CHOCOLATE SPA PRODUCTS – YES, IT’S A THING

There’s something incredibly decadent about going to the spa and being smothered in chocolate. Yes, we promise it’s actually a thing. As ever, we wanted to start making these products ourselves and add our own CBCo twist, so we promptly enrolled in Formula Botanica’s Chocolate Spa Products certificate. We rave about Formula Botanica a lot; not only have they trained yours truly to be the expert beauty DIY-ers and natural formulators we are, they are one of the few really trusted and accredited schools of thought in our space. When we want to learn a new trick, Formula Botanica is our only go-to. The certificate is played out in true Formula Botanica fashion: a series of modules with information, quizzes and a formulation challenge. With modules names like ‘From Pod to Skin’ and ‘Cocoa Compliment’, we knew we were in for a sweet treat. (See what we did there?)

To celebrate our graduation – cue Kanye West lyric – we have put together a delicious chocolate inspired recipe that you can throw together in minutes. If you love this and love chocolate (er who doesn’t), get yourself enrolled in the Chocolate Spa Course pronto.

Luscious Cocoa Loco

Makes 10g

This is a simple lip balm with an almost edible vanilla chocolate scent (we say almost – please don’t eat it!). This balm is made creamy by the cocoa butter and glycerin, while hydrating the lips. The beeswax keeps the mixture solid and vitamin E extends the shelf life of the oils. You can macerate your own vanilla by soaking dry vanilla pods in oil in a sealed container in direct sunlight for around 3 weeks or you can purchase ready made. For more on oil macerates, there’s coincidentally a great article on the Formula Botanica blog, we told you these guys know everything!

• Cocoa Butter 3g
• Vanilla Macerate 5g
• Beeswax 1g
• Glycerin 0.7g (7 Drops if you don’t have precision scales)
• Vitamin E 0.03g (1 Drop if you don’t have precision scales)

– In a bain-marie, melt down the cocoa butter

– Remove from the heat, add the beeswax and macerate and gently reheat until liquid

– Remove from the heat and stir in the remaining ingredients

– Decant into a pot quickly before it solidifies, we love small tins or glass lip balm jar.

– Elsie Rutterford & Dominika Minarovic

The Certificate in Chocolate Spa Products is available from formulabotanica.com and is £125.