So I tried my hand at some home-made body butter...my skin needs help people (and I haven't had a chance to stock up and try out some more body creams and lotions - best to keep my product junkie tendencies for my hair).
After reading up and finding a few recipes, I luckily had the ingredients in stock (naturalistahs should never be without shea butter, let alone coconut oil), one was favored and off I went.
The measurements seemed the same throughout the various sites: (Recipe1, Recipe2 etc)
- Half a cup Shea Butter
- Quarter cup Coconut Oil
- Quarter cup oil of your choice - I chose 2 instead of just 1, Jojoba Oil and Almond Oil
- 10 to 30 drops essential oil of your choice - I chose Lemongrass
I got my Shea Butter and Jojoba Oil from Windrose earlier this year. The rest I got from the Health Shop in Sandton City which actually stocks all these ingredients, Shea Butter included.
Using these products on your skin, individually and/or mixed together has been reported to be quite beneficial. Doing a Google search on this will definitely keep your afternoon or evening occupied as the data out there is endless. Jojoba oil for example, is good for dry skin as skin takes to it quite well (has a good affinity to skin) and it mimics our body's naturally produced sebum - it blends well with sebum therefore won't clog pores. It is easily absorbed and apparently helps the delay of aging - yeyi.
I tend to pick out specific bits of information from various sites so will only reference a few: Site1, Site2, Site3
Next step: Combine and melt the Shea Butter and Coconut Oil in a double boiler. I was sure I had one but could not find it so I put everything in a glass bowl over a pot of heated water. (I have never melted my shea butter before - I made some butter for my hair and this whipped up quite nicely without preheating but I decided to stick to the various recipe instructions).
Next step: Once all was melted add the remaining Oil and place the bowl in the freezer. I kept checking it every 10 to 15mins until it looked like a thick goo - watch that it does not return to a total solid state. (the edges may solidify quicker than the center but don't be alarmed just leave it out at room temperature for a bit or stir in the solid bits before mixing). Do not let it return to its liquid state either. (I was multitasking and cooking so my kitchen was quite warm, plus jumped ahead and mixed my liquid oils in at the melting stage instead of waiting until just the coconut oil and shea butter were melted - it still worked out so I'm not too fussed)
Next step: Add the essential oil and mix/cream with an electric mixer/whisk - much easier than using an egg whisk or fork. It will look like whipped cream or rather whipped butter when done - all fluffy and airy - therefore mix until it does. As my kitchen was quite hot with the oven on etc, the mixture did not immediately whip up and it started to liquefy due to all the heat. I stopped and put the bowl in the fridge for about 30mins to 1 hour (I was busy with other tasks so it did not seem long at all). Took it out of the fridge and mixed again and that's when it whipped up nicely.
All done: The body butter was then transferred to a nice glass container - no ribbons or bows - will do that next time. I bought quite a few of these containers from Mr Price Home at R15ea - check Pep Home as well.
I applied some after a long soak and voila - my skin was happy. Will update once results are monitored over a longer period of time. More batches and variants to be made.
No weird ingredients I know nothing about, as holistic as holistic can be.
Go on - make some.
After reading up and finding a few recipes, I luckily had the ingredients in stock (naturalistahs should never be without shea butter, let alone coconut oil), one was favored and off I went.
The measurements seemed the same throughout the various sites: (Recipe1, Recipe2 etc)
- Half a cup Shea Butter
- Quarter cup Coconut Oil
- Quarter cup oil of your choice - I chose 2 instead of just 1, Jojoba Oil and Almond Oil
- 10 to 30 drops essential oil of your choice - I chose Lemongrass
Using these products on your skin, individually and/or mixed together has been reported to be quite beneficial. Doing a Google search on this will definitely keep your afternoon or evening occupied as the data out there is endless. Jojoba oil for example, is good for dry skin as skin takes to it quite well (has a good affinity to skin) and it mimics our body's naturally produced sebum - it blends well with sebum therefore won't clog pores. It is easily absorbed and apparently helps the delay of aging - yeyi.
I tend to pick out specific bits of information from various sites so will only reference a few: Site1, Site2, Site3
Next step: Combine and melt the Shea Butter and Coconut Oil in a double boiler. I was sure I had one but could not find it so I put everything in a glass bowl over a pot of heated water. (I have never melted my shea butter before - I made some butter for my hair and this whipped up quite nicely without preheating but I decided to stick to the various recipe instructions).
Next step: Once all was melted add the remaining Oil and place the bowl in the freezer. I kept checking it every 10 to 15mins until it looked like a thick goo - watch that it does not return to a total solid state. (the edges may solidify quicker than the center but don't be alarmed just leave it out at room temperature for a bit or stir in the solid bits before mixing). Do not let it return to its liquid state either. (I was multitasking and cooking so my kitchen was quite warm, plus jumped ahead and mixed my liquid oils in at the melting stage instead of waiting until just the coconut oil and shea butter were melted - it still worked out so I'm not too fussed)
All done: The body butter was then transferred to a nice glass container - no ribbons or bows - will do that next time. I bought quite a few of these containers from Mr Price Home at R15ea - check Pep Home as well.
I applied some after a long soak and voila - my skin was happy. Will update once results are monitored over a longer period of time. More batches and variants to be made.
No weird ingredients I know nothing about, as holistic as holistic can be.
Go on - make some.
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