Anhydrous body butter formulation challenge

Image from Google images.

Hello my lovely readers,

In order to encourage you to try making your own products, I’m challenging you to a formulation task. This will also get you used to my formulation method. I’m not really a fan of following recipes to the letter so feel free to tweak this to your satisfaction, as long as you follow the rules.

1. Always measure your ingredients by weight and weighted percentages. This will not only be more straightforward, you also can be sure of the reproducibility of your creations.
2. Melt your butters using a double boiler or bain marie (i.e. a pot on a pot) because you do not want to degrade the many great but heat sensitive compounds in your oils and butters.
3. Keep it simple when starting out and adjust as you get better.
4. Start with small quantities until you get comfortable with formulating.
5. Write down your formula and method before hand (I have done this for you but you can reproduce it for future formulations).
6. Label your product (with the date) after transferring to your preferred container.
7. Bask in your formulation success. Very important!!

This is an anhydrous body butter (i. e.  It contains no water or hydrophilic substances), therefore it doesn’t need any preservation.

• Shea butter 70%
• Almond oil 27%
• Lavender essential oil 3%

To make a 100 g batch of soothing, sensual lavender body butter, you’ll need to measure out;

• 70 g of shea butter
• 27 g of almond oil
• 3 g of lavender essential oil

Steps

 

• Heat the all oils and butters (except the lavender essential oil) in your double boiler until melted.
• Stir your mixture and place in the freezer until it starts to solidify at the top.
• Bring it out and start whipping until it becomes fluffy like whipped cream.
• Add the essential oil and whip it, whip it,  like the coco! I’m sure you know that song LOL.
• Don’t eat it!

That’s it! Easy right? You can substitute any of the oils and butters with what you prefer or have available. Just make sure you keep to the percentages. For example you can use lemon essential oil instead of lavender to get the therapeutic benefits and fresh scent of lemons, as long as you keep it to 3%. You can also go without essential oils if you like the nutty smell of shea butter. In fact, you can tweak it however you want.

Let me know if you did it and how you liked your very own formulation, you superstar! You can also use this in your hair to keep it soft, moisturized and lustrous.

Until next time, happy formulating.