Making your own body butter could be considered your gateway product into do-it-yourself skin care because it reveals how simple it can be to make extremely high-quality products.
This recipe is a simple recipe adapted from Wellness Mama (a great blog for getting started on making your own household products).
Whipped Body Butter is our favorite recipe because when you "whip" the final product it makes the product lighter and more easy to absorb. Again, this recipe is adaptable...here is what you should know about the properties of the ingredients, so in the future you can start to play with the recipe for your own customized blend.
Ingredient Properties:
Shea Butter and Cocoa Butter have similar properties... they are a thicker moisturizer that enables the product to stay solid at room temperature. You can use Shea Butter, Mango Butter, or other plant-based kinds of butter too. Use more butter if you are treating thicker skin (like the feet or gardening hands) or if you are aiming to help extremely dry cracked skin.
Where to buy (Shea butter): we purchase our Shea butter from Baraka Suppliers in Mill Bay. This company has direct relationships with the women in Ghana who produce the Shea Butter by hand. Fun Fact: Shea Butter is traditionally part of the female commerce system in Africa. When you purchase Shea Butter make sure it is supporting women in Ghana.
Where to buy (Cocoa butter): we recommend you buy Cocoa Butter from a health food store like Lifestyle Markets. Look for a Cocoa Butter that is edible, to be sure it hasn't been washed with toxins and bleached. Look for raw undeodorized products to be sure they are as natural as possible.
Coconut Oil is a med-hard plant-based oil that will allow the final product to melt into your lips. Coconut Oil is great because it is anti-bacterial, rich in anti-oxidants, and has strong healing properties. You could substitute a lighter oil such as Avocado oil or Hemp oil, OR use a combination of lighter oils. This will change the consistency of the final product. NOTE: If you use light oil you may need to increase the amount of hard butter or beeswax to make sure the final product isn't too watery.
Where to buy: we recommend you buy virgin organic cold-pressed coconut oil from Ostro Organics or Alpha Health. This is a common product so you could really buy it anywhere. However, find a coconut oil brand you trust as the fair-trade of this precious commodity is important!
Olive Oil (light oil) is an important ingredient in this recipe as it makes the product easier to apply and quicker to absorb. Light oil generally refers to oils that are liquid at room temperature. Examples of light oil are avocado oil, sesame oil, sunflower oil, hemp oil, argan oil, and jojoba oil. All of these are excellent choices depending on the quality (is it edible and organic), and how it was processed (is it cold-pressed, unrefined). Are you interested in learning about what terms like cold-pressed and unrefined mean? Contact us and we will write more blog posts on this subject.
How to Make Natural Body Butter
Equipment:
- 5x 125ml mason jars
- Hand-Mixer
- Large bowl for mixing
- Spoon
- Spatula
- Saucepan
- Oven mit
Ingredients:
- 1/2 Cup Coconut Oil (melted)
- 1/2 Cup Cocoa Butter
- 1/2 Cup Shea Butter
- 1/2 Cup Light oil of choice (Olive Oil)
- 20 Drops Essential Oil
Instructions:
- Put 3 inches of water in a small saucepan and turn on medium heat.
- Heat coconut oil, Shea butter, light oil and cocoa butter to a liquid state by placing the glass jar provided into the small saucepan with water. You can leave the lid on. Make sure not to get any water in the jar!
- Wait until all ingredients are melted to be one liquid state (resembling a golden liquid color)
- Turn off heat…
- Pour ingredients into a large mixing bowl
- Place into fridge for 5-10 hours (until hardened state)
- Bring out of fridge, let soften for a bit
- Blend using hand-mixer
- Add the essential oils.
- Scoop into 125ml mason jars
- Label and enjoy!
Customization:
1. You can play with the ratio's of the ingredients, using more coconut oil and less Shea butter for example.
2. You can use different oils like avocado oil, hemp oil, or sesame oil as a light oil option.
2. Blend in a water distillate like rose water to make it more of a cream or lotion style product.