It’s winter. It’s cold, it’s dry, and my skin needs all the help it can get. I’ve been loving this decadent cranberry emulsified body butter lately—it stars some of my favourite skin soothing, moisturizing ingredients and leaves my skin feeling silky smooth, nourished, and happy. It also smells great and makes a fabulous gift. Let’s get making!

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The heated water phase

I’ve kept the heated water phase pretty simple.

Distilled water isn’t very exciting, but it is crucial to the formulation; it acts as a solvent for other water soluble ingredients (coming up soon!), dilutes the oils so this emulsified body butter isn’t as rich as a non-emulsified body butter, and helps hydrate the skin.

Glycerin is a humectant, meaning it holds onto water. This helps slow the evaporation of the water in the formulation so it sticks around longer, keeping our skin hydrated and happy. I’ve used less here than in some past emulsified body butter formulations (like this one)—just 5% instead of 10–15%. I adore lots of glycerin, but by using less, we 1) reduce tackiness and 2) make the finished product feel a wee bit lighter (this is because it dries down faster without lots of glycerin to really hold onto the water).

And lastly, a bit of Panthenol (Vitamin B5) adds some skin-soothing, moisturizing goodness to the formulation. This vitamin is relatively easy-going and lovely for the skin, so I tend to include it most of the things I create.

The heated oil phase

The first ingredient in our heated oil phase brings everything together, as oil and water famously don’t mix: Glyceryl Stearate (and) PEG-100 Stearate. I’ve selected this emulsifier because it’s nearly invisible in emulsions, really letting the other ingredients in the formulation shine. If you don’t have it there are quite a few other options, but they’ll all behave a bit differently and give you a different finished product (just how different will depend on what you use). Emulsifying Wax NF is probably the easiest-to-get swap, and I think Ritamulse SCG is the best natural option. I’ve also written an entire blog post about the impact of swapping out the emulsifying wax in a similar (though much simpler) emulsified body butter formulation—check that out for even more ideas!

Our star emollient was chosen because this was created as a Christmassy formulation: cranberry seed oil. This gorgeous carrier oil is a deep greeny yellow, which is why the finished formulation is a soft buttery yellow. It smells softly juicy/fruity—it’s not obviously “cranberry-y”, but it’s clearly fruity and quite pleasant (to my nose, at least). If you don’t have cranberry seed oil you could easily swap it out for a different liquid carrier oil (just remember that’ll impact the final product, of course!).

Up next, some EcoSil (INCI: Hydrogenated Ethylhexyl Olivate (and) Hydrogenated Olive Oil Unsaponifiables) boosts slip and adds some more emollience—but in a really light, slippy, expensive-feeling way. If you don’t have it feel free to use a different ester instead; options include Isopropyl Myristate, Isoamyl laurate, and C12-15 alkyl benzoate.

Now, and emulsified body butter wouldn’t be an emulsified body butter without some butter, so—mango butter! I love this soft, creamy butter for how surprisingly light it is. It’s still indulgent and delightful, but it’s much less greasy than its more famous buttery cousin—shea butter.

Lastly, a blend of cetyl alcohol and stearic acid thickens this emulsion to a butter, indulgent consistency. I chose cetyl alcohol as the primary fatty thickener because it’s really slippy, and emulsions with larger oil phases can usually use all the help they can get in the slip department lest they start to feel draggy or skiddy. That said, after a few iterations of this formulation I did want a bit more creamy richness, so I added a bit of stearic acid and voila—creamy loveliness. If you don’t have both cetyl alcohol and stearic acid, I think you could swap all 9% for cetearyl alcohol.

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The cool down phase

First up, our preservative: Liquid Germall™ Plus. I did intially experiment with using Optiphen™ Plus instead, but found its phenoxyethanol base caused so much thinning that I wasn’t getting a buttery consistency—so I don’t recommend that swap (this includes any other phenoxyethanol based preservative—read the INCI!) unless you are ok with a dramatically different final consistency.

A wee bit of allantoin adds some more skin-soothing goodness. I love this ingredient because it’s effective at low levels and fairly easy going—if you don’t have any I’d really recommend getting some. It’s cheap, shelf stable, and great!

Some vitamin E (tocopherol) helps delay oxidization, protecting our beautiful cranberry seed oil. To further round out the cranberry theme I’ve included a liquid cranberry extract, but you could easily use a different liquid botanical extract instead, or simply replace it with more distilled water. You could even replace it with more panthenol—just add that to the heated water phase.

For scent, I’m using Red Berry Rhubarb from YellowBee—it really reminds me of The Body Shop’s “Cranberry” line (well… what I remember of it—it’s been a while since I used any of those products, bit I loved them when I was in high school!). You could easily use something else, just be sure it’s approved for use at 0.4% in IFRA category 5A products.

Relevant links & further reading

• Vegetable Glycerin in the Humblebee & Me Encyclopedia
• Panthenol (Vitamin B5) in the Humblebee & Me Encyclopedia
• Glyceryl Stearate (and) PEG-100 Stearate in the Humblebee & Me Encyclopedia
• Cranberry Seed Oil in the Humblebee & Me Encyclopedia
• Mango Butter in the Humblebee & Me Encyclopedia
• Cetyl Alcohol in the Humblebee & Me Encyclopedia
• Stearic Acid in the Humblebee & Me Encyclopedia
• Liquid Germall™ Plus in the Humblebee & Me Encyclopedia
• Allantoin in the Humblebee & Me Encyclopedia
• Tocopherol (Vitamin E) in the Humblebee & Me Encyclopedia
• How long will ______ last? What is its shelf life? in the Humblebee & Me FAQ
• Can I use a different preservative than the one you’ve used? in the Humblebee & Me FAQ
• pH
  • pH meter in the Humblebee & Me Encyclopedia
  • pH measurement in cosmetic lab: why we dilute samples? from Skin Chakra
  • How to adjust the pH of your cosmetic products from Skin Chakra
  • Why do you create a 10% dilution of a formulation before measuring the pH? in the Humblebee & Me FAQ
• More emulsified body butters:
  • Candy Cane Emulsified Body Butter
  • Easy Emulsified Body Butter
  • Chocolate Hazelnut Emulsified Body Butter
  • Oat Cardamom Chai Emulsified Body Butter

Creamy Cranberry Emulsified Body Butter

Heated water phase
225.2g | 56.3% distilled water
20g | 5% vegetable glycerine (USA / Canada)
8g | 2% panthenol powder (vitamin B5) (USA / Canada)

Heated oil phase
16g | 4% Glyceryl Stearate (and) PEG-100 Stearate (USA / Canada / UK & EU / Australia)
36g | 9% cranberry seed oil (USA / Canada / UK)
16g | 4% Hydrogenated Ethylhexyl Olivate (and) Hydrogenated Olive Oil Unsaponifiables (USA / Canada / Germany / Aus)
32g | 8% mango butter (USA / Canada)
24g | 6% cetyl alcohol (USA / Canada / UK / Germany / Aus / NZ)
12g | 3% stearic acid (USA / Canada / UK)

Cool down phase
2g | 0.5% Liquid Germall Plus™ (USA / Canada)
1.2g | 0.3% allantoin (USA / Canada)
2g | 0.5% Vitamin E MT-50 (USA / Canada)
4g | 1% cranberry extract
1.6g | 0.4% fragrance

Prepare a water bath by bringing about 3cm/1″ of water to a bare simmer over low to medium-low heat in a wide, flat-bottomed sauté pan.

Weigh the heated water phase into a small heat-resistant glass measuring cup or glass beaker. Weigh the entire lot (measuring cup + ingredients) and note that weight for use later. Weigh the heated oil phase into a second heat-resistant glass measuring cup. Place both measuring cups in your prepared water bath to melt everything through.

After about 20–30 minutes the oil part should be completely melted and the water part should be thoroughly dissolved. Remove the water bath from the heat and weigh the water phase. Add enough hot distilled water to the heated water phase to bring the weight back up to what it was before heating, and then pour the water part into the oil part. Stir with a flexible silicone spatula to incorporate.

Grab your immersion blender and begin blending the emulsion, starting with short bursts so the still-very-liquid emulsion doesn’t whirl up and spray everywhere. Blend for about a minute before switching to hand stirring. You’ll need to be fairly diligent with the stirring at first, but once the mixture has thickened up a bit and is uniform you can switch to stirring occasionally. Once the outside of the glass measuring cup is just warm to the touch (40°C or cooler, if you have a thermometer) we’re ready to proceed.

Now it’s time to incorporate our cool down ingredients. Because cool down ingredients are typically present at very low amounts you’ll need to use an accurate scale—preferably one accurate to 0.01g. As these more accurate scales tend to have fairly low (100–200g) maximum weights you won’t be able to put the entire batch of emulsified body butter on that scale without blowing it out. So—grab a smaller dish. Add a scoop or two of emulsified body butter, and then weigh the cool down ingredients into that, using the more accurate scale. Stir to thoroughly incorporate, and then stir all of that back into the master batch of emulsified body butter. Doing it this way minimizes the amount of cool down ingredients lost to the secondary container.

Once the cool down phase has been incorporated, all that’s left to do is package it up! I recommend a wide-mouthed jar or tub as this formulation is far too thick for a pump-top bottle.

Shelf Life & Storage

Because this formulation contains water, you must include a broad-spectrum preservative to ward off microbial growth. This is non-optional. With good manufacturing practice and proper preservation, this formulation should last at least a year. Even with a preservative, this project may eventually spoil as our kitchens are not sterile laboratories, so in the event you notice any change in colour, scent, or texture, chuck it out and make a fresh batch.

Substitutions

As always, be aware that making substitutions will change the final product. While these swaps won’t break the formulation, you will get a different final product than I did.

• As I’ve provided this formulation 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 formulation will make 400g.
• 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 please look up the ingredient in the encyclopedia before asking.
• You could replace the glycerin with Propanediol 1,3 or butylene glycol.
• I don’t recommend substituting out the Panthenol (Vitamin B5)
• You can change up the emulsifying wax, but that will change the final product. Please review this blog post to understand how using Olivem 1000, BTMS-25, BTMS-50, Ritamulse SCG (Emulsimulse, ECOMulse), or Emulsifying Wax NF instead of Glyceryl Stearate (and) PEG-100 Stearate will impact the emulsified body butter.
• You can substitute another lightweight oil like sweet almond, grapeseed, or sunflower seed instead of cranberry seed oil.
• You can replace the EcoSil with a different slippy ester like Isoamyl cocoate, Isoamyl laurate, Isopropyl Myristate, or Coco-Caprylate.
• Refined shea butter or refined murumuru butter will work instead of mango butter.
• I don’t recommend swapping out the Cetyl Alcohol or Stearic Acid. If you absolutely have to, I’d replace them both with Cetearyl Alcohol.
• If you’re like to use a different preservative, please review this FAQ and this chart. Be aware that Optiphen™ Plus (or other preservatives based around phenoxyethanol) will cause dramatic thinning.
• You can replace the cranberry extract with a different liquid extract, more panthenol (Vitamin B5), or more distilled water.
• You can replace the allantoin with more distilled water or more niacinamide (Vitamin B3).
• If you’d like to incorporate an essential oil, please read this.