It has been far too long since I’ve made a body butter bar, and this year’s Vanilla Spice theme was absolutely begging to be body-butter-barred. I also wanted to play a bit more with some silky, lightweight cetyl alcohol to create a luxxy body bar that was a bit lighter and more satiny than some of the ones I’ve made in the past. As with all body butter bars it comes together in a flash—measure, melt, stir, and pour, and that’s it! Perfect for gifts 🙂
Want to watch this project instead of read it?
The recipe in video is half the size of the one listed here.
(As a side note, the term “lotion bar” for things that are purely anhydrous has always baffled me a bit… if you combine a bunch of butters and oils and put them in a tin, that’s a body butter, bit if you make them bar form suddenly people are calling them “lotion bars” even though they are not an emulsion… silly, yes, but it’s one of those things that floats around in my brain.)
The scent blend of these bars is in keeping with our vanilla spice theme, with an added cocoa note from the cocoa butter and a touch of honey from the beeswax, which works beautifully. If you want to avoid those notes and keep things purely vanilla spice you can certainly use the deodorized versions of each ingredient with no issues. I included a touch of mica to give the bars a warm, vanilla-y hue—there’s certainly not enough there to tint your skin. I used Virgo from TKB Trading, which is a lovely antiqued bronze/gold, but any sort of bronze/cooper/gold you’ve got on hand will do the trick, or you can leave the mica out entirely.
Let’s talk about moulds: silicone is best, and will release the easiest, but metal will also work. I’m not a huge fan of plastic moulds because they tend to be cheap and have a limited lifespan, so I don’t recommend buying them, but if you already have some, they’ll do the trick. When you’re choosing sizes and shapes, there’s two big things to keep in mind. Thing #1: is it a good shape and size for a body butter bar? I wouldn’t recommend making utterly massive ones (>200g) as they’re hard to use up before they get gnarly, or super tiny ones (<10g) as they can get quite smooshy from the get-go, but you are obviously free to do whatever you want! In the photos I made one 50g bar and two and a half 20g bars, and the 50g bar is about the size of a muffin cup. (Remember: When it comes to yield, remember the number of bars you get is completely dependent on the size of mould you use. If you made a 200g batch of the base you could make one bar or twenty—it is entirely dependent on the mould you’re using!)
Thing #2 is if you have (or can purchase) a container that will hold whatever shape and size of bar you’re planning on making. I highly recommend gifting body butter bars in wide-mouthed jars or tins so the recipient already has the storage bit sorted; body butter bars that are left kicking around without a container will pick up all kinds of lint and hair and quickly become the sort of thing you do not want to rub on yourself 😝 Plastic bags are an ok alternative, but I’m not a big fan; when you’ve just used the bar the outer layer is a bit warm and soft, and I find it tends to smear onto the bag and everything starts to melt and then re-solidify together. It’s easy enough to remove the bar from the bag, but presentation-wise it’s not the greatest choice.
You’ll notice there’s just four main ingredients in these bars, and for that reason I really don’t recommend changing the recipe much. You can use a different lightweight to midweight liquid oil in place of the rice bran oil, but please don’t touch the cocoa butter, beeswax, or cetyl alcohol unless you are prepared to potentially re-develop the entire recipe (which can be fun, just make sure you aren’t counting on a success right off the bat if that’s the route you decide to take!).
The final bars are silky smooth, deliciously fragrant, and downright perfect for gifting—especially if you pair ’em with some of the other Vanilla Spice goodies we’ll be making this season!
Want to watch this project instead of read it?
The recipe in video is half the size of the one listed here.
Vanilla Spice Body Butter Bar
9g | 0.32oz cetyl alcohol (USA / Canada)
30g | 1.06oz beeswax (USA / Canada)
33g | 1.16oz cocoa butter (USA / Canada)
27g | 0.95oz rice bran oil1/16 tsp bronze/copper/gold mica (I use these tiny measuring spoons for tiny measurements like this)
0.5g | 0.018oz Vitamin E MT-50 (USA / Canada)
0.9g | 4 “blobs” benzoin resinoid
0.21g | 4 drops cinnamon bark essential oil
0.05g | 2 drops clove bud essential oil
0.04g | 2 drops nutmeg essential oil
2020 update: Given the irritation potential for this essential oil blend, I’d recommend using a vanilla spice fragrance oil rather than the 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.
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 cetyl alcohol, beeswax, cocoa butter, and rice bran oil into a small heat-resistant glass measuring cup. Place the measuring cup in your prepared water bath to melt everything through.
After about 20–30 minutes everything should be completely melted through. Remove the water bath from the heat, remove the measuring cup from the water bath, and dry it off with a dish towel. Stir with a flexible silicone spatula to incorporate.
Add the mica, vitamin E, and essential oils, and stir to combine. Once the mixture is smooth, pour it into your mould(s) and leave the bar(s) to set up. You’ll know they’ve set up when they bars start to pull away from the edge of the mould as they contract.
Once they’ve set up, remove the bars from the moulds, taking care to handle them as little as possible as they are formulated to begin to melt on contact with skin. Package them up in some cute tins or jars and gift away (or enjoy for yourself 😉).
Because these body butter bars are 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, these bars 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 one if that happens.
Substitutions
- You can use a different lightweight to midweight liquid oil in place of the rice bran oil
- You can use deodorized cocoa butter or beeswax in place of their more fragrant siblings
- Please don’t touch anything else
- If you want a simpler body butter bar make this one and add the vanilla spice essential oil blend, keeping in mind that this recipe makes 100g while the alternate one makes 70g, so you will have to scale the EO blend to 70%
- You can scale the recipe easily by doubling/tripling/etc. the weights of all the ingredients
(One of the cetyl alcohols in the ingredients list should probably be beeswax)
Fixed, thanks!
What Katie above said! plus, if I want to make this one vegan, what can I replace the beeswax for? Candelilla?
If you use candelilla I suggest to use less wax than the required amount of beeswax as candelilla is more sticky. You could also add a bit more rice bran oil. That’s what I do for my vegan lipsticks!
C-waxes have a higher melting point than beeswax and thus make for a harder product. If you want to sub in a c-wax, scale it back to 70-75% of the beeswax.
Check out Maire’s awesome “Quick Guide to…” series. She’s super amazing for documenting and sharing her experimental findings. Here’s the one about candelilla wax: http://www.humblebeeandme.com/quick-guide-candelilla-wax-liquid-oil-ratios/
Esther – Thank you! 🙂 I know that guide almost by heart as I live by it! LOL
Anyway, I would love to hear of any other vegan replacement option for this recipe. It really looks like something I will have to try!
You could try Bayberry wax, but its natural fragrance will affect the scent profile.
I’ve read that soy wax is a pretty good 1:1 alternative, though I haven’t tried it myself 🙂
Hi: Just noticed an error you may want to correct before people start hounding you. In the written portion of the ingredient list, cetyl alcohol is listed twice. 30gr should be beeswax.
FYI
Fixed, thanks!
I’ll be making this Marie. Sounds very easy and much less messy work than body butters I share your confusion about calling these items “lotion bars”. It is something that has irked me for years. Lotion requires water!
Thanks, Lynne! I suppose many things have silly names but this is just one that bothers me more than it probably should, lol 😛
Lovely! I’m always so excited to receive all of your wonderful recipes
Thanks so much, Nicole!
Sounds lovely!
But I think you made a mistake with the beeswax in the recipe?
I know how it gets trying to make sure everything is checked…
Fixed, thanks!
Most lotion bars with cocoa butter I find too waxy and don’t melt easily. Does the Cetyl alcohol help this even with 30% beeswax?
Yup! Read some of the other comments from people who have made it to see 🙂
Why do you add a cetyl alcohol? What makes the difference to not use it in the recipe? Thank you
It helps reduce the waxy feel of the bar and gives a lovely, silky slip to the final product as well as contributing to hardening. It’s really lovely! See the substitutions list for information on not using it, you cannot just eliminate it or the bar won’t be a bar anymore.
Hi Marie,
I like butter bars because of the shapes that I could make them into, and that’s really fun to give children. There’s just one thing I’m concerned. When gifting them to other people, should I advise them to use it on dry skin and only use clean, dry hands? This honestly has been the only reason I don’t use body butter bars because it’s very hard to dry the body conpletely after a shower/bath.
Warm regards,
Huong
Hey! Yes; these are definitely not designed to be rubbed on wet skin. Good question!
Why not? That’s exactly how I use body butter bars, straight out of the shower, just like body oil. I never have a problem with it, my skin dries fine. Is there another reason why one shouldn’t do this?
You don’t want to get the bar wet as it can mould; we aren’t worried about your skin drying here 🙂
I’m going to put these in mini-deodorant containers for Christmas Stockings !! then I don’t have to worry about telling them to have dry hands !! the recipe sounds delicious !! Though, Cinnamon Leaf is not as harsh on skin ! Can’t wait to try it !!
Beauty! Happy making and gifting 😀
This looks hard enough to put in tubes, right? I noticed someone here said there were going to try. Did it work? Thanks for the great recipe!
I’m sure you could! I should try another version of it in tubes 🙂
could I actually add vanilla essential oil?
No; it’s water soluble.
If there is no vanilla in the ingredients, why is this called Vanilla spice bars?
Benzoin resinoid smells like vanilla 😉
Thank you for this recipe. After reading your post on how cetyl alcohol works on oils I’ve been playing around with adding it to my body butters for stability and silkiness. This will give me a guideline for bars 😉 Thanks again!
You’re very welcome! Maybe we should start a cetyl alcohol fan club 😛
Sounds good to me! 🙂 We could share our results. So I’m not the best at calculating percentage would you say the cetyl alcohol is 2 percent of the recipe? I don’t want to start adding it to recipes willy nilly lol!
It’s 9%—be sure to check out Monday’s blog post!
I’ve read that cinnamon can be irritating to the skin. Do you find that? And is Benzoin irritating at all?
It definitely can be, which is why the amount is so low (0.21% cinnamon bark EO). I’ve never found benzoin to be irritating, at least not in the quantities I use it at.
I love this formula. You’re right, they are silky and matte and soak in quickly. Much better than the foreeeeeverrrrrr greasy stickiness of other ‘lotion’ bar recipes I’ve tried.
YAY! 😀 I’m so stoked you’re loving them!
HELP! I’M AN IDIOT!
Okay, I know you can’t help me with that. Haha. I just made this and while I was putting the ingredients away I realized I never added the rice bran oil.
Will this just be a harder bar or useless? Could I possibly remelt and add the oil then?
I will wait until it has hardened and try it out then but thought I should ask anyway.
Thanks for all you do.
Claudia
You can gently re-melt and add it; I don’t think you’ll enjoy the bar much without it as it’ll be very hard and quite tacky! 🙂
Thanks Marie. I just remelted the bar and added rice bran oil.
I just wanted to also say that I’ve been reusing Altoids Tins (regular and mini sized) for soaps and body bars. Certain silicone molds will fit perfectly (with a little bit of room) and when you wrap a strip of parchment paper around the bar it will help with the removal. I have been using a mini altoids tin for my homemade soap for when I’m on the road (truck driver). It is a little more effort but when you have paper towels and some counter space it works great.
For gifting you could hot glue some fabric or even use some of the many different designs of duct tape they have these days.
This is the one I use for the regular tins
https://www.amazon.com/Freshware-CB-105RD-12-Cavity-Cornbread-Cheesecake/dp/B003VFWWWU/ref=lp_3028837011_1_4?srs=3028837011&ie=UTF8&qid=1510775807&sr=8-4
and these are for the mini tins
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B06XP1YT4G/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1
the mini rectangular ones fit perfectly. The oval ones fit but you don’t want to fill them more than 2/3 or 3/4 full.
I hope the links will work.
Claudia
Awesome, great tip—thank you! It can be hard to purchase plain tins with hinged lids but those hinges are so handy… guess I need to eat some more mints 😉 Thanks for sharing!
Thanks for sharing that link for the mold that fits in Altoid Tins. I’ve been saving those for projects like these.
Love this project, Marie!
I was hesitant to try these bars as I have made body butter in the past and found it too greasy and heavy and messy. However the cetyl alcohol called to me and I thought..one more time. These are beautiful. In fact, I made them for Christmas gifts but my kids found them and have used them for themselves. They sink in with a lovely skin feel, smell divine and I made the perfect size for a one time use bar (30 g). I only used eveningprimroseoil in place of rice bran 🙂
YAY! I’m amazed that you were able to use such a heavy oil in place of the rice bran and you still find them to be light and lovely—cetyl alcohol is amazeballs 😀
Oh my gosh, I too always wondered about “lotion” bars when they definitely are not. I also go hmm when I think about body “butters” which are basically a thick lotion. That aside, this recipe looks fantastic and I hope to gather the vanilla spice EOs soon so I can whip up a batch.
Yes! I feel like The Body Shop gives people really unrealistic body butter expectations by selling thick lotions as such—no wonder people apply so much actual body butter and then think it’s greasy lol.
This recipe looks delicious! I’ll probably try this over the weekend 🙂
I have a question related to massage bars though, maybe it has happened to some others as well, and I think it has been holding me down into making more of them. I recently made a batch of a basic recipe (beeswax, coconut oil, cacao butter 1:1:1) and after some weeks, the bar started to form some… granules? lumps? They melt anyway but it is bothersome to use, specially for a friend who uses it on the face (don’s ask me, she says she loves it). What could it be? I really don’t know what could be the reason. If you guys could help me I would be so grateful.
It sounds like it’s probably this 🙂
OMG Marie thank you so much! From now on before asking I will check the troubleshooting section – lesson learned! 🙂
I do try to put all kinds of useful things in the FAQ 🙂 Hopefully you find some unasked questions answered!
Hi Marie! Love your blog! I live in Perú and I can’t get rice bran oil. I’ve been looking for information in your carrier oil substitution list but I can’t find anything on that particular oil. What can I use instead? I would love to make this bars for a present.
Anything that’s a mid-weight, relatively inexpensive carrier oil. Olive oil is a good alternative in terms of feel, but not in terms of smell, so I wouldn’t use olive oil, but that might give you a better idea of the characteristics to look for 🙂
Hi, looking forward to trying this recipe, but I have a substitution question. I couldn’t find in the supplied link what are the lightweight to midweight oils. I could see the “absorb” list but didn’t know if this is what you meant. Could I sub the rice bran oil for either apricot kernel or sweet almond oil? BTW big YouTube fan
Fast absorbing = lightweight. Slow absorbing = heavy 🙂 And yes, all three of those oils are fairly interchangeable. Happy making!
Thanks for answering my question. Between this and making my own body cream from your recipes, I’m going to try making some scents I’ve always wanted but never saw at BBW. You’re awesome.
OOooh, enjoy!
Hi Marie!
Can I use Cetearyl Wax insted of Cetyl?
That would fall under the realm of “Please don’t touch anything else” from the substitutions list 🙂 You can try it, but you’re own your own. Happy making!