I make an amazing whipped body butter, which I will write about in a future blog, probably this fall. It is amazing, with lots of rich skin-loving butters and oils and it’s so light and nourishing on your skin, it has been a fan favorite since I introduced it.
But now it’s summer…
And summer is hot…
And do you know what happens to butters when it’s hot? That’s right! They melt!
So how do we combat the heat of summer with these types of products? Well, one option is to keep them in a cooler during events. The disadvantage to that, though, is that the product will still melt after a customer purchases it. And it will melt if you ship it. The customer will have a less than ideal experience, and that’s just not acceptable.
Another option is to create an emulsified body butter, one that incorporates water and an emulsifying wax, like Cetearyl Alcohol, to make the product more stable. There are benefits to an emulsified body butter. Obviously the first one is that it is stable regardless of temperature. The addition of water allows it to draw moisture to your skin. One disadvantage is that with the addition of water, you also need to add a preservative. And, there are less skin-loving ingredients in the product and more water and emulsifiers. Also, this type of formulation is no different than a lotion. You can make it thicker or thinner by adjusting the ratio of water and emulsifier to the butters and oils that you use, but it is still a lotion, and one of the things I love about my body butter is that it is all oils and butters.
Another option is to just not sell body butter in the summer. But then what do I offer those who are looking for a great moisturizing product in the summer months?
So I created an alternate product for the summer months, one that can still provide the lovely moisturizing benefits of a body butter, but that can be hardy enough to stand up to the summer heat: body butter bars! These solid body butter bars have the same ingredients I put in my whipped body butter, with one addition to make them into a bar instead of a cream: beeswax. That is literally the only difference!
I have been testing three different formulations of this body butter bar over the last few weeks. I am pretty excited with the results and I think I’ve narrowed down the appropriate formula. I don’t sell anything that I don’t absolutely love and have tested for the best customer experience.
The difference between my three formulations is how much beeswax I add. My first formulation is one part butters, one part oils, one part beeswax. The second has 1.25 parts beeswax. The third has 1.5 parts beeswax. I think I have finally figured it out and these beautiful tins will be available at my next event in the same popular fragrances as my body butters, with perhaps a few new additions. I hope you love them as much as I do! Look for them soon on my website or at my next event!
