Ok, girls (and boys), so you want the basics down on body butter formulation? I have you.

One important thing that I have learned in my best school days is that a solid foundation is everything. Once you have the basics, you can build your own castle.

How does this apply to skincare formulation? I will tell you, just pay attention and don’t get distracted by the next reel, tiktok or blog.

Formulating a skin care product is a lot like preparing any meal. There are just a few basics, master them and you’ll see the light – meaning you’ll see through every label and every beautiful marketing ad crafted by the best communicators.

First, a list of truths:

1. Most (about 95%) of skin care products, whether for your face or body, have water as their main ingredient. The average water percentage in a lotion or face cream, advanced skin care or CVS level has 70-80% water. WATER, what you drink.
2. If there is water in a lotion, you will also need a preservative to prevent mold and yeast from growing, and an emulsifier to prevent the water from separating from the other ingredients. Preservatives are used at 1-2% and emulsifiers can vary slightly more but are usually 5-10%.
3. This means that in your average skincare or facial product, you have 10-20% to play with to add what we know as moisturizing or skin-enhancing ingredients. These can be as basic as shea butter, cocoa butter, coconut oil, vitamin C, etc.

Could you do me a favor and read all that again?

If you read it again and let it sink in, you have the basics of how to make a lotion, cream or serum:

Water

Emulsifier

Preservative

Butter/oils/skin renewer (I just made up a new word!)

Can you make a skin care product that is better than average?

Yes and no, it depends on your goal and it depends on how old your skin is, because let’s face it, gravity and time are real and they affect how our skin develops from birth to death.

From teenagers to late 30s

All you have to do is:

1. Protect yourself from the sun, because if you don’t, you will develop brown or age spots.
2. Keep your skin constantly moisturized, otherwise it will lack water and oils and it will age faster

From the late 30s onwards

1. Keep protecting yourself from the sun with a good SPF lotion. The sun’s UVB and UVA rays still get through and will age your skin, EVEN WHEN IT’S OVERCOVERED.
2. Decide on a skin routine that works for you. Using only natural products will make you feel better, but wrinkles will appear and loss of collagen, resulting in loss of mass and increased loss of tone, will also occur. Gravity is real.

Enough of that, how do I formulate a great body butter?

I’m glad you asked, let’s get started.

Homemade body butter is 100% butter, oils and enhancers (colors, essential oils and other cool ingredients). That means NO water. This means you have 100% of your formula to play with, using all the healthy ingredients we’re passionate about.

So the first ingredient to consider is your base butter. The most common and popular are:

1. Shea butter

2. Mango Butter

3. Cocoa butter

Use Shea Butter if your skin is dry, if you want to stock up on delicious antioxidants, and if you want to support women’s cooperatives in Africa whose lives depend on how much shea butter is consumed worldwide. Shea Butter has a natural nutty/smoky scent unless it’s refined, which I never use and don’t recommend because refined shea is stripped of a lot of its inherent nutrients. The nutty scent affects the final scent of your body butter whether or not you add essential oils.

Use Mango Butter if you love shea butter but don’t like its inherent smoky scent, or if you think shea butter is a little too heavy and rich for your skin type. Mango butter production also involves more than just women, and mangoes are mostly grown in India, so if you want to support that part of the world, Mango Butter is the butter of choice. Mango butter is unscented, allowing any scents you add to have an unadulterated final smell.

Use cocoa butter if you are concerned about loss of skin elasticity, stretch marks, or if you have scars that you would like to fade. Cocoa butter is more international than shea and mango, it is mostly sourced from Africa or Mexico. Cocoa butter smells like chocolate, and its scent will affect your final product.

Basic formulas using the top three buttersp

After years of formulation, here are the basic formulas in percentages that will give you an easy-to-use body butter.

Sticking to these basic percentages in your formula will result in a body butter that is semi-soft, easy to whip up, and easy to apply to your skin. Here is a video showing you what they look like.

I hope this helps lay the foundation for your skin care journey. Check out all our DIY videos for inspiration and leave a comment or question if you need help.

Happy DIY!