Body Butters Part 2

I thought I would create a Part 2 for the Body Butters because there is so much room for creativity with them! While body butters are simple to make, you can make them really special by using additional ingredients to give different effects, scents, colours and themes. The following recipes are slightly more advanced than the beginner’s formula in the first Body Butters blog, and you will require additional ingredients such as cetyl alcohol and an emulsifier.

In this recipe we include some cetyl alcohol which adds both body and a conditioning feel to the end product. We’re also playing around with butter combos to make a really decadent body butter.

Choc-nut Whipped Body Butter

Heated phase

20% cocoa butter

38% mango butter

30% hazelnut oil, or try apricot kernel oil or a combination of both

5% cetyl alcohol

6.5% arrowroot powder

Cool down phase

0.5% Vitamin E oil

You will need to hot process this recipe as the cocoa butter is a very hard butter.

Add all the heated phase ingredients to a bowl and gently melt them in a hot water bath or with short bursts in the microwave. Once everything has melted thoroughly, place it in the fridge for 20 minutes or until the mixture just starts to solidify. Beat the mixture with an electric beater until soft fluffy peaks form, and then leave the mixture to fully come to room temperature in order to check the consistency. If you need to make changes to the consistency, do it, otherwise you can add the Vitamin E and any other extras now. Then spoon the body butter into a jar or tin and enjoy!

Emulsified Body Butters

I came across what someone described as emulsified butters and was immediately intrigued. Adding an emulsifier usually indicates the presence of water somewhere along the line so I was curious about how this was still a body butter and not just a regular thick body lotion. The answer is that it's a very ‘Body Shop’ style body butter, with high amounts of butter where you would usually use more oil and a thickener instead. So in a way it is a body lotion, but it's also a butter-rich body lotion that is slower absorbing - ‘emulsified body butter’ is actually spot on!

Cocoa Coconut Emulsified Body Butter

Heated water phase

45% water

5% vegetable glycerine or you can use propanediol

Heated oil phase

5% glyceryl stearate & PEG 100 stearate

25% cocoa butter

13.5% virgin coconut oil

5% cetyl alcohol

Cool down phase

1% preservative such as Saliguard BDHA

0.5% Vitamin E oil

Weigh out all the ingredients. Gently heat the heated oil phase ingredients together in a hot water bath or with short bursts in the microwave. Heat the heated water phase ingredients together (or used boiled and slightly cooled water). Pour the water phase into the oil phase and stir to create a pre-emulsion, then use a stick/soup blender in a blend-cool-blend cycle until the body butter is thick and luscious. Lastly, add the cool down ingredients and blend to incorporate, then decant into a jar or tin and enjoy.

For more advanced formulators, the above emulsified body butter recipe can be tweaked quite a bit to include various other ingredients:

The water phase can be changed by using a hydrosol or aloe vera instead. You can also make the water phase larger and add in some xanthan gum or HEC to stabilise it, for a lighter texture.

You could swap the cocoa butter and coconut oil out for a different butter and oil.

You could add in some hemisqualane in the cool down phase for extra slippy feel.

You could add some panthenoll for conditioning/moisturising.

Try this aloe body butter which is rich, conditioning and soothing:

Soothing Aloe Body Butter

Heated oil phase

3.5% glyceryl stearate & PEG 100 stearate

25% shea butter

5% fractionated coconut oil

2% cetyl alcohol

0.3% xanthan gum

Heated water phase