Whipped Body Butters can be the most moisturizing and luxurious treats for your skin. Unfortunately, they can also be a real pain in the neck to formulate. We created this guide to help you create your own custom-made whipped body butter recipes with a little less guess-work. If you've never made a whipped butter before, we suggest starting out with something simple, like a plain whipped Shea Butter. After you've mastered the technique, move on to whipping up custom blends of Butters, Carrier Oils, and Aromatic Ingredients! This guide will help you understand how different ingredients behave in whipped butters, and help you get started with a few basic, customizable recipes.
Do you have any special tips for making awesome whipped butters? Share them with us in the comments!
Main Ingredients
A solid Carrier Oil or Butter should make up the majority of a Whipped Body Butter recipe. Shea Butter has just the right texture to be used on its own, but other ingredients might need a little tweaking to be made into the ideal consistency. You need the butter to be firm enough to set up solid, but soft enough to yield when scooped.
- Cocoa, Kokum, and Illipe Butters: These butters have extra hard textures. They can be used alone in Whipped Butters, but will produce a slightly firmer texture than may be desirable. Try blending these hard butters with softer butters, or with a tiny amount of your favorite liquid carrier oil.
- Shea Butter: Shea has the perfect consistency for Whipped Body Butters, being not too soft, and not too hard. It is literally, just right. Shea can be used alone, or in blends.
- Mango, Cupuacu, and Murumuru Butter: These butters are a little softer than Shea Butter. They won't quite work on their own as whipped butters. Try adding a tiny bit of wax, or a harder butter to your recipe to firm it up.
- Coconut, Babassu, Monoi de Tahiti, and Organic Virgin Coconut Cream Oil: These carrier oils are solid at room temperatures of around 65 degrees, but will melt immediately upon skin contact, or exposure to a higher temperature. This makes them very tricky to work with as a main ingredient. These oils need to be blended with harder butters and/or wax in order to maintain the right texture for Whipped Body Butter.
- Aloe, Avocado, Coffee Bean, Hemp Seed, Macadamia, Olive, Pistachio, and Sweet Almond Butter: These butters are extra soft, and cannot be used alone in whipped body butters, as they will not set up with a firm enough texture. They need to be blended with a large portion of hard butters and/or waxes.
Waxes
Waxes help to reinforce whipped butters, making them firmer, sturdier, and stickier. They lend body, adhesion, and most of all, firmness. Wax is especially helpful in formulations that use liquid oils and/or soft butters. Be careful not to add too much wax. Being heavy handed with your wax can give your recipe a texture more similar to a balm than a butter, and can affect its texture and pliability.
- Jojoba Esters: Jojoba Esters are an ideal firming agent for whipped body butters. Because Jojoba has a consistency very similar to oil, it keeps body butters from feeling overly sticky or waxy while still adding stiffness.
- Beeswax: The next best ingredient to use would be Beeswax. Keep in mind that Beeswax will add stickiness to the texture of your whipped body butter, so you should avoid using too much in your recipe. Your goal should be to add just enough to firm up the butter.
- Candelilla Wax: This vegetable-based wax can also be used to increase the firmness of your whipped body butter. It is considerably harder than Jojoba Esters or Beeswax, so must be used sparingly in your formulation to avoid adding stickiness and brittleness to the butter's texture.
Aromatics
You have a lot of options when it comes to scenting a whipped body butter. Each type of aromatic ingredient has its own virtues and limitations, so check them out carefully before making a decision.
- Essential Oils: These all natural botanical oils pack a serious punch of aroma and active components. Make sure to take the powerful properties of Essential Oils seriously when using them in your whipped body butters. Each Essential Oil should be researched for safety and proper usage before being included in your recipe. For more information, check out our article on Essential Oil Safety. Though Essential Oils do vary, most should be used at a rate of 1 – 3% in Whipped Body Butter recipes.
- CO2 Extracts: These ultra pure and potent plant extracts are used primarily for their powerful herbal properties, but certain CO2 Extracts also have desirable aromas. CO2 Extracts should be handled similarly to Essential Oils. Research them for safety, and use them at a rate of 1 – 3%.
- Attars: Attars are delicate floral extracts that have been distilled in sandalwood. These precious aromatics can be very pricey, and should be reserved for your most special whipped body butter recipes. Use Attars at a rate of 1 – 3% in your recipe.
- Absolutes: Used mostly in perfumery, Absolutes are chemically extracted plant extracts with very potent aromas. Absolutes can be used alone, or blended with other aromatic ingredients. They should be used at a rate of 1 – 3.5% of the total recipe.
- Fragrance Oils: Though Fragrance Oils are not all natural, they have been formulated specifically for skin care products. This makes them very easy to use. They also come in a huge range of scents. Our Fragrance Oils can be used at a rate of 2 – 5% in whipped body butters.
Additives
Additives are optional ingredients that can help improve the texture, slip, and longevity of your recipe. While these ingredients aren't necessary for simple formulations, they can be very helpful once you get in to creating more advanced recipes. We recommend experimenting with additives after you've mastered making simple whipped butters.
- Cornstarch: Used to decrease the greasiness of a body butter’s slip, Cornstarch can help make the texture of your formula more pleasant. It should be added at a ratio of around 1 teaspoon per 1 – 2 ounces of main ingredient. To avoid lumps, mix Cornstarch into a slurry with a little melted oil before adding it to the rest of the batch.
- Silk Powder: Silk Powder is another ingredient used to enhance the slip of body butter. Silk Powder can be added at a rate of 1 – 5% of the total recipe. Like Cornstarch, Silk Powder should be made into a slurry before being added to the melted ingredients.
- Antioxidants: Since whipped body butters do not contain water, or other fragile ingredients, adding a true preservative is not necessary. However, many formulators choose to include an antioxidant to help keep the oils and butters in the recipe from oxidizing or going rancid prematurely. Vitamin E T50 is an ideal ingredient for this purpose, as it will not affect the color or aroma of your recipe. You can also use Rosemary Oil Extract if you prefer, but keep in mind that its dark green color and herbal aroma may affect the final product.
Basic Recipes for Whipped Body Butters
These basic formulas are meant to be used as starting points for your whipped butter formulations. These tiny batches are perfect for experimentation. Use a scale to measure all of your ingredients while you are experimenting. Working in metric weight and volume measurements makes it easy to alter the ratios, do necessary math, and multiply successful formulas. Keep careful notes as you experiment, adding or subtracting waxes, additives, or aromatics as needed.
Basic Whipped Shea Butter
Ingredients:
- 30 grams Shea Butter
- 0.3-0.9 grams (1-3%) Essential Oil –or- 0.6-1.5 grams (2-5%) Fragrance Oil
Basic Whipped Hard Butter
Ingredients:
- 20 grams Hard Butter (Cocoa, Kokum, etc.)
- 0.3-0.9 grams (1-3%) Essential Oil –or- 0.6-1.5 grams (2-5%) Fragrance Oil
- 10 grams liquid Carrier Oil (Sweet Almond, Fractionated Coconut, Rice Bran, etc.)
Basic Whipped Medium-Soft Butter
Ingredients:
- 30 grams Medium-Soft Butter (Mango, Cupuacu, Murumuru, etc.)
- 0.3-0.9 grams (1-3%) Essential Oil –or- 0.6-1.5 grams (2-5%) Fragrance Oil
- 1.5 – 3 grams (5 – 10%) Wax
Basic Whipped Solid Oil
Ingredients:
- 15 grams Solid Oil (Babassu, Coconut, Monoi De Tahiti, etc.)
- 15 grams Hard Butter (Cocoa, Kokum, etc.)
- 0.3-0.9 grams (1-3%) Essential Oil –or- 0.6-1.5 grams (2-5%) Fragrance Oil
- 3 – 6 grams (10 – 20%) Wax
Basic Whipped Soft-Butter
Ingredients:
- 30 grams Soft Butter (Aloe, Pistachio, Macadamia Nut, etc.)
- 0.3-0.9 grams (1-3%) Essential Oil –or- 0.6-1.5 grams (2-5%) Fragrance Oil
- 3 – 6 grams (10 – 20%) Wax
Basic Directions for Whipped Body Butters
- Temper the butters if necessary. (More information on tempering and crystallization is included below, under "Important Tips".)
- Melt butters, waxes, and carrier oils together in a double boiler over high heat.
- When the mixture is completely melted, remove the boiler from heat.
- Add any aromatics or additives.
- Using a whisk or hand mixer, whip the mixture continuously as it begins to cool.
- Continue whipping the butter until it cools and thickens. Scrape the sides of the container as needed.
- Don't stop whipping until the mixture becomes thick and fluffy, like frosting.
- Transfer the mixture to jars using a spatula or a frosting bag.
- Allow the butters to cool, set, and harden completely before use.
Important Tips for Making Whipped Body Butters
- Crystallization: Vegetable Butters sometimes form tiny crystals when they are heated and re-melted. This can happen when the butter is packaged (before you get it) or it can happen during formulation (while you are working with it.) After the crystals form, the texture of the butter can become strangely gritty. The crystals are physically harmless, and will melt upon contact with your skin, but they can also detract from the pleasant texture you are trying to give your body butter. To eliminate crystals, butters need to be tempered. Check out this link for complete directions on how to prep and temper your butter before using it in a body butter.
- Warm Weather and Shipping Limitations: A good body butter melts when it contacts warm skin, so imagine what happens to it inside a mailbox or delivery truck on a hot summer day. Unfortunately, whipped body butters do not travel well, particularly during the summer season. Even at home, you'll find that whipped body butters have a hard time setting or remaining fluffy on especially hot days. There isn't much you can do to get around this issue, so many formulators choose to make and/or sell body butters exclusively during the autumn and winter seasons.
- Experimentation: These guidelines are here to give you a starting point for creating your own recipes. They aren't perfect, so you'll need to try them out in small batches, then tweak them by altering the ratios little by little, playing with different additives, and perfecting your technique. Keep careful notes while you develop your recipes so that you can easily recreate, double, or triple your successful recipes.
Where to Purchase Ingredients
You can purchase all of the ingredients for whipped body butters mentioned in this post online at www.FromNatureWithLove.com. Use discount code, NBWS4277 to save 7% off qualifying items in your online order!
If imake I cup of whipped body butter using 3/4 cup shea and 1/4 cup sweet almond how much beeswax would be good to add?
Hi Brooke. You’ll have to experiment to get the texture just right, but I’d suggest starting out by adding 1 tablespoon (or 1/2 ounce) of Beeswax. See how you like that texture, then adjust it from there by re-melting, and adding up to one more tablespoon of wax. I would recommend getting the texture just right before adding any aromatic ingredients. Essential Oils or Fragrance Oils can be damaged when reheated multiple times.
You said that you would need to make the silk powder into a slurry? How much silk powder should I use and how much oil should be used? Will the resulting product be gritty?
To make a slurry, just add an equal amount of oil from your recipe to the silk powder, then mix to form a paste. Add a little more oil, a few drops at a time, until a smooth paste forms. This paste can be mixed into the rest of the recipe more easily than adding the powder directly. As far as how much Silk Powder to use, 5% of your total recipe is a great place to start. You can experiment from there by adding less or more to your taste. The Silk Powder shouldn’t cause a gritty texture. It should give the Body Butter a nice soft slip.
So I would add my desired amount of silk power to the amount of oil I intend to use in the recipe? Would using silk also work for lip balms/lipstick?
That’s right. The Silk Powder can be added to the oil phase of your recipe. I’ve personally never added Silk Powder to lip products so I’m not sure if the slip would be pleasant on the lips or not. It’s certainly worth experimenting with. Another way that I like to add smoothness and adhesion to lip products is by including Liquid Lecithin at 2-5%. Lecithin increases adhesion and gives products an extra creamy texture.
I made my first body butter usung unrefined raw Shea butter, coconut oil, almond oil and lavender essential oil. It was rather greasy and didn’t absorb into my skin as I had hoped. Any suggestions? Thanks!
Since Body Butters don’t contain water they will always be slower to absorb than lotions or creams. Even homemade lotions and creams are often thicker and greasier than commercial products due to their containing whole ingredients instead of additives and fillers. That being said, there are a few things you can do to help make these kinds of products slightly less greasy or more easily absorbed. Additives like Silk Peptide Powder, Arrowroot Powder, Cornstarch, or Oat Starch can be added at around 1 – 5% to help give the products a drier, silkier slip. Using light Oils and Butters also helps. Shea is wonderful for the skin, but is very thick. Coconut Oil and Almond Oil are both fairly light, but you could try using Watermelon Seed Oil, Macadamia Nut Oil, or Rice Bran Oil, which are all very light in texture instead.
Hello, I have made a batch of body butters and they have come out very firm.
First time that has happened to me is there any way I can soften it up any advice is greately appreciated. Thank you
The weight vs volume thing gets difficult when shipping. So I make whipped butters, I put them in 8oz containers and fill to the brim, but they still don’t actually WEIGH 8oz.. So if selling, would one just say “sold by volume and not weight” ?
That’s correct. An eight ounce jar may hold a totally different amount by weight depending on the volume of a product. It’s best to label your product by whichever measurement is most accurate. You can either weigh the jars as you fill them and sell them by their actual weight or you can measure them by volume and sell them that way. As far as I know, as long as your labels are consistent and accurate it should be fine.
Hi Marsha. If you are using the same formula as you usually do I would recommend melting them down and whipping them again. It’s possible that this most recent batch just didn’t get enough air whipped into it as it cooled. If you’ve changed the formula at all that could explain the difference in texture too. Using higher ratios of Wax or hard Oils and Butters can change the texture of a formulation dramatically.
Finally, a webpage that has some actual information for those of us who want more than whipped coconut oil. Thank you, thank you, thank you. I can’t tell you how many hours I’ve spent looking for some good solid information about the different properties of the oils,essential oils,and exotic butters etc. all in one place. I’ve got a pile building in my linen closet and quite a few bombs that I had to trash, but I have managed to come up with a couple of good recipes. Now I’ll have some information to work with. Whoohoo, watch me now! LOL
When I sell my butters I word it this way, “8oz Jar costs…”
We’re so glad to be of help, Sharon!
What’s the best natural way to color body butter?
Hi. Simple loved the tips. I’ve been searching the web for some very useful information all in the same page and now I have found it. Thank you so much for your time, dedication and effort into this. I know that there are a lot of us who really appreciated it.
Now I’d like to clear some doubts. How do you add the liquid lecithin in your whipped butters? And can I put my whipped butter in the refrigerator in the summer so it doesn’t become melty? Can I add other powdered plants to my whipped butters the same way I add the silk powder?
Hi Ebony. There are a few ways that you could add natural color to a whipped body butter. Mineral colorants, like Oxides, Ultramarines, and Micas, are oil dispersible, meaning they will mix easily into your butters but they won’t actually dissolve. This can sometimes result in an uneven color as the powders may sink or float in a formulation. If you are whipped the body butter, however, this will be less of an issue as the ingredients will be whipped continuously until the butter cools.
One thing to note about Pearlescent Micas is that they are not all 100% natural. Mica Powder itself is a natural mineral, but Micas are colored using a combination of natural mineral colorants and synthetic colorants. If you want to use only natural ingredients be sure to take a close look at the ingredients listed on each Mica.
Color Additives: http://www.fromnaturewithlove.com/soap/ColorAdd.asp
Another option to add natural color is to infuse the oils or butters with tinting herbs. We have some great visuals on the colors you’ll find in lip balms using tinting herbs. The colors would be slightly more subtle in a whipped body butter. https://naturalbeautyworkshop.com/my_weblog/2009/04/using-natural-tinting-herbs-to-color-lip-balms.html
The following link includes a little more information on using tinting herbs: https://naturalbeautyworkshop.com/my_weblog/2008/03/using-natural-h.html
I made my homemade cream using 3 normal spoons of Shea butter, six normal spoons of coconut oil, 2 normal spoons of honey, one normal spoon of glycerin, one normal spoon of olive oil and 20 drops of lavender oil. It turned out well but in Nigeria, we are approaching the harmattan season and I don’t want the cream too runny. Can I add corn flour (I can’t find cornstarch here and beeswax is hard to get where I stay).
Hi Janice,
Thanks for visiting The Natural Beauty Workshop. I’m so glad to hear that you are enjoying the blog. You can add Liquid Lecithin to your body butters by adding it to with the waxes and vegetable butters as you melt them. I don’t usually add lecithin to body butters unless I am creating an emulsion using water (like a lotion or a cream.) I do add Lecithin to lip balms and lip butters though. It can help give the products a sticker, creamier texture. As for adding powders, any starch (such as corn starch, oat starch, or arrowroot powder) will work well in place of Silk Powder. You can experiment with any of those ingredients to see which you like best in a body butter, cream, or lotion.
It sounds like your recipe is coming along nicely! If you’d like to increase its hardness I would suggest reducing the portion of honey, glycerine, and olive oil or increasing the portion of shea butter and coconut oil. Honey and glycerin are both water soluble so they could also be disrupting the stability of your recipe. Without an emulsifier they may not fully incorporate into the recipe. I wouldn’t recommend adding corn flour as it will not dissolve into the oils the way that starch would. You cam, however, use a different type of starch in the recipe. Look for oat starch, corn starch, or arrowroot powder. If these aren’t available, I would leave it out.
I need to make big batches of body butter’s but need to find a blended that would handle 20 butter’s at 170grams each and 20 at 39grams each. You have any idea of what I can use to blend it? I was thinking of using an immersion hand mixer and of course it would be mixed in a bucket. Any thoughts? Thank you!
Melt it down, add more oil, whip it again
hi making body butter using 1/2 cup coconut oil 2 tbsp shea butter 16 drops lavender essential oil it hard well it absorb in to the skin but all i can smell is coconut not lavender should i be using a corn starch in it i am lost here i was making it for myself gave it to friend and its melts to easy i was thinking of selling it in a market as i make Soap and i would love a body butter to go with my soap any ideas need help
Lee
The same thing happened to my batch, where at first it was too creamy and didn’t whip at all, so I threw it back in the fridge and thought it needed more Shea butter to harden it up. Now after a day and a half, it’s completely stiffened up. Do I need more Shea butter or oil? Your response is greatly appreciated. Thank you.
I use a very simple whipped body butter recipe (Raw, unrefined Shea 73.72% and Coconut 26.28%). My stand mixer causes my body butter mixture to heat up significantly while I’m whipping it.
Since the raw shea I use seems especially prone to crystallization, what temps should I keep my mixture at while working with it? I’ve started with my mixture in the bowl at 65 degrees, only to have it heat all the way up to 78 degrees or even higher while I’m whipping it.
Also, is there any way to make the fluffiness last longer? Does the temp of my home (and the homes of my customers) cause the butter to eventually settle and become heavier, or is there something else at work here that would cause the mixture to lose its whippiness?
Thank you for your help.
Hi Lee! If you’re finding the scent of the coconut oil to be over-powering your lavender you may want to switch from a virgin coconut to a refined coconut oil. Refined coconut oil doesn’t have much natural aroma, if any. That would leave your lavender more room to shine!
Whenever whipped butters turn out too stiff it can usually be softened by decreasing the amount of wax (if you are using any) and hard butter or by increasing the amount of liquid oil in the recipe. Also keep in mind that the texture will change depending on the weather. In cold months whipped butters remain much more firm at room temperature while in the Summer the same recipe may melt and flop.
Hi Linda. I’m afraid my experience working with raw Shea is somewhat limited so I can’t recommend a specific temperature for you to work at. However, it does sound like you are on the right track by trying to keep the butter cool. If the butter isn’t crystalized before you whip you might want to try whipping it cold instead of melting it. This can be done similarly to how one would cream butter in a stand mixer to make frosting. As for the butter flopping, softening, and settling in warm temperatures this is totally typical of whipped shea. Some formulators won’t even sell whipped shea outside of Winter months for just this reason. Some formulators try to harden the shea by melting it down with wax and harder oils/butters, but that is totally optional.
Do I need to melt the coconut oil/shea butter before I measure it or do I just scoop out a measurement of hard coconut oil? Thanks.
I am trying to find a recipe for a large batch of whipped body butter 20 8oz jars). Can you help with this?
Hi Bernadette, while our blog formulation quantities are typically less than what you need, you can start by multiplying the amounts of each ingredients. As an example, if our formulation yields one 8 oz jar, you would multiple each ingredient by 20 to get the amount your formulation requires.
Thank you.