# Whipped shea



## Carlaalways1 (Apr 6, 2020)

Hello, Im new here and was wondering how to prevent my whipped shea butter from smelling like shea ? I added fragrance oils and it did not work...


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## shunt2011 (Apr 7, 2020)

Using refined shea is the only way to not have the shea smell.  It's whiter and no smell.


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## atiz (Apr 7, 2020)

Ditto. Refined shea is practically odorless (and white).


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## Arimara (Apr 7, 2020)

Since you're using an unrefined shea, you would need to stick to earthy, spicy green scents to help deal with that. Adding some cocoa butter to it might help sweeten the whip a little but but I could be wrong and it has been years since I made a whip.


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## Carlaalways1 (Apr 12, 2020)

Ok

You guys are so helpful ! I used opithen as a perservative and it separates my product  Are there other preservatives or non Parabens preservative that I can use to prevent this from happening?


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## Arimara (Apr 12, 2020)

Carlaalways1 said:


> You guys are so helpful ! I used opithen as a perservative and it separates my product  Are there other preservatives or non Parabens preservative that I can use to prevent this from happening?


You would use Optiphen (and another preservative to cover what opthiphen does not protect against) when you make a lotion or some other product where water is used. 100% oil-based products to not need a preservative. It's better to use an antioxident in those instead.


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## atiz (Apr 12, 2020)

What Arimara said. What exactly are you using the optiphen for? Do you have any water-soluable ingredients in your recipe? If not, I'd just add a bit of vitamin E, and call it a day, except if you expect that you would get into the jar with wet hands etc. In that case I usually use liquid germall plus and have never had separation issues with it.


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## Arimara (Apr 13, 2020)

Does Liquid germall plus smell like phenonip? I can smell that through quite a few scents and for lotions, I scented on the heavier side for me.


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## atiz (Apr 13, 2020)

Arimara said:


> Does Liquid germall plus smell like phenonip? I can smell that through quite a few scents and for lotions, I scented on the heavier side for me.


I can't detect any smell of it, but have to admit my smell is not that great. I have not tried phenonip so cannot compare to that. I quite like LGP, it's the one I use most of the time. (The only disadvantage is that you can't add it above 100F-ish, so if you melt things you have to wait till they are pretty cool.)


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## natari624 (Apr 13, 2020)

I make and sell whipped Shea body butters and use both refined and unrefined as I have some customers who prefer unrefined. With unrefined Shea, I add Mango butter to my recipe to take down the nuttiness of the Shea butter.  I have also used phenonip at a 1% ratio in my butters, as a precaution, and have not had any separation or overpowering smell.


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## Hinata (Apr 14, 2020)

I use half Shea and mix with coconut oil, avocado/sweet almond and a bit of tallow. I don’t smell anything other than the FO used.


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## Carlaalways1 (Apr 14, 2020)

Hello,
I came up with a formula for my 60oz whipped shea butter with water but it does not add up to 100%
60% Water
5% Shea Butter
5% Mango Butter
4% Stearic Acid
4% Emulsifying wax
1% geogard persevatives
3% Jojoba oil
3% Fragrance oil
1% Vitamin E
.05 % Rosehip oil...
What am I missing ?


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## Arimara (Apr 14, 2020)

Carlaalways1 said:


> Hello,
> I came up with a formula for my 60oz whipped shea butter with water but it does not add up to 100%
> 60% Water
> 5% Shea Butter
> ...


Add 10% to shea and 4% to mango butter.


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## Carlaalways1 (Apr 15, 2020)

Arimara said:


> Add 10% to shea and 4% to mango butter.


Should the shea and mango butter be the same ratio ? I want my product to be thick... will it change the consistency?


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## Arimara (Apr 15, 2020)

Carlaalways1 said:


> Should the shea and mango butter be the same ratio ? I want my product to be thick... will it change the consistency?


That was just to get your recipe to 100%. If you had made it straight, you might was well have added more water and made a lotion. But anytime you change the butter ratios, the final product will be different.

As far as the butters are concerned, it's really going to fall on you to play around with 10g combinations of the two buttersbefore you settle on something. I suggest 10 grams so you can get a rough estimate of what you like.


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## Carlaalways1 (Apr 17, 2020)

My body butter wont whip at all... here is my recipe
1590 grams of distilled water 
225 grams of unrefined shea butter
190 grams of mango butter
115 grams of emulsifying wax
115 grans of stearic acid
25 grams of German Plus
8oz of sweet almond oil
Where did I go wrong ? Is it not whipping because I didnt let it cool down before whipping?


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## Arimara (Apr 18, 2020)

Carlaalways1 said:


> My body butter wont whip at all... here is my recipe
> 1590 grams of distilled water
> 225 grams of unrefined shea butter
> 190 grams of mango butter
> ...


What was your process and what were the temps of your oils and water?

For the record. I finally found my lotion calculator. You have too many oils and not enough emulsifier at the least, from the looks of it. If this was supposed to be a test run, I hope this isn't a complete wast because that's a huge batch for a test run for a recipe.


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## Carlaalways1 (Apr 18, 2020)

I made a smaller batch before and it worked... but when I tried to make a bigger one it did not work... How do I save it ?





Arimara said:


> What was your process and what were the temps of your oils and water?
> 
> For the record. I finally found my lotion calculator. You have too many oils and not enough emulsifier at the least, from the looks of it. If this was supposed to be a test run, I hope this isn't a complete wast because that's a huge batch for a test run for a recipe.


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## atiz (Apr 18, 2020)

That looks like way too much oil with way too little emulsifier. Are you sure you sized it up correctly? 

I've never made more than like 4 oz of lotion/butter at once, although know that people do. You probably want to be careful as to when to add the preservative -- it will take a long time for so much to cool down enough, but if you wait too much it may be too late.


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## Carlaalways1 (Apr 18, 2020)

I added the preservative when the temperature was at 100 F. And then I attempted to whip it... Is there anything that I can do ? Add more emulsifiers ? Melt everything down ? Please give me instructions on what to do with details, I do not want to throw this bath away...

I melted the emulsifying wax and stearic acid together and poured it into the boiling how water and it turned white ( the oil and water blended together) the I melted my butter and whipped it. When the temperature hit 100 F I added the preservative. It did not thicken ot whip at all. I left it in the fridge overnight and it did thicken a little but it is still runny... if I didnt add enough emulsifiers then how much should I add. ? Is it too late ? Can I save my batch ?

* I added my melted butters into the water and emulsifying batch together.


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## Arimara (Apr 18, 2020)

We definitely need at the @Dahila to look at this, when she can. My mind is drawing blanks on who else is a lotion maker. I'm honestly not sure you can save it since you mixed it all up. The oils would heat up more slowly than the water, which more would evaporate and then you would also possible inactivate the preservative in there and need to add more.


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## Carlaalways1 (Apr 18, 2020)

Ummmm... for the next batch how much emulsifying wax should I add ?


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## Saponificarian (Apr 18, 2020)

If you are making a lotion/emulsified body butter, you should ideally have 2/3 phases.

Phase One is the water phase where you have all your liquid and water soluble ingredients.

Phase two is your oil phase with your oils and oil soluble ingredients including your waxed and emulsifier.

Depending on if you heat and hold your ingredients, I would advise you to, if you are a home crafter, not only to heat the ingredients to kill the nasties in the phases but because some emulsifiers need to be heated well to function effectively.

Heat and holding means you heat the two phases (water and oil Phase) using a double boiler and time the phases for 20mins when they both hit 70C.

You then combine both phases together using a stick blender. I know some people use the whipping method but I have never tried it. Stick blending works just fine! I just generally add my oil phase to my water phase as the water phase for me is usually larger and I don’t use pesky emulsifiers that require you to add water phase to oil phase.

Third phase should be your cool down ingredients to include preservatives and extracts, FO and such. Usually when the whole batch cools to about 40c. 

Read up on your preservative as some do better added to the water phase upfront with temperature caveats so read up on the preservatives you are using as some are inactivated by so and so ingredients. Which is why Liquid Germal plus is usually recommended for beginners, it’s less finicky. Just add it at 40C or less.

Ideally if you are using emulsifying wax, it should be at 25% of your total oil phase. That includes all the oils, butters and waxes in your recipe. You can use some emulsifier at a lower usage rate so again, you need to read up on the type of emulsifier you are using.

You can’t go wrong checking out humblebeeandme website as well as Swiftcraftymonkey blog. Haven’t been on these blogs for a long time but they got me started. You are in good hands with these ladies.

Hope this helps.

Your original recipe

Water Phase
63% Water

Oil Phase
5% Shea Butter
10% Mango Butter
4% Stearic Acid
5% Jojoba oil
8% Emulsifying wax

Third Phase(Cool down phase)
1% geogard persevatives
3% Fragrance oil
1% Vitamin E

I will make this recipe tweaking your original recipe. My preference will be to make Shea butter 10% but you seem to be able smell it through the fragrance hence why I increased the mango butter instead as that is usually less odorous he?

Your ewax which I am guessing is the generic one is better used at 25% +1 of the oil phase which is why it’s 8% when it should have been 7%. 

ETA: I would trash the previous batch. I am guessing it’s less ewax and the whole process gone awry


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## Arimara (Apr 19, 2020)

Saponificarian said:


> Your original recipe
> 
> Water Phase
> 63% Water
> ...


That's the answer I was wondering about.


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## atiz (Apr 19, 2020)

Saponificarian is right, and that's a really nice description of the basic process.
I also think that if you don't yet have a tried and true recipe, it's better to make much smaller batches  -- much less waste, and easier to handle. Lotion making can be somewhat tricky in my experience; new additives can sometimes mess with the emulsion if not done right, and you just don't know it until you try it.
I would toss your current batch and start over with the revised recipe. Or, head over to the recommended blogs, they also have a lot of good things to try out (and humblebeeandme is free).


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## Dahila (Apr 19, 2020)

There is kind of rule that most emulsifiers you use 25% of oil soluble ingredient,  if you use dimethicone you add it,  also fragrance Add all oil soluble ing sume them up and dived by 4,  Most of them,  Some emulsifiers can emulsify a lot of oil;  ie  Quick summary: Jeesperse® ICE-T CIS-2 (INCI: PEG-150 distearate (and) Cetearyl Alcohol (and) polyquaternium 37) .  Use 0.5% to 1.5% for sprayable lotions and conditioners; 1% to 6% for hair conditioners; 3% to 10% for skin and body care products. pH 2 to 9 for the finished product.  That one is very forgiving and it is cold emulsifier the first one of cold processed I like .  The hair conditioner with Helia is fantastic


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## AMc14 (Jan 8, 2021)

natari624 said:


> I make and sell whipped Shea body butters and use both refined and unrefined as I have some customers who prefer unrefined. With unrefined Shea, I add Mango butter to my recipe to take down the nuttiness of the Shea butter.  I have also used phenonip at a 1% ratio in my butters, as a precaution, and have not had any separation or overpowering smell.


Do you add any essential oils or fragrance to the unrefined shea butter to improve the smell? Which are some fragrances I could use to improve the smell?


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## natari624 (Jan 8, 2021)

AMc14 said:


> Do you add any essential oils or fragrance to the unrefined shea butter to improve the smell? Which are some fragrances I could use to improve the smell?


I find with my unrefined butters the nuttiness doesn't last once absorbed in the skin and the true scent stands out. However,  just smelling it out of the jar it smells nutty with a hint of the scent. Here are the scents I offer my customers.... 
CocoRose - Rose Petal EO only
Cashmere Gold- Cashmere FO, Brown Sugar FO
Black Currant- Black Currant EO
Oriental Woods- this is my own blend that I won't give away as it's a best seller with men and women alike... but essentially create a blend of wood and spice. The earthiness you end up with blend very well with unrefined shea or even whipped cocobutter. 

You can even try a double or triple butter... where you add other quality butters to the shea to help mellow out the scent.  I usual do shea, mango, cocoa butter OR Shea, Kokum, Mango.

Hope this helps a little.


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## AMc14 (Jan 8, 2021)

natari624 said:


> I find with my unrefined butters the nuttiness doesn't last once absorbed in the skin and the true scent stands out. However,  just smelling it out of the jar it smells nutty with a hint of the scent. Here are the scents I offer my customers....
> CocoRose - Rose Petal EO only
> Cashmere Gold- Cashmere FO, Brown Sugar FO
> Black Currant- Black Currant EO
> ...


This is amazing. Thank you sooo much.


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