Blessed Body Brand: Whipped Shea Butter

Ivory Shea butter

Yellow Shea butter

Today, I reached a major milestone and achieved a great accomplishment: I made not one, but two soft, fluffy, whipped SHEA BUTTERS!!! You see, I've been attempting to make whipped Shea butter for over a year! They were all unsuccessful attempts: too hard once cooled, grainy when cooled, too oily, not enough oil, any possible thing that could be wrong was wrong, and I'd use those butters until they were gone (no matter how oily I was LOL). That was a very expensive, very trying process! I decided to share what I've learned during my expensive and arduous process of learning to make whipped Shea butter.

Things you need to make whipped Shea butter:

• hand held mixer or stand mixer
• Shea butter (I'm not even going to touch on the great Shea debate! Use whichever butter you like.)
• oils of your choice
• pot of hot water or double boiler
• silicone spatula
• PATIENCE

The general rule for a successful whipped butter is 60-75% hard oil or butter and 40-25% liquid oils. You will need to add all of the oils and butter to a glass or metal bowl or the top pot of a double boiler. Put the pot of water on the stove and let it come to a rolling boil. Once the water is boiling, turn the stove off, add the pot/bowl of oils to the top of the pot of water. Stir as needed to encourage a faster melting process. Once the Shea butter is nearly melted (only a few small clumps left) remove from heat and stir until Shea is completely melted. Once melted, place mixture into the freezer. Allow to cool. DO NOT LET IT FREEZE!!

Once the butter mixture is cooled has gelled around the edges and in the center remove from the freezer and prepare to whip! Scrape the sides of the bowl to loosen the cooled Shea so that you don't end up with bits of Shea butter that are not whipped. (It doesn't affect the consistency or quality of the rest of the batch. It's more for aesthetics.) Get your stand mixer or handheld mixer and beat on high for 5 minutes. Turn the bowl and rotate the mixer in one direction only, ONE DIRECTION! I tend to go counter clockwise with the bowl and clockwise with the mixer (It'll make sense when you're doing it). After 5 minutes, check the consistency. If it is light and fluffy KUDOS!! Add essential oils and whip it again on high for 5 minute intervals until it is the consistency and volume that you'd like use a silicone spatula to slowly fold in the essential oils. You want to try and keep the air in the butter and keep the consistency creamy during this process. If it is as hard as a brick products begins to settle and does not have a creamy consistency, have no fear! At this point, add more of the lightest oil with the longest shelf life in your recipe to the butter batter and mix until incorporated. Repeat as necessary to achieve a soft, light whipped butter. Be careful not to "overmix" the batter. Scoop, pour, or pipe into jars and enjoy!

I used this recipe for the Ivory Shea pictured above.

Whipped Shea Butter for Hair
5 oz Ivory Shea butter
0.42 oz Hemp Oil
3 oz Sunflower oil
5 drops Peppermint essential oil
10 drops Lavender essential oil
10 drops Orange essential oil