How to make a body butter that protects your skin

Body butter is a unique way to nourish your skin with amazingly beneficial butters and oils. While you could use cocoa butter, shea butter, or any sort of oil on your skin separately, by formulating the oils and butters into a whipped mixture we call body butter, it becomes easy, and pleasant, to apply. The whipped texture allows the body butter to melt with the warmth of your skin, penetrate almost immediately, and yet leave your skin with a natural occlusive barrier that prevents water loss while still allowing your skin to breathe. And did I mention your skin will feel like silk after you apply it? Many types of recipes exist for body butters, but this one is my absolute favorite because it contains no water (no need to worry about a preservative), no wax (which can feel heavy and draggy on your skin), and no emulsifiers. Best of all, you can modify the butters and oils to fit your exact needs!

Body Butter Recipe

This is a wonderful recipe for body butter that will allow you to create an amazing body butter from various oils and butters of your choosing. You can keep it simple and only use one type of butter and one type of liquid oil, or you can mix butters and oils based on their beneficial properties. This butter, if exposed to extreme heat, will remelt and loose the whipped texture.

½ cup butters (any combination of shea, cocoa, mango, etc. will work, but if you would like it to be more firm, use a higher percentage of cocoa)
⅓ cup Liquid at room temperature oils like jojoba, olive, sunflower, etc. (coconut may work here, but I have not tried it)
Essential oils or specialty oils (like sea buckthorn)

• Melt butter in a double broiler on your stove. If you do not have a double broiler, use a bowl that can sit in a pot of water or even a jar that can sit in a pot of water.
• Once the butter has melted, take it off the heat and add in the liquid oils
• Pour the melted butter and oils into a mixing bowl and put it into the freezer (or put it into a pan of ice). The mixture of oils and butters will start to get solid around the edges as it chills. When it starts to form a “crust” around the edges, take it out and whip it with an electric mixer. It probably will come together at this point and begin to look like the finished product, but it might still be rather runny. If it is not thick, put it back into the freezer or ice pan and let it get cooler. It will probably not take too much longer (10 to 15 mins.) to get cool enough to whip really well. If it gets too cold and it is not easy to whip, just let it sit out at room temperature for a little bit to warm up.
• Whip the butter a second time. At this point, it should reach a nice fluffy texture and be white in appearance as opposed to the more creamy texture and yellow color that it was before it was whipped. ***You may have to continue to scrape down the sides as you whip. Continue to whip until there are no lumps if you can. Even if you have lumps, they will still melt on contact with your skin.

Body Butter Tips

• Because butters are naturally occlusive, a body butter will prevent transepidermal water loss which can be incredibly important if you suffer from something like eczema or chronically dehydrated skin. 
• To make sure you trap the moisture with a body butter, simply apply directly after a shower or bath. Don’t have time for a shower or bath? You can get the same benefit by spritzing your skin with water or better yet a lovely hydrosol like calendula, cucumber, or helichrysum for both moisture and the benefits of the hydrosol. While your skin is still damp, follow up with your body butter so the moisture will stay in your skin where it belongs! 
• Adding skin safe essential oils or herbal infused oils to your butter can provide your skin with even more benefits! Some of my favorites are calendula, chamomile, lavender, and palmarosa. Each of those calm the skin and are incredibly safe for almost every skin type.
• Check out this post for more info on the types of liquid, or carrier oils you can use in this butter.

Where to purchase the supplies

Purchase butters and oils for your body butter. I love Mountain Rose Herbs for their selection! 

Remember…..don’t suffer from overwhelm!  Just take one small bite….one crunch…at a time!

Thanks for reading!