Probs w/grainy body butter

[Loulougirl]

Hi everyone! Newbie here.

I tried a new recipe for body butter last night, and I'm afraid it didn't turn out well! Actually, I've never made a successful body butter! I'm starting to wonder what I'm missing! lol

Recipe is as follows:

2 oz. cocoa butter

2 oz. shea butter

2 oz. mango butter

1 tsp. wheat germ oil

3 tsp. apricot kernal oil

1 tsp. beeswax pearls

frag.

1/4 tsp. vit e (as preservative)

Melt everything together except FO. Heat gently at low heat for 2-3 min. Do not boil. Let cool for several hours, stir and add FO. At this stage, can be whipped or stirred more. Spoon into jar and let set.

~~~

It all seemed to go fine, and set up very nicely. I went to try some this morning and it was grainy, like the beeswax pearls didn't fully incorporate. Should I try again, heating it for longer than 3 min? Or maybe a diff. wax?

TIA!

[Sister Kya]

Are you sure it was the beeswax? Butters are generally notorious for developing "grainies" with Shea being the worst of the bunch.

Some crafters have success with tempering their butters or quick cooling. Search the forum for all our threads on "grainies" "tempering" and "butters" and you should be just as confused about the subject as the rest of us...

From all the different levels of success that different members report having with different methods and different butters, it may just depend on which shipment of butter you have from which supplier.

Wish I could help more but it's a topic with a long and varied history to it...

[bbkimberly]

I would say it's the shea butter. This needs to be heated to 170 degrees and held there for 15 min or so or you get crystals when it cools (grains)

I usually heat mine first, get it to temp hold it there for about 15 min, stir occassionally- remove from heat and when it starts to cool, add beeswax- the cocoa butter will melt pretty quickly with any temp above 98 degrees or so.

Let it all cool, you should have no troubles after that with grains.

but as previously mentioned, do read the posts- they help tremendously.

[Loulougirl]

Thanks for the help

I got smart, and starting reading from the last page forward on the forums, and it's already helping me lots!

I'm curious about this tho, because my shea didn't feel grainy in the first place, I will try heating it up like you suggested kimberly.

I still get the feeling it's the beeswax pearls tho, only because I used them in a body lotion, and it felt grainy too, and there were no butters in that recipe. Hmmm.. :undecided

[edensong]

I heat then quickly cool in the freezer for about 15 minutes, then whip, chill, then whip, chill then whip.

[sporadic]

Yes, cooling quickly usually yields the best results but still won't completely get rid of the grains.

[edensong]

Yes, cooling quickly usually yields the best results but still won't completely get rid of the grains.

I'd have to disagree. You can get rid of the grains. You might have to reheat it, but you can get rid of them.

[CareBear]

I think she meant it might help but that it won't eliminate the risk. I have done all that but when my stuff goes through normal temperature shifts it still grains up.

The only reason it would be your beeswax is if you didn't totally and completely melt it and keep it melted as it blended into the other oils. The best way to deal with beeswax is to melt it IN the other oils (or at least the most heat-stable of them) to ensure it doesn't re-solidify.

The instructions "heat gently on low heat for 2-3 minutes" makes me think that it may very well be that you didn't get the beeswax totally melted. It will likely take more than that. Heat until they dissolve and the oils mix is totally clear.

Since you have a mix of oils and butters in this, I'd melt the BW in the oils (is WGO heat stable?).

Oh, and that is a very small batch size to work with - might be easier if you doubled it.

And finally - beeswax pearls come in all shapes and sizes - so that measurement is incredibly inaccurate. Doesn't really matter for this application but you really need to work by weight going forward.

Edited August 21, 2009 by CareBear