Making Emulsified Body Butters With Different Emulsifiers

Jul 25

Written By

The fun part about formulating and making your skincare products is to enjoy the consciousness about everything that went into your formulations and examine how making small changes makes a huge difference in the final outcome. That is why, in my opinion, it's crucial not only to understand how to read and use a formula but also, learn how to adjust and tweak a basic formula to meet your demands.

That is why I often give you formulations with substitutions ideas and guidelines so you could get a sneak peek in a formulator's mad mind 😄.

Today, we are taking a closer look at making emulsified body butter emulsions a learning opportunity and a nice treat for moisture-longing skin.

Emulsified body butter is a very viscous, butter-like consistency product formulated to moisturize and nourish the skin. Typically, body butter contains a high amount of plant butters, oils, and thickeners to build viscosity and stability. Unlike anhydrous (oil-based) body butter products, emulsified body butter is more heat-resistant; they also combine the benefits of moisturizing, skin-softening oils, emollients, and butters with amazing hydrating properties of humectants, hydrolyzed proteins, and other water-soluble actives which can not be included in oil-based products.

Basic emulsified body butter ingredients:

water and/or hydrosols
humectants (glycerin, sorbitol, sodium PCA, hyaloronic acid, sodium lactate, propylene glycol, pentylene glycol, propanediol, etc)
reology modifier/water-phase thickeners (xanthan gum, hydroxyethylcellulose, polymers, etc)
emulsifier (Emulsifying Wax NF, Polawax, Olivem 1000, Montanov 68, Lotionpro 165, etc)
coemulsifier/oil-phase thickener (stearic acid, cetyl alcohol, cetearyl alcohol, behenyl alchol, etc)
butters
oils
antioxidant (Vitamin E)
extracts (optional)
preservative (it's a MUST)
fragrance/essential oil (optional)

EMULSIFIERS

Emulsifying Wax NF (Cetearyl Alcohol (and) Polysorbate 60)
Recommended Use Rate: 2-25%, usually 3-5% for lotions and 5-10% for creams.

Montanov 68 Cetearyl Alcohol (and) Cetearyl Glucoside
Recommended Use Rate: 3-8%

Lotionpro 165 Glyceryl Stearate and PEG 100 Stearate
Recommended Use Rate: 3-10%

Here are some great posts on these emulsifiers if you're interested in learning more about them.

*swiftcraftymonkeyblog is subscription-based

Emulsifying Wax NF

https://www.swiftcraftymonkey.blog/formulating-friday-lets-modify-a-body-butter-using-polawax-natragem-ew-e-wax-nf-or-phytomulse-part-4/

https://www.humblebeeandme.com/?s=Emulsifying+Wax+NF

https://formulabotanica.com/vegetal-emulsifier/

Montanov 68

https://www.swiftcraftymonkey.blog/emulsifiers-montanov-68/

https://www.swiftcraftymonkey.blog/adapting-formulas-to-use-ecocert-ingredients-montanov-68/

Lotionpro 165

https://www.humblebeeandme.com/project/glyceryl-stearate-and-peg-100-stearate/

https://www.swiftcraftymonkey.blog/formulating-friday-creating-lotions-with-simulsol-lotionpro-165-body-butter-week-four/

Basic Body Butter Formula (Emulsifying Wax NF)

Airy, very moisturizing, nourishing, fast-absorbing

Substitutions:

You can swap some or all of the water phase for hydrosols.
You can use other butters (shea, ucuuba, illipe, etc)
Feel free to use a different oil. I went for the lightweight fractionated coconut oil. If you want a heavier product you coul use olive, avocado, virgin coconut oil.
If you don't have any extracts fell free to add more water to the formula. Feel free to use other extracts.

Basic Body Butter with Montanov 68 (natural emulsifier)

Silky skin feel, moisturizing, hydrating, non-greasy

42.40%	Distilled water (B)
20.00%	Rose Hydrosol (B)
5.00%	Glycerin (B)
0.30%	Cosphaderm® X34 (xanthan gum) (B)
10.00%	Mango Butter (A)
5.50%	MONTANOV 68 (A)
5.00%	Evening Primrose Oil (A)
2.50%	Stearic Acid (A)
2.00%	Olivem 900 (B)
2.00%	Manuka Honey Extract (C)
2.00%	Organic Holly Extract (C)
1.50%	NG VANILLA LAVENDER TYPE FRAGRANCE OIL (C)
1.00%	Euxyl PE 9010 (C)
0.80%	Vitamin E (C)

Substitutions:

Stearic Acid - Glyceryl Stearate Citrate, Glyceryl Stearate SE

Olivem 900 - Cera Bellina wax, Beeswax beads, Glyceryl Stearate, Lecithin, Sorbitan Stearate

Instructions

1) Melt the A-phase and heat to 70-80C

2) Combine Glycerine and Xanthan Gum. Add to the B phase

3) Heat up the B phase to 70-80C

4) Combine the two phases and stick blend for 2 minutes. Let cool and stick blend again.

5) Once the emulsion reaches 40C, add the preservative, antioxidant, and fragrance.

6) Adjust the pH to 5-5.5

7) The body butter will reach its final consistency in 24 hours.

5) Package and label.

Very Thick Body Butter Formula With LotionPro165

Very thick, viscous, non-greasy, softening, low spreadability.

10.00%	Cetyl alcohol (A)
9.50%	Cocoa butter (A)
8.00%	Fractionated Coconut oil (A)
8.00%	Shea Butter Refined (A)
5.50%	Emulpharma 165/Lotionpro 165 (A)
3.00%	Stearic Acid (A)
48.00%	Distilled water (B)
5.00%	Glycerin (B)
0.25%	Cosphaderm® X34 (xanthan gum) (B)
1.25%	NG VANILLA LAVENDER TYPE FRAGRANCE OIL (C)
1.00%	Euxyl PE 9010 (C)
0.50%	Vitamin E (C)

Lotion Pro 165 (Glyceryl Stearate (and) PEG 100 Stearate) is a "naked", non-waxy emulsifier, meaning that it doesn't build viscosity of an amulsion unless we add extra thickeners. That's why you see such a high amount of thickeners and hard butters in the A phase. It creates lighter and fluffier emulsions than, for example, Emulsifying Wax NF.

SILKY EMULSIFYING WAX (Cetearyl Alcohol, Ceteareth 20) is also a "naked" emulsifier with a silky skin feel and it would work great as a substitution for Lotion Pro 165.

Instructions

1) Melt the A-phase and heat to 70-80C

2) Combine Glycerine and Xanthan Gum. Add to the B phase

3) Heat up the B phase to 70-80C

4) Combine the two phases and stick blend for 2 minutes. Let cool and stick blend again.

5) Once the emulsion reaches 40C, add the preservative, antioxidant, and fragrance.

6) Adjust the pH to 5-5.5

7) The body butter will reach its final consistency in 24 hours.

5) Package and label.

There are so many ways to play around with basic formulas and add exciting ingredients and potent actives.

✔For example, if you want to make body butter for very dry, damaged, dehydrated skin, you could add more humectants and skin barrier repair actives such as ceramides, lanolin, Hyaluronic Acid.

✔Sensitive skin may benefit from aloe vera extracts, allantoin, Panthenol, Chamomile and calendula extracts, a-Bisabolol, colloidal oatmeal.

✔ Licorice Root Extract, Tomato Extract, Arnica Flower Extract could help with hyperpigmentation.

✔ You could add hydrolyzed proteins, calendula extract, cocoa butter, collagen, and elastin for stretch marks prevention.

Lotioncrafter (actives, emulsifiers, emollients, preservatives)

Water Soluble Extracts

Find more suppliers in this post Where to Buy Supplies Worldwide.