Body Butter Greasiness

[The Efficacious Gentleman]

So, last night I made a whipped body butter, with 25% each of Shea, cocoa, coconut oil and avocado oil. It's a tad greasy, I think the offender is the coconut oil. I made a lotion with shea and avocado which is very non-greasy, so I am looking at either the CO or the cocoa as the little greaser.

What does the collective wisdom say?

 

[pamielynn]

It's the coconut. If you want to keep it, you can try adding a titch of arrowroot powder or 3-5% Isopropyl Myristate

 

[Saponista]

No matter how hard I try, I haven't achieved a non greasy whipped butter. I just don't think the oils can soak into your skin properly like they do with a lotion that contains water, so I'm not sure that changing the combination of oils will help that much. I think one of the ways to improve the feeling is to add something like isopropyl myristate which aids skin absorption, but I'm not sure whether you are averse to non natural ingredients?

I am watching this thread with interest as I am keen to find a good recipe too.

 

[shunt2011]

I agree with the CO. I use Isopropyl Myristate at about 3% and it does seem to help a great deal. Though greasiness is the nature of the product since it's oils and butters. Some use arrowroot powder to help with the greasiness but I found that to be a bit gritty and didn't like the feel.

 

[Susie]

If you give it a couple of minutes, the greasiness should "soak in" and not remain greasy. If this is for someone's growing tummy, you may want to cut down on the CO a bit, and up the cocoa butter a little. I LOVED cocoa butter cream on my tummy when I was expecting.

 

[The Efficacious Gentleman]

It is indeed! In fairness, last night she did use up all the left overs and it was a lot to use in one go. Will also look in to this Isopropyl Myristate, too

 

[clairissa]

I do not care for that greasiness in whipped butters. So, this weekend I experimented and I made one where I added tapioca powder. The results were wonderful. My whipped butter is not greasy and easily absorbs into my skin. My family loves it. I will probably play with the amount of tapioca powder to add to find that perfect ratio.

 

[The Efficacious Gentleman]

What did you use as the baseline amount here?

 

[The Efficacious Gentleman]

Also, as tapioca appears to have the status of unicorns here in Austria, is there anything else I can use like the powder to stave off the greasiness?

 

[houseofwool]

Try cornstarch or corn flour.

 

[The Efficacious Gentleman]

Ah, very good as I have a lot of that around. What sort of % should I look at using?

 

[snappyllama]

I use between 1 tsp and 2 tsp per cup of oil. Using the higher amount makes my whipped butter very firm and powdery. There is almost no oily feeling, but the texture is crumbly.

 

[The Efficacious Gentleman]

Thanks snaps. So a cup is about 226 grams when looking at butter - would you say that's about right for your calculation?

 

[snappyllama]

Yes. That sounds about right!

 

[The Efficacious Gentleman]

Last night I made another batch - this time I used 1.5% cornflour and I also managed to whip it when it was more fluid than last time, so it has that mousse-like feel to it. It seems a lot less greasy with the addition, thanks to all for the help.

 

[shunt2011]

That looks like it came out nicely. I need to make some body butters. Stock is low. I'll have to try the corn flower, haven't tried that one yet.

 

[The Efficacious Gentleman]

Thanks Shari!

It takes so long to whip, next time I will just use the Kenwood. Will see if I can get a dedicated bowl for it, too. Plus, I really need to start before 7.30pm as I was up jolly late making it

 

[shunt2011]

I agree, I used a hand mixer last time because I can't find my Kitchen Aid whip attachment it too forever. I generally find myself doing a lot of my stuff later at night and then wonder what was I thinking. I prefer to wait until the hubby is in bed and out of my hair. He asks too many questions or is under foot.

 

[Rowan]

Your Body butter looks lovely. Glad the cornflour worked. I found my body butter greasy too, so can't wait to try out a few of these ideas.

 

[kumudini]

I agree, I used a hand mixer last time because I can't find my Kitchen Aid whip attachment it too forever. I generally find myself doing a lot of my stuff later at night and then wonder what was I thinking. I prefer to wait until the hubby is in bed and out of my hair. He asks too many questions or is under foot.

I tried my KA once to whip the body butter but it was so difficult to get everything mixed thoroughly. Had to stop and scrape, still the stuff in the bottom pit was a different texture than the rest. Now I only use my cuisinart hand mixer. Does a wonderful job. A little expensive for hand mixers but really powerful.