Lotions vs Body Butters

[Kamahido]

My wife (while not lucky enough to be bitten by the soap bug) has the urge to make lotion. I have been making soap for a couple years now, but admit I know nothing of this "lotion" she speaks of. I guess we both need to pull up a chair and start reading. Going to take a look at swiftcraftymonkey to start. Any other suggestions for research sources would be appreciated.

P.S. What is the difference between body butter and lotion?

 

[Obsidian]

Body butter is generally butters and liquid oils whipped into a fluffy consistency. Lotion has oils, water and emulsifiers. Since lotion contains water, it also needs a preservative.

 

[Cellador]

I've recently started making lotions too. SCM is awesome, of course. I also bought Watson's Smart Lotionmaking, and I think it's pretty good at explaining the basics & provides some good starter recipes.

 

[SoapTrey]

I could break them into four separate categories:

Lotions - quoting Obsidian "has oils, water and emulsifiers. Since lotion contains water, it also needs a preservative." -perfect! You can easily put lotions into a bottle and use a pump.

Pure Whipped Body Butters - quoting Obsidian "is generally butters and liquid oils whipped into a fluffy consistency" -exactly!

Body Butter 'lotion' - This is like the kit I did in this thread. It's basically a 'thick' lotion that you couldn't pump and some are almost in a solid state. The consistency will vary but it's not "whipped".

Whipped Body Butter 'lotion' - this would be where you take the Body Butter 'lotion' and whip it using a mixer to incorporate air to turn it into a fluffy consistency.

At least this is how I've started thinking about them.

I had a blast crafting the body butter kit from lotioncrafters. I highly recommend it. (Thanks IrishLass!)It taught me a bunch about body butters and lotions in general. The finished product is getting excellent reviews from both my wife and daughter. I've tried it too and it's very good and so much easier to use then having to pump a bottle.

The kit was suppose to mimic The Body Shops Shea Body Butter and it does almost exactly, but mine isn't quite as firm as theirs is but the color, smell and feeling on my skin are almost identical.

 

[Millie]

I haven't made lotions yet either, but I have seen a lot of recipes at humblebee & me
http://www.humblebeeandme.com/how-to-make-lotion/

 

[Zany_in_CO]

Once you get the hang of it, lotion making is easier than making soap and quicker too. I learned the basics at Snowdrift Farm and am grateful to them for giving me a solid foundation to grow from. Unfortunately, they are long gone, but here's a link to their archives with a couple of pithy quotes:

SNOWDRIFT FARM - LOTION MAKING 101
If you can make salad dressing, you can make lotion.
If you start sterile, you will end sterile.

http://web.archive.org/web/20111116220829/http://www.snowdriftfarm.com/lotionmaking101.html

1) It’s best to work in grams cuz every lotion formula should equal 100% -- and 100 grams = 100%.
Once you have your formula, then upsize to a small trial batch of 300 grams (10.5 oz.)

2) Sterilize Equipment & Work Space

3) Always use a preservative. My go-to preservative is LGP (there are many to choose from):

LIQUID GERMALL PLUS - Source: Lotion Crafter

One of the most effective preservatives, Germall Plus Liquid is water soluble and works wonderfully with virtually all oil-in-water emulsions. This preservative is highly effective in inhibiting the growth of bacteria, yeasts, fungus and molds even at very low concentrations, making it extremely cost effective. Also, it contains no parabens.

Use level: 0.1%-0.5% of weight.
Add @ 122°F or lower.

All that being said, I agree with Soap Trey -- I highly recommend Lotion Crafter's Body Butter Bliss Kit. I was fortunate to find a lotion kit when I first started. It took a lot of guess work out of the experience and gave me the confidence needed to move forward on my own. There aren't many lotion kits available any more and that's a really good one. After you've made the kit, the recipe is also available in the Formulary section and you can tweak it to your liking. That's what I did.

HTH :bunny:
​

 

[DeeAnna]

"... Sterilize Equipment & Work Space..."

I challenge anyone in a kitchen or other normal space to actually, honestly, really "work sterile."

You can sanitize your work area and equipment and containers and you can work in a sanitary fashion. That's an achievable goal. But sterile ... it's utterly not going to happen.

Anne Watson has a good book Smart Lotionmaking. In addition to good recipes and step by step instructions, she does a thorough job of explaining sanitation methods suitable for making products for personal use and more rigorous methods for small-scale commercial production. I recommend this book for beginning lotion makers.

 

[Kamahido]

"... Sterilize Equipment & Work Space..."

I challenge anyone in a kitchen or other normal space to actually, honestly, really "work sterile."

You can sanitize your work area and equipment and containers and you can work in a sanitary fashion. That's an achievable goal. But sterile ... it's utterly not going to happen.

Anne Watson has a good book Smart Lotionmaking. In addition to good recipes and step by step instructions, she does a thorough job of explaining sanitation methods suitable for making products for personal use and more rigorous methods for small-scale commercial production. I recommend this book for beginning lotion makers.

I just purchased a copy of this book from Barnes and Noble and look forward to reading it with my wife. Can I assume that, like soap making, there is a LOT of bad, dangerous and just plain WRONG information out there on the Internet (as pertains to lotion making)?

 

[DeeAnna]

...Can I assume that, like soap making, there is a LOT of bad, dangerous and just plain WRONG information out there on the Internet (as pertains to lotion making)?

Yes! You're going to find a lot of recipes on the internet that don't use emulsifiers nor preservatives and utterly ignore the idea of good sanitation.

I like to read Anne's books to get a sensible perspective. She isn't the last word on soap or lotion making, and my impression is that she'd be the first to say that. But she does her homework before she gives advice -- she consults scientists, actually tests her methods and recipes, and writes in a sensible easy-to-read way.

Susan (swiftcraftymonkey) is another reputable source of information for lotion making, but the blog format she uses makes it hard to find the essential basics buried in with the not-so-basic stuff.

 

[IrishLass]

Here's a really good beginning lotionmaking primer from SwiftCraftMonkey's blog:

http://swiftcraftymonkey.blogspot.com/2009/03/lotions-basic-recipe.html


Ditto what DeeAnna said about sterile vs. sanitary. Unless you own an autoclave (such as what hospitals use to sterilize their surgical tools) or have access to a 'clean room' (such as what computer companies use in the production of silicon ships and hard drives) you will not be able to achieve sterility. The best we kitchen chemists can do to give our lotions the best fighting chance at success is to rely on good sanitation methods, as well as using the proper preservative.

For what it's worth, when I make lotion I sanitize all my equipment and working area with StarSan. It's one of a handful of the sanitizing products used by some in the home-brewing community to sanitize their equipment and bottles, etc... I've found it to work great for me not only with lotion-making, but also with storing leftover food- my leftovers take a much longer time than normal to get moldy if they are left in the fridge for an extended period of time if placed in a container sanitized with the StarSan.


IrishLass

 

[Arimara]

I'm yet another person who will vouch for Ann Watson, aside from Susan of course. As DeeAnna said, She give you a good amount of info that, unlike the VAST majority of blogs out there (it's hard NOT to find a blog that is anti-preservative), will send you safely on your way into lotion making. I also support her because her other books have really helped me with my start to soap making.

 

[PuddinAndPeanuts]

There's an E book you can buy on the swiftcraftmonkey site for about $20 that's really, really excellent. I highly recommend it.