Reader Question - Using Jojoba Esters in Body Butters

It's almost that time again when the summer months will be very hot and humid in North Carolina.  I wanted you to tell me about the different jojoba waxes; (50,60,70).  I wanted to know if you think that adding the MP-70 jojoba wax with some beeswax will help the body butters from melting so much.  My butters are getting popular; and they are oil based; and I didn't necessarily want to change from oil based to water based because that's what makes them so unique, I need all the help that I can get.  I usually keep them on ice--then I give to customers, I tell customers NOT to leave them in the car or in the pocketbook.  Any more suggestions will be appreciated. - Antoinette

Hello Antoinette,

Thanks for asking about Jojoba Esters.  Like liquid Jojoba, Jojoba Esters are a very special type of wax.  When they are cool, they are firm and waxy, but when they are warmed they melt into the lovely and familiar texture of Jojoba Oil.  I find Jojoba Esters to be a great way to increase the firmness of whipped body butters without making them feel overly waxy.  They harden well, but will soften upon skin contact, making them a perfect additive for Body Butters.  To determine exactly how much of the Esters to add to your existing formula, I would recommend experimenting with Jojoba Esters 70, the hardest of the esters, by adding it to your body butters at a rate of 5%, 10%, and 15%.  (The softer esters aren't likely to make a noticeable difference in this type of formula.)  Compare the three experimental batches to see how they feel on your skin, and how the behave when you subject them to various temperatures.  Of course, no additive can completely protect an oil based product from melting in extreme temperatures, but by adding Jojoba Esters you may be able to improve your butters' resilience slightly.  Many handmade skin care purveyors choose not to offer their body butters online during the summer for this very reason. Mail and UPS trucks can get extremely hot. So hot, that even firm lip balms have been known to melt during transit.  Another option you might consider, is to notify your customers of the danger of melting, and then let them choose, based on their local temperatures, whether or not to take the chance of ordering it during the summer.

Does anyone else have tips for dealing with summer heat and melting products?  How do you protect your recipes when the weather heats up?  Share your experiences in the comments below.

Comments

[Bonnie Speigle]

I was thinking about the same problem with shipping my whipped body butters. I figured that if you can ship chocolates in the summer you should be able to ship the body butters. I hate to direct you to another blog, but the information is extremely useful about summer packaging.

Here is the link to the original blog article: http://www.thechocolatelife.com/forum/topics/summer-shipping-tips-tricks

Hope you find this as helpful as I did.

Bonnie

[Emmy Gabriel]

Using chocolate as a reference for shipping handmade skin care products was definitely a brilliant idea.  Im sure that chocolate makers go through very similar dilemmas during warm weather.  Thank you for providing a link to the answers that you found.  I hope it can help folks in our community during the hot months of summer.