If you’ve been dreaming of enveloping yourself in tropical scented wonderfulness, this beautiful all-natural Passionfruit Coconut Vegan Body Butter is for you. A base of beachy coconut oil and passionfruit oil is thickened with a combination of stearic acid and carnauba wax that gives the end product a really indulgent, creamy consistency. The mouth-watering scent comes from an unbelievably juicy smelling passion fruit natural fragrance oil—swoon!

How to Make Passionfruit Coconut Vegan Body Butter

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The bulk of this gorgeous tropical body butter is a blend of fragrant virgin coconut oil and super lightweight passionfruit oil. This is the first project I’ve used passionfruit oil in. The first time I saw passionfruit oil (aka maracuja oil) was at Sephora, sold by Tarte—$63/50mL (1.69fl oz). Wowza. Thankfully the bottle I’m using is far more affordable! Passionfruit oil is a slightly fruity-smelling light, fast-absorbing oil with fantastic luxury appeal and skin feel. You can learn more about it in the Humblebee & Me DIY Encyclopedia 😊

 

Save 8% on passionfruit oil and everything else at Mystic Moments with coupon code HUMBLEBEE

For fragrance, I’m using an utterly mouthwatering passion fruit natural fragrance oil from Essential Wholesale. You know that puckering feeling you get at the back of your jaw when you smell a perfectly ripe piece of fruit that is just begging to be eaten? (Maybe that’s just me, ha.) That’s the feeling I get when I smell this natural fragrance oil. I’m not exaggerating in the least when I say it’s mouthwatering! I get a lot of questions about what makes a natural fragrance oil different from a fragrance oil or essential oil; to learn more read this blog from Essential Wholesale.

Save 5% on passion fruit natural fragrance oil and everything else at Essential Wholesale & Labs with coupon code HUMBLEBEE

When I was thinking about how to thicken this body butter I knew I wanted to add some richness as well, so I blended together creamy stearic acid and glossy carnauba wax. Plain carnauba wax will definitely harden formulations very effectively, but I find it creates a really hard glossy end product that spreads thinly across the skin without the added richness that we’d get from thickening with beeswax. Since I was aiming to make this vegan, I got that richness from stearic acid instead, which thickens and adds a richness reminiscent of butters like shea to the end product. The end consistency is really lovely—soft, creamy, and quite indulgent.

I have included a small amount of sea buckthorn fruit (or berry) oil for colour—at 1% it turns the end product a sunny yellowy-orange. If you don’t have it or don’t want to use it I’ve discussed different options in the substitutions list at the end of the formulation, but I’m definitely a fan of the cheerful colour it adds ☀️

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Passionfruit Coconut Vegan Body Butter

Heated phase
33g | 60% virgin coconut oil
10.725g | 19.5% passionfruit oil
6.6g | 12% carnauba wax
3.3g | 6% stearic acid (USA / Canada / UK)
0.55g | 1% sea buckthorn fruit oil

Cool down phase
0.55g | 1% passion fruit natural fragrance oil
0.275g | 0.5% 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 small saucepan.

Weigh the heated phase ingredients into a small heat-resistant glass measuring cup. Place the measuring cup in your prepared water bath to melt everything through.

Once everything has melted, remove the measuring cup from the heat and dry the outside of it off with a dishtowel. Set the measuring cup on a towel or hot pad to insulate it from the counter and stir the mixture with a flexible silicone spatula to combine everything.

Weigh in the cool down phase, quickly stir to combine, and pour the liquid into a 60mL (2 fl oz) tin. I used a white screw-top tin from YellowBee. Carefully transfer the tin to the fridge to set up.

Once the body butter has set up (you’ll see it pulling away from the edge of the tin), remove it from the fridge and let it come to room temperature. And that’s it!

To use, smooth the body butter over and skin that could use a bit of extra passion-fruity love!

Shelf Life & Storage

Because this body butter 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 55g, which fills a 60mL (2 fl oz) tin or jar nicely.
  • 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 (passionfruit oil) please look up the ingredient in the encyclopedia before asking.
  • You could use refined coconut oil or babassu oil instead of virgin coconut oil. Do not use fractionated coconut oil instead of coconut oil.
  • You could try candelilla wax instead of carnauba wax.
  • Don’t substitute the stearic acid.
  • You could use sea buckthorn fruit oil, sea buckthorn seed oil, or unrefined buriti oil instead for the yellow/orange colour. You could also replace it with another 1% passionfruit oil, though the balm won’t be as colourful.
  • You could also replace the sea buckthorn fruit oil with some orange or yellow mica.
  • You could use a passion fruit fragrance oil instead of the passion fruit natural oil. You could also replace the fragrance with more passionfruit carrier oil and then the balm will just smell of the coconut oil.

Gifting Disclosure

The passion fruit natural fragrance oil was gifted by Essential Wholesale. The passionfruit oil was gifted by Mystic Moments. The white metal tin was gifted by YellowBee.