An versatile body butter, who would not like?

A friend has been hounding me for this recipe since I introduced her to the delights, convenience and luxury of this butter. Have you ever slathered something on your face that felt like comfort, like an embrace? Well, this is it, I finally got to it (sorry for the delay).

Ever since I was aware of my skin, I had vitiligo. There was always a spot here or there, but it never took over my entire skin. It did start to proliferate faster in the last few years though, and I found myself taking into consideration what I was applying on my skin more often.

One day I went hunting for a moisturiser, and I remember reading all the ingredients I could not pronounce and wondering “what are all these? Might they be players in the worsening of the vitiligo”? I chickened out, bought some sorbolene cream instead and went home.

I mixed my Sorbolene with some oils I had bought for nourishing my curls, marking the beginning of the gradual journey to this body butter.

When I fell pregnant with my first child, I started reacting to a lot of health and beauty products. Creams would burn my skin, sunscreen would make me itchy and foundation/blush gave me an itchy puffed face.

Toothpaste, even the smell of it would make me vomit. (I had to quit toothpaste out of necessity, and God led me to a product that ended up healing sensitive teeth, chronic bleeding gums and receding gums, write on that soon)

Due to my skin’s reaction to commercial products, natural skin care became an imperative for me.

I started off with Sorbolene as a base for my moisturiser. But it was too dense/creamy for the oils to blend in well, even after whipping. So I thought of replacing it with some of the butters I had purchased for my hair to see if they worked better. They did.

There is no magic in the quantities. I only used the oils I like /had and tried to include a many as possible. I also tried to make the recipe uncomplicated.

Recipe Summary: (Makes 2 cups butter, lasts me about 6 months)
Total solids: 1 cup
Total liquid oils: 3/4 cups
Anti-shine agent: 2 Tbsp
Glycerine: 1 Tbsp (optional) (Glycerine is a humectant )
Essential oils: Up to 50 drops


####Where I buy ingredients in Australia: Auroma, Nessentials

The details:

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• 1/3 cup Shea butter. Unrefined has more benefits than refined but it also has a stronger smell. Choose your preference.
• 1/3 cup cocoa butter
• 1/3 cup cold pressed coconut oil***
• ¼ cup jojoba oil
• 1/8 cup  (2 Tablespoons) each of: castor seed oil, Argan oil, rose-hip seed oil, avocado oil (or Apricot kernel/Sweet almond oil)****
• 2 Tbsp arrowroot powder or cornstarch (Anti-shine/controls greasiness)
• 1 Tbsp Vegetable glycerin /replace with rose-hip or jojoba oil or vitamin e oil
• 20 drops Geranium essential oil*****
• 10 drops Vetiver essential oil
• 10 drops lavender essential oil
• 10 drops frankincense essential oil
  
  ***
  In summer/ warm climate, coconut oil will be already in liquid state. Reduce to 1/4 cup. Butter will be softer but still usable.

****
You don’t have to use all these oils.
The must have oils beside the solid ingredients are: rose hip, jojoba, castor and argan, in that order (my personal preference for what I’m trying to achieve).
Feel free to use only some or all of these four oils and adjust quantities in the recipe. Or you can follow recipe as it is, or use your own preferred oils

*****
If you wish to invest in only one essential oil for this recipe, then I highly recommend Geranium, as it has the best properties for skin healing/restoration.

The how to: 

1. In a heat proof glass bowl or measuring jar inside a pot of water on medium heat, melt the solid ingredients (cocoa and shea butter and coconut oil in winter) stirring occasionally, about 10-15 minutes.

2. Remove from heat and add in the other liquid oils and arrowroot powder, stirring well until dissolved.

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3. Place in the refrigerator until it sets. About half an hour. If you don’t have one, you can just leave them at room temperature and the mixture will still solidify.
   
   Do not leave the mixture in the fridge for too long. It only needs to set. Too long and it will become too hard to whip.
   
4. Remove from refrigerator and check that it has fully set but still soft. If it’s too hard to whip, leave at room temperature to soften. It will not melt.
   

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5. Whip the butter with powered beaters until light and fluffy. This is the best part!

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6. Transfer to jars with airtight lids and store in a cupboard/dark place.
   I place the spare in the fridge and leave the jar in use at room temperature
   
   Please note that I have made this butter only twice, and I am still improving it as I go.

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How to use your Face/body butter

Facial and body moisturiser
This butter has transformed my facial skin. Which is fantastic because I cannot wear foundation.

Skin health/Eczema
It has also made my painful wintertime eczema almost vanish. I would get eczema on the shins of my legs every winter, and it would get so bad that it would be oozing and itchy and painful. All I could do for relief was smack the area because scratching it made it bleed and grow even worse.

When I quit lotions the eczema improved slightly with the Sorbolene cream and mixed- in oils. But it was still bothering me.
This is the first winter since I started using this butter, and the eczema is gone!
However, if I go for a few days without moisturising the area, some dry skin flakes off. there is neither itch nor pain and the only visual reminder of how uncomfortable and painful the eczema used to be is the occasional flakes of dry skin in that area.  

I am NOT touting this as a cure for eczema. Eczema is quite a complex condition caused by various known and unknown agents. But what I am saying is that it worked for me. It may or may not work for others, but in my case it has been better than off-the-shelf lotions and moisturisers.

Evens out skin tone
On top of making my facial skin smoother and supple this butter has evened out my facial skin tone greatly. It used to be so that the lower half of my face appeared to have a darker tone that the upper half, but that has evened out considerably.
But the most noticeable thing for me has been that the skin on my neck has always appeared darker than that above and below it, and I recently noticed that it is almost fully blended in. (8 months into using this butter)

Hair nourisher
I discovered this by accident, although I was not surprised since it contains all most of the stuff that is said to nourish hair.
But my eyebrows had thinned out considerably for some unknown reason. Unless I wore eye pencil it looked as if I had no eyebrows at all!
But 3 months into using this butter I realised that my eyebrows had grown thick again, and did a fine job on their own without eye pencil.
Of course, I use it on my curls as well.


The extras….

Please note that there are many internal and external factors that contribute to a healthy skin, and this butter is not a prescription of any sort.
Please also note that the rate of any significant change/effect of using this butter varies from person to person.

If you are pregnant or breastfeeding, please do your own research as to the safety of any essential oils that you include in your personal care.

Make sure that you use pure essential oils or leave them out altogether. Artificial fragrances are not recommended. (The essential oils in this recipe are to benefit the skin, and not for fragrance)

Essential oil-blends are essential oils highly diluted in carrier oils mostly in a ratio of 3 drops essential oil per 97 drops carrier oil. Find pure essential oils if you can.

If you don’t have access to essential oils, your butter will smell very Shea-buttery or coco buttery. To improve it’s scent, mix 1 Tsp shelf stable Vanilla extract or Vanilla bean powder with the 2 Tbsp corn-starch/arrow root powder before mixing it into the oils.

If you have any questions I will try and answer them.

Stay safe, stay healthy, stay sparkly.

# I Australia, I buy ingredients here Auroma, and here Nessentials