I bought this fully aware it was a small size double boiler. I didn’t need a larger one to melt beeswax, cocoa butter, and shea butters together.
I got this for making my lip balm. In the past I used to use a DIY double boiler. More recently, I just used Pyrex & microwave.
The Pyrex microwave worked perfect for me until one day the beeswax in my Pyrex caught fire.
This promoted me to order a real double boiler in order to continue making my lip balms- and this actually exceeded my expectations. I hadn’t realized there would be a small little “spout” on both sides where one can pour the contents directly in something of small size/precisely.
It fit perfectly on top of a pot, and worked flawlessly as well. I took some pictures for anyone interested in a small sized double boiler.
The contents shown in mine is a mix of completely melted :
Beeswax, cocoa butter, Shea butter, and olive oil. I do not have a scale to properly measure, so I just eyeball the amounts with the ideal ratio I learned with practice.
There are numerous balm formulas on websites for accurate measurements for making your own.
I have another use for melting butters; particularly shea. When shea butter slowly melts and solidifies at random temperatures such as in transit, it can cause it to have a grainy texture.
One can melt grainy textured shea to fix it. The cause of the grainy feel is simply the aforementioned situation in which melting and re solidifying occurs - the three different fatty acid molecules in shea have differing melting points. This causes the fatty acid molecules to stick to each other only instead of throughout the butter as it solidifies at random temperatures.
To fix this, I gently melt gainiy shea in this double boiler. Once it’s thoroughly melted, I then pour the liquid shea into a container or a bowl and immediately place it in the freezer. The freezer temperature ensures the butter solidifies quickly; therefore the fatty acid molecules don’t have the time to solidify slowly (which would cause the molecules to remain separated and creating graininess).
A bit off topic, but I wanted to share this tidbit with whomever it may interest, and to provide multiple ideas as to how this double boiler can be used for.
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