We’re continuing our Almond Oat theme today with this perfect-for-autumn Almond Oat Emulsified Body Butter ❤️ Silky almond oil and rich shea butter star in the oil phase, with moisturizing and soothing oaty goodness from colloidal oatmeal and hydrolyzed oat protein. This emulsified body butter is a happy medium between lighter emulsions, like lotions and creams, and heavier anhydrous products like body butters and balms. It’s perfect for the darker, cooler days that are setting in here in Calgary. Let’s get emulsified!
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The almondy part of this Almond Oat formulation is sweet almond oil; a fairly substantial 10%! If you don’t have it (or you’re looking to make a nut-free formulation), you can easily swap it for a different carrier oil like apricot kernel oil, safflower oil, sunflower seed oil, or grapeseed oil. The other star ingredient in our oil phase is rich and creamy shea butter. I used unrefined shea butter, but you can definitely use refined shea butter if that’s what you have.
I thickened this Almond Oat Emulsified Body Butter with a blend of stearic acid and cetyl alcohol. I have used cetearyl alcohol in similar formulations in the past year and have often said you could swap it for a blend of cetyl and stearic if you didn’t have it; this time I’m doing the opposite! I think an equal parts blend is a wee bit less slippy than cetearyl alcohol—2% stearic acid & 4% cetyl alcohol would probably be closer to the feel of cetearyl alcohol. Anywho, I like it at 3% + 3%, but if you want to make a slightly slippier version you could use cetearyl alcohol for the full 6% or make the swap to 2% stearic acid & 4% cetyl alcohol.
The oaty part of the theme comes from two ingredients; soothing colloidal oatmeal and moisturizing hydrolyzed oat protein. I’ve put the colloidal oatmeal in the heated oil phase as it tends to turn into a sludgy porridge if heated with the heated oil phase. You definitely can put it in the water phase if you want to, but I find it’s a bit less messy to put it in the oil phase.
Our emulsifier is the wonderfully versatile Glyceryl Stearate (and) PEG-100 Stearate; because it doesn’t thicken and emulsify (like Polawax and other similar emulsifiers do), we can control thickening separately. This is awesome for all kinds of projects, but in this formulation, it’s what allows us to have a fairly large oil phase while keeping the emulsion to a spreadable cream consistency. You can’t use a thickening emulsifying wax instead of Glyceryl Stearate (and) PEG-100 Stearate for this formulation; learn more with the Humblebee & Me DIY Encyclopedia entry on it!
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Relevant links & further reading
- Vegetable Glycerin in the Humblebee & Me Encyclopedia
- Panthenol (Vitamin B5) in the Humblebee & Me Encyclopedia
- Glyceryl Stearate (and) PEG-100 Stearate in the Humblebee & Me Encyclopedia
- Sweet Almond Oil in the Humblebee & Me Encyclopedia
- Shea Butter in the Humblebee & Me Encyclopedia
- Stearic Acid in the Humblebee & Me Encyclopedia
- Cetyl Alcohol in the Humblebee & Me Encyclopedia
- Colloidal Oatmeal in the Humblebee & Me Encyclopedia
- Liquid Germall Plus in the Humblebee & Me Encyclopedia
- Hydrolyzed Oat Protein in the Humblebee & Me Encyclopedia
- Tocopherol (Vitamin E) in the Humblebee & Me Encyclopedia
- Super Simple Moisturizing Lotion with Glyceryl Stearate (and) PEG-100 Stearate
- How much essential oil can I add to this recipe?
- Preservatives + Shelf Life in the Humblebee & Me FAQ
- More Almond Oat formulations:
Almond Oat Emulsified Body Butter
Heated water phase
54.7g | 54.7% distilled water
10g | 10% vegetable glycerine (USA / Canada)
2g | 2% panthenol powder (vitamin B5) (USA / Canada)Heated oil phase
3g | 3% Glyceryl Stearate (and) PEG-100 Stearate (USA / Canada / UK & EU / Australia)
10g | 10% sweet almond oil (USA / Canada)
7g | 7% unrefined shea butter (USA / Canada)
3g | 3% stearic acid (USA / Canada / UK)
3g | 3% cetyl alcohol (USA / Canada)
2.5g | 2.5% colloidal oatmeal (USA / Canada)Cool down phase
0.5g | 0.5% Liquid Germall Plus™ (USA / Canada)
4g | 4% hydrolyzed oat protein (USA / Canada)
0.3g | 0.3% Vitamin E MT-50 (USA / Canada)Prepare a water bath by bringing about 3cm/1″ of water to a bare simmer over low to medium-low heat in a wide, flat-bottomed sauté pan.
Weigh the heated water phase into a small heat-resistant glass measuring cup or glass beaker. Weigh the entire lot (measuring cup + ingredients) and note that weight for use later. Weigh the heated oil phase into a second heat-resistant glass measuring cup. Place both measuring cups in your prepared water bath to melt everything through.
After about 20–30 minutes the oil part should be completely melted (though the colloidal oatmeal won’t melt—don’t worry about that!) and the water part should be thoroughly dissolved. Remove the water bath from the heat and weigh the water phase. Add enough hot distilled water to the heated water phase to bring the weight back up to what it was before heating, and then pour the water part into the oil part. Stir with a flexible silicone spatula to incorporate.
Grab your immersion blender and begin blending the lotion, starting with short bursts so the still-very-liquid lotion doesn’t whirl up and spray everywhere. Blend for about a minute and then switch to occasional hand-stirring until the outside of the glass measuring cup is barely warm to the touch and the lotion is thick and creamy.
When the lotion is cool it’s time to incorporate our cool down ingredients. Because cool down ingredients are typically present at very low amounts you’ll need to use an accurate scale—preferably one accurate to 0.01g. As these more accurate scales tend to have fairly low (100–200g) maximum weights you won’t be able to put the entire batch of lotion on that scale without blowing it out. So—grab a smaller dish. Add a scoop or two of lotion, and then weigh the cool down ingredients into that, using the more accurate scale. Stir to thoroughly incorporate, and then stir all of that back into the master batch of lotion. Doing it this way minimizes the amount of cool down ingredients lost to the secondary container.
Once the cool down phase has been incorporated, all that’s left to do is package it up! You’ll want a wide-mouthed tub or jar for this formulation as it’s very thick. I used a 100mL (3.3fl oz) frosted plastic jar with a screw-top lid from YellowBee (gifted).
Use as you’d use any body lotion or body butter. Enjoy!
Shelf Life & Storage
Because this emulsified body butter contains water, you must include a broad-spectrum preservative to ward off microbial growth. This is non-optional. Even with a preservative, this project may eventually spoil as our kitchens are not sterile laboratories, so in the event you notice any change in colour, scent, or texture, chuck it out and make a fresh batch.
Substitutions
As always, be aware that making substitutions will change the final product. While these swaps won’t break the recipe, you will get a different final product than I did.
- As I’ve provided this formulation in percentages as well as grams you can easily calculate it to any size using a simple spreadsheet as I’ve explained in this post. As written in grams this recipe will make 100g.
- To learn more about the ingredients used in this formulation, including why they’re included and what you can substitute them with, please visit the Humblebee & Me Encyclopedia. It doesn’t have everything in it yet, but there’s lots of good information there! If I have not given a specific substitution suggestion in this list please look up the ingredient in the encyclopedia before asking.
- You could try 5% Propanediol 1,3 and another 5% water as an alternative to glycerin.
- You MUST use Glyceryl Stearate (and) PEG-100 Stearate. A thickening emulsifying wax like Polawax, Emulsifying Wax NF, or Olivem 1000 will not work.
- You can substitute another lightweight oil like grapeseed or sunflower seed instead of sweet almond oil.
- You can use refined or unrefined shea butter; mango butter or murumuru butter would make good alternatives.
- You can try Cetearyl Alcohol to replace the blend of cetyl alcohol and stearic acid.
- I don’t recommend substituting the colloidal oatmeal.
- If you’re like to use a different preservative, please review this FAQ and this chart.
- You can replace hydrolyzed oats with a different hydrolyzed protein (rice, baobab, quinoa).
- If you’d like to incorporate an essential oil, please read this.
Gifting Disclosure
The plastic tub and almond oil were gifted by YellowBee.
The shea butter was gifted by Baraka Shea Butter. Links to Baraka Shea Butter are affiliate links.
The Glyceryl Stearate (and) PEG-100 Stearate was gifted by Mystic Moments.
I can’t find powdered Panthenol in the uk Marie, is there a reason you use this rather than the gloopy sticky one? Lol
Gracefruit.com sell it in UK, and Bay house aromatics I think
Brilliant, thanks Linsy 🙂
Hi Marie,
Thank you so much for all your sharing, I love them so much. inspired by u, I have started my journey of diy lotion for my kids n myself. I have tried to make lotion for about 8-10 batches, but recent 4 batches , the lotion will turned out to be bubbly/foamy/frothy after a few days….. I m not sure is spoiled or just some chemical effect, I just thrower them off .
The initial few batch was ok, really not sure where when wrong…
Using batch calculator I converted to 500 grams. It did not thicken. It’s like soup. So bummed. I double checked amounts and they seem correct. What happened?
Gracefruit.com sell it in UK, and Bay house aromatics I think
Oops sorry posted twice!
I have learnt a lot watching your videos and following your blog. I think I’m really going to enjoy working with this emulsifier. Thank you for making such informative posts 🙂
Thank you so much, Dianne! ❤️
I really want to make this recipe with the intent to use on my dry (Calgary) face! Is there any reason why you would not recommend it for use on the face?
Thank you!
No reason beyond it being a bit heavier than I’d usually like on my face, but that’s just a personal preference thing 🙂 Happy making!
This turned out super creamy with just the right silky texture using your suggestion of 6% Cetearyl alcohol (I’m not crazy about Stearic Acid). Love colloidal oats and hydrolyzed oat protein especially for winter dry skin and for those with sensitive skin. I also added .5% Allantoin. It’s absolutely luscious. Thank you for this nourishing but not greasy cream!
I am so thrilled you are enjoying it! Thanks for DIYing with me, and happy making 🙂
I really wanted to like this and am so disappointed. It’s not what I expected. I made this yesterday for gifts. Normally I make a small amount to see if I like it and then make a bigger batch but didn’t follow my own advice and made a large amount as I ran out of time and have to say I’m disappointed. While not greasy, it has that heavy feeling of shea on the skin. If you use more than a little on the skin, it doesn’t feel nice at all, is white and takes a bit for the white to go away. It reminds me of when I used to use just shea butter. It takes a good 30 minutes to really absorb. Not what I was expecting. I won’t be making this one again sadly.
I should mention I followed the formula exactly and made no substitutions.
Hi Michele, I know your comment was a while ago, but I found the exact same issues when I made this. I’m wondering if I can add some Lexfeel N350 (natural dimethicone alternative) after the fact and see if it will add some slip?
It’s weird that I didn’t have these issues when I made it the first time around (see my effusive comment to Marie back in September!) …. I wonder what I did differently?
I was wondering why the oil wasn’t poured into the water phase? The Glyceryl Stearate PEG-100 STEARATE I have at home says on the back it is for oil in water cream formulations. Just a bit confused on this topic! I am a new formulator
Please read this post 🙂 Happy making!
Hi,
Is it possible to make an emulsion with Glyceryl Stearate (and) PEG-100 Stearate with hand blending only? As in not using an immersion blender? Thank you 🙂
I think that would depend a lot on the formulation 🙂
Hi Marie! Thank you for all the fantastic info you share!
Just made this recipe with a few tweaks and really loved it. I left out the panthenol and the hydrolyzed oat protein because I didn’t have any at hand. Im wondering if I should have subbed that weight for something else?
Hi Paola! You should never just leave something out; in a lotion formulation you’ll want to replace eliminated ingredients with more distilled water so you don’t end up with too-high concentrations of other ingredients. For example, since you dropped 6% of the formulation, your finished product now includes the preservative at 0.53%, abut the maximum recommended usage rate is 0.5%. This isn’t likely to cause issues, but it’s not recommended 🙂
Happy making!
Hey Marie! I must say, this formula is absolutely top notch. Gorgeous, creamy consistency, thick and scoopy and yum (I didn’t taste it, I swear!). This is my go-to emulsified body butter base from now on! Superb! 🙂 Thank you so much.
I’m so thrilled to hear it! ❤️ Thanks for DIYing with me, and happy making 🙂
Thanks for getting back to me Marie! You know, I just had this body butter go bad, I’m thinking probably because I didnt sub the ingredients I left out for distilled water as you recommend. It lasted about a month. I will definitely try making it again with your recommendations.
Thanks Marie! This is a wonderful recipe!
Hi there, I made this today and it is nice, however I found that it is high soaping when you rub it in (I put some on my arms and it was white) and also it was quite unpleasantly sticky. Not greasy at all (which is good) … just sticky. I used 3% cetyl alcohol and 3% stearic acid as per the formula … to make it less sticky, I’m guessing I should change the ratio to 4/2 as per your suggestion? Is there anything else I can change to lessen the soaping? Thanks so much!
Hey Marie. I made this again, and this time subbed a portion of the almond oil for plum oil. I also added blueberry extract (adjusted the oat extract to allow for it) and added a fragrance oil (again, adjusting to make room). I found the finished product felt quite sticky on application to the skin, plus high soaping. It wasn’t greasy at all (which surprised me, considering I used unrefined shea butter) …. just sticky. I’m guessing I could correct this by using either all cetearyl alcohol (it’s getting hard to find) or cetyl alcohol/stearic acid in 4/2 instead of 3/3 as per your suggestion above? Is there anything else I could adjust to reduce sticky skin feel and soaping? Thank you so much!
Alright! In accordance with Marie’s mantra of “figure it out yourself” – I figured it out myself! 😉 I changed the ratio of cetyl alcohol/stearic acid to 4/2 instead of 3/3. I added LuxGlide N5 at 3% into the cool down phase, and reduced my liquid oil by 3% to compensate. I also used refined shea butter this time, but I don’t know if that would have made a huge difference (I’m just not a big fan of unrefined shea, especially when I’m adding delicate fragrance oils!)
These small adjustments made a definite improvement to the skin feel of the finished product! It still soaps a little bit on first application, but it goes away quickly. The draggy feel has completely gone, and it feels nice on application, and absorbs quite fast, leaving the skin soft but not sticky.
I call this a win for self-learning, and I think I may possibly be becoming that teensy bit closer to being able to call myself a formulator! 😉 SHOUT OUT to Marie for all that she does! And Yay for Canadians, we rock.