After writing this post on substituting for less expensive ingredients, I got to thinking about esters. You know I love my esters, but if you can’t get them locally or find them more expensive than our oils, you can use fractionated coconut oil in place of most of oil soluble ones in lotions and anhydrous creations....

When I first started making products, I’d find all these amazing lotion recipes but it always seemed I was missing the oil or butter they suggested. I tentatively exchanged the oils, fully prepared for an epic fail, and they would work! Yay! Lotion success! I figured out which ones I liked based on skin feel...