This easy to make, DIY creamy body butter moisturises your skin, leaving it feeling soft and smooth.

Body Butter Basics

Body butters are thick, rich skin care products that are used to moisturise the body. As there is no water in this product, this should last for up to six months, when stored properly. The joy with this body butter recipe is that you can customise to your own liking by changing a few of the ingredients.

The whole process is fairly straightforward. Combine a butter like shea, cocoa or mango with a carrier oil and melt. An essential oil can be added for extra benefits and arrowroot powder can be added to help reduce the greasiness of the butter.

Body Butter Ingredients

The first ingredient used is a butter. For this recipe, I have used shea butter as it is soft and easy to work with, though you can use cocoa butter or mango butter instead. A mixture butters could be used, for example ¼ cup shea butter and ¼ cup cocoa butter. I don’t recommend using 100% cocoa butter as it will make the end product quite solid, like a rock.

Shea butter is great for your skin and also can help with reducing inflammation, while cocoa butter can help reduce the appearance of stretch marks and scars. Mango butter is great for helping soothe eczema, sunburn, rashes and insect bites.

Oil is the next ingredient in making body butter. For this recipe, I used coconut oil and sweet almond oil. Jojoba oil and grapeseed oil could also be used. Coconut oil is known as a slow absorbing oil, it may take a little longer for it to be absorbed into the body. Even so, it is a very good oil for dry skin.Fast absorbing oils include apricot kernel oil, grapeseed oil and rosehip oil.

Finally, an essential oil can be added once the mixture is melted. Lavender, geranium, Frankincense (Carteri), peppermint, myrrh, sweet orange, or rose oil.

Some citrus essential oils, such as lemon, and lime are considered photosensitive, meaning increased danger when skin that has had essential oils applied to it is exposed to the sun, but sweet orange essential oil is not considered one of these.

Body Butter too Greasy?

If you do find the body butter to be a little too greasy for you, try adding a small amount of arrowroot powder to the mixture before adding the essential oil. Arrowroot powder offers a host of skin and body benefits including helping improve blood circulation and healing blemishes.

Body Butter too Runny?

If you find that your body butter is too runny, you can try reducing the amount of carrier oil used or increasing the amount of butter you used. Depending on your location, the heat and humidity of where you live will affect this as well. You could also add a small amount of beeswax to help with keeping the consistency of your body butter to help keep it from melting too much.

Body Butter too Hard?

If you find that your body butter is too hard, you can melt it down again and add a little more carrier oil. Also, make sure not to over mix your ingredients as this may affect the consistency of the final product.

Body Butter on your Face?

While you may want to use your body butter on your face, depending on the ingredients you used, this may not be a good choice. Some oils, such as coconut oil can clog your pores which may lead to breakouts. Check out this list of carrier oils when choosing an oil to use.

Creamy Body Butter

To make an 8 0z jar of this creamy body butter, you will need:

½ cup shea butter
¼ cup coconut oil
¼ cup sweet almond oil
17 drops essential oil, optional
1 ½ tsp arrowroot powder, optional

To make this body butter, add the shea butter to a microwave safe container and heat for 30 seconds, then remove and stir.

Continue heating for 30 second intervals, stirring after each heat session, until fully melted.

If adding the arrowroot powder, mix it with the coconut oil, and sweet almond oil in a bowl.

Gently stir the oil/arrowroot powder mixture into the melted shea butter mixture.

Add the essential oil, (if using) and stir well.

Pour into a jar and place in the refrigerator to set.

Store in the refrigerator for up to six months.

To Use: After bathing, apply a small amount of the body butter to your fingertips, and then gently massage the butter on your skin. Apply as needed.

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Creamy Body Butter

Simple Living. Creative Learning

This easy to make, DIY thick and creamy body butter moisturises your skin, leaving it feeling soft and smooth.

Print Recipe Save Pin Recipe

Servings oz

Prep Time 15

Cook Time 5

Total Time 20

Ingredients

▢ 1/2 cup shea butter
▢ 1/4 cup coconut oil
▢ 1/4 cup sweet almond oil
▢ 17 drops essential oil, optional
▢ 1 1/2 tsp arrowroot powder, optional

Instructions

To make this body butter, add the shea butter to a microwave safe container and heat for 30 seconds, then remove and stir.
Continue heating for 30 second intervals, stirring after each heat session, until fully melted.
If adding the arrowroot powder, mix it with the coconut oil, and sweet almond oil in a bowl.
Gently stir the oil/arrowroot powder mixture into the melted shea butter mixture.
Add the essential oil, (if using) and stir well.
Pour into a jar and place in the refrigerator to set.
Store in the refrigerator for up to six months.
To Use: After bathing, apply a small amount of the body butter to your fingertips, and then gently massage the butter on your skin. Apply as needed.

Keyword Body Butter