What’s the rave about Emulsified body butters?
Emulsified body butters are designed to replicate the best parts of whipped body butters, but provide extra hydration when it comes to application. The water is at an extremely low concentration when compared to traditional creams and lotions.
If you’re a fan of the simplicity of natural whipped body butters, then you might consider water, gums, preservatives, fatty alcohols and emulsifiers as an unwelcome additions to a body butter.
In addition to emulsified body butters providing hydration, its primary purpose is to act as a vehicle to help the skin better absorb all the nutrients in the body butter.
Even in their whipped state, body butters will also take a little time to sink into the skin. However, with emulsified body butters, the faster absorption cuts down on the “greasy” feeling you get with anhydrous products. Rather than melting into an oil, it’s application is closer to a cream that’s much more readily absorbed, so very little residue is left on the surface of the skin.
Composition of a typical basic emulsified body butter? What’s in it anyways?
It’s essential to know exactly what makes up a skincare product that you are using in order to feel confident when applying it. Let’s get into the details of what makes up an emulsified body butter
1) Emulsifier: An emulsifying wax works best in emulsified body butter formulas
This is because due to the introduction of water component in the formula, originally water and oil do not mix, therefore there’s a need for a binder to be present. Thus, emulsifying wax accounts for that purpose. It also thickens the emulsion to retain that thick rich creamy body butter texture
2) Water: This is also an essential component of an emulsified body butter it’s purpose is to provide hydration when applied on the skin.
It could seem like a surprising ingredient, considering that body butters are known for being anhydrous in nature (100% oil and butter based)
3) Thickener: this is necessary as both a thickener and stabiliser.
As emulsified body butters have a high oil content, thickeners are necessary to bind the ingredients together to prevent separation. An example of the most popular form of thickener used is Xanthan gum
4) Fatty alcohol: Just like with thickeners, the purpose of this ingredient to function as a co-emulsifier as well as to thicken the formula
5) Preservative: Due to the inclusion of water and other water-soluble ingredients, all emulsified body butters require a broad-spectrum preservative
Now that you’ve had a brief idea of what emulsified body butters are and what makes up an emulsified body butter. Let’s get into the real deal of making one
How to make emulsified body butters
Emulsified body butters come together in three phase: a water phase, an oil phase and a cool down phase just like a basic body lotion. They are heated separately then blended together rather than whipped.
Where as anhydrous body butters are heated all at once and then whipped to achieve a smooth consistency before packaging for sales or use
Due to this difference in formulation technique, you are likely to think that this would result in vastly different textures but whether emulsified or whipped, body butters retain their signature consistency which is thick and creamy.
The high oil content in emulsified body butter keeps the formula thick and your final body butter will have a velvety soft whipped cream texture. Below is a formula for making a basic, easy and straightforward emulsified body butter in less than 20mins
Formula
Phase A—Heated water phase
Distilled water 50%
Lavender Hydrosol 12%
Glycerin 3%
Xanthan gum 1%
Phase B—Heated oil phase
Emulsifying wax 7%
Cetyl alcohol 3%
Sunflower oil 10%
Shea butter 15%
Phase C—Cool down phase
Vitamin E oil 1%
Germall plus 1%
Method
1) Measure out your phase A ingredients: Distilled Water, Lavender Hydrosol as well as your phase B ingredients: Shea Butter, Sunflower Oil, Emulsifying Wax NF and Cetearyl Alcohol.
2) Gently heat both phases in separate heat resistant beakers over low heat using a double boiler
3) Create a slurry mixing Xanthan gum and glycerin together
4) Once melted and no solids remain from your oil phase, add the slurry into your water mix and stir to get a gel like consistency
5) Pour the molten oil phase into the gelled water phase and immediately blend with an immersion blender.
6) Continue to blend until the mixture thickens and starts to resemble a thick cream. Leave to cool to room temperature before moving on to the cool down stage.
7) Measure out your phase C ingredients: Germall plus and vitamin E oil
8) Add the cool down ingredients to your emulsified body butter and mix with a spatula to combine.
And there you have it, your emulsified body butter is ready for use. Store in an airtight jar and use daily after bathing
Would you like a complete guideline on how to customise your emulsified body butter into any formula of choice? From brightening, lightening etc.
Click the link below to join my telegram channel for formulators where you gain access to skincare infos, practical formulas and first hand updates on all training offers
Loved this article, let me know by leaving a comment below
Comments
Post a Comment