Unrefined Bacuri Butter has a strong, unusual scent - kinda like the smell of forest soil - some people love it, a few don't care for it, the scent dissipates fast though. Bacuri's color varies from lighter to very dark brown and the texture can be very smooth (sometimes a little liquid-ish) to harder and crumbly.
Bacuri gives your skin a beautiful natural glow, it makes the skin's appearance more even and, with long term use, it helps to diminish the appearance of hyper-pigmention and scars. You just need to melt the butter in your hands and spread it all over, remember: a little bit goes a long way and it will stain light fabrics before it is fully absorbed.
In Brazil this butter is widely used to help with skin conditions and as a massage butter for arthritis, rheumatism and muscle pain. It is also a wonderful Summer butter with sunblock and after sun care properties.
This butter can be used for hair care, I recommend it for darker hair, it is a great butter to protect your hair against external agents and for masks.
Due to its dark color and strong scent, it is not a very easy butter to incorporate into your body and skin formulations, but you definitely should try it, Bacuri has a very high absorption rate due to its high level of tripalmitine (50 to 55%), it also has a high level of palmitoleic fatty acid compared to the other butters which makes it a fantastic emollient.
Unrefined Cupuacu Butter has a very pleasant scent - similar to cocoa butter but fresher and fruitier - the color varies from light to darker yellow and the texture can be very smooth or a bit crumbly.
Cupuacu is perfect to be used pure on skin as a daily moisturizer due to its capacity to absorb water - 240% superior of lanolin - just rub the butter in your hands until melted and spread it all over, remember: a little bit goes a long way and give it a little time to be absorbed. A great way to use it is right after the shower when your body is still a little wet.
This butter is also wonderful for hair care, it can be used as a pre-poo treatment, as conditioner and leave-in - since it ABSORBS water it works better for dry, thicker hair types- curls, kinks or straight. It is perfect for African American hair styles, helping to keep hair and scalp healthy. To be used as a conditioner or leave-in just melt a little bit in your hands, for masks or treatments melt a larger amount of it in the microwave or even in a closed container under hot water.
Cupuacu is perfect for soap making, lip, hair and skin formulations, due to its beautiful color and scent, it is very easy to use. For colder weather you can whip it to make it easier to apply.
Unrefined Murumuru Butter has a pleasant subtle nutty scent, the color varies from off white to yellow and the texture is waxy.
Even though this is a harder butter, Murumuru is perfect to be used pure on skin since it is not greasy, absorbs super fast and has a subtle scent. It is a great butter for all skin types, even sensitive and oily skin. In Brazil this butter is prized by its antimicrobial and anti-inflammatory properties being used to help relief skin conditions like acne and psoriasis.
This butter is also wonderful for hair care, the high levels of lauric fatty acid make this butter a vegetable replacement for mineral silicone, it forms a protective film on skin and hair without harming the lipid exchange or clogging pores. Murumuru is a perfect finishing touch for fine hair prone to frizz and flyaways, it can be used as a hair glossier, a leave-in, and to protect hair from heat damage. To be used as a conditioner or leave-in just melt a little bit in your hands, for masks or treatments melt a larger amount of it on the microwave or even in a closed container under hot water.
Murumuru is good for soap making, and perfect for lip, hair and skin formulations, due to its beautiful color and scent, it is very easy to use. For colder weather you can whip it to make it easier to apply.
Unrefined Tucuma Butter has a sweet caramel/coffee/nutty scent that depending on area and season of production can be more subtle or more prominent, the color varies from light yellow to yellow and the texture is soft.
Tucuma and Murumuru butters have very similar properties, Tucuma is softer therefore easier to be applied alone on skin and hair, the feeling is little greasier. Tucuma is also a great butter for all skin types, forming a protective film on skin without clogging the pores.
Just like Murumuru, this butter is also wonderful for hair care, with the same high levels of lauric fatty acid, it can be used just like murumuru, how to choose? Tucuma is softer which makes it easier to use on cold climates, but it is also greasier and has a stronger scent.
Tucuma is good for soap making, lip, hair and skin formulations, due to its light color and nice scent, it is easily incorporated in DIY, all natural formulations.
Unrefined Ucuuba Butter has a strong scent that could be described as a "smoky beeswax", the color varies from golden brown to brown, this butter is VERY hard and it can be used as a vegan substitute for beeswax in recipes that need to be firmer - lip products, salves and balms.
This butter is too hard to be applied straight on skin or hair, it needs to be used as a blend with oils or much softer butters, a super quick recipe for body would be whipping 50% ucuuba and 50% oil, for maximun results I recommend one of my amazing oils but whatever good quality, unrefined oil you have handy in the kitchen will work too - coconut, olive or grape seed. In Brazil this butter is prized by its antimicrobial, anti-inflammatory and healing properties.
For a simple and fast lip or cuticle protective balm melt 70% ucuuba with 30% oils.
This butter is also wonderful for hair and scalp care, but again, it needs to be blended.
Ucuuba is perfect for soap making for its properties and beautiful color, it is ideal for shampoo bars. In Brazil it is widely used in the production of artisanal candles. Soaps and creams made with ucuuba show a proven anti-inflammatory effect, and have healing and anti-septic properties.
Roughly translated from Roberto Akira's page, Akira is a 65 year old Brazilian Chemist who after retiring started sharing the knowledge he accumulated in 40 years of working with chemistry.
"Cold Process Soaps are beautiful and easy to make but the process has its drawbacks. All the components added to the soap go through saponification, this strong alkaline environment spares almost nothing, it literally destroys many active ingredients of all components. There is a mistaken belief that things added at trace will be spared since most of the lye is gone. But in reality at trace only about 10% of the lye has been consumed to form the emulsion (trace), the rest remains there and will react the same to anything that is added. The idea that superfatting at trace will protect that particular oil, usually a noble oil, doesn't quite work like that. The superfat will still be just a mix of the oils and fats in the recipe, not the one added at trace.
Therefore it does not make much sense to advertise the efficacy of CP therapeutic soaps made with medicinal oils such as Neem, Andiroba and Copaiba. The therapeutic components of these oils no longer exist after the saponification, there will be the sodium salts of the fatty acids palmitic, stearic, oleic and linoleic, that are components of Neem oil, for example, but the active ingredients that make Neem a fantastic fungicide, antibacterial, antiviral and insecticide oil, are gone.
One could argue, for example, that in the case of Neem that certain components do not react with the soda and still remain intact, but this lacks scientific evidence, more so as the unsaponifiable content of Neem is zero.
In the HP the additives, including the superfat, are added at the end of the saponification process therefore protecting the properties of that specific oil or butter."
These super cute egg shaped lip balms became very popular in these past few years. Besides being adorable and a decent product they are super inexpensive!
That makes it so easy for us to just go out and buy a new one as soon as the balm goes low, dumping millions of these 3-part plastic containers on our landfills.
Making you own refill will not be easier, more practical or even cheaper than driving into Walgreens and buying a new one, but it will be a lot of fun and you will end up with a much better product.
Since these have to be harder than lip balms in containers, I had to adjust the recipes I had a little, but I have tried them and they are delicious and work out perfectly.
For one container you need about 0.5 oz. of final product. You can always make a larger amount and save in a glass jar for the next time you need to refill. Make sure you use the entire mix within 12 months. Otherwise you will need a natural preservative.
For these containers I use the general rule of: 2 parts of a harder butter, 1 part of wax, 1 part of softer butter, about 30 drops of liquid oils. Most of the recipes follow this rule.
So this is the breakdown of the numbers for 0.4 oz - 1 container.
I can spend hours in the candle section of department stores, I sniff them all, appreciate the colors, labels and wish I had come up with some of their witty names.
But after reading a few dozen mommy blogs and a few serious researches, I simply can't buy them anymore.
What is bad about them? Apparently EVERYTHING, the wax, wick, scents and colors:
"Most candles are made of paraffin wax, which creates highly toxic benzene and toluene when burned (both are known carcinogens). In fact, the toxins released from paraffin candles are the same as those found in diesel fuel fumes. On top of that, many scented candles also have wicks that contain heavy metals like lead, and even a few hours of burning them can create levels of airborne heavy metals that are much higher than the acceptable limits. In the US, candle wicks are supposed to be made of cotton or paper, but studies have found that as much as 30% of candles contain heavy metals in the wicks." source
Beeswax candles are the way to go:
"Beeswax releases negative ions when it burns. Pollen, dust, dirt, pollutants, and any other junk in the air all carry a positive charge, and that is how they can be suspended in the air. The negative ions released from burning beeswax negate the positive charge of air contaminants, and the neutralized ions are sucked back into the burning candle or fall to the ground. Many air purifiers and water filters harness this effective negative ion technology."source
Since they can be quite expensive and SUPER easy to make, this project is right down my alley. #nomarthastewart
I found this recipe for Beeswax and Coconut Oil Candles and decided to incorporate myAndiroba Oil for its mosquito repellent properties and Buriti to add some color to a couple of them. If you want a super detailed, perfect DIY recipe go somewhere else, this one is the fast track, "they will come out ok", "I am no Martha Stewart" recipe.
I get my wax here, about 8 bucks for a pound, the owner told he will give discounts for larger quantities, since this whole "organic beeswax" is a bunch of baloney, I try to at least stick with raw beeswax.
I bought Dr. Bronners Whole Kernel Unrefined Coconut Oil because it is organic and also fair trade, but any virgin coconut oil will do.
Wicks come in sizes, and people recommend them to be square braided cotton, I got some organic cotton ones on eBay but I have no idea how they were braided!
Chart:
Wick size #1 = Candle diameter of 1 – 1.5″
Wick size #2 = Candle diameter of 1.5 – 2″
Wick size #3 = Candle diameter of of 2 – 2.5″
Wick size #4 = Candle diameter of 2.5 – 2.8″
Wick size #6 = Candle diameter of 2.8 – 3.2″
Wick size #7 = Candle diameter of 3.2 – 3.5"
I had 4 of those cute small glass jars leftover from my Pies in a Jar, you can also use molds. To fill them up I would need 24 oz of mix, half beeswax, half oils.
So:
12 oz. of Beeswax
7 oz. of Coconut Oil
4 oz of Andiroba Oil
1 oz. Buriti Oil
STEP 1 - cut the wick a few inches longer than the container/mold.
STEP 2 - melt all the wax in a glass jar dipped in a pot with water on low to medium heat. I had to use 2 jars.
STEP 3 - dip the wicks in the wax when it starts melting - try not to burn your fingers like I did. Straighten then and set them on wax paper, I didn't have it so I used aluminum foil. It was ok.
STEP 4 - after they are dry and stiff. roll the end of the wicks around a piece of wood, a pen, anything that will sit flat on top of your jars.
STEP 5 - Mix the oils in the melted wax, it will cause part of the wax to solidify again, you can always heat the oils a bit, but I was too lazy for that. Wait until the mix is all melted again. I used the Buriti in just one jar. I was really expecting it to get redder (more red?)
STEP 6 - Pour just a little bit of the wax and set your wick down, make sure it is centered and touches the bottom.
STEP 7 - Once it is solid and the wick firm in place, fill up with the rest of the wax. If your container is too big, do it in 2 steps, so the wax won't melt the bottom wax and displace the wick.
The darker one is the one with buriti, but as soon as it got cold and solid it became pretty yellow, no much different than the non-buriti one.
Observations:
I added no scents, since I have read that even essential oils can be toxic when burning, but it is something that I will let you research, please don't add artificial scents, you will be ruining the whole point of making beeswax candles!
Some people let the candles rest for 24 hours, I didn't (of course) but I am happy to say they did burn ok and I am pretty happy with the results.
In the world of cosmetics, stearic acid is used to form a stable base for deodorants, lotions, and creams. It helps to bind and thicken the products so they adhere smoothly to the skin and have a longer shelf life. The fact that the melting point of this acid is well above human body temperature tends to prevent cosmetics from running and streaking when applied for extended periods. - Source.
