Lotions Melting?

[hellomimi]

I’m a bit confused about the heat stability of lotions. I know that heat can compromise the stability of a lotion due to the oil/water molecules having more energy to separate, but what about melting? If I put a butter with a lower melting point, say Shea butter, in the lotion, and the lotion got to that melting temperature, could the shea butter portion of the lotion melt and would this compromise the stability of the emulsion? Is it better to avoid using (low melting point) butters in an emulsion?

I’ve successfully made my first lotion (yay!) a few weeks ago with just oils and water. I wanted to make an emulsified body butter next, however, I’m scared it’ll end up failing since summers approaching and I live in Houston. I really don’t want waste any materials if I can prevent it.

 

[lsg]

What is your recipe. Did you use an emulsifier?

 

[hellomimi]

What is your recipe. Did you use an emulsifier?

I want to use this recipe from humbleebee and me:

Cocoa Coconut Emulsified Body Butter
Heated water phase
44.75g | 44.75% distilled water
5g | 5% vegetable glycerine
Heated oil phase
4.75g | 4.75% Glyceryl Stearate (and) PEG-100 Stearate (USA / Canada / UK & EU / Australia)
25g | 25% cocoa butter (USA / Canada)
15g | 15% traditional virgin coconut oil (USA / Canada)
5g | 5% cetyl alcohol
Cool down phase
0.5g | 0.5% Liquid Germall Plus™ (USA / Canada)

However, I wanna swap out the cocoa butter for Shea butter

 

[amd]

This is what is posted on the HumbleBee and Me website for that recipe: Cocoa Coconut Emulsified Body Butter - Humblebee & Me

That said, as long as you keep the same %, I would try it with shea butter in a very small batch, as well as make a batch with cocoa butter following the recipe. This will give you an idea of what the two different butters bring to the recipe and if you really want to use one over the other. I don't know about the temperature causing lotions to come out of emulsion - I haven't experienced this yet (but I've been making lotions less than a year), so I don't know if it's really a thing.