Now that I’ve worked with three different waxes for these quick guides, I thought I’d try cocoa butter. Cocoa butter is a wonderful ingredient—brittle, cocoa scented, and velvety soft on the skin. It melts at about 34°C, which is just a few degrees below body temperature, and it doesn’t really have a soft stage, making it rather unique in skin care formulations.
Because cocoa butter melts about 30°C cooler than beeswax, I decided to run this experiment a bit differently than my wax experiments. Instead of doing 1:1 through 1:8, I did 4:1 though 1:5. That is, I did four parts cocoa butter to one part liquid oil all the way up to one part cocoa butter and five parts liquid oil. As usual, I worked in 1 gram increments (so 1:5 is 1 gram cocoa butter, 5 grams liquid oil), and my liquid oil was plain olive oil. The first number is always the cocoa butter, and the second number is always the olive oil.
I labelled each little tin, melted them one by one in a water bath, and then let them set up on my kitchen counter for a week since cocoa butter takes a really long time to solidify at room temperature. It was about a full day before I saw any solids forming in my wee tins.
As the days passed, the mixtures didn’t so much solidify as precipitate. The more cocoa butter that was in the mixture, the larger the blobs would be. The 1:5 ended up with tiny little specks of cocoa butter floating in a small puddle of olive oil.
Because the mixtures solidified so strangely at room temperature, I melted them down a second time after making my initial observations. This time I did them all at once in the oven until just melted, and then I popped them all in the fridge so they could set up faster. I removed the tins from the fridge after about 5 hours, at which point all of them had solidified to some degree. I then let them return to room temperature before doing a second set of observations. In general, though, the quick-cool versions came out much smoother—no mottling this time. They did, however, have an almost sandy/sugary texture. There were small, visible particles in the mixtures that you couldn’t feel as they’d melt straight away. Interesting.
The second melting.
Let the observations begin!
After sitting out at room temperature to solidify the mixture has gone lumpy/mottled.
4:1—After coming to room temperature for a week there are distinct rounds of cocoa butter in a rather mottled looking solid. Firm, melts like cocoa butter does when handled (just a little bit and it slowly brings up a bit of oil). I can scrape up small bits with my finger nail, and those small shavings melt into the skin quickly and smoothly. Cannot press through it with a fingertip. After a second melt and quick chill the mixture is smoother, but still the same firmness.
3:1—Still mottled looking and solid. Massaging the surface lightly coats the fingers with oil. Scratching at the surface with a fingernail brings up shavings that melt into the skin quickly, going from a semi-soft texture to liquid very quickly. Cannot press through with a fingertip. After a second melt and quick chill the mixture is smooth, but the same otherwise.
2:1—Still a mottled looking solid. Massaging the surface lightly coats the fingers, but it cannot be pressed through with a fingertip. Quite easy to scrape through with a fingernail. Shavings melt quickly and are smooth. After a second melt and quick chill the set mixture is much smoother but seems to be a touch “sandy” in appearance (no change to texture though). It can be pressed through easily with a fingertip. Melts quickly and smoothly.
1:1—A mottled semi-solid. I can press through this one with my fingertip easily. Melts fairly quickly on contact with the skin. Smooth and soft, would make a nice soft body butter. After a second melt and quick chill the final mixture is smooth and very soft. Pressing with the tip of the thumb brings up a good amount of product, which melts quickly. The mixture looks almost as if it has some fine particles of sugar in it, but you cannot feel them.
1:2—This is the first one that has more liquid oil than cocoa butter, and it didn’t really set up. There’s cocoa butter on one side of the tin, and oil with little dots of cocoa butter on the other side. The cocoa butter is too soft to be pure cocoa butter, so it’s obviously incorporated some of the liquid oil. After a second melt and quick chill the final mixture is very soft, and has a very distinct grainy appearance, but you cannot feel the grains.
1:3—The cocoa butter really isn’t doing anything here—there are just little dots of cocoa butter floating in a pool of oil. The oil is not noticeably more viscous. After a second melt and quick chill the mixture sets up more evenly and now looks like a semi-thickened oil. Not solid at all to the touch, seems like the fine sand/sugar like particles I’ve noticed in previous batches are now floating in a pool of oil.
1:4—This one is also basically just liquid oil with dots of cocoa butter floating in it. The oil is not noticeably more viscous. After a second melt and quick chill the mixture sets up more evenly and appears to be a soft solid, though it is much softer than that to the touch. After poking it with my finger it mostly liquifies and the sandy-like cocoa butter is obviously not well incorporated.
1:5—More oil, fewer cocoa dots. The oil is not noticeably more viscous. After a second melt and quick chill the small dots are finer and more dispersed. The final result is definitely still a liquid.
Some lessons learned:
- Cocoa butter is not a very good thickener
- All mixtures thickened with cocoa butter are nice and smooth—there’s no stickiness, which also means you don’t get the kind of staying power you get from balms thickened with beeswax
- When allowed to cool at room temperature you get a rather odd mottled texture or wee dots of cocoa butter floating in oil
- When chilled quickly lower concentrations have a rather sandy appearance
| Hard? | Solid? | Melt speed | Sticky? | Slip | |
| 4:1 | Yes | Yes | Fast | No | Great |
| 3:1 | Yes | Yes | Fast | No | Great |
| 2:1 | No | Soft | Fast | No | Great |
| 1:1 | No | Soft | Fast | No | Great |
| 1:2 | No | No | Fast | No | Great |
| 1:3 | No | No | Instant | No | Great |
| 1:4 | No | No | Instant | No | Great |
| 1:5 | No | No | Instant | No | Great |
Interesting! So 1:1 ratio is the only one which is useful. I would have thought that these cocoa butter-oil mixes would have been more like salves, or like shea butter, but they look kind of ugly. Need to remember this…
For my uses I don’t feel like any of these are particularly useful without involving another oil or two—cocoa butter melts so quickly on its own that thinning it out with liquid oil is almost silly :/
I Love Cocoa Butter!! I usually melt cocoa butter with shea butter, olive oil, and coconut oil. It makes for a harder balm or salve. So keep that in mind when you add beeswax.
I think cocoa butter might be my favourite of the butters 😀 I love how smooth it is, and how it melts on the skin so beautifully!
Did you stir the melted mixtures at all? It seems like the quick chill method worked best, and I’d think depending on the application you could likely find use for 4:1-1:1 ratios.
Great experiment! Thanks for sharing!
Hi Jillian! I swirled them to blend, but I didn’t straight-up stir them.
Hi Marie,
Cocoa butter needs to be tempered if you want it to re-solidify properly at room temperature. (Irrelevant for soap making, but important for lotion, balm, etc.) You must be careful about the temperature you heat it to, and how you cool it. Ever tried melting chocolate for chocolate bark, adding stuff, and then ending up with goo at room temperature? That’s because the chocolate wasn’t tempered.
From a quick Google search: When chocolate isn’t tempered, it can have a number of problems: it may not ever set up hard at room temperature; it may become hard, but look dull and blotchy; the internal texture may be spongy rather than crisp; and it can be susceptible to fat bloom, meaning the fats will migrate to the surface and make whitish streaks and blotches.
There’s good information on tempering here:
http://www.callebaut.com/usen/techniques/tempering
From what I’ve read, you can temper plain cocoa butter the same way, using the temperatures recommended for dark chocolate.
Hope that helps!
Leanne
Hi Leanne—From everything I’ve read, tempering cocoa butter when it’s going to be blended with a bunch of other ingredients really isn’t worth the time or effort. From my quick Google search—”Compound chocolate, which is a lower-quality chocolate, contains other fats beside cocoa butter, so it often doesn’t need tempering. And chocolate that’s combined with other ingredients, as in a chocolate cake or mousse, doesn’t need to be tempered.”
And, for a wee anecdote, I’ve been working with cocoa butter in my body products (lotion, lip balm, body butter, soap, etc.) for over three years now, and I’ve never encountered any blooming, blotchiness, or dullness 🙂
I shall save my tempering efforts for my chocolate truffles!
Hello, I’m a certified chef and I also make skin care products, or food for damaged skin. Of course you don’t have to temper the cocoa butter, but from your photos it is clear that it did ‘break’ because it wasn’t tempered. It may not matter to you at all, and may not affect your product’s ability to be incorporated into your product but it does degrade the quality of the cocoa butter, somewhat. It comes closer to the actual burning of the butter. I’ve been in this business for three decades, so I do know something about cocoa butter. It may be blendable, but something is lost without tempering.
Hey K! Thanks for chiming in 🙂 From all my reading, tempering cocoa butter for uses where it’s heavily diluted (so, almost all body product applications) really isn’t worth the effort—I certainly don’t temper chocolate for baking when I’m melting a small amount of it into something like brownie batter, and I’ve never seen recipes that recommend it in such circumstances. Do you recommend doing otherwise? Honestly, I never will (it’s not at all worth the added effort to me), but I’d be interested in your thoughts!
Hi,
May i ask for the process of solidifying the cocoa butter Mr.Buckley. It would be a big help. Thank you! I always end up forming a fat bloom or some kind of discolor.
Very awesome link, exactly what I’ve been googling for lol;) Thanks for sharing!
I would like you to work on raw kokum butter as well please , im having hard time makin soft smooth body butter out of this raw thing ! Either it melts out or thickens like a hard balm 🙁
I might, but you could always do the experiment yourself 😉
Hi! Would the 1:5 ratio be good for a body oil? does it stay liquid even when cooled and does it retain the cocoa scent??
If you want a cocoa scented body oil you’d be better off to add a few drops of cocoa absolute to your favourite liquid oil 🙂 This stuff smells freaking AMAZING.
Hey! Marie! How are you? Is Elena from Argentina. I was rhinking about doing a lipbalm with cocoabutter,sheabutter, calendula oil and almond oil. Which you think could be a propper rattio? I think that perhaps 1:3? Using the Shea as part of cocoa butter, will help to make it a little softer…. right?
Sorry i meant, 3:1 or 2:1, what do you say? I will put it in a tiny can, so need to be easy to rub it with your finger..
Hey Elena! If you want to make a good lip balm you NEED to include wax or the final balm will be way too thin. Think about salad dressing on your lips; it doesn’t stick around and vanishes quickly. That’s what wax-less balms are like. Check out this recipe for one that uses most of the ingredients you mentioned 🙂
Hi Marie,
I love your website! I’ve been trying to make a cocoa body butter, with cocoa butter and almond oil (about 4:1). It whips beautifully, but then it goes hard in about 5 minutes!
What do you think I’m doing wrong? – I live in Scotland, in quite a cold house, so I wondered if it was something to do with the room temperature, but I’ve tried keeping the body butter in a warm cupboard and it doesn’t seem to make any difference.
Hey Rachel! How are you chilling it? Just leaving it at room temperature?
I too just started making my own cocoa butter mix and it turned hard right away. I melted 8oz of cocoa butter and mixed in 4 tbs of almond oil.
I put it in the freezer for a 1/2 hour until it was slightly solid and I could press it with my finger.
I whisked it for a minute with an electric mixer and it was looking great!!! I put the whisk away and when I came back it was hard!!!
It seems to melt on your skin when applied, but it’s so hard to rub on your skin without it falling on the floor and being messy.
What am I doing wrong ?
Hmm. Well, for starters, I’m really not sure how much of anything you used since you seem to be mixing weight and volume, but, generally speaking, cocoa butter is a hard butter, and will not create a light, fluffy, whipped butter that stays that way because it’s hard. It just wants to be hard, and will revert to that given the chance. Check out this recipe to see the sorts of ingredients and ratios used to get something fluffy 🙂
I am currently experimenting with chaka mushroom balm and my recipe include cocoa butter. Its still sitting on the woodstove infusing. I will put in a small amount of beeswax when finished. From what I understand chaka mushroom is incredible for skin and research shows it is very helpful with skin cancer!
What a fun project! Happy making 🙂