DIY Body Butter

This body butter recipe is actually magical. I know that there are a lot of “DIY Beauty” recipes floating around on the internet and a lot of them are just not as good as the store bought versions, but THIS is seriously worth trying.

I have been experimenting with DIY body butters since last summer and some recipes were too firm and difficult to scoop out of a jar, some were too soft and oily and wouldn’t absorb into my skin, some were too heavy on the cocoa butter (I am personally not a huge fan of smelling like chocolate) but this recipe really did it for me.

What’s interesting is that in between my last batch of body butter and this one I started using Aveeno body lotion after my showers and I started getting dry bumps on the backs of my arms and my legs were flaky and dry by the end of the day – and I’m not a person prone to dry skin! Two days after using this DIY body butter, my arms were COMPLETELY smooth again. See? Magical.

Ingredients:

• 1/2 c shea butter
• 1/2 c coconut oil
• 1/4 c cocoa butter
• 1/4 c avocado oil (I also read elsewhere that sweet almond oil can be used as a substitute)
• essential oil (I used a combination of eucalyptus and lavender)

I slowly melted all ingredients except the essential oils over the stove using my makeshift double boiler (a glass bowl over a saucepan of simmering water).

Once melted, I placed the bowl in the fridge to cool for 3 hours, until the oils solidified.

At this point you could spoon the mixture into a glass container to store as-is, but I chose to use a mixer to whip the oils together as I prefer a whipped consistency. I also used this as my opportunity to add a little essential oil.

This recipe yielded about a 1 cup of body butter. Enough to last a few months before it is time to replace it. Hope you enjoy as much as I do!