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Shea Butter

I recently discovered a local store that sells shea butter. Has anyone ever achieved good results by adding it directly to creams or soaps while working up a lather? Any advice is welcome. I realize there are many products available that already contain shea butter but I thought it might be fun to do a little experimenting.
 
Shea tends to make it harder to make lather (think about putting a finger on a beer's head to make it go away). There are some good products out there with shea, but it is better left to the professionals, IMO. Still, it can't hurt to play around, but don't expect fantastic results.

Let us know if you try it.
 
I recently discovered a local store that sells shea butter. Has anyone ever achieved good results by adding it directly to creams or soaps while working up a lather? Any advice is welcome. I realize there are many products available that already contain shea butter but I thought it might be fun to do a little experimenting.

I have never tried this, but I can say the shea butter I've bought from Whole Foods was a bit thick to be lathering with.

What I have used it for was a body moisturizer. You take a (small) dab of it into your palm, rub together to melt and turn into an oil, then slather on. Works well for that. Also, as Michael noted, it might make a good moisturizer for those with dry skin (but I wouldn't replace an ASB for shea butter - the ASB will have skin-healing ingredients and properties that the shea does not possess.)
 
Butters are oils that are in solid form, usually at room temperature 70 degrees or less. Shea' is a wonderful oil and can be very healing for the skin and is used often in creams and balms. It is also used to make soaps, but remember that it has been saponified when it is in a soap and is no longer truly oil/butter.

Adding an oil to your soap will actually decrease your lather, not add to it, I like Scotto's description of the finger on the beer foam... the salt from your finger will reduce the foam and the oil will reduce lather. It is a wonderful oil but it is not a lather enhancer, just the opposite.

It might make a lovely preshave oil for those who are disposed to use this. To melt a butter, just raise it's temperature by melting or rubbing between your hands, your body temperature is enough to melt it back into a liquid form.

I like to whip shea butter when it is at room temp or in solid form.. it makes it more fluffy and light so you are using it less concentrated when you put it on your skin and it goes alot further this way and doesn't leave as much oily residue. But either whipped, or as a solid, this is an oil that your skin will love!!
 
I like to whip shea butter when it is at room temp or in solid form.. it makes it more fluffy and light so you are using it less concentrated when you put it on your skin and it goes alot further this way and doesn't leave as much oily residue.


Sue - how does one go about doing this?
 
Sue - how does one go about doing this?

Just toss it in a blender. You want to do this while it is cool and solid so that it doesn't just melt to oil tho.

A lot of people will add other oils to it while whipping such as meadowfoam seed oil, apricot kernel oil, vitamin E, grapeseed oil and many also add some fragrance, which can be natural as essential oils or sythentic as a fragrance oil, when they do this. Don't add too much oil (I am not sure of the percentages unfortunately) or it will not solidify or whip. There are a lot of wonderful extracts that can also be added.. just put what you like in it.. just not too much. :smile: Coco butter can also be used, but I have heard that cocoabutter will clog pores, so I wouldn't recommend it. :smile:

Bear Hugs
 
Taken from Vermont Soaps website... http://www.vermontsoap.com/ This is quite helpful in describing what makes lather.... I hope this helps... :001_cool:

Soap is very unusual, acting like a snake with two heads. The oily head hates water and the alkali head loves water. When you mix soap and water, this love/hate relationship causes soap to lather. There is an inverse relationship between lather and moisture. Increase moisture and you decrease lather. Handmade soaps have a lot of moisture by their nature. Lather is not their strongest point - mildness is. Some water is harder (minerals) than others. Hard water gives poor lather. (this is part of why detergents dominate mass market)
Soap lathers best in warm/hot water and less in cold
Hairy people make more lather! Smooth skinned people (and more women than men) often use a loofa or bath puff to enhance lather.
Handmade soap cured LONGER will lather better, due to the decreased moisture content. The older the bar, the better it lathers (but the scent lessens over time). Different batches will have slightly different lather qualities due to atmospheric irregularities. Soaps made during a high pressure system lather a bit better than those made in low pressure. Humditity will effect how quickly a bar cures, which effects latherability.
Soaps with mud, clay, honey, or lots of chunky stuff are harder to work into a lather. Aloe vera makes a creamy, small bubbled lather. Milk proteins are similar, but with larger, looser bubbles. Citrus oils enhance lather slightly.
Soap formulas that are high in coconut oil lather better, but the more coconut oil you use, the harsher the soap.
 
You might have more luck using a little as an aftershave balm.

i would agree here, i think it would work the best afterwords. since it would act as an unsaponified fat, making the soap and fat (think grease) cancel each other out. so if you added it to a soap lather then the lather would more than likely die.

let us know if you decide to try it though.
 
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