Home Cosmetic Science Talk Formulating General Emulsified body butter…. What is the top product (benchmark) in this segment?

  • Emulsified body butter…. What is the top product (benchmark) in this segment?

    Posted by Graillotion on October 1, 2022 at 1:51 am

    Never thought I’d consider making an emulsified body butter, but as I have started to pick up vendors in the farmer’s market segment, there has been a call for a product in this segment.

    I consider body butters…. just a greasy mess.  But I believe (without having tried), that something nice could certainly be created.  When I take a cursory peak at a new segment…I like to buy and feel what are considered the best of the best….so I can at a minimum, match their haptics, and ideally exceed them.

    Has anyone felt a simply stunning emulsified body butter….sans the greasy mess?  As I am USA based….would prefer benchmarks that I can acquire in the US.

    Aloha.

    @ngarayeva001 
    @helenhelen 

    Graillotion replied 8 months ago 6 Members · 15 Replies
  • 15 Replies
  • mikethair

    Member
    October 2, 2022 at 8:04 am

    I’m currently working with Cocoa Butter and having good results. But of course, it needs to be formulated with oils to produce a softer end product.

  • Squinny

    Member
    October 3, 2022 at 4:15 am

    Hi I have never bought any but after making a few whipped butters and finding them way to greasy (for my personal preferences), I started making emulsified butters and they arent at all greasy. The actual % of butters are quite low though (I use a mix of Cocoa Butter pellets, Mango Butter with a few different Oils (MCT, Macadamia) with OliveM1000 and Cetearyl Alcohol. Water phase I just use Distilled Water and Glycerine + Chelator. In Cooldown I use whatever Essentials Oils or Fragrance Oils + Preservatives etc depending on what results I want with the product. Thats my basics anyway. Just play around with and see what you think. You can make for around $2 (USD) I reckon for 100g pot.

  • Graillotion

    Member
    October 3, 2022 at 4:43 am

    Squinny said:

    Hi I have never bought any but after making a few whipped butters and finding them way to greasy (for my personal preferences), I started making emulsified butters and they arent at all greasy. The actual % of butters are quite low though (I use a mix of Cocoa Butter pellets, Mango Butter with a few different Oils (MCT, Macadamia) with OliveM1000 and Cetearyl Alcohol. Water phase I just use Distilled Water and Glycerine + Chelator. In Cooldown I use whatever Essentials Oils or Fragrance Oils + Preservatives etc depending on what results I want with the product. Thats my basics anyway. Just play around with and see what you think. You can make for around $2 (USD) I reckon for 100g pot.

    Yeah…I would never consider making one of those grease bomb anhydrous ones.  I can’t stand feeling like a seabird caught in an oil spill.  :)   

    I did make the first version last night….I looked at a number of high end products….and found a few consensus ingredients… and was quite surprised to find it looked like I had written a lot of the formulas…hehehe.

    First formula….I did a basic split of Montanov 202 and 165 (with the proverbial kiss of supporting GSC).  This gives me the lightest feel generally.  I put a blend of Aristoflex AVC and carbomer in to give a gel undertone.  Found lots of formulas that backed my thoughts on Myristyl myristate, so that went in at a slightly higher rate than the cetyl palmitate.  Of course, most formulas were using cetearyl alchohol, and I made my standard deviation to behenyl.

    As far as lipids…I of course deferred to the best… Illipe butter from ICSC, Denmark…. and since I live it Hawaii…Oils were Mac Nut (from Floratech…this is a whole nother level of mac nut oil!) and kukui and babassu.

    Cut back on my typically heavy splash of Isoamyl laurate, and tried to somewhat replace it with Lauryl laurate, as I figured that was a better fit for a butter.

    Other than a kiss of dimethicone…I left out a couple of my best friends, D5 and Polymethylsilsesquioxane, which I sorely missed…. but granted….I have never used a body butter, maybe they are not supposed to feel orgasmic?  Needless to say,…. Version two will have them.  I will also toss in another friend…. Distarch Phosphate…which might just be the finishing touch, to make this magic.

    And to top it all off….colored it a beautiful pink with a few drops of Buah Merah oil….that stuff never ceases to amaze me.

    Rubbed in with less than a single stroke.

    Aloha.

  • Squinny

    Member
    October 3, 2022 at 5:37 am

    Sounds like you have nailed it or close to :) I like the sound of adding the Buah Merah Oil (have never used but will look into at some time, not sure I can buy in Australia - I’ll look at my usual suppliers though). Cheers 

  • Graillotion

    Member
    October 3, 2022 at 7:17 am

    Squinny said:

    Sounds like you have nailed it or close to :) I like the sound of adding the Buah Merah Oil (have never used but will look into at some time, not sure I can buy in Australia - I’ll look at my usual suppliers though). Cheers 

    5 drops of Buah Merah in a 150 gram batch, will create the most elegant and beautiful pink you have ever seen.  I have seen no fade over time….granted I have only used it for about 6 months.  Hehehe….it has an ORAC rating of 69,500 …. hmmn….what to market on this potion???  :D  Fortunately I can get this from two reputable places in the US…. Jedwards, and Premier Specialties.  Note the oil itself…is the darkest blood red…you have ever seen.  I think anything more than use as a colorant….would stain the skin! :) 

    • Noobie

      Member
      September 6, 2023 at 11:05 am

      Regarding the pink color: I just saw The Ordinary’s new soothing serum and read that the B12 gives its Barbie toned pink. Not an expert, have no idea if it fades and since it’s water soluble, might be less relevant to emulsified body butters, but just wanted to share the info.

      • Graillotion

        Member
        September 6, 2023 at 1:39 pm

        Been using the B12 for color for a long time. Simply increase or decrease for intensity. Have not seen any color degradation (with room temp). Very pleased with the results.

  • Squinny

    Member
    October 4, 2022 at 1:15 am

    Yes I had a look but cant buy here and I could only see on Etsy - So doesn’t look like I will be able to use - mind you I’d only want to sample to test anyway. I’m happy with my lotions and potions white and cream as only for myself but I can imagine if you are selling lots of women like pink! :)

  • Graillotion

    Member
    October 4, 2022 at 5:40 am

    Sometimes due to all the magical elixirs the Swiss guy has me concoct; my emulsions can sometimes become a little dingy.  This is the perfect fix…. EVERY TIME! @Squinny  Here is looking at you… Hawaiian Noni and Gotu kola (Centella asiatica)!  ;) 

  • Squinny

    Member
    October 6, 2022 at 1:55 am

    Hi not sure what you mean is Hawaiian Noni and Gotu kola one product? (I do use Gotu Kola -I have a glycerin extract in some of my products and love it). 

  • Graillotion

    Member
    October 6, 2022 at 5:08 am

    Squinny said:

    Hi not sure what you mean is Hawaiian Noni and Gotu kola one product? (I do use Gotu Kola -I have a glycerin extract in some of my products and love it). 

    No….they are separate products.  Each a magical elixir in some circles.  ;)

  • Squinny

    Member
    October 7, 2022 at 1:33 am

    Ok thanks for the clarification. Cheers

  • helenhelen

    Member
    October 11, 2022 at 9:21 pm

    @Graillotion Flattered that you think I might be able to help :D . Alas, I can’t use any commercial skincare products these days because my skin does not like the usual emulsifiers and fatty alcohols at all, so I don’t have any recent product reviews for you…

    However I still like to look at products that I can’t personally use and I would say that people these days seem to be quite forgiving on what a “body butter” contains and how it feels, as long as it moisturises and feels nice to apply. Brands are certainly very flexible on what they are calling body butters. The general take is a body cream but with higher amount of high melting point ingredients to give a firmer texture, where the user has to press a bit harder to dig out product from the tub, and where a visible dent is left afterwards. Most of the mass market “body butters” in the UK have a negligible amount of butter e.g. this from Dove, and this from Garnier.

    The Body Shop still use a high percentage of shea and cocoa butter in their classic (emulsified) body butter ranges. I’m guessing you’ve tried them and experienced how greasy/primitive they feel (they do look and smell nice though). They often bring out limited edition “whipped butters” (e.g. this one at the moment) which are nothing like their classic body butters. To me they look and feel like lotions/creams with a ton of gelling agents (they always use Sodium Polyacrylate in their “whipped” products)… the products have some translucency and are slightly gelatinous.. not at all premium looking or feeling. Anyway, The Body Shop is not a great benchmark, but their classic products are still worth looking at to improve on.

    A brand well known in the US for their body butters is Josie Maran. You can see in the photos and INCI that the original Whipped Argan Oil Body Butter is really just a thick cream, and no-one cares that it’s not made up of butters. I always liked the description and marketing of their Whipped Argan Pro-Retinol Body Butter - it’s made to sound so lush. Great marketing. The brand seems to use the terms cream and butter interchangeably e.g. in this product - Intensive Hydration Body Cream.

    Did you find any nice products to benchmark?

  • ngarayeva001

    Member
    October 13, 2022 at 9:24 am

    When I hear body butter, I think L’Occitane and Body Shop. You probably would classify both as a greasy mess, though. Maybe play with oils and thickeners. For example, behenyl alcohol instead of cetyl alcohol and IPM (something dry) as the main emollient.

  • Graillotion

    Member
    October 13, 2022 at 7:53 pm

    When I hear body butter, I think L’Occitane and Body Shop. You probably would classify both as a greasy mess, though. Maybe play with oils and thickeners. For example, behenyl alcohol instead of cetyl alcohol and IPM (something dry) as the main emollient.

    Thank you.

    Yesterday I stopped at a friend’s…and they had a nice one made my Vaseline, so I compared it with mine….and they were strikingly similar.  So pretty happy since I was only on iteration #2.

    Yes… using all my dry tricks…. behenyl… IPM ….  distarch phosphate, Myristyl myristate and so on.

    I will get sucrose esters today…and make a few iterations with that.

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