If you’ve ever wanted to schmear yourself in spiced vanilla frosting and have it render your skin soft and glowy instead of sticky and covered in lint, I’ve got good news for you—Vanilla Spice Whipped Body Butter. Awww, yeah. This stunning butter smells divine and has a consistency similar to that of marshmallow spread, but without the moment of “why on earth do I own this?!” when you find it in your cupboard next to some old vegemite and nuts from a 2008 Christmas basket. You will always know why you own this because it is wonderful. You just might wonder why you haven’t used it all yet 😃

How to Make Vanilla Spice Whipped Body Butter

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My favourite thing about this butter is how it’s delightfully—surprisingly—light and non-greasy, thanks to mango butter starring in the oil blend. If you’ve never worked with mango butter before, you should. In most things non-soap, it’s replaced shea butter for me. It has a consistency very similar to shea butter—soft, rich, and creamy—but it lacks the greasiness of shea butter. Shea butter was one of my first butter loves, so I certainly don’t want to write it off, but a big part of working well with ingredients is acknowledging their strengths and weaknesses; and shea butter is greasy. Depending on your preferences you might consider that to be a strength, but I’m not hugely keen on it—when I first started using it I definitely left greasy finger prints on paper and smears on my sheets, and I guess I just thought that’s how things had to be. But it’s not! Mango butter is just as decadent as shea, but it sinks into your skin so quickly leaving an almost dry feeling (not dries-out-your-skin dry, just not-greasy dry).

How to Make Vanilla Spice Whipped Body Butter

I’ve complimented the mango butter with some mowrah butter and rice bran oil. Mowrah butter is also a soft, creamy butter with a relatively fast absorption speed. It is still oily, but I don’t find it to be heavy. Mowrah (Madhuca longifolia) comes from central and north India, and it goes by many other names including mohua, honey tree, moha, mohua, madhuca, illuppai, mavagam, nattiluppai, and tittinam. The butter is extracted from the seeds, and is mostly composed of palmitic, stearic, and oleic acids (source, source, source). If you don’t have it you can use more mango butter or refined shea butter instead.

How to Make Vanilla Spice Whipped Body Butter

There’s definitely a few fussy bits to making whipped butters that feel nice, whip up, and stay soft after whipping. My attempts from 5+ years ago created things that whipped, to be sure, and they continued to look whipped—they just didn’t feel whipped. Part of this is definitely due to my constant inclusion of cocoa butter in whipped butters… it makes sense that something that is brittle at room temperature would eventually return to that consistency. One of the keys to making a whipped butter that stays soft is using a lot of butters that are soft. A bit of a “duh” moment for me, that 😝

How to Make Vanilla Spice Whipped Body Butter

I think you’re going to love this luscious Vanilla Spice Whipped Body Butter—this batch is large enough to keep some and gift some, too! It’ll fill about 500mL of space, so you could create five 100mL jars, gift four, and save one for yourself 😉 Happy whipping!

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Vanilla Spice Whipped Body Butter

49g | 1.73oz rice bran oil
50g | 1.76oz mowrah butter
100g | 3.53oz mango butter (USA / Canada)

1g | 0.03oz Vitamin E MT-50 (USA / Canada)


1.8g | 8 “blobs” benzoin resinoid
0.31g | 6 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.

3/8 tsp bronze mica

Weigh the rice bran oil, mowrah butter, and mango butter into a smallish, deep, microwave-safe mixing bowl. Melt the oils and butters together with a few 15–20 second bursts in the microwave, stopping to stir and scrape the bowl down between bursts (I needed four 20-second bursts). Once everything has just liquefied, pop the bowl into the freezer and freeze for 15 minutes.

To whip up this beauty, you’ll need a set of electric beaters. We’ll be whipping for 3 minutes, scraping the bowl down, and then freezing for 3 more minutes. And then doing that a few times. Set timers! The whipping will feel like it’s taking way longer than 3 minutes, and 3 minutes of freezing will whip (ha) past without notice. You’re looking for soft peaks, like you’re whipping cream. Yum

Here’s what I did:

  • Whip 3 minutes, scrape down, freeze 3 minutes.
  • Whip 3 minutes, scrape down, freeze 3 minutes.
  • Whip 3 minutes, scrape down, freeze 3 minutes.
  • Add essential oils and mica. Whip 3 minutes, scrape down, leave.

When you think you’re done whipping, leave the body butter for about 20 minutes. After twenty minutes, if the body butter is still marshmallowy and soft, you’re done! Lightly spoon it into two 250mL/8oz tins and enjoy!

Substitutions

  • You can use more mango butter, refined shea butter, or refined cupuacu butter instead of the mowrah butter. Using shea will make for a slower absorbing, greasier final product.
  • You can use a different mid to lightweight liquid oil instead of the rice bran oil
  • Please don’t swap out the mango butter; while shea butter has a similar consistency it is much greasier, and will ruin the fast-absorbing nature of this whipped butter
  • I tried a vanilla fragrance oil instead of the benzoin. I didn’t really love it, but you’re welcome to use one if you have one you like!

How to Make Vanilla Spice Whipped Body Butter