How To: LisaLise's Butter Ball In-Shower Lotion

The latest thing, I hear, is that a popular celeb applies her body lotion while she is in the shower.

Now, isn't that the most amazing thing.

I happen to have developed an easy peasy in-shower lotion last year that has become quite a personal fave. If you want to know how I made the little number pictured up there, please read on.

Butter Ball

I've named this product the butter ball partly because of the ingredients (contains butter) and packaging (ball shaped). Apart from the fact that this is a great combo of skin-loving ingredients, it has a definite snow globe vibe going on, don't you think? Those little flecks you see in the bottle are bits of finely grated cocoa butter. They swirl around in the liquid when you shake the bottle. And, just like a snow globe, they settle to the bottom after a while.

You might be wondering why I did it this way.

The idea came to me when I was grating cocoa butter for another product (more on that real soon). Finely grated bits of cocoa butter melt incredibly fast when they come into contact with skin. And because they melt so fast, I was inspired to play around with grated coca butter in a few different products. (Don't you just love it when ingredients are a source of inspiration?)

Anhydrous and Preservative Free

There is no preservative in this formula because the product is water-free. The shelf life is approximately 3-5 months.

That said, you're going to want to take packaging into serious consideration as this bottle will be living in a wet bathroom environment. A bottle with a pump dispenser will make it possible to dispense without introducing water to the contents and despite what you might fear, the cocoa butter doesn't tend to clog up the dispenser (at least not on any of the pumps I've tried it with).

How it's Used 

Although it's named 'in-shower lotion' - this product is not applied under running water.

Apply this product while you are still in the shower, but immediately after shutting off the water.

You'll want the bottle where you can easily reach it from the shower while you are still dripping wet. The emulsifier helps this product go on smoothly and makes use of the water still on your skin to become a smoothing lotion.

Are you ready to give it a try?

Excellent!

This amount will make 100 grams / 3.5 oz

LisaLise's In-Shower Butter Ball Lotion Formula

Ingredient	Grams	Ounces
Essential Oil Blend of Choice	1	0.035
Fractionated Coconut Oil (or other oil of choice)	26	0.92
Sucragel or Sapogel	10	0.35
Grated Cocoa Butter	5	0.18
Carrier Oil(s) of Choice	57.5	2.03
Antioxidant	0.5	0.02

Method

1. Mix essential oil (EO) blend with fractionated coconut oil (FCO) and set aside
2. Place emulsifier in container and stir briefly
3. Add EO/FCO blend to emulsifier bit by bit while stirring (or working in with a spatula) until the blend is fully incorporated and the mixture is homogenous.
4. Add carrier oils and antioxidant bit by bit while stirring
5. Stir until homogenous
6. Add grated cocoa butter
7. Transfer to container

Pictured: the grated cocoa butter settles at the bottom after a while. but is easily dispersed with a simple shake of the bottle.

About the Ingredients

Several of these ingredients can be chosen to your preference (and to be fair, you could even omit the grated cocoa butter if you want, but then you won't get that cool snowball effect or the added benefits of the cocoa butter.

Carrier oils

Choose oils with a long shelf life (for example: jojoba, sweet almond, apricot kernel, fractionated coconut), or combine your faves into your own blend.

Emulsifiers

Sucragel is the name of a series of cold-process emulsifiers that also double as oil thickeners. (check this post by my colleague for a look at the range).  Sapogel could also be used here, but you may need to adjust the dosages. Regardless of which emulsifier you choose, use the same method to make this product. These particular cold mix emulsifiers take a little getting used to, but perform quite nicely once you get the hang of it. Find a few tips on working with sucragel in this post, or check this post at Botanical Formulations for more tips.

Essential oils

Your blend - your scent. If you want to omit essential oils, you can. Simply adjust the carrier oil amount accordingly.

Antioxidant

Choose E-vitamin (mixed tocopherols) or rosemary antioxidant for this product. Antioxidants help to extend the shelf life of your product by helping slow down rancidity of the oils. TIP: antioxidants are not the same as preservatives.

Do Tell

Have you ever used an in-shower lotion?

Want to make your own shampoo bars? This e-book has something for every hair type.  

More Stuff 

About cocoa butter (this blog)
How to Dose Essential Oils in a Formula (this blog)
How to Weigh Cosmetics Ingredients (shop blog)
How to Work with Sucragel (Botanical Formulations)
Sapogel Q - 1 ingredient, 1001 possiibilities (Skin Chakra)