Unlike a traditional (anhydrous) body butter which often feels heavy and greasy on your skin, an emulsified body butter contains water and leaves little residue behind. I often save traditional whipped body butters for winter time when my skin needs some serious moisture.
This emulsified body butter is designed to duplicate the best parts of the body butter and to take away some of the greasy and heaviness that often comes with them. The water is added in such a small amount when you compare it to a cream or a lotion.
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What makes a good body butter?
Body butters are a very thick consistency that is very moisturizing. Body butters consist of oils and butters that are great for moisturizing your skin.
A traditional body butter melts on your skin, where the emulsified body butter is more of a cream. Adding the water and emulsifier allows the skin to absorb the oils quickly, leaving little reside behind.
What is the best emulsifier to use for an emulsified body butter?
Unlike a traditional (anhydrous) body butter which often feels heavy and greasy on your skin, an emulsified body butter contains water and leaves little residue behind. I often save traditional whipped body butters for winter time when my skin needs some serious moisture.
How much emulsifying wax to use in an emulsified body butter? As a general rule of thumb, you want to use 25% of the oil soluble ingredients, while keeping it in the 3%-7% range.
Olivum 1000
The recommended use rate is 3-5% as an emulsifier and 0.5-2% as a co-emulsifier.
Emulsifying Wax NF
The recommended use rate for emulsifying wax is 2-10%. If you are using less than 4%, use with a co-emulsifier.
Cetyl Alcohol (Co-Emulsifier)
Cetyl Alcohol is derived from vegetable fats. We use this as a co-emulsifier and thickener in our emulsified body butter. It also adds a bit of body and a creamier texture to the butter. This is typically used in body butter at 3-6%.
How do I thicken my body butter?
You can thicken and stabilize your body butter with xanthan gum, stearic acid or cetearyl alcohol. You can also get it thicker based on the butters that you use in your formula. To thicken it, go with more brittle butters like cocoa butter.
Butters add a protective barrier to our skin and the add a thickness to the emulsified body butter. The hard / brittle butters will thicken it and the soft butters will make it thinner.
- Brittle Butters
- Cocoa butter
- Kokum butter
- Soft Butters
- Shea butter
- Mango butter
What is the difference between body butters and lotions?
Emulsified body butters are a thick creamy lotion. Typically, an emulsified body butter is going to contain some water, but at a lower rate than what you would find in a lotion. This emulsified body butter takes a twist on a traditional one because we add water. However, traditionally body butters do not contain water. Check out this Body Butter vs Lotion post for more information on the differences.
What butters are best in a body butter?
Typically when making a body butter you want to use butters and oils that are non-comedogenic.
Shea Butter
Shea Butter is of my favorite emollients and it known for its smoothing and softening properties. Personally, I do not love the smell of the unrefined shea butter, so I always use the refined shea butter. It can be a little tricky with heating and cooling because it can get a bit grainy if you don’t heat enough and cool quickly.
Cocoa Butter
I love that cocoa butter is high enough in fatty acids to thicken up our whipped body butter without it becoming stiff. The melting point of cocoa butter is roughly right at skin temperature. It also has a delicious chocolatey aroma.
Mango Butter
Mango Butter is non-comedogenic, meaning that it is not pore clogging. What I like about mango butter is that it is light and silky, but at the same time it is packed with skin loving nutrients. It does not have much of a scent to it.
Kokum Butter
Kokum Butter is one of the hardest butters. It is derived from the kernels of the kokum tree. Kokum butter helps to thicken the emulsified body butter without adding stiffness to it. It also gives the body butter a non-greasy lightweight feeling.
What makes body butters less greasy?
You can make the body butter feel less greasy with the oils and butters that you use. Try to use fast absorbing oils like grapeseed oil, sunflower oil and safflower oil. You want to avoid oils that are slow to absorb like olive oil and caster oil.
Grapeseed Oil
Grapeseed Oil absorbs really fast and is inexpensive.
Olive Oil
Olive Oil protects against environmental damages, non-comedogenic and safe to use on delicate areas such as around your eyes. It is a bit greasy, so if you use it only use a small amount.
Jojoba Oil
Now Jojoba Oil is a little pricey, but it is so worth it. It has healing properties that are great for eczema and dry skin, super moisturizing, antioxidant and helps control sebum (the oil that your skin produces naturally) production.
Safflower Oil
Safflower Oil is non comedogenic. It is a lightweight oil that is suitable for all skin types. It has a quick absorption speed.
What skin loving ingredients can you add to the body butter to customize it?
Vegetable Glycerin
Vegetable Glycerin is a natural humectant that attracts and locks moisture onto the skin.
Vitamin E Oil
Vitamin E oil is a good addition to body butters, it helps to slow down to oxidation so the oils don’t go rancid as quickly.
Aloe Vera
Aloe Vera is a potent moisturizer and soothing agent.
Do you need a preservative in a body butter?
In a traditional Whipped Body Butter, you do not need a preservative. However, since we are making this into an emulsion we do need one. You need to add a preservative so that you don’t grow mold and other nasty stuff in your products. I am using Germall Plus, but you can use the preservative of your choice.
How to make an emulsified body butter
Measure out the kokum butter, cocoa butter, safflower oil, emulsifying wax and cetyl alcohol into a heat safe container.
Measure out the water and vegetable glycerin into a separate heat safe container.
Heat both containers on a double boiler over a low heat, until all of the butters have fully melted.
Once melted and no solids remain, remove both containers from the double boiler. Wipe the bottom and the sides of the containers to remove any water from the outside of them.
Immediately combine the two phases together and mix with an immersion blender. This should not take long for this to become a homogenous mixture and thicken up. You want to make sure that you use an immersion blender because you need the high shear to get it to mix correctly.
Allow the mixture to cool down to room temperature.
Measure out your cool down ingredients: germall plus and Nirvana fragrance oil.
Add the cool down ingredients to your emulsified body butter and mix until it is fully incorporated.
Package and enjoy!
Emulsified Body Butter
Equipment
- Scale
- Immersion Blender
Ingredients
Water Phase Ingredients
- 2.18 ounce | 43.5% Distilled Water
- 0.20 ounce | 4% Vegetable Glycerin
Oil Phase Ingredients
- 1.25 ounce | 25% Kokum Butter
- 0.50 ounce | 10% Cocoa Butter
- 0.25 ounce | 5% Safflower Oil
- 0.30 ounce | 6% Emulsifying Wax
- 0.20 ounce | 4% Cetyl Alcohol
Cool Down
- 0.10 ounce | 2% Nirvana Fragrance Oil
- 0.03 ounce | 0.5% Germall Plus
Instructions
- Measure out the kokum butter, cocoa butter, safflower oil, emulsifying wax and cetyl alcohol into a heat safe container.
- Measure out the water and vegetable glycerin into a separate heat safe container.
- Heat both containers on a double boiler over a low heat, until all of the butters have fully melted.
- Once melted and no solids remain, remove both containers from the double boiler. Wipe the bottom and the sides of the containers to remove any water from the outside of them.
- Immediately combine the two phases together and mix with an immersion blender. This should not take long for this to become a homogenous mixture and thicken up. You want to make sure that you use an immersion blender because you need the high shear to get it to mix correctly.
- Allow the mixture to cool down to room temperature.
- Measure out your cool down ingredients: germall plus and Nirvana fragrance oil.
- Add the cool down ingredients to your emulsified body butter and mix until it is fully incorporated.
- Package and enjoy!