DIY: Body Butter

If you're anything like me, you probably worry about all the nasty chemicals hiding in beauty products. You want products that work, but you don't want to slather your skin in artificial fragrances, dyes, hormone disrupting preservatives, and known carcinogens. Why would anyone want to pay big corporations to poison them? Sure, there are natural products available. Lots of them actually. Some are healthier than others, and they have varying degrees of effectiveness. The problem is, you often pay a premium for these toxin-free products. I don't know about you, but I'm frugal. I want green, healthy products that perform well and don't cost an arm and a leg. So, I decided to experiment with making my own natural beauty products. After doing some online research, I found a recipe for body butter bars that I decided to try out. I modified the recipe a little, and my results were FABULOUS! You can find the original recipe here. Here's how I made mine:

Equal parts:

Beeswax

Coconut Oil

Cocoa Butter

A few capsules of Vitamin E oil, pricked with a pin and squeezed in with the oil/wax mixture.

At the time, I was running low on coconut oil, so I did half and half coconut oil and olive oil.

I'm not including measurements because it depends on how big of a batch you want to make. I used a silicone flower shaped ice cube tray that makes 16 "cubes." To get my total amount of oil/wax needed, I weighed the tray on my digital kitchen scale, filled one cavity with water and weighed it again. That gave me the measurement of one "cube." I multiplied it by 16 to get my total weight of ingredients. Then I divided that number by 3 to get the weight of each ingredient. I weighed out the wax, oil and butter individually and put them all in a large pyrex measuring cup. I microwaved them until everything was melted together. You could also use a double boiler, crock pot or just a pot of boiling water with another container inside. Then I poured the mixture into my ice cube tray. I did this over a large bowl of cold water. That way, any oil/wax that spilled just hardened in the water, minimizing the mess and cleanup. I put the ice cube tray in the freezer to set the body butter.

I couldn't wait to test them out! They are fantastic! They are fairly solid, so you rub the body butter bar between your hands to warm and melt it a little. Its super rich and moisturizing, great for feet, elbows, knees, and everything in between. A little goes a long way. And it smells heavenly! Like chocolate with a touch of honey. It honestly makes your skin GLOW! This experiment was well worth it. I will definitely make these again. That's one product I can now cross off my shopping list.