My first attempt on body butter

[hoegarden]

Its my first attempt on making a body butter. So for experimenting purpose, I made a very small batch.

Here goes my ingredient:
15gm shea butter, 15gm cocoa butter, 15gm coconut oil, 2gm jojoba oil, 8gm olive oil, 2.5gm honey and 2.5gm glycerin.

on top of that, i added 1 drop of vit E oil, 5 drops of tea tree EO and 5 drops of lavendar EO.

I never put any preservatives. Its not allow to be imported to my country. I wanted to add in aloe vera gel in the ingredient, but as I have no preservatives, I left it out. I guess with the rest of the ingredients being oil based (except for the honey), I hope it won't spoil that fast. Hope so.

Here's my question, are homemade body butter suppose to melt as soon as your finger tip touches it? Any idea to make it less vulnerable to high temperature?

Anyway, I will be putting up a before and after photos of my butter. Kind of thinking that having the butter in my room will cause it to melt by tomorrow. :lolno:

 

[Hazel]

Body butter can start to melt when you touch it depending on what hard butter you've used. I only use shea butter which has a lower melting point so it does start to melt from the heat of my fingers when I scoop some out. I've never used cocoa butter in a body butter so I really can't give you an answer about it but I can make a guess. Cocoa butter has a higher melting point but not by much so I'm not sure it will keep the butter from melting too quickly. Unfortunately, body butters just don't hold up well in warmer temperatures. I had one jar completely melt into a liquid state when I let it be exposed to high temperatures. It was during the summer with temps close to 100 F and I left the jar in the bathroom. (Learned a lesson ) Perhaps use just cocoa butter with the oils and leave the shea and coconut oil out since these have a lower melting point. Maybe someone else may have a suggestion about a body butter which will be able to hold up better in higher temps.

A preservative isn't necessary in anhydrous products as long as you make sure your hands are clean and dry when scooping some out of the jar. Since it's hard to ensure dry hands, I'd recommend you play it safe and use a scoop or spoon. I do recommend a preservative if you sell butters since you don't know how a customer might treat the butter or where the person might leave it. Bathrooms are known to be warm and humid.

Also, neither honey or glycerin are oil soluble and you will start to see weeping in your butter if you keep a sample to see how it holds up over time. You might not see it if you use the butter up quickly since you didn't make a large amount. I could use the amount you made in just one use. Honey and glycerin are also humectants which will start to absorb moisture from the air. So no matter how careful you are about using dry hands, these two products will eventually draw moisture into the butter. I'd suggest leaving them out the next time you make a body butter.

There isn't somewhere in your country where you could buy preservatives for cosmetic use?

 

[hoegarden]

Thank Hazel. I will take note of it.

Unfortunately, cosmectic preservatives is a ban item currently here. Even NaOH is never sold in pure form in the shop. I have to kind of 'smuggle' in. So right now all the soaps and lotions and butter are just for personal use.

 

[Hazel]

I'm sorry to hear this and I wish I had another suggestion to help you out. Do you know why the import of preservatives is banned?

 

[bodhi]

Yup that recipe will melt on skin contact and you really dont need a preservative with that recipe.

To make it less likely to melt at lower temps, adjust the amount of your butters and oils. Shea melts at body temp, coco is stable at higher temps, coconut melts at 76 degrees unless its the other kind, and all the other ingredients are liquid at room temp also. decrease the ones that are soft/liquid at room/body temp and increase the hard butters.

Mind if i ask what country you are writing from?

 

[hoegarden]

@bodhi ~ Actually I am from Singapore (Hope there won't be any special person around to catch me in this forum. O_O). So my weather here is all year round summer with occassional heavy rain...

@hazel ~ our govt is very strict and deem alot of items as dangerous. they don't like people to be messing around with chemicals at home.

 

[new12soap]

I don't know if sorbic acid or potassium sorbate would be available to you, both are considered "safe" and used as food preservatives, but here is a link I found with some information http://www.lotioncrafter.com/pdf/Sorbic_Acid_and_Potassium_Sorbate.pdf

 

[bodhi]

Aah, yes, summer all the time. Do you have access to any unprocessed beeswax? If so, you could also eliminate the honey and add some wax. The wax will help keep it solid ( i would still adjust the softer oils though) and add a honey to it at the same time as raw wax still contains honey but in a solid form.

 

[hoegarden]

Thanks @new12soap I will try to find. Thank @bodhi for your suggestion.

 

[hoegarden]

As mention, the pix of my body is uploaded.

The first pix is taken on the first day. The 2nd is taken today. surprisingly, the butter harden though in my humid n hot bedroom. the butter still melt at my finger tip but remain creamy in container. So i guess can consider it as successful. The next is to see how long it will last before spoiling.

 

[bodhi]

It looks lovely!

 

[Hazel]

I agree it looks lovely. Very creamy looking, too.

 

[lizflowers42]

Ohhh, looks yummy! (Why do I think all bath and body products are yummy?)

 

[Hazel]

I think it's because most products are made with vegetable and/or fruit oils and generally have the consistency of yogurt. I love yogurt!

But this is just my theory.

 

[Clemmey]

Looks good to me!

 

[hoegarden]

Thanks all. Since I never put preservatives, I will update again on how long it take to spoil in a humid and hot environment again.

@hazel, I think u can try putting cocoa butter in your body butter. perhaps it really does help in retaining the form in hot weather. but i will suggest the refine butter unless u like the cocoa smell. my butter still smell so strong that the EO added in did not cover the smell at all.

 

[Ruthie]

hoegarden, it looks great!

 

[Hazel]

hazel, I think u can try putting cocoa butter in your body butter. perhaps it really does help in retaining the form in hot weather.

Between you, Clemmey, Kersten and I can't remember who else, I'm definitely going to have to try cocoa butter again especially since it's a more stable butter than shea. Gee...thanks everyone.