Chocolate Body Butter Recipe for Dry Skin Care - Soap Deli News (2024)

Learn how to make chocolate body butter to moisturize dry skin. My no fragrance added chocolate body butter recipe has a delicious chocolate scent derived from the roasted cocoa butter and other natural ingredients used to make this natural body moisturizer. It can be made with or without essential oils, however, if you’d like to add a fragrance to your homemade body butter.

Keep reading to discover my easy body butter recipe, as well as coffee essential oil blends you can use to make homemade body butter scented with chocolate and coffee.

Chocolate Body Butter

My chocolate body butter is a delight for the senses. Formulated as a non-greasy body butter, this natural body moisturizer has a rich, chocolate scent. This natural fragrance is derived from the roasted cocoa butter I chose for this recipe. I also used raw cacao powder to boost the chocolate notes, and give my homemade body butter a bit of color.

In addition to the chocolate scented ingredients, I also crafted my chocolate body butter recipe with shea butter and camellia seed oil, a non-greasy oil has similar properties to coconut oil. Cornstarch is also used to thicken the final product and keep it from feeling greasy.

As coffee and chocolate go so well together, I’ve also include coffee essential oil blends you can use to scent your chocolate cocoa butter. You add a more chocolatey scent using cocoa absolute, or make this homemade body butter more reminiscent of coffee and chocolate candies by adding either coffee absolute, coffee essential oil or a coffee essential oil blend.

What is Body Butter?

Body butters are a natural body moisturizer that moisturize and nourish skin. Suited for before and after sun care, as well as dry skin, body butters are most commonly made with a combination of semi-solid or solid butters and a carrier oil. These ingredients are melted, then mixed together to create the final product.

Body butter is similar to a lotion or body cream. Like lotion, both are good moisturizers for dry skin. However, many people prefer to make body butter at home because it’s easier than making lotion. As body butters do not contain water as an ingredients, you do you not need to emulsify body butters. You also do not need a preservative to prevent the growth of mold or bacteria, as there is no water that enables their growth.

A typical body butter recipe is usually made with shea butter and a carrier oil, such as sweet almond oil or coconut oil. Homemade body butter recipes can also contain other ingredients, such as essential oils for fragrance, and other ingredients that give the butters varying skin care properties.

Is Body Butter Better Than Lotion?

Depending on your needs, body butter is typically better than lotion if you have really dry skin. While body butters are formulated using shea butter, carrier oils and/or other similar moisturizing skin care ingredients, lotion is not. Instead, lotion is comprised mostly of water. Therefore it contains fewer moisturizing ingredients. While both products make good skin moisturizers, body butters will definitely moisturize your skin better than a lotion. Therefore homemade body butters are a better choice if you suffer from dry skin.

However, it’s also important to keep in mind that body butter is heavier than lotion. In some cases you may find that some homemade body butter recipes can leave your skin feeling greasy. In this case, you’d want to make a body butter recipe that incorporates dry carrier oils and/or arrowroot powder (or cornstarch) to formulate a non-greasy body butter recipe. This will keep you skin moisturizer from feeling oily when applied to skin.

If you want to avoid a heavy or greasy feeling all together, then I recommend using a lotion or a cream. As lotions and creams are emulsified, they will soak into your skin quicker with making skin feel oily or greasy. However, you may find that lotion needs to be reapplied more often as a result as they are the thinnest skin moisturizer. Both lotions and creams also lack the skin protectant properties that body butters can offer, being the thickest of these skin care products.

Can I Use Body Butter Everyday?

Yes, you can use body butter every day. It might be too heavy for daily use, so use it once a week or every few days if your skin isn’t very dry. However, if you have rough spots or very dry skin, you can use it daily.

What Is Cocoa Butter?

In short, cocoa butter is a plant fat that is pressed from the seeds of the cacao tree. It is used to make both chocolate as well as natural skin care products. In skin care, cocoa butter helps to thicken skin moisturizers and other body care products as well as add a creamy texture. It is a moisturizing, hard butter that is solid at room temperature.

Skin Care Benefits of Cocoa Butter

When used in skin care applications, cocoa butter has many natural skin care benefits. The benefits of cocoa butter include:

• Cocoa butter is high in fatty acids as well as oleic, palmitic, and stearic acids that help to hydrate and nourish skin, as well as improve skin elasticity.
• The fatty acids in cocoa butter help form a protective barrier to lock in skin’s moisture and prevent moisture loss.
• Cocoa butter is highly moisturizing, therefore it’s well suited for dry skin.
• It’s non-greasy, therefore it’s a key ingredient used to make non-greasy body butters.
• Certain components of cocoa butter may help with acne breakouts.
• The antioxidants found in cocoa butter can help to reduce the visible signs of aging.
• Cocoa butter may promote healing caused by dry or damaged skin.
• Some people with eczema or dermatitis have noticed relief of symptoms with regular use of cocoa butter.

Therefore, cocoa butter is one of the main ingredients, along with shea butter, used to make my chocolate body butter recipe.

What Essential Oils are Good for Body Butter?

There are many essential oils that are good for body butter recipes. However, one of my favorite essential oils to use in body butter recipes is coffee essential oil or coffee absolute. Not only does coffee absolute smell like a fresh pot of roasted coffee, it typically blends well with the natural chocolate fragrance of raw or roasted cocoa butter often used an ingredient in homemade body butters. In addition, its scent also blends well with raw shea butter, another common ingredient using to make homemade body butter.

Benefits of Coffee Essential Oil

Coffee essential oil is also great for skin. Following are the skin care benefits coffee essential oil can lend to your homemade body butter recipes:

• Due to its antioxidants, coffee essential oil is anti-aging and photoprotective. Therefore, it may help reduce the visible signs of aging.
• Coffee essential oil is a topical analgesic. This makes it useful for those who suffer from arthritis or joint pain.
• As an anti-inflammatory, this essential oil helps to increase blood flow and reduce inflammation. In turn this helps with pain and can also promote healing.
• Coffee essential oil contains caffeic acid. This naturally occurring acid has antimicrobial properties that help protect the skin against germs and may help to prevent acne.

Coffee essential oil is also very affordable ways to scent your homemade body butter recipes. However, it is important to keep in mind that coffee essential oil is not kid-safe. It may also cause some skin sensitization if used undiluted. Therefore I recommend using this essential oil at a low usage rate in homemade body butter recipes.

Coffee Essential Oil Blends

Here are my favorite coffee essential oil blends you can use to scent my chocolate body butter recipe:

• Vanilla Latte: 18 drops coffee absolute + 18 drops vanilla absolute + 6 drops cinnamon leaf essential oil
• Peppermint Mocha: 15 drops cocoa absolute + 15 drops coffee absolute + 10 drops vanilla absolute + 5 drops Oregon peppermint essential oil
• Cardamom & Orange Coffee: 12 drops cardamom + 12 drops sweet orange + 8 drops coffee absolute + 8 drops vanilla absolute
• Peppermint Coffee: 16 drops Oregon peppermint essential oil + 16 drops coffee absolute + 8 drops vanilla absolute

Chocolate Body Butter Ingredients

These are the ingredients you need to make a fragrant chocolate body butter recipe without essential oils:

• Roasted Cocoa Butter Wafers: I used roasted cocoa butter wafers to give my homemade body butter a rich, natural chocolate fragrance without having to use a fragrance. The have all the same skin care benefits as cocoa butter, and the wafer form makes them easier to work with when making chocolate scented body butters.
• Refined Shea Butter: In order to allow the natural chocolate scent of the raw cocoa butter to shine through in this recipe, I used refined shea butter rather than raw shea butter to make this skin moisturizer.
• Camellia Seed Oil: Camellia seed oil is a lightweight carrier oil, similar to fractionated coconut oil. Cold pressed from the seeds of the tea plant, this oil is a gentle moisturizer that blends well in body butter formulations. It has a comedogenic rating of 1, therefore this oil is not likely to clog pores like other heavier oils.
• Vegetable Based Emulsifying Wax: Emulsifying wax is used to make recipe an emulsified body butter. This vegetable based wax gives this homemade body butter a smooth feel and helps to keep it from feeling oily on skin.
• Cornstarch: I chose to use cornstarch in this recipe as both a natural thickener and to prevent my body butter from feeling greasy. The cornstarch makes this body moisturizer feel smoother upon application. While you can use arrowroot powder as a substitute, I feel like arrowroot can sometimes give body butter a grainy and/or dry feeling that cornstarch does not.

Optional Ingredients

Here are the optional ingredients you can use to make chocolate body butter with essential oils:

• Essential Oil or Essential Oil Blend: You can scent your homemade body butter using 36 to 48 drops of cocoa absolute, coffee absolute, coffee essential oil or one of the coffee essential oils blends.
• Raw Cacao Powder: Raw cacao powder can be incorporated into this chocolate body butter recipe to enhance the natural chocolate fragrance and to give this body moisturizer a light tan color. Alternately, you may also use roasted cacao powder for a slightly different aroma and richer color.

Tools Needed

You need the following equipment and tools to make this natural chocolate body butter recipe with or without essential oils:

• Digital Kitchen Scale: You will need an accurate digital kitchen scale to weigh the ingredients for this non-greasy body butter recipe. I recommend a scale that weighs ingredients in both grams and ounces.
• Large Glass Bowl or Measuring Cup: I recommend a one-quart glass measuring cup for mixing and pouring your homemade body butter into containers.
• Containers with Lids: This recipe makes about 9 fluid ounces of product and about 8.2 oz. by weight. Therefore you should choose your body butter containers accordingly.
• Double Boiler: A double boiler is needed to melt the homemade body butter ingredients in order to combine them into a semi-solid product. This allows you to slowly melt the ingredients at a low heat.
• Utensils: You will use a whisk or fork to whip the ingredients together to mix. A spatula is also used to scrape the remaining body butter into the containers.
• Measuring spoons: A teaspoon measuring spoon is used to measure out the cacao powder.

How to Make Chocolate Body Butter

Here’s how make chocolate body butter without essential oils:

1. Weigh out the roasted cocoa butter wafers, shea butter, camellia seed oil and emulsifying wax into a double boiler. Heat over medium heat until the ingredients have melted.
2. Once the butters and wax have melted, remove to quart glass measuring cup or bowl.
3. Weigh out the cornstarch. Then whisk the cornstarch into the melted ingredients until it fully dissolves, and no clumps remain.
4. Next, use a teaspoon measuring spoon to measure out the raw or roasted cacao powder, if using. Whisk the powder into the body butter until fully incorporated throughout the mixture.
5. Finally, pour the now liquid body butter into the container or containers you’ve chosen.
6. Allow the chocolate body butter to cool completely. Then screw the lids onto the containers.

How to Make Body Butter with Essential Oils

If you’d like to enhance the chocolate fragrance of my chocolate body butter recipe, you can make this body butter with essential oils. Here’s how to incorporate essential oils into this chocolate body butter recipe:

• To add an essential oil or essential blend to your homemade body butter, simply add 36-48 drops of essential oil to the melted ingredients after you remove the mixture from heat. Stir to combine.
• Then add the additional ingredients called for in the skin care recipe. Complete the recipe as indicated.

How to Make Whipped Body Butter:

Here is how to turn this homemade body butter recipe into a whipped body butter:

1. To make whipped chocolate body butter, create the recipe as indicated above. However, don’t pour the body butter into individual containers. Instead leave the liquid body butter mixture for your homemade body butter in the container used for mixing in the additional ingredients.
2. Now place the emulsified cocoa body butter in your refrigerator to cool. Once the mixture starts to look opaque, remove it from the refrigerator.
3. After you’ve taken the body butter out of the refrigerator, use the whisk attachment on an immersion blender or a hand mixer to whip the cocoa body butter for a more dense whipped body butter.
4. Whip the body butter to your desired fluffiness. However, be sure not to over whip your whipped body butter as the heat from mixing can cause it to deflate.
5. Once whipped, spoon the whipped body butter into containers.

Tip: If your body butter doesn’t seem to be whipping, it could be that the mixture is still too warm. In this case, allow the body butter to cool for an additional amount of time. Then try again. For faster cooling times, you can also place the emulsified body butter mixture into the freezer for 5-10 minutes, as needed.

How to Use and Store Homemade Body Butter

To use this chocolate body butter, scoop out a small amount. Then massage onto skin until all of the skin moisturizer has been absorbed.

Take care not to use too much product at one time. While this body moisturizer is typically non-greasy once massaged into skin, overuse can leave some of the product sitting on top of the skin. This in turn can give skin a greasy or oily feeling.

Store your body butter in a dark colored jar or container. I used these low profile, thick walled PET amber jarto store my chocolate body butter until use. You’ll also want to keep the container in a cool, location away from excess heat.

Other Ways to Make Chocolate Body Butter

For a fun variation on my chocolate body butter recipe, you can also make my chocolate orange body butter.

How Long Does Homemade Body Butter Last?

Most body butters will last anywhere from 6 months to 1 year. Of course, the actual shelf life of any homemade body butter recipe comes down to the ingredients.

All of the various ingredients used to make homemade body butter have a different shelf life. Some oils and butters used to make body moisturizers have a short shelf life of 3-6 months. Others, like shea butter, have a long shelf life of 1-2 years. As long as the ingredients used to make your homemade body butters don’t get rancid, they are still okay to use.

However, determining how long a specific body butter recipe will last depends on two things — the shelf life of the ingredients and the freshness of the ingredients. Assuming all ingredients are bought fresh, assuring a maximum shelf life, your homemade body butter will last as long as the ingredient with the shortest shelf life.

As homemade body butter recipes don’t contain water, you don’t need to use a preservative. This means, however, that it’s important to keep your body moisturizer away from moisture and only use clean, dry hands to get the butter out of the container.

I also recommend you use a small spoon or even a spatula to remove the product from the container. By doing this, you won’t accidentally introduce germs from your hands into the container.

How to Extend the Shelf Life of Homemade Body Butter Recipes

Should you wish to extend the shelf life of your chocolate body butter recipe, you can add an antioxidant to your natural skin care formulations. Vitamin E oil is a common antioxidant that extends the shelf life of carrier oils to help prevent rancidity. It works well in homemade body butter recipes.

I like the vitamin E oil from Mountain Rose Herbs. There are many types of vitamin E. However, the oil from this company is rich in delta and gamma tocopherols, a natural choice for antioxidant function. It is obtained by vacuum distillation of vegetable fats derived from non-GMO soy sources. This oil is comprised of 18-20% mixed tocopherols and measures close to 7500 I.U. per ounce. In addition, it is 100% dispersible in other fats and oils.

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