Creamy buttery goodness in every Molly Rose product!

When first formulating my unique Molly Rose balm recipe, I used coconut oil, beeswax, and mango butter. Of course the beeswax was replaced with cetearyl alcohol to form an all-vegan product, and the coconut oil remains to this day, but the mango butter stayed in the formula for quite a long time. I eventually decided to replace the mango butter as I found that I was having a slight oral allergic reaction to it, and I didn’t want others to do so as well. I also didn’t care for how soft it made my balms. They were much more susceptible to melting in high heat than my current formula.

I then transitioned from mango butter to shea butter. This was short-lived, however, as I found the shea to give a gritty, grainy texture to the balms. I know that this is a common problem with shea butter, and while there are methods to deal with the issue, I wasn’t really interested in persuing the issue.

While I had been using unrefined cocoa butter since the beginning of MRB, it finally occurred to me to use refined cocoa butter as my standard butter in my balm recipe. What is the difference between refined and unrefined? Think about it in terms of olive oil. Unrefined cocoa butter is like extra virgin olive oil: a first pressing, full of natural fragrance and color. While unrefined cocoa butter is great for products like Chocolate Coconut Lip Balm or Birthday Cake Body Scrub, it’s a little too pronounced for simpler scents. Refined cocoa butter comes comes after additional pressing, with no natural scent or color, and perfect for products like Original Lip Balm or Snips & Snails Lip Scrub.

Both refined and unrefined cocoa butters have the same intense soothing and moisturizing properties, the same hardness and relative resistance to melting. It’s incredibly smooth and silky, but not hard or waxy when used with softer ingredients like coconut oil.

Speaking of which, next week we’ll talk about coconut oil, the third and final ingredient found in every single Molly Rose product, and what makes it the ultimate natural panacea.