Skin Care Saturday: Plant-Based Ingredients - Our Secret Weapons

Since my quest for natural products started almost 10 years ago, I have learned a lot about chemical nasties in skin and hair care products, but I have also learned a ton about great natural ingredients that benefit the skin in different ways. This week I want to talk about some of the reasons we use the ingredients we do for our products. We will mainly discuss our most common ingredients used in our various soap.


1. Avocado oil
This is admittedly one of my favorite oils to use hands down. It is very conditioning to the skin and makes for a cream lather, or a nice feeling in stay-on products like our upcoming hair oil.

2. Castor oil
While this oil is known as an old-school oil used in home remedies etc, it is often a base oil for many soaps because of it's conditioning qualities and it's ability to create bubbles and a creamy lather.

3. Coconut oil
Considered a wonder oil from cooking to oil pulling, this is another staple oil in many recipes because of it's cleaning properties once it goes through the soaponification process. This is why it is usually not used at 100% in soaps unless they are for cleaning. Babassu oil performs the same way and is a great alternative to those with coconut oil of sustainable palm oil allergies. I have used Babassu in my last two shampoo bar formulations, and might use add it as a staple ingredient in many future products.

4. Shea butter
Ever since the moment I used a shea body butter ten years ago, I have been a permanent convert ever since. A couple of months ago I wrote an entire post just about shea butter. I use it in most products, not just because it conditions the skin, but it also because it doesn't clog pores. For me shea butter is like a miracle ingredient. You can use it for just about everything and people even cook with it in Africa!

5. Olive oil
Not only is olive oil an incredible cooking staple, it is a luxurious soap oil. It is one of the most conditioning oils and it also adds hardness to the soap as well. It is one of the few oils that can be used a 100% in soap without being drying or having an adverse affect. It adds an incredible creamy lather as well.

6. Coconut milk
Next to avocado oil and shea butter, coconut milk is in my top three favorite products. Over several months last year I ran several experiments to test whether or not goat's or coconut milk is superior. Coconut milk won hands down, while goat's milk actually left my skin itchy! I was really surprised given all of the raving about goat's milk. This was one of the final straws that had us commit to plant-based products only: clearly coconut milk produced a creamier, more conditioning bar.

8. Cocoa butter
I love cocoa butter (though not as much as shea butter!), especially the chocolate-smell (who can resist that?!?). Cocoa butter is a natural way to add hardness to soap (make it last longer) and adds creaminess and conditioning. I use it in small doses, as it can be expensive; but even small amounts can make a huge difference in a bar.

9. Other Ingredients
In the past we have also used palm oil, which is great for cleansing and conditioning, but given the ongoing issues with it, we would only use sustainable palm oil in the future after our current supply is depleted. We have made a commitment to plant-based materials that are vegan friendly in the last few months as we have drawn our conclusions that plant-based products are superior to animal-based products.

Visit our store to find all of our products with the mentioned skin-loving ingredients. We just added a bunch of mini-soap bars and a couple of sampler sets so you can try out different bars.

         


Marquita Bell is soaper-in-chief and the owner of The Body Buffet where foodie meets beauty. Based out of Philadelphia, The Body Buffet aims to cultivate beauty inside and out from foodie adventures, self-care tips, and via handmade artisan soap, shampoo bars, facial bars, laundry soap and more. They use local ingredients when possible and have aimed to make conditioning skin-loving, hair-loving, clothes-loving soap since 2009.

Skin Care Saturday: Fixing Grainy Shea Butter

 Have you ever dealt with grainy shea butter? I was horrified when I first started using shea butter. I didn't understand why it would end up with grit that felt almost like sand.

After doing some research I found out that shea butter that is melted and cooled too slowly, would end up with the grainy texture. As the warmer weather creeps up, shea butter will melt down, and depending on how warm it is, will stay in liquid form. However, when it cools back down, it will often result in grainy texture. This results in the stearic acid separating from the other fats, resulting in the grainy texture.

The easiest way to fix this is by placing the shea butter in a heat proof container, and using a heat source such as a microwave or double boiler method to melt it completely.

After it is melted, stick it in the freezer and check on it periodically until it has resolidified. Then allow it to cool back down to room temperature. If your room temperature still causes it to melt, store in the fridge or simply melt it down right before each use. You want to be careful not to over heat the butter as it can lower the quality and cause any scent to vaporize.

While shea butter can be a little bit annoying to maintain during warmer weather, the small hinderance is minuscule to the amount of conditioning and softness it gives your skin.



Marquita Bell is soaper-in-chief and the owner of The BodyBuffet where foodie meets beauty. Based out of Philadelphia, The Body Buffet aims to cultivate beauty inside and out from foodie adventures, self-care tips, and via handmade artisan soap, shampoo bars, facial bars, laundry soap and more. They use local ingredients when possible and have aimed to make conditioning skin-loving, hair-loving, clothes-loving soap since 2009. 

Skinspiration: Shea Butter

A new season always triggers me to start from scratch in some way. I am going to start from the beginning, how The Body Buffet was birthed. For those of you who have been following awhile, you know that that I am a Cali girl who moved to Philly (nine years ago next week). I have always been fascinated with the East Coast because of the access to food and supply varieties that I never saw in San Diego. One of the first things I discovered was whipped shea butter. I couldn’t believe how much more moisturizing it was than lotion. It made my skin supple and left it was a sheen that no lotion had been able to match. 

Since then, it is literally one of the only things I use to condition my skin year round, but especially in the winter to avoid dry cracked skin. Unlike many commercial moisturizers, it is not far down on the list of ingredients, it is number one in my body butters.  I am still working on a blend that I can use on my face, as it can feel very heavy when you initially apply it, but I do use it for the dry patches on my face after exfoliating. Even when I tried to change up my body recipe and use mango butter, I realized that shea butter still wins hands down. This is why I choose to use it in the majority of my products from whipped body butter to soap to shampoo bars. 

What ingredient works wonders for your skin? What is your skinspirational story?

Marquita Bell is soaper-in-chief and the owner of The BodyBuffet where foodie meets beauty. Based out of Philadelphia, The Body Buffet aims to cultivate beauty inside and out from foodie adventures, self-care tips, and via handmade artisan soap, shampoo bars, facial bars, laundry soap and more. They use local ingredients when possible and have aimed to make conditioning skin-loving, hair-loving, clothes-loving soap since 2009.