Bergamot Body Polish

This is one of my favorite body polish/scrub formulas - full of emollient oils and butters and scented with Bergamot Essential Oil! There are a lot of variations and possibilities and it is a good idea to tweak the formula to make it just the way you like it. The texture and consistency of this finished body polish/scrub reminds me of homemade vanilla ice cream. To maintain that consistency, you should keep about the same ratios for solid-to-liquid fats/oils/butters, when substitutions are made. Some substitution possibilities are: cocoa butter for shea butter; cetyl Alcohol for stearic acid; extra butter for stearic acid; and other veggie oils for the jojoba and fractionated coconut oil. If unstable/more fragile oils are used - like sweet almond/grapeseed, etc., I recommend adding 1% tocopherol to the formula.

Procedure: Heat shea butter, stearic acid, jojoba oil and fractionated coconut oil until melted. Remove from heat. Stir continuously until mixture begins to solidify-I use a mixer (the type for mixing cake batter). Add salts and continue to mix. I sometimes place the pot into a container of cold water to speed up the cool-down process, but continue to stir/mix as it is cooling. When mixture is cool (less than 50C/122F), add Bergamot essential oil and AquaEm.

Please note: The salts are not calculated as part of the formulation. They are added at a 1/1 ratio (by weight) to the formulation, which in this case would be 500 grams or approximately 1 cup.

A few notes:

• Please remember to use caution when using scrubs or body polish in the shower as the oils can make the bathtub very slippery.
• No preservative is needed in this formulation if it is followed precisely because of the high salt content.
• It's possible to use one of our Complete Emulsifiers in place of the stearic acid and some of the AquaEm. Sugarmulse, Xyliance, Olivem 1000 or EmBlend CA20 are possibilities.
• AquaEm enhances the feel of the scrub by providing a "linkage" with the oils and the water from the shower to rinse off/leave on just enough oils so that it will not be too greasy. PEG 7 Olivate or Cromollient SCE can be substituted for the AquaEm.