Originally submitted at Essential Depot

Essential Depot

Organic Shea Butter Cube - Unrefined - 5 lbs (+ or - 5%) - FREE US SHIPPING


Best Quality!

By Fanny Jack from Fresno Ca on 7/22/2015




5out of 5

Pros: Smooth Texture, Best Quality, Moisturizes, Good Value, Pleasant Smell
Best Uses: Daily Use, Dry Skin, Natural Hair Products, Baths
Describe Yourself: Budget Buyer

I use shea butter in pretty much all my products soaps, lotion, sugar scurb, bath bombs: so the best price and best quailty is important to me!

(legalese)

Cocoa Butter What's all the hype about?

What is Cocoa Butter?

Cocoa butter, also called theobroma oil, is a pale-yellow, edible vegetable fat extracted from the cocoa bean.  It is obtained from whole cocoa bean, which they ferment, then they are roasted, and then separated from their hulls. It contains a high proportion of saturated fats, derived from stearic and palmitic acids.  Most cocoa butter offered in the market will have a melting point of 93-101 degrees.  So that means it solid at room temperature but will melt once in your mouth but you don't want to eat this because even thought it smells of chocolate it has no flavor because it has been separated for the chocolate liquor which contain the taste of chocolate.
It is one of the most stable fats known, a quality that, coupled with natural antioxidants, prevents rancidity, giving it a storage life of two to five years when stored properly.


The difference shades of cocoa butter?
Unrefined cocoa butter- is creamy yellow in color  in its raw form. It smells pretty strongly of chocolate. 

Refined cocoa butter-  It white with no scent because it has been process to remove those properties.   The natural and alkalized cocoa butters are bleached and subsequently steam refined in a continuous packed column at temperatures ranging between 160 and 220°. There is not a whole lot of information regarding how this process effects the quality. 

What is it good for?
Cocoa butter helps the skin in many ways. It lubricates and protects the skin and also helps to fade scars.  Cocoa butter penetrates the top layer of the skin called the epidermis. The cocoa butter can also reach the dermis, the middle layer.

1.Antioxidants: Cocoa butter is high in antioxidants, which help fight off free radicals.

2. Stretch Mark Reducer: Cocoa butter is widely noted to help reduce stretch marks. Many women claimed regular use of cocoa butter was what kept their stretch marks away.

3. Deeper Skin Hydration: Cocoa butter is high in fatty acids and is an exceptional moisturizer that deeply hydrates for all skin types.

4. Problem Skin Healer:  Cocoa butter has been noted to help skin irritations such as eczema and dermatitis.

Recommended Usage:
Lotions & Creams: 1 – 10%
Lip Balms: 1 – 20%
Bar Soaps: 1 - 15%
Haircare: 1-10%

 Places to purchase from:
http://fannyjacksoaps.bigcartel.com/product/raw-cocoa-butter

Soap Challenge #2 Mantra Swirl

Well this is another soap that challenge that Amy Warden is doing .  Of course I was doing  a test run with one of my favorite scent Juniper Breeze!   This one did not  turn out the way I was hoping. It kinda moved fast so i was not able to gt the swirl the way I wanted.  But this is just for practice, got a few more to make. I used  mica colors from TKB trading.  These in neon red blue and white. The fragance I used was from Nature's Garden.  I also add goat's milk too! This was my 4th of July soap.

Peacock swirl cut bar

Omg i could not for my life get this to upload on youtube.  I`m still figuring out how to work this phone.  I`m better wih my camera. 

Anyway the soap was still way too soft to cut but I did anyways and I really like the  colors I have choosen.  Reminds me of sherburt ice cream and smell kinda of like.

I used plastic water bottles as my squirt bottles.  Had to be creative.  In the blog prior to this one it shows or has the reason I use the colors and fragrance.
I hope you guys enjoyed my blog I try to put it on youtube but things just did not turn out the way I wanted them too and I'm still like I said you knew at using this phone and I didn't know how to get it over.

Soap Challenge Peacock Swirl

This was the 1st challenge that i met some difficulty!  I was not prepared and of course i had to improvise and use what i had!  I had planned to do this over the weekend but I was out of town enjoying the cold wheather of Monterey CA. It was way toooo HOT to stay in town.

Any who back to the soap this was made using Amy's bastille recipe but I used pomace Olive oil which maakes some of my colors a little off!  Anyways I chose 6 colors neon pink, orange, yellow, green and ragin raspberry and titium dioxide all from TKB Trading.  I was going to use the neon purple but it morphes to pink in cold process soap.  Found that out while back when I was making a soap called purple princess now called pink princess.

The fragrance is hard candy from save on scents.  That was an easy scent to work with as it did not accelerate or any other negitive thing.  Not sure if it will go dark says it has 6% vanillin and that it can discolor to lite tan but we will find out tomarrow when I unmold.  I hope it wont bee too bad cause i really lke the colors i choose.  The scent is described bright mouthwatering and also smell like sweet tarts or starburst.

Unmolding tomarrow or late tonight cause i have to post it by 2pm est.     Thanks for reading.