Microwave Body and Hair Butter

Body and hair butter? Yes indeed!

If you are a curlie and looking for a smooth butter to nourish your beautiful curls, you can label this formula 'hair and body butter', because this combination is just as curl loving as it is skin-loving.

And, to keep things as basic and simple as possible, we're going to make body butter in the microwave!

The Formula

To achieve texture perfection, your formula needs to be

• 20% oil
• 80% semi-soft butter

For this (single jar) portion of 50 ml, I used

• 32 grams shea butter
• 8 grams karanja oil
• 8 drops essential oils

Ingredients and Equipment

• Sterlized glass container
• Weight that measures accurately down to 1 gram
• microwave
• stirrer
• container for your product

Method
Weigh out your ingredients and place them in the glass container.
Place the container in the microwave and set for 1 minute at the lowest heat setting. On my microwave, the setting is '90'.

 Heating at one minute intervals and stir between each interval.

Here's my mixture after 1 interval-

And here it is after 4 intervals. The shea was not quite melted when I removed the container from the microwave, but did melt as it was being stirred. As soon as the mixture is evenly melted, pour into your container and let set.

Here is the mixture right after I poured it.

Letting Body Butter Set - To Cool or Not to Cool?

Working with shea butter can be a bit of a challenge. Shea can go grainy. I've heard some swear by immediate refrigeration for the best results. My supplier recommends the exact opposite: cool at room temperature until set. I've tried both methods, and for me, letting set at room temperature works best.

But, If there was a single correct way of handling shea, there wouldn't be discussions on how to achieve shea perfection all over soapmaking forums. The fact of the matter is, there are a lot of factors involved - temperature and time of heating, the type and quality of the shea (refined, unrefined etc), so the best advice I can give you is: make small portions and try different methods until you find what works for you.

The good news is, if your body butter does go grainy, you don't need to toss it. You can gently reheat at cool it again until it sets as a smooth texture.

Have fun!

More About Body Butters on this Blog

The Basics of Body Butter
Plant Butters - Hardness and Melting Points
10 Uses for Body Butter
2- ingredient body butter using butter and oil
2-ingredient body butter with wax and oil
How to make a super soft Body Butter
3-ingredient body butter