Have you ever seen Chocolat, with Juliette Binoche and Johnny Depp? The lingering shots of luscious chocolate being tempered, stirred, and coaxed into the most divine creations are enough to send you off to your nearest chocolatier mid-movie for a box of indulgence. Anyhow, that’s what I thought of as I devised this lightly spiced, warming cocoa Mexican chocolate body butter that’s inspired by Mexican chocolate.
It shouldn’t surprise you that the majority of this recipe is cocoa butter (USA / Canada). Cocoa butter melts at 34°C, just below body temperature. This fortuitous melting point is what gives chocolate its divine melt-in-your-mouth consistency, and it’ll do the same on your skin. You can purchase white or dark cocoa butter (USA / Canada), and in this recipe you can use either (or a blend of the two), but do be aware that the dark variety can leave dark streaks on fair skin (though I’ve found a thorough massaging will prevent that) and stain lighter fabrics.
Since cocoa butter (USA / Canada) goes from brittle to liquid with little to no soft stage in between, I’ve added some silky capuacu butter. Cupuacu is related to cocoa, though it’s softer and almost silicone-like in its feel. I adore it massaged into the skin on its own, but it’s also lovely in body butters. Along with cupuacu’s relation to cocoa comes a slight cocoa scent that seems to be mixed with a bit of sour milk, so I’d recommend sticking to the unscented version for this recipe. If you don’t have capuacu butter (it can be a bit pricey), shea or mango butter (USA / Canada)s are both good alternatives.
And now for the essential oils. A hit of cocoa absolute ups the ante on the cocoa scent, and to that I’ve added spicy cinnamon bark essential oil and warming chilli essential oil. The Aztecs added both to their cocoa for a divine, warming, spiced cocoa that’s delightfully different from the chocolate I grew up with in Canada.
Both these essential oils do have the potential to be irritating to the skin (especially in large quantities), so I recommend sticking to the recipe as written, or even reducing the amounts called for if your skin is sensitive. You can even opt to leave out both essential oils if your skin is particularly sensitive—it’ll still be a lovely body butter.
Mexican Chocolate Body Butter
20g | 0.7oz cocoa butter (USA / Canada)—be sure it’s nice and fragrant
10g | 0.35oz refined capuacu butter (can substitute with refined shea butter (USA / Canada) or mango butter (USA / Canada))
10g | 0.35oz jojoba oil (USA / Canada)
2g | 0.07oz beeswax (USA / Canada)4 drops cocoa absolute
chili seed essential oil
4 drops cinnamon bark essential oil2020 update: Given the irritation potential for this essential oil blend, I’d recommend using a cinnamon spice fragrance oil rather than the chili and cinnamon essential oil blend. Please refer to supplier documentation for maximum usage rates for the particular fragrance oil you’re using when used in leave-on products; 0.1–0.2% should be more than enough to adequately scent the product.
Weigh the cocoa butter (USA / Canada), capuacu butter, jojoba oil (USA / Canada), and beeswax out into a glass measuring cup and melt in a pan of simmering water.
Once the oils have melted, remove them from the heat and stir in the essential oils. Pour the mixture into a 30g/1oz tin and let it set up before using. Enjoy!
Hi Marie,
Do you have the foundation, blush, mascara and eyeliner recipes on your blog?
I’M IN LOVE WITH THIS BLOG!
Keep it up!
Love,
Katherine
The answer hasn’t changed since you last asked 😉 Those recipes will be in the book—exclusively. I’m sure you can appreciate there’s no market for a book when all the content is already available for free online.
That said, I do have quite a few cosmetic recipes up here already, including a mineral make-up that’s fantastic. Use the search bar to find more 🙂
Did U publish a book of these?,
It’s coming out at the end up the year—sign up for pre-order notifications here 🙂
bought your book. Great book, Very helpful. Good job Maria
Thank you so much! 😀
The sounds amazing. I might not be able to use it because of sensitive skin, but it would be a perfect gift for one of my friends.
It smells pretty awesome without the chili & cinnamon EOs, too 😀 Mmmmmm.
Hmmm. I may have to make some with and some without the chili and cinnamon!
Do it… hot chocolate body butter 😉
Could i infuse some oil with chili powder or the pepper itself? I’ve maxed out on the money i am aloud to spend on ingredients hehehe (two NDA orders in a week) . This sounds wonderful and hope i dont have to wait :-D!!!!!
Hi David! Great idea, you definitely could 🙂 I would recommend using chili flakes and just cracked (as opposed to ground) black pepper to ensure the bits are large enough to easily strain out of the final product. I’d also start pretty small, especially with the chili flakes! Let me know how it turns out 🙂
Hi, this sounds great! I’d like to try it, but could I use kokum butter instead of the cupuacu butter? If so, how much? I have some that needs to be used. Thanks so much!
Hi Nel! That wouldn’t be a good swap because kokum butter is brittle, and cupuacu butter is soft. Read more here 🙂
Hi Marie, I somehow missed this post completely! I’m so excited to try it! I don’t have cinnamon bark but I do have a massive bottle of cassia so I’m going try that. I’m thinking I could make some kind of licorice theme/flavor with anise too. Heading to the kitchen right now. 🙂 I’m having a hard time sourcing dark cocoa butter. Saffire blue has been out for quite sometime. Any other stockists that ship to the states that you know of?
Oooh, enjoy! I don’t know of anywhere else that sells dark cocoa butter, but you can fake it by adding cocoa powder to white cocoa butter 🙂 It can settle out, so you’ll want to chill your concoction quickly and avoid using too much, but the cocoa powder won’t feel gritty or anything. Probably mucho easier than scouring suppliers 😉
Hi Marie. I would love to make this for a pregnant friend. I obviously know Cinnamon is not safe. I’m wondering if I swapped that for a Vanilla infused Jojoba Oil and Sweet Orange? If so, how much sweet orange should I use without being too overtake the chocolate aroma?
Hi Jena! From my reading I’d avoid using essential oils in pregnant women full stop, but you might just want to chat with your friend and see what she thinks. As for scent blends, just follow your nose 🙂
Marie, I have spent the last 3 days reading your Body Blogs! LOVE THEM! I just whipped up my first run of your 3 ingredient perfect body bar. Can’t wait for it to finish setting up! Thank you so much for all of your great ideas & tested concoctions. I feel confident my products will turn out beautifully since you took the time to get it all just right.
I noticed in your lip balm blog that you are/were fond of The Body Shop. They made a spiced vanilla body butter that was my all time favorite for winter. Warm & spicy vanilla (like this Mexican Chocolate), not the sickeningly sweet buttercream frosting vanilla. Unfortunately, their vast description od the product stopped at “spiced”. I’m sure it has to have some common winter spices, maybe cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves . . .? I don’t know what is in it. Are you familiar with this product? If so, would you be willing to attempt a “knock-up” (since it will be better with real ingredients)?
Thank you so much! Have a great day!
Hey Crystal! Welcome to my blog and thanks for reading 🙂 I’ve got a Recipe Request form for things like this, if you’d like to fill that out—that way your request won’t get lost. No promises, of course, but it’ll be in my giant folder of requests when I’m looking for inspiration.
Hi Marie!
I’ve been a fan of your blog and recipes! Had made with success a couple of your recipes (the basic shea body butter and the whipped butter with coconut oil and cocoa butter ones). They have turned out very well!
I’ve recently made this very recipe above with cocoa and shea butters, though with safflower oil instead of jojoba. As it was to be a belly butter for me and my pregnant friends, I replaced the essential oils with an estimated equivalent amount of vitamin E oil. To speed up set up, I placed the jars in the freezer.
Unfortunately the resultant butter was grainy. I followed the butter/oil proportions to a T… was it the ingredient substitutions, or the set-up conditions that caused the grainy texture?
I read on another site that shea butter needs to be heated up for 20mins at 80degC (176F) to prevent graininess. Would you recommend the same? (I usually try not to overheat or heat for a prolong period for fear of destroying the goodness in the raw ingredients.)
Thank you for your kind help and time!
Hey Beidi! Thanks so much for reading and DIYing with me 🙂 I’ve got an FAQ article with some helpful links on grainy butters that you should check out for some more info 🙂
I have made this butter. The smell is heavenly and it works well as a moisturizer. However I do find that it stains my clothes or bed sheets easily, with the type of stain from the butter and the stains are hard to remove, especially on cotton or silky type of fabrics.
I live in Calgary as well, our climate is very dry here, so body butters are a wonderful moisturizers.
Any tips on using the product?
Hey Kasia! Thanks so much for reading and DIYing with me 🙂 When it comes to having super dry skin, like we get in Calgary, you’ll need some water for your skin as well as oil. I certainly understand the temptation to put on lots of body butter ’cause it smells amazing and is so lovely and rich, but if your skin is dehydrated (needs water), it won’t help all that much. All that is to say… you can probably solve your staining problem by using less body butter on top of damp skin. That way the body butter will soak in faster so there won’t be excess to stain fabrics, and it’ll help trap that water in your skin, giving you extra awesome hydration and hopefully no staining. Does that make sense? 🙂
Great tips, thank you. It totally makes sense, to use less product, applying it on the damp skin, and probably keep myself well hydrated by drinking water too.
Also, I have started exfoliating my skin more, ( my biggest problem area are lower legs, likely because of shaving it often too).
I am just starting making my own skin care, and I am an “eager bee” to know it all.
I love your blog and you tube channel. Very informative and nicely presented. I am very interested in your upcoming book and any workshops if you have them in the area.
I hope that helps, and it’ll make your body butter last longer, too 🙂 The closest thing I have to a workshop right now is participating in a panel at Next Big Thing in October—let me know if you go so we can meet!
HI, Marie:
What do you think about this idea: a bath tub built like an aquarium, where you can wave to the fishies while you bathe. One faucet will pour hot creamy chocolate and the other faucet will pour caramel sauce. It’s for the woman who has everything!
Hmm, well… I think it sounds a bit sticky for a bath, but as a superb alternative to soda fountain I don’t think it can be improved upon! Nom!
hey Marie! I made this and a few days (maybe week?) I started seeing some “dots” forming. Weeks later they’re everywhere. They melt when spread and “pushed” a bit into the skin but they’re inconvenient. Is this normal? Why does this happen? Is there a way to avoid it? I’m sure I can melt the whole thing again but it would just happen all over. The only differences: I didn’t use any essential oils and replaced cupuacu with mango butter.
Sounds like this 🙂
hello, for some reason my body butter now has a lot of little white balls in it. and it’s a LOT.
It sounds like it’s probably this 🙂
Hi and belated Merry Christmas, Feliz Navidad 2019 to everyone! As gifts to friends this year I made a cocoa-based body butter based on Marie’s newer recipes using cetyl alcohol rather than beeswax & dimethicone & allantoin for conditioning and slip. Now I want to get some chili and cinnamon essential oils along with the chocolate e.o. I used – Mexican hot chocolate is a traditional wintertime drink here in Mexico – it’s thick & rich and called champurrado in Spanish – nothing like it in the world – and also my now-favorite body butter!! Thanks Marie!
This came out amazing! It took me two tries but, the second time came out beautifully! I did not have the cocoa absolute or the chili seed EO so the first try I used cocoa powder but, used too much and it came out gritty. The second time I added chocolate fudge fragrance oil and cinnamon essential oil and omg it smells divine!!! My daughter smelled it and said she wanted to eat it!
I had been having trouble with red, dry hands and I put some on it and it helped so much! Thanks Marie for another great formulation!
Hooray! I’m so glad you’re enjoying this oldie 😀 Thanks for DIYing with me, and happy making 🙂