An Epic Lotion Fail

I have been making emulsified body butters for a while for the kids. What's an emulsified body butter? It's a thick cream made of water, oils, and a butter such as shea, cocoa or mango butter. Of course this needs an emulsifier to keep it all together. 

I set about making a batch of emulsified body butter - 70% water phase, 12.5% oils, 6% butter, 8% Ecomulse - an organic emulsifier from Lotioncrafter (INCI Glyceryl Stearate (and) Cetearyl Alcohol (and) Sodium Stearoyl Lactylate). The preservative I generally use is NeoDefend (also from Lotioncrafter) INCI Gluconolactone (and) Sodium Benzoate. I add this to the heated water phase and had no issues with emulsifying wax NF (Cetostearyl Alcohol) from Mountain Rose Herbs. I did the same thing and ended up with a runny mess that then separated.
So instead of this
​

I get this:

Gross!

I scoured the internet for what might have gone wrong and got a vague idea that it could be the preservative - it's probably a bit too acidic for the Ecomulse. I went back and made a face lotion without the NeoDefend and the lotion emulsified beautifully in no time after mixing the oil and water phases. I ended up using Optiphen preservative (INCI Phenoxyehanol and caprylyl glycol) in the cool down phase. The Ecomulse seems to be creamier than Emulsifying wax but definitely needs more TLC. 

Based on feedback I've got from a few wonderful folks, I seem to make my face lotions a bit oily. So I have made a batch of face lotions with varying degrees of oils. These will go out to testers.