This decadent body butter combines the intoxicating tropical fragrance of Monoi de Tahiti oil with the wonderfully smooth texture and fantastic moisturizing properties of capuacu butter.
Cupuacu butter is often praised for the almost silicone-like feel it leaves on the skin, distinguishing it from the more popular unrefined shea butter (USA / Canada), which is stickier and greasier. A relative of cocoa, the raw butter has a slight cocoa-y scent, with hints of what could be described as sour milk. Though the scent dissipates quickly, New Directions Aromatics no longer sells the raw version (only a refined and deodorized one), and that might be for the best. In any event, I’m using the deodorized version here.
Monoi de Tahiti is made by macerating the petals of the tiare flower with virgin coconut oil. After the petals have been strained out, the remaining virgin coconut oil is heavily perfumed with the aroma of the tropical flower. Physically the oil performs just like coconut oil, but with an added heavenly scent.
Blended together, the Monoi de Tahiti softens the cupuacu enough to make for a lovely body butter that smells of the tropics and leaves your skin decadently soft.
I’ve added a few drops of spearmint essential oil to temper the sweetness of the Monoi de Tahiti and round out the scent, and it’s lovely. Give it a try 🙂
Cupuacu, Mint, and Monoi Body Butter
50g | 1.76oz capuacu butter
10g | 0.35oz Monoi de Tahiti oil
10 drops spearmint essential oilMeasure the capuacu butter and Monoi de Tahiti into a glass measuring cup and melt in a double boiler.
Once the oils have melted together, remove them from the heat and stir in the spearmint essential oil.
Pour the melted mixture into a tin (100mL/3.3oz is a good size) and pop the tin in the fridge to set up.
Love the ingredients, my dilemma now is where to source the Monoi de Tahiti oil?
It would appear SaffireBlue no longer carries it, do you know of any other suppliers? Thanks for all your inspiring formulations 😉
Jan
I have been looking myself. I have a gardenia bush in full bloom, do you think i could make a version of my own?
Not sure about making our “own” (lucky you with a gardenia bush) but found this interesting link:
http://www.puregreenmag.com/pure-green-blog/enfleurage
Hopefully Marie will have a source for us 🙂
Thanks, Jan!
I’d be sure to dry out the petals very thoroughly so you don’t introduce water to the oil, but other than that, I would just give it a go—add the petals to some oil and let them steep for a while before straining 🙂 Let me know how it turns out!
Saffire Blue just started carrying it again! Woo!
I got my Monoi from this company on Amazon and have been very pleased with it – http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=bl_sr_beauty?ie=UTF8&field-brandtextbin=Luxuriant-Sparkle+Beauty+Products&node=3760911. They also carry a new, for me at least, butter called Illipe that I’m in love with now.
Loving all your recipes Marie and anxiously await each new one. Have you tried Illipe butter yet? It’s like cocoa butter but it absorbs fairly quickly and leaves your skin with a silky, almost powdered feel.
Also, I’ve been trying to formulate a massage lotion for my therapist. I can find tons of oil recipes but she really prefers lotions. I’ve been tweaking your lotions a bit and am getting close. I just need to work on how long it will stay workable on the skin. Most of your lotions absorb in quickly, which is a great thing in a body lotion but not so good for a massage one. Any ideas? Thanks so much.
Thanks, Jodie! I haven’t tried illipe butter yet, but it’s definitely on my list 🙂 I’m just trying to be responsible and work through my ridiculous stash of ingredients first, haha.
I haven’t had much luck with a massage lotion yet, most I’ve found have quite a lot of silicone in them, which is what gives them their long-lasting slip without feeling greasy. That’s a really hard effect to get with natural ingredients :/
Thanks Marie. I completely understand wanting to use what you have on hand. Even without oils spoiling, I still have too much on hand.
Also, it makes me feel more accomplished to know that you, in my eyes a complete pro at this, have trouble with the massage lotion too. Guess I’ll keep working at it and will let you know if I ever succeed. 🙂
The mystery of natural eternal slip will be a fantastic one to crack… one day!
Speaking of eternal slip. What do you find as the longest lasting slip in an oil or butter? I am researching slippery natural oils and butters. I have read on your blog capacau and others buritri and daikon and camelia/ Searching for great slip with no tackiness or grab.
Hmm. Probably coconut oil, possibly babassu. Both are really oily so they tend to slip around for ages!
Just a silly question: What kind of paper do you use to label your jars?
( I’ve looked all over the blog but could not find the answer).
Thank you,
I’ve got an article on it in the FAQ 🙂
ooh yes what she said ^^^ I try and use your lotions for massage but they sink in o darn fast! any ideas for a massage lotion?
I’m trying! Stay tuned 🙂
Monoi de tahiti oil is available now at saffireblue. Thanks Marie for your wonderful recipes.
Yay! Thanks 🙂
Hi Marie, just discovered your blog site. great stuff for sure. What do you recommend in your recipes to naturally prolong the shelf life of products so they can be given to others or as gifts…I always find that this important factor is left out when I see recipes online, it would certainly be a good option to know. Vit E, rosemary extract, grapefruit seed? I blend my essential oils in a carrier oils for my reflexology clients but would like to branch out into lotions, salves or creams.
Hi Brenda! This really depends on the recipe—I’ve got an article on it here 🙂
oops…found answers on FAQ’s, however I do think if water is not in the recipe then the antioxidants like rosemary extract and grapefruit seed would be helpful and much better than an unnatural preservative (chemical based). Thanks again.
Of course—and there is really no reason to add a chemical preservative to something that does not contain water, it wouldn’t extend the shelf life at all.
Hi Marie, I love your site! This seems like a wonderful recipe and I’ll be trying it soon. If I wanted to make this into a lip balm, would adding a little candellila be good? I make vegan products. Thanks!
Read this for some info on candellila and how it behaves in different quantities 🙂
how can I make an emulsified butter with these ingredients.?
Hi! I reserve this level of coaching/assistance for my $50/month Patrons—they get a 30-minute monthly 1-on-1 call with me to discuss whatever they want, including this sort of thing! If you’re interested in that, you can learn more at https://patreon.com/MarieRayma. Happy making!
Hi Marie
I am loving your site.
I am having troubles sourcing the Cupuacu here in NZ, what would your suggestion be for an alternate butter to use please?
Thank you 🙂
Hi Sarah! Read this 🙂 Shea butter or mango butter would be good choices.
Would this work if you poured it into a silicone mold in a fun shape? Also how many bars does this recipe make?thanks so much.
Hi Caryn! Without any wax you’ll find this body butter is not well suited for free-standing applications 🙂 It’s really quite soft and would be a bit like trying to carry a knob of butter around in your purse haha.
For yield, just add up the weights of all the ingredients. The number you’ll get obviously depends entirely on the size of tin you use. This recipe will fill one 60mL/2oz tin as written.
Hi! I’ve been reading your site since the fall and finally ordered some stuff online to craft with. Excited! Should this be kept in the fridge? Or will it be liquid again at room temp – or in my bag? (Yikes! Hope not…)
Hey Geraldine! This body butter is going to have a pretty low melting point because it doesn’t contain any wax. Cupuacu butter is quite firmly solid at room temperature, though, and coconut oil (the monoi, more or less) is solid under 24°C. So, in my life, this body butter is soft, but solid (usually). If you left it in your purse in a hot car in the summer it would definitely liquefy, but it should be solid (if not a soft solid) at room temperature most of the time. Hope that helps!
Thanks! I made some to take on vacation but since I was going somewhere rather hot (for me, anyways – 30 degrees minimum, plus 100% humidity) I opted not to experiment with my first batch. It’s a lovely summer vacation reminder! I saw some Tahitian gardenias which I recognized first by scent from making this butter – there’s white and red varieties!
Oooh, I can only dream of 30°C weather right now. Swoon. We are having the most miserable, soggy summer 🙁 14°C and rain almost all the time… at least I’m getting lots of writing done indoors! I’m glad you’re enjoying the body butter, too—it makes me want to find my bikini and hit the beach!
Hi Marie, this butter is awesome, just made it. I do have a question though: did your butter solidify evenly? I got mine pretty nice around edges but the middle turned into kind of cute mountains .Is there anyway to get it solidified evenly? Thanks
Hey Regina! Since this body butter doesn’t contain any wax it relies on the monoi (coconut oil) and cupuacu for its hardness. Monoi melts at 24°C, and cupucacu around 34°C. If you’re somewhere warmish (I’d guess 22°C+) it’ll never get firm as the monoi is going to keep the entire thing quite soft. You could try re-melting it and adding 3 or 4g of candelilla or carnauba wax (or 5g beeswax) if you want a firmer end product 🙂
Hi Marie,
Would this recipe work as a whipped butter? Thanks so much!
It might; the ratios aren’t exactly what I’ve had success with, but it doesn’t have any wax or large amounts of brittle butters that would make it a definite no 🙂
Hi Marie! Have been a fan of your blog for some time and just made this as my first DIY effort. It smells amazing, but a weird texture thing happened: the butter got grainy after it had been sitting on the shelf for a couple days. (My house is about 18-19 C). Any suggestions for how to fix? Thanks…
You might try cooling it in the fridge rather than at room temperature; it sounds like this 🙂
Thank you — I’ll try that!
Happy making!
Would love to emulsify this. Suggestions?
Hi Patrice! That’s a bit like looking at a soup recipe and saying you’d love to turn it into a loaf of bread—you’ll need to completely re-think and re-formulate. It’s very doable, but won’t be a simple swap. Take a look at some of my emulsion formulations for inspiration 🙂 Happy making!