# NEW & Desperately Seeking Advice on Body Butters



## akj2011 (Dec 5, 2011)

Hi Everyone,

I made my first "body butter" two days ago and quickly realised that i would have to experiment with different recipes and processes to achieve an ideal body butter. 

My first attempt was a blend derived from a recipe for "protection cream" which was;
 1/15 parts cocoa butter                       (or 1Tbsp)
2/15 parts beeswax                             (or 2 Tbsp)
4/15 parts base carrier oil - Coconut     (or 1/4 Cup)
8/15 parts base carrier oil - JoJoba       (or 1/2 Cup)
All ingredients were melted on low heat, left to cool for 5-10mins, then whisked until opaque but pourable. & added -Essential fragrance oil (Coconut) & vit E).

The cream turned out to be extremely oily, it is great for dry & rough skin such as feet and hands although leaves an oily residue.

For my second attempt, i decided to try a different recipe, to attempt a body butter with less oil and more butter in the formula. The one i tried was a Shea Body Butter (1 1/3C of Shea butter, 1/2 C of almond oil & jojoba oil blend, - i proceeded to melt the butter and oil... i placed mixture in the freezer then whipped it with a stick blender. I next added vit E and essential oils. I put it back in the freezer for 10mins, it hardened around the edges and formed a hard fatty layer on the top, i proceeded to blend the mixture again. The final mixture was like cream that had not been whisked (like pouring cream vs whipped cream). I poured it into a container and within 24hours it had hardened to a spreadable oily cream. I have a couple of questions if members have knowledge that they want to share it would be invaluable;

1. How do i reduce the oily residue? i have read about nutrasorb, cornstarch, DryFlow, Expandex, Cyclo and have not found a conclusive answer. Some people state that the cornstarch increases the likelihood of bacterial contamination. I am still researching the other options.

2. How do i get the body butter to whip up into a medium density cream like those that you can buy at the body shop? I have read that some people whip their creams for up to 45mins (although surely this is unnecessary?). I may have to use my old kitchen electronic mixer (and buy a new one for cooking)... the handheld one is not as effective. Is there an additive that makes a lighter and less oily body butter?

 I have found a recipe that incorporates demineralized water, potassium sorb ate / emulsifying wax carrier oils and butters/ essential oils and Vit E/ and essential fruit extracts phenoxyyethanol into a 4 stage process... this is my next experiment. Although i am not convinced i will get the result that i want and rather then through trial and error, i am seeking advice, recipes and tips from members... if anyone can help it would be appreciated  

Thankyou


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## Sunny (Dec 5, 2011)

have you tried searching this forum or reading through the posts in the bath and body forum? there's lots in there.

your recipe is oily because that's what's in there... oils. to get a result like what the body shop sells, you'll need to add water (it's the first ingredient on their body butters).

you can try cornstarch in the recipes you're using now but I don't like the feel of it. then it just feels greasy AND gritty.  not really much of an improvement. that's just my opinion, lots of people like using it.

I urge you to read through the bath and body section of this forum, that's where I learned to make lotions!


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## IrishLass (Dec 5, 2011)

Tasha already gave you some great advice, but I just wanted to add my 2 cents to this question:



> 2. How do i get the body butter to whip up into a medium density cream like those that you can buy at the body shop?



As Tasha said- if you want the body butter to be like those found at the body shop, you must re-vamp your formula to include water and emulsifiers, which will make what a lot of us here call an "emulsified body butter". I don't know if you are familiar with Lotioncrafters, but they have an awesome recipe in their formulary that duplicates the feel of the type of body butter you can get at the Body Shop (and it includes water and emulsifiers):

http://www.lotioncrafter.com/formulary/ ... _Bliss.pdf

I have never used the Body Shop's product, but I have made Lotioncrafters recipe and it's wonderful stuff. They even sell a 'Try It' kit with all the ingredients to make 33 oz of the body butter if you don't want to commit to buying regular/larger quantities of all the ingredients. 

IrishLass


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## carebear (Dec 5, 2011)

IrishLass said:
			
		

> As Tasha said- if you want the body butter to be like those found at the body shop, you must re-vamp your formula to include water and emulsifiers,


and since this formula will have water in it, you must also include a preservative.  not vitamin E or the like, but a real preservative that is effective against mold and bacteria.


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## judymoody (Dec 5, 2011)

carebear said:
			
		

> IrishLass said:
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Ditto on the preservative.  Potassium sorbate is not broad spectrum enough by itself.  Again, Lotioncrafters has excellent information about the efficacy of the preservatives they carry.  Another good source is Swift's blog, point of interest, which describes the pros and cons of most preservatives available on the market.  

http://swiftcraftymonkey.blogspot.com/p ... tives.html

She also sells an e-book on lotions which is a wonderful resource.  The money goes to support youth groups.


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## akj2011 (Dec 5, 2011)

tasha said:
			
		

> have you tried searching this forum or reading through the posts in the bath and body forum?



No not yet. I stumbled across your site yesterday when I googled body butters, although I only read a couple of blogs before posting my questions. I will read over more today.




			
				tasha said:
			
		

> your recipe is oily because that's what's in there... oils. to get a result like what the body shop sells, you'll need to add water (it's the first ingredient on their !



Lol, the obvious should have been a no brainer! My problem here was that from the books & reading material that I read over before starting my first trials "cream" formulations were mostly just oils & fats. While logically I knew I would get a better result from a longer process that incorporates water & agents such as nutrasorb, I kept reading recipes for "Shea body butter" or "shea & mango body butter" which had NO water, there was one women on YouTube who whipped up a light & non-greasy looking butter without water. I will read the recipes on here for "Emulsified body butters" (thanks IrishLass), this was the direction I planned to head into next (just needed to get advice on preservatives &additives such as cornstarch).

I will checkout Swifts blog & the lotioncrafters (thanks CareBear) it can be time consuming searching for good sources on product efficacy. It sounds as though you have tried alot of the preservatives on the market, Thankyou for sharing your info -my next trial uses potassium sorbate which you mentioned is not broad spectrum enough,it also incorporates phenoxyethanol which is a preservative & vitamin E (which yes in itself is not effective enough) so I will checkout lotioncrafters & more literature on using preservatives in conjunction with other compounds. 

I wanted to read more about preservatives & the more involved processes before starting as my kitchen space is small (so that's why I wrote yesterday). 

Thankyou for all of your invaluable advice and recommendations, once I start experimenting with various emulsified body butters and different preservatives I will post them on here.


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## achancellor (Dec 7, 2011)

akj2011 said:
			
		

> tasha said:
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To keep from wasting your expensive oils, try this: 10 oz vegetable shortening, 8 oz aloe vera gel 2 oz light oil. Whip in a stand mixer stopping to scrape bowl and whip again. You can use vitamin e. From this point, I was able to figure out how to whip shea and other butters and make adjustments. Shea is heavier than shortening, so I adjusted down for that and up on aloe, etc. It's a bit of monkeying around, but it did help me. I work more off of sight and feel than actual amounts (the cook in me).


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## llineb (Jan 7, 2012)

I make a similar recipe but beeswax is my first ingredient and I use Jojoba oil with some solid butters...shea, cocoa and mango butters.  You can add more of the solid butters to help it be more solid and less oily.  I was concerned about this when I first started making body butter and even tried the corn starch but it gave it a weird texture and people liked it better without it.  I found that people who buy body butter don't mind the greasy feel and actually like it that way.  Wait and see how your first batch turns out in a few weeks because it will harden a bit more.  I have some clients that order it monthly and i ship it to them.


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## BulkApothecary (Jan 8, 2012)

Ok, let's start with the formula.  First, almost all of the commercial body butters on the market are an emulsified cream.  That means there is a water phase and an oil phase that are emulsified with heat, time and emulsifying agents.  It takes practice, but once you get it down, it is easy.  Proper temperature control is a must.  One of the most common problems people face is not accurately monitoring their temps during the mixing process.  The next thing I would like to point out is the importance of preservatives.  When you decide to add water to your formula, mold and bacteria is a natural concern.  I often see people that add the preservative too early in the mixing process and it burns off.  You really want to add the preservative at the last minute to make sure it doesn't burn off.  After all, the last thing you want is a body butter that grows mold after a couple weeks.  As others have said, also make sure you use a broad spectrum preservative.  Some natural formulas use a combination of sodium benzoate and potassium sorbate and maybe a little vitamin E, but the parabens and harsher preservatives will give you a longer shelf life and more protection.  The preservative is really what dictates your shelf life so it truly is the most important factor.  My advice though, would be to buy a pre made body butter base that you can add your custom touches to until you really get it down and test your formula.  We sell one on our site for 29.99 per gallon and there are countless sites out their offering similar bases that you can add whatever you want to.  It is a much safer, simpler method until you really get it down.  Sorry for the long reply, but hopefully this gives you some helpful information.


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## carebear (Jan 8, 2012)

potassium sorbate and sodium benzoate protect against molds, but not well against bacteria.  plus they are very pH dependent.  I don't recommend them for lotions.

the point (time and temperature and phase) at which you are to add the preservative will depend on the preservative you select.


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## IrishLass (Jan 9, 2012)

BulkApothecary said:
			
		

> I often see people that add the preservative too early in the mixing process and it burns off. You really want to add the preservative at the last minute to make sure it doesn't burn off



Not necessarily true.


 Like carebear said, 





> "the point (time and temperature and phase) at which you are to add the preservative will depend on the preservative you select"


 The preservative that I use (Phenonip) is designed to be added in the heated phase and can withstand the high autoclave sterilization temps without any loss of activity. That's one of the reasons why I chose it. One needs to look at the MSDS sheet of their chosen preservative to know the proper phase/time to add it.


IrishLass


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