Body butter recipe

[cat47997]

Hello, I have 35 oz capuacu butter, 14 oz lanolin and essential oil-apricot
The formulation I have
35oz butter
9oz oil
14oz lanolin (humectant)
Do I need a preservative, if so i would alter the oil weight.
Do I mix butter and lanolin; heat that; heat oil, then whip together? Cool then whip again?

I have maybe 1 oz of babassu oil I’d like to incorporate, and also lemon essential oil. (LOVE LEMON)
I’d like it to smell very lemony.
How do I mix all this?

 

[AliOop]

Hi there! The good news is that you don't need a preservative for a recipe that doesn't contain any water or organic matter, but you can use an antioxidant such as vitamin E to help ward off rancidity. As for the recipe, I don't want to discourage you, but there are a lot of issues with this one.

First, that is a HUGE amount of expensive ingredients to risk since you have never made this recipe and don't know if you will like it. I'd scale back to no more than 16oz total for your first batch.

Second, you mentioned "essential oil-apricot" but I'm guessing that you mean apricot kernel oil. That would make more sense in the context of a body butter (especially since there is no such thing as an apricot essential oil).

Finally with that much lanolin, this is likely to be a very soft, sticky product. If you do use lanolin, I'd probably keep the percentage quite low. Also, some lemon EOs can be phototoxic (meaning, don't put it on your skin if you will be in the sunlight, or you can be severely burned). You can read more about that in this thread, here.

But please don't give up! Consider something like this:

9 oz cupuacu butter
5 oz apricot kernel oil
1 oz babassu oil
1 oz lanolin

Heat everything together, stirring until fully melted. Cool in fridge until it just starts to set up, then whip it. Put it back in the fridge to cool off more, then whip it again. If you want to add lemon EO, make sure it is steam distilled (not cold pressed, which is phototoxic), and find the safe usage rate EOCalc.com. That's a great site for helping you determine how much of each EO, or blend of EOs, you can add to different types of products. I'd add in the EO after the first cooling session.

Good luck, and let us know how it turns out!

 

[cat47997]

Hi there! The good news is that you don't need a preservative for a recipe that doesn't contain any water or organic matter, but you can use an antioxidant such as vitamin E to help ward off rancidity. As for the recipe, I don't want to discourage you, but there are a lot of issues with this one.

First, that is a HUGE amount of expensive ingredients to risk since you have never made this recipe and don't know if you will like it. I'd scale back to no more than 16oz total for your first batch.

Second, you mentioned "essential oil-apricot" but I'm guessing that you mean apricot kernel oil. That would make more sense in the context of a body butter (especially since there is no such thing as an apricot essential oil).

Finally with that much lanolin, this is likely to be a very soft, sticky product. If you do use lanolin, I'd probably keep the percentage quite low. Also, some lemon EOs can be phototoxic (meaning, don't put it on your skin if you will be in the sunlight, or you can be severely burned). You can read more about that in this thread, here.

But please don't give up! Consider something like this:

9 oz cupuacu butter
5 oz apricot kernel oil
1 oz babassu oil
1 oz lanolin

Heat everything together, stirring until fully melted. Cool in fridge until it just starts to set up, then whip it. Put it back in the fridge to cool off more, then whip it again. If you want to add lemon EO, make sure it is steam distilled (not cold pressed, which is phototoxic), and find the safe usage rate EOCalc.com. That's a great site for helping you determine how much of each EO, or blend of EOs, you can add to different types of products. I'd add in the EO after the first cooling session.

Good luck, and let us know how it turns out!

Thank you so much! I have the ingredients already, but I’ll do a small batch first. And yes its apricot kernel oil.

 

[AliOop]

Thank you so much! I have the ingredients already, but I’ll do a small batch first. And yes its apricot kernel oil.

The alternate recipe I suggested used all of the ingredients from the original one you posted, just in different amounts - plus the additional one oz of babassu that you said you wanted to incorporate.

Even if you don't go with my exact suggestion for changing the ratios, I'd definitely lower the lanolin significantly for that first batch. It's super sticky.

Good luck, and let us know how it turns out!