After inventing Shea Butter Body Meringue and sharing it with everybody, I was eager to try some variations on the theme. That is, a thick, luxurious lotion with lots of air whipped into it for a decadent, fluffy, final product. This cocoa butter (USA / Canada) body meringue is my first such variation.
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The original was stiffened up with some added candelilla wax to give it enough structure to be whipped up. For this version I dropped the added wax and opted to use just brittle cocoa butter (USA / Canada). Cocoa butter is one of relatively few fats that’s brittle at room temperature, and it also happens to smell divine, so it is a great choice for a body meringue.
Body meringues come together mostly like a lotion, though at the end there’s a bunch of whipping to get that lovely, light final product. Melt, whisk, and whip! I do recommend adding a broad spectrum preservative, though. Because of its texture you’ll want to store this body meringue in a wide-mouthed jar, but it’ll spoil pretty fast from finger-dipping without a preservative.
So, if you love the smell of chocolate and are intrigued by a light, fluffy body lotion that leaves your skin lightly hydrated and happy, give this recipe a try—it’s great 🙂
Cocoa Butter Body Meringue
7g | 0.35oz emulsimulse/ritamulse (or other complete emulsifying wax)
18g | 0.63oz cocoa butter (USA / Canada)70g | 2.5oz distilled water
2g | 0.07oz vegetable glycerine (USA / Canada)
3g | 0.1oz raw honey
½ tsp silk peptidesBroad spectrum preservative of choice (why?)
Weigh the the Emulsimulse/Ritamulse and cocoa butter (USA / Canada) into a mixing bowl. Place that bowl over a double boiler and melt the emulsifying wax and cocoa butter (USA / Canada) together.
I do really recommend using emulsimulse/ritamulse here over other e-waxes as Emulsimulse/Ritamulse thickens up immediately, where other e-waxes require a few days to stop being watery (unless you use an immersion blender rather than hand whisking). If you don’t have another e-wax you’ll need to wait three or four days for the e-wax to thicken up before you can whip the lotion.
While the oils melt, combine the water with the vegetable glycerine (USA / Canada), honey, and silk peptides in a small glass measuring cup. Whisk to combine.
Once the oils have melted, add the water mixture and heat everything through before removing the mixture from the heat.
Whisk to combine as the mixture cools. Once it’s at room temperature, place the bowl in the fridge.
Whip the chilling lotion with electric beaters every hour or so, placing it back in the fridge between whippings. Whisk in your preservative when on the second or third whipping. Once you’ve got a thick, glossy lotion that forms soft peaks when daubed with the back of a spoon, lightly spoon the mixture into a 250mL/8oz wide-mouthed jar.
Because of the lovely texture of this lotion, I don’t really recommend storing it in a pump-top bottle.
Don’t have the oils called for in the recipe? Check this out.
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Marie,
It looks so FLUFFY!! LOL
Will this work with an already made lotion? I made a lotion last week with coconut oil and SWA oil and wanted to try whipping that. Thanks
Hi Kristen! I specifically formulate these meringue lotions so they’ll have enough harder fatty acids or waxes in them to stabilize them so they’ll actually whip up. I’d be worried whipping a lotion not formulated for whipping might be a bit like trying to whip up water, but feel free to give it a go and see if it works 🙂
I love cocoa butter! Can’t wait to try this. Just need a few of the ingredients.
🙂 Have fun!
How much of the preservative did you add?
Always follow the manufacturer recommended amount for the specific preservative you use 🙂
Thank you for sharing this, and for including a link to a preservative you are comfortable using. I’m a soapmaker and have made other body products, but steered completed away from anything requiring a preservative thus far… I’m not a huge fan of some ingredients in the most common ones. I will check this one out!
You’re welcome 🙂 Enjoy!
The preservative you using is anhydrous, yet your product has water in it ??
Anita, “anhydrous” only means the preservative contains no water–not that it’s incompatible with water. For Shanda: the label on this preservative provides the amount for use at 1%. However, it’s only workable up to a ph of 6. Test the ph of your lotion or cream to determine whether the recommended preservative will work. Liquid Germali Plus works to a ph of 8 but is listed as harmful to aquatic life, although vegan and kosher-certified.
Thank you, Dee! I’ve never worked with this preservative before. This is a great help! 🙂
🙂
Thanks, Dee!
If you read the description again you’ll see that it’s water soluble 🙂
Shanda, I’m not Marie but I’d recommend using the maximum amount which is 2 %. It’s better to be safe than sorry!
Anita, look again. It clearly says “Not for use in anhydrous formula”.
Thanks, Chris!
Thank you, Chris! I think I will heed your advice. I tend to lead to the “better safe than sorry” motto as well. 🙂
🙂
You’ve done it again! Can’t wait to try this! I stllcNt get on board with any preservatives, but I bought a million Popsicle sticks for stirring with but have been using them to scoop products out without the dreaded finger dip! Works for me anyways 🙂
Thanks, Colie! Enjoy 😀
Mmm cocoa butter. I love how you don’t need to add any other scents.
question, what do you do for sterilizing before you make a product containing water? just a quick diluted bleach wash?
I don’t aim for sterile, just clean—just like when I cook. Yet another reason I can’t be fussed to sell anything!
Arrrgghh!! Can someone help? I put optiphen into this once it reached 35’C as per their instructions to avoid it affecting the emulsion.
I’ve beat and beat this and it just looks like a watery lotion.
Have put in the fridge and will wait one more hour to beat some more. How many times did you return to the fridge then beat?
Hi Victoria! This sounds like it’s probably the e-wax you used—some take longer to set up than others. Read this article for more info 🙂 If that’s the case, just give it a couple days to thicken up before whipping it!
Where can I buy Emulsimulse? I’ve searched most of the vendors you listed and can’t find it. Is it called something else?
It also goes by Ritamulse SCG, look for INCI: Glyceryl stearate (and) cetearyl alcohol (and) sodium stearoyl lactylate 🙂
I’m having the same problem, it is really watery (I didn’t use this recipe in particular). I added 1.5% optiphen. Next time I am going to try just adding .5%. The range is .5%-1.5% on the website.
Hope this helps.
This is slightly off-topic, but I’ve been doing more research into preservatives and it turns out that Optiphen is not as effective as we’d like it to be; check out this page for loads of info!
Hey Marie, great recipe 🙂 Any other preservative you recommend using though? I am trying to stick to 100% natural so I know it’s a pain to find a broad spectrum preservative that classifies as such. Any other ideas?
There’s really no such thing as a 100% natural broad spectrum preservative so… no. Sorry.
I have read both this and the whipped shea butter body meringue and the latter seems to have higher peaks than the cocoa butter body meringue. What is causing the shea butter meringue to have higher peaks? Is this due to the addition of wax to the shea butter or did you simply whip the shea butter one more? Also, would it be possible to make this with egg white powder? If so, how would one go about doing so?
I have no idea about the egg whites, sorry.
And yes, the wax does seem to effect the stability of the final mixture, but it also effects the tacky/smooth feel of the final product—try making both so you can really see what I mean.
Anonymous,
Egg white powder, is literally just dried and crushed egg whites, so it wouldn’t be much use in lotion, also, it would lower the shelf life of your product dramatically, egg whites being quite delicious for bacteria. I wouldn’t use it if I were you! 🙂
Hi marie i was wondering if you could ruling the preservative you used, the link doesn’t currently work. Also i was wondering what functions the honey and vegetable glycerine have in this… and also, would you use this only on your body or would you feel comfortable using it on your face as well? Thanks! Great post 🙂
Updated! The honey and glycerin are both humectants, helping keep the skin hydrated 🙂 If you are acne prone you might want to avoid putting this on your face as cocoa butter can clog pores, but that’s the only consideration!
Thanks! i love the quick response 🙂
🙂
I made the cocoa body lotion and let it chill in the fridge. I then whipped it an hour later and another hour later for a few minutes. However, I let it sit overnight without whipping the lotion. One day later (today), I am trying to whip it, but it doesn’t seem to whip or get any thicker. How many times did you whip yours and how long did it take? Also, how many minutes do you have to whip the lotion per hour? Is there any way to save the lotion and get it to whip?
Honestly, it’s been a year since I made this. I don’t remember. Beyond what’s detailed in the instructions and description I’m afraid I cannot offer any insights from my memory 🙂
Did you use a stand mixer when doing this?
Nope, just a hand mixer.
Maybe my arms are too weak then lol- I was so tired trying this that I could only whip a little each time. I have borrowed a stand mixer and hopefully it will work! Thanks Marie for answering all my questions- you’re awesome!
I did use an electric mixer, just not a stand mixer—I am definitely not ripped enough to do this by hand! The stand mixer should do the trick as well, but a set of hand-held electric beaters will also do the trick 🙂
Are the silk peptides a necessary ingredient in this recipe? Can I make it without adding them or is there an alternative?
Many Thanks
I’ve written an FAQ on this 🙂
Thank you, that’s brilliant!!
Happy making! 😀
Made this a few days ago (with a few modifications) and it was my best batch so far!
Very cool! What did you change?
I love this recipe. My daughter loves the “spongy” texture to it. Will be making it again. Out of curiosity, of all the lotions/body butters on the site, is there any you keep coming back to and making?
Yay, I’m so glad! The texture is definitely quite unique 🙂 Honestly, I am constantly making new stuff, so I rarely re-visit recipes. I am totally in love with this stuff and this stuff right now, though 🙂
If i wanted to scale up this batch so that i can make it for my family and friends for x-mas, can i increase the ingredients and the preservatives?
In theory, yes, but I have not tried scaling this recipe with the whipping, so I would recommend running test batches with larger amounts before doing anything too drastic. To scale up, please convert to percentages (this is a 100g batch so that will be very simple) and then scale from there 🙂
Thank you so much for your feedback!!
Happy making and good luck!
I can’t wait to make this wonderful fluffy body meringue! I was wondering if I could incorporate a cherry flavor oil to use as the scent? I bought a huge flavor oil bottle and trying to use at least most of it to as many recipes as possible, before it expires. I will be using the deodorized cocoa butter for this recipe. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks so much.
You certainly can if you like the smell 🙂
Dear Marie,
I made this lotion today, and added grapefruit oil for fragrence…and I love it! It is perfeeect! I started making DIY Skincare because of your Youtube Channel and I just wanted to let you know, that your Channel is great!!!!! Thank you for those great recipies
Beautiful! That sounds decadent 🙂 Do watch out for citrus essential oils, though 😉
I know you formulate these lotions so they whip up nicely. I was just curious would it be possible to substitute another butter such as mango butter.
Mango butter is likely too soft; you’d need another brittle butter like tucuma 🙂
Hey Marie,
I live in a very hot humid climate. What ingredient should I increase to get the consistency for me to enable whipping ?
Thank you
Have you tried it as is yet?
OMG, so excited to whip this baby up! I remember wistfully gazing at the Shea Butter Body Meringue and thinking that I didn’t have the ingredients needed….I do have a question, though. After making the Winter Solstice Face Cream, (my first use of silk peptides) I noticed how stinky the silk smelled…..I ended up adding tons of essential oils in order to mask the scent (I think I MIGHT have added a tad too much silk, whoops). So…for this recipe, is it possible to not use as much (maybe 1/8 or 1/4 tsp instead of 1/2?) Thanks so much for answering my question, Marie, and thanks for sharing this beautiful recipe (as well as many others) with us!
You can definitely use less 🙂 Bummer about the silk stinking, though! Mine definitely has a smell, but I don’t notice it in end products :/
Hello Marie! This lotion smells fantastic and is light and fluffy! However I’m having a problem with this lotion and all my lotions I make accross the board, and that is, the product rolls when applied more than once on the hands, and also when using on a large area of skin such as the legs. Is there anything I can do to prevent this from happening? Thank you in advance for your suggestions!
Hey Laurie! This phenomenon is referred to as “pilling”. Everything I’ve been able to find about it online is about applying store bought products, so it is certainly a common issue. The first tip everyone gives is to apply less product as pilling often is a result of the product not being able to entirely absorb into the skin. That’s probably also the easiest one to try, so perhaps start there?
I would like to first start off by saying “thank you so much for sharing your recipes and knowledge with us!” On to my question: I made this and after I was done whipping, mine looked very similar to yours. I put my whip in containers and went to bed. When I got up I found that it had changed texture dramatically. Kind of difficult to explain, but it looks a little like fluffy foam that has deflated. I’m not sure if your familiar with the text of shave soap lather that has been left for a couple days, but that is exactly how it looks and feels. Any ideas of what could have gone wrong? Thanks!
Hi Katy!
On first glance, it might just be that you over whipped it. Professional Cosmetic Chemist Amanda Foxon-Hill has made a few comments on Instagram about that spongey texture in some butter heavy emulsified products is from over mixing. Try this method the next time you make this meringue, use your immersion blender to get a full emulsion happening. AND STOP. Mix throughly once you’ve added your cool down phase. AND STOP. Your product should still be very liquidy but you should have a stable emulsion with very little thickening or whipping action. Allow to fully cool down. Then use a spatula to decant into your sterile containers and it should be nice and fluffy!
Thank you very much for this awesome recipe! I’ve made it with some rum and vanilla spice essential oil mixture as a batch for Christmas presents, had to swap for Polawax since none of the emulsimulse available in my country, but it still came out fluffy and beautiful!
Ooooh how lovely! I’m sure your giftees will be thrilled 🙂 Thanks for DIYing with me, and happy making!
Hi Marie,
I tried to order silk peptides off the link you listed, but it is unavailable. Do you have another source? Thanks so much! I love your posts.
Please check out the “Where to buy ingredients” page listed in the main menu 🙂
Hi. I’m a newbie and love watching your videos and reading your blogs. I made this yesterday and it was lovely and creamy but overnight has hardened. Still lovely when applied, but lost its shine and texture. Have I done something wrong or could it be the climate? I’m in the uk