Celebrate the fall, body caramel

Despite all my love for emulsions and emulsion making, I often (specially when it starts getting cold) prefer using a rich butter in my daily skincare routine. After enjoying the summer with light cream gels and hydrogels, it's time to pamper the skin and prepare it for the cold months to come and this amazing fluffy butter with the intoxicating scents of cocoa, coffee, cardamon and cinnamon is the perfect celebration of fall for me.

This is a formulation heavy in powders. I have added rice starch and oat silk for the dry, powdery touch they impart to the butter. The key to creating a nice and smooth product without any lumps or graininess is to gradually disperse the powders (through a sieve) to the oil phase and blend completely before adding the next portion.

Another key to making ungrainy balms and butters (and I can not emphasize this enough) is the proper heating and cooling process as you will read through this tutorial and watch in the video.

Ingredients

Procedure:

1- Blend phase A in a heat proof beaker and heat it in a water bath around 65-75 ^oC.

2- Blend phase B and C in separate beakers

3- Using a sieve, gradually add phase C to B with stirring after each addition. The powders are not oil soluble they make a smooth slurry/paste at the end

4- When all of phase A is melted to a uniform liquid stop heating and remove from the heat. Add the cocoa extract to yet hot blend and stir completely to dissolve the extract.

5- Blend for a while at room temperature to cool down. You can put the beaker in the fridge and stir the content occasionally till it reaches a temperature below 40 ^oC

6- Add phase B+C and continue cooling and stirring

7- When the balm reaches a heavy trace  add phase D. From here you can either

a) pour it in the jars and let them cool further (caps open)

b) whip the balm with a whisk. Whipping imparts a fluffy texture and makes the colour much lighter and really caramel like

8- Repeat the steps: cooling- whipping till you reach the desired texture

9- Fill the balm in jars and close the cap

Watch the video for a visual demonstration

BeHappy and stay safe