The creamiest and fluffiest lotion ever. SO worth it to make your own. It’s super hydrating and better than store bought – who knows what’s in that stuff. Making your own anything avoids unnecessary ingredients. Although, store bought always seems to appear better, in the long run there are so many chemicals in their products that do more damage in the long run. Skip the harsh chemicals and enjoy a little DIY during quarantine.

Let’s discuss ingredients and how to customize your body butter to your needs.

Start with your base – Shea Butter and Coconut Oil. Now let’s build from here. You can add any additional butters, lotions, oils, and scents desired. I suggest cocoa butter, jojoba oil, almond oil and a mix of essential oils. Some great essential oils that are beneficial to the skin are tea tree oil and frankincense. I also suggest adding an essential oil for a preferable scent which just adds more benefits to this lotion. You are literally creating a topical superfood for your skin. Go to the health section in your grocery store where the lotions are and scope out what’s available.

Some essentials oils that smell great are lavender, lemongrass or grapefruit. These essential oils provide many benefits for your skin as well as your health. If you put your lotion on before bed, go with lavender as it is a calming aid for sleep. Lemongrass is a powerful anti inflammatory and has an amazing scent. Grapefruit is sweet smelling and proven when applied topically to help with thyroid issues. Frankincense oil is not the best smelling but has anti-inflammatory, immune-boosting, and pain-relieving properties. The same with tea tree oil, it’s not the most pleasant scent but has long been known to be great for the skin and fights acne.

Butters and Oils – Shea butter and coconut oil have so many vitamins and health properties that these are a must and provide the best base for your lotion. For the coconut oil, you can choose a hardened one from the cooking aisle but more preferable is the liquid coconut oil as it only makes the body butter more luxurious in texture. Other great options to add are cocoa butter, avocado oil, apricot oil, almond oil or jojoba oil which only compliment it.

INGREDIENTS:

1. 1 container of Shea Butter
2. 1/4 cup Liquid Coconut Oil
3. 4 TBSP of Any Additional Oil (almond, avocado, jojoba, etc. or can be a mixture of all)
4. 7 drops of Any Essential Oil for Scent (lavender, grapefruit, etc.)

DIRECTIONS:

Now let’s get started:

Step 1.) Use a glass bowl to melt all the shea butter in the container and add about 1/4 cup of coconut oil in a double boiler. Let ingredients completely liquify and combine naturally. It’s not necessary to stir during the melting process.

Step 2.) After completely melted, immediately remove from the heat and let sit on the counter top to harden. I do not recommend refrigerating because it gets too hard to be able to whip. If you are getting impatient then place in the refrigerator but just for a short time. Remove soon as it becomes an opaque white color.

Step 3.) When the mixture becomes opaque use a hand mixer to whip the oils for a minimum of 10 mins. After about 2 minutes it will look and feel so luscious and soft like icing but trust me, you need to whip it for at least 10 minutes. The longer you mix, the better. You cannot over mix this. After about 2-5 minutes of whipping and the excitement ensues, you can add all your additional oils and continue to mix.

Step 4.) You’re not exactly done. Most recipes tell you to whip for 10 minute, jar it and voilá you’re done. The one necessary additional step that I have is to let the lotion sit overnight in the glass bowl on the countertop and mix a second time the next day. You will notice after it sits overnight it’s not as soft and fluffy. This is why you NEED to mix it again for another 10+ minutes.

Step 5.) Now you can jar it. I recommend using a new large glass jar with a lid (can be bought at Michael’s) because the lotion will increase in size and be too much to put back in the shea butter container.