What Bath & Body Thing Have You Done Today?

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For me, the small hard lumps tend to come from the shea getting grainy, whereas arrowroot tends to feel gritty if it didn't get mixed in well. Can you isolate one of the lumps to determine whether it is melts with firm pressure between the fingers (shea) or breaks into a gritty powder (arrowroot)?
It’s not gritty at all, so it sounds like it’s the shea. I didn’t melt it, just softened it.
 
It’s not gritty at all, so it sounds like it’s the shea. I didn’t melt it, just softened it.
Yes, shea can be a pain, which is sad because my skin just adores it. I've learned to test it prior to melting to make sure it isn't already grainy. If it is, it has to be fully melted and then cooled properly to prevent re-graining. Even then, it can go grainy later if it is subjected to temperature changes.
 
Conditioner bars, three varieties.

View attachment 65181
Beautiful!!!

We have a thread for Soapy Things so why not a thread about Bath & Body Things? If you make Bath & Body stuff, what have you done today?

I'm in the process of making my third batch of conditioner bars for Sunday's market. Pictures will follow.
Hi Mischief! I would love that because my soaping efforts have definitely taken a turn towards creating butters and salves with a few whipped soaps thrown in. I have discovered I love oils and butters. I spread things out all over my kitchen and start “cooking.” It’s so much fun! For my friends and coworkers I made Easter Bunny Cake body butter with shea, mango, castor,, tapioca starch , and rosehip. I colored it lavender, white with shimmer, and pale yellow. Since I couldn’t wait for Easter I already started handing it out with small gift bags of matching egg soaps. Tomorrow I am going to break out my exotics for the first time and make a butter with cupaucu and moringa (may have spelled that wrong). I think I found my happy place!😊

Hi Mischief! I would love that because my soaping efforts have definitely taken a turn towards creating butters and salves with a few whipped soaps thrown in. I have discovered I love oils and butters. I spread things out all over my kitchen and start “cooking.” It’s so much fun! For my friends and coworkers I made Easter Bunny Cake body butter with shea, mango, castor,, tapioca starch , and rosehip. I colored it lavender, white with shimmer, and pale yellow. Since I couldn’t wait for Easter I already started handing it out with small gift bags of matching egg soaps. Tomorrow I am going to break out my exotics for the first time and make a butter with cupaucu and moringa (may have spelled that wrong). I think I found my happy place!😊
Oh, I almost forgot something I am so excited about! A friend has a daughter with dry, sensitive skin and she’s been using my butters with great results so I formulated a whipped soap for her. Actually, it’s non-foaming and more of a conditioning cleanser. I used raw African black soap, Shea Butter and various oils I forgot to write down in my creative excitement. Anyway, it’s unbelievably wonderful! Hubby replaced our sump pump that day and it removed all the grime without drying his hands. Removed my makeup thoroughly. Then, hubby took a shower and used it and actually ran back downstairs yelling “write the recipe down!” Lol! He knows I forget. Yup, lost recipe but luckily I made 12 big jars of it.
 
I’ve been making whipped body butter, whipped body polish, and sugar scrubs, and I’m going to make a body scrub with coffee as well.
 

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I've been playing around with whipped body butters; I've tried them in the past and was unimpressed but I've discovered that I wasn't whipping them long enough. I don't think they're something that I'll introduce to market because I'm not sure they'll be stable enough in our summer heat but I'm enjoying making them.

Last night, I made a small batch (100 gm) of what I'm calling Silk Road Body Butter, made with shea butter, Abyssinian oil, Camellia oil, Matcha Tea powder, and Silk powder (primary ingredients). It's really nice!
 
I've been playing around with whipped body butters; I've tried them in the past and was unimpressed but I've discovered that I wasn't whipping them long enough. I don't think they're something that I'll introduce to market because I'm not sure they'll be stable enough in our summer heat but I'm enjoying making them.

Last night, I made a small batch (100 gm) of what I'm calling Silk Road Body Butter, made with shea butter, Abyssinian oil, Camellia oil, Matcha Tea powder, and Silk powder (primary ingredients). It's really nice!

I’ve been working through the logistics of an outdoor event where the Alabama weather could prove less than ideal for body butters that melt. I’m thinking either power out to my spot and bringing a mini fridge, or keeping everything in a cooler with ice packs/ice and some sort of shelf to set all the body butter tubs on so they don’t sink into the slushy ice mess at the bottom. My husband has the right kind of brain for this sort of problem, so I think he’s going to build something for me.
 
dry, sensitive skin... I formulated a whipped soap for her. Actually, it’s non-foaming and more of a conditioning cleanser. I used raw African black soap, Shea Butter and various oils... “write the recipe down!” Lol! He knows I forget. Yup, lost recipe but luckily I made 12 big jars of it.

This is exactly what I'm looking for, my holy grail! I've been trying to make a liquid soap that doesn't strip my skin! I like @IrishLass LGS pretty well, not too harsh. @Zany_in_CO s flax seed shampoo was really fun to make but I must have mucked up somewhere - it is so harsh on my skin! Maybe I'm sensitive to flax oil in soap? I can eat it just fine (flax oil, not the soap - lol!) Oh well, it has made a brilliant soap for my wood floors and trim.

I'll make an SOS post about this shortly, but I sure would like to try your recipe - whatever you can remember..?

Silk Road Body Butter, made with shea butter, Abyssinian oil, Camellia oil, Matcha Tea powder, and Silk powder (primary ingredients). It's really nice!

That sounds delightful!! So rich and luxurious!
👑
I was really struggling with body butter being too greasy and not light enough. I started adding some co-emulsifiers (btms50, cetyl alcohol, stearic acid and glycerine) - now I have a product I like 💜
 
This is exactly what I'm looking for, my holy grail! I've been trying to make a liquid soap that doesn't strip my skin! I like @IrishLass LGS pretty well, not too harsh. @Zany_in_CO s flax seed shampoo was really fun to make but I must have mucked up somewhere - it is so harsh on my skin! Maybe I'm sensitive to flax oil in soap? I can eat it just fine (flax oil, not the soap - lol!) Oh well, it has made a brilliant soap for my wood floors and trim.

I'll make an SOS post about this shortly, but I sure would like to try your recipe - whatever you can remember..?
Zany, the purists here are going to gag but I am really new at this and I am having a ton of fun so...
I used WSP’s foaming bath whipped soap base, 32 ounces, walnut oil, rosehip oil, 5 ounces of melted shea butter, 2 ounces of melted coconut soap base (M&P), and 8 ounces of cubed raw African Black soap that I melted with the soap base and shea butter. I also used vitamin E and a preservative- just in case. I cannot remember the amount of oils I put in
I hope this helps. Half the fun is throwing this together to see how it turns out. 😊. Kim
 
I've been playing around with whipped body butters; I've tried them in the past and was unimpressed but I've discovered that I wasn't whipping them long enough. I don't think they're something that I'll introduce to market because I'm not sure they'll be stable enough in our summer heat but I'm enjoying making them.

Last night, I made a small batch (100 gm) of what I'm calling Silk Road Body Butter, made with shea butter, Abyssinian oil, Camellia oil, Matcha Tea powder, and Silk powder (primary ingredients). It's really nice!

How long did you whip them to get to a satisfactory stage for you? And do you mind sharing the recipe for it? My climate is hot and humid, so whipped body butter that isnt a gooey mess in the room has a high amount of shea. But a stable whipped body butter is so high in shea that it's just not absorbing as quick as I would like. I'm doing 2 shea : 1 grapeseed, with a bit of vit E and cornstarch. I'm not too concerned about the longevity of grapeseed at the moment since it's just personal/family use and I dont make a huge batch at once.

I've been toying with the idea of buying some mango butter to test it, but would like to see if I can make things work with what I have on hand first.
 
@squarepancakes, I whipped it for quite a while, maybe 10 minutes or so? Here's the recipe I used, in percentages.

73% Shea Butter
22% Oil of choice (I used half Abyssinian oil and half Camellia oil
0.5% Candelilla Wax
1.5% Matcha Powder
2% Lavender EO
1% Vitamin E

I also added about 1/2 tsp of silk powder and 1 tsp Arrowroot
 
I've been toying with the idea of buying some mango butter to test it, but would like to see if I can make things work with what I have on hand first.
@Misschief, that is brilliant to use just a titch of wax to provide the firmness, rather than cocoa butter like many recipes use. For instance, when I lived in a very hot, humid climate, my non-whipped body butter was made of 1/3 mango butter, 1/3 cocoa butter, and 1/3 mix of soft oils: usually jojoba, argan, meadowfoam seed. Grapeseed should work well, too.

When I tweaked it for whipping, I used way less cocoa butter so it would fluff up, but it was still a pretty good percentage. Unfortunately, I'm not finding my notes, but hopefully that gives a starting point.

For my skin, mango butter, absorbs more quickly than shea, and doesn't seem to go grainy like shea can do with temperature fluctuations. But my skin does love shea, and I'm one of those weirdos who loves the smell of unrefined shea, too. So I'm always back and forth between the two. And don't get me started on cupuacu, tucuma, and the like. Too expensive for my regular use, but so nice!
 
@Misschief, that is brilliant to use just a titch of wax to provide the firmness, rather than cocoa butter like many recipes use. For instance, when I lived in a very hot, humid climate, my non-whipped body butter was made of 1/3 mango butter, 1/3 cocoa butter, and 1/3 mix of soft oils: usually jojoba, argan, meadowfoam seed. Grapeseed should work well, too.

When I tweaked it for whipping, I used way less cocoa butter so it would fluff up, but it was still a pretty good percentage. Unfortunately, I'm not finding my notes, but hopefully that gives a starting point.

For my skin, mango butter, absorbs more quickly than shea, and doesn't seem to go grainy like shea can do with temperature fluctuations. But my skin does love shea, and I'm one of those weirdos who loves the smell of unrefined shea, too. So I'm always back and forth between the two. And don't get me started on cupuacu, tucuma, and the like. Too expensive for my regular use, but so nice!

I'm with you on the shea; I don't mind the smell at all. I ordered raw shea butter from MamaTrade and it smells so nice! And it's so creamy, some of the nicest shea butter I've used. I've not had the opportunity to try some of the other butters as they're a little outside my budget at the moment.

I was kind of surprised to see candelilla in the base recipe that I used because it is such a hard wax; I was a little leery at first but it's such a small percentage that I decided to try it. I'm pretty happy with the final product.
 
@squarepancakes, I whipped it for quite a while, maybe 10 minutes or so? Here's the recipe I used, in percentages.

73% Shea Butter
22% Oil of choice (I used half Abyssinian oil and half Camellia oil
0.5% Candelilla Wax
1.5% Matcha Powder
2% Lavender EO
1% Vitamin E

I also added about 1/2 tsp of silk powder and 1 tsp Arrowroot
@Misschief, that is brilliant to use just a titch of wax to provide the firmness, rather than cocoa butter like many recipes use. For instance, when I lived in a very hot, humid climate, my non-whipped body butter was made of 1/3 mango butter, 1/3 cocoa butter, and 1/3 mix of soft oils: usually jojoba, argan, meadowfoam seed. Grapeseed should work well, too.

Ah yes, I read about using cocoa butter or wax to provide better stability as well. I'll give both your suggestions a go and see how it works out! Thanks folks!
 
I just made bath bomb embeds in 3 different ways. I pre bloomed the dye in the BS several days ago, but I dread making them. Trying to see which way I dread the least, and how each technique performs. I’m trying mini ice cube molds, chunkadust embed maker, and smooshing in a cookie sheet and slicing. Smooshing between two half cookie sheets was almost fun. I actually stepped on the top cookie sheet! That was kinda fun! Teflon and socks, bustin a move!!
 

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