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Thursday, October 24, 2013

BTMS and Caffeine Cream & Butter

I've only used BTMS for making my own hair conditioner because it makes my hair velvety and smooth without feeling oily, I have oily scalp, I wash my hair everyday.  Using BTMS to make leave on cream is new to me.  It all came about because I read a blog post by Soapqueen and she swears by it: Kissably Soft Lotion  As greedy as I am, I also want to 
adding caffeine powder, that's the tricky ingredient, I have no idea how it's going to be incorporated.  This is my first try:
As cosmetic law stated I cannot make any claims on what my lotion can "cure" or "help" any condition.  But hey, I'm doing this for myself because I'm curious about pure caffeine powder.  I heard using it daily with a certain percentage concentration can help eliminate cellulite because it reduces water retention.  I don't care how young or fit a girl is, 99% of us got unpleasant cellulite especially on our hip and thighs.  Oh... what a girl would do for beauty!
My first impression of this lotion formula is that it gives a powdery (or velvety) feel after applying on my skin, and if I rub harder it would produce residue.  I thought it failed, this cream is thick but should not be caky.  I continued to use it daily for another 2 days then I realized the caky powdery feeling is gone.  I'm thinking it's the caffeine powder, it finally got "wet" and completely emulsified into the cream.  After a month of using, I noticed my thigh skin is tighten and smooth, but stretch marks are still there.  I guess there's no such thing as miracle ingredient!  I use it under my eye sometimes to help my dark circle and puffiness, it's not a miracle cream, but for what it's worth, it's darn good!
As fall and winter seasons approach I decided to reformulate my seasonal body butter using BTMS and caffeine powder.  This is be my 4th batch:
 What I learned from dealing with caffeine powder is that it would only dissolve in hot water, almost boiling temperature.  It would dissolve clear but turn into cottage cheese stage once cooled down, that's what contributed to the caky texture I mentioned earlier.  I've since decrease the % from 7% concentration to 5% and finally settled with 3%.  This year's body butter is not anhydrous (all butter and oils, no water), it contains aloe juice, caffeine powder, 18% butter (shea, cocoa and mango mix), apricot kernel oil, sesame oil, emu oil, hydrolyzed plant proteins (film forming protection), marine collagen, hyaluronic acid (hydration retention), oat extract, and more.  The only synthetic would be the fragrance and preservative.
I used to make anhydrous whipped body butter but I just never like the greasiness and heavy emollient after feel.  I tried adding modified starch to cut the grease with not much luck.  In time the fluffy whipped butter will settle and harden again, making it hard to scoop out the jar.  My skin is very dry in winter, it really need hydration, not just occlusion or emollient from all that butter and oils.  That is the major reason for me to convert to liquid/butter oil combination.  With hyaluronic acid added, hopefully it would help attract and retain the hydration my skin desperately needs.

2 comments:

  1. Looks great! I make a bodycream (with water) and it's not greasy at all. Here http://swiftcraftymonkey.blogspot.nl/search/label/butter you can find the recipe. gr.
    Marga

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  2. If it feels as good as it looks (and it looks absolutely decadent), that has to be amazing!! And your photography is stellar!

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