This beautiful mixture has such a lovely, subtle scent, and such an inviting color that I nearly licked the whip clean after my test batch. I know that some folks delight in powerfully scented products, but for me, there is nothing quite as special as a formulation that smells wonderful without any added aromatics. This recipe doesn’t contain a drop of Essential Oil or Fragrance Oil. The natural aromas of Cocoa Butter, Virgin Coconut Oil and Plum Oil provide this body butter with a delicious scent that kisses the skin after use. In a word, it’s dreamy.
I used Cocoa Butter and Organic Virgin Coconut Oil as the bases for this body butter. This Cocoa Butter lends a chocolatey aroma, that blends well with the almond marzipan scent of Plum Kernel Oil. Organic Virgin Coconut Cream Oil might just be my favorite natural skin care ingredient ever. If you’ve ever smelled it, you’ll understand why. Our Virgin Coconut smells just like a freshly cracked coconut. It’s light, and moisturizing, and slightly astringent. Binding the fats are two plant based waxes, Carnauba and Plum Jojoba Esters. Carnauba is a super stiff vegetable wax. In fact, it is so hard that you just need a tiny bit to harden this recipe. Plum Jojoba Wax Beads give the butter a gorgeous plum/pink color, but if you’d prefer a 100% natural butter, switch the Plum Jojoba Wax Beads for White.
Coconut & Plum Whipped Body Butter
Makes about 6 ounces by volume, and about 5 1/2 ounces by weight
Ingredients
- 2 ounces Organic Virgin Coconut Oil
- 2 ounces Cocoa Butter
- 1 ounce Plum Kernel Oil
- 1/2 ounce Carnauba Wax
- 1 ½ teaspoons Plum Jojoba Wax Beads
Can I use unrefined butters instead of refined? Does it make a difference?
Hi TJ. You can certainly use unrefined butters in this recipe, but keep in mind that unrefined butters are very different in texture, aroma, and color. The recipe may have to be adjusted to compensate for those differences. Try reducing or increasing the amount of wax in the recipe to adjust the texture to suit your ingredients.
Hi. Plum Kernel Oil is out of stock. What can I sub? Also, when I replace the Plum Kernel Oil, should I also replace the Plum Jojoba Wax Beads? Last question, Do I wash with this or use it after the shower?
Thank you. I’ve never done this before and it looks like fun.
Hi Jeannette. This is a body butter, similar in nature to a heavy-duty lotion or cream. It can be applied to dry skin after showering, or any time your skin feels dry. Unlike creams or lotions that contain water, body butter is quite thick, and a little on the greasy side. Think of it like a solid body oil. It will need to be massaged into the skin, and will absorb slowly. Unfortunately, the Plum Kernel Oil is what gives this recipe its incredible aroma. The oil is quite unique. You could substitute another light textured oil, like apricot kernel oil, but it wont have an aroma, like the plum oil does. To compensate for that, try adding a few drops of Mandarin Essential Oil to the recipe. You can use Plum colored Jojoba Wax Beads, or choose a different color if you like.
Thank you!
With adding the Vitamin E T50, how much longer do you estimate the shelf life?
Adding Vitamin E T50 won’t necessarily extend the recipe’s shelf life, but it will help to ensure that it reaches its full potential shelf life by stopping it from premature oxidization. The estimated shelf life for the ingredients in this recipe are all 2 years or more. This means that the butter could stay fresh for just under two years – depending on proper storage. Adding Vitamin E T50 will help make sure it reaches that full shelf life. One thing to keep in mind with this recipe is that the color is likely to fade long before the ingredients go rancid. The dye in the Jojoba Wax Beads is likely to fade within 1-3 months or so. Vitamin E T50 won’t prevent that from happening.
What is making this body butter more lotiony/lotion-like in texture/appearance as opposed to a thicker, whipped consistency like this. Is it the carnauba wax and jojoba wax or what ingredient(s) is making it lotiony?
It sounds like what you’d like to make would be a fresh lotion or cream. Lotions and creams use a technique called emulsion to bond the water and oil phases of the formulations together. You can learn about how to craft your own custom emulsions here: https://naturalbeautyworkshop.com/my_weblog/2011/05/emulsion-the-magic-trick-of-creams-and-lotions.html
Hi,
Did you find a satisfactory answer? I’m certainly no formulator but I think the smooth lotion consistency could be due to the grams of oil being slightly higher than the harder waxes and cocoa butter. Then again I could be wrong as the number of liquid oil in grams did not seem significantly higher to me. There is also the possibility that the ingredients were not whipped long enough (a user on YouTube whipped her butter formulation for 30 min using a KitchenAid stand mixer). Another contributing factor could be temperature. Hope this help or at least gives you food for thought. Cosmetic formulating is beyond exciting for me and I’ve only just begun researching. check out Susan’s point of interest blog http://swiftcraftymonkey.blogspot.com/
🙂
Is the Organic Virgin Coconut Cream Oil the same as Organic Virgin Coconut Oil? I can’t find a coconut cream oil anywhere. Thanks!!!!
Hi Antoinette. In the past, we used the name Organic Virgin Coconut Cream Oil for what is now sold as Organic Virgin Coconut Oil. It is the same ingredient – just with a less lengthy name. You can find a wonderful variety of this oil on our site. http://www.fromnaturewithlove.com. Use the discount code NBWS4277 to save 7% on your order.
Hi – I have made this recipe and I had to improvise a bit – I needed to use what I had on hand. In place of the plum kernel oil, I used meadowfoam seed oil. I did not have the jojoba beads, so I eliminated it from the recipe. For the fragrance I used Orange essential oil.
I was very happy with the end results – creamy, dreamy & the smell of orange & coconut. I have been using it daily now for a month and just recently, my butter has slowly getting grainy particles in it and it gets more so every day.
I hope you can help me with this. In using my butter, I probably got some droplets of water in the jar. Dont know if that is the problem. Hope you can help. Thanks
Your butter sounds lovely! I love the combination of sweet citrus and creamy coconut. Yum! Water getting into the butter could definitely have an affect on the texture – not to mention the stability of the recipe. Another possibility is that the butter in the recipe has crystalized. This is not uncommon in vegetable butters. It happens most often to Shea Butter, but crystallization can also occur in Mango Butter, Cocoa Butter, and other vegetable butters too. Basically, tiny crystals form in the structure of the butter when it is melted and hardened again – sort of like what happens when you melt chocolate.
We have some instructions on how to pre-treat your butters before formulation to help stop this from happening in new batches. Here’s a link: http://www.fromnaturewithlove.com/library/vegetablebuttercrystalization.asp