How To Make Whipped Body Butter – 8 Homemade / DIY Whipped Body Butter Recipes

by Olivia 2 Comments

Although body butters do a fantastic job of hydrating, nourishing and moisturizing the skin, their all lipid content means that they do leave behind an oily film.

This may not sit well with everybody. Particularly in summer, when people are seeking reprieve from the heat and humidity, the idea of applying anything oily and sticky does not go down well with anybody.

Also, oiliness on the skin can quickly trap the salts purged through perspiration and hold on to the dirt and grime, creating a layer of filth on the skin, which will only make you feel hotter and ickier. Does this mean you should simply stop using body butters? But then, what about your skin?

Seasons change but your skin remains the same!

If winter temperatures freeze the fluids in your skin cells, thus speeding them to their destruction, the summer heat dries up the fluids held within the cells and in between them leading to the same result.

In summer, you need all the protection you can get from the scorching sun, but a compromised skin lipid barrier will not be able to offer that. So, skin care through spring and summer is just as essential as it is in fall and winter.

In fact, more so, because all the hard work you put into your beach bod will be in vain if you have dry and flaky skin. Simply put, come sunshine or snow, your skin needs care all the time!

Did I hear you say, “But, I can’t stand the sticky oiliness”? If so, say hello to whipped body butters! They offer everything that you have come to expect from body butters but in a lighter and airier package.

In other words, your skin will feel soft. It will be hydrated and healthy. Yet, once you put the whipped butter on, it will be gone in 60 seconds, leaving soft, feathery, silky smoothness in its wake. You up for that feel? If yes, read on! In case you have missed my two previous body butter releases, you can check them out here:

So, How Exactly Do You Make Body Butter Light?

Simple, change the quantity and type of lipids used in the recipe. All you have to do is ditch the thick oils, rich plant butters and the super emollient waxes in favor of dry oils, hard butters and floral waxes.

Another way is to increase the quantity of water based ingredients in the recipe and use a binder that will keep the ingredients together while giving the final product a silky yet non-greasy feel.

Sounds easy enough!

Remember, what we are going for here is light, superficial coverage that is not oily at all, greater absorption, increased protection against antioxidants and enhanced nutritive value. So when picking your ingredients, make sure you choose them on the basis of these attributes.

The best part about whipped body butters is that you can find most of the ingredients needed in your pantry and those that you don’t, can easily be bought online or in most health food stores. Plus, you can customize your blend not just to suit your skin and the weather outdoors, but also to address any dermal concerns that you may have.

But won’t the inclusion of water based ingredients take away the therapeutic value of essential oils?

No, it won’t. If anything, these ingredients will offer greater humectant effect and keep your skin softer and suppler. But, you do compromise on the usable life when you prepare an emulsion. Although you will be using natural antimicrobial and anti-oxidative agents, an emulsion is best stored under refrigeration.

Yet, while your “lipid heavy”, winter body butters will easily give you 6-9 months of usable life, with whipped body butters meant for spring and summer, you can get about 3-4 months if water based ingredients have been used in the recipe.

The upside is that the cold butter feels heavenly against your skin when it is scorching outside and your skin feels oh so good throughout the day. So, they are totally worth the effort that you put into preparation and application!

Get those tools ready!

Like for other body butter recipes, you will need a large bowl, a double boiler, a spatula and a hand mixer.

A nifty trick to cut down on the work afterwards is to blend the ingredients directly in a mason jar instead of in a bowl. This way, you only have to clean the hand held blender and the whipped body cream does not have to be transferred from the bowl to the jar. Pint sized jars are well suited for the purpose.

The Popular Ingredients And What They Will Do For Your Skin

1. Butters

Although you will find an array of vegetable butters that can be used in skin care recipes, for whipped body butter, the most appropriate picks are hard butters like kokum and cocoa and nut butters which leave little or no trace of oiliness after application. The added advantage is that hard butters have a greater tendency to retain their fluffy whipped state than the soft and oily butters.

2. Oils

Once again, no dearth of options but ideal choices would be thin/dry oils with notable nutritive value such as rosehip seed, raspberry seed, macadamia nut, water melon seed, pumpkin seed, rice bran, grape seed and blue berry seed etc.

3. Waxes

Floral waxes are exceptionally well suited for whipped body butters. They offer a silky texture, superlative protection and a mild yet enthralling fragrance. Personal favorites include tuberose, jasmine and lotus (pink/white) but you can always use the more exotic varieties if you want.

Water based ingredients

1. Hydrosols

Rose water is the easiest to find and will work in any recipe. Alternatively, you can also try chamomile, geranium, helichrysum or hibiscus.

2. Aloe Vera gel

The gel offers relief from summer rash, sun burn and works as a humectant, so what’s not to like?

3. Extracts

Grapefruit seed extract has to be used to extend the life of water based ingredients while green tea and gotu kola extracts offer anti-oxidant and anti-ageing benefits.

Dry ingredients and emulsifying agents: Binders

These are powder ingredients that impart therapeutic value and offer a base to mix oils and liquids and keep them together. Also, they will give your whipped body butters a smooth, silky feel while reducing the oiliness of the lipids.

You can use silk peptide powder, oat starch, arrowroot powder or just simple corn starch as a binder. To get more from the binders, you can add other dry ingredients such as matcha, rose petal powder, citrus peel powder, cocoa, coffee, fruit extracts/powders and herb powders.

Liquid sunflower lecithin: You will only be using this in recipes that have hydrosols.

8 Easy Whipped Body Butter Recipes

1. Edible body butter recipes

Yes, you heard it right this is a butter that works just as well on the outside as it does on the inside. This recipe has to be tweaked based on how you intend to use this whipped body butter. So, without further preamble, let us launch into 3 recipes that will suit 3 exclusive purposes.

1A. There are those of us who have complete faith in this bit of granny wisdom – anything that is good to be eaten is good to go on the skin. So, if using a completely natural product that is so safe that it can actually be eaten, should be your impetus for whipping up this batch of whipped body butter recipe below.

Ingredients:

50 g pistachio butter
50 ml pumpkin seed oil
50 ml grape seed oil
50 g cocoa butter (food grade)
1 tsp oat starch (heaped)
10 drops sweet orange essential oil
2 capsules of vitamin E

Instruction:

There are two ways to make this whipped body butter, you can take the easy route or one that will call for a bit of effort; but of course the therapeutic benefits you get will be commensurate with the efforts you put it. Hence, I will leave the choice in your hands.

Pistachio butter is not all that hard to find. Yet, it is not one of my favorite options because it is simply pistachio oil hydrogenated with a vegetable oil. In other words, it lacks purity plus there is a lot of processing involved, which is bound to leach away most of its nutritive value.

The second and better option is to pick up some pistachio oil. But, if you want the best, you will need to make pistachio butter/oil at home. This is a time intensive process but it is still my favorite because the recipe involves the use of raw pistachio nuts as opposed to roasted kernels.

That said, if you are going for pistachio butter, follow the recipe as is. With pistachio oil, you will have to increase the amount of cocoa butter to 75 g. And for the third option this is what you need to do:

Put ½ cup raw pistachios in the food processor and run the machine for about 3 minutes. Stop and scrape the sides and process again for 5 minutes. Repeat 3 times till you get a relatively smooth mixture. Add ½ cup of grapeseed or rice bran oil to the pistachio paste and process for a good 5 minutes.

At this point, you will have a runny, oily mixture on your hands. Use a fine sieve to remove large particles or you could use a cheese cloth. Even after filtering, the oil will be thick and will retain the rich green color of the nuts. Use this pistachio and oil mixture as you would use pistachio oil in the recipe.

Preparing the body butter

Add the oils and the butter to a double boiler and heat them till the butters melt. Take off from heat and add the oat starch. Use a spoon to mix the powder well and make sure there are no lumps.

By this time, the mixture should be at room temperature. Put it in the refrigerator for about 15 minutes. Take out the solidified lipids and use your hand blender to whip the ingredients.

Continue blending till you get a smooth and creamy butter that should feel as smooth and soft as cotton on your skin. Finally, add the vitamin E and the essential oil and give it one last whisk for about a minute and it is ready for storage. This body butter will easily last for 4-6 months and it is equally safe for your skin and tummy.

1B. This second recipe is for all you women out there who do not want to compromise on skin care but also want to keep things safe for their partners. After all, the last thing you need is your partner suffering from food poisoning or an allergic reaction all thanks to your body lotion.

OK, perhaps food poisoning may seem like a bit of an exaggeration. But let us face it; if you are buying a commercial product, they do include parabens, which are known carcinogenics and sustained ingestion of these substances can’t possibly be good.

Even if you make your own night time body butter, the use of certain fragrance and essential oils may create disruption right in the middle of play time. So, here is a quick recipe that is safe and also has a slight aphrodisiac edge to it.

Ingredients:

50 g cocoa butter
50 ml rice bran oil
50 ml coconut oil (virgin)
25 ml avocado oil
2 tsp tapioca powder
1 tsp watermelon extract/powder
A pinch of cinnamon
5 drops of ginger essential oil
10 drops lavender oil
2 capsules vitamin E oil

Preparation:

As for the other recipe, mix the oils and butters and heat till you get a homogenous mixture of lipids. Add all the powders to the oil blend and mix well before refrigerating. Remove after 15 minutes and whisk. Repeat the process till you get a smooth and light body butter. Finally, add vitamin E and the essential oils to the mixture, whisk and store in a glass jar.

1C. This one is a Valentine’s Day favorite or when you want to spice things up in the bedroom. This whipped butter is not just edible and fantastic for your skin but also tastes amazing. Talk about covering all bases.

Just remember that this recipe contains sugar/honey powder/sweetener. So, you should not use it around the vagina because anything that is sweet will increase the risk of yeast infection.

Ingredients:

1 cup virgin coconut oil
½ cup grated cocoa butter (yes you can actually grate it like hard cheese)
2 tsp organic brown sugar powder/honey powder/agave powder
1 tsp organic cocoa powder

Preparation:

Use a hand blender to whip the coconut oil and cocoa butter till you get a soft mixture. Mix the powdered sugar with the cocoa powder and add this to the butter as you continue whisking till you get a light, fluffy mixture. This whipped body butter will have to be stored under refrigeration because of its sugar content.

2. Mango Body Butter Recipe

As the name suggest, this recipe involves the use of mango butter and if you can get your hands on it, you could also add in a teaspoon of mango powder or extract. To make this whipped body butter that has a distinctly summery and delicious fragrance, you will need:

50 gm mango butter
50 gm kokum butter
50 ml sea buckthorn berry oil
50 ml macadamia nut oil
50 gm floral wax
100 ml rose hydrosol
1 tsp vegetable glycerin
1 tsp mango powder
¼ tsp turmeric
10 drops rosemary essential oil
1 tsp grapefruit seed extract
2 tsp arrowroot powder
1 tsp vitamin E
1/2 tsp sunflower lecithin (to be mixed with the water based ingredients)

Preparation:

Heat the oils, butters and waxes till all the lipids are in a liquid state. Remove from heat and set this mixture aside. Mix the arrowroot powder, mango powder, turmeric and grapefruit seed extract along with the glycerin and roes hydrosol. Adjust the amount of arrowroot powder to make a smooth but runny paste.

Once the lipid mixture is at room temperature, it will start to solidify and will take on a cloudy look. This is the time you put it into the refrigerator for 15 minutes. Remove and start whisking the mixture using a table top or hand held blender. Blend the lipids till you get a smooth, white cream. Continue whisking and begin to add the powder and hydrosol slurry, a tablespoon at a time, till you have worked it all in. Continue to whisk for about 5 more minutes till you get a homogenous mixture.

Put this back in the refrigerator for 15-20 minutes or till it solidifies. Remove and whisk again for about 10 minutes. Repeat this process 1-2 times more before adding rosemary essential oil and vitamin E to the butter. Give it one last whisk and store, if possible, under refrigeration.

3. Almond Body Butter Recipe

This body butter is well suited for dry and mature skin since it includes sweet almond oil as one of the bases. This carrier oil is an extremely rich source of vitamin E, so it can also be used to deal with stretch marks. To make this body butter, you will need

50 ml sweet almond oil
50 ml rosehip seed oil
50 ml sesame seed oil
100 g kokum butter
50 g floral wax
1 tsp green tea extract/1 tsp matcha
1 tsp rose petal powder/rose hip powder
1 tsp grapefruit seed extract
1 tsp vitamin E
10 drops rosemary essential oil
50 g aloe vera gel

Preparation:

Mix the oils, butter and wax and heat till the butter and wax melts. Let the mixture cool to room temperature then refrigerate for 15-20 minutes.

In a bowl, mix the aloe vera gel, green tea extract or matcha, rose petal powder and grapefruit seed extract. To blend the ingredients together, start by whisking the lipids with a hand held blender till you get a fluffy butter that feels and looks like whipped cream.

To this, add the aloe vera gel mixture as you continue to whisk. Once all the ingredients have been mixed well, refrigerate the mixture for another 20 minutes. Remove and put it through another round of whisking at high speed for about 10 minutes. When the butters starts to look like whipped cream again, add the vitamin E and the essential oil, whisk for another 2 minutes and transfer to a container.

4. Chocolate Body Butter Recipe

The exceptional thing about this body butter is that it offers a slight bronzing effect. So, you get that sun kissed glow while your skin gets oodles of nutrients and antioxidants.

100 gm cocoa butter
50 g macadamia nut oil
50 g virgin coconut oil
50 ml helichrysum hydrosol
1 tsp jojoba ester (not oil although jojoba oil is technically a plant wax)
20 ml cucumber extract (glycerol extract is better than glycerin and water based extract)
1 tsp cocoa powder
1 tsp corn starch
½ tsp coffee powder
1 tsp grapefruit seed extract
10 drops rosemary oil
1 tsp vitamin E
5 drops cocoa essential oil (optional)
1/2 tsp sunflower lecithin (to be mixed with the water based ingredients)

Preparation:

The method used is the same as for the other recipes. You will need to mix and heat the butter and wax with the oil till they melt. Remember to stir the mixture continuously as the wax and the butter melts.

Next, mix the powders with the hydrosol and extracts. Set this mixture aside. Allow the oil mixture to cool and when it gets cloudy place it in the refrigerator. You want to start with the lipid blend in a semi- solid state.

Whisk the fats till fluffy and then add the slurry of hydrosol and powder as you continue blending at high speed. After thoroughly blending the fats and the water based ingredients together, refrigerate the mixture till it solidifies. Whisk once again till soft and fluffy again. All in all, you will need to repeat the “refrigerate and blend” process 3 to 4 times to get a stable emulsion. In the final stage, add the essential oils and vitamin E and blend one last time for a minute before storing.

5. Vanilla Body Butter Recipe

Apart from its enticing fragrance, this body butter also offers intense hydration and remarkable protection against free radicals and the summer heat. It is also one of my favorite recipes because it is really simple to make. You will need:

100 ml virgin coconut oil
50 ml watermelon seed oil
½ tsp vanilla extract
½ tsp calendula extract
1 tsp aloe vera gel
1 tsp silk peptide powder
½ tsp grapefruit seed extract
1 tsp vitamin E

Preparation:

This is a no heat recipe, so you can start by putting the coconut oil and the watermelon seed oil in a mason jar as long as it is big enough to accommodate the blender head or you could simply use a bowl. Also add the vitamin E to the oils.

Mix the silk peptide powder with the aloe vera gel. Whisk the oils till you get a fluffy mixture, add the extracts to the lipids and whisk for about 2 minutes at medium speed. Now, turn the blender on at full speed and work in the aloe gel mixture. After about 5-10 minutes of blending, you will have a divine smelling and fluffy whipped body butter that will last you all through summer.

6. Lavender Body Butter Recipe

This body butter will not only heal your skin but also soothe your mind and chase away the blues. Plus, the inclusion of peppermint oil in the recipe will leave you feeling cool and refreshed. To make lavender whipped body butter, you will need:

50 gm kokum butter
50 ml hemp seed oil
1 tsp lavender flower powder
1 tsp oat protein
1 tsp vitamin E
10 drops lavender essential oil
10 drops peppermint essential oil

Preparation:

Mix the hempseed oil and the kokum butter and heat till the butter melts. Let the mixture cool to room temperature. Then, add vitamin E and the powders to the oil. Mix thoroughly with a spatula careful not to form leave back any lumps.

Refrigerate for 20 minutes, remove and whisk at high speed for 15 minutes till the butter is nice and fluffy. Add the essential oils to the butter and whisk for about a minute more and you the butter will be ready for use.

7. Strawberry Body Butter Recipe

This summery strawberry whipped body butter is a true heavyweight when it comes to antioxidant benefits because we will be using both strawberry extract as well as summer berry oils in this formulation. The ingredients are:

50 ml raspberry seed oil
50 ml strawberry seed oil
50 gm kokum butter
1 tsp vegetable glycerin
1 tsp strawberry extract or powder
1 tsp grapefruit seed extract
½ tsp beetroot powder
1 tsp vitamin E

Melt the kokum butter in the oils by using a double boiler. Stir continuously so that the lipids are mixed well. Set the blend aside. Once it is at room temperature, add vitamin E to the oils and refrigerate.

Next, mix the powders with the glycerin to form a smooth paste. Add the grapefruit seed extract to this mix. Remove the lipid mixture and start whisking it at high speed using a mechanical blender. Slowly add the glycerin mixture to the lipids while continuing to blend. Refrigerate the butter till it gets hard and then whisk again for another 10 minutes and that is all there is to it.

8. Argan Body Butter Recipe

This whipped body butter is particularly meant for people with very dry and mature skin. So, if the rise in mercury does little to cure the flakiness and dryness of your skin, get these ingredients together and whip up some soothing and moisturizing body butter.

50 ml argan oil
50 gm cocoa butter
50 ml virgin coconut oil
25 gm lotus floral wax
1 tsp castor oil
50 ml chamomile hydrosol
1 tsp rose petal powder
2 tsp tapioca powder
¼ tsp turmeric
1 tsp grapefruit seed extract
1 tsp gotu kola extract
6 drops sandalwood oil
1 tsp vitamin E
1/2 tsp sunflower lecithin (to be mixed with the water based ingredients)

Preparation:

The method of preparation is the same as that for the other body butters we have discussed so far. As always, you will need to mix all the lipids together and heat them till the butters and wax melt.

Next, you will have to blend the powders, extracts and hydrosol to form a slurry. Add vitamin E to the lipid mixture and refrigerate till it takes on a semi-solid form. Remove and start whisking at high speed.

Add the water based ingredients only after the lipids are blended well enough to resemble whipped cream. Work the hydrosol mixture in slowly while whisking at top speed to form a stable emulsion. Refrigerate the mixture, remove and blend again for about 15 minutes. Repeat this process for a total of three times before adding the essential oil. Remove and store, preferably under refrigeration.

Voila! That was easy-peasy, isn’t it…Enjoy and don’t shy away from showing off some skin this summer!

Step By Step Instructions And Recipes For Essential Oils Body Butters

by Olivia 11 Comments

I trust you have thoroughly enjoyed my first introductory article on body butters and why to use them. As promised I bring you the second one which includes lots and lots of recipes.

One of the advantages of body butters is the relative ease with which you can formulate these rich moisturizers in your kitchen. The ingredients are readily available both online and offline and as long as you learn a few tricks, you will need no more than 20 to 30 minutes to whip up a batch of body butter that will deliver the precise results you want.

The best part is that when you are making body butters at home as opposed to buying a commercial formulation, you can tweak the recipe to meet the specific requirements of your skin. For example, most store bought products will hydrate and moisturize but with your homemade body butter, you can tackle cellulite, battle ungainly stretch marks and even stop skin wrinkling and sagging in their tracks.

In terms of the fragrance of your body butter, you get a wide variety of choices; from citrusy fresh to enthralling florals and earthy woody and spicy aromas. On the other hand, if you are somebody who cannot stand strong scents, it is always possible to leave the fragrant compounds out and still get all the therapeutic benefits of body butters. So, if you are vying to get your first batch of body butter going, here is all the information you will need along with detailed instructions and recipes.

The tools you need to make body butter are right there in your kitchen

1. A kitchen scale

Instead of melting the fluids before measuring them, an easier approach is to simply use a digital kitchen scale and measure everything in grams. This way the measurements are more precise and the resultant butter will have the exact texture that you are going for.

2. Small measuring cup (optional)

A plastic cup, the kind that is often supplied with oral suspensions for children, will work well to measure out liquids in quantities as low as 5-10 ml.

3. Dropper

This will be needed for adding essential oils to the butter

4. Mixing bowl

A glass bowl that can hold about 100 to 200 gm of lipids will do as long as you get enough space on top to use a blender and then mix in the other ingredients.

5. Double boiler

Excess heat adversely impacts the nutritional and lipid content of plants butters and oils. But, you will need to melt the butters and the waxes before they can be mixed with the oils and other ingredients and this is why you need a double boiler. Placing a glass container with the solids in it in a water bath is also an option, albeit it can be messy and slower and you will need to use a beaker or mug that will not crack when exposed to heat.

6. Spatula

A wooden spatula is highly recommended, but if you don’t have one, a glass stirrer will also do.

7. Hand blender

Although you could use a wire whisk, it won’t offer the smooth and consistent results that you can get by mixing the lipids with a handheld blender.

Step By Step Guide To Make Body Butter At Home

Making body butter at home quickly turns into a fulfilling endeavor the minute you see your skin reflecting the results of your efforts. The task is easy, yet for all its simplicity, there are a few basics that you need to get right if you want your body butter to have the desired texture and consistency and offer the expected results.

A crucial step in the body butter making process is that of choosing the right mix of plant butters, oils and waxes. You will remember from our last article on the topic that these three are the primary ingredients of body butters. Although you have a myriad of options available, you cannot simply pick random oils and butters and expect perfect results.

In fact, the ingredients have to be chosen in such a way as to bring out the best in each. The butters, waxes and oils have to complement each other, so that their skin healing and hydrating properties work synergistically and in your final product you get the sum of all their benefits. So, when picking the oils, waxes and butters, you need to consider three factors:

1. Viscosity of the oil

The thicker the oil, the greater will be the weather protection that your skin gets from it. But, this also means that it will leave your skin feeling oily and slick, and there is a good chance that your clothes will bear tell tale oil stains.

Also, denser oils offer superior moisturization, but owing to their large molecular size, they tend to stay on the surface of the skin. So, they are not good transporters of nutrients, particularly when you want skin nourishing vitamins and minerals to seep into the deeper dermal layers.

On the other hand, lighter oils are powerhouses of vitamins and other skin healing nutrients, but they offer little by ways of environmental protection. Also, because they quickly get soaked into the skin, they do not prevent the loss of moisture from the dermal cells as much as the heavier oils.

The optimal approach is to strike a balance between light and heavy oils. Combining different types of lipids will give your skin protection against cold weather and wind and the nutrients it needs to stay healthy, soft and glowing. With this result in mind, here is a look at the viscosity level of the oils discussed in the last article and a few other popular options.

Very thick oils:

Argan
Avocado
Wheatgerm
Castor
Aloe vera
Tamanu

Medium thick oils

Olive
Almond
Rice bran
Sunflower
Sesame seed
Apricot kernel
Safflower
Calendula infused (depending on base vegetable oil used)
Carrot infused (depending on base vegetable oil used)

Light oils:

Coconut
Evening primrose
Hempseed
Raspberry seed
Sea buckthorn berry
Walnut
Flaxseed
Grape seed
Rosehip seed
Macadamia

2. Texture of the butter

Plant butters can be segregated on the basis of not only their melting points but also their texture. You can find butters that range from very hard to very soft and everything in between. In terms of skin benefits, hard butters offer less emollient value but they make up for this by bringing anti-ageing effects and a lot of nutritional takeaway to the table.

Similarly, soft butters coat the skin very well, but they seldom have the antioxidant and nutrient profile of astringent butters. Moreover, the inclusion of hard butters in the recipe adds texture to the formulation and helps to emulsify the butter if you have used water based humectants like honey or glycerin.

In fact, as long as the quantity of the hydrophilic ingredients does not exceed 5-10%, just using a hard butter will get the job done and you won’t have to bother with a separate emulsifying agent. That said, here is a look at how the different plant butters discussed in our last article and a few other popular options fare on the hardness scale:

Hard:

Has the consistency of butter kept in the freezer, but does melt when rubbed in between the palms for a few minutes.

Cocoa
Kokum
Illipe
Chaulmoogra
Maria/White Cocoa
Sal
Murumuru

Medium hard:

Has the hardness of butter that has been removed from the refrigerator and has been kept out for a couple of minutes. These plant butters melt when rubbed on the skin.

Mango
Cupuacu
Dhupu

Soft:

Feels like butter kept at room temperature and can be applied directly on the skin. These butters have a consistency that is very close to that of cold cream.

Shea
Kukui nut
Mowrah

Very soft:

Has the consistency of butter kept out in hot weather or exposed to some heat and is about to melt. These plant butters will turn to oil almost immediately on contact with skin.

Coconut cream/virgin coconut oil
Aloe butter
Avocado butter
Palm kernel butter

Nutritional profile:

Finally, you want your body butter to have well rounded nutritional properties. This means that along with essential fatty acids, the ingredients should also add vitamins, mineral, phytoesterols and antioxidants to the preparation. So along with the plant lipids, you will also have to include a range of secondary ingredients. But, these should not compromise the protective capacity of the formulation.

In a nutshell, you are trying to get the best hydration and moisturization along with loads of vitamins and minerals and a host of antioxidants that will protect the skin from damage due to free radicals, keep the skin cells healthy and prevent skin ageing. But, for this you need to ensure that the ingredients are blended together in the correct ratio.

If you don’t want to make body butter at home, you can click on the image below to buy one.

Getting The Ratio Of Solids To Liquids Right

Mixing the oils and butters

The thicker and denser the oil, the more astringent will have to be the butter that it is combined with it, unless you are making body butter meant to shield your skin from exceptionally cold weather. For example, if you are using argan oil, which is one of the most viscous skin care oils, it would be better to combine it with a hard and astringent butter like that of kokum than to mix it with shea butter, which is just as dense and oily.

Similarly, when using a light oil like that of hempseed or evening primrose, you will need a rich, medium hard butter like that of mango and a very soft butter like that of coconut. If you are mixing a light oil with a soft butter, you will need a wax to add body and texture to the formulation. For example, if you are blending hempseed oil with palm kernel butter, including a hard wax in the mixture will give your skin greater protection and better texture to the formulation.

The precise ratios:

Ideally, you want to keep the ratio of liquids to solids at 1:1, unless you are using a hard butter in which case, you should bring down the quantity of butter to 1/3 otherwise the inclusion of the oil will only make a marginal difference to the hardness of the butter and the resultant formulation will still feel stiff. If you are using a light oil, you should combine 40% oil with 40% soft butter and 20% hard butter.

Using the waxes:

For a super light and non greasy butter, you will need to increase the quantity of the non-oily liquids in the formulation. To create an emulsion, you will have to include a plant wax. Also, if you want to combine a very soft butter with an oil (very viscous or light), you will have to include wax in the preparation to get the buttery texture.

When working with a wax (beeswax or plant wax) keep the quantity down to between 1 tsp to 1 tbsp. The more wax you add the stickier and harder the butter will be. If you do not like the sticky feel created by Beeswax or plant waxes in general, combine them with a hard plant butter. This way you can tone down the quantity of wax needed.

Blending The Solids And The Liquids

The solids, both the waxes and the butters have to be melted before they can be mixed together with the oils. However, you cannot just place them on the stove directly. While microwaving is an option, the less heat these lipids are exposed to, the better it is for their nutritional content. So, using a double boiler is the best and most convenient approach.

If you don’t have a double boiler, place the solids in a glass beaker or cup and place the beaker in a bowl of boiling hot water. The heat will be enough to melt the solids but it will take longer than if you were to use a double boiler. Although a lot of people recommend that you just heat the butters and waxes alone, I personally like to mix the butters and the waxes with the oils and then heat the mixture. This makes it easier to blend the lipids together later. Also, mixing cold oils in the hot, melted butters often leads to a grainy texture as the lipids in the butters cool down and often crystallize.

Do not forget to cut the hard butters into small pieces or thin slices before adding them to the oil. This way they melt faster and require less heat. Continue stirring as you heat the solids and the oils. Once all the butter and waxes have melted, you are ready to take the mixture off the heat.

Stir with a spoon till the mixture is at room temperature. At this point, the mixture will start to get cloudy. Place it in the refrigerator for about 10-15 minutes and remove and use your hand held mixer on it. As you whisk, the cloudy mixture of plant butters, waxes and oils will start to take on a frothy, creamy look.

Continue whisking for about 5-10 minutes. The heat generated by the machine may melt the butters again, but don’t worry too much about this. Place the mixture in the refrigerator again for about 15 minutes, remove and give it another round of whisking. This time, you will see your ingredients coming together to form a light, airy textured cream. You may need Round 3, depending on the oils and the butters used. Your body butter is now ready for the addition of the delicate aromatic compounds like essential oils.

How To Make Body Butter With Shea Butter?

Shea butter is a soft and rich butter that is perfect for winter months. It is a fantastic emollient that spreads smoothly and offers a high degree of protection and skin coverage. But to counter the softness and oiliness, you need to couple it with a hard butter or a combination of a wax and a medium hard butter. As far as the oil is concerned, it would be best to go for an astringent oil, unless you are dealing with winter temperatures that plunge below 5 to 7 degrees Celsius.

Here is an easy recipe that is specifically meant for fall and winter skin care:

Ingredients

20 gm shea butter
15 drops argan oil
15 drops evening primrose oil
30 gm mango butter
10 drops jojoba oil
5 ml castor oil
2 ml algae extract
1/4 tsp turmeric
1 tsp of rose petal powder
20 drops lavender oil
5 drops rosemary oil
1 tsp vitamin E

Preparation

Measure the butters and add the shea butter to the container that you intend to heat the lipids in. Chop the mango butter into small pieces and add to the shea butter along with argan, jojoba, evening primrose and castor oils. Melt the butters according to the instructions given in the section above. Continue to stir as you heat the oils and butters and take off from the heat once you have a homogenous mixture.

Stir till a bit cloudy and then place in the refrigerator for about 10 minutes. Take out and add the powder and algae extract mixture to the lipids along with the vitamin E. Whisk the mixture with your hand held blender till all the ingredients come together to form a smooth paste. After about 5 minutes of whisking, the mixture will take on a lotion-like look. This is the time to put it back in the refrigerator for about 10 minutes.

Take it out and put it through another round of whisking, this time continue to whisk till the mixture solidifies and takes on a creamy, buttery consistency. Finally, add the lavender and rosemary essential oils and mix with a wooden spoon or a glass stirrer. Mix well so that the essential oils become one with the other lipids.

Transfer the soft butter into a weck jar or any mason or glass jar used for canning. Place in the refrigerator for a few hours and your butter will be ready for use. If you like the feel of cool butter on your skin, you can continue to store it in the refrigerator or it will stay just as well on the bedside table. Just remember to not place it in the bathroom where the lipids will be exposed to direct steam and heat.

How To make Body Butter With Coconut Oil?

The wonderfully light coconut oil is a potent source of protein and medium chain fatty, which give it skin rejuvenating and regenerating properties. Apart from being an intense moisturizer, coconut oil is also a strong antimicrobial agent that is known to be effective against skin sagging and stretch marks.

So, here is a summer body butter recipe that is light yet hydrating. You will need:

Ingredients

20 gm coconut oil (virgin is preferred over fractionated)
10 gm illipe /sal butter
10 drops jojoba oil
10 drops sea buckthorn berry oil
5 ml vegetable glycerin
1 tsp matcha/2 ml green tea extract
1 tsp apple powder (also known as apple extract)
5 drops rosemary oil
1 tsp vitamin E
10 drops rose essential oil

Preparation

Mix the powders and the glycerin together and set it aside. Melt the butters and the oils and continue mixing even after melted till the lipids are at room temperature and turn cloudy. Then, add the powders to the oils and whisk well. Also add the vitamin E and rosemary oil and refrigerate for about 15 minutes. Remove and whisk with a hand held blender till you get the consistency of skin lotion. Refrigerate once again for 15 minutes, remove and whisk. Add rose essential oil to the mixture, which should now have the consistency of hard, churned butter. Mix well and store in a dark colored mason jar.

How To Make Non-Greasy Body Butter?

The trick to making non-greasy body butter is to start with light oils, add hard butters to it and increase the quantity of water based ingredients from 5-10% to about 20-30%. However, increasing the amount of water in the mixture means that you will need an emulsifying agent, so be ready to use plant wax.

Check out this recipe that can be used to make body butter for those sweltering months:

Ingredients

10 drops each of evening primrose, sea buckthorn berry, raspberry seed, grape seed and rosehip seed oils
10 gm kokum butter
10 gm tuberose wax
1 heaped tsp kaolin clay/baking powder
2 ml vegetable glycerin
15-20 ml rose/helichrysum hydrosol
1 ml grapefruit seed extract
1 tsp vitamin E
5 drops rosemary oil
10 drops neroli essential oil

Preparation

Mix the glycerin and hydrosol with the powder (baking powder or kaolin clay) to form a slurry. You may need more hydrosol depending on the amount of powder used. Add grapefruit seed extract to the slurry and set it aside. Measure, mix and melt the oils, butter and wax, stirring as you go along. Remove the lipids mixture from heat and let it cool. Once it is at room temperature, add vitamin E and rosemary oil to it and start whisking with your hand held blender.

Add the slurry, one tsp at a time as you continue to whisk. It will take about 7-10 minutes of whisking to get a homogenous emulsion. Refrigerate for 15 minutes, remove and whisk again. Repeat this process a third time before adding neroli essential oil to the butter and folding it in gently. The final result will be a light emulsion with the texture of melted butter that spreads easily on the skin and does not leave an oily residue. This butter is best stored under refrigeration.

How To Make Body Butter With Honey?

Honey is not only a natural antiseptic agent but also a potent humectant with skin clarifying properties. However, most people shy away from using the gooey ingredient in their skin care preparations owing to the stickiness it brings along. So, here is a recipe for making a light body butter with honey that offers all of its benefits without the stickiness. You will need:

Ingredients

10 ml honey
25-30 ml rose water
2 tsp kaolin clay
1 tsp pineapple powder/fruit extract
20 gm coconut oil
10 gm candelilla wax
20 ml hempseed oil
20 ml calendula infused oil
15 drops sandalwood essential oil
5 drops rosemary essential oil
1 tsp vitamin E

Preparation

As with the other recipe, mix the powders with the rosewater and honey to form a slurry mixture. Put all the lipids together and melt. Cool the oil and wax mixture till it gets hazy and then start whisking with the mechanical blender. Add the honey and powder slurry to the mix one teaspoon at a time till you have worked it all in.

Blend at high speed for a 2-3 minutes and place the mixture in the refrigerator for 15-20 minutes. Remove and blend again for about 5-10 minutes; repeat the process a third time before adding the essential oils to the mixture. Give it one last whisk before bottling the butter.

How To Make Body Butter With Beeswax?

This is one of the easiest recipes for an all-purpose body butter that can be used to make a rich and highly moisturizing formulation. To make this body butter, you will need:

Ingredients

10 gm beeswax
15 ml each, of carrot infused and apricot kernel oils
10 ml each of rice bran, walnut and pumpkin seed oils
10 gm capuacu / murumuru butter
15 drops jasmine essential oil
1 tsp vitamin E

Preparation

Mix the beeswax pastilles with the butter and the oils and heat till all the solids have melted. Cool to room temperature and blend till the mixture starts to solidify. Scrape the lipids from the sides of the bowl and place the container in the refrigerator for 15 minutes. Remove and re-whisk. This time, you should get a fairly solid and buttery cream after about 5-7 minutes of blending. Add the vitamin E and jasmine oil to the mixture and blend for another minute. Remove and store in any glass or plastic jar.

How To Make Body Butter With Cocoa Butter?

Cocoa butter is an extremely rich emollient that shields the skin from moisture loss as well as offers antioxidant protection. However, since it is a hard butter, you will need to blend it with other ingredients to make a body butter that goes on easy and offers all the skin benefits that you need. For this simple recipe, you will require:

Ingredients

2 tbsp aloe vera gel
1 tsp coffee powder
1 ml grapefruit seed extract
1 ml green tea extract
20 drops almond oil
10 drops argan oil
10 ml avocado oil
10 ml flaxseed oil
20 gm organic Cocoa butter
10 gm kokum / sal butter

Preparation

Mix the coffee powder with the aloe vera gel (use organic) and add the extracts to this mixture. Set it aside and get the lipids ready as you did for the other recipes. Once the oils and butters have melted, cool them to room temperature before you start whisking them with your hand blender. Add the aloe gel and coffee powder slurry to the lipids slowly as you work the mixture with the blender.

Once you have emptied the gel mixture into the lipids, whisk at high speed for about 5 minutes. Store the mixture under refrigeration for 15 minutes before removing and whisking again for another 5-7 minutes. Repeat one more time and store the butter in a glass container. This amazing body butter not only smells of delicious chocolate and coffee but also has a gorgeous milk coffee color and it offers all the antioxidant and skin tightening properties of both coffee and green tea.

If you have been able to keep up with my recipes, well done. I will have another set of recipes in my next article: whipped body butters. As always, please send me your comments and feedback.

Why Make Essential Oil Body Butters A Part Of Your Body Skincare Routine?

by Olivia 19 Comments

Cast a cursory glance at the current skin care offerings and you are bound to spot the universal body butters. They are available in a range of enthralling fragrances and are marketed as the ultimate luxury formulation for your skin. Now, for most of us the term “butter” is enough to invoke images of mamma’s loving care and natural, wholesome goodness.

Can Body Butter Be Used on Face?

Body butter as the name implies is to be used on the body and not on the face. I have two separate sources of information for face skincare, i.e. depending on whether you have dry or sensitive skin or oily and combination skin.

So, we assume that if a body butter can do half as much for our skin as the dairy product did for our taste buds, we would have a winner on our hands. In fact, it is this line of reasoning that makes us see right past the high price tags of these products. But, despite the psychological hook and the lofty marketing claims, there are a few questions about body butters that remain unanswered. For instance:

What exactly is a body butter and how is it different from other skincare products?
Do body butters really deliver on their promise of offering you smooth, velvety and healthy skin, regardless of the weather?

And last but not the least, is there a more pocket friendly way to include body butters in your skincare regime?

Continue reading to find the answer to these and other questions that you always had about body butters.

So, What Exactly Is A Body Butter?

The simplest definition is that it is a moisturizing cream for your skin. Again, I re-iterate that it is applied on the body and not on the face. But if it is just another skin cream, why the brouhaha? Yes, there are a lot of skin care products in the market. However, most body lotions and creams would pale when compared to well-made body butters.

The reason for this lies in the recipe of the formulation. Body butter is all emollient, and a mighty rich emollient at that. This means that if used as it should be, body butter can not only protect your skin from the harsh weather but also environmental pollution and natural, transepidermal water loss.

In fact, if you suffer from dry, scaly skin, nothing can offer the excellent and rapid hydration that you can get from body butters. Actually, I would go so far as to say that if you have never tried using body butter, you sure have deprived your skin of a veritable treat. And, this brings us to our next question:

But, How Is A Body Butter Different From Lotions And Creams?

There is a reason they use the term “butter” for this product. Like the real deal, a body butter should comprise of plant lipids and a few other oleophilic (oil loving) ingredients. Notice, how there is absolutely no mention of water based liquids in any form and this is what sets body butters apart from other skin care formulations.

Lotions and creams are no match to body butters!

While lotions are emulsions that can contain as much as 70% water or water like ingredients (read hydrosols), creams are only a few steps behind at 30-40% water content. Typically, artificial emulsifying agents are used to mix the water with the oils/plants lipids. Of course, natural emulsifiers are available in the market, but they are expensive and seldom offer the same degree of emulsion stability as their chemical counterparts.

Also, the inclusion of water based ingredients raises the need for preservatives since anything that contains water will eventually harbor bacterial/fungal culture. So, regardless of the claims that manufacturers make, there simply cannot be such a thing as a 100% natural/organic skin cream or lotion.

Body butters perform when other skin care products fail!

Even if you were to set aside the part about chemical additives, there is still the bit about the impact of body butters on the skin vis-à-vis regular creams and lotions. When the water based ingredients in lotions and creams dry, you are left with less than 50% of the stuff you paid for; plus the evaporating water only makes your skin drier and flakier.

In contrast, body butter is 95-100% plant waxes, oils and butters. This means that lotions and creams will wear off within a few hours but a body butter will continue to provide long lasting hydration and protection. However, here is the caveat. You get all the purported benefits of body butters only if they are made as they should be.

But, this is where most commercial product makers don’t come through for you. Randomly pick any body butter and the first ingredient is bound to be water/aqua or a hydrosol or flower water. Call it by any name but it’s still water! And, this is what creates the need for making your own body butters. But, before we come to the technique, let’s discuss the ingredients.

So, What Goes Into An Effective Body Butter?

In a nutshell, a body butter comprises of 2-3 primary ingredients and 2-3 secondary ingredients. The primary ingredients are all lipids and plant waxes which form the bulk of the formulation while the secondary ingredients bring additional therapeutic benefits to the table. Within, these two broad categories are a plethora of options.

The primary ingredients: Oils, Plant Butters and Waxes

Oils

These need no explanation. Depending on your pick, you can get a range of skin care benefits from plant oils; from hydration and moisturization to healing and protection against inflammation and free radicals, oils can do this and a lot more.

In fact, if you need a potent vehicle to transfer skin healing nutrients to the deeper dermal layers, no other medium works better than oils. Although you can use just about any plant oil in your body butter, here is a list of a few popular options. Just remember to buy the least processed oils.

1. Evening primrose

The high gamma linoleic content of this oil makes it perfect for inclusion in body butters made for healing chapped and dry skin. The oil is light and gets absorbed easily, which is ideal when whipping up a body butter for summertime.

2. Hemp seed

If you want to transform your skin from dry and flaky to smooth and silky, this is the oil to go for. It has a near perfect ratio of Omega 3, 6, 9 fatty acids plus a bunch of skin healing vitamins and minerals.

3. Rice bran

Use this oil for its skin polishing and brightening effects. Since it eradicates skin sagging and wrinkling, it is a good choice to battle cellulite.

4. Coconut

Virgin, unrefined coconut oil is solid at room temperature, but if you take fractionated oil, it will retain its liquid state even when refrigerated. In either form, the oil is an antimicrobial agent that protects the skin from free radical damage and UV rays. It is a rich source of vitamin E and capric, caprilic and lauric acids all of which are important for skin health.

5. Almond

This medium viscous oil works well when you want a rich body butter that will stop plunging temperatures from taking a toll on your skin. No other oil has comparable content of vitamin E and oleic acid as sweet almond oil, which means that this is one ingredient that can protect and heal the skin in one fell swoop.

6. Argan

Use this luxurious oil if you have truly dry and stubborn skin that does not respond to any other form of treatment. This dense oil works fantastically on skin dryness caused due to ageing and weather conditions as it is a rich source of vitamin E, A and Omega 6 fatty acids.

7. Sea buckthorn berry

Since it contains Omega 7 fatty acids, sea buckthorn oil is an extremely potent anti inflammatory and healing agent. It is also has boat loads of antioxidants, including beta carotene, that neutralize free radicals and stop them from damaging your skin.

If you want to up the therapeutic value of your body butter, you can also include macerated/infused oils in the formula, which bring all the healing powers of the herb/plant into the mix. A few favorites include:

Calendula

This infused oil is prized for its ability to increase the natural healing capacity of the skin.

Carrot Seed

Made by infusing plant oil with regular carrots, this orange colored oil offers significant antioxidant benefits.

Plant butters

The logical question would be, why add plant butters when you already have oils in the recipe? For one, not everybody enjoys the slippery feel created by the application of oil. Also, depending on the viscosity and nutritional profile, oil may not provide the degree of protection and healing power that your skin needs.

Plant butters make up for these shortcomings. They not only improve the texture of the formulation, but also enhance the rate of absorption and add to the overall nutritional value of the preparation. Here is a look at the skin care benefits that you can expect from some popular options.

1. Shea butter

The panacea for all skin issues that comes to you all the way from the Africa, shea butter is a staple in a lot of skin care preparations. This soft, creamy yellow plant butter with a faint nutty aroma has vitamin A, E and F along with essential fatty acids that coat and protect the skin from damaging environmental factors, including UV rays.

2. Mango butter

Full of antioxidants and skin healing vitamins A, C and E, mango butter not only moisturizes the skin but also prevents sagging and wrinkling. The light, astringent butter is perfect for summer.

3. Kokum butter

Another fruity butter, this is a super fast absorbing lipid that hydrates and moisturizes without the oily after feel. The hard, white butter boosts cellular regeneration and prevents the degeneration of skin cells. It also enhances skin elasticity and helps in healing.

4. Cocoa butter

The heavenly aroma of this butter is hard to miss, as is the silky feel that it leaves on your skin. Cocoa butter effectively prevents skin dryness and cracking while bringing a lot of flavanoids and polyphenols into the skin care equation.

5. Sal butter

An extremely stable plant lipid, sal butter is derived from the kernels of the Shorea Robusta tree. It is an effective emollient that can be used to hydrate and moisturize dry, chapped and rough skin. It is practically odorless, spreads easily and is dense enough to impart a wonderful, creamy texture to the formulation.

6. Illipe butter

This hard butter is extracted from trees found in the South Pacific. It offers intense moisturization with its high levels of tocopherols and phytoesterol. It improves the health of the dermal lipid barrier and helps in preventing loss of moisture.

Waxes

When you want to offer your skin greater protection but would like to keep your butter light, waxes help to improve the coating ability of the formulation. They also improve the glide consistency without increasing oiliness. Some of the waxes to consider include:

1. Jojoba oil

Yes, jojoba oil is actually a plant wax that also happens to offer the benefits of a vegetable oil. It is so like sebum that it gets absorbed easily and quickly and offers the same level of protection that you get from natural skin secretions. Moreover, it is a gentle exfoliant that rids the skin of dead cells and heals and nourishes the healthy dermal layers underneath.

2. Candelilla wax

High in esters, resins and fatty acids, this wax is frequently used in cosmetic preparations. It will make your formulations denser and act as an effective barrier against environmental elements. It is also very potent when used against stretch marks.

3. Tuberose floral wax

While other floral waxes are available, this is a personal favorite thanks to its light yet lingering fragrance and abundance of phospholipids that make the skin velvety smooth.

4. Organic beeswax

Although this option does not sit well with everybody, it is one of the most popular natural waxes. It seals the moisture into the dermal layers and is one of the best choices for very dry and chapped skin.

5. Bayberry wax

It is a rich emollient that hydrates and soothes while acting as a emulsifying and thickening agent in skin care formulae.

The secondary ingredients for body butter

Essential oils

There are a myriad of options available depending on your requirements. For instance, use floral oils such as lavender, jasmine, neroli or rose to make your butter smell amazing. If you want the preparation to combat stretch marks and cellulite, rosemary and clary sage are good choices while sandalwood and turmeric are coveted for their healing and soothing effects.

Powders

Turmeric, rose petal powder, orange peel powder, spirulina will not only give your formulation a delightful pastel hue but will also increase its therapeutic and antioxidant value.

Extracts

Algae and green tea extracts are the top choices here as they offer antioxidant and anti ageing benefits.

Humectants

These compounds make moisture available for the skin cells by drawing it from the formulation and/or the environment. Vegetable glycerin, aloe vera gel and honey are excellent humectants that will leave your skin feeling soft and pampered.

Preservatives

Rosemary oil is both an anti-oxidative and antimicrobial agent, but vitamin E, particularly T-50, is a more potent option. If you are using water based ingredients, using grapefruit seed extract will significantly increase the usable life of the formulation.

What Are The Benefits Of Body Butter?

In terms of preparation, simplicity is the biggest selling point of body butters. You can be as minimalistic or as adventurous as you like with these formulations. Your body butter can be made as a general purpose skin moisturizer or you can tweak the formula to accommodate the specific needs of your skin.

As far as usage goes, it would be hard to find a skin care preparation that is half as versatile as body butter. If it has got anything to do with skin care, rest assured that your body butter will have you covered.

But, foremost is the fact that no other product can protect and moisturize your skin better and for longer than your body butter. Whether you are grappling with chapped and flaking skin that is on the verge of cracking or simply want your skin to feel silky soft, body butter can do this and more. Here is a look at a few innovative ways to use body butter:

A shaving cream that protects, heals and moisturizes
A cuticle moisturizer that keeps your nails healthy and hydrated
A nourishing and effective makeup remover
A hand and foot cream that will keep signs of skin ageing away
A lip balm
A hair conditioner and protector
A softener for rough areas of the body like the elbows, ankles and knees
A pre-bath oil/moisturizer

Of course, the bit about body butters being 100% natural formulations only adds to their effectiveness and their list of advantages. Contrary to popular perception, you don’t have to reserve your body butters for fall and winter. In fact, these are all weather formulations that will keep your skin smooth and glowing, while keeping wrinkles, sagging and stretch marks away.

How To Make Body Butter?

You can use all three primary ingredients or just combine one of the solids (waxes and butters) with the liquids (oils). If you are looking for an old school approach, it is also possible to simply apply a soft butter neat. Of course, mixing it with the other ingredients will increase its therapeutic benefits, but this is a no effort way.

Simple foolproof two ingredient recipe

Combine an astringent butter like that of kokum or mango with a rich, dense oil like almond or argan in equal proportion. If texture does not matter much to you, simply put the ingredients in a bowl and use your hand held blender to whisk them together. Fold in a few drops of lavender or citrus essential oil or a fragrance oil and you have your very own, all purpose body butter.

Mixing jojoba and evening primrose oils in equal quantities will yield similar results, just that in this case you will have more of a body oil than a butter. But, jojoba is a plant wax and does offer a significant degree of protection.

Another way is to mix a light oil like that of sea buckthorn berry with a plant wax to enhance the emollient and shielding effect of the formulation. Try combining sea buckthorn berry oil with rice bran oil and tuberose floral wax in equal amounts. Use your handheld blender on the ingredients and you will have a lightly fragrant, creamy, yellow butter that will work fantastically well as a summer moisturizer.

How To Use Body Butter?

The best time to use your body butter is the first thing after a shower and right before bed. The optimal way is to apply body butter when your skin is still damp after shower. So after a quick toweling session, while your pores are open, massage the butter all over your body (not on your neck or face).

Remember, a little butter goes a long way, so you don’t have to be too generous. Give your skin about 10 minutes to soak in the plant lipids before putting on your clothes. When using at night, particularly in winter or when trying to combat extreme skin dryness, cover your body with some clothing after applying the body butter. For instance, put on a pair of socks and gloves if you want your hands and feet to be deeply hydrated and moisturized.

How To Store Homemade Body Butter?

Storage container

Depending on the ingredients used, you can store your homemade body butter in just about any jar or container with a wide mouth. Although it is best to use a glass jar, if you have prepared a small batch, you can use your old cream jars even if they are plastic (only if you are going to use all of it within a few days).

However, if you have used essential oils in the formulation, then you need to mandatorily store the butter in a dark colored, glass container because essential oils degrade fast when exposed to heat and light.

Refrigeration requirement

Most hard butters will remain in their solid state at room temperature and even when it is extraordinarily hot, they will only show slight signs of melting. As opposed to this, a soft butter like coconut oil will turn into an oily liquid when the mercury starts soaring.

If you don’t fancy the slick feel of oil, simply refrigerate the body butter and remove only when needed. You can also counter the melting by using a mix of hard and soft butters in the formula.

How Long Does Homemade Body Butter Last?

Typically, body butters last for 6 to 9 months, but you need to consider the time you have left on the ingredient with the shortest usable life. For instance, if you have used evening primrose oil in the recipe, your body butter will only stay good for 6 months and 9 at the most if refrigerated because that is the usable life of evening primrose oil.

On the other hand, if you use highly stable ingredients like jojoba oil and kokum butter, you can get over a year from the formulation. Similarly, if you use natural preservatives like rosemary and vitamin E in the recipe, they will increase the life span of the preparation by 3-4 months, as will refrigeration.

How Often Should I Use Body Butter?

Twice a day is the magic figure, but you can use your body butter as often as you like or every time you feel your skin going dry and stretchy. On parts of the body that remain covered, twice is usually enough because the rich lipid content of the butter offers ample moisturization and protection. However, on parts that are exposed to the elements like hands and feet, you may want to use the butter three or four times as need be.

Voila, that’s it for now! Hopefully, you have found the above article helpful. In my next article, you will get a step-by-step guide and some excellent homemade body butter recipes that you can concoct in your own kitchen.