Grainy Balm? How to make your Everything Balm / Breathe Balm smooth again!

I have a love/hate relationship with shea butter. While this ingredient is the star in many of our products, anyone who works with this ingredient can attest to its fickleness. When I first began working with shea, I was immediately in love with how creamy dreamy it made the formulas. It was perfect...until a few weeks or months later when I would open a jar or balm tube and find that my silky smooth product had turned...grainy.

Why does this happen? Shea butter is a tropical butter accustomed to a warm, mild climate. The short, simplified explanation is that this butter reacts to its environment. Temperature changes can cause little crystals to form. Once heated, these crystals disappear. This is why you can rub crystalized shea butter between your hands and as soon as it warms, it melts into a smooth oil again.

Although the texture of the product can be less desirable, these little grains or crystals DO NOT mean that your product has gone bad. I have created a simple process that you can follow to return your product to its original silky smooth state. The entire process takes only a few minutes and can be done as many times as needed until the product is gone.

 

Step 1.
Adjust balm to be flush with the top rim of the balm tube. Place cap on tight.

 

 

Step 2.
Heat a cup of water to very hot, but not boiling.

 

Step 3.
Place balm tube top down in cup of hot water (approximately 3-5 minutes)

 

Step 4.
Remove, dry and gently shake tube. Place upright in refrigerator for 10 minutes. 

 

Step 5.
Remove cap and enjoy! 

 

 

**Note: If the cap is paced on the balm tube while the balm is not flush with the top of the container, it can cause the product to get stuck in the cap. This can easily be remedied with this process above. Just make sure you twist the bottom of the tube low enough so that the product, once melted, fits back in the tube.