Saturday, April 19, 2014

Whipped Body Butter DIY

Whipped  Body Butter
Body butter is very expensive in most stores for the weight.  And while there are some tricks to making your own it is not impossible or even terribly difficult.  I use a variety of oils in my body butter, some of which are a little harder to find.  I also use one infused oil.

Melted oils and butters
The infused oil that I use in comfrey oil.  To make an infused oil start by drying the herbs that you wish to infuse into your oil.  If you do not dry the plant matter, you could easily end up with mold in your oil from the water content.  This is most definitely not the desired result.  Next you need you submerse your dried plant matter in oil.  My usual choice for this is olive oil.  Olive oil is readily available and fairly inexpensive.  I usually employ a gentle heat at this point to expedite the process, but it is not necessary.  You can let your oil sit and steep for several weeks shaking the oil periodically.  After the oil has reached the desired strength / color, it is very simple to strain out the plant matter.  A coffee filter in a sieve will work nicely.  You now have an infused oil to use.  This process works for flavor, color & plant properties.

Thickened oils
The first step of making your body butter is to measure all of your oils and melt them gently and slowly.  This is especially important in the case of shea butter which can become grainy if melted too quickly or to too high a temperature.  You can do this in a jar in a pan of boiling water or in short bursts in your microwave.  I stir well to mix the oils thoroughly before placing in the refrigerator.  The purpose of the refrigeration is to bring the temperature down to room temperature a little more quickly.  The recipe I use is one that I developed and includes the following oils and butters: Coconut oil, Mango Butter, Shea Butter, Hemp oil, Grapeseed oil, Comfrey infused Olive oil, Vitamin E.

First whipping of the oil
The next step is to use your whisk on your mixer to beat some air into you cooled oil mixture.  I like to beat the first time when the oils have collected a fairly good sized rim of cooled oil in the bowl.  I usually go three rounds of cooling and beating.  I also make sure that I scrape the bowls sides very well before I start beating each time to make sure that all of the mixture stays combined.

Each time I beat the oils until the color is uniform.  This is especially important on the first round of beating.  I also beat the oils until the texture starts to thin just a bit.  When this hint of thinning occurs I stop beating and return to the refrigerator for at least 20 minutes.  The third time of beating is usually sufficient to reach firm peaks when the beater is lifted out of the mixture.  At this point the body butter can either be piped or spooned into your desired container.




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