Does anyone know a good (cheap?) place to buy bulk cocoa butter? I need it for some massage melts I'm making for the holidays, but all I can find at my local pharmacies are the small sticks of pure butter- I need tubs, or bulk or something...I didn't think it'd be this hard to find!!

I live in NYC but am open to mailorder. Thanks!

I live in VA, and the only place in my area that has it is a local health food store, which carries the little tubs. (High quality, and I think it's about as cheap as cocoa butter's going to get) You could ask the owners of a health food store near you what company they order from, or if they could special-order for you.

You can get it on ebay (www.ebay.com) from $5.00-$6.00 per pound (plus S+H which should run about $3.20 Priority). I did a search for cocoa butter and wholesale and it looks like you will be paying more per pound elsewhere:
>http://cobalt.junct.com/~essentialoil/cocoabuttermaria.htm>http://www.soapcrafters.com/cgi-local/shopper.cgi?

The only other thing I can think of is health food stores. It might help if you can find it locally so that you can edit out the postage fee.

Good luck! (By the way, I make bath products as well and if you can't get a hold of some cocoa butter you can substitue it for Vitamin E oil (drugstore - Osco) and an extract such as coconut and vanilla or essential oils).

Well, I shouldn't say you can substitute it and it is just like cocoa butter. Vitamin E is just very nourishing to the skin, like cocoa butter.

Thanks! I just found it at http://www.the-sage.com/catalog/fixed_oils.html#cocoa_butter for pretty cheap- yesterday I found cocoa butter in a baking store here for $25/pound!! Crazy.

Anyone ever tried to make massage melts? They sound easy enough...cocoa butter, beeswax, oil and flavor. Not sure how they're going to turn out, though!

i made some a few weeks ago, and all i used was pure cocoa butter and essential oil (peppermint). what i got was a cool shaped (fromt he mold) chocolate-mint flavored bar that melts on contact.

i'm not sure i would use beeswax at all, it may get in the way of the melting abilitites of the butter.

good luck,
heather

Do you know if it's possible to color them brown, like chocolate? That'd be so cool! I was thinking it might be possible to add some choco powder...but that might just be a big mistake.

Also, the receipe I found calls for beeswax, cocoa butter, scent, and honey or oil. Maybe the oil will make the whole mixture softer, if I use beeswax too? Honey sounds so messy and yummy- what better ingredient for a massage! ;)

actually, you can just add chocolate if you want. i'm not sure how much, but i've read about massage bars with chocolate. mine were on the spare side, as far as ingredients go, because i don't want them to be too messy. but i have heard good things about adding chocolate. honey, maybe sparingly, i guess. its just so darned sticky.

let me know how you recipe turns out!

heather

Heather, I took your advice and only used cocoa butter and peppermint oil...and these things are fabulous! I love them! I want to eat them! They smell yummy and melt down perfectly, and I want to go home and make more right now.

I had no idea what a high melting point cocoa butter has- took about 10 minutes in the microwave to melt that stuff. I can't wait to receive a massage with one of these! Yummy.