Anhydrous Body Butter with Isopropyl Myristate Revised

Last week I created a formula for a body butter with some Isopropyl Myristate to help alleviate the greasiness of an anhydrous formula. While it turned out to be nice on the hands, it was way too greasy for my taste.

I decided I had two problems to address: First, choose a dry-feel oil to replace Avocado Oil. Second, add more Isopropyl Myristate.

Join me as I revise the formula and make up a new batch.

The first step was to identify a dry-feel oil. To do this, I grabbed all my liquid oils and set out to try each one neat to see which was a dry feel. Avocado Oil is about the greasiest oil, which explains a lot about why my first formula felt so unsatisfying.

After testing all the oils in the cupboard, I decided the two contenders would be Marula Oil and Grapeseed Oil. I chose Grapeseed Oil because it’s less expensive and because I have not worked with it very much.

The Isopropyl Myristate percentage went up to 15% this time around, so a little math gave me the percentages for the other three oils.

Anhydrous Body Butter with 15% Isopropyl Myristate

Instructions

Weigh all ingredients into a double boiler or microwave-safe container. Heat gently until the solid oils are melted, stirring often.

Once oils are completely liquified, pour into wide-mouth jars and set aside to cool. Do not put lids on the jars until the mixture has cooled completely.

Notes

This time around I also increased the hard oils from 62% in the first batch to 75% in this batch. I thought the first batch was a bit too soft. I’m still wanting a butter that can be easily used from a jar rather than as a lotion bar, though. The texture of this butter is good and close to what I was aiming for.

The finished butter is not terribly oily. The Grapeseed Oil substitution helped a great deal. I used it on my hands, and it felt really nice, though it still left enough residue that I needed to take a long break before doing anything with my hands. This gave me the chance to really rub some of the butter into my super dry cuticles, which was so needed.

Overall, I probably would not call this batch a success. I was shooting for a drier feeling, and it’s still not what I want. it feels more like a balm or salve than a butter. I’m pondering making a couple more changes to the formula and trying it whipped to see if that will turn it into something I’ll love.