Body Butter:Beeswax or No

[Nikolye]

Hello- I've been making body butters as gifts for friends to go with my soaps. I have used a few different recipes with varied outcomes.

Do you prefer beeswax or no beeswax? or beeswax in summer only?

Do you add thickeners or clays?

Is 75% hard oils to 25% soft oils a good formula to stick with? I used so far organic/unrefined 50%shea, 25%coconut oil, 25% olive oil as my base.

My second batch i used beeswax and i ended up with bits as it started to cool.. not very nice texture but still worked a treat otherwise. How does one avoid that?

Lastly, this has come up in another thread, my mom wants me to ship some overseas to her, am I better to SUB the coconut oil for coco butter as the butter its harder and add beeswax? chances it stays intact might be higher? i have not yet had one melt on me, but it doesn't get as hot here as it does in the States where i'm shipping it. She can "re-whip" it, but i'd like it to have the best chances.

Thanks in Advance

 

[Obsidian]

I only used beeswax in one batch of body butter and I don't care for it much. Not only do I have the little bits like you mention but it made the butter too heavy and greasy. I'll not use it again.
Never used thickeners or clays and never would. I do add some cornstarch or arrowroot powder to help cut down on greasy but I don't know how much it actually helps.

 

[IrishLass]

I've never added any waxes, thickeners or clay or starches to mine. I use 75% butters and 25% oil. My recipe is 65% Kokum butter, 10% mango butter, and 25% meadowfoam seed oil. That's it, nothing else..... except for a little bit of EO, that is. I don't whip mine, as I prefer it firm and dense. I only make it for myself and my sis who also prefers it un-whipped/dense.

I live in the blisteringly hot desert of the southwestern US and my body butter holds up perfectly solid for me year round at inside room temp, although if I were to leave it outside in my car on a typical sunny summer's day, I'm sure things would be very different indeed! Instead of a tub of body butter, I'd have a tub of something resembling a hot oil treatment.

For what its worth, if I were to make your body butter recipe, I highly doubt that it would hold up solid in my house in the summertime. I expect that it would be more on the more soft/creamy/thick-lotion side. That's because we keep the ambient temp in our house at 78F/26C in the summertime, and my coconut oil is totally liquid right now. It would be as if I had used 50% butter and 50% liquid oil. It would be perfectly fine in the winter, though, when our inside ambient temp is 70F/21C and my coconut oil goes solid.

If it were me, I would ditch the wax and just do 75% solid-at-room-temp butters to 25% liquid at room temp oils. But that's just me.

When you ship overseas to your mom, I would look into using an insulated shipping box to give your body butter the best fighting chance of staying solid.


IrishLass

 

[DeeAnna]

Based on making "un-petroleum jelly" which is basically a mixture of beeswax and liquid fat, I learned you absolutely must keep stirring the mixture until it cools well below the melting temperature of the beeswax. As you mix, the mixture will change from a transparent liquid to a thick opaque paste that's a bit like softened butter. Stop mixing at that point and test the mixture. If it's grainy, reheat until it is fully melted and transparent and try again.

I'm not sure I'd use beeswax or other wax in a body butter. The wax is going to stay on the skin's surface. I use my un-petroleum jelly for healing salves and it works fine to protect damaged skin, but I think the texture would be odd for a product you'd use to smooth and soften large areas of skin. I think I'd want something that absorbs into the skin a bit better.

 

[Nikolye]

scratching the beeswax and going with 75% butters/hard oils. That was my initial instinct as my batch like that turned out really well and didn't last long! but i kept reading recipes with beeswax so i gave it a go. I'll save beeswax for a salve. Thanks!

 

[Obsidian]

I think the texture would be odd for a product you'd use to smooth and soften large areas of skin. I think I'd want something that absorbs into the skin a bit better.

This is exactly the problem I'm having with my butter with wax. It just sits on the skin and feels weird. Plus, I can't get it whipped at all. I like fluffy butters but this is more dense.
I'm going to remelt it and add in some almond oil, hopefully that will not only soften it as its too hard but will help it soak in a bit better. Not going to even try and whip it this time.