Mango Body Butter

Wow! It has been a busy week here. I spent three days at our church making sure the Operation Christmas Child program volunteers had enough food to keep them going! Our church was selected to be one of the regional centers so we’ve been receiving boxes all week from area churches and other gathering places. It is an exciting place with all of the Christmas packages ready to be shipped to North Carolina and then on to 22 countries.

But I did have some time Tuesday to finish my second item for the Hostess Swap on The Sage Forum. I thought a body butter would go well with the cocoa sugar scrub bar I made a little earlier. I also wanted to try making some more of these butters to see which ones I want to make for Christmas presents.

Mango Body Butter
Mango Body Butter

You will notice that I have used percentages on the recipe instead of actual amounts. That way you can make as much as you want to make. I’ve always figured the amounts in ounces for body care products, while I use grams in soap making. Susan of Point of Interest blog posted a great blog entry about converting percentages in grams. So much easier! And another DUH! moment. If you need to convert gram to ounce converter, you can do it here.

Mango Body Butter [print_link]

40% mango butter (or another hard butter, cocoa or illipe)

40% shea butter

18% sesame oil (or your favorite oil)

1% vitamin E (optional)

1% Mango sorbet FO (or your fragrance oil of choice)

To get started, melt the mango butter in a double boiler or in the microwave. I like the double boiler because I believe I have better control of the melting.

Melting mango butter in double boiler
Melting mango butter in double boiler

After mango butter is melted, add the sesame oil. Remove from heat.

Meanwhile place the shea butter in a container.

Shea butter in glass container
Shea butter in glass container

Then pour this melted oil mixture over the shea butter. Shea butter has a tendency to turn grainy when it is heated and then cooled slowly. I’ve found if I slowly melt it and not by direct heat, it doesn’t grain. (You could also add the shea butter to your double boiler pan and let the shea melt with the other oils there, but my pan is not large enough.)

Pouring oil mixture over shea butter
Pouring oil mixture over shea butter

Continue to blend until the shea has mostly melted.

Blend until shea butter is mostly disolved.
Melted mixture

Mix in Vitamin E and mango sorbet fragrance oil. Then set this melted mixture into a bowl with ice for five minutes.

Melted mixture sitting in ice bowl
Melted mixture sitting in ice bowl

After the five minutes, whip the mixture for a minute or so and then set back into the ice bowl.  Repeat this process (from ice bowl to whipping) until you like the consistency. It took me three five-minute chills to get it whipped as I wanted it.

Whipping body butter
Whipping body butter
Mango Body Butter
Mango Body Butter

Spoon into containers and enjoy.

Mango Butter jars
Mango Butter jars

The white jar is one I found at a thrift store this summer and I’ve been waiting for just the right cream to go in it!

This butter will harden up much like butter, but will melt immediately on your skin. Love it!

UPDATE: If you would like something lighter, try the Shea Mango Body Whip.