9.5g Organic filtered cocoa butter 14g Almond butter 14g Mango butter 20g Unrefined baobab (cos I really like it Smiley) 25g Cyclo alternative 5g Herbal fusion (althea, hope , marigold, St. Johns Wort, mallow and juniperberry - synergistic blend for dry skin) 2g Vit E 10g Emulsifier (added because I just love the way this emulsifier makes the skin feel after application and was interested to see what it did in this type of formulation) 0.5g FO
I wanted a light, mousse-like balm. I am really pleased with how this feels on the skin. I think the emulsifier really does add something to the product, plus the cyclo alterenative does, without a doubt, 'cut' the oily feel. Of course, it is completely lipid based so will take longer to absorb than a cream, but there is no doubt that absorption is much quicker, it is far less tacky and spreads lovely on the skin. The after-feel is amazing (I have used nearly half of it already).
I heated all the butters for at least 15 minutes, then added the baobab and 'cyclo' and began stick blending to oblivion over a cold bath. When it had cooled (but still fluid), I added the herbal blend, vit E and the FO, stick blended for a few more minutes, potten then in the fridge (where is still is). I now think this would have been better gently mixed and not blended to produce a more dense end-product. This said, I absolutely love the way this feels on the skin.
Regarding the frangrance, I usually go for EO's but as I more interested in how the ingredients behaved and interacted, the addition of a FO was just a last-minute thing. It is a Peony and Amyris FO, which is lovely but this balm (in my opinion) begs to smell of coconut (like the suncream/oil) and I think with a small amount of mica for shimmer would make it really gorgeous for the summer.
All in all I am totally smitten with this. Please feel free to use and develop the formula further
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