I would've put more flavoring. I remember Andrew telling us it was really strong and to put a little. We put about three drops in when we had a lot of melted wax. It was a really insufficient amount of flavoring.
If I could do this lab over again, I would probably try a different flavor and put a ton more. Like I said before, we didn't use as much flavoring. Also, I would work with less people because there were a lot of down time if you weren't doing anything.
Takeaways:
One thing I learned was that beeswax is very expensive for such a little amount. Janessa warned us to let her know how much we were using because it costs a lot and it came out of her pocket. I personally didn't know that it was expensive and it didn't know what it actually looked.
Looking Back:
The lip balm turned out alright. It wasn't the best lip balm, but it was a really good first try. The lip balm smelled really good, but it was REALLY waxy. We didn't have any way to measure the beeswax, so we just kind of guessed. It took a really long time to melt the beeswax, so I'm pretty sure we used too much.
We put peach flavoring into the mix to make it smell/taste good. I'm pretty sure we didn't use enough, but it was better than doing too much. If we did too much, it was be way too strong. Our lip balm has a faint peach flavor and you need to put a lot of lip balm on to really taste it.
The wax was really hot, so it was hard to pour it into the tubed without burning someone's fingers. The wax dried really quickly; only taking about 1-2 minutes to dry. It was drying up when we we pouring, so we had to keep it in the boiling water for it to heat in between pouring into different tubes. It wasn't as hard as I assumed it was gonna be because we just mixed ingredients and waited for it to melt and dry.
Looking Beyond:
This lab kind of refreshed phase changes and how something can go from a solid to a liquid or a liquid to a solid, depending on the temperature. Because of the temperature change, our extremely hot mixture changed into a waxy solid in just a few minutes. Just like the candles, if we put the temperature too high, it would overheat the wax and burn the coconut oil, messing everything up.
Looking Inward:
I kind of liked the way my chapstick worked out. It wasn't as glossy or soft as I hoped it would be, but it smelled and tasted really good. The whole process was just really slow and boring because it was just melting, mixing, and waiting for it to dry. It wasn't as action packed as the rockets or the bath bombs. It wasn't really hands on as I hoped.
Looking Outward:
I worked Erika, Ivy, and Daisy on this lab. I thought our group worked pretty well. We're friends outside of class, so there weren't any fights or disagreements. I really wish we were in a smaller group because there wasn't really anything to do for more than two people. There was just a lot of waiting around and it was just kinda boring if you weren't doing anything.
Looking Forward:
For better results, I would've put more flavoring. I remember Andrew telling us it was really strong and to put a little. We put about three drops in when we had a lot of melted wax. It was a really insufficient amount of flavoring.
If I could do this lab over again, I would probably try a different flavor and put a ton more. Like I said before, we didn't use as much flavoring. Also, I would work with less people because there were a lot of down time if you weren't doing anything.
Takeaways:
One thing I learned was that beeswax is very expensive for such a little amount. Janessa warned us to let her know how much we were using because it costs a lot and it came out of her pocket. I personally didn't know that it was expensive and it didn't know what it actually looked.