There are two versions of this recipe. The shea version has less liquid in it since shea is softer than cocoa butter.

Cocoa Butter hair crème
1oz sweet almond oil
2oz jojoba oil
8oz cocoa butter
Essential oils of your choice

Combine all ingredients, and stir well. Pour into sterilized jars and let sit until it solidifies. It will have the consistency of soft butter at 70 degrees. Melt a small amount in your hands and use on wet or dry hair to keep ends soft and free of splits. A little goes a very long way! Keep in a cool place or it will melt.

Shea Butter hair crème
1/2 oz sweet almond oil
1oz jojoba oil
8oz shea butter
Essential oils of your choice

Combine all ingredients, and stir well. Pour into sterilized jars and let sit until it solidifies. It will have the consistency of soft butter at 70 degrees. Melt a small amount in your hands and use on wet or dry hair to keep ends soft and free of splits. A little goes a very long way! Keep in a cool place or it will melt.

I use shea butter with a drop of jojoba oil and i like it :)

thanks so much again for some shea recipes.Do you have any for Hair Butter by any chance?

wait,are these considered butters?

again-I need to read things throughly.I just saw your post about hair butters.

Cool recipes. :) Thanks!

Thanks, I just recently started experimenting with Shea Butter in my hair... and I love it!!

How do you heat your shea butter in order to get it liquid enough to mix with the other ingredients?

Thanks, I just recently started experimenting with Shea Butter in my hair... and I love it!!

How do you heat your shea butter in order to get it liquid enough to mix with the other ingredients?

Before I bought a double boiler, I put it in a pyrex measuring cup in a pot of hot water until it melted.

Er... I just melt mine in the microwave. Takes very little time.

*Chloe is only slightly ashamed of her lazy shortcut*

I wouldn't worry about the being lazy part, there are probably a ton of us that microwave. I'd think that the most important part would be to wait until the whole thing cools a bit (but not solidified) so that any EO's that are added don't burn off.

Before I bought a double boiler, I put it in a pyrex measuring cup in a pot of hot water until it melted.

Er... I just melt mine in the microwave. Takes very little time.

*Chloe is only slightly ashamed of her lazy shortcut*

I wouldn't worry about the being lazy part, there are probably a ton of us that microwave. I'd think that the most important part would be to wait until the whole thing cools a bit (but not solidified) so that any EO's that are added don't burn off.

Thank you Kimberlily and Cricket;5529.

Chloe, if I wasn't afraid that the microwave would have negative affects on the shea, I would microwave it too;).

Summertime I put jars in window sill to melt. Then do the blending.
Wintertime I put the jars atop the clothes dryer. Then blend.

I don't microwave oils simply because they tend to spit and bubble and make a huge mess ;)

When baking and I need to soften butter I set it on the oven during warming. It melts in no time. Of course, you probably don't want to turn on the oven just for the cocoa/shea but if its already on.......

Can I just place all ingredients directly into my Cuisinart food processor (without melting), and blend until smooth?

I made a hair butter based on your recipe, with
Shea butter
Coconut oil (the kind that solidifies)
Jojoba oil
few drops of EO

I can't for the life of me remember the exact quantities though :rolleyes: ... I don't know why I don't write these sort of things down for next time... i remember I had to experiment a bit to have a nice consistency, not too runny and not too hard (although it also depens on the season. In high summer it melts anyway)

It was about the same quantity of shea butter and coconut oil, and then only about half that quantity of jojoba.. I think!

Anyway thanks for posting these recipes (with quantities ;))!

Thanks Kimberlily. Have you ever combined shea butter with coconut oil? I was thinking of trying to do something with both, but I'm not sure how the texture would be. If you have a recipe, please share. Thanks!

Mahars, I've combined shea and coconut. They blend beautifully :)

FullBelly, I'd imagine that would work. The speed of the mixer would warm the solids enough that they should blend nicely. I wouldn't do it with the cocoa butter though, since it is pretty solid.

Thank you Kimberlily for starting this thread. I will try some of the recipes. This might be a dump question but what does cocoa butter do for the hair. I know about Shea and coconut butters, but I know nothing about cocoa butter. Catladyintown

Catladyintown, it is somewhat similar to shea :) I have a friend who can't use coconut or shea due to allergies, but I made her a batch with cocoa butter and it works out beautifully for her curly hair.

Thanks Kimberlily I going to buy some. :-)

Erm, Kimberlily, shouldn't the Shea Butter Hair Creme have shea butter in it, not cocoa butter?

sorry....

Erm, Kimberlily, shouldn't the Shea Butter Hair Creme have shea butter in it, not cocoa butter?

sorry....

OMG! Thanks for pointing that out. I think my brain is broken :lol:

The shea version has less liquid in it since shea is softer than cocoa butter.

Cocoa Butter hair crème
1oz sweet almond oil
2oz jojoba oil
8oz cocoa butter
Essential oils of your choice

Combine all ingredients, and stir well. Pour into sterilized jars and let sit until it solidifies. It will have the consistency of soft butter at 70 degrees. Melt a small amount in your hands and use on wet or dry hair to keep ends soft and free of splits. A little goes a very long way! Keep in a cool place or it will melt.

Shea Butter hair crème
1/2 oz sweet almond oil
1oz jojoba oil
8oz shea butter
Essential oils of your choice

Combine all ingredients, and stir well. Pour into sterilized jars and let sit until it solidifies. It will have the consistency of soft butter at 70 degrees. Melt a small amount in your hands and use on wet or dry hair to keep ends soft and free of splits. A little goes a very long way! Keep in a cool place or it will melt.

Is the shea version also less liquid because it has less almond and jojoba oil, or do you use less because shea is softer? Just wondering if there was a mistake in 2nd recipe....can't wait to try these, I have all the ingredients on hand :cheese:

Shea is less solid that cocoa butter, which is why there is less almond and jojoba in the shea version :)

Hi Kimberlily one more question. What if you don't have Jojoba or Almond Oil. Can you use Camellia and Grapeseed oil. Or does it have to be these particular oils. Thank Catladyintown

No, it doesn't matter. Substitute to your heart's content! So long as they're oils your hair likes, you're good to go. Experimentation is fun ;)

I have shea butter now and I have cocoa butter...but I don't have jojoba or sweet almond oil yet. o_O I think I ordered some sweet almond oil with some essential oils a while ago though.

Here is the important question. Does the cocoa butter cream smell like chocolate after you add other oils to it?

Yes, but milder, unless you buy deodorized cocoa butter, then it has no odor.

Yes, but milder, unless you buy deodorized cocoa butter, then it has no odor.

Hmmmm. Do you know of a good chocolatey cocoa butter? I Googled and found Mountain Rose Herbs sells it. I could get 8oz for $7. I don't know if that's a good price or not. I know it's much less than Oyin Whipped Pudding but I need it to be chocolatey. :ponder:

I've bought cocoa butter from From Nature With Love (http://fromnaturewithlove.com/soap/product.asp?product_id=butcocoa). It is nice and chocolatey (now I've got a chocolate craving... that stuff smells like heaven!) I've heard that Garden of Wisdom's (http://www.gardenofwisdom.com/catalog/item/4019979/3811934.htm) cocoa butter is good too, but I haven't tried it. It is much less expensive.

I just ordered some cocoa butter from Garden of Wisdom, so I should be able to let y'all know within a week. They ship fast. Probably will ship tomorrow or Thursday. It was 6.70 for 15 ounces (+ actual priority mail shipping cost).
I also got a big bottle of sunflower oil, which I might try putting in this blend. It is a rather heavy oil, but my hair loves it! And it's really cheap. I think maybe I'll be smart and leave it out, unless I'm just planning to use it for heavy oilings. And a few little bottles of oil, I always use an order from GoW as an excuse to try some new oils-- I got camellia, neem, and amla this time. And a bottle of cinnamon EO, because I love the scent of cinnamon. :D

I bought emu oil on the cheap from Garden of Wisdom once and it smelled like chicken fat so I'm a little afraid of the cocoa butter. I will definitely be interested to see how chocolatey it is. And thanks for the link to FNWL. I might end up ordering there. I am waiting and thinking about it for now. It helps that I am broke, ha ha. :neutral:

Ugh! I've been tempted to order emu oil too, but I've heard it smells bad. Since I decided to get neem this time, I limited myself to one bad-smelling oil per order. Neem is supposed to smell like really strong garlic...but worse. I'm hoping, if diluted enough... :D
Have you tried emu oil before? Does it normally smell different? I'm just wondering if Garden of Wisdom has a bad supplier, or if it's just that emu oil stinks.

Neem does have a pretty "special" smell. :lol:

Good quality emu oil doesn't have much of a smell at all. The Desert Palms Emu brand is good. Pricey, but worth it to not smell like poultry.

Hmm, well thank you for the information! I'll be sure not to get emu oil there. My shea butter from garden of wisdom smells (as does the avocado oil, though it's not strong) but everything else has been fine, and of good quality. I like their skin stuff, too.
I'll let you know as soon as I get the package about the chocolateyness.
I have an old jar of Palmer's cocoa butter that I LOVE the smell of, but of course it contains as much mineral oil as cocoa butter, so I haven't used it in years. Maybe if I find the jar and clean it out, I can recycle it for hair creme... oooh!
Off to hunt!

Rain, I just made the cocoa butter recipe (a much smaller batch--recipe in my blog), and added a bit of sweet orange EO and it smells like HEAVEN. Orange is supposed to bring out the smell of chocolate--which is what I was looking for. I'm also going to experiment with using coconut oil--two more scents I like together.

My cocoa butter by the way is an old jar of Aura Casia.

I bought cocoa butter from thesage.com (http://www.thesage.com/catalog/FixedOil.html), a soap supply site. It's nice and chocolatey. Price is $5 for 8 oz.

Thank you so much! That is the best price I've seen so far. The shipping is more than the product but at least it isn't $30. I got 8oz for $11.64 shipped. I can do that! Yay!

Shell, I love orange with chocolate. That sounds divine.

Thank you so much! That is the best price I've seen so far. The shipping is more than the product but at least it isn't $30. I got 8oz for $11.64 shipped. I can do that! Yay!

Shell, I love orange with chocolate. That sounds divine.

It smells so good--I used it on my face and hair this morning. And, physicschick is right--I had to add way more oil to my mix to get it soft--it's still a bit hard. Oh, well, I guesstimated anyway, and it turned out great!

Well, this discussion died a while ago, but I finally got my cocoa butter today! And yes, it smells wonderful and very chocolatey.
On a (somewhat) related note (related because I intend to put a few drops in my cocoa butter creme)-- the neem does not smell nearly as gross as I expected. I mean, don't get me wrong, I DEFINITELY wouldn't want to smell like it, but it's not vomit-inducing, or anything. Just unpleasant.
I don't think it smells really strongly like garlic, either. Kind of like lettuce (green-smelling), cilantro, and a touch of garlic maybe. But not really like any of those, and less tasty than those would be, say, in a salad. This doesn't smell good. But it's not as bad as I'd expected!

So, Garden of Wisdom does have (really) good smelling cocoa butter! I rather like the smell of the sunflower seed oil, as well. I didn't expect much of a smell, but it smells a lot less "fatty" than other sunflower seed oil batches that I've smelled.

I'm planning on making up a batch of this tonight! I'm going to go a bit heavier on the oils, just to make sure it's nice and soft.

Ooh! I just found this recipe and I can't wait to try it!

Is there any reason you couldn't substitute the EOs for BPAL?

Ooh! I just found this recipe and I can't wait to try it!

Is there any reason you couldn't substitute the EOs for BPAL?


I usually use BPAL in place of straight essential oils, and I’ve yet to notice a difference in how they react. For what it’s worth, I also use them in my shampoos, leave-ins, and body lotions… sometimes the shampoos and conditioners react by turning extra runny (which was actually a nice thing when it came to the leave-ins), but other than needing to be a little more careful about using too much, along with having extra-awesome scented products, I haven’t noticed any differences. :P

Cool recipe thanks for the tips!!!

I've just discovered the wonderfulness that is shea butter today. It smells awesome. I have yet to get the cocoa butter--just heard about the moisturizing properties of shea, and had to try.

I'm trying to think of how to make shea-based shampoos/conditioners for my type 4 hair.

By the way, I keep asking, lol, but which thread do I go to, to find out my hair type?