# First Body Butter



## BridgetPS (Jan 28, 2014)

I recently made my first Whipped body butter. It melted good and it Whipped up good. The problem is I never could get a good scent to it, it hardened up, and it's very greasy. My recipe was 
1 Cup Shea butter 
1 Cup mango butter 
1 Tbspn sweet Almond oil 
1 tsp Beeswax 
Lime essential oil 
Sweet Orange essential oil 

Can anyone help me figure out how I went wrong?


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## Lindy (Jan 28, 2014)

Body Butters are usually greasy just by their very nature.  If you want it drier try changing out the Shea butter for Kokum Butter, it is a much drier butter and change the sweet almond out to jojoba oil.


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## BridgetPS (Jan 28, 2014)

Thanks for the advice.


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## indulgebandb (Jan 28, 2014)

You could also add some cornstarch or arrowroot powder to help with the greasiness. I use isoprpyl myriatate in my to help cut the greasiness- didn't really like the feel of the cornstartch but it's the easiest to get. I didn't have much  luck using beeswax in my body butters but others do. On the smell- if you used natural Shea and/or cocoa butter the smell is really difficult to cover up- you really just have to use something that enhances that smell. If scent is a concern, I would look into using refined Shea and cocoa butters.


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## Obsidian (Jan 28, 2014)

I've found that I like my body butter to have more soft oils then your recipe calls for. I do 1 cup shea (any butter will do or a combo of different ones), 1/2 cup coconut, 1/2 cup avocado. It still whips up nice and fluffy but doesn't harden quite as much as mostly butters do.
It will still be greasy though. I tend to use mine at night after a shower, my skin feels wonderful the next morning. I bet if you use your butter for a few days, you will love it, grease and all.

I agree on the scent. I use unrefined shea and there is no covering it, a nice sweet scent usually blends well. I particularly like sensual perfume dupe, its a soft sweet floral.


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## lenarenee (Jan 28, 2014)

You mentioned that your body butter hardened up....more than you wanted?

Keep in mind I've only made my own body butter, for my own personal use, about four times, but I also didn't like how hard it set up after a few days.

I used shea nicolita (softer than normal shea, quite spreadable on it's own) and mango butter.

For the climate I have (70 - 80 degrees in s. California), I used
about equal portions shea and mango, and about 25% apricot oil, with a smidge of vitamin E added.  Apricot oil is used a lot of massage therapists because it's moisturizing, but absorbed quickly by the skin. (therefore, less greasy)  Almond oil is also good.

I left out the beeswax completely.

After whipping, it was the consistency of homemade whipped cream; easily plop-able from a spoon, but still thick enough to hold its shape. After  a couple days it set up firmer, but still easily swiped from the tin with a finger.

If you're in a colder region, you may want to up the percentage of the liquid oil you use.

I can't really say much about the greasiness, except to perhaps lower the amount of shea.  It's wonderful stuff, but very greasy. Mango is much drier.

Kokum is good stuff too. I like it plain on my dry flaky, skin, it's less oily; but it's incredibly hard and has to be softened or used in a body butter.

Coconut oil was incredibly greasy for me, and I just leave it out of the butters I use now.

Maybe that will give you some ideas to experiment with.  Good luck!


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## Lin (Jan 29, 2014)

I would say the greasiness and the hardening is a result of your recipe, which is primarily hard butters and a teeny amount of oil, and with that ratio of butter to oil there's no need for beeswax which would also be hardening the end result. 

I would add an additional cup and a half of a light easily absorbing oil like the sweet almond oil. A good basic recipe for body butter is 1/3rd hard oil (mango, shea), 1/3rd coconut oil (which is sort of an inbetween soft and hard oil), and 1/3rd soft oil (sweet almond). Omitting coconut oil I would start with a 1:1 ratio of hard to soft oils and change up from there for personal preference. You can decrease greasiness with the ingredient choices, mango is less greasy than shea. Sweet almond oil, avocado oil, meadowfoam oil are going to be less greasy and faster absorbing than olive oil. And adding in some cornstarch or arrowroot for a more silky feel helps as well. 

Beeswax can also result in a greasier feel from forming a more occlusive layer on the skin that lasts for a while, think about beeswax in lip balm to get an idea. Unless you're adding beeswax in for a specific reason I wouldn't use it. Some reasons I use beeswax are: to get that heavier occlusive layer for extra protection of the skin in winter holding in moisture, to add a bit more stability and resistance to melting depending on the recipe for hot summer use.

My body butters are extremely light and fluffly, like whipped cream. They melt immediately at body temperature where if there isn't a lot on my fingers it only takes a couple seconds to become liquid. Then they absorb quickly into the skin without a lasting greasy feel.


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## BridgetPS (Jan 29, 2014)

Thank you all so much for all of your advice. I'm so glad I found this forum. I bought some ingredients to get started. I'm on a very limited income. I'm going to list the ingredients I have and if y'all have time or would like to help me further, I'd love to get some recipes I can do with what I have on hand. 
Unrefined Shea butter 
Cocoa butter scented 
Mango butter 
Vitamin e 
Beeswax 
Sweet Almond oil 
Lime EO 
Sweet Orange EO


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## Lin (Jan 30, 2014)

With those I'd just do 1/2 hard oil 1/2 soft oil. You can add some vitamin E to help prolong shelf life, doesn't take a lot. You can add a little more hard or soft oil while whipping if you want to change the consistency. I wouldn't melt the shea or mango before whipping, but cocoa does need to be melted. That can make it more difficult to see the consistency as you're going along, so if you want to you can mix a melted cocoa butter portion with the soft oil (sweet almond in your current ingredients) and then let it go to room temp before adding in any other butters or whipping it. During whipping stick in the fridge to chill a bit and whip a little more until you're happy with it. Play around with what ratios of the hard butters you have for the 1/2 hard butter portion and see what you like best. 

You can make lip balm and lotion bars with the beeswax. You can try 1 1/2                                         tsp Beeswax, 1 1/2                                         tsp Butter (any of the 3 you have or a combination), 1                                         tsp Sweet Almond Oil for a basic lip balm recipe and change up from there until you reach what you like. I'd recommend using weights so you can recreate your recipes and change volumes but I don't know if you have a scale so I'm giving basic volume recipes to start from. But if you can do weights especially so once you find what you like best you can make it consistently. Change up what soft oils you use, which butters you use, figure out what consistency you like with changing up the beeswax to harden or maybe decreasing the beeswax when using cocoa butter vs shea and mango since its harder. Its all personal preference. 

A basic lotion bar recipe is 1 part coconut oil, 1 part butter, 1 part beeswax. Since you don't have coconut oil maybe try something like 1 cup beeswax, 1/2 cup soft oil, 1 1/2 cup butters. Again, play around until you like the consistency. You can always remelt and add a little of something or another thing if you want to change things up, but with shea butter doing so can make it gritty. This won't matter so much in whipped butter or lotion bar but can give a bad lip feel in lip balms. It won't hurt the other ingredients though.


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## BridgetPS (Jan 30, 2014)

Lin thank you so much for helping me. I really want to get good at making these things at home. It's very sweet of you to take time to help me.


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## Lin (Jan 30, 2014)

No problem, hope it helps! And there is a lot of good information online with recipes available. But since what everyone likes best is different you'll get better results by testing things and seeing what you like. My boyfriend hates to use lotion, can't stand the feel. I made him a hard lotion bar with extra beeswax, so that it gives off the oil very slowly. He loves it and said its perfect, when I use it to me it actually feels greasy due to the high amount of beeswax, and an oilier one where the oil absorbs faster into my skin feels less greasy. But he thinks my oily ones feel greasy. There's also a degree of how its used differing there, I think I apply a thicker layer than he does.


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## BridgetPS (Feb 23, 2014)

I ended up Re melting my body butter and making it into a bar. I'm going to make more body butter using mango butter and sweet Almond oil. Maybe that will turn out like I want it. I want to thank you all so much for your advice. This forum is great!!


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## new12soap (Feb 23, 2014)

You may want to measure all of your ingredients by weight instead of volume. A cup of this and a teaspoon of that will make it much harder to get consistent results, get a scale and do it all by weight and you will be much better off in the long run.


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## BridgetPS (Feb 23, 2014)

I'll definetly do that. Thank you. 

Just Whipped up equal parts mango butter and Almond oil. Got it in the fridge and going to whip it again in about an hour. I'm thinking that I will probably try lotion next. The body butters are just too thick and greasy for my liking.


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## Lin (Feb 26, 2014)

Everyone has different preferences. You might prefer the Mango Butter more due to it being dryer, and try adding in a tablespoon of cornstarch. Also, make sure you are whipping them really well and only applying a very little bit. Like it should take a little bit of work to spread it around, as opposed to slathering it on. (I DO slather it on after a shower, but it takes a long time to soak in then.) I like to compare it to a lotion that may only have 20% butters and oils in it, the rest is water which helps distribute the product. So you don't want to use the same amount of a body butter as you do lotion, or you're actually applying as much as if you did 5x as much lotion. So its going to be very greasy and take ages to soak into the skin if it all does. Lots of whipping helps, because then the air volume both helps spread the product and make it look like you have more than you do for easier adjustment. 

At this point I prefer the body butter over lotion. When I apply lotion I don't like the watery feeling, it actually seems quite waxy and gross to me. But I use lotion on my hair for leave in conditioner. I'm working on making my own lotions as well, but I'm not all the way through this giant bottle my boyfriend bought me like a year ago haha. I only use about 2 squirts on my hair, and only about twice a week. Since I can't stand it on my skin (and don't want to use it on my skin due to ingredients) its taking ages to finish.

My boyfriend HATES lotion, always has. Would not want to be near me or touched by me during and after applying lotion. Which was frequent with the crazy itchiness I used to have (eczema) before switching to CP soap and homemade body butters. Now, he actually likes the feel of my body butter. And enjoys applying it for me after a shower and freshly epilated legs


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## BridgetPS (Feb 26, 2014)

What's your body butter recipe? What bothers me most about the body butter is after I put it on, everything I touch gets greasy. Phone. Reading glasses, kids lol. Hubby hates lotion too so he stays away. I would like to find a mp soap recipe. Me and my kids have very dry skin.


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## Lin (Feb 26, 2014)

I've been working on my recipes a very long time and am beginning to sell them, so unfortunately I can't give away an exact recipe. Currently I like to use combinations of mango, shea, and cocoa for my butters, and for the liquid oils I like light fast absorbing oils like avocado, sweet almond, meadowfoam. I also use coconut oil as its own designation. I'd say if stuff your touching is getting greasy, you're probably using way too much. Try whipping it as much as you can to get as much air into it. Then use as little as you can, you can always add more but you can't take away if you've put too much on. 

You also might have some trouble from having very dry skin, it may be slower to absorb for that reason. I'd try putting on good layers before changing for bed, covering up the body butter on your skin with the clothes so it can't transfer while it soaks in. You can also try rubbing it into your hands just before bed, or go as far as rubbing in a lot and putting on some cotton gloves. When my skin was very very dry, I actually started out with pure oils like coconut. I had severe eczema at the time, and I didn't start adding in other ingredients and making combined body butters until my skin had healed. 

Here is my current large jar of body butter



Its super fluffly, I scooped out just this much with my finger



In a matter of seconds messing with my phone it was melting




I rubbed that tiny amount into my hands, covering both of my entire hands in a super light layer. By the time I was done rubbing it in, I had no qualms picking up my touch screen cell phone to upload the photos to photobucket. I also picked up my empty glass I'd been drinking from, and the fingerprints left seemed to be identical to the fingerprints already on the glass (and I haven't put any butter on my hands at all today before this). 

For me, one of the best things about using the body butters and straight oils is never getting to the point of very dry skin. So that adds in to the little goes a long way bit. When I started out, I had a jar of super moisturizing cream recommended by my dermatologist 





I decided to do a test, my legs had the worst eczema and were the dryest. So I put cerave on my left leg, and coconut oil on my right leg twice a day. After the first application, I felt a little disappointed as the coconut oil leg felt very dry still once the oil had soaked in, while the cerave leg felt moisturized. However by the end of a single week, the coconut oil leg was moisturized BEFORE I applied anything, while the cerave leg felt very dry all day except maybe the hour immediately after applying. 

So you may have better results if you can stick it out until your skin is healed and not so dry.


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## BridgetPS (Feb 27, 2014)

I've been using cerave facial cleanser and moisturizer as my skin care for several years now. Now I'm wondering if it's even doing any good. :thumbdown:  thanks once again for helping me.


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## MzMolly65 (Feb 27, 2014)

Lin .. thanks from me also.  It's generous of you to share your knowledge with us and I appreciate it.  I wasn't going to make lip balms or body butters but you make it sound so easy that I think I might have to give some a whirl.


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## Lin (Feb 27, 2014)

It really is super easy to make them! 

With the Cerave products, you never know. Everyone is so different. For me my dermatologist gave me samples of their body wash but I was still reacting to it and getting itchy and had the rashes on my arms and legs. I don't know if the cream negatively affected me, because I applied my steroid together with the cream! (and together with the coconut oil during my test) There's a member here who makes and sells CP soap and mentioned her daughter isn't able to use it, can only use glycerin soap for her skin. For me I hit the last straw when my hypoallergenic products started making me itchier and the rash wasn't going away even with strong steroids. Thats when I found out about handmade body products, and I went with the minimum ingredients until my skin healed. Like very mild unscented soaps, and then once I healed I can use EO scented soap occasionally (though I've reacted to some when I started using them too often.) 

I also make my own deodorant, but had a store bought one thats marked hypoallergenic and I'd use occasionally. For example I epilate, and the coconut oil in my deodorant seems to block the pores used right after epilation and I get painful red bumps. But now I'm allergic to that commercial deodorant, and the day after I use it I'm scratching my underarms like crazy. So now thats going in the garbage... May have to just coordinate to epilate in the evenings or days I'm not going anywhere! I have noticed I actually sweat less and need less deodorant since using homemade. Which is ironic since homemade deodorant is NOT the same as antiperspirant and doesn't stop or slow sweating. I figure its like when you switch to gentler shampoos and your scalp produces less oil once its not being all stripped away. Stop blocking back the perspiration nonstop and you don't get waterfalls of it trying to push through...


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## BridgetPS (Feb 27, 2014)

I've used up my mango butter. But I've got a lot of cocoa butter left over and tiny bit of Shea. What can I do with the cocoa... It's so hard


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## FlybyStardancer (Feb 28, 2014)

Lin, I recently switched to homemade deodorant and I love it! I'm not sweating less yet, but it is working as well on the smell front! If anything, I like the way the homemade smells better, and it doesn't linger forever and a day the way storebought does. (I was trying to clean out old containers from storebought, and the smell lingered strongly even after several rounds of washing and soaking.)

And I'll have to pay attention to what days I'm noticing the irritation! I noticed I would get it on some days but not others, and haven't been able to figure out why... but I shaved last night and this morning I'm noticing a little irritation. Coincidence? Hmm... :think:


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## Lin (Feb 28, 2014)

Yea, quite possible you're getting irritation after shaving the way I do after epilation. At first I thought it was the baking soda, until one day I tried putting on pure coconut oil when I got out of the shower and had epilated before getting in. I can't remember why I did it... I think because the coconut oil having its own deodorant abilities that it adds into the mix. But I actually got the WORST reaction yet with the painful bumps, so I realized what was going on. Its funny though because I slather on my body butter (and used to use pure coconut oil) right after epilating my legs but never got the problem there. 

You can do all sorts of things with cocoa butter. Lotion bars, lip balm. Since you're struggling with the body butter maybe you'd prefer the cocoa butter in a lip balm? Do you have beeswax? I made this recipe as one of my first lip balms substituting more cocoa butter for the shea. you can also remove the peppermint EO for just chocolate. http://www.crunchybetty.com/3-simple-homemade-lip-balms-your-lipsve-never-been-yummier I ended up remelting it and adding a bit of extra beeswax though because I wanted it firmer, I keep the tubes in my pockets though. I also accidentally added an extra half tsp cocoa powder which may have made it a bit softer to start. I only made it the one time, but I did take what I learned to help develop the chocolate mint lip balm I still make by weight. Swiftycraftymonkey blog has lip balm recipes and directions by weight 

OH, also I'd recommend skipping the honey in the recipe. I've never had luck trying to use honey. I've used stevia though to sweeten, but I don't think its even needed here.


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## FlybyStardancer (Mar 2, 2014)

I've put on pure coconut oil without irritation... Though it doesn't have nearly the same deodorizing power that my deodorant does. Good enough for hanging around the house, but not so much for, say, going to work. I tried epilating my legs once... Painful as heck and it was taking forever without making much of a dent in the amount of hair on my legs.


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## Lin (Mar 3, 2014)

lol. I have a really high pain tolerance to start with. And you get used to the pain and it hurts less. Also, if your legs are really hairy is when it hurts the most. The hair doesnt all grow back at the same speed, so if you keep up with it then it doesn't hurt as much each time you do it. Wait  too long though (like I constantly do, haha) and you're back at square one. Or if you use a razor the hair from the razor all seems to grow back at the same rate plus it gives the other hairs time to grow in. If I'm super hairy and my skin is really sensitive that day I'll kinda go ever so lightly across at a decent speed to sort of thin the hair out before I do it my usual way where I start in one area and get that entire area clear before moving on (doing a combination of back and forth and circles.)

Its not for everyone though. I love that my legs stay smoother longer (and underarms, IREALLY hate shaving my underarms. Especially because of how you still end up with hair under the skin giving that shadow) and its not messy like waxing and sugaring. Cheaper too, because I've had my epilator since 2005 so I haven't needed to buy disposable razors etc. And after a long time, the years like for me, the hair does start growing back thinner and finer.


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## BridgetPS (Mar 3, 2014)

What kind of Epilator is best? I had to buy razor blade refills yesterday and it's just ridiculous how much they cost.


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## shunt2011 (Mar 3, 2014)

My body butter is 75%  Unrefined Shea and  25% oils (Argan, Meadowfoam, Jojoba, Sweet Almond, Fractionated Coconut) and vitamin E & preservative.  I add about 1% IPM  for the greasiness.  I don't melt my shea I just whip it in my Kitchen Aid and add the rest.  I love it and it sells really really well for me.  It stays nice and light.


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## kmarvel (Jul 25, 2014)

shunt,

I am thinking of making some whipped body butter for personal use and would like to use the oils you are using.  How do you figure out how big a batch you are making?  What size jars and how many jars do you fill??  What is IPM??  Do you split the 25% oils between the different oils??

Kathie


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## holistichonnies (Aug 30, 2014)

Iv made a lot of body butters and tried so many recipes. Best I have found is simply shea butter, olive oil and essential oil. Keep whipping for about an hour ... Yes a whole hour and mine turn out soft fluffy and NOT greasy at all.


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## kmarvel (Sep 25, 2014)

Lin said:


> I would say the greasiness and the hardening is a result of your recipe, which is primarily hard butters and a teeny amount of oil, and with that ratio of butter to oil there's no need for beeswax which would also be hardening the end result.
> 
> I would add an additional cup and a half of a light easily absorbing oil like the sweet almond oil. A good basic recipe for body butter is 1/3rd hard oil (mango, shea), 1/3rd coconut oil (which is sort of an inbetween soft and hard oil), and 1/3rd soft oil (sweet almond). Omitting coconut oil I would start with a 1:1 ratio of hard to soft oils and change up from there for personal preference. You can decrease greasiness with the ingredient choices, mango is less greasy than shea. Sweet almond oil, avocado oil, meadowfoam oil are going to be less greasy and faster absorbing than olive oil. And adding in some cornstarch or arrowroot for a more silky feel helps as well.
> 
> ...


 

 Lin, what do you use as a preservative??  Do you use a little Vitamin E also?


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## shunt2011 (Sep 25, 2014)

kmarvel said:


> Lin, what do you use as a preservative?? Do you use a little Vitamin E also?


 
I'm so sorry, I somehow missed your previous post.  I just figure out how much butter I want.  My 4 oz jars for example hold about 2.2 oz.  I generally make a 2-3 lb batch at a time.  I like smaller batches.  I use optiphen and I do add about  .50-1% Vitamin E.   Then I just whip it really well and measure a little bit more than I'll need for however many jars I'm making of a scent.  If I want 4 jars I'd measure out about 19 oz of butter.  Any extra I put in little sample jars that I pass out with larger purchases.  I also keep one out for samples.  I have a container with little spatulas for one time use.  HTH.


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## PuddinAndPeanuts (Sep 26, 2014)

I do 1/2 firm butter, 1/4 coconut oil, 1/4 liquid oils. For my hands, I use maybe 1/2 to 1/3 of a pea size- that's all it takes to moisturize, and that absorbs quite well.  Use more (like you do lotion), and you'll be greasy for sure. But the thing that I think really makes it amazing is tapioca starch.  Makes it drier feeling, and SO silky!


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## jules92207 (Sep 27, 2014)

^^^That. I use equal parts shea, cocoa butter, coconut and almond oil. Cool, whip, repeat. It soaks in pretty fast.


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