There is something incredibly satisfying about making your own body products! We’ve been very conscious of which product used in the past years, even more so when it comes to applying something directly onto our skin. Store-bought products will often have synthetic perfumes and other chemical ingredients that can cause allergic reactions and can be quite harmful to our endocrine system. Our skin quickly absorbs everything that is lathered onto it; therefore, natural products are what’s best for our health!
What’s great about making your own body butter is that not only does it only take a few minutes to put together, and it’s much cheaper this way, but it’s also quite easy to adjust as you wish while making it, thus obtaining the exact texture you want.
This recipe calls for only three ingredients that are easy to find, together they make an impressive whipped mix that smells heavenly, and that will hydrate your skin in no time!
What’s more, those three ingredients can be switched up depending on what you have on hand. So, you can either use olive oil, grapeseed oil instead of either coconut oil or sweet almond oil and you can substitute Cocoa butter for Shea butter.
Ingredients
- ½ cup of Shea butter: This butter will nourish your skin as well as hydrate it while also shielding your skin from winter’s wrath and offer solar protection (number 4).
- ¼ cup of sweet almond oil: Soothing & hydrating, this oil has antioxidant properties.
- ¼ cup of coconut oil: It is offered in two varieties, either with or without fragrance (smell like the beach, or not!). This oil is quickly absorbed by the skin and has vitamin A & E in it which helps the skin to regenerate itself.
- 15-30 drops of essential oils (optional): Use your favourite essential oils to add a unique fragrance to your homemade body butter. Combinations such as lavender/orange, ylang-ylang/vanilla, geranium/grapefruit are all lovely.
*Do not use essential oils when pregnant, or if used on young children.
**Some essential oils are photosensitive (lemon, grapefruit, bergamot, tangerine), do not expose your body to the sun for 6 hours after you have applied the butter if you chose the variety mentioned above.
How-to
- Mix the shea butter, sweet almond and coconut oil in a large glass jar or pot that can go in a double boiler.
- Melt this mix in a double-boiler while stirring to avoid burning of the mixture.
- Once the mix has melted entirely, refrigerate for an hour.
- Whisk with a hand-held mixer for a few minutes until you get an airy texture and white colour.
- Pour your homemade body butter into a clean jar.
- You’re all set!
This body butter will keep your skin soft and hydrated for all seasons! You can also use it as a lip balm or as a hand cream.
If you would like to know how much toxicity is in the products you use daily, try the app Think Dirty. You simply scan the barcode on your product, and you get the toxicity grading of each ingredient listed.
References:
Cosmétiques non toxiques de Sylvie Fortin
Ma bible des huiles essentielles de Danièle Festy
Where to buy basic products:
Coop Coco / Montreal et en ligne
Hunzaroma / Longueuil
Noblessence / Montreal
Espace organique / Longueuil
Zayat Aroma / Bromont
Avril Supermarché, Tau, Rachelle-Béry etc.
Très intéressant!! J’ai acheté un beurre corporel Menthe et Noix de Coco et malheureusement, je n’en trouve plus nul part. Je suis ravie de voir que je pourrai tenter de le faire moi-même.
Merci beaucoup!