How to make your own body butter

    (Not Victoria Secret's Love Spell body butter in the container)

Home made body butter. 
I have been using up my cache of body butter and not re-stocking it, knowing that I was going to make my own after it was all used up. However it took me a week or so to actually get around to making it after it all ran out. I can't remember when I started slathering body butter on after I got out of the shower it's been a ritual for so long I don't remember when it started. So for the past week I have smelled like baby magic, I hope no one has noticed but thats all I had left. Now I can trow it away. Why am I making my own body butter? Well I am tired of the laundry list of chemicals that are in most body butter and lotions and I don't want to pay big bucks for the kind of lotion I want if I can just make it myself, why not?

Ingredient list for body butter

1. Container. I saved an empty body butter lotion tub. You could use a mason jar, tuber-ware etc.

2. Coconut oil.(purchased at Tropical Traditions) I used about 6oz.
3. Shea butter (purchased on Amazon) or Cocoa butter. I used 8oz of Shea butter.
4. Essential oils of your choice.

Shea butter is firmer then coconut oil. I didn't have a recipe for this, I just threw it together. You can't mess it up. I know of people who just use coconut oil as their moisturizer. The body butter I made has the consistency of frosting. It has a few tiny Shea butter beads in it but once you start rubbing it on it melts fast. You can melt it all together first and then beat it when it's completely cooled down. I think it's an unnecessary step since you will melt it down the rest of the way when you rub it into your skin.

Sorry I don't have a picture of it blended together in the mixer but I had a little helper and got distracted. 

Russel smelling the body butter.

 Carla made some hard lotion bars and gave me one a few months ago. It was love at first use. But that's another post! Since then I have realized that keeping the ingredient list simple is the way to go. Not only is it simpler but I love the results! Since we have moved back to New Mexico about a year ago from Tulsa where it's humid my skin seems to have aged or something I don't' know but needless to say I don't like it! I have never had lotion make my skin look and feel this good. Why not put pure goodness on your skin, it feels so good knowing that what I am using is something I made and knowing exactly what's in it. I normally get my lotions from Bath and Body Works when there lotion went on sale. Or from Marshall's I would just read the labels and find the ones with the most goodness in them. Now I don't have to! It cost me about $8 dollars to fill up 2.5 containers (third container not picuted) It would have easily cost me $15+ for the amount I made.

I have been wanting to go through the ingredient list that is found in most lotions for some time now. A lot of the ingredients are questionable and while they may be cheaper (just guessing) to use but can be done away with when using truly natural products. My home made lotion has 3 ingredients versuses the 10 found in the commercial product. If there was a nominal diffenece between my homemade body butter and commercial products I wouldn't bother to gather my own ingredients and make it. However after using a hard lotion bar and just the pureness of the ingredients I knew I had to make my own body butter and it's phenomenal! I will never buy store bought body butter or lotion again!

Now let's look at the ingredient list ...

This is the ingredient list for Equate's Daily Moisturizing Lotion (Victoria Secret's body butter label was on the bottom but reads right to left and I just couldn't do it with such tiny crammed print).

The first ingredient -
Allantoin which I know to be good since it's found in Comfrey and helps to speed recovery through cell proliferation. Read more here.
Avina Sativa or oat kernel helps - It can reduce dry skin and inflammation. Oat straw's silicon is the reason why Avena sativa has anti-inflammatory properties. Read more here. 
This site called Skin Deep rates skin care products etc. Benzyl Alcohol -  Neurotoxicity, Allergies/immunotoxicity, Irritation (skin, eyes, or lungs). Source.

Cetyl Alcohol - "Today, cetyl is obtained from other sources of fats, such as petroleum, palm, coconut or vegetable oil" (used to be obtained from whale fat)."Because of its unique binding and emollient action, cetyl alcohol is a great binder for moisturizing. Why? Water and oil do not mix, so moisturizers containing a fat such as cetyl alcohol lock moisture into the skin and form a protective barrier that water can't penetrate, preventing dry and parched skin." *Read more here. I think it's an unnecessary ingredient in my lotion, I didn't add any water to it. K.I.S.S Keep it simple stupid and I question it's safety. 

Distearyldimonium Chloride - "may be found as an ingredient in fabric softeners, cosmetics, and hair conditioners in which it is added primarily for its antistatic effects." Not finding this to be a necessary ingredient in my body lotion. Read more here *and here it makes skin feel smooth but it's safety is questioned. Glycerin - "Glycerin is a humectant, meaning it attracts moisture to your skin" However the reasoning for having it in lotions doesn't make me want to put it in my lotion.  Read more here."

"Unless the humidity of air is over 65%, glycerin draws moisture from the lower layers of the skin and holds it on the surface, drying the skin from the inside out." Hmmm...doesn't sound good does it?! Read more here.  Isopropyl palmitate - It's an astringent emollient that is sometimes used to reduce the feeling of greasiness. It also used to help active ingredients to diffuse into the skin better." Certain hazards have been connected to the use of isopropyl palmitate" source. Petrolatum - " Right now, petrolatum is cheap, plentiful and generally safe, and it mixes up easily in the lab to create the products we use every day—it’s not going anywhere soon." Read more here. After reading about it I am indifferent to it but don't see a need to add any to my home made body butter. Sodium chloride - It can be used to increase the thickness of the aqueous (water) portion of cosmetics and personal care products. Source. Not seeing the benefit to adding it to my body butter since I don't have any water and the thickness is fine. *Water - follow the link to get the full picture as to why water is used in lotion, this is a really good article! 

Home made body butter ingredients -

Coconut oil - Coconut oil is excellent massage oil for the skin as well. It acts as an effective moisturizer on all types of skins including dry skin. Coconut oil is a safe solution for preventing dryness and flaking of skin. It also delays wrinkles, and sagging of skin which normally become prominent with age. Coconut oil also helps in treating various skin problems including psoriasis, dermatitis, eczema and other skin infections. Therefore coconut oil forms the basic ingredient of various body care products such as soaps, lotions, creams, etc., used for skin care. Coconut oil also helps in preventing premature aging and degenerative diseases due to its antioxidant properties. Source. Just put coconut oil in a Google search and see for yourself. There is a lot of hype about it right now but I believe most of it. I have seen the difference it's made in my skin and it's been wonderful. 

Shea butter -  What makes Shea butter an extraordinary skin care and an amazing body healer is its richness in precious constituents, which include unsaturated fats with a large proportion of "unsaponifiables" components, essential fatty acids, phytosterols, vitamin E and D, provitamin A and allantoin. All these are natural and make Shea butter a superfood for your skin (and hair), but that is not all it can do for you because it is:

• Wrinkles, fine lines and scars repairing
• Antioxidant
• Anti-inflammatory
• Deeply moisturizing
• Stimulating for the superficial microcirculation
• Skin strengthening
• Skin protecting
• UV protecting
• Skin regenerating
• Collagen production stimulating (makes the skin stronger, more supple and younger)
• Minor cuts and burns healing
• Muscle ache healing
• Physical endurance enhancer
• Source

Essential oils is a whole other post(s).

Yep, I will be making my own body butter from now on :) Do you make your own body butter? I would love to hear about your experiences with it? What ingredients do you add that I didn't and why? Thanks for stopping by! Also if you do start making your own I would love to hear about the results!