This lightweight oil is post-shower (or bath) perfection. It perfectly melds with your soft, damp skin to lock in moisture and leave your skin feeling velvety, conditioned, and downright pampered. Soothing colloidal oats and rich coconut milk play starring roles, with silky meadowfoam and apricot kernel oils rounding out this cast of skin-loving goodness. Swoon.
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There are two categories of ingredients that make this body oil an “after shower” oil. The first is emulsifiers. The inclusion of emulsifiers mean this after-shower oil will self-emulsify with the water left on your skin after showering, transforming the oil into lotion on your skin. Cool, eh? You’ll find some BTMS-50 and some Olivem300 in the ingredients list. BTMS-50 is a solid, oil-soluble, conditioning emulsifying wax, and the skin feel it lends this project is divine. It gives your skin a velvety, almost powdery finish that is really quite decadent. Some Olivem300, a lightweight water soluble ester, further ensures this after-shower oil easily emulsifies with any water left on your skin.
This is the GelMaker CC—the packaging is very well thought out!
Our other “yup, definitely an after-shower oil” ingredients are two powders: coconut milk powder and colloidal oatmeal. Since we’re adding water at the moment of use, we can include ingredients that would typically be too hard to preserve to use in a product that contains water—score! Coconut milk powder definitely falls into this category, and we’re using more colloidal oatmeal than I’d usually use in a lotion for the same reason. These powders will soften and dissolve when you combine the oil with water on your skin, transforming from gritty powders you’d rather not rub on yourself into lovely skin-loving, scratch-free goodness.
The bulk of this after-shower oil is a blend of skin-loving apricot kernel and meadow foam seed oils. You could definitely use any liquid oils that your skin loves, but I would recommend trying to stick to faster-absorbing oils to keep the lovely, light feel of this product.
I’m also using a new-to-me ingredient: TKB Trading’s GelMaker CC (INCI: Dicaprylyl Carbonate [and] Stearalkonium Hectorite [and] Propylene Carbonate). It’s a very cool clay-derived thickening ingredient, and using it at 6% keeps our powdered ingredients in suspension without turning the shower oil into a super-thick paste sort of thing. It also contributes a rich slip to the oil that’s quite lovely. It’s definitely not necessary, but I don’t know of anything more common that will contribute the same properties, so if you don’t have it I’d replace it with more liquid oil and accept that you’ll be shaking your oil before you use it.
I chose a simple essential oil blend of vanilla-like benzoin, calming lavender, and just a touch of dark patchouli. It’s sweet and a bit spicy, and I really like it, but you’re certainly welcome to use something else if you prefer it (or just drop the patchouli—it changes the blend a lot!).
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Oatmeal & Milk After Shower Oil
Heated Phase
2.5g | 5% colloidal oatmeal (USA / Canada)
1.5g | 3% powdered coconut milk (USA / Canada)3g | 6% TKB GelMaker CC
7.5g | 15% Olivem300 (USA / Canada)20g | 40% apricot kernel oil (USA / Canada)
13.25g | 26.5% meadowfoam seed oil
1.5g | 3% BTMS-50 (USA / Canada)Cool Down Phase
0.25g | 0.5% Vitamin E MT-50 (USA / Canada)
0.4g | 0.8% benzoin resinoid
0.09g | 0.18% lavender essential oil
0.01g | 0.02% dark patchouli essential oilCombine the colloidal oats and milk powder in your DIY-only coffee grinder and blend together for about twenty seconds.
While the powders settle in the grinder, weigh out the gel maker into a small heat-resistant glass measuring cup. Add a small amount of the Olivem300, blending between additions with a flexible silicone spatula. Make sure to break up all the lumps before adding more Olivem300. Once the gel maker and the Olivem300 are fully incorporated, blend in the powdered colloidal oats and milk powder, breaking up as many clumps as possible.
Stir in the remaining liquid oils and the BTMS-50. Melt everything together—I tried a water bath first, but found the BTMS-50 really didn’t want to melt, so I finished it off with a quick burst in the microwave. The instructions say you shouldn’t microwave it, but the end product seemed no worse for it. At 6% usage rate it has plenty of other ingredients to insulate it, and I kept the microwaving to an absolute bare minimum. The flash point for the GelMaker is 100°C, and the melting point for BTMS-50 is 60°C, so you have plenty of space to melt the BTMS-50 without getting anywhere close to 100°C. If you are usually able to melt BTMS-50 in a water bath, do that and forgo the microwave—BTMS-50 just refuses to melt for me in a water bath.
Once everything has melted together remove the product from the heat and let it cool—I used an ice bath to speed things along. Once the mixture is room temperature, stir in your cool down ingredients, and you’re done! This recipe will fill 1 60mL/2fl oz bottle nicely.
To use, smooth a small amount of the oil over damp skin. You must apply it to damp skin so the oats and milk powder have something to dissolve in, otherwise the oil will be unpleasantly gritty. You can also use it as a bath oil!
Shelf Life & Storage
Because this product is 100% oil based, it does not require a broad-spectrum preservative (broad spectrum preservatives ward off microbial growth, and microbes require water to live—no water, no microbes!). Kept reasonably cool and dry, it should last at least a year before any of the oils go rancid. If you notice it starts to smell like old nuts or crayons, that’s a sign that the oils have begun to oxidize; chuck it out and make a fresh batch if that happens.
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 recipe 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 50g.
- You can use a different type of milk powder, like cow or goat.
- If you don’t have the GelMaker you can replace it with more liquid oil, or a butter like shea or mango. You could also try stearic acid or cetyl alcohol. None of these are going to have the same suspending effect as the GelMaker, though.
- You can try water soluble shea butter instead of the Olivem300
- You can use different relatively lightweigh liquid oils in place of the ones listed
- You can use BMTS-25 instead of BTMS-50, though it will not be as conditioning. A non-cationic emulsifying wax will also work, though it will not have the wonderful skin feel of a conditioning emulsifying wax.
- You can scent it differently if you choose.
Hi Marie
I love your blog and your content. I’m dying to try out your recipes but can’t find btms 50 (I live in Switzerland) Could yo name a substitute for it? Thanks you!
Ideally you’d want another cationic emulsifying wax, but if you can’t find BTMS I’m not sure what would be more readily available; I’d recommend asking your suppliers. Otherwise you could use a non-ionic emulsifying wax like Polawax, but you’ll lose the lovely conditioning feel.
Marie
Can the btms50 and the other oils be microwaved and then mix into the product so the gel is not at risk?
You can definitely try it! Let me know how it goes if you do 🙂
Thank you so much for this video! I have been working on a recipe for something similar to this for months and couldn’t stop it from separating. I will have to try this for sure.
You’re so welcome! I hope you enjoy it 🙂
Is there any main reason why this couldn’t or shouldn’t be used as an in shower moisturiser? Nivea sells an in-shower lotion that unfortunately doesn’t agree with me, however I love the feeling of it and the hydration it still offers post shower, and would love to find something I can make that would offer a similar effect.
I would imagine if you brought this in the shower you would need to include a broad spectrum preservative because the chance of water getting in is very high. Even then, I don’t know if it would work because of the water soluble ingredients. If water got into the bottle I imagine it would start turning rather quickly without some serious preservatives. Just my thought tho.
Absolutely! Thanks, Rachel 🙂
Rachel is correct—you’d need to add a preservative, but even then I would worry that contamination with water would rapidly overpower the preservative because of all the delicious bug food in here. The combination of a preservative and the use of a container that prevents the entry of water could be successful, though.
Would a flip top disc style cap (on a squeeze bottle) plus a preservative be sufficient?
And do you have any recommendations on what preservative to use?
My concern is that if water got in there, no preservative would be sufficient to protect it because there’s so much potential bug food in here.
It could be successful, but I wouldn’t recommend it. If you removed the milk powder I’d probably be more confident in a preservative’s ability to work. I’d stick with 0.5% Liquid Germall Plus.
“The inclusion of emulsifiers mean this after-shower oil will self-emulsify with the oil left on your skin after showering, transforming the oil into lotion on your skin.”
Did you mean “this after-shower oil will self-emulsify with the water left on your skin”? I don’t think there should be any oil left on your skin after showering, unless I’m missing something…
Ah, whoops! You are bang on and I’ve fixed it 🙂 I must’ve re-worded than sentence at some point and clearly got myself all twisted up, ha. Thanks so much!
Thank you I am so excited for winter to try this! I talked to you in your lotion course and this sounds like just what I need. Itchy, old, winter skin, bring it on! You are the best!
Thanks, Vanda! I do remember our chat—you can cram all kinds of hard-to-preserve goodies into stuff like this, which is awesome 🙂
Just a quick question
Do you dry the skin with towel and then apply this oil? Or do you apply it in the shower?
Because using a towel to dry one self will wipe away the lotion/oil
I usually do a pretty light dry with a towel so I’m not dripping wet and then apply the oil to damp skin and air dry from there 🙂
If you wanted to just use the milk powder without the colloidal oatmeal, would it be necessary to grind it up into a finer powder? I’ve used milk powder in cooking and it seems pretty fine already….
I blended it because of the milk powder—the colloidal oatmeal is very fine on its own. Try rubbing your milk powder on your skin and see what you think—if you don’t mind the feel you can get away without grinding it 🙂
Could I use Sepimax Zen or Sodium Carbomer instead of the gelmaker?
No—those things gel water, not oil.
Thanks for another amazing recipe. I love the sound of the gelmaker stuff, but the postage to the UK is horrendous. Someone on a cosmetics forum suggested cera bellina for suspending in oil, which I might try.
It’s definitely worth a try! Let me know how it goes if you try it 🙂
Did you ever try this with the Cera bellina? Curious to know how it turned out!
Hi Marie,
I think this recipe is absolutely genius! Just wondering if it matters whether or not I used Olivem 1000 instead of Olivem 300? I would prefer to avoid using PEGs if possible!
Yes, it matters—you cannot use Olivem1000 for Olivem300. Ever. One is solid, one is liquid. They function very differently in products, and I use them to do different jobs in very different recipes.
Got the Gel maker from TKB and just paid shipping.But when I ordered from Lotion crafters USA had to pay shipping plus a duty and taxes around 25$ .
Definitely not going to order from Lotion crafters but actually the Vit C tetrahexyldecyl ascorbate was not available in Canada
The duties that are levied have nothing to do with the source of the order and everything to do with Canadian border services. My recent $90 TKB order cost $50 to get across the border in shipping + duty + taxes :/ My first order from them had nothing added. It seems to be a bit of a crap shoot.
Love this! I loved your Soothing Oat Bath & Body Lotion, but this is even better because of the oats stay suspended. My skin feels lovely after using it. Thanks, Marie!
Woo! This is definitely a bit of an evolution and the stays-suspended thing is SO nice!
This is divine! It feels so lovely on the skin. I had to leave out the gel maker because I didn’t have it but I don’t mind giving it a shake before use. Thanks for an amazing recipe!
Woohoo! Thanks for DIYing with me 😀
Hi Marie! That sounds amazing and looks great! I was wondering if we could use sucragel for it’s emulsifier and gel making properties in place of the olivem 300 and gel maker? Do you think there is a correct amount (15%?) to suspend the powders while still having an oil? Thanks!
I’m actually not sure. In theory, yes, the sucragel will create an product that would be thick enough to suspend the powders and will self-emulsify with the bath water. I am not sure, however, if it is possible to create something that is liquid enough—I feel like I’ve read somewhere that using less can make for even thicker gels (somewhat counter-intuitively), and I haven’t experimented with it myself. That said, you certainly don’t need this to be liquid—you could just put a scoop of it in your bath water if you wanted to!
Thanks for being a patron!
Hi Marie and Bérénice,
I was wondering the same thing. Has any of you tried this recipe with sucragel? Thanks
How cool would these be as little single use bars to be used after a shower??? Recipe Marie??? LOL. Maybe the inclusion of some hard cocoa butter & some extra stearic acid of maybe beeswax? Your thoughts?
I like it! Maybe like this, minus the sugar?
My colloidal oatmeal actually cooked in the heat. it solidified and cooked. How funny is that?
Ha! Mmmm, porridge shower oil 😛
How about aristoflex or hydroethylcellulose (sorry if i spelled it wrong) with this?
Just made it using Hydroxyethylcellulose at 3%. Worked like a charm!
Hooray! I am somewhat surprised since hydroxyethylcellulose is water-soluble and there’s no water in here, but hey—a win is a win! 😀
Not a win! I used it yesterday and the milks stayed grainy on my skin & didn’t dislike so I had to wipe them away with a towel. But hey, still a win because I learned something & that has been the joy of this journey with you…..learning. learning, learning!!!!
Is it necessary to heat the olivem, gelmaker, milks combo? I know the BTMS50 has to be melted but i find that the powders congeal and become solid (cook) when i heat this and was wondering if it was necessary to heat it at all?
Try it and find out! 🙂
Well yes but perhaps there was a reason for heating it and I thought instead of trying it and having to dump the lot, I would ask first. Thanks.
I’ve been watching your Youtube videos and you said that using food is usually a horribly bad idea. However, there is food (the powdered milk) in this.
So my question is, is this safe?
Could I used a coconut powder milk to make a non rinse off product, like a lotion? Or is this okay because it’s basically going to get rinsed off in the shower?
Do you think it would have any benefit in a shampoo? Like do you have any personal knowledge of rehydrated powders bearing a similar efficacy to their original counterparts?
And what about a matcha tea powder, would that be safe in a skin or hair care product? And other similar powder substances like spirulina powder or chlorella?
Answers to any or all these questions would be really helpful and really appreciated.
And I apologize for having like 50 questions, but I like the idea of milk and tea products.
This is one of those recipes that I find myself making over and over again because it’s so darn versatile. I’ve replaced the milk powders with epson salt, the gel maker with xanthan gum and the olivem with shea 50 and every one of those replacements worked so well. I absolutely just love this one!
I’m so thrilled to hear it! It’s funny—this one didn’t end up resonating with me as much over time, but that just goes to show how different products can really delight different people ❤️
Denise, I’m curious if you replaced the gel maker for the same % of xanthum gum? Did it suspend?
I love this product!
After looking at the TKB website, I’m curious if anyone has had issues with using plastic containers? (Their website states the Gel Maker product shouldn’t be used in pet plastic but I really hate to use glass in the bathroom.