The Best Mango Butter Lotion Bar Recipe You Will Make
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Calling this mango butter lotion bar recipe “the best” is a pretty bold statement. So let me explain why I think this is the best lotion bar recipe out there.
1. Unbeatable skin feel. This mango butter solid lotion spreads thinly and absorbs quickly. It leaves the skin feeling silky.
2. Specially selected ingredients that reduce greasiness and improve skin feel: mango butter is naturally less greasy than most common butters, candelilla wax is thin and absorbs quickly leaving no thick, sticky feel that you may get with beeswax, BTMS-50 reduces greasiness and provides conditioning skin feel.
3. The recipe tutorial explains how to heat and cool down your ingredients correctly to avoid your DIY lotion bars becoming grainy.
4. The recipe is vegan.
5. Simple to make.
6. Simple to modify. The final lotion bar is light in color and has almost no scent, so it is very easy to modify it. You can add any color or scent you want to make it more interesting.
I hope these points made you excited to try this recipe. Without further ado let’s jump into the ingredients you will need to make this mango butter lotion bar.
Mango Butter and why it’s great for solid lotion bars
I enjoy working with different butters and I think all of them are great and have their unique strong qualities. But if I would have to choose my favourite natural butter for making solid lotion bars, I would without hesitation say – mango butter.
There are 2 simple reasons for that.
1. Mango butter is very easy to work with. It is light in colour, has almost no scent, has a medium melting temperature and is way less greasy than Shea butter for example.
Think for a minute about all the other butters out there, most of them are either greasy, or dark coloured or have a strong scent that is difficult to mask. Those qualities are lovely and unique but it means you cannot simply create anything you want with these butters. You need to adjust to their unique properties. While mango butter is very easy to work with and will work with pretty much any recipe.
2. Mango butter is a great moisturizer that melts on skin contact and gets absorbed by the skin without leaving a greasy film. It provides long-lasting emollience and boosts skin’s elasticity, contributing to a healthier more youthful skin.
Now that you know why mango butter is great for lotion bars (and not only), let’s go through other ingredients you will need to make mango butter lotion bar.
Other ingredients
Jojoba Oil
Jojoba oil is technically a wax ester and not an oil. It resembles human sebum and everyone’s skin loves it. It can be heated, has a long shelf life, a very nice and light skin feel and almost no scent. It doesn’t feel greasy and doesn’t clog pores.
Candelilla wax
Candelilla wax is a plant based wax and a great vegan alternative to beeswax. It is skin conditioning, easily absorbed and odourless. Solid lotion bars made with candelilla wax spread thinly, glide on skin well and absorb quickly.
It is also non comedogenic (won’t clog your pores) and hypoallergenic (beeswax is not).
Candelilla wax vs beeswax
Candelilla wax spreads thinly and provides good lubricity. Beeswax is thicker, softer and stickier. The lotion bar made with beeswax will generally be thicker and slower-absorbing. This makes beeswax superior for lotion bars that will be used on very dry, rough skin such as elbows, feet, etc. Candelilla wax is superior for lotion bars that will be used all over the body as it feels nicer, glides better and absorbs fast.
Substituting candelilla wax with beeswax
If you can’t get candelilla wax, you can replace it with beeswax, but, the final lotion bar won’t feel the same.
Candelilla wax is harder than beeswax, so when substituting, use double the amount of beeswax. So if the recipe calls for 10g of candelilla wax, use 20g of beeswax.
BTMS- 50 IN A LOTION BAR. WHY YOU SHOULD ADD IT?
BTMS-50 is a gentle emulsifying and conditioning agent. It’s a very popular and loved ingredient for hair conditioners and emulsified lotions but few know that it can do absolute wonders in anhydrous recipes too.
When used in a lotion bar recipe, BTMS-50 acts as a conditioning agent and creates the most luxurious, silky skin feel. It helps to cut down greasiness and really takes the product feel to a different level.
It brings additional benefit for those who like to use their lotion bars on a damp skin after the shower. Since BTMS-50 is an emulsifier, when applied to damp skin it emulsifies oils on the skin like a lotion would, leading to a better absorption.
Vitamin E
Vitamin E oil is a well-known antioxidant and anti-aging ingredient. I add it to almost all my oil-based formulations because it helps to extend shelf life of oils and I get to enjoy them longer.
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Mango Butter Lotion Bar Recipe
This recipe makes 2 homemade mango lotion bars. Recipe is for 110g, each bar weighs 55 g.
♥ 45% | 49.5 g – Mango butter
♥ 34% | 37.4 g – Jojoba Oil
♥ 15% | 16.5 g – Candellila wax
♥ 4.5% – 5 g – BTMS-50 emulsifier
♥ 1% | 1.1 g – Vitamin E
♥ 0.5% | 0.55 g – Fragrance oil (or essential oils)
Mango Butter Lotion Bar Recipe
Ingredients
Instructions
- Heat your candelilla wax, BTMS-50 and mango butter in a double boiler over gently simmering water until melted.
- Once the ingredients are fully melted, set a timer and continue to heat them for another 15 minutes. * A common mistake is to assume that our oils and waxes are fully melted when we don’t see any solid parts in the pan. However, ingredients have invisible crystals that need to melt too. If removed from the heat too early, it will result in a grainy lotion bar. To ensure that ingredients are fully melted, wait till the oils are clear with no solid particles and then heat them for another 15 min. This is called “tempering” and is a practice used to make chocolate.
- Add jojoba oil and heat until the ingredients look clear without any cloudiness.
- Then add fragrance oil and vitamin E. Mix well and pour into the silicone tray.
- Immediately place the silicone tray to a freezer until set and opaque (for about 20-30 minutes). Then place into a fridge for a couple of hours.
- Remove from the fridge, allow to reach room temperature overnight.
- Remove from trays. Your mango butter lotion bars are ready to use!
I’m not understanding what this bar is? Do I use it like a soap on wet body, or use it out of shower on dry body (somehow). Thank you for directions after it’s made.
It is a moisturizing bar. You rub it between your hands which melts it , and then rub on parts of your body like it was lotion. It is just lotion in a bar.
Do you have a link for the soap mold you have pictured of the lotion bar in article